It had been a long time since they’d had a proper family dinner like this.

The atmosphere around the table had gradually grown warm and lively — particularly Ning Deyan, who had been pleasantly mellowed by the wine and launched into a series of colorful stories about his past. He was talking about the days he’d spent working as a telephone operator.

He had a certain natural flair for it — whatever he described, he made vivid. Everyone listened with genuine interest.

“You wouldn’t believe the kinds of people you’d encounter in that job. Debt collectors, senior citizens getting into physical altercations, kids running away from home. One time, a woman called in looking for her husband, and I accidentally connected her to the female neighbor next door — and they still managed to find him. Hahaha……”

“Oh——” Xia Fanghui laughed so hard she started coughing, and only then, noticing Ning Yue beside her hanging on every word and slapping the table, registered that this particular story was perhaps not entirely suitable for younger audiences. She brought herself to an abrupt stop: “Shouldn’t you be going to do your winter break homework?”

Ning Yue: “……”

Was he not allowed to have a single moment of happiness?!

Even though he was deeply reluctant, Ning Yue endured Fangfang’s authority and hauled himself up toward his room.

He went with slow, heavy steps, looking back every other second, his gaze lingering mournfully on the source of the brief joy now being taken from him: “Ge, you have to come back often, okay!”

Once Ning Yue had gone inside and shut the door behind him, Xia Fanghui looked around at the nearly empty spread of dishes and smiled brightly: “Let me get you all some fruit.”

Xie Yichen moved to follow and help, but she pressed him back down: “No need — let Auntie handle it.”

For Fangfang, taking care of people was one of life’s great pleasures — she genuinely loved it. Ning Sui gave a light tug on Xie Yichen’s sleeve: “It’s fine, sit down.”

Xie Yichen had been on his feet the entire evening — getting food for her, ladling soup, filling bowls, occasionally saying something that made Ning Yue burst out laughing. She had the feeling he’d barely had time to eat anything himself.

Taking advantage of Xia Fanghui’s absence, Ning Sui bowed her head and picked up a prawn, peeled it, and placed it in his bowl: “Eat more.”

Ning Deyan let out a small cough from the other end of the table. She quickly peeled another, ready to pass it over — but when she looked up, she realized her dad had simply been clearing his throat from talking so much. She calmly ate the one in her hand herself.

Xie Yichen’s brow arched with amusement. He lowered his voice: “Is your father always like this?”

Ning Sui let the corner of her mouth curve up, speaking quietly in return: “He’s funny like that.”

“Does he never get angry?”

“That’s not quite right.” Ning Sui gave it genuine thought. “When my dad does get angry, it’s… distinctive.”

Ning Deyan was usually easygoing and cheerful. It took a lot for him to actually lose his temper — but when he genuinely wasn’t pleased, he would sit someone down and talk to them. Firmly.

The thing was, his version of talking wasn’t Fangfang’s explosive kind. It was more like a slow-moving stream — steady and unending. He’d go on for two, three hours at a stretch. Drawn-out and boundless, wearing you down to the point where you started thinking a single devastating reprimand might actually be kinder.

Ning Sui remembered one time when Ning Yue had been slacking on his piano practice and not taking seriously the work his teacher had assigned. Ning Deyan had come home, fetched a small stool with all the warmth and patience in the world, and said affectionately to the small creature before him: “Come on, son. Sit down.”

And then proceeded to speak to him, earnestly and without pause, from after dinner until bedtime.

By the middle of it, Ning Yue had already surrendered completely: “Dad, I genuinely know I was wrong. I really, truly promise I won’t do it again——”

Ning Deyan, apparently not having heard a word, was still going strong: “Making mistakes is inevitable — but the key is approaching accountability with the right mindset…”

Ning Yue: “……”

That particular occasion had left an unusually deep impression on him — more effective, it turned out, than if he’d simply been given a smack.

Nowadays, the mere sight of Ning Deyan picking up a small stool triggered an immediate physiological response in him: “Dad, please — whatever you need from me, I’ll do it. Just please don’t talk. Ahhhh!”

Xie Yichen couldn’t suppress a laugh: “He sounds like a fairly resilient kid, all things considered.”

That was certainly true — he had an enviable ability to bounce back.

Ning Sui thought it over, then said in a slow, measured way: “Compared to me, honestly — probably about equal.”

They didn’t get to talk for very long in private, because Fangfang came back out carrying a plate of green grapes she’d bought that afternoon, along with a large pomelo, which she set down on an empty space at the table.

Xie Yichen naturally began breaking apart the pomelo, separating it into segments, peeling each one carefully, and picking out all the seeds. When the first segment was ready, he handed it to Ning Sui.

Ning Sui accepted it without a second thought — and then realized Xia Fanghui’s sharp, attentive gaze was quietly taking in the whole exchange. She licked her lips and, in an act of diplomatic cover, held it back out: “Mom, do you want some?”

Xia Fanghui gave her a look of complete bewilderment, then glanced at Ning Deyan, and said in a tone that conveyed something she wasn’t quite saying: “Why are you giving it to me? It was peeled for you — you eat it.”

Ning Deyan, who had drunk just enough to be pleasantly foggy, was lagging a half beat behind — then caught up with a jolt and hastily grabbed a segment to peel for himself.

As he peeled, he was thinking: this was honestly mortifying. How was this young man managing to make even him look inconsiderate?

A satisfying dinner, all told. Around ten o’clock, Xia Fanghui said: “Yichen, it’s getting late — we won’t keep you.”

Xie Yichen agreed that the timing felt right. He helped clear the dishes, then said: “Tonight was a real pleasure, getting to have dinner with Uncle and Auntie — though it was all a bit sudden, and I didn’t have a chance to prepare anything. I’ll come back properly another time.”

Xia Fanghui gave a mild smile, saying nothing more — which was as good as consent.

Then, as an afterthought, she asked: “Do you live far? How are you planning to get home?”

“Not too bad — I’ll just grab a taxi.”

“One moment.” Xia Fanghui disappeared back into the apartment and returned lugging a small crate of white peaches. “Take these home for your family.”

Xie Yichen paused, and something shifted in his expression — his eyes softened slightly, and he didn’t decline: “Thank you, Auntie.”

Xia Fanghui added: “Travel safely.”

He smiled: “I will.”

Xie Yichen put on his shoes, shouldered his bag, and headed out. At the door, he turned back to look at Ning Sui.

Perhaps her gaze was too visibly wistful — Xia Fanghui gave a quiet cough: “If you want to see him off, go ahead.”

Ning Sui curled her fingers together: “Oh.”

So Ning Sui walked him downstairs — but didn’t dare do anything too obvious. Their floor wasn’t very high up, and Fangfang had the eyes of a hawk; she could pull back the curtain and look down at any moment.

They stood facing each other, the look in their eyes running hot, drawn toward each other with a warmth you could almost feel — and in the end they only allowed themselves a brief, restrained hug.

After Xie Yichen left, Xia Fanghui went inside to supervise Ning Yue’s homework.

She’d got him a new phone, and she was worried his self-discipline might not hold up — that he’d be secretly playing games behind the closed door of his room. She didn’t want to confiscate it, or go back to treating him like a little child. So she resorted to the occasional unannounced inspection.

When Ning Sui came back upstairs, Ning Deyan was still lounging where he’d been, blissfully comfortable and slightly adrift. That round of wine had hit just right. When he spotted Ning Sui, he lifted a hand in a fond, beckoning gesture: “Little Coconut.”

Ning Sui felt something warm stir in her chest, and went to sit beside him.

Ning Deyan leaned over and murmured: “You were nervous the whole time, weren’t you?”

Her father really did see everything.

Now that it was over, Ning Sui quietly let out a long breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.

Ning Deyan looked at her with those perceptive eyes, not drawing it out: “Your father — I’m quite impressed with Xie Yichen. You can tell from the small things — how he carries himself, how he handles interactions with people. He’s careful, mature, considerate, and attentive. I was testing him quite a bit tonight, and he stayed composed throughout, neither overly deferential nor trying too hard. He has a clear sense of where he’s going, too. Genuinely impressive — you don’t come across someone like that often.”

Ning Sui’s ears warmed. Her eyes were bright as she looked at him: “Dad.”

Ning Deyan smiled in that knowing way of his: “You two have been together a good while. I trust you know him far better than I do. How he treats you — whether it’s good or not — you can feel it, if you pay attention.”

Ning Sui couldn’t help saying: “Dad, he treats me very well.”

“If he treats you well — then that’s all that matters.”

Ning Deyan exhaled softly, and gave her head a gentle pat. “I can see your mom is on board too. She’s got that serious face going, but she’s pleased on the inside — don’t let that worry you.”

Ning Sui’s lashes fluttered. All the tension that had gathered over the course of the day quietly dissolved, and she couldn’t help turning up the corners of her mouth: “Understood.”

Ning Deyan was a little tipsy by now, and his usual restraint had loosened somewhat. Having said all that, he let his eyes go a little hazy and dropped his voice conspiratorially: “By the way — that business with his parents. Has it been resolved? I heard the person responsible was caught?”

Ning Sui gave a small “mm?” — and then, half a beat later, caught up with what he was saying.

— It had been resolved. Yes.

When the news had broken, Xie Zhenlin and Qiu Ruoyun had filed a police report — but Qiu Zhao’s phone had already been switched off, and every trace and belonging had been cleared away without a sign.

They’d nearly resigned themselves to the matter going nowhere, when more than a week later, the police announced the person had been apprehended.

The capture had been somewhat circuitous.

Qiu Zhao had apparently prepared a false identity well in advance, first slipping into Hong Kong and then waiting for the right moment to leave the territory. It had been a solid plan — but perhaps out of a pang of conscience, Qiu Zhao had called the care facility before leaving. To say goodbye to the old woman.

What he hadn’t anticipated was that the police had already set a careful net in place.

That single phone call had inadvertently given away his location, and he was caught in one sweep.

But Ning Sui’s pulse was quickening now, and her eyes had a flicker in them: “Dad——”

Ning Deyan: “What is it?”

“…Did you two already know about all this?”

She’d intended to keep it quiet, not wanting to make them anxious — and yet her father had apparently known all along. Which meant if Dad knew, Mom must know too. But then why had neither of them said a word to her? Especially Fangfang — knowing about something like this, and managing to hold back from asking her about it?

All this time, Ning Sui had been quietly keeping her relationship private, sharing as little as possible with Xia Fanghui about Xie Yichen — she’d assumed her parents’ knowledge of him had stayed at the level of when the relationship was first discovered.

The feeling in her chest right now was a mix of guilt and something more tangled than she could quite name.

Ning Deyan paused, then realized he’d said more than he meant to. He gave an awkward scratch of his head: “Haha, did I say something just now?”

Ning Sui: “……”

Ning Sui changed into her pajamas and climbed into bed, then video-called Xie Yichen. The moment he picked up, she asked: “Are you home?”

Her voice was soft, and on his end, clearly indoors, his voice came back low and unhurried: “Mm, just got in. Sent you a message.”

Ning Sui gave an “oh”: “I was just talking with my dad, didn’t see it.”

“Mm.”

Ning Sui glanced at the room around him: “Are you at your uncle’s?”

“Mm.” Xie Yichen had just finished showering. He was in a black T-shirt, leaning back against the headboard with his deep, striking features relaxed and at ease. He’d had quite a bit to drink tonight, and it showed in his loosened posture. His voice carried a faint, warm huskiness: “My aunt said she missed me — told me to come back.”

“Oh.”

They talked idly for a little while. Ning Sui rolled over on the bed, wrapped herself in the blankets, and settled her cheek against the soft pillow. Her whole body felt pleasantly heavy with ease, and she said, without quite meaning to: “I figured something out tonight.”

She had a mysterious air about it. Xie Yichen curved his lips: “What?”

Ning Sui hesitated for a beat: “My mom — I think she’s genuinely changed.”

Ever since the conversation tonight, fragments of what her dad had said had been turning over in her mind —

“Your mom has always been keeping a close eye on your love life. You probably don’t tell her much, and she’s perceptive — she can clearly feel that you keep her at a distance.”

“You know she’s incapable of staying completely hands-off. So she’d go looking on her own, digging through the parent group chats — gathering information. A lot of what she found out about Xie Yichen, I heard through her.”

Xia Fanghui had been an active and prominent member of the parent committee since Ning Sui was in primary school. By the time university came around, she was still embedded in every parent group imaginable — keeping pace with a full roster of other parents, all in the name of getting information as quickly as possible, so she’d have someone to turn to if any questions came up along Ning Sui’s academic path.

She was in group chats for nearly every combination: by year, by department, by school, for new students, for upperclassmen, in every formation. She turned up everywhere, and she went straight to the source.

Given that Ning Sui hadn’t wanted to tell her things directly, Xia Fanghui had apparently taken matters into her own hands — quietly gathering information on Xie Yichen until she had a thorough picture: the family business, his academic track record, how his peers spoke of him.

No wonder she’d been able to respond so quickly at dinner tonight, practically on reflex.

What had surprised Ning Sui most was that Xia Fanghui had learned about the situation with Xie Yichen’s family — and still hadn’t come to her with questions. In the past, she would never have been able to hold back. She’d have worried herself ragged, pulled everyone along into the panic, convinced herself of the worst.

That was precisely why Ning Sui had planned to keep it from her.

“It’s actually more than I expected, to be honest. She hasn’t erupted in a very long time. Her emotions haven’t spiraled.” Ning Sui tugged absently at the edge of her blanket, blinking slowly in thought. “It’s almost strange.”

It really had been the case that any moment could have become a flashpoint in the past.

Which was why Ning Sui had learned to walk so carefully — never wanting to meet her head-on.

She remembered that in second year of high school, Xia Fanghui had once gotten angry at her for not tying her hair in a high ponytail the way she’d asked — said it didn’t look sharp enough. The smallest deviation from expectation, a wrong word, could set her off. And the Xia Fanghui of today, compared to that version, was almost unrecognizable — soft-spoken, measured, like a different person entirely.

That kind of change had once been utterly unimaginable.

Xie Yichen’s voice came through quietly: “She does seem to have been getting steadily better.”

Ning Sui remembered then — he had witnessed the full picture in its most intense moment. Back in second year, on the staircase landing, Fangfang had been on the phone, voice climbing to the edge of breaking, barely keeping it together.

She found herself licking her lips, speaking slowly: “…If you think so too, I guess I’m not dreaming.”

Xie Yichen looked straight at her. His eyes were dark and clear under the light, steady and bright.

Ning Sui looked back. The corner of her mouth lifted on its own.

She wasn’t sure how to put it — maybe it was because the contrast with the past was so stark, but she still couldn’t quite shake the sense that this wasn’t quite real.

She glanced at the closed bedroom door first — double-checking, from memory, that she’d locked it — then hugged her pink alpaca plushie and rolled over again on the bed, curling into the blankets with contented languor.

She lowered her voice: “Xie Yichen.”

He raised an eyebrow: “Mm?”

“I feel right now like someone who wakes up in middle age and discovers they’ve won the lottery.”

Xie Yichen failed to suppress a laugh: “……”

Ning Sui turned the thought over in her mind for a moment, then suddenly identified a potential lurking problem: “You don’t think she’s giving me a taste of the good life just to pull the rug out again later, do you.”

It wasn’t entirely out of the question.

Fangfang’s emotional range, after all, made a Mediterranean barometer look straightforward.

Xie Yichen’s voice was low and measured with a hint of amusement: “That seems unlikely. She’s been stable for the better part of a year now.”

“That’s true.”

Ning Sui drifted and rolled over again, pressing her face into the pillow.

Outside the window, the moon was pale and hazy. They both looked at each other in silence, something quiet and unhurried floating through the air between them. Ning Sui lowered her lashes, let a moment pass, and then let out a quiet, soft sigh: “Actually, there are some things I need to work on too.”

She was good at turning the lens on herself.

Xie Yichen’s tone remained easy: “I’m listening.”

Ning Sui pressed her lips together and thought for a good while before she spoke, laying out her honest thoughts without reservation: “I think…it’s probably because my mom used to have such a quick temper that my impression of her got stuck that way, and I can’t quite shift it.”

She kept her voice low: “Sometimes I think I still catch myself defaulting to the worst interpretation of her — assuming she won’t be able to handle her own emotions, so I don’t tell her things, and I don’t let her in.”

Like the whole subject of her relationship — Xia Fanghui had clearly wanted, so many times, to hear more. She’d hoped Ning Sui would share a little of her life at school. Ning Sui knew that even just a casual story would have made her happy. But she couldn’t bring herself to say it.

She had noticed the disappointment. But the moment she thought back to the past, she pulled away instead.

Every time Fangfang had lost her temper, she’d been unstoppable — though she always came back to herself after the storm. But the things she’d said without thinking in those moments had edges. All those times Ning Sui had stood there quietly taking it, holding back tears — she had genuinely been hurt.

So no matter how much she’d resisted the way Xia Fanghui treated her, she’d almost never tried to talk it through. She’d simply closed herself off — because somewhere beneath the surface, she believed it was pointless. Fangfang was too volatile, too absolute; a person like that couldn’t change.

She hadn’t imagined her mother might actually want to try.

The changes over these past six months had been impossible to miss.

Ning Sui knew that she, too, should change the way she saw Xia Fanghui — and the way she acted toward her. But so much of it happened on instinct now, after all this time. The habit was already formed. And the emotions that came with it had this strange, fractured quality — split between old wariness and something newer, softer, not quite settled.

Afraid the temper might flare again without warning. Still guarded, still uncertain. Wanting to lean on her, but not quite daring to.

She knew it wasn’t fair to Fangfang. But she couldn’t always stop herself.

She was being honest with herself now, though — and that was enough. She could look at herself clearly and say what was true.

Maybe every mother and daughter had their own particular way of being together. For her and Fangfang, it was a love that ran deep — and an inability to stop getting in each other’s way.

Ning Sui accepted that her relationship with her mother was different from what others had. The past couldn’t be undone, and the hurt she’d felt because of Fangfang’s quick temper was real. But what she could do was hold on to what came next — her mother was changing, and she wanted to change too.

Both of them becoming better.

Ning Sui had been getting more and more comfortable with it — always ready for a storm, and somehow finding her footing in all of it, using her own quick mind and flexibility to discover an unexpected warmth inside all the noise and chaos.

Xie Yichen had been listening without interruption. Now he looked at her, his gaze soft and unhurried: “Sweetheart, the fact that you can think this way — that’s really good. You and Auntie both care so much about each other. You both love each other.”

His dark hair fell loosely across his forehead, his features bright and full of quiet spirit, and when he smiled it was low and warm. Ning Sui watched him through the screen, and felt something warm bloom in her chest: “Being with you — I feel like I’ve grown a lot.”

Xie Yichen: “How so?”

Ning Sui curled further into the blankets, only a pair of dark, liquid eyes visible over the edge: “I’ve learned to face life the way you do — picking your battles, staying light on your feet. Your particular brand of cheerful shamelessness.”

Hahahahaha — turning something chaotic into something beautiful.

Next chapter in two days! Things have been very busy lately, but I still want to keep the quality up. From now on, fixed days off are Sunday and Wednesday — everything else is daily updates!

Happy Qixi Festival, everyone! ♡♡♡