Back at Zhou Mi’s little nest, because the entryway was too narrow, they could only change shoes one after another. Zhang Lian slipped on the matching men’s slippers Zhou Mi had bought a couple of days ago, went to the bathroom to wash his hands, and just as he was about to come out, the girl spread her arms at the doorway and embraced him again.

“Why are you so clingy?” He simply leaned back slightly against the door, lazily smiling as he received her affection.

Zhou Mi pretended to think hard: “I don’t know, maybe you have a Zhou Mi magnet on you.”

Zhang Lian was pleased and embraced her, too. After quietly holding each other for a while, he suddenly straightened up, his long fingers sliding down along the fabric of her back.

Zhou Mi got goosebumps from his sensitive touch.

His arms used a bit of force, lifting her by her legs.

The whole sequence was quick and fluid; Zhou Mi had no time to react, shocked into hooking her arms around Zhang Lian’s neck, and was subsequently carried to the bed.

During the journey, she heard the rustle of the shopping bag, probably him taking something out.

Zhang Lian pressed forward, propping himself up, but without making the next move, just looking at her from up close. His deep gaze was unabashed desire, like it was on fire, scorching and lingering.

Zhou Mi swallowed, feeling an uncontrollable emptiness inside. She tightened her legs, longing to fill all the gaps between them.

Zhang Lian lifted his lips mischievously because of her instinctive entwinement.

Zhou Mi noticed this, took one hand from his neck, and covered his mouth: “No laughing.”

Zhang Lian grasped that hand and began to lightly kiss her palm, then moved toward her wrist. That patch of skin gradually became stained with his warm, moist breath.

He looked down at her, his eyes so deep, his lips so red, as if he would break her thin blood vessels at any moment, then drain her dry.

Zhou Mi couldn’t withstand this kind of gaze, this way of kissing, and involuntarily let out a nasal sound.

Darkness fell before her eyes as Zhang Lian leaned in again, capturing her lips. In an instant, that densely gathered tingling sensation made Zhou Mi’s whole body go weak.

He always managed to recite and remember her key words.

They overlapped and embraced, their breath and body temperature consistently hot.

Zhou Mi’s cheeks and ears burned, impossible to resist, like an addiction. She effortlessly sank into his territory and markings.

…

While embracing, Zhou Mi felt his tense back muscles with her fingertips: “You seem almost unchanged.”

Zhang Lian caressed her face: “What kind of change do you want?”

Zhou Mi made a sound, tears in her eyes: “Mm… it feels so good.”

Zhang Lian curved his lips at her straightforward praise, lowered his head to kiss her eyelids, and asked in a very low, breathy voice: “How good?”

Zhou Mi closed her eyes to feel it, but couldn’t give a specific answer: “I don’t know, can’t describe it, just very good.”

As if there were no more gaps, she became the most fulfilled and complete person in the world. Her spring eyes overflowed and ran wild for his piercing, and were rejuvenated.

Zhang Lian kissed her slightly raised lips, turning “very good” into “even better.” They were like violins in rapid play, reshaping the harmony of the score and movement in the friction between bow and string.

…

Like an avalanche, like a surge of waves, earth-shaking, the nearly suffocating pleasure completely submerged Zhou Mi from head to toe…

—

When everything calmed down, both of them looked like they had just been salvaged from a hot sea.

Zhou Mi lay on her side holding Zhang Lian, her arm across his front. She didn’t want to move at all, a pink flush on her face, like a rose soaked in rain.

The lingering marks were like the brushstrokes and color expressions of romantic painting, conveying wonderful sentiment.

Zhou Mi savored the moment, unable to help smiling: “Though you’re a year older, I feel you’re still as good as before.”

Zhang Lian laughed once: “Not better?”

Zhou Mi’s pupils playfully turned twice: “Maybe?”

Zhang Lian wasn’t very satisfied with this modal particle, narrowing his eyes: “Maybe?”

“Yes—” she corrected, drawing out the final sound endlessly: “Of course yes—”

Zhou Mi nestled deeper into his arms: “Just now, I couldn’t concentrate enough to answer your question.”

Zhang Lian asked: “What question?”

Zhou Mi said, “About how good it was.”

Zhang Lian contentedly hummed: “Tell me.”

“How to put it,” she put her leg on him too, clinging to him from the side like a koala: “It’s not just instinct and satisfaction, but also a kind of… sense of conversion, a kind of vitality. After being with this person like this, the ability to fight loneliness suddenly decreases.”

Zhang Lian turned to her because of this description, once again, face-to-face, embracing as one. Finally, he said: “Me too.”

They chatted lazily for a while, then Zhang Lian lowered his face, his lips lightly touching Zhou Mi’s forehead: “Want to take a shower?”

Zhou Mi squeezed out a sweet, thin voice: “Want Zhang Lian Lian to carry me there to wash?”

“Okay.” He smiled, directly scooping her up.

Water fights were one of their favorite activities. After a round of splashing and chasing in the misty fog, Zhang Lian pulled her back in front, raised the shower head to thoroughly wet her hair.

He very carefully worked up a head full of bubbles on Zhou Mi’s head, turning her into a soft, sweet, milky white little mushroom.

“Ah, it got in my eye— it hurts.” A tiny bit of foam accidentally slid into Zhou Mi’s left eye, causing her eyelid and the bridge of her nose to scrunch up.

Zhang Lian grabbed a towel to wipe her face a few times: “Can you open your eyes now?”

Zhou Mi slightly relaxed her expression, trying to lift her eyelid.

Zhang Lian’s kiss immediately followed, a reward for her cuteness.

Zhou Mi punched his wet chest: “Why are you always finding ways to kiss me?”

Zhang Lian calmly replied: “Aren’t you also scheming to hug me?”

Zhou Mi flatly denied: “I am not, I hug you openly and honestly!” Saying this, she dove into his embrace again, as if suffering from skin hunger.

Every time she filled his chest, Zhang Lian would develop a sense of laziness and possessiveness, lazily thinking, Don’t ever let her go again, let her grow on him from now on.

After finishing the shower together, feeling refreshed, Zhang Lian dried Zhou Mi’s hair, then made a call to Auntie Chen, asking her to find someone to deliver two sets of clean clothes.

Zhou Mi applied a thin face mask in front of the desk mirror, and as soon as she turned around, she saw the bare-chested man sitting cross-legged on the bed.

His body wasn’t the bulky kind of strong, but it had clearly visible muscle lines, clean and powerful.

He was looking at his phone, his expression particularly calm.

All efforts wasted, the face mask she had carefully smoothed began to wrinkle again.

Lately, she kept smiling, couldn’t stop, it had become a reflex, as long as her sight fell on Zhang Lian.

She asked: “Are you cold?”

Zhang Lian glanced at her: “Yes, cold.”

Zhou Mi made an “oh” sound: “What should we do? Today was so sudden, I hadn’t thought about having you stay over.”

Zhang Lian’s eyes deepened, humming lowly: “So after having fun, you’re kicking me out?”

Zhou Mi protested: “Not at all!”

She walked over, pulled the light blue, ruffled-edged, thin blanket from the foot of the bed, dragged it over, crawled onto the bed on her knees, and wrapped it around him from the nape of his neck.

Zhang Lian turned his face: “What are you doing?”

Zhou Mi returned to his side and answered: “Afraid you’ll catch a cold, wrapping you up.”

Zhang Lian casually shrugged his shoulders, causing the blanket to slip off. He pulled Zhou Mi over, cleared a space in front of him, bent his legs, wedged her between them, and rested his chin on her shoulder hollow, breathing warmly: “Let’s do it this way.”

This position of sitting back-to-front always made one feel intoxicated and fulfilled.

Zhou Mi nudged one shoulder, bumping him very lightly: “But your back is still cold.”

Zhang Lian said, “As long as my heart isn’t cold, it’s fine.”

Zhou Mi immediately smiled, almost dizzy with happiness.

Her index fingers crossed and tapped his wrist: “You know what?”

Zhang Lian turned off the email page on his phone, listening attentively: “Hmm?”

Zhou Mi said, “I especially like sitting in your arms to read books, watch movies, it feels especially easy to focus.”

He was like a small house or hinterland the size of her heart, able to accommodate her just right.

“I like every way you hold me, standing hugs, lying hugs, sitting hugs,” she said with a brilliant smile, being coquettish: “I don’t know how I’d manage without them.”

Zhang Lian laughed, with an unclear meaning: “Then how did you get through this past year?”

Zhou Mi put away her delighted expression: “Just got through it somehow.”

Zhang Lian asked: “Didn’t your ex-boyfriend hug you?”

Zhou Mi hadn’t expected him to bring up that old issue directly between them, and fell silent.

Her chest rose and fell for a long time before she softly replied: “He did.”

Then she asked: “How did you spend this year?”

Zhang Lian was also silent for a few seconds, his voice flat: “I blocked your ex-boyfriend’s Moments three times.”

Zhou Mi’s nose suddenly felt extremely sour.

Zhang Lian said in her ear, “The last time I opened it, I felt you weren’t happy in the photos.”

Zhou Mi’s heart began to burn: “There wasn’t much worth seeing.”

Zhang Lian seemed to agree: “True, there wasn’t much to see, but how else could I see you?”

Her chest felt blocked, choked, painfully unable to breathe: “I was the one who really couldn’t see you.”

She complained: “You never really came to see me, did you?”

Zhang Lian said, “I did.”

Zhou Mi said, “When?”

Zhang Lian said, “Many times.”

Zhou Mi tried to recall: “Can’t think of any.”

Zhang Lian replied: “Once, I wanted to give you a ring. That day, I was just across the street. Thinking back, that excuse was terrible.”

Zhou Mi was stunned, recalling that day.

Zhang Lian said, “You were with Jijie, very happy. You also said that the way to get over a breakup is to quickly fall for the next man, and at that time, I seemed awful to you, didn’t I?”

“That’s not it…” Zhou Mi choked, her hands rubbing her eyelids hard, but the wetness still spilled out: “That’s not it, I just wanted to look forward, I didn’t want to force you, thought I could gradually forget you, thought hiding, diverting, would work. I thought you didn’t like me much, that I was a terrible person who wasn’t valued. I thought things would get better that way, but they didn’t. During that time, I felt like a wrapped gift, just afraid that the person who had me would be disappointed in me.”

Zhang Lian put down his phone and held her tightly with both arms, inhaling deeply at her neck: “I also thought I could not care.”

“But I couldn’t.”

“Changed the phone ringtone twice, but nothing sounded right.”

“So I heard it.” Like there was a genuine echo from the other end of the valley, no longer vague, Zhou Mi also slipped her hands into the gaps between his fingers, intertwining them tightly, locking the two of them deeply together.

“Zhang Lian,” Zhou Mi called his name softly, looking regretful and sad: “I hope you can forget that sentence. I never meant to hurt you, you really are very good, the best person. If it could be erased or covered up, I’d be willing to repeat to you three thousand times, I love you three thousand, and write it as punishment in a notebook.”

Zhang Lian laughed softly, understanding the reference, his hot breath very close to her ear, commanding in a breathy voice: “Fine, go write it now, get off the bed, no sleeping until you finish copying.”

Zhou Mi broke into a laugh through her tears, grunting and pinching the back of his hand in revenge.

Zhang Lian covered her hand, once again interlocking their fingers.

The two held each other quietly for a while, then Zhang Lian’s phone suddenly rang with a melody familiar to them both, that song “Lots to Learn.” Zhou Mi turned her head, watching him answer.

After a brief call, Zhang Lian indicated to Zhou Mi: “Help me get something from the door.”

Zhou Mi asked: “What?”

Zhang Lian: “My clothes. I’m naked, not convenient.”

Zhou Mi suddenly understood, breaking away from his embrace.

Zhang Lian pulled her back: “Wait, get it later. You’re a girl living alone, don’t you know this basic common sense?”

Zhou Mi turned her head, her tone suddenly elevated: “How could I not know? Even on my takeout orders, it says ‘Mr. Zhou,’ okay? I’m afraid you’ll catch a cold. How long has it been since you had that fever? Have you forgotten?”

Zhang Lian decisively removed her face mask and stopped her full, incessantly chattering little mouth.

After kissing for a while, Zhou Mi was released, her face red, and like an adorable little wild rabbit, she jumped back to the floor with a thump, slipped on her slippers, and quickly shuffled to the door.

A moment later, Zhou Mi returned huffing and puffing with a large black duffel bag, bulging: “Are you staying over or moving in?”

Zhang Lian raised his eyebrows in surprise, hurriedly got off the bed to take it from her, placed it on the table, pulled open the zipper to peek inside, then turned back with a smile: “Auntie Chen might be planning to take a half-month vacation.”