After Chen An got home and showered, he read for a while, his eyes catching sight of the heart-shaped box on the bookshelf.

The label on the box reading “Light and Shadow Remember” had yellowed. Opening the box, inside was a thick stack of thermal paper ticket stubs. Over time they had all faded, and no trace of any showtimes could be found anymore.

Light and shadow didn’t remember. In the end, only he remembered.

Chen An, who had been implicated by the employees’ comments today, felt melancholic and self-pitying. He walked to the balcony and looked at the withered grass in the small courtyard below, whose vitality was as vigorous as cancer cells. He couldn’t help but feel irritated and restless, having an impulse to throw down a match and burn it all.

He still had his reason, though. Leaving the balcony, Chen An lay on the bed and covered his head with the blanket to sleep soundly.

Actually his hair wasn’t dry yet, but he couldn’t be bothered to care.

When grandmother was hospitalized, she touched his head and said his hair was soft, so his heart must be soft too. She told him when he found Lele, he should bring her over.

Bring her over for what? She didn’t even care to live in her own house and was deliberately avoiding him! What good was his soft heart? It couldn’t withstand someone else’s heart of stone.

Cheng Lele was the most heartless and coldest person he had ever met. Bar none.

She was never a docile little white rabbit, but a bloodthirsty wolf cub.

Just as he was criticizing her in his mind, suddenly there was a loud “clang.” Chen An thought a thief had broken into the house and quickly stood up, scanning around but finding nothing unusual.

After a while, there was another “clang.” This time he heard clearly—it came from downstairs.

Chen An looked up at his watch—it was past eleven.

He went downstairs in his slippers and stopped outside the security door, ears perked up listening for movement. Inside came the chaotic sound of footsteps walking back and forth.

She’s back?

The gloomy mood from just moments ago vanished completely, and all the psychological preparation he’d done these past days was swept away. Right now Chen An only thought that running into her at the cinema before didn’t count as coming back. This was truly coming back.

There was a particularly proper and stable sense of security.

He knocked on the door.

“Who is it?” Cheng Lele asked from far away through the door.

Chen An didn’t respond, knocking again with anticipation.

Cheng Lele was washing her hair in the bathroom. Halfway through, she had broken off the faucet, and water was gushing out. With a head full of suds, eyes squinted, she hurriedly ran to open the door.

As soon as the door opened, it turned out to be Chen An.

“Are you taking a shower? Then I’ll—” Chen An said awkwardly.

Suds had flowed into her eyes, stinging so she couldn’t open them. Water was dripping everywhere, and her neck was all sticky. This was too embarrassing.

Cheng Lele didn’t care anymore: “Little brother, help me out.”

Chen An stopped: “What’s wrong?”

“The faucet broke. Can you help me turn off the main water valve?” Cheng Lele couldn’t remember where the main water valve was installed.

Chen An understood, quickly walked to the kitchen, crouched under the sink, and turned off the valve.

After closing it, Chen An went to the bathroom to see what was going on. Taking one step in, he nearly slipped. Inside looked like robbers had ransacked the place. Half a faucet remained on the sink, still spurting residual water. The showerhead had been removed, and several basins scattered about were soaked with clothes. Black shoe prints were everywhere.

Cheng Lele’s head was now wrapped like an Indian turban. She pointed at the mess, shirking responsibility: “This isn’t my fault. The washing machine broke, the showerhead broke, and just now the faucet broke too.”

If not you, then who? What object could wait seven years? Only I could endure it.

Chen An asked, “Didn’t finish showering?”

Cheng Lele hummed in acknowledgment. Chen An jerked his chin toward upstairs: “Go shower upstairs.”

Cheng Lele had been staying at a hotel these past few days, coming back intermittently to clean up. Today was the first day she officially moved back, and misfortune kept striking. She was now cold and clammy all over, so she wouldn’t stand on ceremony with little brother.

She ran to her room to grab a random change of clothes, then ran upstairs.

Chen An closed the door and went to the hardware store at the community entrance to try his luck. The hardware store owner liked to play mahjong in the store, so he closed late.

When Chen An got there, the owner was just clearing the mahjong table. He took a showerhead and faucet, then added a roll of thread seal tape and paid. On his way out, he happened to run into the fruit store owner next door doing inventory. He spotted imported grapes near the entrance—large and purple, probably fragrant and sweet in taste too.

Returning to the first floor, he installed the new showerhead, removed the remaining faucet and replaced it with the new one, moved the three basins of clothes one by one to the washing machine on the second-floor balcony, then took a mop downstairs to mop the floor dry.

After cleaning up, he stood leaning on the mop and looked around, guessing that Cheng Lele had come over to clean up these past two days. Aside from the bathroom, other places were still passable—at least there was no moldy smell. He went into the bedroom and felt the bedding—it was new. He was relieved. She wasn’t that foolish after all.

In one corner of the room sat an open suitcase with several small gift boxes scattered inside, wrapped in colorful wrapping paper, looking quite thoughtful.

A week ago, Chen An was still suspicious that Cheng Lele would resign and leave after running into him at the cinema, but in just a short time he had self-strategized new ideas.

Looking at this pile of colorful wrapped boxes, Chen An thought: There must be one for me, right? Maybe they’re all for me.

After all, if she was planning to work in Taixi, she must have planned to see him.

The second day after returning, she could admit her mistake to him and ask for his forgiveness, saying it so naturally—she must have already planned to apologize to him.

Cheng Lele loved creating surprises. When meeting, she’d definitely bring some apologetic gifts.

One wouldn’t be enough. Three or four wouldn’t be too many either. None of that mattered—the sentiment was most important.

A few days ago, he still had the rationality to blame Cheng Lele for asking for forgiveness too lightly, but just because she moved back, he forgot all the psychological preparation he’d worked so hard to build, allowing himself to imagine all sorts of things. In short, the steps Cheng Lele hadn’t laid out for him, he had smoothed out all by himself, smack smack smack.

With just a bit of sweetness from Cheng Lele, he could forget all the bitterness.