Mu Heng rolled his eyes at him.

While everyone was chatting, Yan Yunning quietly reminded Xuan Yanyu, “Drink less. This afternoon we need to pick up Xiaoxiao after class. We promised him we’d take him and his brother and sister out for the creative restaurant.”

Xuan Yanyu smiled and nodded. “I know, Wife.”

“Mm.” Satisfied that he had agreed, Yan Yunning went to take care of Xuan Yunhao and Xuan Youyi.

“Thank you, Uncle.” The little girl swallowed the small wonton Mu Heng had fed her.

Mu Heng ruffled her hair. “You’re welcome.”

The little girl smiled, her dimples showing.

Xuan Yanyu walked over holding a wine glass, leaning half-idly against the back of the little girl’s children’s chair. He looked at Mu Heng with a curve of his lips. “Envious? My daughter.”

Mu Heng clinked glasses with him and said cheekily, “Envious. Yanyu-bro, how about you let Jiaojiao become my daughter?”

“Get lost!”

Mu Heng feigned heartbreak. “Yanyu-bro, at least consider it.”

Xuan Yanyu gave a light laugh, tipped his head back so his throat bobbed slightly, and drained the red wine in the tall-stemmed glass. He then set the glass down and lifted Xuan Youyi, shifting the little girl to a different spot.

Mu Heng: “…”

Yan Yunning turned around just in time to see Xuan Yanyu carry Xuan Youyi away and tenderly wipe the corners of the little girl’s mouth. She turned back and fed the little dumpling a piece of tender, flaky cod.

Seeing that the little dumpling had eaten his fill, she wiped her hands clean and looked over at Mu Heng, who was staring at his phone, and asked with curiosity, “Has Zhizhi been back lately?”

Mu Heng held up his phone. “Sister-in-law, take a look.”

Yan Yunning’s eyes fell on Mu Heng’s phone screen:

Mu Zhizhi: [Bro, dearest bro, I’m not coming home tomorrow~ The company is so busy~ The boss won’t give me leave~ My approved holiday got taken back~ “Expression: pitiful.”]

“She had agreed to come home tomorrow, she was even fine with it yesterday — and today all of a sudden it’s ‘the company is very busy.’ Been working here over a year now, and this is the first time I’ve heard her say a holiday got taken back.”

Mu Heng couldn’t help venting. “Sister-in-law, your childhood friend — is he even human? Can he really take back an approved holiday???”

Yan Yunning arched an eyebrow. Tomorrow was Lulu’s birthday. Was that why Zhizhi wasn’t coming back?

And indeed, it was for exactly that reason that Mu Zhizhi had decided to delay her return home by two days. Right now, she frowned and looked at the drunk, tipsy Wen Zhilu sprawled on the sofa, not quite sure what to do.

“Director Wen?” She crouched down and shook his shoulder.

“Mm…” Wen Zhilu gave a compliant sound.

Mu Zhizhi’s heart stirred. She reached out and carefully poked his fine-featured cheek.

The man’s drunken eyes slowly opened. Mu Zhizhi’s eyelids trembled, and she stumbled over her words. “D-Director Wen, I… You have something on your face.”

“Mu… Mu Zhizhi.”

Mu Zhizhi bit the corner of her lip. “Don’t fire me.”

“Idiot.”

Mu Zhizhi looked up at him in surprise. The man’s eyes were half-closed, his gaze blurry with drink. He didn’t look particularly clear-headed, and she let out a quiet breath of relief.

Wen Zhilu’s eyelids drooped, and he murmured, “Yan Yunning — idiot.”

Mu Zhizhi felt as though a needle had pricked her heart. “Director Wen, I’ll go prepare a sobering-up soup for you.”

“Mu Zhizhi is even more of an idiot,” the man muttered quietly.

Mu Zhizhi pursed her lips. “You’re the bigger idiot!”

Wen Zhilu gripped her wrist and pressed it to his temple. He was too drunk to be coherent. “Headache.”

Mu Zhizhi froze where she was, and it was a good while before she came back to herself. She gently massaged Wen Zhilu’s temples and, inexplicably, heard herself ask, “Wen Zhilu, who am I?”

Wen Zhilu stared at her with unfocused eyes, then slowly said, “Mu… Mu Zhizhi.”

Lost in her own quiet happiness, Mu Zhizhi didn’t hear Wen Zhilu mutter softly, “Idiot.”

“Is Mu Zhizhi pretty?” Mu Zhizhi leaned in close to Wen Zhilu.

Her smiling little face, enlarged right in front of him, made Wen Zhilu’s throat bob. He had just opened his mouth to speak when a wave of nausea surged from his stomach. “Urgh~”

Mu Zhizhi: “…”

Wen Zhilu staggered to the trash can to dry-heave.

Mu Zhizhi poured a glass of water, grabbed some tissues, and crouched in front of him to rub his back. When he had recovered, she helped him to the sofa, then cleared away the trash without any disgust.

After throwing out the trash, she went to the kitchen to cook the sobering soup.

“Mu… Mu Zhizhi.”

“Coming.” Hearing Wen Zhilu call for her, Mu Zhizhi carried the finished sobering soup and walked quickly to the sofa. She scooped up a spoonful, blew on it, and held it to his lips.

Wen Zhilu bent his head and drank a mouthful. His hazy gaze settled on Mu Zhizhi’s small face — and as if answering the question she had asked earlier, he said, “Pretty.”

Mu Zhizhi’s face flushed, and the hand holding the spoon trembled slightly. She said with forced calm, “At least Director Wen has decent taste.”

Wen Zhilu nodded. “Mm.”

Mu Zhizhi’s heart raced, her face flushing all the way to her ears. “D-Director Wen, you drink the rest yourself.”

Mu Zhizhi placed the sobering soup in Wen Zhilu’s hands and, as though she had drunk far more than him, staggered to one side and patted her own cheeks.

She took out her phone and checked the time — around four o’clock. She turned, and her eyes drifted involuntarily to the wine-soaked Wen Zhilu on the sofa. Without hesitation, she placed an order on her phone for a birthday cake.

She would be the first person to celebrate his twenty-seventh birthday with him.

“Wen Zhilu, happy birthday.” She practiced saying it aloud.

“Thank you.” Without her knowing when, the man had walked up behind her. When Mu Zhizhi turned to look at him, he leaned forward and slowly rested his head on her shoulder. “Mu… Mu Zhizhi, thank you.”

Thank you for appearing in my bleak days.

Thank you for appearing by my side.

Mu Zhizhi went completely rigid. She pressed down the flurry in her heart, her pulse growing faster and faster.

Ahhh!!!

She had to tell her brother — she was going to have a boyfriend!!!

She was going to have a boyfriend!!!

——

Chaxi City — 5 p.m.

Xuan Yunhao’s interest class let out. Xuan Yanyu and Yan Yunning took Xuan Yunhao and Xuan Youyi to pick him up, then brought all three children to the restaurant they had booked well in advance for dinner.

After the meal, the family of five did not go to the Xuan estate. They went back to their own home instead.

The evening sky was painted a burnt orange by the setting sun. Yan Yunning sat on the swing in the back garden.

Her slender fingers wrapped around the milky-white chains of the swing, and the tips of her feet lightly touched the fluffy carpet beneath, sending the swing into a gentle sway.

The evening breeze lifted her hair, making it drift softly. Yan Yunning brushed a strand aside and looked up — not far away, the children were arm-wrestling, while Xuan Yanyu stood nearby watching them with his hands tucked in his pockets.

The sound of joyful laughter drifted to her ears, and the corners of her mouth curved into a quiet smile.

“Wife.” Xuan Yanyu walked toward Yan Yunning with an unhurried stride.

Yan Yunning smiled and made room for him.

The man wrapped his arm around her slender waist, and the two of them swung gently together.

Yan Yunning held onto Xuan Yanyu’s arm, met the man’s doting, adoring gaze, and smiled her most tender smile.

[— End of Full Novel.]

“From here, we return the keyboards of their lives to their own hands, and let them write on their own the story that belongs to them. I believe it will be written:

Better!

Even better!!

More wonderful!!!

Even happier!!!!”