Liang Yan and Qiao Qi had announced their relationship on Weibo in an extremely unusual way — this was the one couple whose official announcement had everyone reacting with:

【Huh?? Is this for real?】 【They’re together? Or is this just messing around?】 【Um… does this even count as an official announcement? Feels a little careless】 【Yeah, this is definitely Young Master Liang’s signature “doesn’t follow convention” style】 【AHHHHHH Young Master Liang’s birthday is coming up soon!! I’m so curious what gift Qiao Qi will give him!!】

Liang Yan himself was also quite looking forward to it, and so reminded her about it roughly eight hundred times a day.

Take right now, for instance — Qiao Qi had just finished a magazine photoshoot, still in some rather bizarre outfit she hadn’t changed out of yet, when Young Master Liang, who’d been leaning casually against a wall nearby “secretly” filming the shoot on his phone, sauntered over.

The man was dressed unusually casually today, a turtleneck sweater under a thick long coat, no hat on his head, no mask over his face, no sunglasses either — his finely sculpted face fully on display, unobstructed.

…As if terrified someone might fail to recognize him as Liang Yan.

Once Qiao Qi was pinned down by the stylist in front of the makeup mirror, he walked straight over, phone in hand, filming while tilting his head to stare at the woman in the mirror.

Today’s magazine shoot had a flamboyant style — an outfit that looked either like a burlap sack or a raincoat, hair styled poker-straight with a fake blunt fringe added by the stylist, making Qiao Qi’s already small face look even smaller.

It also fully highlighted her tall, narrow nose bridge and sharply defined eyes.

Liang Yan tilted his head, studying her for several seconds; Qiao Qi lifted her eyes and met his gaze in the mirror. “What are you looking at?”

Liang Yan answered without missing a beat, “Looking at how beautiful you are.”

Qiao Qi: “…”

Liang Yan zoomed the camera in closer. “Come on, beautiful, look at the camera.”

His public displays of affection were absolutely shameless.

As if terrified anyone might fail to notice how special his relationship with Qiao Qi was.

Qiao Qi found this thinly veiled territorial marking behavior thoroughly beneath contempt, shot him a look of pure disdain, and proceeded to ignore him completely.

There was no point recording a scene like that.

So Liang Yan promptly stopped recording, then pulled up a chair to sit beside her, idly scrolling Weibo, and whenever he came across a post related to his own birthday, he’d make a point of saying, loudly and deliberately: “The shipper fan clubs did a great job this year — my birthday campaign donations are basically all charity projects.”

Qiao Qi, in response, closed her eyes and said nothing, quietly submitting to the stylist’s next round of transformations.

Not getting the reaction he wanted, Liang Yan snuck a glance at the person beside him, and seeing she hadn’t even opened her eyes, froze in disbelief.

The stylist, seeing Young Master Liang’s antics, couldn’t help but press her lips together in a stifled smile, and offered to smooth things over: “Teacher Liang’s birthday is coming up — surely Teacher Qiao has something really special planned?”

Qiao Qi still didn’t open her eyes. “Huh? Me? We already agreed on this — we’re meeting at the front gate of the police station on his birthday.”

The stylist: “…?”

What kind of unconventional date plan was that?

Liang Yan himself: “…”

He suddenly recalled — that did seem to be their original agreement, actually.

…But surely they couldn’t really go through with something that ridiculous!

So that night, back at the hotel, Young Master Liang kept probing, directly and indirectly, “So what exactly are you planning to give me for my birthday?”

From the moment the two of them got back, Liang Yan had trailed after Qiao Qi like a little tail, persistently following her from the living room to the bedroom, from the bedroom to the bathroom, then from the bathroom back to the living room.

Now the two of them were curled up on the couch watching TV, and Liang Yan clung tightly to Qiao Qi’s arm, practically wanting to wrap his legs around her too.

Qiao Qi couldn’t understand it either — why was it that other people’s boyfriends were the ones showering their girlfriends with kisses, hugs, and piggyback rides, while her boyfriend spent every day begging for kisses, hugs, and — .

Was he some runaway Disney princess?

“Is this your first birthday ever?” Qiao Qi couldn’t help but turn to look at him, her face full of nothing but coldness and endless exasperation. “For the first twenty years you were the young master of the Liang family, and for the years after that, a top-tier idol actor at the height of the entertainment industry — why are you acting like you’ve never received a gift in your life?”

Hearing this, Liang Yan wrapped his arm around Qiao Qi’s arm even tighter. “Never received one from you.”

His tone carried a deliberate note of grievance and anticipation.

“…” Qiao Qi asked, genuinely, “Okay, so what do you want?”

“You’re asking me?” Liang Yan looked displeased. “Can you not put a little more thought into this? This is our first birthday together since we got together!”

Qiao Qi: “…That’s exactly why I’m asking what you want.”

This time Young Master Liang simply stopped talking altogether, shook Qiao Qi’s hand off, and, without even putting on slippers, walked straight into the bedroom.

Slamming the door behind him on his way.

…Rather loudly.

Qiao Qi: “…What’s with you? Trying to tear the house down?”

The sulking Young Master Liang offered no reply.

Qiao Qi stared at the bedroom door for a while, holding back a sigh, then finally sighed, switched off the TV, and slowly put on her slippers, preparing to go coax her little princess.

Truthfully, Qiao Qi hadn’t taken Liang Yan’s birthday all that seriously. She’d never celebrated her own birthdays growing up, and didn’t fully understand what a birthday meant beyond marking another year older.

She thought back to what he’d just said — “this is our first birthday together since we got together” — and figured that this year, the only thing that really set it apart from other years was probably exactly that.

Thinking about it this way, Qiao Qi supposed Princess Liang did have some right to be upset.

So she willingly pushed the door open, felt her way through the dark, and climbed onto the bed, then by the thin moonlight saw her poor little darling burrowed under the blanket, only the top of his head peeking out.

His fluffy hair on top was particularly nice to touch.

After petting it a few times, Qiao Qi remarked, “Did you wash your hair?”

Like idle small talk.

Normally, Liang Yan was more than happy to chat about these little everyday things with her — he’d hold Qiao Qi and share stories about how he and Zhou Jiaye used to terrorize their neighborhood as kids and get dragged home for a beating each, only to go right back to terrorizing everyone again the next day. He’d also kiss the back of her hand while musing about their future son, and how if that kid dared act up the same way, he’d definitely… join in and be a neighborhood tyrant right alongside him!

To this, Qiao Qi, every time, after finishing a certain adult activity, would rub her own belly and pray sincerely: please don’t let it be a son, please don’t let it be a son…

But right now, Liang Yan seemed to have heard none of it, as if he’d already drifted off into dreamland.

Qiao Qi thought for a moment, then swung a leg over Liang Yan and rolled to the other side of the bed.

Successfully ending up face to face with him, and burrowing into his arms.

This time Liang Yan finally poked his head out and opened his eyes, though his expression remained flat. “What are you doing.”

Qiao Qi stroked his face and kissed his mouth. “Coaxing you.”

Liang Yan froze for a second, then continued coldly, “Scumbag.”

Qiao Qi: “?”

She pinched his lips. “Say that again?”

Liang Yan let out a “hmph,” but voluntarily pulled his arm out from under the blanket and wrapped it around Qiao Qi, holding her tightly.

But that didn’t stop him from continuing to grumble.

“Are you planning to dump me once you get tired of sleeping with me one day?”

Qiao Qi: “…?”

She couldn’t help but push back on that one. “Isn’t it you who’s sleeping with me?”

This man looked like a kid with no brains during the day, but the moment night fell, everything out of his mouth was pure adult innuendo.

A kiss today, a touch tomorrow, and by the day after Qiao Qi wouldn’t even know how she’d ended up in bed.

Less than a week in, and she’d already been coaxed into doing every kind of thing there was to do, appropriate or not.

And now he was trying to flip the script on her.

Qiao Qi, annoyed, pinched him. “Who’s the one who runs their whole playbook every night?”

At that, Liang Yan pulled Qiao Qi out of his own embrace and planted a hard kiss on her lips, saying, “Stop deflecting.”

Qiao Qi protested, “I wasn’t.”

The woman deliberately scrunched her face into a pout; Liang Yan brushed his thumb lightly across her lips and said, unhurried, “You’ve been long-distance dating me for three years online, and now you’re still not thinking about our future — if I were you, wouldn’t you call me a scumbag?”

“How do you know I haven’t thought about it,” Qiao Qi said.

Liang Yan: “You not thinking about my birthday means you don’t think this birthday is meaningful, which means you don’t think being together is worth commemorating, which means you don’t care about this relationship, which means you don’t care about our future.”

Qiao Qi: “…Sorry, quick interruption — isn’t it usually girls who overthink in relationships? And you’re…?”

“Because I love you,” Liang Yan said, and for some reason his tone sounded even more aggrieved as he spoke. He kissed her forehead first, then pulled her back into his embrace. “You don’t know how much I love you.”

Qiao Qi blinked, momentarily stunned, then pulled back an inch from his embrace.

She tilted her head up, studying, by the moonlight, the man’s slightly lowered eyes.

There was moonlight in his eyes.

Under the covers, Liang Yan wanted nothing more than to wrap all four limbs around Qiao Qi at once; he was like some enormous beast utterly lacking any sense of security, though with just one hand he could move heaven and earth, all he had eyes for was the little white rabbit in his arms.

The beast, acting coy — the sheer contrast melted Qiao Qi’s heart completely.

“How are you such a rogue — dragging your feet through online dating without meeting, dragging your feet through dating without going public, and now going public and dragging your feet on an anniversary.”

He went on: “I’ll say this now — if you really want to drag this out for the rest of my life, I’ll let you. But does your conscience even let you sleep at night?”

Qiao Qi made an “mm” sound, her eyes also brimming with moonlight, but she said, deliberately, “It does, actually.”

Liang Yan, choked by that answer, fell silent for several seconds, then released his hands and legs and rolled over, once again presenting his back to Qiao Qi.

Qiao Qi clicked her tongue. “I’m counting to three, and if you don’t turn back around—”

Before she even finished, Liang Yan had already turned back.

Pulling Qiao Qi into his arms again, though verbally he still held his ground. “Don’t think this means I’m not mad anymore.”

Qiao Qi’s eyes curved with amusement; she patted his back, murmuring several “mm-hm”s. “Be mad, then, go ahead.”

“So are you getting me a birthday present or not.” Liang Yan’s voice was muffled.

Oh, for goodness’ sake.

Qiao Qi said, “Yes, yes, definitely, absolutely.”

Liang Yan pushed his luck. “Then will you marry me?”

Qiao Qi: “…Just opening your mouth and asking for marriage like that? Liang Yan, between the two of us, who’s really the unreasonable one here?”

“Oh, got it.” Liang Yan’s inner turmoil dissolved, and he pressed another hard kiss on her, saying, “Just you wait.”

Qiao Qi: “…?”

What did he mean, he “got it”?

Wait for what?

Huh?

Author’s Note: Other male leads’ proposals: I’ll spend the rest of my life just wanting you. Liang Yan: You just wait. “…”