The Spring Festival is the largest holiday in the country. Early in the morning, Jiang Ruoqiao had not yet woken up when Grandma and Grandpa took Lu Siyan out to browse the local flower market. Grandma loved flowers and had long made a habit of strolling through the market during the holidays. Today the sun shone brilliantly, and Lu Siyan was the type of child who could never sit still at home — the moment he was out the door, he was like a wild horse freed from its reins. Lu Yicheng had originally wanted to go along as well, knowing that Lu Siyan could be a real handful sometimes and worried about causing trouble for the elderly couple. But Grandma waved him off. “Don’t worry. The two of us take Siyan out for walks all the time. You just stay home and rest. When Qiaoqiao wakes up, whether you two go to the cinema or go shopping, sort it out between yourselves.”

And so Lu Yicheng stayed behind at home.

He sat on the sofa, quietly waiting for the sleeping beauty in the other room to wake up.

For Jiang Ruoqiao, the most comfortable place in the world was this home and this bed she had slept in for over ten years.

She slept until she naturally woke, groggily reaching over to the nightstand for her phone and squinting at the time.

Oh. Already ten o’clock.

That had been such a satisfying sleep. She hadn’t felt this relaxed in a long time.

She lay in bed for a few more minutes, the sunlight falling warmly across the duvet. She finally decided to get up. She pulled on her padded coat and shuffled toward the door in her slippers. Her hand was already on the doorknob when she suddenly remembered something — Lu Yicheng was also here in her apartment!

She quickly grabbed her phone and turned the camera on herself to see what she currently looked like.

Her hair was an absolute mess — a magpie could build a nest on her head without any trouble.

In short, he absolutely could not see her like this.

They weren’t an old married couple — she’d rather not show him this side of herself that was a little too lived-in.

But…

Jiang Ruoqiao was stuck. Because her bedroom didn’t have its own private bathroom.

After scowling over this for more than ten seconds, Jiang Ruoqiao fished out her phone and sent Lu Yicheng a tentative message: 【.】

Lu Yicheng had one exceptional habit.

As long as he had his phone in hand and a free moment, he would reply to her messages instantly: 【Awake?】

Jiang Ruoqiao: 【Are you home?】

She had vaguely woken up once this morning.

It seemed like Grandma had mentioned something about going to the flower market.

She had mumbled something and gone back to sleep.

Had Lu Yicheng not gone with them?

Lu Yicheng: 【Yes. Grandma and Grandpa took Siyan to the flower market.】

Jiang Ruoqiao: 【Oh, okay.】

Lu Yicheng: 【Want breakfast?】

He found it a little strange. They were in the same apartment. There was no one else in the apartment. So why were they messaging each other on WeChat?

Jiang Ruoqiao: 【In a bit. Lu Yicheng, can your girlfriend make a request that isn’t too unreasonable?】

Lu Yicheng: 【? Just say it.】

Jiang Ruoqiao: 【Could you please go back to the master bedroom, close the door, and don’t come out until I message you to say it’s okay?】

……

In the end, Lu Yicheng obediently went back to the master bedroom and shut the door.

Jiang Ruoqiao trusted him completely. He was absolutely not the type of person who would sneak open a crack in the door to peek at her just-woken-up state.

Anyone else in the world might do such a thing. Lu Yicheng would not.

Lu Yicheng: 【I’m inside.】

After receiving the message, Jiang Ruoqiao felt at ease and came out of her room.

Despite her confidence in Lu Yicheng, she still shot out of there as though something were chasing her, sprinting to the bathroom at full speed, then closing the bathroom door behind her with a click.

Only then did Jiang Ruoqiao breathe a sigh of relief and begin her morning routine. Half an hour later, the Jiang Ruoqiao who emerged from the bathroom was once again someone ready to go on a date at any moment.

A few minutes later, Lu Yicheng was finally “released from confinement” and came out of the master bedroom.

He came straight to the kitchen to make breakfast. Jiang Ruoqiao became his little shadow, trailing behind him, chirping away: “Did my grandpa’s snoring bother you last night? What time did you wake up? How come you didn’t go to the flower market with them?”

Lu Yicheng had since also become a young man with a few tricks up his sleeve.

He said to her, “I’ll answer you in a moment. Can you get my apron for me?”

Jiang Ruoqiao: “……”

Surely you don’t need an apron just to make fermented rice balls.

This man had definitely gotten a taste of the good life.

Yesterday, Siyan had wanted the sweet-and-sour spare ribs he made, so he came to the kitchen to fry the ribs. She had followed him in to have a look and, worried about oil splattering onto his clothes, had told him to put on an apron. But at the time his hands were greasy and it wasn’t very convenient, so she’d had no choice but to do it for him.

“Fine.” Jiang Ruoqiao picked up the apron and stood in front of him. “Lower your head.”

The corner of Lu Yicheng’s mouth curved upward. He lowered his head. The two of them were standing very close.

Jiang Ruoqiao slipped the apron over him, then moved behind him and tied the strings with meticulous care.

For one fleeting moment, she felt as though she could envision it — the future that Siyan had spoken of, where they had done this countless times before.

Him cooking for her.

Her tying his apron.

“Done.”

Jiang Ruoqiao was very fond of fermented rice balls. The rice wine was something Grandma had fermented herself. Lu Yicheng stood at the gas stove, watching the small round dumplings bobbing in the boiling water as he spoke: “Grandpa did snore, but I had earplugs, and I’ve gotten used to it by now — back when I lived in the dormitory, Wang Jiangfeng used to snore too.”

Jiang Ruoqiao: “Wow, he snores? I never would have guessed.”

Lu Yicheng smiled. “He had it checked out afterward — something about his adenoids. So I’m used to it. I woke up around seven in the morning… I had originally wanted to go with Grandma and Grandpa, but Grandma wouldn’t let me.”

Jiang Ruoqiao gave a small nod and looked at him. “So you waited more than two hours for me?”

“I wouldn’t call it waiting.” Lu Yicheng replied. “I worked on my computer for a bit.”

“You should have woken me up,” Jiang Ruoqiao said.

Lu Yicheng glanced at her. “You have a misconception about my level of courage.”

Jiang Ruoqiao: “?”

“If I ever get a bad reputation someday, it’ll definitely be because you and Siyan slandered me,” she said. “I’ll settle that score with you both.”

Lu Yicheng laughed helplessly.

They didn’t end up going to the cinema or out shopping. Sitting on the balcony soaking up the sun was also an entirely pleasant way to spend the afternoon.

Valentine’s Day was only a few days away.

Lu Yicheng would be the first to admit he was not a particularly romantic person — if he were left entirely to his own devices when it came to choosing a gift for her, the result might very well be something she didn’t even like. He casually flipped through one of Lu Siyan’s illustrated storybooks, and in a seemingly offhand way brought up in conversation, “When I was little, I always envied this fisherman — how lucky he was, to have someone grant his wishes.”

Jiang Ruoqiao naturally remembered the story of the fisherman and the goldfish. “I always envied the one with the seven-color flower more.”

“If you had a goldfish like that, what wish would you make?” Lu Yicheng asked.

Jiang Ruoqiao genuinely thought they were just making idle conversation, with no thought at all that Valentine’s Day was a few days away. She tapped her chin. “Win a hundred million in the lottery — actually, ten million would do. Five million wouldn’t be enough though, with inflation being what it is these days.”

Lu Yicheng: “…………”

That… he genuinely couldn’t manage right now.

He didn’t have ten million. Ten million wasn’t even the right comparison — even five million would be an enormous sum for him.

He thought about it. “Besides that?”

Jiang Ruoqiao said, “That’s the only thing I can think of right now. Or — give me an apartment. It would need to be in a school district within the third ring road, and not too small. I saw a video once — a family of five or six crammed into forty-something square meters of a school district apartment, it looked suffocating.”

Lu Yicheng: “…………”

That was even worse than asking for five million.

A larger school district apartment within the third ring road would run several tens of millions at minimum.

He felt hollow inside.

Everything she wanted, he couldn’t provide.

Jiang Ruoqiao was just about to complain to Lu Yicheng about property prices in Jing Shi when she happened to catch his expression — brow furrowed, wearing the face of a man doing silent penance. Suddenly it clicked.

Oh. What was there left not to understand?

He was actually trying to find out what kind of gift she wanted right now, wasn’t he?

This man was too clever for his own good.

She feigned a casual tone and added, “Asking for ten million and a school district apartment — would that scare off a cute little goldfish who’s easily frightened?”

Lu Yicheng: “…… The little goldfish’s magic isn’t refined enough yet. Those two wishes are temporarily out of his reach.”

Of course he had guessed that she’d seen through his intention.

So he said, with helpless resignation: “He’s a useless goldfish.”

Jiang Ruoqiao looked at him. “Don’t say that. The goldfish is still young, still a baby — it’s perfectly normal that his magic isn’t refined yet. If he could already grant me those two wishes right now, that would be the strange thing. “

Lu Yicheng gave a small nod. “He will work hard at refining his magic. So then — knowing he isn’t all that powerful yet, would you still make a wish upon him? What would you wish for?”

“Well…” Jiang Ruoqiao genuinely thought it over, and found she wasn’t sure what she actually wanted.

Lipstick and perfume were out of the question. She had an entire cabinet of lipsticks, some of them still wrapped.

Skincare and makeup were out too. She’d stocked up enough to last until the end of next year.

Lu Yicheng ventured tentatively, “Like, a bag?”

Jiang Ruoqiao shook her head vigorously. “No, no, no.”

Could she say she had developed a psychological aversion to receiving bags?

Lu Yicheng hadn’t expected such a strong reaction.

Jiang Ruoqiao explained resignedly: “There’s no style I particularly like.” And worried Lu Yicheng might take it upon himself to pick one anyway, she added, “When the little goldfish can produce two or three bags a month, I’ll make that wish then.”

She did genuinely like bags.

But right now she wanted to buy them herself. And if he wanted to give her one as a gift, she wanted it to be when he had the means to do so comfortably.

She didn’t want their relationship, or a holiday like this, to put him under pressure.

Valentine’s Day was a day for two people — not just for her. Both of them should be happy. It shouldn’t be a day where she was delighted and he was anxious.

Lu Yicheng didn’t shake his head. He gave a quiet sound of acknowledgment.

He filed that away.

Jiang Ruoqiao thought for a moment. “Tell the little goldfish — give me a cup.”

It had just come to her.

Lu Yicheng looked at her in surprise, wondering if he’d heard wrong. “A cup?”

“Mm.” Jiang Ruoqiao nodded. “Give me a cup for drinking water. I already have a coffee cup — I want one for water. Once the semester starts, a thermos won’t be very useful for long. I want a new cup. Something pretty.”

Lu Yicheng hesitated before replying: “Isn’t that too simple?”

From what he’d seen of other people’s Valentine’s Days, there was always a great deal of fanfare and elaborate gestures.

Was she really asking for just a cup?

Jiang Ruoqiao nodded with mock gravity. “The little goldfish is still small, he doesn’t understand — this is all part of human tactics and strategy. Look: the fisherman’s first request was just a wooden washtub, wasn’t it? You have to build up gradually. I’m only asking for a cup. The naive little goldfish might think: hmm, this person seems quite reasonable, very modest. He’s fallen right into my trap. Later, when I ask for something valuable, won’t he agree because his first impression of me was so favorable?”

Lu Yicheng felt something in his chest go unexpectedly soft.

“He would agree to everything,” he said.

Jiang Ruoqiao tilted her head at him. “That can’t be guaranteed — in the end of the story, the goldfish got thoroughly fed up with the fisherman. It took everything back.”

Lu Yicheng said, “That was a different goldfish. This little goldfish would never do that.”

Jiang Ruoqiao placed her hand in his palm. “That had better be the case,” she said, deliberately putting on a fierce expression. “Otherwise I’ll toss this little goldfish into a pan and fry it up.”

Lu Yicheng: “Alright.”

He paused, then added: “Just be careful when you fry it. Don’t get burned by the oil.”

……

Could there really be a goldfish like this in the world?

Jiang Ruoqiao thought — there probably could be.

He was even foolish enough that when she said she’d toss him in a pan and fry him, he’d still gently remind her not to get burned by the hot oil.

So all the exceptions she’d made for him — they all had their reasons.

In the afternoon, the task of looking after the child fell to Lu Yicheng and Jiang Ruoqiao.

The two of them were shooed out of the house by Grandma and Grandpa.

So Jiang Ruoqiao took Lu Yicheng and Lu Siyan out to the shopping mall. Everywhere was packed with people, but the festive atmosphere was rich, and every face they saw was bright with holiday cheer. In Xi Shi, the odds of running into a former classmate were simply too high. Just as the three of them were about to find a place to sit down and get a drink, Jiang Ruoqiao bumped into a classmate from high school.

The high school classmate recognized Jiang Ruoqiao at once and called out in delighted surprise, “Jiang Ruoqiao!”

Jiang Ruoqiao had an excellent memory — unless it was a kindergarten classmate, she could recognize even primary school classmates on sight. “Zhang Qi! It’s you!”

Zhang Qi looked rather flattered. “You still remember me?”

It was no wonder Zhang Qi was surprised. The two of them had only been classmates during the first half of their first year of high school. In the second semester, the students were divided into arts and science tracks, putting them in different classes. From Zhang Qi’s perspective, someone as dazzlingly brilliant and beautiful as Jiang Ruoqiao surely wouldn’t remember her — and yet Jiang Ruoqiao had called out her name immediately. Zhang Qi was overjoyed. “You really remember me!”

Jiang Ruoqiao smiled. “Of course I do — weren’t we on cleaning duty together back then?”

Zhang Qi laughed. “Yes, yes, we were!”

The two chatted for a moment. Zhang Qi naturally hadn’t overlooked the two handsome figures beside Jiang Ruoqiao — one big, one small.

The little one was handsome, sure enough.

But this big one… he was quite intriguing. She was fairly certain he hadn’t been at their high school — if someone this good-looking had attended, how could she have had no memory of him whatsoever?

Jiang Ruoqiao didn’t mince about it. She took Lu Yicheng’s arm with a natural ease and introduced him: “Zhang Qi, this is my boyfriend Lu Yicheng. We go to the same university. He came to Xi Shi with me for the holidays.”

Zhang Qi: Wow!!

Same university — so that was University A?

And he’s this good-looking too!!

“This is Zhang Qi, my high school classmate,” Jiang Ruoqiao said to Lu Yicheng.

Lu Yicheng’s mood lifted inexplicably.

The way she introduced him. She called him her boyfriend.

Lu Siyan felt he was being ignored and jumped a few times. “Sister Zhang Qi, hello! I’m Lu Siyan!”

Zhang Qi looked down at Lu Siyan with his head of little curly hair, inwardly screaming as well: where did this adorable child come from — he’s so good-looking! Like one of those child models, both dashing and utterly adorable.

“This is my big brother,” Lu Siyan said, pointing at Lu Yicheng, then pointing at Jiang Ruoqiao with complete matter-of-factness. “And this is my sister-in-law.”

It was only then that Zhang Qi understood the relationship between these three people.

Big brother bringing little brother along to see his girlfriend — that works!

After they parted ways, Jiang Ruoqiao gave Lu Siyan’s curly hair another ruffle and warned him in a low voice: “Stop being mischievous.”

Going around calling people big brother and sister-in-law every single day.

What kind of son does something like that? Wasn’t he afraid of being found out one day?

Lu Siyan blinked with innocent eyes. “Maybe they’re not as smart as me. I know both of those phrases — ‘an elder brother is like a father, and an elder sister-in-law is like a mother’ — and they don’t.”

Jiang Ruoqiao gritted her teeth. “Who would ever think of that!”

Lu Siyan said with a very smug and exasperating air, “That means they didn’t think of it. Not my problem.”

Jiang Ruoqiao: “……”

On their way out of the shopping mall, the three of them wandered about. They came across a photography studio that was still open for business.

Lu Yicheng thought of the pocket watch Lu Siyan had brought, and a thought crossed his mind. “How about we take a photo?”

The suggestion moved Jiang Ruoqiao too.

She had seen the photograph nestled inside that pocket watch.

Given where their relationship stood now, taking a family portrait together seemed perfectly fitting.

The three of them walked into the studio. After explaining what they wanted, they prepared to take the photos. Given Lu Siyan’s height, he had to stand on a small platform. Jiang Ruoqiao stood on his left, Lu Yicheng on his right. All three of them were smiling at the camera, when Lu Siyan suddenly got playful and insisted on wrapping one arm around his dad and one arm around his mom. This moment was captured too, and as the photographer reviewed the images on the camera, he sighed admiringly: “Beautiful. Genuinely beautiful.”

Lu Yicheng paid extra, and they had the photos processed on an expedited basis.

A few hours later, the pocket watch held one more photograph.

In the photo, the little boy had one arm around a young mother and one arm around a young father. The young father wasn’t looking at the camera — he was looking at the child and the young mother.

The photograph hadn’t quite captured the clarity of his gaze, but even so, any viewer could sense the tenderness in his eyes.

The pocket watch now held two photographs.

One showed a thirty-year-old Lu Yicheng and Jiang Ruoqiao, and three-year-old Lu Siyan.

One showed a freshly taken image of twenty-year-old Lu Yicheng and Jiang Ruoqiao, and five-and-a-half-year-old Lu Siyan.

Whether it was thirty-year-old Lu Yicheng and Jiang Ruoqiao, or twenty-year-old versions of them — in both, Siyan was their beloved.

After Jiang Ruoqiao and Lu Yicheng arrived back in Xi Shi, they often had the feeling of living split lives.

For the larger part of each day, they were caring for a child — a child’s father, a child’s mother — and occasionally they’d even find themselves disagreeing on matters of parenting philosophy.

Only for a small portion of each day, in stolen moments squeezed between everything else, did they get to be a couple in a relationship. In those moments, there was only the two of them — he was the boyfriend, she was the girlfriend.

Their usual meeting spot was the kitchen.

They would wash the dishes together, with wash-up sessions typically lasting anywhere from one to two hours.

During that window of time, Lu Siyan was busy watching Paw Patrol, with Grandma and Grandpa on duty keeping an eye on him, giving the young and rather pitiable couple a little space.

Lu Yicheng’s first time holding her hand — that had been initiated by Jiang Ruoqiao.

His first embrace — also her.

His first time being held from behind — also hers.

This was Jiang Ruoqiao’s favorite thing: to wrap her arms around him from behind while he was washing dishes or cooking. It felt straight out of a drama series.

She also loved pretending to be asleep so he’d carry her back to her room in that princess carry.

That evening, Lu Yicheng carried her back to her room once again. He had progressed from that first kiss on the forehead to now, where he’d brush his lips against hers — just a touch, of course only when no one was around to see.

The moment he stepped out, Jiang Ruoqiao, still playing the part of the sleeping beauty, opened her eyes, rolled over, and buried her face in the soft pillow, stifling her laughter.

She didn’t want anyone to hear.

Not even herself.

Lu Yicheng went back to the bedroom and, accompanied by Grandpa’s snoring, slowly drifted off to sleep. He rarely dreamed, but on this ordinary and warm-hearted night, he had a very strange dream.

In the dream, he was an observer standing outside the events — like a soul untethered from the body, able to see others while remaining unseen himself.

He didn’t know where he was going. He could only walk forward through a blanket of fog. The way ahead gradually grew clearer. He found himself arriving at a hospital. He didn’t know why he had come here; it was as though something were pulling him along. He arrived at the stairwell of the oncology inpatient ward.

He froze.

Because sitting on the steps of that stairwell was a person.

It was…

Jiang Ruoqiao.

She seemed different somehow — her hair was shorter, and she had grown noticeably thinner. In his memory and in his mind, she had always been luminous. Yet in this moment, she appeared dim, as though someone who was ordinarily fastidious about cleanliness had simply sat down on the floor without a second thought. Beside her was a bottle of mineral water, its cap already open. She was hunched over, eating a bread roll. It seemed the bread was too dry — after a few bites, she was struggling to swallow, and she took a few swigs of water.

It was a hard thing to look at.

Pitiable.

His heart ached. He ran toward her again and again, but she couldn’t see him. He called her name, but she couldn’t hear him.

What had happened?

How had she come to be like this?

What was this place, why was she at a hospital, why had she ended up this way?

What in the world had gone wrong?

He could feel her profound loneliness and helplessness, and yet there was nothing he could do. Just as he was burning with anxious distress, she stood up, took her mineral water, and left the stairwell. He immediately followed after her.

“Ruoqiao!” he called.

“Xiaoqiao!!” he called again.

She couldn’t hear him.

He fell into despair.

He shouted himself hoarse: “Jiang Ruoqiao!”

“Jiang Ruoqiao?”

This time, there came a voice — and she stopped.

But it was not his voice.

She turned to look toward the source of the sound. He looked too.

The person who had spoken was… “him.”

No — it was him, and yet not him.

It was another Lu Yicheng.

This other Lu Yicheng had come to visit a former high school teacher and hadn’t expected to run into anyone familiar here. Though perhaps “familiar” was not quite the right word — they knew each other, had shared several meals together, but they were not part of each other’s social circles. After all, every time she had appeared, it had been in her capacity as the girlfriend of this other Lu Yicheng’s roommate and friend.

She recognized this other Lu Yicheng too. Her eyes were calm and still, neither sorrowful nor joyful. It seemed she had no intention of saying hello.

The other Lu Yicheng hesitated for a moment. “Jiang Ruoqiao — do you remember me?”

“I’m Lu Yicheng.”

……

From where he stood in the dream, he watched as the two of them stood in the hospital corridor.

Somehow, without knowing quite why, he let out a breath of relief.

No matter what, someone had called out to her.

That person was Lu Yicheng — or more precisely, another Lu Yicheng had called out to another Jiang Ruoqiao, and entered her life.

It was as though, wherever Jiang Ruoqiao was, Lu Yicheng would inevitably appear.

It was only a matter of when.

But he would always appear.

—