This time Li Weiyi was truly about to explode. Her face turned as red as a tomato as she pointed at him and said, “Have you no shame? You were awake but didn’t open your eyes—eavesdropping on our conversation!”

Zhang Jingchan took his leg off her lap and sat up leisurely to drink tea, saying, “On what grounds should I have woken up? That person still has a proper title as a genuine ex-boyfriend. I have nothing.”

Li Weiyi fell silent.

She was so angry she laughed. She turned to leave but was pulled into Zhang Jingchan’s embrace by one swift motion and seated on his lap.

Li Weiyi sat as if on pins and needles, pushing him, “Let go.”

He completely ignored her boneless resistance. With one hand holding her waist and the other grasping her hand, he looked into her eyes with a gaze that was deep and probing, “In this lifetime, you watched over me for eight years, accompanied me for eight years. Today when you traveled through time here, what did you feel in your heart?”

Li Weiyi’s heart jumped with a thud. This man’s perceptiveness was frightening.

She began to babble nonsense, “I didn’t feel anything. What could I feel? I am me, ‘she’ is ‘she.’ Once I came over, didn’t I just overwrite ‘her’?”

But could someone as shrewd as Zhang Jingchan believe that? He stared intently, not missing any change in her expression. He smiled and said, “Or let me rephrase the question—you, have you thought it over? Are you willing to be my girlfriend now? Although I have nothing right now, I’ll get everything back very soon.”

Li Weiyi’s entire face flushed crimson. The heat seemed to steam up from the depths of every inch of her bones, threatening to cook her through and through. She didn’t dare raise her head to look into his eyes, as if one glance would cause her to be devoured by him. She thought angrily—how could anyone date someone like him! He, he, he—he was a wolf who could easily chase a rabbit until it squealed!

She jumped off his lap and tossed the clothes she’d found earlier at him, “You go take a bath first! After you’re done bathing, I’ll give you an answer! Go, go, go!”

—

When Zhang Jingchan emerged from his bath, the house was completely quiet. He held a towel in one hand, drying his wet hair, his gaze sweeping around the room before locking onto the person curled up on the master bedroom bed watching television.

Her small face, clearly wearing no makeup, was now flushed as if rouge had been applied, the rosy tint difficult to dispel. Zhang Jingchan lowered his head and smiled, then walked unhurriedly into the master bedroom. He clearly noticed her hand gripping the remote control becoming even more rigid.

Zhang Jingchan sat down on the chair by the bed and tossed aside the towel. Before he could speak, she had already jumped off the bed like a startled mouse with a whoosh and run out the door.

Zhang Jingchan fell silent.

After more than ten seconds, Li Weiyi ran back in, holding a plate of cut oranges in her hands. She shoved it into his hands, “Eat some fruit. Vegetative patients need to supplement their vitamins.”

Zhang Jingchan received the full load. She then scrambled back onto the bed, hugged her knees tightly, stared fixedly at the television, her face looking as if sunset clouds had fallen upon it—even redder than before.

Zhang Jingchan casually glanced at the oranges on the plate and his expression froze.

Translucent orange slices filled a large plate, arranged in a crooked, awkward heart shape.

Zhang Jingchan stared at the oranges like this and slowly began to smile.

Li Weiyi’s heart was like a tightly wound string—just a little more plucking and it would snap from the tension. She had actually been paying attention to his every move all along. Seeing him holding the oranges and just smiling, the heat on her face nearly ignited her. She asked in a trembling voice, “Why aren’t you eating?”

Zhang Jingchan picked up a slice and examined it as if it were a rare treasure, answering, “A poor man suddenly rich—you gave me the whole thing at once. I need to think carefully about where to start.”

Li Weiyi was furious. She grabbed a pillow and threw it at him, “Taking advantage and still playing coy!”

Zhang Jingchan blocked with his back, his arms protecting the oranges as he said, “Don’t throw things randomly. This is my orange.”

Li Weiyi didn’t want to talk to him anymore. She felt that whatever she said would be used to tease her—after all, he had now gotten what he wanted and was genuine. She buried her burning face in her knees and turned her head away from him.

After a while, she secretly turned her head back and saw him eating the oranges. He had placed the plate on his lap and was peeling them slice by slice, eating one piece at a time. That “heart” had already been eaten by him nearly halfway.

He ate with concentration, as if doing the most important thing in the world.

Li Weiyi had used four oranges for this plate to piece together such a large heart. She hesitated, “Maybe you should stop eating. You’ll get too full later.” They had just finished dinner and come home.

Zhang Jingchan didn’t raise his head. His brows and eyes were lowered as he ate two more slices and shook his head, “Can’t leave a single piece.”

After speaking, he smiled again, as if this plate of ordinary oranges really was some delicacy. He ate while smiling.

Li Weiyi had never seen him this happy, nor had she seen him look so silly. So she stared at him and couldn’t help but smile too. As she smiled, her eyes reddened.

She didn’t know why she would cry when this was clearly something happy. But watching him continue to smile as he bent his head and earnestly ate the oranges, determined to finish them all, her tears emerged.

Tears blurred her vision. Zhang Jingchan finally set down the empty plate, went to wash his hands and returned, kneeling on the bed with one knee, raising one hand to hold the back of her neck, asking softly, “Why are you crying?”

“Wu…” Li Weiyi answered between sobs, “Why did you have to finish all the oranges? It’s all your fault… wuwu, you made me cry.”

Zhang Jingchan laughed once, got on the bed, sat down beside her, pulled her onto his lap, and murmured, “Why are you always so adorable?”

Li Weiyi said, “Huh?”

He had already lowered his head to find her lips and kiss them.

This was an orange-flavored kiss.

Different from the previous three kisses, he was no longer impatient, no longer fierce, but he wouldn’t be gentle either. His low, urgent breathing was full of deep longing. From the first moment his lips touched hers, he comprehensively suppressed and occupied her. Li Weiyi was like a soft little bird being kneaded in his embrace. Even with just a kiss, she clearly felt that he wanted to invade deeper, even deeper.

His hands were like branding irons, rubbing back and forth on her waist and thighs. He lifted the hem of her shirt, his fingers like several mischievous troublemakers, tickling the soft flesh on her waist with varying pressure.

Li Weiyi laughed aloud from his tickling and reached out with both hands to tickle him too, but was domineeringly suppressed by his chest. The two pressed face to face, eye to eye, both laughing aloud.

“I love you,” he said softly.

Li Weiyi widened her eyes, “So fast? Saying ‘I love you’ on just the first day together? How perfunctory, President Zhang.”

He quickly pecked her lips, “Say it.”

Li Weiyi played dumb, “Say what?”

Zhang Jingchan flipped over. Li Weiyi shrieked “Ah!” as he pressed her onto the bed, his arms braced on either side of her head, staring at her, “Are you going to say it or not?”

Li Weiyi protested, “There’s such a thing as forcing someone to say this…” Before her words were finished, he had already bent down toward her collar. Li Weiyi shrieked again, laughing as she pushed him while pleading, “I love you, I love you, I love you too, okay!”

Only then did he let her go, lying down beside her and pulling her into his arms to lie on him. Li Weiyi felt she had never been this happy in her life—so happy she felt like she might explode. Her heart pounded violently, beating so hard. She smelled his light, clean scent, listened to the strong, steady thump-thump of his heartbeat, and thought: This is my boyfriend. From now on, Zhang Jingchan is my boyfriend. I’m his girlfriend now. But why did just thinking this flood her heart with immense bittersweet emotions impossible to suppress?

Then she heard him say, “Weiyi, this is the first time I’ve said these words.”

Li Weiyi forcefully hummed in acknowledgment, raised her head to look at him, her eyes brimming. He understood and gave her another deep, heated kiss.

Then he stared at her as if wanting to hear her say something. Li Weiyi’s heart sank with a thud. She coughed lightly, her expression awkward.

Zhang Jingchan’s expression darkened somewhat, but ultimately having expected this, he pinched her chin and kissed her fiercely several more times before smiling with slight satisfaction. His dark eyes stared at her as he said, “From now on, not even a tiny bit of my exclusive place in your heart will I let others touch.”

Li Weiyi laughed with a puff. She adjusted to a comfortable position in his arms and felt something cool sliding along her neck. She pulled out the golden Buddha to show him, saying, “Your father gave me this family heirloom. Now that we’re together today, we haven’t failed his intentions.”

Zhang Jingchan took the golden Buddha, his brows slightly furrowing.

“What’s wrong?”

Zhang Jingchan weighed the golden Buddha between his fingertips and raised his eyes to look at her, “My family has never had any heirloom. I’ve never seen this golden Buddha.”

“Ah… didn’t your mother wear it for decades?”

Zhang Jingchan said with certainty, “My mother never wore this.”

Li Weiyi froze. Both their gazes fell on the golden Buddha.