“A’Qian — I already heard.”

Before Rong Qian could say another word, Shen Yi spoke first. There were things he couldn’t say while looking at her.

So Shen Yi turned away, choosing to face his back toward her.

“Oh — so you heard everything.” Rong Qian’s cheeks flushed a light pink. She cupped her face in her hands, shy in the way of a girl nursing her first crush.

But none of this, Shen Yi saw.

His hands were hidden inside the pockets of his coat, fists clenched so tightly that the tips of his fingers had gone white. Shen Yi closed his eyes, steeled himself, drew a deep breath — and then said: “A’Qian, you may have misunderstood your own feelings.”

“Hmm?”

“The way you like me isn’t really so different from how Yao Na feels. You simply believe you have an obligation to protect me — so the feelings you have for me are just that: liking, and nothing more.”

Shen Yi made himself appear perfectly calm. What he didn’t let show was that his heart was bleeding.

Shen Yi had come to realize that all sixteen years of his life up to this point, he had been living inside a dream.

A dream — an impractical, beautiful dream.

If he didn’t know the reason why Rong Qian had traveled through time, hearing her say she liked him would have sent him into ecstatic joy. But right now, all Shen Yi felt was pain and conflict.

As Rong Qian herself had said — they had no future. And yet the entire reason Shen Yi had endured that long, agonizing wait was precisely so that he could have a future with her.

He was innately single-minded. Once he had fixed on someone, there was only ever going to be that one person.

Shen Yi had imagined it countless times — Rong Qian staying because of him, the two of them walking through the rest of their lives together. His wish was simple: for every remaining day, to wake up and find Rong Qian beside him.

But now Shen Yi knew — this was no mere wish. It was a fool’s fantasy.

Shen Yi understood very clearly: even if he could survive this crisis, even if he lived, he and Rong Qian still could not be together.

Decades from now, he would be a white-haired old man. And she would still be young and beautiful.

The moment that thought fully settled in, Shen Yi felt something close to despair.

He wanted so much to tell her — what he felt for her wasn’t simple liking. It was love.

But that love… was not something the Rong Qian of this moment could bear to receive.

“A’Qian — let’s just stay as we are. Don’t put any pressure on yourself. The way things are between us now — it’s fine like this.”

Shen Yi no longer dared to hope. No longer dared to dream. He feared that the greater the expectation, the deeper the despair would be when it finally came.

The atmosphere went deathly still.

Just when Shen Yi thought Rong Qian wasn’t going to say anything — she spoke.

“Shen Yi, turn around. Look at me.”

Shen Yi waged a brief internal battle before he forced himself into an expression of calm and turned around.

The moment he turned, he found that Rong Qian had — at some point without him noticing — moved to stand right behind him. She was very close. With the difference in their heights, at this proximity, Rong Qian had to tilt her head back to look up at him.

And Shen Yi had to look down at her.

“How do you know that what I feel for you is only ‘like’?” Rong Qian held his gaze directly.

Shen Yi curved his mouth into a faint smile. “I just know.”

“Even if I do this — it’s still only ‘like’?” As she said it, Rong Qian rose up on her toes and pressed a quick, light kiss to his lips. When she pulled back, the corners of her eyes were crinkled with a mischievous, playful smile.

Shen Yi froze. He stood there, completely dazed.

She — had kissed him? On her own initiative?

“I don’t know what ridiculous thoughts have been running through your head, but Shen Yi — I, Rong Qian, am not the kind of person who beats around the bush.”

Rong Qian looked at him, her tone serious and measured: “There are things I weigh carefully. But once I’ve reached a conclusion, I go forward without fear — no looking back. Before, I held back my response partly because I knew there would be no outcome. But right now? I don’t care about that anymore.”

From childhood to now, Rong Qian had never once done something impulsive, something heedless of consequences.

This was the one exception. And it would be the last.

“I have never liked any man — only you make me think of nothing else, make me miss you with an ache that reaches the bone. I risked my life to come find you — and it wasn’t only to save you. More than that, it was because I wanted to see you.”

She said it all in one breath. Then she drew a deep breath and continued: “So stop suppressing yourself. You don’t have to be careful anymore. You don’t have to guard that insufferable boundary between us.”

“Really, once things are said openly, it’s not so bad. Who knows — maybe once we’ve laid our hearts bare to each other, we’ll find that the feeling fades a little. After all, there’s a saying: what you can’t have is what holds the most power over you.”

Even as she said all of this, Rong Qian’s habit of offering reassurance to others kicked in, and she tacked on a word of comfort. Having said so much, she didn’t dare look at Shen Yi’s face anymore. Right now she just wanted to step outside for some air.

“Think it over — I’m going to take a walk.” Rong Qian made to leave first.

But she had barely taken two steps before a powerful force yanked her back. Rong Qian stumbled, took two faltering steps — and was pressed against the wall.

In the next instant, Shen Yi’s broad, warm palm had curved around the back of her head. Unlike his usual gentleness, the Shen Yi of this moment was forceful — almost to the point of being domineering.

He lowered his head and kissed her.

This was nothing like Rong Qian’s brief, fleeting peck from a moment ago. Shen Yi kissed her with possession and aggression — he parted her lips, pushed past the barrier of her teeth, and forcefully made his way in. One arm curled tight around her waist, pulling her flush against the heat of his body.

Rong Qian had the sensation that Shen Yi was trying to melt her into himself entirely.

Their bodies pressed close together.

Rong Qian’s hands, which had been clutching at the hem of his coat, gradually relaxed and changed course — until she was wrapping her arms around his waist.

This kiss, Shen Yi held for a long, long time.

He no longer restrained his feelings. No longer warned himself that he mustn’t cross the line with her. In this moment, Rong Qian was his — she belonged only to him. No one else was allowed to touch a single hair on her head, or spare her so much as a second glance.

Xu Mo had been waiting in the car for a long time. It wasn’t until he looked up to see Shen Yi and Rong Qian walking back toward the car hand in hand — both with smiles they couldn’t quite conceal, the looks they exchanged so deeply tender they seemed about to spill over — that Xu Mo was nearly moved to tears.

His boss had waited so long and worked so hard. He had finally won the beauty’s heart.

After getting back in the car, Rong Qian curled herself against Shen Yi’s side, leaning into his arms. Shen Yi wrapped an arm around her shoulders and gently patted her — the way one might soothe someone to sleep.

And Rong Qian did indeed fall asleep. She slept soundly and at peace, so deeply that she didn’t even know when Shen Yi had carried her out of the car.

When she finally woke, she found herself already in bed.

She sat up in a daze — and saw Shen Yi sitting nearby, reading a book. When he noticed she had woken, he asked in a gentle voice: “Are you thirsty? Do you want some water?”

Rong Qian shook her head. Then she lay back down and fell asleep again.

She had only wanted to check — whether Shen Yi was still there.