Jiang Ruoqiao browsed the shops with great enthusiasm, but in the end there was nothing she actually wanted to buy. After the big sales events — Double Eleven, Double Twelve, and the recent New Year’s goods festival — her skincare supplies were stockpiled enough to last until the end of next year, so buying more would be pointless. As for makeup, there was even less reason — none of the new lipstick shades the major brands had released recently appealed to her, and she’d successfully managed to claw her way back out of the cosmetics rabbit hole, so after making the rounds, she came away with nothing.

Lu Yicheng had kept pace with her the entire time. He’d watched her spray a little perfume from the testers onto her wrist, smell it, and put it down. Not bought.

She’d stood in front of one of those illuminated mirrors, tried a lipstick with a cotton swab, and pressed her lips together in a pretty little pout. Not bought.

She’d dabbed blush with her fingertip and blended it onto her cheek. Still not bought.

Lu Yicheng: “?”

Several times, he’d already been reaching into his pocket for his phone to pull up the payment screen — but she’d turned and walked away.

After this happened a few times, Lu Yicheng finally couldn’t contain his curiosity. “Is there nothing you like?”

After all that browsing, really nothing?

Jiang Ruoqiao shook her head. “Nothing caught my eye.”

Lu Yicheng: “……”

Jiang Ruoqiao glanced at him. “Are you tired of walking around?”

“No, no, no.” Lu Yicheng, very much invested in self-preservation, replied, “I just thought we should buy something.”

Jiang Ruoqiao: “Shopping is shopping. The browsing is the whole point. I like this kind of aimless wandering.”

Only aimless, purposeless wandering could feel truly relaxing.

Lu Yicheng absorbed this lesson respectfully. “That makes a lot of sense.”

“It’s still early,” Lu Yicheng said, checking the time. “Do you want to go look at clothes or shoes?”

Jiang Ruoqiao flatly refused. “No.”

Lu Yicheng looked puzzled.

“Shopping with you, I don’t get any real feedback or opinions,” Jiang Ruoqiao said, giving him a look. “You and Siyan are exactly the same — you’re both just broken records. The only word in your vocabulary is ‘pretty.'”

Lu Yicheng paused, then said, “Has it occurred to you that that might just be the truth?”

He said it with complete seriousness.

Jiang Ruoqiao, who had been trying to hold it together, instantly broke. She reached out and smacked him. “Since when did you get so smooth with words?”

Inexplicably smacked, Lu Yicheng froze, then rubbed the back of his nose. “I was being honest.”

After officially getting together, Jiang Ruoqiao realized that all her earlier worries had been for nothing.

She’d expected him to be slow and awkward about it. He wasn’t.

Take right now, for example —

Jiang Ruoqiao glanced down at the hand he was holding, and couldn’t help the way the corner of her mouth curved upward.

He really wasn’t as oblivious as she’d thought.

An oblivious person wouldn’t know to take advantage of the moment when she wasn’t paying attention to suddenly, quietly take her hand.

Two hands clasped together, Lu Yicheng walking ahead while she was drawn along behind him.

Which meant Jiang Ruoqiao couldn’t see the terrified look on Lu Yicheng’s face.

He didn’t even know where he’d found the nerve — it was like something else had taken the wheel. By the time he’d come back to himself, her hand was already in his.

Of course, in the part of him that Jiang Ruoqiao couldn’t see, Lu Yicheng had by now lost count of how many times he’d psyched himself up beforehand.

Still — once is awkward, twice comes naturally. On the very first day of their relationship, he’d cleared the “holding hands” milestone, and it was safe to predict that starting tomorrow, this gesture would only grow more and more natural.

In the end, Jiang Ruoqiao bought a Lego set for Lu Siyan. Lu Yicheng paid.

As Lu Yicheng came out carrying the Lego box, he was still saying, “We came shopping tonight to buy things for you.”

Jiang Ruoqiao: “If you round it up, buying something for my son is the same as buying something for me.”

Lu Yicheng laughed. “Fair enough.”

“Am I not a wonderful mother?” Jiang Ruoqiao was moved by her own selflessness. Even with someone willing to pay for whatever she picked, she’d gone through the entire shopping trip without buying herself a single thing — only a toy for her son. She owed herself a rendition of “My Dearest Mama.”

Lu Yicheng squeezed her hand. “Ninety-six out of a hundred as a mother.”

Just as Jiang Ruoqiao was about to demand to know why she’d lost four points, he added, “And a perfect hundred as Jiang Ruoqiao.”

Jiang Ruoqiao went still.

Being in a relationship seemed to make a person’s heart go soft.

Was it because someone had taken up residence in her heart? She had to admit — those words from Lu Yicheng moved her, deeply.

Far, far more than “you’re beautiful” or “I really like you” or “you’re the prettiest.”

Ninety-six out of a hundred as a mother.

But a perfect hundred as Jiang Ruoqiao.

She had the strange feeling that maybe the person in this world who understood her most was Lu Yicheng — because they had grown up in the same kind of environment, and then together lived through something that the vast majority of people in the world would never experience.

Jiang Ruoqiao — how lucky you are.

To have encountered a Lu Yicheng.

Because of this small moment, Jiang Ruoqiao made yet another exception for Lu Yicheng. When she went to buy train tickets back to Xi Shi for the New Year, she asked what he thought and bought him a ticket too. And she wasn’t the type to do something nice without making a point of it — she told him in his ear, several times over: “Lu Yicheng, you know you’re the first boyfriend I’ve ever brought home for the New Year.”

He wasn’t her first boyfriend, but he was certainly the first boyfriend she’d made so many exceptions for.

Lu Yicheng played along with great sincerity. “Yes. I am truly honored.”

Of course, bringing Lu Yicheng home for the holidays wasn’t solely because of this one moment. Her grandparents had mentioned it to her several times — both of them said that for Siyan’s sake, they should have Lu Yicheng over to spend New Year’s with the family. Jiang Ruoqiao had never committed to it before, and she hadn’t mentioned the ticket even after buying it — she wanted to give them a surprise.

Fortunately the trains between Jing Shi and Xi Shi ran frequently, and even running into the New Year rush they still managed to get tickets.

The journey was just over five hours.

At some point, Jiang Ruoqiao simply leaned against Lu Yicheng’s shoulder. He felt the weight settle against him, turned his head, and found himself looking straight into her eyes.

“What?” Jiang Ruoqiao asked, deliberately brazen. “Am I not allowed to lean?”

Lu Yicheng smiled. “Of course you are.”

He’d just been reminded of that time at the movie theater.

That had been October. Now it was February.

So much had happened in less than half a year. Back then, he could never have imagined that one day she would lean against his shoulder while wide awake.

Jiang Ruoqiao had clearly thought of that day too, and pressed him: “How long was I actually leaning on your shoulder that day?”

“Seventy minutes,” Lu Yicheng replied.

Jiang Ruoqiao stretched out the words, “You remember that so precisely — don’t tell me you started timing the moment I leaned on you? Were you sitting there thinking, what is Jiang Ruoqiao doing, why won’t she wake up already…”

Lu Yicheng said patiently, “Nothing like that.”

“That’s such a non-answer!”

The gentle warmth on Lu Yicheng’s face gave way to a helpless smile.

It truly had been nothing — his mind had been completely blank. From the time he could remember, it was the longest uninterrupted blankness he’d ever experienced while conscious.

……

By the time they arrived in Xi Shi, it was early evening.

The number of people returning home for the New Year had swelled, as was evident from the traffic backed up along the main roads — Xi Shi was livelier than ever.

From the moment Jiang Ruoqiao had boarded the train to the moment she’d gotten off, her grandparents and Siyan had taken turns calling.

She’d made Lu Yicheng stay quiet the whole time, so her grandparents and Siyan had no idea she’d brought him along.

Lu Yicheng felt a pang of uncertainty. “You’re sure this is a pleasant surprise? Not an unpleasant one?”

Jiang Ruoqiao was displeased. “We’ve been hiding it the whole journey. We’re almost there now.”

Lu Yicheng was pulling her suitcase with one hand and carrying bags of New Year’s gifts with the other, while Jiang Ruoqiao was carrying a bag herself. In the courtyard below, some children were playing with snap-and-pop fireworks. Lu Yicheng couldn’t spare a hand to hold Jiang Ruoqiao’s, so he stayed close, carefully shielding her as they entered the building.

The two of them went upstairs.

Standing at the door, Lu Yicheng was overtaken by a feeling similar to “the closer you get to home, the more your courage falters.”

Jiang Ruoqiao was just about to reach out and knock when he quickly pulled her back — keeping his voice extremely low. “Wait — hold on.”

“What for?”

Lu Yicheng took a few deep breaths. “Let me settle myself for a moment. It won’t be long. Half a minute.”

Jiang Ruoqiao watched him with unhurried amusement.

She watched him draw in a slow, deep breath and exhale it even more slowly.

Jiang Ruoqiao snorted, which broke Lu Yicheng’s rhythm. He looked over at her.

Jiang Ruoqiao, also keeping her voice low, replied, “Do you know what you reminded me of? The Lamaze breathing method.”

Lu Yicheng: “What’s that?”

Jiang Ruoqiao: “Look it up yourself~”

“Alright, alright — they’re not strangers, and it’s not your first time here. No need to be so nervous.” Having said that, Jiang Ruoqiao turned and knocked on the door. Lu Yicheng moved to stop her but didn’t make it in time — because even through the door, they could already hear the sound of hurried, eager footsteps running toward the entrance.

Both Lu Yicheng and Jiang Ruoqiao recognized them: Lu Siyan.

Jiang Ruoqiao instantly shoved the bag in her hand into Lu Yicheng’s arms.

The next second, the door flew open, and a small cannonball launched itself straight into Jiang Ruoqiao’s embrace. She caught him, and the two of them exchanged a flurry of kisses.

“Mama! I missed you so much!”

“Mama missed you so much too!”

Grandma heard the commotion and came over — and saw her granddaughter, and then she saw Lu Yicheng.

Lu Yicheng stood there a little awkwardly. “Grandma, sorry to impose. Happy New Year.”

“You child, the thirtieth hasn’t even come yet!” Grandma said cheerfully.

Lu Siyan only noticed Lu Yicheng then, and let out an excited cry. “Baba!!”

He threw himself at Lu Yicheng, who scooped him up and bounced him a little. “You’ve gotten heavier.”

Grandma gave Jiang Ruoqiao a significant look.

Jiang Ruoqiao suddenly found herself a little bashful and turned away to take off her scarf.

There was no need for further explanation — the perceptive grandparents could see it perfectly well. But Lu Siyan was still a young child of five or six and couldn’t read the meaningful glances exchanged between the adults. So it wasn’t until just before dinner, when he caught Mama feeding Papa a bite of food, that the full shock hit him.

Grandma went inside, stepped into the kitchen, and said to her husband who was busy stir-frying: “Old Qiao, go quickly and pick up some prepared cold cuts. Our daughter’s boyfriend — her future husband-to-be — has just arrived.”

Grandpa: “???”

Grandpa came out of the kitchen in his apron, spatula still in hand, and there he saw Lu Yicheng at the door putting on slippers.

Lu Yicheng immediately straightened up and gave a deep bow. “Grandpa, I’m sorry to intrude on your New Year.”

Grandpa clearly had a smile on his face, but grumbled anyway: “What ‘future husband-to-be.’ More like a pig showing up at the door!”

……

Jiang Ruoqiao and Lu Yicheng helped bring out the dishes.

Jiang Ruoqiao spotted her beloved eight-treasure glutinous rice on the table and scooped out a spoonful with a serving spoon. She glanced around — no one was looking — and quickly held it up to Lu Yicheng’s mouth. “Here, taste this. Grandma’s eight-treasure glutinous rice is unbelievable.”

Lu Yicheng opened his mouth.

He didn’t even have time to savor the sweetness before a startled screech erupted from the direction of the bathroom.

Lu Siyan came charging out of the bathroom, having witnessed this very scene.

“WHAT is happening?!” Lu Siyan was convinced he was seeing things, rubbed his chubby fists against his eyes, and exclaimed, “Mama is feeding Papa!!”

Something had happened that he knew absolutely nothing about!!

What was going on?!

Wasn’t it only the mama from the future who fed food to the papa from the future?! So why was the young mama now feeding food to the young papa?!

—