Su Man sweetly embraced Lu Yuwen, reassuring him: “I definitely don’t mind, I’ll help you to the car. Stop overthinking things.”

“Even if you say that, I’ll still feel pressured,” Lu Yuwen said. “After all, I’m a man who has been hurt.”

“You have not been hurt at all!” Su Man held back her laughter. “I can clearly see you’re perfectly fine!”

“I can’t just cry about it,” Lu Yuwen said with his gentle, warm smile. “Actually, my heart is very fragile, very timid. Just thinking about my girlfriend being stared at by strangers with strange looks because of me makes me feel very sad.”

The way he looked right now was exactly like a large golden retriever throwing a tantrum, coaxing Su Man’s heart soft, nearly making her give in.

She said helplessly: “Then don’t be timid — be a little braver. It’s just a short distance. Walking separately would be so strange.”

Lu Yuwen lowered his head and negotiated with her: “You give me a kiss, give me a little courage — how about it?”

Su Man: “……”

She said with a red face: “But we’re outside.”

Lu Yuwen very reasonably made a concession: “Kiss me when we get home?”

Home was private space, so of course that was fine. Without thinking too much, Su Man nodded in agreement.

Lu Yuwen said: “Alright then, for the sake of Manman being able to kiss me when we get home, I’ll work hard to overcome my psychological barrier.”

……

The foot injury wasn’t serious — just a mild sprain. By the time they rode back home, Lu Yuwen wasn’t in much pain anymore.

Even so, Su Man was careful and attentive the whole way, supporting him, while at the same time her heart kept beating erratically.

Because she still remembered her promise——

To kiss him when they got home.

Well, it wasn’t as though she’d never kissed him before, but she’d never been the one to initiate. In her mind, she kept replaying their recent moments of intimacy. It didn’t seem like such a difficult thing — wasn’t it just lips touching lips? As for the rest…she’d improvise~

……

Later, Su Man was pinned down on the bed being kissed breathless. On a technical level, she’d been completely defeated.

All the strength she’d been so proud of had dispersed completely, her body feeling like it had turned into cotton.

She hooked her fingers around Lu Yuwen’s collar, wanting to push him away yet unwilling to let him leave, and said in a soft, plaintive tone: “Maybe tonight I should sleep in the living room.”

Lu Yuwen propped himself up on one arm, watching her with a smile at the corner of his lips. “Why?”

Su Man said: “I’m afraid that in the middle of the night I won’t be able to help myself and will run out to bother you.”

Lu Yuwen laughed: “I’d welcome that.”

“That’s not good……” Su Man said, slightly breathless. “Tomorrow — don’t you still have to go meet that investor……”

Lu Yuwen lowered himself close, speaking softly near her ear: “Even if it were the end of the world, I would always welcome Manman’s disturbance.”

His voice was faintly husky, his tone warm and suggestive, drilling into her ear like a feather, making even her bones feel itchy.

Su Man was beginning to think now that what Li Li had said was right.

Lu Yuwen really was a fox spirit in disguise.

Her heart overflowing with a thousand feelings, she couldn’t help but hold him close and murmured: “Lu Yuwen, why are you so wonderful?”

Lu Yuwen smiled: “Am I wonderful?”

“Mm.” She said seriously, “You’re good-looking, pleasant to listen to, and your temper is good too — so perfect it’s as if you have no flaws.”

“How could there possibly be a person without flaws in this world?” Lu Yuwen gazed into her eyes and slowly said, “I wasn’t born with a good temperament either. I also have some… dark, little thoughts that nobody knows about.”

He simply didn’t want people to think that he had become warped and twisted because of his disability. So, no matter how negative his emotions were, he buried them in his heart, working hard to appear like a normal person.

Even more “normal” than normal people.

Only that way would those bystanders not point fingers at him when he was distressed, irritable, or hysterical, saying:

“Look, it’s because of the limp.”

“He’s been antisocial since childhood. Who knows how twisted his mind is.”

“It’s just a limp — young people these days really have no resilience at all.”

“Just a limp. It’s not like he’s lost both legs.”

“Such self-abandonment. He’s so useless.”

……

—