“Here, be careful, it’s hot.”

Shen Yi held a bowl of congee, scooped up a spoonful, and blew on it before feeding it to Rong Qian. After Rong Qian had eaten a few mouthfuls, she couldn’t hold back a laugh.

“What are you laughing at?” He pulled out a tissue and wiped her mouth, then waited patiently for her to finish laughing before continuing to feed her.

Rong Qian said with a smile, “I just remembered — ever since I learned to use a spoon on my own at age two, no one has ever fed me again.”

Shen Yi said with great solemnity, “Then being able to feed you is truly my honor.”

“Well, of course!” Rong Qian raised an eyebrow at him, and Shen Yi couldn’t help shaking his head with an amused smile.

Still, Shen Yi had rarely heard her talk about her childhood. Now that the topic had opened up, he found himself genuinely curious.

Rong Qian spoke of her early years with quite a bit of pride.

She said proudly, “According to my mom, I never gave her a moment’s worry when I was little. I ate well, fell asleep without needing to be coaxed, and could take care of myself from a young age. It got to the point where my mom said she never felt any sense of accomplishment from raising me.”

“That’s because our A’Qian was clever from the very start.” Shen Yi patted her head, his tone full of pride.

At that, Rong Qian leaned in and whispered to him with a mysterious air, “But I’ve heard that when I was little, I had the ‘yin-yang eye’ — I could see ghosts!”

“Ghosts?” Shen Yi’s expression turned a little strange. The topic seemed to have taken a rather abrupt turn.

Seeing that he appeared to believe her, Rong Qian burst out laughing. “You didn’t actually believe that, did you? Oh come on — there are no such things as ghosts. But I did hear from my mom that I really did do some very strange things when I was little.”

“Like what?” Shen Yi was genuinely curious.

Rong Qian thought for a moment before saying, “Well, for example, I’d often laugh at empty spaces, or wave at the air as if asking to be picked up.”

“And then there was the time I was playing with toys in the living room at night, and suddenly just ran into the bedroom, pulled the covers over myself, and went to sleep — as if someone had called out to me. Doesn’t that sound strange?”

“It does sound quite strange.” Shen Yi had heard this before — that young children could see things adults couldn’t.

Rong Qian smiled and said, “Later on, my mom even took me to have my fortune read. And guess what — can you guess what the fortune teller said about me?”

The way Rong Qian told a story always left you hanging. Anyone else would have been burning with impatience to hear the rest, but Shen Yi appeared perfectly unhurried, which in turn made Rong Qian run out of patience first.

So without waiting for Shen Yi to ask, she announced it herself. “The fortune teller said that there was a guardian spirit by my side, always protecting me from the shadows — and that this guardian spirit was my destined one!”

“Wouldn’t that be me?” Shen Yi said without a hint of modesty.

Rong Qian teased him. “Mr. Shen, you have quite the thick skin!”

“You’ve never kissed it — how would you know?” Shen Yi said with a perfectly straight face, tapping his own cheek.

Rong Qian pressed her lips together to hide a smile, then leaned over and quickly planted a kiss on his cheek. But whether it was because she’d moved too quickly or at the wrong angle, the motion pulled at the wound on her back, and Rong Qian hissed sharply in pain.

Shen Yi startled. He hastily set the bowl on the table and immediately asked, “What’s wrong? Where does it hurt?”

“A whole group of grown men going after one defenseless woman is bad enough, but then they had to attack from behind — they have no dignity!” Rong Qian muttered indignantly. She rubbed her shoulder and turned a pitiful expression on Shen Yi. “My back hurts a little. Can you rub it for me?”

When Shen Yi had helped her change clothes the night before, he hadn’t looked closely. Now, stepping around to her back and lifting her sleep shirt, he saw a dark bruise spread across her pale skin. In an instant, his expression dropped to something ice cold.

Rong Qian showed no sign of embarrassment — as if it were the most natural thing in the world. He wanted to look, so he looked. There was no sense of awkwardness between them.

Shen Yi applied medicine for her and then massaged her shoulders, his movements so easy and natural that they seemed like a long-married couple.

Rong Qian was very satisfied with his attentiveness. She even found herself thinking: if she were ever to marry Shen Yi, this was probably what their everyday life together would look like.

And yet reality lay squarely before her, forcing her to face it.

Shen Yi sensed her mood dipping and knew the time for casual conversation was over. It was time to talk about what mattered.

“Shen Yi, I saw you.”

Rong Qian had thought about where to begin, but in the end she decided to start from what had happened after she’d jumped into the sea.

She turned to look at him, her gaze entirely serious. “I don’t know whether it was a hallucination, or whether you really did appear — but after I jumped into the water, I truly did see you.”

Rong Qian had not forgotten. On the contrary, she remembered it clearly.

Even if she told Shen Yi about it, the question had no answer. Rong Qian knew this — and yet she couldn’t stop herself from telling him anyway.

“A’Qian.” Shen Yi looked steadily into her eyes. He said nothing more, but Rong Qian already knew what he wanted to say. She bit her lip and said stubbornly, “I know — it was just a hallucination. I just don’t want to admit it.”

Shen Yi drew her close, letting her rest against his chest. Rong Qian took a deep breath, rallied herself, and told him everything that had happened after she returned — from beginning to end.

Including how, after she’d crossed through time, she had ended up at Shen Fongran’s home.

Rong Qian concealed nothing from Shen Yi.

Because Shen Yi had her pressed against his chest, Rong Qian couldn’t see his expression, but she could feel it — when he heard about what she had gone through at Shen Fongran’s house, his grip tightened visibly, the knuckles going pale.

After a long while, she finally heard Shen Yi say, “So that explains it.”

“Explains what?” Rong Qian looked up at him. Shen Yi had clearly reined in his emotions; his expression was calm now.

“Things I couldn’t make sense of before suddenly become clear. A’Qian, you’ve played no small part in this.”

Shen Yi hadn’t known that Mu Chaoxue had been held captive by Shen Fongran, so the things that had puzzled him before now made sense. Rong Qian was glad too — as long as she’d been of some help.

And having heard so much from Rong Qian about events from his own future, Shen Yi was suddenly struck by a bold theory.

He said to her, “A’Qian, I think I may already know why my future self did what he did.”

“Really?” Rong Qian was surprised. She quickly asked, “Why?”

Shen Yi simply looked into her eyes and said, “A’Qian — after this, you may have to wait for me.”

Rong Qian froze. Wait for him? What did he mean?