The man showed not even a flicker of embarrassment at being found out. “This one my mother bought to give to her future daughter-in-law.”

Yan Yunning tucked a strand of hair back and raised her brow lightly. “Do you see me believing that?”

Xuan Yanyu: “…”

That one, he genuinely hadn’t lied about!!!

Yan Yunning hooked her thumb around one of his shirt cuff buttons. “Tell me more about Ranran and Ah Ci then. You said at first you didn’t know — how did you eventually find out?”

The man’s interest was piqued. He glanced at the watch on his wrist with a casual air. “You need to renew your membership.”

“…” Yan Yunning smiled through clenched teeth. “Then I’ll just ask someone else!!!”

Xuan Yanyu stretched his long legs out in a languid cross, leaning loosely against the sofa back, his gaze fixed on Yan Yunning with a teasing glint. “That’s a bit of a pity then. Think about it — who else besides me would tell you?”

Yan Yunning, unable to contain her curiosity, asked, “And how do I renew this time???”

The man’s deep eyes met hers. His slender fingers idly tapped his lips. “How did you renew in the car earlier?”

Yan Yunning kicked him in the shin. “You’re not saying, so I forgot — shouldn’t you be telling me by now???”

“Too late. The subscription expired. If you want to hear it now, you’ll have to renew all over again.”

“…” Yan Yunning gritted her teeth slightly and forced out, “I! Don’t! Want! To! Hear! It! Anymore!!!”

“Oh?” The man tilted himself sideways and sprawled out across the sofa. “That’s fine. Whenever you do want to hear it, you’re more than welcome to come renew.”

“I can’t be bothered to talk to you.” Yan Yunning returned his own line to him and fled to the dining room.

The man tilted his chin up slightly, the corner of his mouth curving into an arc, and laughed softly under his breath.

The following day, around noon.

Estimating the right time, Yan Yunning made her way to the airport. She stepped out of the car cradling a lush, vibrant bouquet of roses and headed to the arrivals hall exit.

Why roses specifically and nothing else? Because Wen Zhilu only liked red roses. Nothing else caught his eye.

She waited at the domestic arrivals exit for about half an hour.

Then she spotted a young man in a red shirt — collar askew and loosely open, exposing a sliver of collarbone, black trousers below, two fingers lazily hooking the handle of his luggage, head bowed as he scrolled through his phone, strolling toward the exit with unhurried ease.

Yan Yunning clicked her tongue. She looked at the striking young man in the distance — a head of eye-catching blue-black curls, a silver diamond stud in his left ear, chewing gum, his distinctly handsome face hidden behind a pair of black sunglasses.

He seemed to spot her. The corner of his mouth curved into his usual carefree, rakish smile.

Yan Yunning waved at him. Before she could say a word, the young man dropped his luggage and jogged over with long strides, pulling her into a full embrace.

“The flowers… the flowers—” Yan Yunning tried to salvage the bouquet being crushed between them.

The young man gently ruffled her hair. His voice was low and deep. “Yan Yunning, let me hold you.”

Yan Yunning strained to push him away, found it futile, and said through lightly gritted teeth, “Someone’s taking your luggage!”

“Doesn’t matter.” Wen Zhilu wrapped his arms around her slender, supple waist, breathed in the familiar faint fragrance she always carried, and spoke with a mild note of reproach. “Yan Yunning, if I hadn’t called you, would you really have never spoken to me again?”

“Of course not. Once I start dating someone, I’m still going to have him take you out for a meal. You’ll always be like a little brother to me — how could I never speak to you again?”

“Who’s your little brother?” Wen Zhilu released her and said with a surly insistence, “We’re just neighbors. My family name is Wen, yours is Yan. We have no relation whatsoever.”

“Tch, so afraid of being connected to me?” Yan Yunning shoved the now-misshapen bouquet into his arms.

The two of them had known each other since they were barely learning to speak — no, more accurately, they had known each other since infancy.

He was three months younger than her. Within her own family, she was the youngest. So in front of Wen Zhilu, she modeled herself after the way her older brothers and sisters treated her, and directed it all at him.

She discovered it was truly wonderful to have a little brother — one who obediently trotted after her calling her big sister. Except that “big sister” eventually gave way to just “Yan Yunning, Yan Yunning.”

After the first time Wen Zhilu called her by her full name, she never heard the word “big sister” come from his mouth again.

Later, she and Xiaxia had analyzed it and come to the conclusion that the three-month gap was exactly why Wen Zhilu refused to call her big sister.

Because it was common for people who, as children, called each other big brother or big sister, to eventually start calling each other by name once they were older and the age gap no longer felt significant.

Just as she herself sometimes still called her brother by his full name, Yan Jingjing.

The young man slid his sunglasses off. Those eyes, with their faint edge of mischief, narrowed slightly. “It’s not that I’m afraid — it just depends on what kind of relation it is.”

Yan Yunning pursed her lips. “Are you tired? Do you want to rest at the hotel first and then go eat?”

Wen Zhilu slung an arm over her shoulder, the corner of his mouth lifting into a half-smile. “Not tired. Let’s eat first.”

“Your luggage.” Seeing that Wen Zhilu had no intention of going back for the suitcase he’d abandoned, Yan Yunning patted his hand off her shoulder, jogged back a few steps, and grabbed the handle of the luggage he’d left behind.

Wen Zhilu, bouquet in arms, also stepped back a few paces. His free right hand reached out to take hold of Yan Yunning’s. She dodged it, and lectured him, “Men and women should maintain proper boundaries. Pay more attention to that in the future — if people misunderstand, I’ll have to explain myself.”

Especially if Xuan Yanyu misunderstood. That would blow everything up.

What Yan Yunning didn’t know was that Pei Shuluo and Pei Shunian — who had come to the international arrivals exit to pick up Pei Shutong and the boyfriend she had chased down — had just witnessed the whole scene and were now deliberating over whether or not to send the video they’d taken to Xuan Yanyu.

Wen Zhilu laughed softly, his tone easy and unhurried. “Explain what? If people misunderstand, it just means we actually look like a good match.”

“Don’t talk nonsense. You may not be afraid of the misunderstanding, but I am.”

“Yan Yunning?” The young man’s eyes carried their familiar edge of mischief as he said, cheekily, “Given that we’ve slept in the same bed before…”

“Hold on. That was when you were having your hundred-day photos taken, my mom happened to bring me over to your house, and Aunt Lu wanted a photo of the two of us together — so she put us both on the bed. That’s all it was.”

Though she and Wen Zhilu had grown up together, her father and mother had never allowed her to stay overnight at anyone’s house outside of First Uncle’s or Second Uncle’s — no matter how close the friendship. The only exception was Xuan Yanyu’s home.

She figured it was because Aunt Xuan had mentioned Ranran, and also because Aunt Xuan was home every day — so her mother had felt reassured letting her stay at Aunt Xuan’s to keep Aunt Xuan company.

And even then, her mother still messaged her three or four times a day.

She and Wen Zhilu also weren’t like the childhood sweethearts in novels — they had never stayed overnight at each other’s houses, and their parents had never pushed for them to be together or anything like that. Her mother and father had never said such a thing.

Even when Uncle Wen and Aunt Lu brought it up in jest, her parents would laugh it off or state their position directly: the children could decide for themselves when they were grown. They didn’t make choices on their children’s behalf. At most they would offer an opinion, and eventually Uncle Wen and Aunt Lu stopped bringing it up too.

Besides, neither she nor Wen Zhilu had any such feelings for each other.

Wen Zhilu did have someone he liked. A year ago — she remembered it very clearly — on the twentieth of May, he had bought a bouquet of roses with a card attached. She really hadn’t been able to resist reading it.

My goodness, it was so heartfelt, so utterly earnest — it had made her cringe back then. She asked Wen Zhilu about it and he didn’t tell her who it was for, just clutched the flowers and ran off. She figured he must have gone to confess his feelings — though it seemed like it hadn’t worked out.

Wen Zhilu’s lips curved into an expression hovering somewhere between a smile and not. “Wasn’t it still the same bed?”

“Stop being glib.” Yan Yunning dragged the luggage forward, drawing out her words in a long, lazy drawl. “Just wait until you have a girlfriend someday who gets jealous — then you’ll behave yourself.”