The room was shrouded in darkness as the late-night curtains covered the floor-to-ceiling windows, concealing the intimacy within.
After collecting some interest, Shen Xingruo’s face was flushed, and beads of sweat adorned her forehead, her hair dampened. Finally exhausted, she closed her eyes, her chest rising and falling with each shallow breath.
Lu Xingyan loved seeing her in this state. Her usual aloofness now carried a hint of allure, making her all the more captivating. And knowing that he was the reason for this change filled him with a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment that couldn’t be matched.
He pulled Shen Xingruo into his embrace, calling her “baby” and saying some cheesy words, particularly adept at being affectionate.
Shen Xingruo couldn’t be bothered to respond, lacking the energy to do so.
In reality, Lu Xingyan didn’t have many principles when it came to her. He was willing to accommodate and indulge her, even allowing her to take the lead in their relationship. To others, he seemed like the ideal boyfriend of the 21st century.
But what others didn’t know was that Lu Xingyan had a kind of unrestrained dominance in bed. He had a lot of quirks, did what he pleased, and paid special attention to verbal communication during their intimacy. He always asked some vulgar questions, and whether she answered or not, praising him would only make him more enthusiastic, while going against him would only make him exert more force to prove her wrong.
After the storm passed, she always felt utterly exhausted.
After being affectionate, Lu Xingyan sat up slightly and asked Shen Xingruo to change her position and rest her head on his leg.
Seeing Shen Xingruo looking exhausted and allowing herself to be manipulated, Lu Xingyan played with her hair and murmured, “You have such poor stamina, can’t keep up with my pace. Maybe I should wait for you downstairs at your dorm every morning to jog together.”
“…Shut up.”
“I tell you the truth, and you don’t like it. I don’t dare to be too forceful with you, lest you fall apart like a little bread van when the speed picks up a bit.”
Shen Xingruo reached out to cover his face.
Lu Xingyan, with a smirk, easily pulled her hand down and pressed it behind her, “Figure out your position in bed. Don’t move around recklessly, okay?”
“…”
“That’s settled then. From now on, I’ll come to pick you up every morning for a jog. And how about this, while I run every day, I’ll recite an English short passage for you. It’ll be a way to push myself to improve, as I still need to strive for that exchange program spot, right?”
“Suit yourself.”
In reality, Shen Xingruo didn’t take Lu Xingyan’s vows and arrangements too seriously. He used to be carefree, and now he always seemed a bit overly enthusiastic. Whether he was trying hard or not was hard to tell.
But when she wanted to sleep in her dorm on Tuesday morning, she realized that Lu Xingyan was serious this time.
At 6:30 in the morning, her phone vibrated incessantly, nearly waking up all her roommates. She changed her clothes groggily and went downstairs to find Lu Xingyan waiting in his black sportswear, insisting on dragging her out for a run while reciting English passages.
Initially, Shen Xingruo was tempted to get angry. After inexplicably running three laps, her mind cleared, her drowsiness vanished, and her anger subsided. She just walked with a cold face alongside Lu Xingyan to have breakfast.
After running for five days in a row, Shen Xingruo finally realized that Lu Xingyan had an unprecedented determination and obsession in improving her physical fitness to enhance their intimate experiences. His unwavering determination might have led to a different outcome if he had shown the same attitude during the college entrance examination.
As Shen Xingruo ran, she slowly got used to it.
Speaking of which, she and Lu Xingyan didn’t spend much time being affectionate. Both of them were busy with their studies, and they didn’t have many classes together. Running and having breakfast together every morning added a bit of regular face-to-face time to their schedule.
Their time together on campus this year was fulfilling, sweet, and peaceful. No one bothered her anymore, and no one dared to pry into her private life.
All thanks to the chaos caused by Chen Mengmeng and Bai Lu’s quarrel. Both of them were troublesome characters, and their scandalous fight turned the campus forums upside down. Even students from other universities came to watch the spectacle.
When the leaders of the School of Humanities found out, they were almost infuriated. They didn’t lash out immediately but soon found another reason to punish both of them.
As winter turned to spring and then to summer, in early June, the list of exchange students from Star University was announced. Lu Xingyan’s name was proudly displayed at the top of the list from the School of Economics and Management, with the destination university being — Grand.
Seeing the list was something Lu Xingyan expected, but he still couldn’t help but smirk when he saw it. He took a photo of Shen Xingruo and told her to wait patiently because he would repay his debt tonight.
Shen Xingruo didn’t reply to him for a while as she was busy at the hair salon.
During the summer vacation after the college entrance examination, Lu Xingyan accompanied her to get a perm once. Later, as her hair grew longer, the permed part became increasingly dry. She decided to cut it short again, returning to her previous straight black hair.
In the last semester, she was dissatisfied with her hairstyle and quietly got a Korean-style air fringe, which she soon found bothersome and began growing out.
After growing out the fringe for a while, she cut it back to a short hairstyle like the female lead in Korean dramas. After cutting her hair short, Lu Xingyan was quite startled, and even his roommate thought she had gone through a breakup. Then she started growing her hair long again.
Now her hair was as long as it used to be, and she wanted to get a perm again.
Lu Xingyan was also afraid of her changes. Every time her hairstyle changed, he would secretly wonder if Shen Xingruo was not in a good mood or if he had done something wrong.
This time was no exception. Seeing Shen Xingruo with a perm, he started racking his brains to remember what happened three months ago. He shouldn’t have, right? He had successfully obtained the exchange student quota, so what did he do wrong?
But Shen Xingruo didn’t give any indication, so he thought it over and decided not to mention repaying the debt for the time being.
Every June, there were two days for the college entrance examination, and shortly after it ended, it was their birthdays.
This year, Lu Xingyan and Shen Xingruo turned twenty and had been dating for exactly two years.
When they turned eighteen, they didn’t feel much difference when they reached adulthood. But when the age began with a “two,” it seemed like they vaguely understood that maturity was inevitable.
Lu Xingyan was the only son of the Lu family. Before, Lu Shan didn’t have much hope for him, but after he started to strive for improvement, Lu Shan’s expectations changed. After graduating from university, he would go abroad for further studies. After returning from studying abroad, he would work in the group, and step by step, he would take over the Jinsheng Group founded by Lu Shan himself.
Lu Xingyan didn’t have many interests or hobbies. He was willing to follow the path planned by Lu Shan and take on the responsibilities that Lu Shan wanted to pass on to him.
This family had given him too much, and he hoped to shield the Lu family from wind and rain in the future, he also hoped to give Shen Xingruo the confidence to follow her heart.
Shen Xingruo was someone with many ideas. Before, she rarely communicated her plans for the future with him. He thought it was because Shen Xingruo felt that they couldn’t reach that level of communication yet. But after being together in a relationship for a year, he more or less understood Shen Xingruo’s thoughts.
Shen Xingruo wasn’t unwilling to communicate; rather, she had too many things she wanted to do and didn’t want to be completely tied down by any one type of work. She expressed her desire to pursue various interesting courses, perform piano recitals, work as a lawyer for some time, travel the world and take many photos, and even write scripts and direct a film that she wanted to make.
However, throughout her more than ten years of academic life, she seemed to always appear in front of others as an overly excellent top student. She was outstanding and excellent, but also somewhat conventional. No one would question her abilities; everyone would think that she could do well in any field. But that kind of future, jumping from one thing to another without aiming for profit or achievement, seemed unsuitable for Shen Xingruo.
Moreover, all the things she wanted to do required strong financial support. Who wouldn’t want to travel the world if they had enough money? While being born into a wealthy family might allow her to live like this for a while, could she live such a carefree life forever?
Shen Xingruo herself felt that it was unrealistic, so she rarely mentioned her plans to others. But Lu Xingyan didn’t think it was too idealistic. The two of them talked about this topic when the sports meet ended, and Shen Xingruo sprained her ankle during the relay. Lu Xingyan carried her to the medical room, saying, “It’s simple. After graduation, you’ll marry me, and I’ll support you for the rest of your life. You can do whatever you want.”
Shen Xingruo retorted, “That sounds nice. But if you end up not liking me after supporting me, it’ll be easy for you to kick me out.”
Lu Xingyan confidently replied, “Then you can give birth to children for me, have more, as they say in TV dramas, ‘the mother is precious with the child.’ “
Shen Xingruo grabbed his neck from behind, almost choking him. In the end, he had to beg for mercy, saying, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. In our family, it will be ‘the son is precious to the mother.’ And you know I hate bratty kids. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t even bother to look at them. And how could I ever not like you? Don’t talk nonsense.”
The sunset was beautiful that day, and the overlapping figures of the two on the plastic track stretched out long.
Shen Xingruo leaned comfortably against his back, and she didn’t know why, despite hearing rational people analyze many things about love and marriage, she still felt very confident. When Lu Xingyan said he would always love her, she believed he would love her for a lifetime.
On their birthday, the two of them were very busy. Pei Yue insisted on organizing a grand birthday party for them to make up for not having a big celebration when they turned eighteen.
After the party ended, both of them were a bit tired and went back to their rooms to take a shower. Shen Xingruo found the sexy pink lingerie she had bought and hesitated whether to change into it now.
Calling it lingerie was an overstatement; it was just a piece of gauze that didn’t cover much. They hadn’t been intimate for many days due to her period, so she had deliberately gone to get her hair done, also to match this outfit for Lu Xingyan’s birthday.
But was it a bit… too revealing? She had tried it on once after getting her hair done, and it was indeed a bit too much. She didn’t know if Lu Xingyan would laugh at her for wearing it like this.
Just as Shen Xingruo hesitated in the bathroom, Lu Xingyan came knocking on the door, telling her to hurry up because he wanted to take her out.
The summer night air was hot and dry. Shen Xingruo looked at the route they were taking, which seemed to be getting further away from their usual destinations, so she asked, “Where are we going?”
“You’ll know when we get there,” Lu Xingyan said with a casual smile, one hand on the steering wheel.
After another twenty minutes of driving, the car pulled into the entrance of a fairy-tale amusement park.
The “Fairy Tale World” at midnight was already quiet. Looking inside, it was pitch black. But the moment the two of them walked through the gates, the lights gradually came on, even illuminating the castle of the lettuce princess.
Shen Xingruo wasn’t naive. She was only slightly stunned for two seconds before realizing that Lu Xingyan had spent a lot of money to celebrate her birthday.
This kind of plot that only existed in Korean dramas, happening in real life and making her the female protagonist, Shen Xingruo didn’t find it cliché at all; she just felt her heart beating fast.
——Perhaps no girl could resist a theme park lit up just for her.
The Ferris wheel attendant had been waiting for a while. When the two of them got on, they swayed slowly to the highest point, and the fireworks over the castle went off right on cue.
Lu Xingyan held her as they looked out at the fireworks. Suddenly, he said, “Shen Xingruo, I have to confess a mistake to you. During the summer vacation of our sophomore year, when we came to the theme park, I stole a kiss from you on the Ferris wheel.”
Shen Xingruo: “…”
I know, and it wasn’t just one kiss.
Lu Xingyan: “Of course, you can kiss me back now.”
Shen Xingruo: “I won’t.”
Lu Xingyan: “…”
Lu Xingyan: “Then I’ll kiss you back for you.”
With that, he held Shen Xingruo and kissed her forcefully.
The kiss lasted a long time. After kissing Shen Xingruo until she was a little breathless as planned, Lu Xingyan magically produced a ring, a heart-shaped ring made from a coin.
Without hesitation, he put it on Shen Xingruo’s finger. “This is the five yuan you lent me for water the first time we met on the high-speed train. I spent a long time learning how to fold it from a video. Now that you’re wearing my ring, you have to marry me.”
Shen Xingruo raised her hand, examining the ring as she said, “But you’re not of legal marriage age.”
“That’s okay. I can wait. We can just get engaged first.”
As Lu Xingyan spoke, he started to think to himself, “What if I go and change the age on my household registration to twenty-two now? Can I change it?”
Shen Xingruo didn’t respond, just stared at the ring on her finger, a smile creeping up on her lips.
As the fireworks reached their peak, Lu Xingyan glanced at the time. There were thirty seconds left until midnight.
He hugged Shen Xingruo from behind, resting his chin on her shoulder, and kissed her earlobe.
“Shen Xingruo, happy birthday. From now on, every year, I’ll be the last person to wish you a happy birthday, and I’ll be the one to walk with you to the end.”
Shen Xingruo paused for a moment, then turned slowly and kissed his lips.
“Lu Xingyan, happy birthday. Me too.”
The end.