Zhou An Ran ended up wearing the T-shirt she had brought in for Chen Luobai.
After Chen Luobai carried her out of the bathroom, Zhou An Ran rested her head on his shoulder, her voice weak and soft: “It’s so late now, I doubt we can buy any fresh ginger.”
Chen Luobai replied nonchalantly, “You were only in the rain for less than a minute. There’s no need for ginger tea.”
Zhou An Ran glanced up at him: “Are you doing this on purpose? You just don’t want to drink ginger tea, do you?”
He was indeed quite picky about food.
He wouldn’t eat scallions, ginger, garlic, cilantro, or similar seasonings. At most, he would reluctantly accept a tiny bit of seasoning, but ginger tea was completely beyond his tolerance.
The young man raised an eyebrow, looking rather proud: “You’ve figured me out.”
Zhou An Ran reminded him quietly: “I still have some brown sugar ginger tea left from last time.”
Chen Luobai placed her on the bed and pinched her nose, looking exasperated: “You want me to drink something you use for your period? Do you think that would help?”
The brown sugar ginger tea wasn’t very strong in ginger flavor, but it was excessively sweet.
Zhou An Ran didn’t even like drinking it herself. Thinking about it, she realized it probably wouldn’t be effective, and he had only been in the rain for a short while, so she didn’t insist: “Alright then, forget it.”
Chen Luobai withdrew his hand and turned as if to walk away.
Zhou An Ran instinctively grabbed his hand.
The longer they were together, the more dependent she seemed to become on him in private.
“Where are you going?”
“To get some clothes to wear, and haven’t you forgotten something you need to put on?”
Chen Luobai paused, his gaze shifting downward slightly, his tone becoming suggestive.
“It’s fine without it too.”
Zhou An Ran: “…?”
Her face flushed, and she quickly let go of his hand, grabbing a nearby pillow to cover her face.
Then she heard the young man chuckle softly.
With her vision obscured, her hearing became more acute.
Zhou An Ran heard his footsteps move away slightly, then returned, finally stopping beside her.
“Zhou An Ran.”
Zhou An Ran didn’t respond.
“Baby.”
Zhou An Ran’s fingertips twitched, but she still didn’t move the pillow.
Chen Luobai’s voice was tinged with amusement: “Are you trying to suffocate yourself, or do you want me to help you put it on?”
Zhou An Ran hurriedly threw the pillow aside, sat up, and snatched the small item from his hand.
She was about to put it on when she looked up and saw him gazing at her intensely.
After being together for nearly two years, the only thing she hadn’t completely gotten used to was feeling embarrassed when he looked at her like this in non-intimate situations.
Zhou An Ran nudged him with her toes: “Turn around, will you?”
The girl’s toes were snow-white, leading up to a pair of long, straight legs, and above that, his T-shirt draped over her body.
“Zhou An Ran.” Chen Luobai grasped her slender ankle, “Why do you always refuse to take responsibility?”
Zhou An Ran: “…?”
Before she could respond, she saw Chen Luobai’s lips curve into a smile.
The next moment, she was pulled to the edge of the bed.
The young man’s hand gripping her ankle showed faint blue veins on the back from the force, while his other hand reached over to take the item from her, tossing it aside carelessly: “If I had known, I wouldn’t have bothered getting it.”
…
That night, they never did drink the ginger tea, but they did end up taking another shower.
When they returned to the bedroom, Zhou An Ran was already drowsy, her head resting on his shoulder, her eyelids heavy with sleep.
Chen Luobai kissed her cheek, his voice soft and tender: “Shall we turn off the lights and go to sleep?”
Zhou An Ran nodded, then shook her head.
Chen Luobai chuckled, leaning down to press his forehead against hers, his long fingers entwining with her hair in an unconsciously intimate gesture. His voice remained soft: “Are you confused from being sleepy? Do you want to sleep or not?”
Zhou An Ran’s gaze met his at close range, her voice equally soft: “I want to sleep, but I have something I want to ask you.”
The young man, still so close, spoke in a low voice: “What is it?”
Zhou An Ran: “Earlier at dinner, when Sister Qin mentioned someone asking for her help, she was talking about you, right?”
Chen Luobai continued playing with her hair, casually making an affirmative sound.
“So those two times we went to see Sister Qin’s rehearsal, you arranged it all?” Zhou An Ran asked him.
Chen Luobai made another affirmative sound: “I suppose so. Strictly speaking, your first club gathering was also arranged by me.”
Zhou An Ran felt a wave of tenderness in her heart: “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“She’s my cousin, so it wasn’t much trouble to ask for her help. Besides, it wasn’t exactly an above-board method.” Chen Luobai paused his tone teasing, “Someone still often pretends not to remember after sleeping together. I was afraid she wouldn’t want me if she found out before.”
Zhou An Ran’s face warmed slightly: “How could that be possible?”
Besides, she never failed to take responsibility.
It was he who repeatedly used this as an excuse to misbehave.
Chen Luobai pinched her cheek: “Then who was it that added me on WeChat but never initiated a conversation, and secretly sent answers to He Mingyu right in front of me? Oh, and she was chatting enthusiastically with He Mingyu but went silent as soon as I arrived.”
Zhou An Ran wrapped her arms around his waist: “I explained everything to you later, didn’t I? Why are you still jealous?”
“You have the nerve to say that? I waited for almost a week, and it took getting your senior Yu to help arrange for you to watch the rehearsal before I got your explanation.” Chen Luobai narrowed his eyes, pinching her cheek again. He seemed angry, but his touch remained gentle. “It’s still early. I’ll be jealous about this for at least a life-“
Zhou An Ran leaned in and kissed him, cutting off his words.
The young man’s voice abruptly stopped.
“Is this better?” Zhou An Ran asked, her face slightly flushed.
“Just one kiss?” Chen Luobai pretended to hesitate. “Well, I guess I can give you a discount. I’ll only be jealous for ten or eight years then.”
Zhou An Ran couldn’t help but smile: “Then what about the photos Zhu Ran mentioned?”
Chen Luobai’s lips curved upward: “Didn’t Zhu Ran tell you that I went to see you many times in high school? Besides, the photos have always been in my current phone. You have my fingerprint and password, but you’ve never looked.”
Zhou An Ran indeed had never looked through his phone.
She seemed to have always had absolute trust in him.
In high school, he never flirted with any girls. Except for Yin Yizhen, who briefly stayed in his circle because of Zong Kai, there were hardly any girls who were close to him.
After they got together, he never gave her any reason to feel wronged or misunderstood in this regard. He had almost all his WeChat add methods turned off, leaving only a QR code. Unless he wanted to add someone himself, others couldn’t add him at all.
Zhou An Ran had always believed that even if one day he no longer liked her, there would never be betrayal or cheating between them. He would break up with her first before starting a new relationship.
This was the innate upbringing of her youth. “Can I take a look?”
Chen Luobai handed her his phone: “You’ve always been free to look, haven’t you?”
Zhou An Ran took the phone, unlocked it with her fingerprint, and opened the photo gallery.
He had set up some small albums in his gallery, most of them categorized as study materials. Only one small album had a sunset photo on its cover.
Zhou An Ran had accidentally clicked into it once before. At that time, she thought this album contained landscape photos he had taken. She was busy with something else then and didn’t have time to ask him about it, and later forgot to inquire.
Now she noticed that this album was named “R”.
Zhou An Ran’s heart fluttered slightly as her fingertip touched it.
As soon as the album opened, she saw herself in the thumbnails.
Herself wearing the Wu City No. 1 High School uniform.
Zhou An Ran didn’t rush to scroll down but instead opened the second sunset photo. The first one only captured the sky, while the second included a building she immediately recognized as the teaching building closest to the gate of Wu City No. 1 High School.
He had taken about a dozen sunset photos in this set. As she scrolled through them one by one, her memories gradually returned.
It must have been late May in the second semester of their senior year.
It was a Saturday, and the school had extra classes.
With the college entrance exam approaching, the seniors hurried back to their classrooms after dinner, no one lingering outside. That day, she had been stuck on a math problem and hadn’t even gone down for dinner, asking Cen Yu to bring her a sandwich back to the classroom.
Just before the evening self-study session was about to begin, someone outside shouted, “Come out and see the sunset!”
At first, only two or three people from the classroom went out.
Later, those who went out came back to the classroom excitedly calling others, until almost the entire class had gone out.
Zhou An Ran was pulled out by Cen Yu.
As soon as they stepped out of the classroom, they saw the red glow of the sunset enveloping the school.
So that day, he had also watched the same sky with her.
When she reached the twelfth photo, the content finally changed from sunsets to her, but in this photo, she was wearing the spring uniform of Wu City No. 1 High School, and the date had changed from late May to mid-April.
Zhou An Ran looked up: “You didn’t see me that day?”
Chen Luobai: “Which day?”
Zhou An Ran scrolled back to the sunset photos and held the phone up to him.
Chen Luobai glanced down, recalling the specific time and circumstances.
It was before the college entrance exam that he had specifically made time to go there.
“No, I didn’t see you. You didn’t come out for dinner that day, but seeing such a beautiful sunset wasn’t a waste.”
He spoke casually, but Zhou An Ran felt a sudden lump in her throat.
With the college entrance exam approaching, she knew how busy he must have been at the time. Although the distance between Wu City and Nan City wasn’t short, the time it took to travel back and forth would have been enough for him to solve quite a few problems.
Chen Luobai could tell something was wrong just by looking at her expression.
“Don’t cry, it’s not a big deal.”
He hadn’t mentioned these things to her before. At first, it was because when they had just gotten together, he felt she had an especially strong filter for him as if he had no flaws in her eyes. So he instinctively didn’t want her to know about him secretly going to see her or using methods to pursue her. Later, it was because he was afraid she would cry if she found out.
“If you cry, I’ll unilaterally consider that you’ve agreed to my request from earlier tonight.”
Zhou An Ran: “…?”