When Chen Xi came out, she saw Lin Fang still standing at the ward entrance, so she pulled Lin Fang to the noodle shop outside the hospital.

It was mealtime, and the shop was quite busy with diners. One table of customers had just finished eating.

After Chen Xi sat down, she suddenly realized she and Qin Lie had eaten ramen at this very table before.

That night, Qin Lie helped her take the feverish Grandpa Guan to the hospital.

That night, Qin Lie had also said they would all work together to figure out Sensen’s situation.

“Chen Xi, Chen Xi?”

Chen Xi snapped back to attention and looked at Lin Fang in confusion.

“What do you want to eat?”

Lin Fang handed her the menu.

Chen Xi made an “oh” sound, took the menu, and ordered a beef ramen.

When the noodles arrived, Chen Xi took a bite and smiled at Lin Fang, “Not as good as yours.”

Lin Fang shook her head shyly.

“No… actually, you all take such good care of me.”

Chen Xi suddenly called out, “Fangfang.”

Lin Fang looked up at Chen Xi, her gentle, large eyes showing a trace of confusion.

Chen Xi: “Qin Zhan is wonderful, and you’re wonderful too. You two are very well-matched.”

Lin Fang’s hand gripping the chopsticks froze. After a long moment, she picked up some noodles and took a big bite.

She kept her eyes down, swallowing the lump in her throat, and nodded gently.

The two ate their noodles in silence for a few more bites before Lin Fang suddenly looked up, “Chen Xi, can you help me with something?”

Chen Xi: “Hmm, what is it?”

Lin Fang: “I want to meet Qin Zhan’s family… don’t let Qin Zhan know.”

Chen Xi nodded, “When?”

Lin Fang was quiet for a while, as if making some kind of resolution.

She smiled at Chen Xi, her gaze carrying an indescribable determination.

“Let’s talk about it later. I need to take care of something first…”

After eating, Chen Xi took Lin Fang home and went back to the shop to work for the rest of the afternoon.

When she got home that evening, Fan Mingsu was pushing the tricycle, preparing to go out.

Seeing Chen Xi return, she wanted to go to the kitchen to cook noodles for herself.

Chen Xi had no appetite and said she wasn’t hungry, then went straight to her bedroom to drop off her bag, grabbed a clean T-shirt, and went to the washroom to shower.

She absent-mindedly turned on the shower head and was shocked by the cold water, breaking out in goosebumps.

Only then did she realize she seemed to have been spacing out ever since leaving the hospital.

Spacing out while eating, spacing out while riding her motorcycle.

Spacing out while fixing cars, and still spacing out after getting home.

The sun-warmed bathwater poured down from overhead. Chen Xi stood under the shower head and shook her head vigorously.

As if trying to shake the water out of her brain, too.

From the moment she realized she couldn’t control thinking about Qin Lie, she felt like her brain had water in it.

Coming out of the washroom, Chen Xi saw the light on in the main room.

Walking over to look, she saw Sensen bent over the coffee table doing homework.

Chen Xi wasn’t wearing anything on her legs. She leaned against the doorframe, only showing her upper body through the screen door, drying her hair while asking Sensen, “How much did Grandpa eat tonight?”

Sensen kept his head down, working on problems without looking up, “A small bowl of milk porridge.”

Chen Xi: “Did those two go out for a ride?”

Sensen nodded and continued writing and drawing on his scratch paper.

Chen Xi turned to walk toward her room. When Sensen heard her footsteps fade, he finally looked up and smiled mysteriously.

Chen Xi couldn’t find her phone when she got back to her room. She walked to the window and shouted toward the main room, “Sensen, did you take my phone?”

Sensen’s voice came from the main room, “Yeah, I’m looking up a problem.”

Sensen often used her and Fan Mingsu’s phones to look things up.

Chen Xi didn’t suspect anything. She plopped down at her desk, casually opened her sketchbook, grabbed a large apple from the table, and took a bite.

She was drawing when she suddenly heard the old dog San Huang whimpering in the courtyard.

The old dog was selective about people. From the sound of its whimpering, it wasn’t Fan Mingsu coming back – it seemed like Yang Shan or Han Susu had arrived.

Chen Xi, wearing a loose T-shirt and munching on her apple, padded out of her room on her bare long legs.

Just as she reached the doorway, she suddenly froze, a piece of bitten apple still in her mouth.

Qin Lie’s tall figure stood in the small courtyard, reaching out to pet San Huang’s fluffy head.

He looked up at Chen Xi, his gaze sweeping over her fair thighs for a moment before looking down to play with San Huang again.

Chen Xi stood stunned for a moment, then turned back into her room and put on a pair of denim shorts before coming out.

“How did you get here?”

Thinking about all the things she had been spacing out about that afternoon, Chen Xi inexplicably felt a bit guilty, so she tried hard to make her voice sound especially calm.

A flash of speechlessness crossed Qin Lie’s face as he asked quietly, “Is something wrong?”

Chen Xi shook her head in confusion, “Nothing’s wrong.”

The two of them stood in the courtyard, staring at each other.

After a moment, Chen Xi cleared her throat and asked, “Did you need something from me?”

Qin Lie’s expression became even stranger. “You’re the one who called me here.”

Chen Xi was completely bewildered, looking at Qin Lie in confusion, “No, I didn’t.”

Qin Lie didn’t say anything and handed Chen Xi his phone.

Chen Xi took the phone and saw that she had sent Qin Lie a WeChat message half an hour ago.

“Are you busy? Could you come to my house?”

There was even a shy little emoji at the end.

Chen Xi stared at Qin Lie’s phone for a while, then suddenly turned toward the main room and shouted.

“Guan Sensen, come out here.”

A moment later, Sensen came running out with a pen in his mouth, grinning, and pounced on Qin Lie as if nothing had happened.

“Big Brother Qin Lie, there’s a problem I can’t solve. Can you explain it to me?”

Qin Lie swayed as Sensen pulled at him, then suddenly tugged at the corner of his mouth.

“What problem?”

Sensen pulled Qin Lie toward the main room.

“It’s a math olympiad problem. I’ve been thinking about it all day, but just can’t figure it out.”

Chen Xi watched their retreating figures, her heart a jumble of emotions.

She suddenly called out to stop Sensen, saying irritably, “How can you use my phone to send messages to other people?”

Sensen looked completely innocent. “I don’t have a phone.”

Chen Xi was speechless for a moment, then continued irritably, “Then why didn’t you say so earlier?”

Sensen scratched his head and said with a grin, “I was concentrating on my homework and didn’t hear Big Brother Qin Lie arrive.”

Chen Xi was rendered speechless and stood dumbly in the courtyard, watching Sensen and Qin Lie enter the main room.

The screen curtain was suddenly pushed open from inside, and Sensen poked out his little head to say to Chen Xi, “Sis, bring tea.”

Chen Xi: “…”

This little brat, was he trying to reach heaven?

Chen Xi brought two glasses of apricot tea into the main room and set them on the coffee table.

Qin Lie looked up at Chen Xi, then continued explaining the problem to Sensen.

His voice was low and slightly magnetic.

Chen Xi unconsciously touched her ear and turned to leave the main room.

She walked into the courtyard and idly played with San Huang.

Before long, Qin Lie also came out and walked to Chen Xi’s side, reaching out to pet San Huang.

The old dog immediately wagged its head and tail as it came over, as affectionate as could be.

Chen Xi couldn’t help but tap San Huang’s head.

She smiled and said, “You little flatterer, how come you cozy up to everyone?”

Suddenly, Qin Lie’s voice came to her ear, low and making Chen Xi’s ear burn.

“Want to smoke?”

Chen Xi looked at Qin Lie, studying him in the twilight for a moment, then nodded.

Qin Lie: “Here?”

Chen Xi glanced at the patch of setting sun in the small courtyard, then pointed to the ladder nearby, “Let’s go up on the roof.”

The rooftop still held the warmth from the day’s scorching sun. The two sat side by side on the eaves, their bottoms warmed by the residual heat.

Chen Xi tilted her head back to exhale smoke and swung her dangling legs.

She squinted her eyes to look at the low rooftops under the setting sun.

Poplar trees provided shade, and both the gray rooftops and green treetops were bathed in a thick, honey-colored glow.

She smiled with some sentiment, “Meat doesn’t taste as good as when I was little, watermelons aren’t as sweet as when I was little, but this sunset over the rooftops is the same as before.”

Qin Lie also squinted his eyes, facing the glow of the setting sun, looking toward the rooftops that caught Chen Xi’s gaze.

The evening breeze stirred, treetops swayed gently, and smoke rose from several chimneys.

That thick honey-colored layer warmed the entire view.

Qin Lie took a drag of his cigarette and looked silently at Chen Xi.

The corner of her mouth held a trace of a shallow smile, and her profile’s clean lines were warmed by the setting sun, creating a hazy, gentle aura.

Qin Lie suddenly reached out as if possessed and gently pinched Chen Xi’s delicate earlobe.

Chen Xi didn’t get angry. She raised one eyebrow and turned her head to look at him with a half-smile.

“Hey, that’s going too far.”

But Qin Lie didn’t want to withdraw his hand and gently rubbed her earlobe.

“Chen Xi…”

He suddenly spoke, “I’m not leaving.”

The air around them seemed startled by his quiet words, and Chen Xi felt her breath catch.

The evening breeze stirred her hair, the honey-colored sunset, and the warm eaves beneath them.

Chen Xi suddenly couldn’t feel any of it. Her world contained only the cold, hard features of the face before her.

But he had just said something infinitely tender.

Words that had warmed this entire summer.

Chen Xi said nothing, only focusing on looking into Qin Lie’s eyes.

She discovered that beneath his long eyelids, there was a very narrow double eyelid fold.

Without looking carefully, you’d think he had single eyelids.

The color of his pupils was very deep, almost unable to contain shallow tenderness.

So his tenderness had to be very deep to be seen by others.

She looked at Qin Lie like this, a trace of a smile at the corner of her mouth, saying nothing.

Qin Lie suddenly smiled and gently reminded, “Your cigarette.”

Chen Xi looked down and saw a long ash had accumulated.

Chen Xi smiled, lightly tapped off the ash, and brought it to her lips for a drag.

Suddenly, Qin Lie’s voice came to her ear.

“So can I be your boyfriend now?”

Chen Xi turned her head, gently blew smoke toward Qin Lie, then leaned in and kissed him without a word.

The familiar taste instantly satisfied the craving that had been lingering in Chen Xi’s heart for days.

The two kissed unhurriedly under the setting sun, leisurely and comfortably.

When they separated, Chen Xi said, “That thing you just said – it just popped out, didn’t it?”

Qin Lie was stunned for a moment, smiled, and asked, “Why do you ask that?”

Chen Xi looked into his dark eyes and said softly, “I saw it. In your eyes, there was a moment of confusion.”

She looked again toward the distant rooftops. The sun had sunk below the horizon, taking away its generous warmth.

The moment those words left his mouth, she saw that instant of confusion in his eyes, followed by desperate determination.

But she didn’t like that. Love needed to flow naturally, not require desperate measures.

Chen Xi: “Qin Lie, do you remember the night you went on that blind date?”

Qin Lie hummed in acknowledgment.

Chen Xi: “I was in the next booth and heard that woman was interested in you, saying she could give up everything in Dunhuang to go to Beijing with you.”

Qin Lie thought about it, “I think that happened.”

Chen Xi: “I rode home with you, and in the alley, I asked how you responded to her. Do you remember what you said?”

Qin Lie shook his head. He didn’t remember.

Chen Xi: “You said, ‘I don’t want her to give up anything, and I don’t want to be responsible for her life.'”

“Romance between men and women – couldn’t it be with anyone? There’s no need for someone to sacrifice their whole life for someone else.”

She looked at Qin Lie and reached up to touch his rugged cheek.

“Qin Lie, I admit I like you, and you have to admit – we haven’t reached the point where we can’t live without each other.”

Maybe that day would truly come, and then all compromises and sacrifices would become acts of devotion.

But even someone as gentle and devoted as Bai Yuning hadn’t reached that day with her.

Let alone someone as rational and indifferent as Qin Lie.