When Ruan Mian brought Chen Yi downstairs after meeting Duan Ying, Zhao Yingwei had just arrived home. He actually wasn’t unfamiliar with Chen Yi. When they were still in school, he’d run into Chen Yi a few times at Li Zhi’s family’s supermarket. Later, after graduation during Spring Festival and holidays, he’d occasionally encountered him a few times too.

They’d never spoken, but at least they were familiar faces.

Chen Yi felt the same way about Zhao Yingwei. After greeting him, when he sat down, he said to Ruan Mian, “I’ve seen your uncle many times at Li Zhi’s place before.”

Ruan Mian ate an apple. “Really? Did you ever talk?”

“No.” Chen Yi turned his face to look at her. “I probably looked a bit unapproachable back then, and I didn’t really like talking to strangers.”

Ruan Mian agreed with this completely. “I had that feeling the first time I saw you too.”

Chen Yi raised an eyebrow, setting a trap for her. “Didn’t you say before that you don’t remember when you first saw me?”

Ruan Mian stopped talking.

He bumped her knee with his, asking in a low voice, “You really don’t remember?”

“I remember. Didn’t I first see you in Class One’s classroom?” Ruan Mian still stubbornly refused to admit it, instead throwing the so-called dirty water back at him. “You weren’t friendly at all to your new deskmate back then.”

Having reunited for so long, Chen Yi had deliberately tried to remember things from the past, and of course he remembered the first meeting Ruan Mian spoke of.

It was the last day of August. Because he’d participated in a competition, he reported a day late. In the morning, he dropped his backpack in the classroom and went to Zhou Hai’s office. Later he went to the supermarket with Jiang Rang to buy water. On the way back, the morning reading bell rang. Several of them boys ran all the way, arriving in the classroom just as the second bell sounded.

Chen Yi sat down amid the sound of reading voices. He was quite sensitive to gazes. His new deskmate’s undisguised scrutiny quickly caught his attention.

But this new deskmate seemed to be much bolder than ordinary girls. Even after he spoke, she still stared at him in a daze.

Chen Yi found it amusing but still maintained that lazy and indifferent appearance, not paying much attention. Later, more things, now seemed like watching a movie, flashing through his mind scene by scene.

The biology textbook spread on the desk during morning reading.

The academic achiever Jiang Rang mentioned.

Perfect score in biology.

That name that occupied two-thirds of the textbook’s title page, with bold and flowing handwriting that contrasted greatly with her appearance.

……

It turned out that when a person doesn’t pay attention, they really will automatically overlook many things.

“Back then I thought you were……” Chen Yi murmured, but quickly realized that saying this now would be like adding fuel to the fire, and immediately stopped.

Ruan Mian heard vaguely, “Thought I was what?”

He shook his head. “Nothing.”

Ruan Mian was about to ask again when Fang Ruqing said over there that dinner was ready. She could only temporarily put aside the topic. The meal was lively and cheerful.

After dinner, Ruan Mian was called into the kitchen by Fang Ruqing to talk. Chen Yi sat on the living room sofa with the Zhao siblings watching television.

Zhao Shutang glanced at Chen Yi sitting beside her, thinking it was simply incredible. In her impression, Chen Yi and Ruan Mian were like two parallel lines with no point of intersection. But then she thought of herself and Lin Cheng—they’d known each other for so many years, even attended the same school in middle and high school, yet if you counted, they’d barely spoken a few sentences. It wasn’t until they reunited in college that their parallel tracks finally overlapped in each other’s lives.

……

Zhao Shutang chatted with Chen Yi for a bit. Zhao Shuyang sitting beside them kept changing TV channels, occasionally casting glances toward Chen Yi.

Curiosity mixed with some probing.

After a while, Zhao Shutang got up to return to her room to take a phone call. Only the two of them remained in the living room. Zhao Shuyang put down the remote, hesitating about how to start.

Chen Yi hadn’t failed to notice Zhao Shuyang’s hesitation to speak. He picked up his teacup and took a sip of tea, trying to make his tone sound gentler. “I heard from your sister that your Chinese teacher is Zhao Qi?”

“Ah, yes. You know him too?” After Zhao Shuyang finished speaking, he realized, “Oh, I forgot—you were classmates with both my sisters.”

Chen Yi smiled. “Your two sisters had very different treatment with Teacher Zhao back then.”

“Right? My sister got a perfect score on the college entrance exam Chinese essay that year. You can still find her model essay online.” Zhao Shuyang found a conversation topic and lost his previous awkwardness. “But my other sister seems to have been just a bit short. Sigh, now I’m like her.”

“Your sister was more than just a bit short at first.” Chen Yi looked at him and said, “I helped your sister with tutoring back then. If you want to learn later, you can come to me.”

“Sure, then should we add each other on WeChat?” Zhao Shuyang took out his phone and exchanged contact information with Chen Yi. When filling in the note, he casually asked, “Brother Yi, were your grades pretty good at school back then?”

Chen Yi was modest. “Not bad.”

“Right, after all it was the honors class.” Zhao Shuyang asked, “Are you familiar with your school’s top-ranked student? I heard from my sister before that she and the top-ranked student were classmates, and she said she’d introduce us.”

“Really?” Chen Yi heard footsteps behind him. Turning his head, he saw Ruan Mian walking over carrying a fruit platter. He got up to take it from her. “Where’s Auntie?”

“Went to get something.” Ruan Mian said, “What are you talking about?”

Zhao Shuyang actively took over the conversation. “We’re talking about the top-ranked student from your and Brother Yi’s class when you were in school.”

“……” Ruan Mian glanced at Chen Yi, then turned her face to look at Zhao Shuyang. “Didn’t I say before that I’d introduce you when I had the chance?”

“Huh?”

“Here.” Ruan Mian raised her chin toward the side, saying with a straight face, “Brother Yi, the top-ranked student from when we were in school.”

Zhao Shuyang: “……?”

Chen Yi beside them couldn’t help but laugh out loud. Cooperating with his girlfriend’s words, he extended his right hand toward Zhao Shuyang. “Hello.”

Zhao Shuyang was a bit confused. He instinctively shook hands with Chen Yi. After coming to his senses, he felt something was strange. What was so funny about this?!

Was it fun to trick little kids?!

That day after the meal, before Chen Yi left, Fang Ruqing gave him a red envelope—ten thousand and one yuan, meaning “one in ten thousand,” the same amount Ruan Mingke had given.

After returning, Song Jing told him to ask Ruan Mian if she had time on New Year’s Day to come to their house for dinner. But Chen Yi, considering that Ruan Mian might be especially busy during holidays due to the nature of her work, declined the New Year’s Day meeting schedule and changed it to Spring Festival.

Ruan Mian ended her vacation a day earlier than Chen Yi. She returned to City B on the sixth, while Chen Yi still had some matters at home and only returned on the morning of the eighth.

That day, Ruan Mian happened to be on a late night shift and arrived home a bit earlier than him. When she heard the sound of the door opening, she had just finished bathing and was in the kitchen preparing to heat up two slices of toast to eat.

Turning around, she saw Chen Yi standing at the doorway with his black suitcase beside him. The kitchen was open-plan, visible at a glance from the front.

Chen Yi walked over slowly, his gaze sweeping over the counter. “Eating breakfast?”

Ruan Mian made an acknowledging sound, her fingertips touching the glass with hot milk. “Have you eaten? Do you want me to make you something?”

“No.” Chen Yi touched her fingers, picked up the milk and took a sip. “Noodles or wontons? I think I bought a package of dumplings before I left.”

“Are you making it?”

Chen Yi teased, “Otherwise, you’ll make it?”

“Sure, I’ll do it.” Ruan Mian wasn’t particularly sleepy at the moment. Provoked by him like this, she instead felt motivated. “Do you want noodles or dumplings?”

Chen Yi leaned against the counter, choosing the one with a lower difficulty coefficient. “Dumplings.”

“Okay, then we’ll eat noodles.”

“?”

Ruan Mian turned around to take noodles and two eggs from the refrigerator. She put cold water in the pot to boil. The eggs were cracked into a bowl and stirred. When the water boiled, she added the noodles. When they were about ready, she scattered in the eggs. It looked methodical.

While waiting for it to be done, Chen Yi prepared to wash up. Before leaving, he went over and pulled out the salt container, reminding her, “You seem to have forgotten to add salt.”

Ruan Mian: “……”

He laughed softly. Ruan Mian inexplicably heard some mockery in it. She propped her elbow on his shoulder. “I like lighter flavors. Is that not okay?”

Chen Yi found her increasingly adorable. He reached out to grip her arm and pulled her into his embrace.

Before Ruan Mian could react, two cool and soft things suddenly landed on her lips, with a softness different from their own, the force somewhat dominant.

Her waist pressed against the counter surface. She was forced to look up, her breathing seized. She tried to dodge, mumbling, “……The stove isn’t turned off.”

But Chen Yi held the back of her neck without letting go. His fingertips passed through her hair, pinching the skin on the side of her neck. His whole body pressed down. Ruan Mian felt like her waist was about to break.

……

The consequence of not turning off the stove was that in the end, a perfectly good pot of noodles not only had no flavor but dried into a lump. Chen Yi didn’t seem to mind, pulled out a bottle of beef and mushroom sauce from the refrigerator, and turned the boiled noodles into dry mixed noodles.

After eating breakfast and cleaning up, Chen Yi went to take a shower. Ruan Mian was sleepy after eating her fill. She brushed her teeth and lay down, but still couldn’t quite fall asleep.

She played on her phone for a while. By the time Chen Yi came in from outside, she had already fallen asleep, her phone resting on the pillow.

He walked over quietly, pulled the blanket over her completely, then picked up the phone. His fingertip touched the screen and it lit up.

Chen Yi instinctively glanced at the content displayed on the screen. His gaze paused. He raised his hand and tapped the screen a few times before putting the phone aside and lifting the blanket to lie down.

Ruan Mian slept straight through to evening. When she woke up, Chen Yi was no longer in the room. His changed sleepwear was draped over the bean bag chair beside them.

Outside the room, there were sounds of pots and pans, which was very reassuring to hear.

Ruan Mian took a moment to recover, picked up her phone to check the time. Her fingertip touched the unlock button, and the screen jumped directly back to the page before locking.

It was her WeChat chat list.

Ruan Mian didn’t pay much attention and put the phone back down. The next second, her gaze suddenly froze, and she picked up the phone again.

She originally hadn’t changed Chen Yi’s note, but now, the CY in the chat list had changed to three characters: “Boyfriend.”

Ruan Mian rubbed her eyes. After confirming she hadn’t seen wrong, she clicked into Chen Yi’s profile picture again. His WeChat nickname was still the previous one.

“……”

She walked out holding her phone. Chen Yi stood in the kitchen, his figure tall and slender. Though he looked thin, the exposed section of his forearm showed subtle muscle definition.

Ruan Mian stared at that figure for a while, suddenly losing the urge to ask. Forget it, if he changed it, he changed it. It was the truth anyway.

She went back to the room, plugged in her phone to charge, and came out after washing up. Chen Yi had already placed three dishes and a soup on the table. Facing her, he wore the promotional apron Ruan Mian had gotten from the supermarket before.

Bright red peonies—when paired with him, there was an inexplicable harmony of vulgarity and elegance.

Holding back laughter, Ruan Mian sat down at the table. “What time are you going back today?”

“Around seven.” Chen Yi removed the apron and draped it over the chair back beside him, starting to explain his schedule. “This trip back, I have to stay in the southwest for a month.”

He often went there. Ruan Mian made an acknowledging sound, not paying much attention.

Chen Yi looked at her and continued, “After coming back, I’ll fly directly to West Asia. I’ll probably have to stay for a while too.”

The room was quiet for a few seconds. Ruan Mian finally realized something, carefully choosing her words. “So, the one month and ‘a while’ you mentioned—there’s no vacation in between?”

He nodded.

“Then this ‘a while’—how long is it?” Ruan Mian inexplicably felt somewhat disappointed. This would be the longest time she and Chen Yi would be apart since getting together.

Chen Yi pressed his lips together. “Not sure yet.”

The tasks were very random, the timing uncertain. Long could be one or two months, short could be a few weeks. None of it was certain.

Ruan Mian lowered her head and took a bite of rice, not wanting him to have too much psychological burden. “That works out perfectly. I’m going to City H with Teacher Meng and the others for a symposium soon, and I have a lot going on at the end of the year. Even if you take leave, I might not have time.”

These words were true, but Chen Yi still felt he owed her something. Before leaving, he ruffled Ruan Mian’s hair. “I’ll try my best to get back before your birthday.”

“Okay.” Ruan Mian let go, seeing him out. When he was about to enter the elevator, she suddenly pressed the down button beside it.

The door opened.

She ran in, her whole body colliding into his embrace. Without warning, she looked up and kissed him. The movement was somewhat forceful, her teeth knocking against his lip.

Chen Yi quickly turned the tables, lifting her up a bit, turning to press her against the elevator wall. The cold wall made the person in his arms shiver.

His palm moved downward, cushioning her thin, protruding shoulder blades. His tongue drove straight in with undeniable force.

Wet tongues entwined, inseparable.

……

A long while later.

Chen Yi withdrew slightly, his hand holding her waist, fingertips kneading through a thin layer of clothing, forehead pressed against hers.

His breathing, his panting, every look in his eyes carried an undeniable desire that had once been deeply hidden beneath calmness.

Ruan Mian seemed to be acting a bit willful, hooking around his neck without letting go. The redness at the corners of her eyes made it unclear whether it was passion or reluctance. “Chen Yi.”

He responded deeply, his fingertips gently stroking the corners of her eyes.

She had so many things, so many things she wanted to say. She wanted to tell him not to go, wanted to say she couldn’t bear to part with him. But in the end, there was only one sentence.

—”You must be safe. I’ll miss you.”