With Pei Chuan’s promise, Bei Yao felt very happy.

Everyone wants to see what their university looks like before attending, and she wanted to visit B University too.

Bei Yao thought for a moment: “You rarely come back, why don’t you come into the neighborhood and look around? There have been quite a few changes this year.”

Pei Chuan followed her inside.

“The seesaw over there was removed. The park is right nearby, so all the children like to go play there.”

“The plum blossom tree was blown down by the wind before, but it was replanted. Last winter when it bloomed, it was especially beautiful.”

He listened attentively, watching her smiling eyes and brows, his heart also unable to help feeling joyful.

Bei Yao thought for a moment, then stood on tiptoe and whispered in his ear: “Do you want to come see my home?”

Pei Chuan froze.

He said: “Don’t fool around, go home.”

Bei Yao said: “Pei Chuan, even Chen Yingqi has been to my house. You’ve never come in all these years—aren’t you curious? Don’t you feel regretful?”

His mind couldn’t help recalling that summer years ago—the climbing ivy growing lush by the girl’s window, roses blooming brilliantly. She still hadn’t lost her baby fat, exercising to workout videos, revealing a glimpse of her jade-white slender waist.

Pei Chuan pressed his lips together.

How could he possibly… not be curious about the girl’s bedroom? And how could he possibly not regret never having been there?

Her almond eyes were clear and bright: “My mom went to pick up my little brother. Just come visit my house. Oh right, the gift I prepared for you is still in my room—the air plant is still alive, and I still have your scarf and gloves. I keep forgetting to return them to you.”

She looked very hospitable.

Her reasons were particularly sound.

He clearly should leave. She could choose not to follow those two agreements, but he himself couldn’t fail to follow them.

Yet a voice in his heart said: if you leave, you might never have another chance in this lifetime to see the place where she grew up.

Pei Chuan silently followed her upstairs.

Bei Yao took out her key to unlock the door. Just as she said, neither her father nor mother had returned home yet. They probably wouldn’t be back for another twenty minutes or so. In the living room, two goldfish—one red, one black—swam leisurely about.

His gaze moved away from those two goldfish and swept around the house once.

The Bei family’s layout was very similar to his former home—after all, they were in the same neighborhood. However, this home was obviously much warmer.

It was an old house of over ten years, and the ceiling and beams showed visible traces of age. The Bei family’s financial situation truly wasn’t very good. Someone more sensitive might feel inferior or uncomfortable bringing a visitor to tour such a house, but she didn’t—she was inherently happy and content to her core.

Bei Yao said: “Do you want to come see my room? My room is a bit messy. My mom says it’s a cat’s nest—it’s definitely not as clean as your old room.”

He lowered his eyes and followed her.

Pei Chuan told himself: just look once and leave.

Bei Yao pushed open the door.

The setting sun slanted down, leaping into the room through the window. Rose branches swayed with the wind.

Her “little cat’s nest” had a small bed with pink sheets, and a teddy bear doll at the headboard.

Beige curtains hung down with tassels, a very small desk for doing homework, and an old wardrobe.

The room had a fruit plate, and on the desk was a photo of a seven-year-old little girl smiling.

That was seven-year-old Bei Yao. The little girl was smiling, showing her missing front tooth, her chubby little face both silly and adorable. His gaze couldn’t help but soften.

On the floor was an army green easel.

Bei Yao said: “Do you want to see my paintings?”

Her almond eyes were dewy. He pressed his lips together. He clearly told himself he should leave—if Auntie Zhao came back…

But he really couldn’t bear to part with her. He nodded.

Bei Yao said: “I’m not professional, don’t laugh.”

She opened the easel—they were watercolor paintings.

There was the plum blossom tree outside the neighborhood in bloom. Flipping to the next one, there was the cat that ran wild around Chen Yingqi’s house. The next was that bridge in B City, with a bright moon in the sky.

He looked very carefully. Bei Yao actually felt a bit embarrassed. She was just about to say something when footsteps sounded outside the door: “Yaoyao? Yaoyao!”

Zhao Zhilan had come home at this moment!

Bei Yao was stunned. She instinctively looked at Pei Chuan in panic.

Actually… as the little big brother from the former neighbor’s house, there was nothing wrong with Pei Chuan visiting her home, but he… was in her room.

You have to know that even Chen Yingqi wouldn’t dare do this.

Pei Chuan’s jet-black eyes looked back at her.

She was really afraid her mom would beat him to death! Bei Yao looked at him in panic, threw the easel on the floor, looked around, then pulled open the wardrobe, so anxious she was about to cry: “Hide quickly, hide quickly.”

Pei Chuan: “…”

Seeing the little girl only now knowing to panic, he also found it somewhat amusing in his heart.

The wardrobe was actually quite large, and the bottom section was empty. Under her nearly tearful gaze, he hid inside. Pei Chuan’s leg didn’t bend well—he remained silent, trying not to let her see his abnormality.

Bei Yao was so anxious her hands were trembling.

He raised his eyes to look at her. The little girl looked so pitiful. He feared nothing in heaven or earth, his expression unchanged, but she clearly looked like someone about to be caught doing something wrong.

If Auntie Zhao asked her anything, she’d probably panic to death.

Moreover, her backpack was still outside—she couldn’t pretend not to be home.

Pei Chuan’s long arm pulled, and just before Zhao Zhilan opened her bedroom door, he pulled her into the wardrobe with him. He couldn’t let her be afraid alone.

The next moment, Zhao Zhilan pushed the door open.

She looked at the empty room, the easel scattered on the floor, paintings flying everywhere. Zhao Zhilan sighed: “Not one of them gives me peace of mind—who knows where she’s run off to now.”

She began picking up the paintings.

Inside the old wardrobe, Bei Yao was nestled in Pei Chuan’s arms.

He held the wardrobe closed with one hand. She was still afraid, eyes closed, terrified Zhao Zhilan would discover something amiss.

After quite a while, Bei Yao gathered the courage to open her eyes, meeting a pair of jet-black eyes.

The September sunset had only a single ray shining outside the wardrobe. She opened her eyes and turned her head, peeking through the crack to look at Zhao Zhilan outside. Zhao Zhilan had climbed the stairs and was now sitting at her desk catching her breath.

The air was quiet and still. She turned her head again to look at Pei Chuan.

The young man’s legs were bent, and she was kneeling between his legs.

The air in the closet wasn’t good. His scorching breath sprayed against her neck. Bei Yao’s face turned completely red.

It also tickled—such a strange feeling.

She huffed and pushed at his head. The young man was silent for a moment, then yielded to her force, no longer leaning against her.

He lowered his eyes, his left hand gripping the closet door with a death grip, his knuckles turning white.

Pei Chuan tried his best not to look at the kneeling Bei Yao.

In all these years, this was the first time someone had been so close to his prosthetic and residual limb. He suppressed a tremor, pressing his lips tightly together. He was actually… afraid she would notice his strange posture and… the cold temperature of his prosthetic limb.

The light was very dim. Bei Yao raised her eyes to look at him.

The world suddenly became very small. She had a very wonderful feeling, as if she had been locked inside his heart.

A heart that wasn’t particularly bright.

His world was very dark, cramped. The young man’s stern face reflected in her eyes.

For the first time, she saw a world with only him alone in it—so small, yet inside it was only her.

Pei Chuan was very good-looking.

Her heartbeat quickened somewhat, as if recalling those nights in the past when she would secretly search online, hoping others would tell her the answer—what does it feel like to like someone?

Now she knew. Bei Yao extended her slender fingers and gently caressed his handsome face.

He turned his head and lowered his eyes to look at her.

The girl’s almond eyes were very bright and very gentle. She didn’t pay attention to the strange position of his legs, nor did she touch his prosthetic limb. Her slightly cool fingertips only fell upon his eyes and brows.

Stroke by stroke, gently tracing.

This was Pei Chuan—

The first boy she had ever liked in this lifetime.

He had brows as sharp as swords, jet-black indifferent eyes, a face with distinct angular contours, and pale thin lips.

A somewhat cool aloofness.

Her cool fingertips traced across his eyes and brows, finally falling on his thin lips.

The September sunset was warm, her eyes studded with stars.

As if she would never feel his incompleteness, seeing only his goodness in her eyes. Actually, he wasn’t that good—even in terms of appearance, he wasn’t the most handsome person, at least not like her, with looks that would astonish people at first glance.

But seeing himself in her bright eyes, Pei Chuan had an illusion that he was a complete, healthy man.

Her fingers were slightly cool. Pei Chuan’s heartbeat went out of control, his right hand grasping her small hand. It turned out that being with her, he always forgot to consider his disability, leaving behind only a heart full of helpless infatuation.

Yaoyao, don’t fool around.

Zhao Zhilan rested for quite a while before walking out of the room. She had come home early to get documents—little Bei Jun hadn’t been picked up yet. Zhao Zhilan closed the door, took the documents, and hurried out again to pick up her son.

~

When Zhao Zhilan came home in the evening, she saw her daughter working hard on homework and felt very comforted. Bei Yao’s ear tips were red. Thinking of how not long ago she and Pei Chuan had frantically hidden in the closet, she now felt so mortified she wanted to dig a hole and crawl into it.

Zhao Zhilan remembered two things she had just heard, and her heart still felt somewhat uncomfortable. One thing was that Zhao Xiu insisted that Fang Mingjun and Huo Dinlin should try dating. For a seventeen-year-old girl, discussing such things was somewhat premature.

Zhao Zhilan didn’t want her own Yaoyao to place too much importance on adolescent romance at this age.

The other matter was encountering Captain Pei on the way home from work.

After exchanging a few words, Pei Haobin asked about Pei Chuan’s situation. Zhao Zhilan thought to herself, this was also quite ridiculous—having to learn about his own biological son’s news from outsiders. She didn’t know whether to pity Pei Chuan or be angry at Pei Haobin’s inaction.

But as an outsider, Zhao Zhilan couldn’t very well tear off all pretense, so then Pei Haobin mentioned something that made Zhao Zhilan’s mood even more complicated—

Cao Li was pregnant.

A woman nearly forty years old, pregnant with Pei Haobin’s child. When Pei Haobin mentioned this, his face showed no great joy, but rather more confusion.

Clearly this child was also unexpected for him.

As an outsider, Zhao Zhilan was nearly furious.

Who in the neighborhood didn’t know about those matters from back then? Pei Haobin’s “defining battle” had protected many innocent families, yet Pei Chuan was kidnapped and had his lower leg severed by the kidnappers.

At the time, this matter caused quite a stir and even made the newspapers.

Everyone felt this child was pitiable and innocent, yet afterward no one would continue paying attention.

Pei Haobin received gratitude from countless families and a badge of honor. Pei Chuan, who lost his leg, received countless utterances of “how pitiful.”

This “pitiful” child grew up on his own, becoming a strong young man. His father remarried, and a new child was about to be born.

When that child was born, in the future they would have a healthy body and a complete family. They might even divide away Pei Chuan’s inheritance.

Zhao Zhilan had originally still been mindful of neighborly relations, but hearing this, she drew in a breath: “How many months?”

Pei Haobin said dejectedly: “Three months.” His mouth moved awkwardly: “It’s my fault… I’m sorry to Xiao Chuan.”

Zhao Zhilan was so angry on the spot that she just picked up Bei Jun and came home, not caring about maintaining appearances anymore.

Zhao Zhilan glanced at Bei Yao diligently doing homework, frowned, and didn’t tell Bei Yao about this matter. She herself also felt very distressed, but Pei Haobin wasn’t a qualified father—she, however, was Bei Yao’s mother, and had to consider things for Bei Yao. Pei Chuan’s family was too complicated, and his body was also…

She didn’t want Bei Yao to have any relationship with him.

~

Regarding Cao Li’s pregnancy, the happiest person besides herself was none other than Bai Yutong.

Bai Yutong had been hoping and wishing for her mother to give Uncle Pei a little brother.

This child’s birth meant that her and her mother’s position would also be secure, and that stepbrother could never return to this family again. Because someone had already taken his place.

A healthy little brother would surely be more likable than that young man with the gloomy personality, right?

Cao Li warned her: “Put away that excitement of yours. Pei Haobin still feels guilty about Pei Chuan in his heart. If you still want your mother to peacefully give you a little brother, you’d better behave yourself.”

After all, Cao Li knew how this child came to be.

Pei Chuan’s two legs were exchanged for many years of glory for the Pei family. Although Pei Haobin couldn’t sort out his emotions clearly, he truly hadn’t planned to have another child. Cao Li had poked holes in the condom, which was how this child came to be.

She and Pei Haobin had always had a good relationship, but she was also afraid Pei Haobin would scold her over this matter.

At least the deed was done. Considering the flesh in her belly, Pei Haobin’s face went pale, but he said nothing.

That evening, Pei Haobin said: “Cao Li, I need to make this clear to you. I… wronged Wenjuan and Xiao Chuan. You also know about what happened back then, Xiao Chuan’s leg… I had originally planned to leave all my property to him. He’s grown up now, and this is the only compensation I can give him.”

Cao Li’s heart sank, but her face still smiled virtuously.

Pei Haobin said: “Now I’m already over forty. By the time this child is born and grows up, we’ll both be over sixty. He’s my flesh and blood—I can’t possibly ignore you and the child. But Pei Chuan’s situation… I hope you can make concessions for him. I’ll set aside enough money for the child’s education, but all the rest will still go to Pei Chuan.”

Cao Li was furious inside…

However, she was someone who could keep her composure. What use was saying these things now?

Once the flesh in her belly came out, Pei Haobin could change his mind at any time. This pregnancy was her own selfish desire to begin with—at this time, she naturally had to go along with what Pei Haobin said.

Anyway, that cold cripple was destined to have nothing.

Her child would certainly be healthy, with a complete family.