The crowd continued to surge and throng. Their new year had arrived, as promised, in this very moment.
In the distance you could just make out the words “Happy New Year” lit up on the giant screen on the stage. Confetti and streamers floated down through the air.
Yet on a quiet stretch of road nearby, the two shadows of a young man and girl standing close together under a streetlamp looked uniquely intimate — secret and unseen by the world.
What had just happened had been swift as a flash of lightning. Ning Sui’s ear tips had already been a little red. The soft pink fur collar brushed gently against her cheek, and now her face involuntarily flushed crimson as well.
She was stunned for a blank moment, then instinctively raised a hand and touched the spot on her cheek where she had just been kissed.
——It felt as if it were on fire.
Just a brief, fleeting instant — yet it seemed to brand an intimate little mark on her.
It felt as though she were falling from mid-air, only to be tossed back up to the clouds.
“Mm.” She gave a slow, vague murmur, as if her spirit had floated free of her body.
Xie Yichen stood in place. She had just gently slipped free of his hand, and the warmth had drained from his palm. But the heartbeat inside his chest was wilder than wild, like a surging tide threatening to sweep him away.
——In truth, his body had moved before his mind.
Seeing her standing right in front of him — the delicate, upturned tip of her nose buried in her scarf, her cheek soft and flushed and pink, her eyes glistening like some small creature’s — unbearably endearing — Xie Yichen had acted on pure instinct, without a single thought.
But having actually done it, he feared he’d been too forward. So he had only brushed her lightly.
The contact itself had lasted barely an instant — yet Xie Yichen felt that the spot on her cheek where he’d touched was impossibly, unbelievably soft. Softer than a peach, softer than clouds.
His throat moved in a slow, steady roll. Xie Yichen dropped his gaze and stared fixedly at her: “What does ‘mm’ mean?”
Ning Sui pressed the half of her face in question further into her scarf, and reached up to tug her collar higher, leaving only a pair of beautiful, limpid, peach-blossom eyes peeking out.
She said nothing. He edged a little closer, his voice dropping: “As in — yes?”
Ning Sui quietly looked at the ground. There were a few small blades of grass there, tenaciously poking through the cracks in the stone. After a moment, she turned her head in another direction and said: “Come a little closer.”
Xie Yichen’s throat shifted for an instant, thinking she was going to say something. He lowered his eyes and bent slightly toward her, meeting her gaze at the same level.
His voice was very low, carrying a trace of unmistakable roughness: “Mm?”
Ning Sui raised her eyes, suddenly leaned forward, grabbed his sleeve, and pressed her lips to the cheek he had tilted near her.
She misjudged the force slightly — it came out a bit firm. Ning Sui felt her lips graze the warmth of his breath, and she pulled away as if escaping.
After a moment, she collected herself with apparent calm, lowered her head, and said with forced composure: “……Returning the gesture.”
“……”
A brief hush seemed to fall around them. Ning Sui kept her head down and turned to walk back the way they had come.
She had only taken two steps when her hand was suddenly grabbed, and she was pulled sharply backward by a strong force.
Ning Sui lost her balance in an instant, stumbled around, and fell directly into a broad, solid embrace. Those arms circled around her back of their own accord, pressing her resolutely and firmly against his chest without a word of question.
The deafening sound of her heart seemed to surge up around her as well. Ning Sui’s face was pressed sideways against Xie Yichen’s chest. The scarf with the math formulas on it was soft and yielding against her cheek. In that moment, she honestly couldn’t tell anymore — the pounding that filled her ears, whose heartbeat was it?
“Ning Coconut.”
A low, rough breath drifted down from above her head, tinged with what sounded like a trace of amusement: “You kiss me and then pretend it didn’t happen?”
“……”
Ning Sui’s face was pressed affectionately against his chest, and her voice came out muffled — but her tone was entirely earnest: “No. I just spun in a circle on the spot.”
“……”
They stood holding each other in silence for quite a while before Xie Yichen finally let her go.
His chest was faintly trembling. Ning Sui felt he was laughing, but then again maybe not. After a moment, he raised his hand and ruffled her hair vigorously, and the low, unhurried voice that pressed down from his chest left her ears tingling: “From now on——”
“I’m your boyfriend, you know that?”
Ning Sui’s ear tips were red, and her lips seemed to be trying not to curl upward. She breathed a quiet: “……Oh.”
Another moment passed, and Xie Yichen bent slightly toward her, hooking the corner of his mouth, his dark eyes fixed intently on her: “And what’s more, we’re each other’s——”
His brow and eyes were laced with a grin, wild and shameless as he finished: “First love.”
“……”
His features were genuinely too captivating — the sharp brow ridges, the jet-black and clean irises, the long lashes. Ning Sui raised her hand on impulse and, with her fingertips, traced the striking, well-defined contours of Xie Yichen’s face.
He held his position without moving, his burning gaze letting her do as she pleased.
The light and shadow kept shifting at the tips of her fingers, and finally — it began to feel real. The corner of Ning Sui’s mouth wouldn’t stay still, and she let it lift. Her face was warm, but inside she couldn’t help but turn that word over in her mind again.
First love.
Yes. That was exactly right.
——Also — he really was so good-looking.
Her fingers moved from his brow bone to his straight nose, then to his firm jaw, carefully feeling as she went. If she pressed gently enough, she could even feel the faint stubble, freshly shaved clean.
Youthful — yet somehow also a little sensuous.
Xie Yichen always kept his jaw scraped very clean. You couldn’t see it up close either, which meant Ning Sui always had the odd impression that facial hair was something that only appeared on men her father’s age.
Her hand moved down further and grazed his Adam’s apple, where she spent a long, curious moment exploring. Because she was so careful with her pressure, Xie Yichen felt it like a small cat scratching at an itch, and he laughed: “What are you doing?”
Ning Sui tilted her head back, murmuring to herself: “That thing sticks out so much.”
He raised an eyebrow: “Well yes — I’m a man.”
Ning Sui had always heard this part of a man’s body described as delicate, and had assumed it was soft. Touching it now up close, she found it wasn’t like that at all.
Not only was it firm, but it moved like something alive — rolling slowly up and down of its own accord.
This was an entirely new experience for Ning Sui. Come to think of it, his body must have many places she herself didn’t have, and hadn’t yet come to understand.
Ning Sui’s gaze made a wandering loop from the top of his head to his feet and back, and Xie Yichen, seeming to sense something, looked at her with an unreadable expression. Ning Sui gave a slow, pensive “oh”: “It’s quite noticeable, yes.”
“……”
It was getting late. The bags they’d brought were still in the locker near the grass.
The two of them stood facing each other. They had only just defined their relationship, and Ning Sui didn’t quite know what to do in a moment like this. She looked down at the small patch of grass on the ground and said: “Well……shall we go get our bags?”
Xie Yichen glanced at her: “Sure.”
They walked back the way they’d come, keeping a gap about the width of a fist between them — much closer than usual. Ning Sui noticed this detail very quickly and found herself walking with an unusually dreamy lightness in her step.
They were almost at the park entrance when Ning Sui felt something buzzing in her coat pocket.
It took her a few seconds for her thoughts to fall back into place, and she realized it was her ringtone.
Xie Yichen looked down and gestured for her to answer first. Ning Sui glanced at the screen — it was Xia Fanghui.
She answered quickly: “Hello, Mom?”
“When are you heading back?” Fang Fang’s voice came from the other end, urging.
“Right away. The event is over.”
A familiar tension rose in Ning Sui’s chest out of habit. Lately Fang Fang had been unusually easygoing with her, which made Ning Sui more unsettled, not less — it felt like she might be saving up for something big.
“Have you got a car?”
“Not yet, calling one now.”
“Send me the license plate once you’re in.”
“Yep.”
Ning Sui kept walking as she talked. Xie Yichen seemed to have deliberately fallen a few steps behind her, giving her privacy while still making her feel safe.
Ning Sui was actually worried Xia Fanghui might ask to speak to Hu Ke’er, but she didn’t — instead she chatted idly and asked with casual curiosity: “Almost a semester now, and Mom hasn’t asked once — is there any boy at school you kind of like?”
“……”
He was right here beside her. How was she supposed to answer that?
Ning Sui hesitated, thinking Xie Yichen probably couldn’t hear, and replied vaguely: “Nothing particular.”
Fang Fang picked up sharply on the pause in her words: “Oh? Something’s going on, isn’t there? Is a boy chasing after you?”
Ning Sui knew her mother inside and out. She might look like a gentle spring breeze right now, but actually she was fishing for information. Once she had what she needed, she’d start lecturing — don’t trust people too easily, take things slowly, you’re too naive and easy to deceive, and so on and so forth.
She would also demand that Ning Sui report every detail about the other person so she could go through a checklist of whether his conditions met her standards. If anything failed to measure up, she would go through it with Ning Sui: that part isn’t good, this part doesn’t work.
Back in high school, Xia Fanghui had even gone through her phone in secret to check whether she had been in any romantic relationship and whether anyone had been pursuing her.
Once, a boy from her class had written her a love letter and slipped it into her schoolbag, and Xia Fanghui found it. She went straight to the grade director and had the two of them kept apart, cutting off any possible romance at the root.
Ning Sui had never even gotten to read the letter. She didn’t think there was anything wrong with caring for someone — but afterward, that boy had looked at her with anxious avoidance whenever their paths crossed.
So Ning Sui had always felt it was difficult to open her heart to Xia Fanghui about these things.
And especially when the other person was Xie Yichen.
She also didn’t want something so purely beautiful to be weighed down by a lot of worldly judgments.
Almost instinctively, Ning Sui replied: “Nothing. It’s been such a busy semester.”
Xia Fanghui stayed in the easy, chatting mode, and laughed: “That can’t be right. My little coconut is so pretty and does so well in school — I bet it’s just that you don’t think any of them are good enough.”
Ning Sui felt that Fang Fang, having a vacation at the beach with her dad and Ning Yue, was probably in a really good mood. This version of Fang Fang was rare, but she was the one Ning Sui loved most — so patient and gentle in temper, extraordinarily kind to her, accommodating and soft-spoken.
Ning Sui’s heart settled a little. She pressed her lips together and replied evasively: “No, I’m just too busy. I haven’t been paying attention to any of that.”
Xia Fanghui said: “Well, Mom isn’t saying you should focus on nothing but studying and ignore everything else. Making more friends isn’t a bad thing, and if someone suitable comes along, you can always spend time with them.”
After a pause she added: “But keep your eyes open. University is more complicated than high school. Take your time — don’t rush.”
“……”
Ning Sui gave a soft mm.
“Mom means it, you know — think about it.” Xia Fanghui raised her voice to ask: “Oh, by the way — what date are you thinking of coming home for winter break?”
Ning Sui stopped for a second: “The 15th, probably, once finals are done.”
Xia Fanghui: “Alright, I’ll buy your plane ticket.”
Ning Sui: “It’s fine — Ke Ke and I can buy them ourselves.”
Xia Fanghui paused for a moment, then after a few seconds said: “Okay then.”
The call finally ended. Ning Sui quickly checked her WeChat — Hu Ke’er had sent her a message half an hour ago: 【Babe where are you?】
Ning Sui hadn’t seen it, and Hu Ke’er hadn’t sent anything more since. The chat window was quiet.
She hadn’t yet figured out how to break the news about her and Xie Yichen to Hu Ke’er. She sent a quick reply first: 【Near the park entrance — where are you guys?】
Hu Ke’er, unusually, didn’t reply instantly.
Ning Sui’s lashes flickered, and she looked back instinctively at Xie Yichen. He caught her eye at just that moment and walked up to join her, unhurried, falling into step at her side.
Xie Yichen seemed to know what she was about to ask: “Hu Ke’er had a bit too much to drink. My cousin said he’d take her home first.”
“……Oh.”
Up ahead, the crowd on the grass could be seen beginning to disperse. Even in the middle of winter night, the festive warmth seemed slow to fade. Breath puffed out in white clouds into the air, like the steam rising from the chimney of a small house in the distance.
The two figures stretched long and soft in the hazy moonlight. As they walked, Ning Sui couldn’t help glancing over at him.
But the moment she raised her eyes, she met his — clearly bright with a smile.
Her composure wavered. She opened her mouth: “That……”
Xie Yichen raised an eyebrow: “Mm?”
She wanted him to come a little closer.
Ning Sui’s fingertips curled slightly, and she still shook her head calmly: “Never mind.”
“……”
But Xie Yichen chose that moment to step over, closing the gap between them. Ning Sui caught a pleasant, cool, deep scent and heard him say in a languid drawl: “Ning Coconut, I’m not wearing gloves.”
Ning Sui quietly glanced at him.
She wasn’t wearing gloves either. She waited for him to continue: “Mm?”
Xie Yichen tilted his head, his handsome features lifted in a completely unapologetic smile: “Give me your hand. I need something to warm mine up.”
Ning Sui felt she had absolutely been bewitched by this man.
Her hand shuffled around in her pocket, as if ignoring her brain’s instructions entirely, and obligingly came out. Xie Yichen bent his head to glance down at it with a curved lip, then wrapped his well-jointed fingers around her fingertips, folding them inside his palm.
Ning Sui felt that her own hand was quite cold, and his palm was warm — the contrast was stark.
……Between the two of them, who was actually warming up whose hand?
It was rather nice, though. Ning Sui’s lashes flickered. Keeping her expression composed, she tightened her grip on him just slightly.
Xie Yichen noticed her response, and the corner of his mouth curved imperceptibly.
The heartbeat that had settled a little seemed to flutter again, thumping in her chest in a light, quick rhythm. Her fingertips stirred. Ning Sui looked down at their interlaced hands, then shifted her gaze away.
She looked ahead at the road, her thoughts drifting slightly.
It was strange — with Xie Yichen, closeness didn’t feel as intimidating as she had always imagined it would be.
In fact, it seemed as though anything at all, done with him, carried a sense of anticipation and excitement.
“Why are your hands so cold?” Xie Yichen squeezed her fingertips gently, asking in a low, unhurried voice.
Ning Sui was carefully stepping along the narrow path trodden through the grass, the fluffy pom-pom on top of her hat bobbing with each step: “They’re always like this. A traditional Chinese medicine doctor said my constitution is deficient in energy.”
Her mother had given her quite a few herbal remedies to regulate it, but none seemed to make much improvement. So Fang Fang was constantly anxious, scolding her for not taking proper care of herself.
“Don’t worry about it anymore.”
“Mm?”
Xie Yichen tucked her hand naturally into his own coat pocket, then turned his head and gave her a meaningful smile: “You’ve got a large-scale warming device now, haven’t you?”
“……”
After walking a few more minutes through the dwindling, scattered crowd, they finally reached the luggage storage.
Xie Yichen as usual stuffed Ning Sui’s small bag into his own backpack. Ning Sui was about to open an app to call a car when he casually raised his phone with an arched brow: “Already called one.”
“Oh.”
When he had taken care of everything for her, there really wasn’t much left for her to do.
To pick up her bag, Xie Yichen had let go of her hand. Now he was looking down at his unread messages, looking perfectly at ease and untroubled. His dark hair fell forward over his brow — looking loose and casual, but with a firm texture to it.
There was an exit nearby. They stood here waiting for the car.
Xie Yichen was very tall — about one eighty-six. Every time Ning Sui looked at him, she had to tilt her head back slightly.
But somehow, it already felt familiar.
She watched his profile for a moment, then edged up to him in small, gradual degrees. Xie Yichen dropped his lashes and glanced her way casually: “What is it?”
“……”
Ning Sui looked at him steadily for a moment, then wet her lips, and followed the instinct of her fingertips — then stopped herself, and let her hand fall to her side.
“……Um.”
She considered her words for a moment, then said with complete sincerity: “I feel like I’m not quite reaching the warmth of the stove anymore.”