This particularly eye-catching WeChat Moments post naturally made its way into Ning Sui’s dormitory group chat.

Even though Liang Xinyue and Bi Jiaxi were both away, the distance did nothing to stop them from getting the gossip firsthand.

Liang Xinyue: 【[Tsinghua Tree Hole Link]】

Qu Handong had, after all, won the ACM gold medal alongside Xie Yichen — he was one of the more well-known figures in the Yao Class. When he posted something on Moments, plenty of people paid attention, and Liang Xinyue noticed someone mentioning Yu Qin’s name in the comments below.

Liang Xinyue: 【Oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god!! What’s going on?!】

Bi Jiaxi: 【Qin babe! You got a boyfriend?!!】

It was quite a while before Yu Qin surfaced in the chat, sending a bashful “I-want-to-say-something-but-don’t-know-how” shy emoji.

Liang Xinyue: 【AHHHHH!!!!!】

Bi Jiaxi: 【AHHHHH!!!!!!】

Before Liang Xinyue could ask why she hadn’t told them, Yu Qin obediently came clean: 【We only just got together two days ago. He’s A’Chen’s roommate — Sui Sui introduced us.】

Bi Jiaxi: 【Wow! That’s amazing!】

Bi Jiaxi: 【Sui babe you’re incredible, what a perfect setup hahaha [thumbs up]】

Liang Xinyue’s attention, however, was on something else entirely: 【You’ve only been together for two days and he already couldn’t resist showing you off on Moments hahaha! Qu Handong, you absolute legend!】

Yu Qin: “……”

To be precise — it happened the very same evening.

Liang Xinyue: 【Has the entire Yao Class basically been claimed by our Math Department girls hahaha】

Bi Jiaxi: 【To be more precise, it seems like it’s specifically our dorm room hahaha】

Liang Xinyue: 【Hehehehe, our dorm really is a cradle of talent ahhhh [dog face] [fist salute]】

Liang Xinyue: 【Honestly, I want to meet him in person!】

Bi Jiaxi: 【Hehe yes! Let your sisters vet him properly!】

Bi Jiaxi: 【But winter break just started — we’ll have to wait soooo long ahhhh!】

A moment later, Yu Qin sent: 【I told my boyfriend — he says the vetting can happen anytime. When we come back from break, he’ll treat everyone to dinner~】

Liang Xinyue: 【Ooh, that’s the right attitude. Hehe.】

Ning Sui seized the opening to ask: 【Mhm mhm, when are you heading back to the dorm? [Kitty plays ball.jpg]】

Liang Xinyue picked up on it immediately: 【Ooh ooh ooh, still not back yet?】

Liang Xinyue: 【It’s half past eleven!】

Bi Jiaxi: 【Are you on a date with your boyfriend right now? [sly grin]】

She guessed correctly. A few minutes passed, and Yu Qin replied evasively: 【Just wandering around near the dorm~】

Liang Xinyue: 【@Yu Qin, you’re on a date and you still have time to check your phone? [sly grin]】

Liang Xinyue: 【Near the dorm? Sui ah, quick, run to the balcony and look — is anyone down there? [dog face]】

Liang Xinyue: 【Look for the ones kissing, then take a photo and show us!】

Yu Qin apparently hadn’t expected her to be this devious: “?”

She was easily embarrassed — just a few teasing lines and she was done for. She tossed out a single message and fled the battlefield: 【We haven’t even kissed yet ahhhh】

The dormitory group chat was lively every day for the following stretch, with someone inevitably taking a jab at Yu Qin.

The daily exchange went something like: Did you go on a date with your boyfriend today?

Did you hold hands?

Did you hug?

Did you get a kiss?

Until Yu Qin went completely silent and disappeared from the group entirely.

Yu Qin had no plans to go home this winter break, and Qu Handong happened to be staying in the lab as well — they had a long stretch of time to spend together.

As for Ning Sui, she had already completed all her senior-year coursework in the first half of the semester, and her overseas application essays had already been submitted. Fangfang said she missed her, so Ning Sui hadn’t made any travel plans for the break and had dutifully packed her bags and gone home.

Ning Yue was currently on his first-year high school winter break. Xia Fanghui had enrolled him in a whole collection of interest classes — besides piano and drawing, there were sports too, including tennis, soccer, badminton, table tennis, basketball, and more.

Ning Yue: “Mom, are you trying to get me a Grand Slam?”

Xia Fanghui looked utterly confident in her master plan: “No problem, right? Tennis builds stamina, soccer builds explosive power, badminton trains reaction time, table tennis improves your eyesight, and basketball… oh, basketball helps you grow taller. One sweep, all covered.”

Ning Yue: “……”

It didn’t feel like covering everything at once. It felt more like being drawn and quartered by five horses.

“Do I really need to take a whole class just to learn basketball? I already play with my classmates at school all the time.”

“A bit of formal training never hurts. If you’re classically trained, you’ll have an edge over your classmates who just picked it up casually. You can have a coach guide you through the techniques — you’ll improve much faster.”

His mom paused, then lowered her voice conspiratorially: “The main reason I’m signing you up for basketball is that I’m terrified you inherited your dad’s genes and will only grow to 1.6 meters.”

Ning Deyan: “……”

Her husband looked like he wanted to argue but didn’t quite dare, and could only swallow it down indignantly: “I am 1.75 meters, thank you very much?!”

In their household, Ning Deyan’s height had always been a subject of mystery.

Since Xia Fanghui herself wasn’t particularly tall, he appeared somewhat taller by comparison. Over the years, Ning Deyan had consistently claimed to be 1.75 meters, while Xia Fanghui — his most devoted critic — always countered that he was 1.6. So Ning Sui typically split the difference: by conservative estimate, probably about 1.68 meters.

Xia Fanghui had worried about Ning Yue’s height for a long time. Throughout primary school, he had always been shorter than the other boys in his class — a round little chubby thing. The mountain of homework in middle school had whittled him down a bit, but he was still on the shorter side. Now that he’d entered high school, there were faint, tentative signs that he might be on the verge of a growth spurt.

Xia Fanghui was overjoyed, absolutely convinced it was the “Sports Combination Package” she’d signed him up for that deserved the credit.

So from the moment winter break began in January, Ning Yue headed off every day with his little backpack to attend classes at the Youth Culture Center, with Fangfang personally driving him there and picking him up.

This was the heart of Huai’an — high-rises everywhere, the city buzzing with life. Along the small lanes nearby, bicycles came and went. After class one day, Ning Yue wanted to linger outside for a bit before reporting back to Xia Fanghui, and without quite realizing it, he wandered over toward the area near the Bookstore and Concert Hall.

He hadn’t expected it — but looking up, he spotted a couple standing under the shade of a tree ahead, both of them strikingly good-looking. The guy was very tall, his arms wrapped around the girl, head bowed as he spoke to her with a smile. The atmosphere around that little patch of space felt entirely self-contained, as though it were continuously bubbling with little pink puffs, like a scene lifted straight from a magazine spread.

Since Xia Fanghui relentlessly reminded Ning Yue that early dating was absolutely forbidden, the sight of this couple triggered his rebellious instinct, and he found himself staring.

Then his whole body jolted.

— What the heck, wasn’t that his sister?!

He hadn’t expected this at all. He’d always been the one watching other people’s drama — now it had landed on him.

Ning Yue looked up, and suddenly turned to stone.

Because that guy had bent down and pressed his lips, gently and intimately, against his sister’s.

It was over in a flash, but the shock was enough that the bag in his hands slipped and hit the ground.

Ning Sui hadn’t had anything going on today — she and Xie Yichen had just come out to stroll around.

It had been a long time since they’d gone on a proper date like this. The two of them wandered at a leisurely pace through Huai’an’s streets. The autumn air carried a pleasant coolness, and through the gaps in the shade trees, occasional patches of warm sunlight fell to the ground, casting scattered diamond-shaped glimmers on the pavement.

In the morning, they had browsed through the Bookstore. When she was small, Ning Deyan and Xia Fanghui used to take her here often — she had always loved the atmosphere of this place. The central area was filled with all kinds of books: novels, manga, and more. Along the outer perimeter, music training centers had opened up brick-and-mortar shops, and as you walked past, the beautiful sound of violin often drifted out from inside.

Beyond that, the ground floor also had plenty of delicious restaurants. The second floor was dedicated to handcrafted goods — not only finished pieces for sale, but also experiential activity centers, where you could try your hand at pottery, block-building, making your own silver jewelry, and more.

When she was little, finishing her end-of-term exams always made Ning Sui want to come here to play. She could easily spend an entire day here.

It had been over four years since she’d last visited the Bookstore. It seemed like once high school started, she’d never come back — and now that she was here again, she realized it had changed quite a bit.

Keeping pace with the times, the ground floor now had all sorts of VR gaming facilities: shooting ranges, racing simulators, and more. The books in the central area had all been refreshed and updated too. The manga section she remembered so well was long gone — relocated to who-knows-where — and in its place stood tidy rows of large, thick biographical volumes on historical figures.

“So you used to come here too?”

Because the shelves in this section were quite narrow, there wasn’t room for her to walk arm-in-arm beside him, so Ning Sui pressed herself close against Xie Yichen and shuffled along.

Xie Yichen glanced back at her, a spark of amusement in his eyes, and nodded with a quiet hum: “Fairly often, yeah. I used to take bass lessons from a teacher here. When my parents weren’t home, I’d wander over by myself.”

“Me too. I’d wait for them to go out on weekends and then come here on my own.” Ning Sui recalled the memory with a touch of nostalgia. “I was such a rebel back then.”

Was her definition of “rebellion” perhaps slightly off?

The corner of Xie Yichen’s mouth twitched upward, and he couldn’t hold back a soft laugh. He turned around: “What?”

Ning Sui, not stopping in time, walked straight into his chest.

By the time she registered what had happened, she found that her arms had already instinctively wrapped around his waist.

Her ears grew warm almost immediately. She reflexively peeked out to check their surroundings, and only after confirming that the bookshelves were blocking them fairly well on all sides did she quietly let out a guilty little sigh of relief.

The person above her radiated warmth, his breath settling softly near her ear. She didn’t even need to look to know he was laughing again. Ning Sui silently glanced up at him, then looked away, something unspoken hovering on the tip of her tongue.

Xie Yichen felt that his girlfriend was genuinely adorable to an almost alarming degree. She was so timid about everything, yet somehow managed to do every little thing with such sneaky, trembling effort that it felt illicit — which in turn made the whole experience twice as thrilling for him.

The two of them left the reading area and stepped out into the open-air alleyway outside. They passed by some shops selling handcrafted artwork, and although there were quite a few people around, Ning Sui still meandered, wide-eyed and curious, squeezing into each one to look around.

Not wanting to lose her in the crowd, Xie Yichen reached out and settled his arm securely around her shoulder, asking in a casual, unhurried tone: “Ning Coconut, on that wild bucket list of yours — is there anything left you still haven’t done?”

He was tall, so his arm rested loosely over her shoulder, and from the outside, it looked very much like he’d simply pulled her into the circle of his arms without a word.

Ning Sui licked her lips and tilted her head back to look at him.

Now that he mentioned the bucket list.

She hadn’t taken stock of it in a long time. Now that she thought about it, she realized the most important ones were already done.

— And quite a few of them had been accomplished with Xie Yichen’s help, at that.

Things like sneaking out over the wall, going to a music festival, learning to ski, and so on.

As for dyeing or perming her hair, she’d tried all of that during her third year, with Fangfang’s quiet blessing.

As for what exhilarating things still remained — nothing came to mind off the top of her head.

She was about to say that she thought she’d basically done everything, when her gaze drifted past the shifting crowd and landed on a shop across the street. The storefront was narrow, with a clean, minimal design.

The sign was solid black, and the walls were covered with prints — close-up shots of arms or backs, showing partial tattoo designs.

Below those images was a line of explanatory text: Painted designs. Not real tattoos. Can last approximately two weeks.

Ning Sui’s feet stopped dead, her eyes drawn over against her will as if by some invisible pull.

Two weeks — that actually sounded quite reasonable. A real tattoo was absolutely out of the question.

“I want to go take a look.”

“— Go take a look?”

They spoke almost simultaneously.

One glance and Xie Yichen already knew she’d be interested. Ning Sui turned to him, eyes bright with barely contained eagerness. They were instantly on the same page: “Let’s go!”

The shop owner had been lounging in a chair with his legs crossed, watching a drama on his phone. Hearing the sound of them entering, he quickly got to his feet and slid a thick binder across the counter. “Have a look — you can choose your design.” He paused and glanced up. “Which one of you is getting it? This handsome gentleman here?”

Xie Yichen guided Ning Sui forward with a press of his hand on her shoulder, smiling: “No — my girlfriend.”

“Ah.” The owner pushed his reading glasses up and gave Ning Sui — who was still carefully flipping through the binder — a brief, appraising look, then asked with a warm smile, “So, young lady, what kind of design are you thinking?”

Ning Sui took a quick look through.

The designs in here all felt a bit over-the-top — vintage skull roses, or those gaudy patterned hearts that gave off strong underground-gothic-collective vibes. What she actually wanted was something clean and simple, and not too large, since she was at least a little worried about Xia Fanghui spotting it at a glance.

She let her gaze drift with interest over the pages — and then suddenly stopped on one design.

It was a small pink birdcage. The door was open, and a little bird was spreading its wings and flying free.

The owner, sharp-eyed as ever, asked: “Want this one?”

“Mm, yes.”

“Where do you want it?”

Ning Sui looked down, uncertain.

On the ankle, the design wouldn’t have enough room to spread. On her waist was too private. She looked left, then right — the inner wrist seemed like the best option.

She extended her hand and watched as the owner pressed the stencil against her skin, confirmed the placement, then picked up the airbrush and asked: “Shall I start?”

Ning Sui stared at the stencil for a moment, quickly set aside the flicker of hesitation in her heart, blinked, and nodded: “Yes, please.”

The airbrush made a soft hissing sound. She watched the color seep into her pale skin, and rather than the pain she’d imagined, it felt cool and refreshing — quite pleasant, actually. The owner carefully went over it twice from start to finish, then peeled off the stencil, dabbed on a bit of water, and pressed a cloth against it to wipe it clean. “There you go.”

A vivid little design was now printed on her arm. It was actually quite pretty.

Ning Sui gazed at it: “This won’t fade at all within two weeks, right?”

“More or less. Just don’t scrub it too hard in the shower. If you want to remove it, you’ll need alcohol.”

“Got it.”

Xie Yichen had already quietly taken out his phone and scanned the code to pay. The two of them retraced their steps back to the tree-lined path from before, and Ning Sui was still staring, transfixed, at the design on her inner forearm — she couldn’t help smiling as she asked: “Does it look nice?”

He answered: “It does.”

She was quite pleased with it. On the way back home, while Xie Yichen was walking her to her building, she kept pulling up her sleeve to look at it, utterly enamored.

But forty minutes later.

Standing inside the residential complex, looking up at the tall buildings, Ning Sui swallowed, and in a thoroughly spineless reversal of heart, started getting cold feet: “Wait, no — this won’t work——”

Even on the inner wrist, it was still too visible. At dinner tonight, anyone would see it the moment she reached out with her chopsticks. Heart suddenly guilty, she turned to him: “Do you have any alcohol? I want to wipe it off.”

The design was just a little too pointed in its symbolism — Fangfang might actually flip out if she saw it.

She’d better not poke that particular hornet’s nest.

Xie Yichen looked down at her, his eyes clearly bright with amusement. He had known she’d change her mind — right before they left, he’d asked the owner for a few small alcohol-soaked cotton pads.

Ning Sui ducked her head and steeled herself for the task of removing the design from her arm. The spray-on pigment had quite good staying power; she used up every last cotton pad and rubbed her skin red before it finally came off.

But regardless, she felt — somehow — genuinely relieved.

— Fangfang’s feelings were always rather sensitive. Sometimes she took jokes very seriously, and Ning Sui was afraid that if she saw it, she’d actually take it to heart — and might even quietly feel sad about it.

Better to leave it alone.

But before that breath of relief had fully settled, a deeply infuriating voice rang out from behind her — triumphant and delighted, roaring at the top of his lungs in sudden enlightenment: “Mommy! This is the super-handsome guy who was doing this-and-that with Sister outside the Bookstore just now!”

Ning Sui: “???”

Coconut: “Doing this-and-that” — what exactly is “that”?! Say it clearly!

Ning Yue: Master sister-wrecker ^_^