After the madness came intense fatigue. Under a barrage of urgent phone calls, Fu Xueli hurriedly dressed, kissed Xu Xingchun, then left the messy hotel and rushed back to the Fu family home.

From the hotel to home, Fu Xueli was distracted, knowing Xu Xingchun was returning to his grandmother’s house in Y City, not knowing when they’d meet again. She hadn’t noticed when leaving, but now that they were apart, reluctant feelings surfaced. Lingering endlessly.

As soon as she entered, Fu Chenglin grabbed her arm and pulled her forward. His thick eyebrows knitted tightly, his tone turning cold, “Where have you been fooling around these past few days?”

“Nowhere, went to play cards.” She lied casually, not in good spirits, shaking off her cousin’s hand. She still had to eat the New Year’s Eve dinner later. She wanted to go upstairs to change clothes and didn’t bother responding.

Having played around chasing women in his youth with many tricks, just from Fu Xueli’s walking posture, Fu Chenglin could guess without guessing what she’d been doing.

He was furious, cursed, widened his eyes, and shouted, “You little brat, gotten too big for your boots?! Play around if you want, but you don’t even answer your phone. Do you know how worried I was about you?”

Fu Xueli said with disgust, “My phone died! I’ve said it several times. Please, stop saying such cringeworthy mushy things, Fu Chenglin.”

The two cursed and bickered at each other for a while.

Fu Xueli circled into the living room, huffing as she prepared to go upstairs. Her hand had just touched the banister when she saw Fu Yuandong sitting on the sofa, naturally imposing without anger. His expression was quite calm. He glanced at her disheveled clothing and said in a deep voice, “Come sit for a bit.”

Fu Xueli’s steps halted. Deflated and dull, she said, “Oh…”

After sitting on the sofa, neither spoke. The air was silent. Fu Xueli’s head remained lowered. The two were like strangers with no connection.

“If I didn’t say I was sick, would you never come back to this home for your entire life?”

Fu Xueli said nothing, biting her lip, stubbornly refusing to speak. Not even lifting the corner of her eye.

“Every day doing nothing proper, not coming home—do you still consider me your uncle?” Just after finishing, Fu Yuandong began coughing violently.

The words that had been about to rush out were forcibly swallowed back down. Her eyes glanced over and were stung by those few white hairs. Fu Xueli’s heart held an indescribable feeling. She sat honestly still on the sofa without moving.

About ten minutes later, Fu Yuandong finally sighed deeply, waving his hand, “Go on, go on.”

Hearing this, Fu Xueli jumped up like a rabbit whose tail had been stepped on and rushed upstairs. Not wanting to stay even one more second.

Dinner wasn’t until eight in the evening. The Fu family didn’t have many relatives. Usually Fu Yuandong’s work was busy, so it was rare to finally gather a full table. At the dinner table, no one spoke much. Most of the time it was Fu Chenglin and the girlfriend he’d brought home talking.

His girlfriend was seeing Fu Xueli for the first time and was secretly excited for a long while. Later after finishing dinner, she even asked for several autographs. Begging her uniformly to talk about her own idol.

Fu Xueli’s patience was just average to begin with. Right now she was completely impatient, casually brushed her off, and locked herself in her room.

On New Year’s Eve night, in recent years the city district had banned fireworks and firecrackers, making it completely devoid of New Year atmosphere—the holiday completely lacking festivity. This year the government had actually canceled this regulation. As soon as the time came, outside became bright as day, booming and banging. Auntie Qi came up to knock on the door, calling her to come out and watch the fireworks, but Fu Xueli lazily refused.

WeChat New Year’s greeting messages on her phone dinged and donged. Fu Xueli didn’t want to reply. She yanked open the curtains, looked up, and saw successive firecrackers and fireworks shooting into the night sky and exploding. Overwhelming brightness, brief and dazzling, taking in everything. She sniffled, suddenly thinking of that high school year celebrating Xu Xingchun’s birthday.

Over a decade had passed. Now thinking back, it was like a dream.

Fu Xueli rolled onto her bed, her body shifting, pulling the pillow over her head. Lying prone, she couldn’t help but start thinking about Xu Xingchun again. The corners of her mouth rising for a moment, drooping the next.

Estimated she’d spaced out for half an hour.

She thought in self-abandonment.

Speaking of which, she was also a mature woman approaching thirty. How was she now acting like a young girl just awakening to love?

Getting depressed at the drop of a hat.

The holiday still had the last two or three days before returning to work.

Nothing she did now was as interesting as staying with Xu Xingchun.

What to do about this…

She fished out her phone to check the time—just past one in the morning. After lying quietly for a while, an impulse suddenly surged in her heart. Fu Xueli suddenly jumped up. She pulled out a suitcase from her room, randomly threw in a few clothes, put on a down jacket and hat, grabbed a car key from the table, and tiptoed downstairs, running quickly toward the garage in the back courtyard.

Fu Chenglin had probably gone out to play cards with his group of rich second-generation friends. Everyone else had also gone to bed early. Without notifying anyone, she took one of Fu Chenglin’s cars. Shifted gears, started the engine, and quickly drove away from the gate.

The car shot out like a gust of wind.

She opened navigation, searched the map, then got on the highway. From the neighboring city to Y City was a total of five hours’ drive.

Fu Xueli had always been a free-spirited person of action, doing things entirely based on brain fever and momentary impulse.

Alone in the middle of the night, spending a whole evening driving to an unfamiliar small city.

Music flowed in the car cabin. When she picked up the phone to dial Xu Xingchun’s number, her fingers were trembling slightly.

Ten minutes later.

The car was full of warm air. Outside cold air rushed in, quickly condensing a layer of white fog on the car window. The wipers scraped back and forth.

She knelt on the driver’s seat with one leg, her whole body lunging forward, crashing into Xu Xingchun and making him stagger backward. Fu Xueli’s knee pressed against the root of his leg. Somewhat neurotically gripping his collar, as if afraid he’d run away. Her chest felt suffocated, with chaotic happiness and satisfaction.

Hearing him ask, “How did you get here?” Fu Xueli panted slightly, looking at Xu Xingchun’s expression, inexplicably thrilled. Without waiting for him to ask anything else, she hugged his neck and silently leaned in to kiss.

From the corner of the mouth to the tongue tip, moist saliva, stirring and sliding toward the base of the tongue.

Xu Xingchun let her hold him without moving, his lowered eyelashes trembling slightly.

Fu Xueli thought, she really had fallen for Xu Xingchun.

As if suddenly possessed, her mind was full of that kind of thing. The feeling of kissing him was like taking drugs—she couldn’t control it at all. Some things, the more you wanted to get, the more they couldn’t be satisfied.

After a long while, she reluctantly separated from him.

“What time is it?” She asked hoarsely.

“Past six.” He answered.

“I’ll take you to breakfast.”

Early in the morning, locals were selling things by the roadside. Walking on the street, looking around, everything was simple courtyard houses, wooden windows, wooden doors, concise, clear, and simple.

When her feet touched the ground, Fu Xueli noticed that Xu Xingchun had come empty-handed, wearing a shirt and long pants, only an outer jacket. The low temperature outside made her shiver with cold before she asked in surprise, “Don’t we need to drive?”

“It’s very close.”

A taxi with its lights on drove past them, turned the corner ahead, then drove away. The street was deserted. In the severe cold, even the morning breeze was somewhat cool, emanating a pale blue-green glow, blowing until every pore on her body felt contracted.

The breakfast shop was just four or five steps away.

A woman in her forties or fifties, wearing an apron, sat on a rocking chair. On a small stool beside her sat a little boy about five years old, holding an apple ready to put it in his mouth. He looked up at Xu Xingchun and the masked Fu Xueli, long eyelashes fluttering, immediately jumping up and shouting, “Wow! Customers are here.”

She ordered mushroom shumai and a cup of soymilk to carry in her hand, suddenly calling out, “Xu Xingchun.”

His gaze looked ahead, “Mm.”

“Nothing.” Fu Xueli paused, saying nothing, tightly clutching his arm, on the verge of tears, lips slightly pouting, “I think my period just came.”

At the 24-hour convenience store, Xu Xingchun crouched in front of the shelf, scanned it, and casually pulled out several packages of sanitary pads. Then walked to the cashier, fished out his wallet from his pocket to pay.

The female clerk smiled, “Sir, do you need anything else?”

He took a lighter, placed it on the counter, “Together.”

After finding a place to change her pad, Fu Xueli sat in the car, chewing shumai in her mouth, swallowing it down. Using a tissue to wipe the grease from her hands and mouth, while gulping water, her eyes stared unblinkingly at Xu Xingchun.

His hair quality was jet black. The bit of exposed skin was like white jade. He leaned against the car door biting a cigarette, clearly defined contours, refined features. Just a bit thin. From any angle he exuded an intoxicating handsomeness.

The distance was too close. From this angle, she could even see clearly every inch of his Adam’s apple sliding as he inhaled and exhaled smoke.

Simply devastatingly attractive.

Without warning, Fu Xueli raised her hand and seized his cigarette, the movement very natural, “Xu Xingchun, you know, though smoking makes you look cool, you’ll die early.”

Xu Xingchun, a beat slow, turned his head slightly, his gaze falling on her face. After a moment of daze, leaning forward, he asked, “Isn’t dying good?”

“I won’t let you die.” Fu Xueli thought about her savings, smiled quite proudly, “Let me tell you, I have lots and lots of money. Even if you get sick, I can support you for a lifetime.”

His slender hand cradled the back of her head, fingertips somewhat cold. His eyes were deep and profound, boundless.

Why was he kissing again…

Fu Xueli opened her mouth and bit him.

His lips were soft, cool breath winding into her mouth. He bit by bit savored the sweet warmth of her mouth.

He lightly touched the base of her ear with the back of his finger. It was somewhat hot.

She was pressed against the buttocks by him, somewhat embarrassed, her body also stiff and motionless. He gripped her wrist, holding it in his palm. Xu Xingchun said in a low, muffled voice, “…Keep biting.”

Xu Xingchun held her tightly in his arms. Her fingers inserted into his soft black short hair, with the impulse to give it a good yank.

Why had he never changed?

Clean and unworldly, when he smiled it was like apologizing.

Morbid yet deeply affectionate.

He was her Xu Xingchun.