When Teng Yi embraced Ruan Yu and kissed her for a while, it didn’t feel like kissing a real person. She was like a wooden doll, not knowing to close her eyes or part her lips – absolutely like an uncooperative teammate. And she had dared to say she knew how? What an overstatement.

He finally stopped, using his fingertip to massage the lips that he had kissed until they turned red.

“Are you sure you don’t need more practice?” Even the fish in the tank kissed more convincingly than her.

Ruan Yu: “…”

Who could have imagined the face-slapping would come so quickly?

“I… how did you know I couldn’t?”

“Haven’t you never dated before?” Teng Yi smiled.

Though Ruan Yu’s limbs were stiff, her mind was still sharp. Her thoughts raced, and she quickly realized that he must have heard her conversation with Teng Hao in the room that day!

“You eavesdropped on my conversation with Teng Hao?”

“Mind your words. That’s my house – I was openly listening.”

Ruan Yu completely surrendered. She averted her gaze, hunching over to continue watching the fish in the tank, deliberately ignoring him and his somewhat mocking gaze.

Teng Yi leaned in close beside her.

“So, I’m your first love, and that was your first kiss, right?”

“…”

Ruan Yu pretended not to hear.

Yes, he was her first love, and that was her first kiss. Just thinking about how she wasn’t his first love, that he had kissed others before, made her jealous again.

Teng Yi reached out to pinch her cheek. “Alright, stop watching. No need to study so seriously – I can teach you slowly.”

Ruan Yu pushed his hand away, her gaze still fixed on the kissing pair of fish in the tank.

“Did you know? Many fish keepers like kissing fish, thinking they symbolize lasting love. But actually, the passionate kisses of kissing fish aren’t courtship – they’re fighting, resolving territorial disputes,” she said.

Teng Yi hesitated for a moment.

“Scholar, can you not be such a mood killer? Can’t you be a bit more romantic?”

Ruan Yu let out a light snort: “Since I can’t win in dating experience, I can only crush you with knowledge.”

“Who says I have dating experience?”

Ruan Yu’s eyes brightened, and she opened her mouth to confirm something but was met with his kiss once again.

Teng Yi held her shoulders firmly, taking advantage of her parted lips to slide his tongue into her mouth. Neither had experience – their earlier shallow kisses hadn’t exposed their inexperience, but switching to deep kissing mode led to their tongues and teeth clashing.

Ruan Yu quickly found it difficult to breathe, like someone drowning, her body going soft.

Teng Yi supported her, gradually finding the right feeling and technique.

She was so sweet, her mouth tasting of cola, tempting him to deepen the kiss further…

“Brother!”

At this call, Ruan Yu was startled and buried her face in Teng Yi’s chest.

Teng Yi remained relatively composed. Holding Ruan Yu, he suppressed his annoyance at being interrupted and turned to look at Teng Hao.

Teng Hao had appeared in the hallway at some point, witnessing this scene. He was quite startled himself.

“Brother… you two… you two…” After careful consideration of his words, Teng Hao finally said, “When did you two hook up?”

Teng Yi glared at Teng Hao, raising his hand to lightly pat the back of Ruan Yu’s head.

“Haven’t you been teaching him Chinese properly?”

Ruan Yu covered her face, keeping it buried in Teng Yi’s chest, shaking her head vigorously to indicate she didn’t want to talk to him.

Right now, she just wanted to dig a hole and crawl into it.

To think Teng Hao had seen them kissing – all her built-up authority was ruined. How could she maintain pressure on him during tutoring sessions now?

“Why are you just standing there?” Teng Yi gave Teng Hao a meaningful look.

“I just came to use the bathroom.”

“Then hurry up and go.”

“Oh.”

Teng Hao quickly made himself scarce.

–_–

Ruan Yu lifted her head from Teng Yi’s embrace, her cheeks still visibly flushed even under the blue light.

“Already intimidated?” Teng Yi smirked.

Ruan Yu couldn’t speak, having held her breath earlier, she was still catching it.

After a while, she looked up, her eyes watery, filled with the shyness of having been kissed.

“How will I control him in the future?”

“From now on, you’ll be his sister-in-law. Would he dare disobey his sister-in-law’s words?”

Ruan Yu thought about it – it made sense.

The sound of water came from the bathroom.

Teng Yi lightly patted Ruan Yu’s shoulder, telling her: “You go ahead first.”

Ruan Yu agreed, leaving the hallway with lingering anxiety.

Teng Hao came out of the bathroom to find Teng Yi alone by the fish tank. He stood with his arms crossed, leaning against the wall, the lights flickering, small fish swimming beside him in the tank – it was hard to tell if the person was in the water or before one’s eyes.

“Come here,” Teng Yi spoke.

Teng Hao quickly walked to him, taking the initiative: “If you convince Mom about the dancing for me, I’ll keep your secret.”

“Heh, you’ve improved, getting better at sizing up situations and threatening people.”

Like the previous time when he was made to apologize to Ruan Yu, and now this time as well.

“Brother, I’m just desperate,” Teng Hao whined.

“Don’t try that with me. Go ahead and tell Mom.”

“Really?”

“Of course. I’m not having some shameful romance that can’t be spoken of, am I?”

“But she’s my tutor.”

“So what? Is our relationship affecting your studies?”

“…” Well, no. He’d improved by ten or twenty ranks.

“As for you, that Mirror Yao girl…”

“How do you know about Mirror Yao?” Teng Hao’s face instantly turned red, his demeanor shifting from pressuring to being pressured.

Teng Yi laughed.

Kids don’t know how to hide their emotions.

“I’m your brother, what don’t I know about you?”

Teng Hao liked Wang Mirror Yao from his class, secretly writing her love letters, preparing birthday gifts… Teng Yi knew all of this but had previously turned a blind eye. However, this kid had been getting somewhat arrogant lately, so he needed to temper his spirit a bit.

“I…”

“You what? Want me to be more specific?”

Teng Hao immediately backed down, admitting defeat.

“Brother, I was wrong. Please forgive me.”

“Then you have to promise not to bully her anymore.”

“When did I ever bully her?” Teng Hao felt wronged. “I’m grateful if she doesn’t bully me, okay?”

Teng Yi laughed.

“Don’t laugh, it’s true!”

“Well, you’ll just have to endure it.”

Teng Hao pressed his lips together tightly, secretly grumbling in his heart that he hadn’t expected his brother to be the type who forgets his brother once he has a wife.

“Alright,” Teng Yi put his arm around Teng Hao’s shoulders. “Stop pretending, I know you like her too.”

Teng Hao almost broke character but refused to admit it verbally.

“I don’t like her at all.”

“Is that so?”

Teng Hao remained silent, then after a few seconds, reluctantly nodded.

He quite liked Ruan Yu. Earlier, when he heard that Ruan Yu had experienced love at first sight with another guy and exchanged WeChat contacts, he had felt down for a while, feeling like their family’s cabbage was about to be snatched by a pig.

Now it was fine – the water hadn’t flowed to an outsider’s field. He could rest easy.

–_–

Ruan Yu returned to the table where everyone was still chatting and joking enthusiastically. Fang Wan glanced at her, then at the two empty seats beside her, showing no expression as she continued participating in the lively atmosphere.

After a while, the two brothers, Teng Yi and Teng Hao, also returned.

Ruan Yu didn’t dare make eye contact with Teng Hao, feeling awkward, but Teng Hao kept looking at her as if examining a stranger. Ruan Yu’s face reddened under his gaze, and she reached for the cold cola to cool down, but Teng Hao quickly grabbed the can.

“What are you doing?” Ruan Yu couldn’t help but look at him.

“What are you doing? I drank from this one,” Teng Hao said.

Uh, wrong can.

Ruan Yu’s face grew even hotter. She looked around and found that her half-finished cola had been knocked to the ground by someone and had rolled far away.

Teng Hao took a new can from the table, pulled the tab for her, and held it with both hands, respectfully offering it to her. Though wordless, it seemed to say, “Sister-in-law, please.”

Ruan Yu smiled, turning to look at Teng Yi, finding him also smiling as he watched them.

“Thank you,” Ruan Yu accepted the cola from Teng Hao.

The awkwardness dissolved just like that.

After everyone had eaten and drunk their fill, they left the barbecue place. Teng Yi wanted to walk Ruan Yu back to school, but she declined – with so many people walking the same way, what would it mean for him to escort her alone?

Teng Yi thought about it and agreed, so he didn’t insist.

Back at school, Ruan Yu took a shower first. When she came out of the bathroom, she found dozens of new messages on her phone. Opening them, she discovered Teng Yi had added her to the Journey to the West group chat.

The very first message at the top was from Teng Yi. He tagged everyone in the group and wrote: “Let me introduce you to my girlfriend.”

The message caused an immediate stir.

Seeing everyone joking around, Teng Yi quickly added: “Just win her over, don’t scare her away.”

Then, someone started it, and layer by layer, the responses became a uniform chorus of “Hello, Sister-in-law.”

Ruan Yu hugged her phone, only knowing how to smile foolishly.

She typed “Hello everyone” in the chat box, but thinking about it, those three words seemed somewhat formal. In the end, she only sent back a shy face-covering animated emoji.

When the protagonist appeared, the group became even more excited.

Xiao Qing and Zhou Xihe, being more familiar with Ruan Yu, played off each other, constantly teasing her.

Of course, what everyone was most curious about was how Teng Yi had confessed to her.

“Did he give flowers?”

“Did he prepare gifts?”

“Did he give you a surprise?”

When men gossip, they can be even more terrifying than women. Everyone was chattering away, and Ruan Yu’s eyes were dazzled after reading just a few messages, yet they kept coming endlessly.

Teng Yi hadn’t come out to reply, and Ruan Yu didn’t know how to respond either.

She thought about it Teng Yi’s confession wasn’t worth mentioning at all. Flowers, gifts, surprises, and such – there was nothing. He had just taken her to the rooftop and directly asked if she was willing to fill the position of his girlfriend… Not romantic, not romantic at all.

Yet somehow, she had agreed.

Counting it that way, she got shortchanged.

After the group chat had been lively for a while, Teng Yi still hadn’t appeared. Perhaps feeling it had lost momentum, gradually, Xiao Qing, Zhou Xihe, and the others also fell silent.

Ruan Yu opened her chat with Teng Yi and sent him a goodnight message. After waiting for a long time, he still hadn’t replied.

She wondered, had he fallen asleep so quickly?

–_–

Ruan Yu slept very lightly all night, and the poor sleep quality meant she couldn’t get up early in the morning. She slept straight through until seven-thirty. When she opened her eyes, the first thing she did was reach for her phone, only to find there were still no messages from Teng Yi.

She lay in bed dejectedly for a moment, comforting herself that he must have gone to bed early and woken up late, which was why he hadn’t seen her message yet. Otherwise, there would be no reason for him not to reply.

After fretting for a moment, Ruan Yu finally got up to wash.

Her roommates were also gradually getting out of bed.

Just as Ruan Yu finished washing her face and came out, the music suddenly started playing from below the dormitory, followed by someone shouting her name.

“Ruan Yu! Ruan Yu! Come out!”

“Who is it, making such a racket early in the morning?” Jian Xiangxiang was the first to push open the balcony’s glass door, curiously poking her head out.

Ruan Yu put down her washbasin and also looked out.

Their dorm was on the third floor, not very high, with the balcony level with the crowns of the trees below and directly facing the girls’ dormitory entrance.

On the cement ground at the entrance, five young men stood in neat formation.

At the front was Teng Yi.

The other four were Zhou Xihe, Xiao Qing, Lin Shan, and Caihong from the school anniversary performance – wearing the same red clothes, emanating the same vibrant morning energy.

“Wow! What’s going on?” Jian Xiangxiang shouted.

Chen Manbai and Xia Qiaofeng also ran out to watch, with Ruan Yu squeezed between the three of them. Her thoughts were hazy, but her gaze was clear as it met Teng Yi’s.

His gentle face wore a smile in the morning light, his eyes full of warmth that said “I came for you.”

[Note: The following section contains song lyrics which I’ll summarize: The group performs a choreographed dance to a romantic song about dreams, rainbows, and love. During the performance, they suddenly produce roses from their hoodie pockets and incorporate them into their dance moves.]

“Ah!”

“Ah!”

Thunderous screams came from above.

Unconsciously, girls from several dormitory buildings had come out to watch. The balconies on each floor were packed with people, creating quite a spectacular scene.

“Teng Yi!”

“Teng Yi!”

Everyone was calling Teng Yi’s name, but he had come only for Ruan Yu.

[Another section of song lyrics is summarized: The performance continues with romantic lyrics about love and longing, with the roses being incorporated into their dance moves.]

The roses, used as props, blended perfectly into their dance movements, not feeling cumbersome at all, but rather adding a sweet and romantic atmosphere to the entire dance.

Finally, Zhou Xihe and the others stepped back in unison, leaving Teng Yi alone standing in the sunlight and everyone’s gaze.

Teng Yi held the rose between his teeth, supported himself on his hands, and quickly spun in place, his movements as graceful as a martial arts master arriving with a heart full of love and sincerity.

“Ruan Yu, I like you!” Teng Yi shouted after standing still.

They gazed at each other silently.

The sounds around them faded away, the world enveloped in a romantic light.

Ruan Yu’s heart melted into tender feelings in an instant. She looked at Teng Yi, her eyes growing moist.

In this lifetime, to receive such a heartfelt confession was enough to leave no regrets.