“Mm.” Yan Yunning tucked the blanket more snugly around Xuan Yanyu, her voice hoarse. “If he still hasn’t woken up by tomorrow, let’s tell Uncle and Auntie.”

Ye Jian looked at the man in the hospital bed and gave a strained nod.

“Where did you all go?”

She hadn’t had the presence of mind to ask earlier.

Ye Jian answered honestly, “Young Director Xuan went to find Guo Si to ask about a few things.”

Yan Yunning felt something quiver deep inside her. The hand holding her chopsticks trembled faintly. Xuan Yanyu had gone to find Guo Si — which meant he now knew everything. So why… why had something like this happened again…

“Miss Yan, things will be alright. Please don’t be sad. You’re still carrying Young Director Xuan’s child, and Young Director Xuan won’t stay asleep forever.”

Yan Yunning wiped at the tears slipping from the corners of her eyes. “You know too?”

Ye Jian nodded. “We heard Guo Si explain what happened. It’s just that Young Director Xuan doesn’t have those memories.”

Yan Yunning lowered her head, tears gathering in her eyes. “He’ll remember. Everything will be alright.”

“Mm. It will all be alright.”

Night fell.

After the nurse finished the evening rounds, Yan Yunning finished washing up and lay in Xuan Yanyu’s arms, talking to him.

“Xuan Xixi.” Yan Yunning held onto him, her voice unable to keep the choking out of it. “Please wake up, won’t you? The doctor said you’re fine — so why won’t you wake up?”

“Have you given up on me and the baby?” Yan Yunning pressed down her sobs. “The baby can’t go without a father. And I can’t go without you.”

Yan Yunning rambled on for a long time, until she drifted off into a hazy sleep. Half-awake, half-dreaming, she found herself in a dream — back in Xuanzhao.

She stood in front of the pastry shop from before, watching Xiao Shi greet customers with a deeply warm smile.

In the end, Xiao Shi seemed to catch sight of her. She smiled and waved in her direction, then said in a very small voice, “Goodbye.”

Yan Yunning smiled back, murmuring softly, “Goodbye.”

The scene shifted, and she saw Yan Shiyao. Yan Shiyao’s face carried a smile. She was crouched on the ground, tending to some flowers — Yan Yunning couldn’t quite tell which kind — the hem of her dress caked with mud, though she seemed completely unbothered by it.

“Ningning would like these too, I think,” she murmured to herself.

Yan Yunning gave a small nod. “She would.”

After that, she dreamed of many more people.

The final image: she appeared at the edge of the small stream in Cha Xi Town. The man lying in a rocking chair held the piece of rice paper she had written on before she left. He looked at her with aggrieved eyes. “You’ve finally come to take me home.”

Yan Yunning stepped forward and took his hand, her heart clenching painfully. “We’re going home now. I’m taking you home. This time I won’t leave you behind and go on my own.”

“Alright. Let’s go home.”

“Xuan Xixi!” Yan Yunning’s eyes flew open. The dream was over. She looked at the hospital room, now bright with morning light, the man beside her still sleeping quietly and peacefully.

Disappointed, she got out of bed to wash up and eat breakfast.

“Knock knock.” Ye’an pushed open the hospital room door. “Miss Yan, why don’t you go home and rest for a bit? Come back in the evening — Young Director Xuan has me here.”

“Mm.” Yan Yunning didn’t refuse. She needed to take care of herself for the sake of the baby.

Back at Xuan Yanyu’s villa, Yan Yunning showered and lay down on the bed to rest with her eyes closed.

At one o’clock in the afternoon, Yan Yunning came downstairs and found Xuan Yanyu standing in the living room. She rubbed her eyes, confirmed she wasn’t seeing things, and launched herself into his arms in tears, sobbing, “You scared me to death.”

The man’s throat moved. “I’m sorry. I frightened you.”

Yan Yunning raised her small face to look at him. “Are you feeling any discomfort right now?”

Xuan Yanyu shook his head. His thumb brushed away her tears, his smile gentle. “None at all. The doctor gave me a thorough examination. There are no issues whatsoever.”

Yan Yunning pursed her lips. “Then why were you unconscious from yesterday evening all the way through to this morning?”

The man tapped the tip of her nose lightly. “I had a very long dream. In the dream, I saw everything from the moment we first met to the moment we fell in love.”

“And then at the end…” Recalling what happened after that, Xuan Yanyu clenched his back teeth, flicked the young woman’s ear, and spoke through gritted teeth:

“A certain someone said she would take me with her, then tricked me into going to buy her steamed lotus leaf chicken, and snuck away on her own.”

Yan Yunning’s eyes lit up brilliantly. “You remembered? You weren’t in a coma — you were stuck in the dream and couldn’t wake up?”

She suddenly recalled what Guo Si had said: “Perhaps after sleeping it off, he’ll wake up remembering everything.”

The man gave a low grunt.

Ningning had barely left that morning before he woke up. It was only because Ye Jian and the others had scheduled a full-body examination that the time was delayed — and so it wasn’t until now that he had made it back to the villa.

Yan Yunning wiped her tears on his sleeve, puffed out her cheeks, and said, “I’ve been wronged. I didn’t trick you into buying steamed lotus leaf chicken just so I could sneak away.”

Xuan Yanyu raised the corners of his eyes slightly. “You’ve been wronged? You said you would take me with you, then left me behind. That’s not being wronged at all.”

Yan Yunning put on a perfectly earnest expression. “I have been wronged.”

“Nonsense.” The man lightly tapped her forehead. “You never intended to take me with you in the first place.”

Yan Yunning: “……”

Xuan Yanyu tugged the corner of his mouth into a smirk. “So then, Yan Yunning, if I really were a character in that novel — wouldn’t that mean you just abandoned me?”

Yan Yunning scratched her head guiltily. This was not quite how she had imagined things would go when he recovered his memories.

In her imagination, the two of them would have held each other and wept. Who could have predicted that in reality, Xuan Xixi would show up demanding she answer for herself.

The man pressed his lips together, his dissatisfaction plain. “You owe me.”

Yan Yunning chewed on her finger. “How do I make it up to you?”

Xuan Yanyu walked lazily over to the sofa and sank into it with an unhurried air. “Think of something yourself.”

Yan Yunning circled around behind the sofa. Her slender arms draped over his neck, and she tilted her head, pressing her cheek against the side of his face, softly coaxing, “Let me plead my case a little.”

Xuan Yanyu was tickled into a laugh. “Plead away. I’m listening.”

Falling into the smiling dark eyes of the man before her, Yan Yunning took his hand and held it in her palm. Her eyes curved into pretty little crescents.

“I had so many things to consider at the time. I was afraid that after you left, there would be no one to manage Xuanzhao, and what would happen to your family?”

“So you decided that ‘considering my feelings’ was a perfectly good reason to leave me behind.” The man let out a cold scoff. “And you never once stopped to think about what would happen to me the moment I suddenly lost you?”

“I did think about it. I was thinking about that very question the whole time.”

Xuan Yanyu squeezed her fingers gently, his tone unhurried. “You didn’t come to a decision? So you just up and left me behind in the end.”

Yan Yunning: “……”

“Continue pleading.”

Yan Yunning: “……”

“Nothing left to say?”

Yan Yunning: “……”

“Ding dong.” Her phone buzzed once. Xuan Yanyu pulled his phone from his suit pocket and unlocked it.

Yan Yunning rested her chin on top of the man’s head and read the message aloud: “Bring your sister over to my place for dinner this afternoon.”

Xuan Yanyu replied with a simple “Okay,” then reached up with one hand, grabbed Yan Yunning’s arm, and pulled her down onto his lap. He then opened his phone’s fingerprint enrollment and held her small, fair fingers one by one to register them for the unlock.

He registered her fingerprints on the backup phone as well.

Since Xuan Yanyu was already taking the initiative, Yan Yunning unlocked her own phone too, and slowly guided his fingers one by one through the fingerprint enrollment as well.

Taking the opening, the man boldly changed the contact name Yan Yunning had saved for him from “SZ” to “Husband.”

Yan Yunning saw it. She said nothing, letting him do as he pleased.

Once Xuan Yanyu had finished making all the changes, the two of them set out for Yan Jingzhi’s villa.