Chen An wore a gray linen shirt and blue linen pants—a very Japanese-style outfit. Standing on the street, he stood out like a crane among chickens, like a celebrity waiting for street photography.

As soon as Cheng Lele saw him, she naturally wanted to run over and hug Chen An to celebrate. Halfway through running, she remembered something and came to an emergency stop. Chen An had already spread his arms open, ready to catch her. Seeing her suddenly stop, he quickly walked over and asked: “What’s wrong?”

Cheng Lele closed her eyes and lied blindly: “I think I twisted my ankle again.”

Chen An immediately squatted down to check. Chen An had done this before—Cheng Lele had long been accustomed to Chen An’s meticulous care for her. But now, with that unforgettable kiss between them, Chen An’s hand pressing on her ankle felt burning hot. She tensed and curled her foot, seeing that every woman passing by cast envious glances.

Ah, this was the clue she had always overlooked before!

Chen An was still asking from below: “Does it hurt?”

Cheng Lele took a step back: “Seems like it doesn’t hurt anymore.”

“Do you twist it often? You should see a better doctor, otherwise you’ll suffer from it later.” Chen An said with concern. “Then let’s not walk around. Let’s find a place to sit down—want to watch a movie?”

“Oh.”

Cheng Lele couldn’t help thinking about the last time she and Chen An watched that youth romance film together. Thinking how carefree she had been then while Chen An had intentional implications, she belatedly blushed and her heart raced.

Sigh, what clues—even a blind person could have seen it clearly. Why hadn’t she noticed at all back then?

The two entered the cinema. At this time there weren’t many people queuing. Cheng Lele rushed to the ticket counter and said: “Two tickets for ‘The Avengers.'”

Absolutely cannot watch any more silly romance films.

Chen An pulled her: “What’s your hurry? There will definitely be tickets. Watch your foot.”

The two entered the theater hugging popcorn. The movie was over two hours long and had Cheng Lele’s favorite Iron Man in it, but she didn’t really watch it.

Not long after it started, she touched Chen An’s hand while reaching for popcorn.

Damn it, she’d touched it countless times before without feeling anything strange. But now, this wasn’t a hand—it was a red-hot pot.

Chen An leaned by her ear and asked: “Why aren’t you eating?”

Why was this pot also emitting hot air?

Cheng Lele tilted her head away: “Dieting.”

Chen An said: “You’re already thin as a wheat stalk—what diet? Eat if you want to. Finally get to relax.” As he spoke, he grabbed a kernel of popcorn and stuffed it in her mouth.

Chen An’s dry fingertip grazed across Cheng Lele’s lips. He imperceptibly wiped away the lingering warmth on his finger.

Cheng Lele saw it. But she still had to pretend she didn’t see it.

Good grief, why did she come out to watch a movie? Better to have stayed home listening to “Eighteen-Mile Sendoff.”

Cheng Lele was forced to use up her entire year’s quota of curse words in her head. She just couldn’t understand how Chen An could develop romantic feelings for her. Adults always said that even the most passionate love eventually becomes familial affection, but she’d never heard that familial affection could heat up and reverse into romantic love. Her little brother really wasn’t an ordinary person.

Did Chen An have too little contact with other girls? Couldn’t be—he didn’t have that kind of aloof and abstinent personality.

Then what did he like about her?

Cheng Lele couldn’t think of any merits she had. If there were any, her appearance might be not bad. But people always said the two of them looked alike. Could Chen An be a narcissistic daffodil gazing at its reflection, unable to fall in love with himself and achieve self-reproduction, so he found her as a substitute?

Cheng Lele let her thoughts run wild for several hours. After “The Avengers” finished, she didn’t even know that Captain America and Iron Man weren’t on the same team.

Coming out of the theater, Cheng Lele asked Chen An: “Little brother, do you like yourself?”

“Huh?” Chen An was baffled by the question. “I guess so.”

Cheng Lele grabbed his left hand and placed it on his right hand: “Do you feel anything?”

Chen An frowned: “What are you doing?”

Cheng Lele shook her head despairingly: “Nothing. Going crazy after finishing exams.”

“Why are you walking so fast? I still have something to tell you…”

Cheng Lele thought, what do you want to say? If you confess, I’ll commit suicide on the spot.

Chen An said: “When do you have time to go pick out furniture for the apartment with me?”

Cheng Lele’s head doubled in size. Before, she had been naive, thinking that having an apartment near school would make it convenient to take care of each other in daily life. Now when she heard about the two of them living in one apartment, the first thing that came to mind was “cohabitation,” and with him buying the house and her picking furniture, it was like building a love nest together—too hard to explain.

Cheng Lele asked with feigned casualness: “Little brother, how big is your apartment?”

Chen An was leading her across the street. There were no traffic lights here—passage relied entirely on mutual understanding between pedestrians and drivers. He naturally took Cheng Lele’s hand and said: “Sixty-something square meters.”

Cheng Lele imagined how big sixty-something square meters was, feeling it was somewhere between a studio and a small two-bedroom. She hadn’t extracted the key information.

Chen An turned his head to look at Cheng Lele’s face: “Too small? I’ll get you a bigger one next year.”

Chen An’s hand was large and easily enveloped hers. Cheng Lele thought, do siblings in other families hold hands? She had been accustomed to Chen An holding her hand to cross streets since childhood—being protected by him seemed like a natural thing. Now she was self-examining every instance of physical contact.

After crossing the street, Chen An didn’t let go. Standing under the directory sign, he asked: “You still haven’t said when you’ll come see it with me.”

Cheng Lele thought, after crossing the street, siblings in other families definitely wouldn’t keep holding hands. So she struggled free, deliberately raising her hand to brush her bangs, and said: “These couple days I’m going cycling with Chen Xiaomu and them. We’ve been talking about it for over a year without doing it—can’t stand them up again.”

Actually, nothing was set yet.

“Who all is going?”

“Just me and Chen Xiaomu, plus Zhong Ming.” Mentioning Zhong Ming, she looked up at Chen An. It seemed little brother didn’t have a good impression of Zhong Ming.

Sure enough, Chen An’s face darkened and his eyebrows raised: “Cycling where? Not coming back the same day?”

Thanks to the year-plus of their independent lives and her skill at reporting good news but not bad, Cheng Lele’s impromptu performance ability was quite strong. Combining what Chen Xiaomu had fantasized about on QQ today, she made something up: “Maybe ride along the coastline and circle around our province.”

Chen An had thought it was just cycling to the suburbs for a picnic. Turns out it was an outdoor expedition that sounded like it wouldn’t return for ten days to half a month. He said arbitrarily: “No way, too dangerous.”

“We’re not going to the wilderness—playing around the city. Graduation trip.”

“Zhong Ming graduated from high school years ago. Why is he joining your excitement?”

“He has experience—he’s our guide.”

“Then count me in too.”

“Don’t you have to work?”

Chen An fell silent. He looked quietly at Cheng Lele who countered every sentence with a clear purpose and asked: “Don’t want to take a graduation trip with me?”

Cheng Lele lowered her eyes: “That’s not it.” The words were pale and unconvincing.

Chen An asked again: “Want to go with Zhong Ming?”

Cheng Lele retorted: “There’s also Chen Xiaomu.” After saying this, she saw the light in Chen An’s eyes completely extinguish.

Her response was tantamount to admitting she only wanted to go with them. She had hurt little brother’s heart.

The cheerful atmosphere between them instantly cooled. Chen An didn’t want to make things unpleasant on Cheng Lele’s first day of vacation. He took a step back and nodded: “A graduation trip really isn’t suitable for bringing little brother along. Find a few more classmates to go together—look out for each other. Be careful on the road.”

After speaking, Chen An strode forward, leaving ice shards along the way. Cheng Lele followed step by step behind him, not daring to coax him either. She couldn’t act carelessly coquettish like before now, afraid little brother would misunderstand.

After walking a bit, the two sat at a small stall drinking sweet soup. Chen An silently stirred his spoon, waiting for Cheng Lele to say a few sweet words to coax him. Cheng Lele kept her eyes on her nose and nose on her heart, concentrating wholeheartedly on eating glutinous rice balls without giving him even a glance.

Chen An was so angry he threw down his spoon and took out his phone to handle business.

Cheng Lele was too scared to move, her head nearly buried in the soup bowl, glutinous rice balls about to stick to her face.

There was a missed call on his phone from Wang Liting’s secretary. Chen An called back. The secretary asked about CIF price changes. Chen An explained a few sentences.

Hearing Chen An’s tone return to normal, Cheng Lele raised her head a bit more properly and stuffed another glutinous rice ball in her mouth. This sweet soup shop’s glutinous rice balls had thin skin and generous filling. Cheng Lele loved the sesame filling most—only now could she properly taste it.

Suddenly Chen An reached over. While on the phone, he saw some black sesame filling at the corner of Cheng Lele’s mouth and without thinking reached up to wipe it. Cheng Lele’s spine stiffened. Her eyes rolled down diagonally, watching Chen An’s hand with prominent knuckles slowly rubbing on her face.

Only after wiping did Chen An realize this action was too intimate. In front of Cheng Lele, he had always deliberately restrained himself, not letting himself do overly crazy boundary-crossing behaviors to avoid scaring her. But the phone call just now distracted him, and he naturally went to touch the area around her lips.

He discovered Cheng Lele’s expression clearly carried a trace of wariness.

He hung up the phone in a few words. Not dwelling on the earlier unpleasantness, he was eager to say something to distract her attention: “Done eating? Where else do you want to go?”

Cheng Lele’s frozen state thawed. She shook her head: “Going home. It’s dinner time—Mom urged me to go back.”

There were still over two hours until dinner time. Otherwise why would the two be sitting here drinking sweet soup?

Chen An had a bad feeling. As Cheng Lele stood up, Chen An grabbed her hand: “Lele?”

“Hm?” Cheng Lele’s eyes were innocent and harmless, like clear lake water.

Chen An secretly breathed a sigh of relief and said: “Nothing. I’ll take you home.”