That breath carried a trace of wine — like the moment a kettle reaches its boil and the lid is lifted, and a cloud of steam rushes out toward your face.

The skin along her shoulder and neck grew hot, and her entire body turned rigid.

She had never been held like this before, had never expected it to happen.

And had certainly never imagined it would happen between her and Yan Sishi.

It was as though he were drawing warmth from her body — that sense of need left her not knowing what to do with her hands.

Like a twilight bell deep inside her, tolling out again and again, sending tremors reverberating through her.

Yan Sishi shook his head.

A surge of dampened feeling blocked her throat, making her unable to speak again.

It was at this moment that Yan Sishi released her, stepped back slightly, and looked at her through the darkness. His voice was low and slightly rough: “Xia Li…”

No one, called by their full name like that, could fail to feel at least a trace of gravity.

Her back straightened almost imperceptibly on its own. Her fingers closed around the fabric of her skirt, wringing out a handful of warm, damp sweat.

Yan Sishi paused.

His expression looked as though he was weighing his words carefully.

She held her breath.

Then, without warning, there came a creaking sound from behind them.

Both of them startled and turned at once.

One door of the temple gate had swung open. A monk in a plain grey-blue robe walked out, a wooden bucket in hand.

The monk glanced outward, and his footsteps slowed. “Have the two benefactors come to offer incense? This temple’s visiting hours are eight in the morning to six in the evening.”

Xia Li felt a rush of embarrassment. She could hardly explain that she had come in the middle of the night simply to sit outside a temple gate and clear her head. “…Thank you, master. We’ll come back tomorrow morning.”

The monk raised a hand in a single-palmed salute. “The steps are steep and tend to be slippery. Please mind your footing on the way down.”

With that, there was nothing more to be said. Xia Li and Yan Sishi had no choice but to rise and begin their descent. The monk, meanwhile, took the side path along the temple wall, carrying his wooden bucket, disappearing into the depths beyond.

The sound of his footsteps faded and was gone.

Coming down the steps was harder than going up. Xia Li angled her body slightly sideways, taking them one at a time.

Yan Sishi’s hand hovered close to her arm the whole way down — not quite touching, but hovering, as though ready to catch her should she slip.

They stepped down from the last stair and returned to the narrow concrete path.

For a moment, neither said anything.

A dried leaf crunched softly underfoot, splitting with a thin, papery sound.

Xia Li turned her head and looked at Yan Sishi. All the words she might have said wound themselves around and around until they arrived, finally, at this: “Are you drunk?”

“Not as drunk as you might think.”

“So — a little, though? Is that right?”

“Yes.”

Not drunk enough to have justified letting that craving for warmth spiral entirely out of control.

Not drunk enough to have been so abrupt.

Xia Li gave a light laugh. “Then sober up first.”

“…All right.” Her smile — and her voice, cool and soft as a mist — felt like it had barely grazed his heart.

They walked back to the parking area and got into the car.

In the quiet of the enclosed car, a subtle feeling filled both of their chests.

Their hearts felt like sponges soaked in warm water — slightly swollen.

They drove for a little while. Yan Sishi spotted a twenty-four-hour convenience store ahead and asked Xia Li to pull over for a moment.

Xia Li asked: “Do you need to buy something?”

“A bottle of water.”

She pulled over and went looking for the hazard light switch. Yan Sishi reached across her, pressed the red triangle-pointed button, then unbuckled his seatbelt and opened the car door.

Watching his figure disappear into the convenience store, Xia Li slumped forward against the steering wheel.

Her heart still felt the aftershocks, rolling through in waves.

She couldn’t help herself — her lips curved upward.

A few minutes later, Yan Sishi returned.

He opened the car door, and Xia Li saw he was holding two bottles of cold water and a bottle of insect-repellent lotion.

Once back in the car, he didn’t rush to fasten his seatbelt. He tucked the water bottles into the cup holders by the gear shift, then opened the cap of the insect-repellent lotion, raised one hand to press on the overhead light, and asked her where she had been bitten.

That small bottle of mint-green plastic — a certain well-known brand of insect-repellent lotion — looked incongruous both against the car’s sleek black interior and even more so in Yan Sishi’s hands, in a way that made her want to smile.

She twisted slightly toward him and held out her arm, only to discover she had been bitten in more than one place.

Yan Sishi cupped her arm with one hand and aimed the nozzle of the lotion at the swollen, reddened spots.

Xia Li turned her head to the side and half-closed her eyes.

Two soft hissing sounds, and the sharp, cool fragrance of camphor and mint flooded instantly through the entire space.

Yan Sishi recapped the bottle of lotion and opened the storage compartment in front of the passenger seat, tucking it inside.

Then he unscrewed one of the bottles of cold water and held it out toward Xia Li.

“Thank you.” She had ridden in his passenger seat before and had never once offered him anything remotely this attentive.

Yan Sishi then opened the other bottle for himself, tilted his head back slightly, and drank down a small portion in one go.

Xia Li had not looked away in time, and found herself watching his throat — the subtle rise and fall of his Adam’s apple as he swallowed.

The pale skin of his neck made the quality of restraint about him all the more apparent.

The moment he set the bottle down, Xia Li quickly averted her gaze and calmly took a sip of her own water.

The car pulled into the underground parking garage of Yan Sishi’s residential complex.

Xia Li did not immediately turn off the engine. She only unclasped her seatbelt and looked over at Yan Sishi. “Has your mood improved at all?”

That question, echoing back from before, made Yan Sishi pause briefly. “Of course.”

Xia Li smiled. “Good.”

She reached over, pressed the engine button, turned off the car, and then said: “Then head upstairs and get some rest.”

“What about you?”

“I’ll call a car. I’ll be fine.”

Yan Sishi glanced at her. His tone was even: “You could come up and stay the night. I’ll take you back in the morning.”

The air shifted immediately, growing subtly charged.

“That’s not really convenient…” Xia Li smoothed a strand of hair back without thinking, her breathing becoming just a little lighter. “I don’t have any toiletries or a change of clothes, and I need to be up early tomorrow.”

“It’s this late, and you want to go home alone.”

“I take car services home from work all the time. Sometimes when I work late, it’s even later than this.” Xia Li laughed.

Yan Sishi considered for a moment. “I’ll call the car for you.”

They took the elevator up from the underground garage to the first floor, and Yan Sishi walked her all the way to the complex entrance, keeping her company while she waited for the car.

The night breeze had shed its heat, drifting past with a mild, pleasant coolness.

Yan Sishi watched her silhouette under the lamplight. She had her head bowed, absently pressing little cross shapes into the mosquito bites on her arm.

“Your birthday is coming up soon.”

“Yes.” Xia Li glanced up, then paused. “…You remembered.”

“The summer solstice. It’s easy to remember.”

Even the most memorable date still requires a person who cares enough to hold it in mind.

Yan Sishi looked at her, his gaze carrying a weight of meaning. “Any birthday wishes?”

“Anything would do.” Xia Li smiled. “The unknown ones are all surprises.”

The car she had called arrived — just as before, a private sedan.

Yan Sishi reached past her to open the rear door.

She climbed in. He ducked his head slightly to look at her. “Let me know when you’re home.”

She nodded. “Get some rest… wait until you’ve sobered up.”

“All right. Good night.”

“Good night.”

As the car pulled away, Xia Li turned to look out the window. He was still standing there on the roadside, watching her go.

By the time the street was rushing past and she couldn’t make out his figure even through the rear window, she finally let herself look away.

She leaned her elbow on the window ledge, pressed her forehead against her palm, and laughed to herself — twice, quietly.

She would walk in smelling of insect-repellent lotion, which was going to earn her an interrogation from Xu Ning about where she had gone in the middle of the night to feed mosquitoes.

Xia Li sent Yan Sishi a text message to say she had arrived safely, then smiled and headed for the bathroom. “I’m going to shower.”

The water didn’t stop running, and neither did her humming.

When she came out, Xu Ning stopped her. “You’re not single anymore, are you?”

“Not quite yet, I think.”

“‘Think’?”

“I’m not. Not yet.”

“So — soon, though?”

“Probably — do you want the details?”

Xu Ning clicked her tongue. “No, I don’t. Unless you write them down for me — honestly, can you please, I beg of you? You’ve been stringing me along on one piece of writing for over half a year.”

Xia Li brushed her off airily. “I’ll definitely write it whenever I have time. Absolutely, for sure.”

Xia Li went to her room and lay down on her back. She lifted her phone above her face, unlocked it, and found a new reply from Yan Sishi to her message.

YAN: Good. Get some rest.

Xia Li typed back.

Sherry: Already getting ready to sleep. You rest early too.

YAN: Okay. Good night.

Sherry: Good night.

She set her phone down, rolled over, and buried her face in her pillow.

Right now, between her and Yan Sishi, there was likely only the thinnest of barriers — something like a layer of rice paper, translucent and barely-there.

A single sentence could pierce through it.

And yet, even knowing that, she still felt it mattered — that making it clear and leaving it unsaid were two entirely different things.

She didn’t know what things would look like after it was said.

But at this moment, she found she was somewhat enchanted by the current state of things — that gentle haze, where everything carried a faint blur, like admiring snow while pleasantly drunk.

On the day of Xia Li’s birthday, it rained.

To make things worse, she was drafted last-minute to help with campus recruitment.

Beyond the HR department, key personnel from the relevant departments were also expected to participate in campus recruitment.

The colleague from the North American and European team who had originally been coordinating the recruitment was due to give birth in two weeks. She had planned to push through this stretch before starting her maternity leave — but the previous evening at seven o’clock, her labor had started without warning. She was rushed to the hospital, and by the early hours of the morning had given birth.

They were short-handed, and with no better option, the department head pointed to Xia Li to fill the gap.

The autumn and spring recruitment rounds had both already been completed. At this point, the main focus was on recruiting summer interns.

The schedule was packed — all rounds of interviews were to be completed in a single day.

The company had considerable pull in the industry, and the number of internship applications received across all positions each year ran into the tens of thousands. Even distributed across just their overseas operations department, the number was already far from small.

Xia Li was one of the second-round interviewers. She spent the entire day in the interview venue, from morning to evening, until her voice was dry.

She had arranged to meet Yan Sishi for dinner at seven-thirty in the evening.

She had assumed the interviews would wrap up by seven and that she would arrive with time to spare, but each stage ran over, and the time kept being pushed back.

She had to keep sending Yan Sishi messages, letting him know she would be late.

Eventually, Yan Sishi replied: It’s fine. Focus on work. Message me when everything is done.

It was not until eight-thirty that her portion of the process was finally finished. Under ordinary circumstances she would have waited for all her colleagues to wrap up before leaving together, but given her situation today, she said a quick goodbye and prepared to slip out.

She gathered her things and, thoroughly exhausted, sent Yan Sishi a message.

Yan Sishi told her to stay at the venue — he would drive over to pick her up.

He parked along the roadside outside the side entrance of the interview venue.

After sending the message, Yan Sishi waited roughly ten minutes before he saw someone emerge.

Xia Li, in her grey suit, was holding a transparent umbrella and walking quickly.

When she opened the car door, a gust of rain-soaked air swept into the cabin. Yan Sishi looked at her and paused for a moment. “…What happened to you?”

She looked as though water had been thrown over half her body — the grey knee-length suit skirt and her nude-toned stockings were soaked, still dripping.

“My colleagues were still finishing up, so I went to collect their food delivery order for them. A car splashed me.” Xia Li closed her umbrella, glanced inside the car, and hesitated.

Yan Sishi said: “Just leave it in the car. It’s fine.”

Only then did Xia Li get in.

As she sat down and buckled her seatbelt, Yan Sishi reached into the back and pulled his suit jacket off the rear seat, tossing it to her, telling her to dry herself off first so she wouldn’t get cold. Then he casually switched the air conditioning to warm airflow.

“…Use this to dry off?”

“Make do for now.”

“No, what I mean is — isn’t this expensive?” The lining was a textured silk-like fabric; one touch was enough to guess the price.

“The jacket doesn’t matter.”

Xia Li had to genuinely steel herself before she could bring herself to use it.

She was chilled all over — especially the stockings, which clung to her legs with a wet, clammy sensation that made her feel utterly wretched.

And because the stockings were full-length tights, there was no way to take them off in front of Yan Sishi.

She told herself to endure a little longer, and deal with it once she was somewhere more convenient.

While blotting herself dry, Xia Li complained: “I have such terrible luck today.”

“Oh?”

“Right before I came down to wait for you, I was sitting in the lobby resting when someone stopped me. He was a candidate who had come today — he made it through to the second round, but didn’t pass. The third-round process hadn’t fully wrapped up yet at that point, and he refused to leave me alone. He kept insisting I give him another chance to talk. I explained that the second-round results were decided by three people together and that I alone couldn’t make that call, but he wouldn’t listen. He shoved a pile of photocopied certificates at me and launched into this completely unprompted monologue about his award history…”

“Didn’t you call security?”

“We did. While he was being escorted out, he kept shouting at me — really nasty things. I had HR add him to the blacklist.”

Xia Li slumped back with a tired sigh, feeling the weight of the entire day. “…And it’s my birthday today, of all days. Who has a birthday this unlucky?”

Yan Sishi looked at her. “Do you still want to go to a restaurant?”

“…Not really. I’m exhausted. Not very hungry either.”

Yan Sishi thought for a moment, then asked: “Is there something else you’d like to do?”

Xia Li leaned back in her seat, mind blank, and said the first thing that drifted through her head: “I want to see snow.”

Her birthday fell in summer — the summer solstice, the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. It would be fair to say snow was about as opposite to her birthday as anything could be.

She had often thought that at some point in her life, she absolutely wanted to spend a birthday somewhere like a snow-covered mountain.

Her words had barely left her mouth when Yan Sishi said: “All right.”

Xia Li sat up immediately, because the tone in which he said it was clearly not casual deflection. “…Are you serious?”

“I’m serious.” Yan Sishi glanced at his watch. “But we’ll need to move quickly.”