Yan Xi persisted with his walking practice, but the results were poor. As winter approached, the blood circulation in his legs worsened, leaving them frequently ice-cold.

Ah Heng maintained a neutral expression, but at night she would always study medical books while warming his legs in her embrace before daring to sleep.

Around Ah Heng, Yan Xi often behaved childishly. When she said “Give me your legs,” he not only kept them wrapped in his cold blanket but also tucked his head under the covers, turning his back to her while claiming he was warm enough.

Ah Heng lifted his blanket, her face dark: “Do you want to be a cripple for life?”

Yan Xi looked at her with his large eyes, black and silent.

When Ah Heng went to move his leg, she accidentally touched a protruding area. Embarrassed, her fingers hesitated before letting go, annoyed: “Yan Xi, you pervert.”

Yan Xi bit his lip, embarrassed and angry: “Miss Wen, I’m twenty-six, not six!”

Ah Heng: “Then should I leave so you can, ahem, take care of it yourself?”

Yan Xi pulled up the blanket, gently closing his eyes: “No need, just don’t touch me.”

Ah Heng grew more embarrassed. In the desk lamp’s light, seeing the deep blush spreading across Yan Xi’s fair face, she gently poked him: “Is it very uncomfortable? Medically speaking, that… that corpus cavernosum, although blood can return on its own, it seems… it’s not… very healthy…”

Yan Xi twitched: “Didn’t I tell you not to touch me? Go back to sleep!”

Ah Heng: “Oh, goodnight.”

She turned off the desk lamp and stared at the damp, worn ceiling in the darkness. After thinking for a moment, she said softly: “Why don’t we get married?”

Yan Xi’s mind was filled with the faint pine scent of Ah Heng’s skin. He tried to lift his left foot slightly but was struck by intense pain, his forehead breaking out in sweat.

He clenched his hand then released it, drooping against the pillow, smiling faintly: “Before the wedding, the groom needs to carry the bride to the wedding car. Can I do that?”

She quietly stared at the ceiling, then burst out laughing: “So, are you indirectly telling me I’m too fat?”

He said: “Ah Heng when I used to drink at bars…”

Ah Heng interrupted: “Ahem, when was this? When did you go to bars behind my back?”

He said: “The point, the point is someone told me that our Earth, this Earth where many people often starve to death, has this function where if you keep bothering it, telling it your wishes every second, this planet, ahem, I’m just saying what I heard, this planet might grant your wish if it hears you.”

Ah Heng said: “Then what’s your wish?”

Yan Xi coughed: “I wish my wife had bigger breasts.”

“How big is your chest that you dare make demands about mine!”

“Ahem, I was just discussing it with the planet.”

“Oh, hope your wish comes true.”

“What about you? Do you have any wishes you’d like to tell the planet? What’s your wish?”

“I… I wish I could go back twenty-six years.”

“And then?”

“Then I’d steal away a big-eyed child, tell him I’m his mother, and raise him properly, not letting him be picky about food or spoiled or bully others. And I’d tell him that if he dares get close to a mother and son with the surname Lu, I’ll break his legs!”

“Oh, hope your wish comes true too.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

She said: “I have another wish, can I say it?”

He said: “The planet, it’s listening…”

Ah Heng closed her eyes, clutching the blanket shyly, speaking in a rush: “Even though I didn’t want to hear it I’ve never heard you say it so could you say ‘I like you’?”

Yan Xi: “Haha, the Earth doesn’t like you, always being willful and silly and trying to murder me with pork ribs, and besides, such small breasts…”

Ah Heng: “Yan Xi, I’m telling you, I can’t deal with you anymore!”

Yan Xi: “You can’t blame me, I don’t feel it, I can’t say it.”

Ah Heng smiled: “Is that so?” Then she kissed his mouth, carelessly nibbling with her teeth.

Yan Xi stiffened completely, breaking down: “How much do you not see me as a man?”

Ah Heng laughed: “Alright, goodnight kiss, go to sleep.”

Yan Xi lost it: “Sleep what? Little brother’s up again, no sleeping, talk to me!”

Three days after Ah Heng argued with Edward, although as she had said, the bacteria in the laboratory were reproducing slightly faster than before, it hadn’t drawn others’ attention as it was still within the normal experimental variance range and was quickly contained.

In the following two weeks, the experimental conditions were good, with the reproduction and division capabilities of various experimental bacteria being reduced to four times the speed, bringing excitement to the laboratory.

After work, Edward cornered Ah Heng against the wall, his tone mocking: “Woman, where’s your sharp tongue now?”

Ah Heng quickly pushed him away but couldn’t help starting to sneeze: “Edward, even if you’re dissatisfied with me, there’s no need to try to murder me with perfume.”

Edward’s eyes were deep blue as he lifted Ah Heng’s chin, his voice low like sweet nothings to a lover. He smiled: “Winnie, tell me, how should I deal with that attention-seeking, disruptive paper of yours?”

Ah Heng knocked away his hand, smiling: “Edward, why not wait a few more days?”

Edward sneered: “Because I’ve already endured your baseless claims for half a month. Do you think I’ll still consider anything you say?”

Ah Heng narrowed her eyes: “Right now you’ll be too absorbed in your momentary, no, brief victory to hear any other voices. My paper clearly stated there would be misleading false conclusions before the second adverse outcome appears. Everything is too early.”

Edward’s beautiful blue eyes showed a hint of interest: “Are all Chinese women as face-saving as you? How cute. Hey, woman, how about being my girlfriend? I haven’t collected an Eastern woman yet.”

Ah Heng’s face darkened as she bowed repeatedly: “Thank you, team leader, thank you for considering me and Chinese women, thank you thank you. Although I’m flattered, I have a fiancé, sorry.”

Edward raised an eyebrow: “Is that so? Let’s make a bet, how about it?”

Ah Heng stepped back three paces: “Go on.”

Edward shrugged: “Nothing much. If your paper’s conclusions are correct, I’ll accept any experimental proposals you make afterward, with full funding. If your conclusions are wrong, be my bedmate. Well, I won’t need to take responsibility, and you won’t need to feel guilty toward your fiancé. How about it?”

Yan Xi had completed half of the church mural, often getting his clothes very dirty. Ah Heng knew he liked wearing pink shirts, so she went to the market and bought a whole package, twelve pieces, letting him wear them freely. When they got dirty, she’d try to wash them; if they couldn’t be cleaned, she’d throw them away.

Yan Xi and Isabelle wandered through the hutong, becoming very familiar with the neighbors.

They loved calling Yan Xi “Pink Shirt.” Yan Xi would get embarrassed and say: “Le paysan sème le blé, Ah Heng pink shirt.”

The French people in the hutong, big and small, were all confused, not understanding what Yan Xi was saying. Later, after Isabelle explained, everyone understood. “Le paysan sème le blé” means “the farmer sows wheat” – Chinese people often use this sentence to learn French word order, that is, subject-verb-object. Ah Heng had told Yan Xi that when he encountered difficult phrases, he should first say “the farmer sows wheat” to clarify the word order before saying the rest, but he still spoke all jumbled up.

Therefore, everyone knew that the pink shirt before them was Ah Heng’s pink shirt.

The church mural needed to be completed before Christmas, as the church would hold Mass on Christmas Eve and planned to unveil the new mural. Usually, the choir children would come to the church to practice, and when they got tired, they’d sit in a row watching Yan Xi paint.

They liked Yan Xi and would tell him about Christian doctrine, saying that if he believed, he would receive God’s blessing in life.

Yan Xi muttered in Chinese: “So am I living under a curse now?” He looked up at the Madonna he was painting, his eyes curving in a smile.

They said: “Look, Pink Shirt, deep down you’re attracted to Maria’s gentle beauty, aren’t you? This is the beginning of faith.”

Yan Xi laughed heartily: “Yes, this is my faith.”

Then, as everyone kept looking, something seemed off. This time, why did Maria look so much like someone, like, like…

Only little Isabelle was clutching her head in distress: It’s Maria, it’s Maria, not Winnie, definitely not Winnie!

Ah Heng sneezed in the break room, checked the time – quarter past four – and had just stood up to make a phone call when she saw Edward striding over in his white coat.

He grabbed Ah Heng’s wrist, sweat even on his eyelashes: “Shit, tell me, what’s wrong with the experiment? Why are the bacteria reproducing at a hundred times the previous rate? Tell me, Winnie!” His entire body was tense, his blue eyes no longer seductive as when flirting with women, but very serious.

Ah Heng hurried to the laboratory, where her colleagues were already in chaos, trying different reagents to contain the bacteria’s explosive growth rate.

She went to her experimental station, observed through the microscope for a while, then turned to look at Edward, speaking calmly: “Do you want to continue? The next adverse reaction will be two hundred times this one. Before we all get kicked out of the research institute, Edward, you need to take responsibility for your stupidity.”

Edward gritted his teeth: “Shut up!” He stretched out his arms and quickly addressed everyone in English, “I’ll take responsibility for my problem. Now, stop all experimental processes immediately!”

Ah Heng finally breathed a sigh of relief, wiping sweat in a corner where no one could see, and only felt steady after making a phone call to Mr. Li. Although she had always spoken with certainty, it was all speculation. This time she won, but it had been too risky.

The next day, Edward wrote an experimental assessment report stopping the experiment, along with a self-criticism in both French and English. Ah Heng and her colleagues were called in by the higher-ups for a dressing down and fined one month’s salary before being released. It was said Edward was fined a year’s salary.

She went to the vending machine for coffee, and Edward walked over expressionlessly, saying: “I lost. You can propose your experimental topic.”

Ah Heng took a sip of coffee, smiling as she said: “Could we consider researching ear diseases?”

Edward looked at her: “That’s Anna and her team’s responsibility, you know, it belongs to the ENT department.”

Ah Heng gripped her coffee cup tightly, her thin lips curving in a smile as she said: “Anna’s project isn’t specialized enough, it’s hard to make breakthroughs. What we need to do is deeper research.”

Edward’s lips curved into a smile, his blue eyes fixed on her: “Winnie, why, tell me. If even I can see your motives, why should I make up an excuse to silence those old-fashioned, self-important directors?”

Ah Heng’s face remained calm as she said: “My fiancé is deaf. Is that enough?”

The French sunlight was beautiful, shining on her black hair, her brows, and eyes.

She said: “Edward, I want to cure his illness myself.

“I’m a doctor. Being able to heal the one I love, being selfish just once, allows me to be selfless for life.”