◎ The End ◎

The name “Zaozao” had indeed been something Lu Rangchen came up with on the spot without much thought.

The playful meaning behind it was one thing. On the other hand, he genuinely hadn’t figured out what to name the child.

He kept thinking — this was his and Yunque’s first child, and possibly their only one. So everything concerning this little one had to be considered carefully and then considered again.

Besides, at that point the little one was barely three months along.

Yunque’s belly had only the faintest swell to it, and with a loose enough top, it wasn’t noticeable at all.

The aunts and uncles on the Cheng side were all very invested in the matter and pressed urgently about choosing a name. They even urged Lu Rangchen to find a master of astrology to select a name according to the child’s birth chart.

Every time he was subjected to this, Lu Rangchen could only look helplessly resigned.

No one knows quite what inspired him at that moment, but when Yunque asked him that day, he had rather offhandedly thought up those two characters.

Simple, catchy, and easy to remember.

He had assumed Yunque would just take it as a bit of fun.

Who could have anticipated that she would pause for a moment, and then actually think it sounded nice.

Lu Rangchen was amused by her. He said, “Are you sure?”

“What is there to be unsure about?”

Yunque said, “It’s just a nickname.”

Lu Rangchen raised an eyebrow. “And the formal name?”

“The formal name… there’s no rush, is there?”

Yunque thought for a moment and said, “Let’s let it brew a little longer.”

In virtually all things, whatever Yunque said was what went. Lu Rangchen didn’t argue, and there and then he agreed with the corners of his mouth turned up.

From then on, whenever they lay in bed at night and had time to speak a few words to the little one, Lu Rangchen would always call out a gentle “Lu Zaozao.”

Whenever he said “Lu Zaozao,” there was always a different kind of tenderness to it — a quality unlike anything that had come before.

Especially in the warm yellow light of the floor lamp.

Yunque would watch him for a long time with eyes full of love. Lu Rangchen, with a patience entirely his own, would carefully instruct Lu Zaozao to be good and not give Mama too hard a time.

As the months progressed.

The burden of the pregnancy grew heavier and heavier. By winter, even getting around had become inconvenient for Yunque.

Fortunately, Lu Zaozao had always been very well-behaved and hadn’t put Yunque through too much trouble.

Even so, Lu Rangchen worried constantly that Yunque’s body wouldn’t be able to hold up.

Her constitution had always seemed naturally frailer than other people’s.

Even having been nourished to a somewhat healthier weight under his care, she had still put on considerably less than most expectant mothers.

During that period, Lu Rangchen was perpetually worried she couldn’t bear the strain of such a large belly — and even more worried she might collapse while teaching the way she had back in the capital when she had developed viral myocarditis.

He ended up taking matters into his own hands and requesting a prolonged leave of absence on her behalf. The head of the teaching department was reluctant to agree at first. Her words were rather unpleasant in tone — the gist of it being that plenty of other female teachers had worked right up until the day before delivery, and wasn’t Yunque being rather dramatic.

The most excessive remark of all was: it’s just having a baby. Every woman goes through it.

It was difficult to imagine those words coming from the mouth of a woman.

Old Liu, who happened to be in the office and overheard, was rendered utterly speechless. He turned around and called Yunque to say that Lu Rangchen had really given it to her over the phone.

Yunque had already been resting at home for several days by then.

On hearing this, she raised her eyes in mild surprise and sat up straighter. She asked whether Lu Rangchen had gotten into an argument with her.

“Not exactly an argument.”

Old Liu said, “Your Lu Rangchen is such a brilliant, upright person — getting into a quarrel with a woman like her would be beneath him. He just put her in her place with a few words, and she’s not the type who handles being put in her place well. A few sentences was all it took to leave her flushed, flustered, and fuming.”

Yunque didn’t frequently have run-ins with the head of the teaching department.

But privately, she genuinely didn’t much care for her.

She hadn’t expected Lu Rangchen to be the one to “vent on her behalf.” Yunque laughed without any shame at all and said, “So what did Rangchen say?”

“He said: just because no one cares about you doesn’t mean no one cares about Yunque. There’s no need for you to get so worked up,” Old Liu recounted concisely. “He also said it’s just a job that pays less than ten thousand a month — exhausting yourself half to death — and if it really came to it, he wouldn’t let her come back at all. Nothing to care about there.”

“That woman never expected Lu Rangchen to go that far. I could see her just freeze up completely. But your Lu Rangchen wasn’t done yet.”

Old Liu’s tone was brimming with barely suppressed glee. “There was hardly anyone in the office at the time, and she had it on speaker — she clearly hadn’t expected Lu Rangchen to push back, and it all just floated into my ears.”

“Your Lu Rangchen was absolutely decisive about it. He said given her attitude, there was no need to keep the cooperation between the club and the school going either — better to part ways before things got any more unpleasant.”

“Then he hung up, and left that woman completely dumbfounded.”

“She even came over to ask me — she wanted to know when on earth the school had partnered with Dust Point Club.”

“I blinked at her with the most innocent expression I could manage and said: you didn’t know? It was settled half a month ago. The club only agreed to open a backdoor for our school’s sports students as a favor to Yunque — and the school doesn’t have to pay a single cent for it.”

“The woman was genuinely stunned when she heard that. She hadn’t even had time to react when the principal called to give her an earful.”

Old Liu’s tone was dripping with sarcasm. “I heard she even called Lu Rangchen afterward specifically to apologize.”

Not just an apology to Lu Rangchen.

She had also made a point of calling Yunque to ask after her.

Yunque hadn’t known why, and had simply taken it as a gesture of concern.

It was only after hearing Old Liu’s call that she understood what had happened.

All things considered, having someone put in their place on your behalf was deeply satisfying. But Yunque still made a point of specifically questioning Lu Rangchen about it afterward.

The man had spent the day taking the club’s group out into the wilderness for field training and had also played a round of military-style paintball. He came back covered in sweat for a rare change, and the moment he walked in, he turned the corners of his mouth up and approached Yunque looking for a hug.

Yunque, her belly already quite large by then, looked at him with a blank expression and jerked her chin toward the bathroom, indicating that he could have his hug after he washed up.

Lu Rangchen let out a helpless sigh and could only stroke her belly, telling Lu Zaozao, “Your mother really has no patience for me.”

Yunque let out a laugh despite herself.

Afterward, once Lu Rangchen had come out, she did make it up to him, willingly letting him draw her close on the sofa and kiss her at length.

In all likelihood, the prolonged restraint of this particular period had sharpened his kissing considerably. Every time, he managed to pull her into it until she felt something stir.

At moments like this, Lu Zaozao, acting in the interest of self-preservation, would typically give Yunque’s belly a series of firm kicks to remind the two of them to keep it in check.

That evening was no exception.

After a while, the two of them had no choice but to naturally separate. Only then did they get to talking about the matter with the head of the teaching department.

Lu Rangchen’s stance was firm and unambiguous. “The cooperation can continue. But you have to rest. The burden in our household is too great — she’s probably going to take after the athletic side when she’s older. I’m worried you can’t hold up.”

He could be unreasonably high-handed at times.

But Yunque knew her own slight frame did need the rest, so she didn’t argue with him on that point.

However, once she had given birth, she had absolutely no intention of staying home as a housewife.

Yunque’s eyes were resolute as she said she would return to teaching after the birth, and at that point, Lu Rangchen was not to stop her again.

How could Lu Rangchen possibly stop her.

He raised his brows with a lazy smile and said, “As long as you’re healthy and happy, I’ll go along with anything — you could ride roughshod over me and I’d be fine with it.”

“……”

Yunque was speechless for two seconds before casting him a dry, sideways glance and firing back, “Just wait — keep saying your sweet words now, and let’s see when the baby arrives whether you still feel the same.”

Lu Rangchen simply looked entirely noncommittal.

Just curved the corners of his mouth, and used the back of his hand to graze Yunque’s smooth cheek, with an adoration he couldn’t contain.

And so he treated her like a precious treasure, tending to her without fail.

Without their noticing, the year was drawing to a close. The day before New Year’s Day, Lu Rangchen accompanied her through her 29th birthday.

The previous birthday, he had organized a gathering — all of their friends had come together to celebrate.

But this year was clearly not possible.

Setting aside Li Tie and Zhou Jin, just take Xu Linda and Lin Zhi — those two weren’t even in the southern city.

Xu Linda had been in a low mood lately and had gone abroad to be with her parents. And Lin Zhi — a thoroughgoing runaway heiress — had fled all the way to Singapore to escape a marriage arrangement her family was pushing.

And going with her, it turned out, was the young man who had come very close to being Yunque’s brother-in-law: Xie Han.

Yunque knew very little about all these rich-family entanglements.

She heard about it from Zhou Jin, who told her that Lin Zhi and Xie Han had officially gotten together and were in the midst of fighting to gain their families’ acceptance.

Amusingly, Lin Zhi had spent all these years in pampered luxury — waited on hand and foot. And now her bank accounts had all been frozen. No one knew how long she could hold out.

She had even said breezily to Zhou Jin: if the money runs out, she’d come back. Once she had money again, she’d elope again.

It left Zhou Jin at a complete loss for words — half wanting to laugh, half wanting to scold her for being so scatterbrained.

Of course they were all only joking. Xie Han was no fool.

He had his own business dealings on the side.

Whether those dealings could keep up with Lin Zhi’s free-spending ways was another question entirely.

After covering all of this, Zhou Jin couldn’t resist reporting to Yunque about something else — that before Lin Zhi left, Lu Rangchen had given her a red envelope worth several hundred thousand yuan as startup money for her elopement.

Zhou Jin was the even-handed type.

She was on Lin Zhi’s side, but she also felt Lu Rangchen was being too free with money — a man with a child on the way who still had a wife to look after.

But she regretted saying it the moment it was out of her mouth.

She was worried Yunque would take issue with it and end up in an argument with Lu Rangchen over it.

But in reality, Yunque didn’t give it a second thought.

She even laughed and said: if he wants to give, he can give. That’s money he earned.

And besides, Lin Zhi had gifted Yunque a designer handbag at their wedding — the bag alone had been worth more than a hundred thousand. The two of them had also grown up together as the closest of friends. Yunque would never mind something like this.

The main thing was that after the pregnancy, Lu Rangchen’s ambition had kicked into high gear as he worked to earn money for the baby’s milk powder.

With greater effort came greater reward.

A few hundred thousand was naturally nothing to him.

Of course, earning a lot of money sometimes brought its own small headaches.

For instance — just as her relationship with Zhu Ping’an had started to thaw, Deng Jiali had already set her sights on Lu Rangchen again.

Apparently she wanted to find Deng Jiaqiang a job.

Otherwise he’d be idling around every day and would never find a wife.

For this, she had specifically gone to look for Lu Rangchen directly.

Because her instinct told her Yunque wouldn’t give her the time of day — it was more reliable to go straight to the “son-in-law.”

And the result?

Lu Rangchen had his assistant receive her.

After hearing out her request, he didn’t even bother replying — he just had his assistant send her away.

By evening, Deng Jiali, unable to endure it any longer, called Lu Rangchen directly. How she had gotten his number, Lu Rangchen genuinely had no idea.

It was because of that phone call that Yunque learned Deng Jiali had fallen back into her old ways.

When Deng Jiali was making her appeal.

Lu Rangchen put the phone on speaker and sat there calmly peeling lychees and pomelo for Yunque to eat.

He would peel a piece, and Yunque would eat a piece.

When Deng Jiali finally finished speaking after all her effort, Yunque spoke up directly. Her tone was quite mild as she said, “Deng Jiaqiang has a habit of helping himself to things that aren’t his. I’d suggest you drop this idea.”

Deng Jiali was given a genuine shock by Yunque’s voice.

Probably feeling embarrassed and knowing her chances were nil —

She didn’t even bother with pleasantries. She hung up on the spot.

She was afraid of Yunque truly losing her temper.

Lu Rangchen sat next to her, kneading her palm and laughing. “Did that make you angry?”

Yunque stuffed a piece of pomelo into her mouth and said, muffled, that it didn’t — she just straightforwardly disliked Deng Jiaqiang.

Lu Rangchen asked: was it because of his habit of taking things?

Yunque said it was, and it wasn’t.

Going back and forth, hesitating for a long while, she still ended up speaking at length under Lu Rangchen’s quietly weighty gaze.

She talked about after her parents’ divorce, when she lived with Zhu Ping’an and all the grievances she had endured. She talked about how the grandmother, despising Feng Yanlai, had no affection for Yunque and treated her very poorly. And how Zhu Ping’an, because of work, would often be away for days at a time.

Back then, a small Yunque could only stretch a few yuan in pocket money as far as it would go to fill her stomach.

The old woman, meanwhile, spent the living expenses her son gave her on mahjong.

Not long after that, Zhu Ping’an remarried, and Deng Jiali didn’t just enter the home — she brought her own brother and son along with her.

Back then, Deng Jiaqiang used to love going into her room to smoke, and was always provoking her and moving her things.

Fortunately, Ye Tian — still a young boy himself at the time — would always step up to protect Yunque.

He had even gotten into a physical scuffle with Deng Jiaqiang once, only to be forcibly pulled away by Deng Jiali.

Later, Deng Jiaqiang got himself into trouble outside and ended up in prison. By then Yunque had grown up, but even so, the days were never truly peaceful — a new little brother had arrived, and because of this brother’s birth, the attention and love Zhu Ping’an had for her dwindled even further.

Yunque stopped holding any expectations of him at all.

The most revolting part was that the Deng man was out of prison not long after, Deng Jiali remained just as selfish as ever, firmly committed to acting as her brother’s devoted enabler.

And as Yunque had grown into a more and more attractive young woman —

During that period, the way Deng Jiaqiang looked at her was nauseating enough to make her sick.

He also made a habit of deliberately making physical contact with her.

But what was a girl of thirteen or fourteen supposed to do? How was she supposed to bring herself to say any of this to anyone?

So Yunque could only save herself.

She deliberately let her grades fall, one exam worse than the last. She also made a point of acting distracted and inattentive in class.

And just like that, in the eyes of all her relatives, she had lost her final redeeming quality.

At this point, Yunque laughed softly and said, “All those relatives always said I had a bad personality — antisocial, cold, unlikable, and scheming on top of it all. But what did any of them know? The only way I could protect myself and grow up in one piece was by being exactly like that.”

“But you can’t deny that what I like is precisely this version of you.”

Lu Rangchen gave her a sidelong glance, his brow carrying that deep, exclusive affection he had only ever had for her. He smiled. “I like your aloofness, your cool detachment, your sense of standing apart from the world. I like your clear-eyed shrewdness and what they call your scheming.”

“Though it would be best if that shrewdness and scheming stayed away from me.”

“……”

Yunque couldn’t help but let a small smile escape.

Lu Rangchen drew her into his arms, enveloping her with the warmest embrace he had, and said, “You don’t need to give those people any thought. Every single one of them is irrelevant.”

Yunque said, “I know.”

She reached up and lightly touched Lu Rangchen’s lips. “Right now, only you and the baby matter to me.”

As though she had stirred something in him —

Lu Rangchen curved his lips, and pressed a gentle kiss to her lips in return. “Don’t worry. I’ll protect you and the baby very well.”

Yunque’s lips curved into a sweet smile. “I trust that you will.”

……

The new year crossed over.

A fresh year arrived just like that.

Yunque’s due date had been settled, and the postpartum care center booking was confirmed. Lu Rangchen had carefully timed things out so that he would be back by her side well before she was due to deliver.

But so many things in this world turn out contrary to how we hope.

How could Lu Rangchen have anticipated that just a few days after the new year, Yunque would be involved in a minor road accident while out and about — and, following the shock of it, go into early labor.

The incident alarmed quite a number of people.

Even Zhu Ping’an came rushing over, to say nothing of Ye Tian, Xu Linda, and the rest of them.

Fortunately, Lu Rangchen had been right there when it happened. The two of them found the nearest maternity hospital, and Yunque was wheeled straight in.

Cheng Liru heard about it from someone or other.

She came to the hospital directly.

Yunque heard about what followed from others afterward — that Cheng Liru had actually been quietly keeping a close watch over the baby in her belly all along. When she heard about the premature labor, she had been genuinely frightened.

She waited outside anxiously while Yunque was in delivery.

The moment the child was brought out, she went immediately to see the baby, then accompanied the infant over to the incubator. Lu Rangchen, on the other hand, didn’t spare the child a single glance — he went straight inside to find Yunque.

Though it had been a premature birth.

It had gone smoothly. It wasn’t nearly as painful as Yunque had imagined. She had the vague feeling of having delivered the child in a blurry, half-dazed rush.

Only her body was on the frail side. After delivery she was groggy and confused, gripping Lu Rangchen’s hand and asking whether it was a boy or a girl.

Seeing that she was alright.

The tension that had been strung taut in Lu Rangchen’s nerves finally eased. He smiled and said: a girl.

Previously the two of them had discussed whether a boy or a girl would be better.

But their wishes had always been the same — boy or girl, either was fine. A boy could be raised with room to grow, made to be strong from an early age, someone who could shoulder responsibility, someone like Lu Rangchen.

If it was a girl, they would raise her like a little princess.

Give her as much love and as many good things as they possibly could. And no matter what, they would never let her life resemble what Yunque’s own life had once been.

In that moment, hearing it was a girl, Yunque finally smiled with relief.

Lu Rangchen smoothed the damp wisps of hair from her forehead. He listened as she said, “I wanted a girl.”

Lu Rangchen kissed the back of her hand, his eyes deep and burning as he looked at her. “Me too.”

Boy or girl — as long as it was hers, he loved it.

—

Because of the little one’s gender, Lu Zaozao’s formal name was ultimately chosen by her grandmother, Cheng Liru, who gave her a name full of poetic elegance: Lu Jiurao.

It was a name that expressed the hope she would be both graceful and lovely — that in the future she needn’t accomplish anything great, only be a beautiful and well-cherished young lady.

And yet Lu Zaozao turned out to be extraordinarily gifted. From the very beginning she inherited every bit of her father’s athletic talent. Not only did she learn to swim at a young age, but at the age of five, in a one-on-one taekwondo sparring session, she reduced a boy her own age to tears.

Her mouth, too, was in a class of its own.

Seeing the little boy unwilling to concede and tearfully threatening to tell on her, she planted her hands on her hips and, with a ferocious look, scolded him, “You keep crying and I’ll beat you so hard your shorts fly off!”

When Yunque went to pick her up from class that day, the teacher held her there and talked at her for a good long while.

The teacher was clearly at a loss herself. She said the child was extraordinarily talented, no question — but she was simply far too domineering.

Yunque nodded along with an awkward smile, saying yes, yes, of course, I’ll make sure to educate her properly when we get home.

But the newly changed-out-of-her-dobok Lu Zaozao disagreed.

That pretty little face — seven parts Lu Rangchen and three parts Yunque — paired with a thick, glossy bob that swept neatly to each side, made it impossible for anyone to walk past without taking a second look and exclaiming over how adorable she was.

And it was precisely for that reason that whenever she did something wrong, Yunque always hovered at the edge of wanting to scold her and not being able to bring herself to.

Probably also because Yunque herself had received so little maternal love growing up.

She could never bear to give Lu Zaozao too harsh a scolding.

So after holding it in for a while, Yunque simply put on a composed, refined expression and said, “When adults are talking, children do not interrupt.”

Lu Zaozao pursed her lips in her habitual way and obediently retreated to hide behind Yunque, wrapping her arms around her slender waist.

In the end, the entire exchange concluded with Yunque being the one who received the full lecture.

When Lu Rangchen came to pick the two of them up, Lu Zaozao was still not having any of it. The moment she was in the car, she tossed her little hat aside and told Lu Rangchen in her babyish voice, “It’s all because that little boy was being horrible. He was always yanking other girls’ braids in the martial arts studio.”

As she finished, both arms crossed, she rolled her eyes in a manner so alive and expressive it was almost theatrical.

Lu Rangchen couldn’t help but crack up. He looked back at Yunque. “The teacher gave you a talking-to again?”

Yunque let out a sigh and gave Lu Rangchen an utterly resigned look. “So you’d better have a good talk with your daughter when you get the chance. People who don’t know any better might think I raised a son.”

Lu Rangchen kept one hand on the steering wheel and, out of habit, reached over with the other to take her hand. Looking straight ahead, he said, “You can’t blame anyone else for this.”

“……”

“Who told you to always spare her from discipline?”

There had been a stretch of time when Lu Zaozao was being particularly wild, and Lu Rangchen would often want to put his foot down. But every time, Yunque would intercede.

When he finally pressed for a reason, Yunque told him honestly — shooting him a reproachful look — that it was because Lu Zaozao looked so much like him.

Lu Rangchen’s heart filled with warmth at those words.

He had been too busy pulling Yunque off to somewhere Lu Zaozao couldn’t see for a bit of indulgence, and the matter of Lu Zaozao’s upbringing had been entirely forgotten.

But this couldn’t go on indefinitely.

The child was far too wild. The older she got, the harder she would be to rein in. So when Lu Zaozao was six years old, Lu Rangchen came up with a plan.

He would send her over to her grandmother’s for a while.

At first, Lu Zaozao was obviously unwilling.

Her daily non-negotiable was sticking to Yunque like glue — because not only did Yunque give her hugs and kisses and swings through the air, she also made all sorts of wonderful pastries for her.

Though Yunque had been with Lu Rangchen all this time, she had never once made anything specifically for him.

Even this baking — she had taken it up for Lu Zaozao’s sake.

After learning, Lu Zaozao would regularly bring cupcakes her mother had made to kindergarten to share with her classmates.

While Lu Rangchen sat at home eating instant noodles Yunque had boiled and grumbling under his breath.

He shook his head with a laugh and said, “Had I known that having a daughter would divert so much of your affection away from me, I might have preferred we never have children.”

Yunque couldn’t hold back a laugh. “So that’s why you’re so fond of her.”

Lu Rangchen just smiled without answering.

Yunque deliberately poked at him and said, “Well, it’s too late now.”

The moment the words were out, Lu Rangchen cupped the back of her head and kissed her deeply.

——No matter how many years of marriage had passed, that ardent heat this man had for her had never once stopped burning.

It was just that, when it came to having a child, regret was indeed futile.

Because that big bed of theirs had long since made room for Lu Zaozao’s rightful place between them.

This little girl had a talent for choosing her spot — she made a point of sleeping right in the middle, with the result that even when Lu Rangchen wanted to hold Yunque close, she was completely out of reach. With no other option, he could only occasionally take advantage of daytime hours while Lu Zaozao was at kindergarten to take Yunque out on a date.

He even got a gold membership card at a five-star hotel.

But this could only go on for so long. Who could take time away from work in the middle of the day, after all?

So after much deliberation, Lu Rangchen finally settled on his plan to send her away for some temporary discipline.

Besides, Cheng Liru had been going on for some time about wanting to see the child.

It had to be said — though these past years with Yunque hadn’t exactly flowed with easy, natural warmth, the bond forged through the child had made things considerably better than before.

For instance, during holidays and festivals, Cheng Liru would invite the two of them to bring the child back for a meal together.

Yunque was naturally an introvert — quiet, with few words. The two of them happened not to need much conversation with each other, and each found the arrangement light and comfortable in its own way.

And because Cheng Liru adored Lu Zaozao so deeply, even her feelings toward Yunque had taken on a somewhat more favorable tint.

There was one time, after Lu Rangchen had had a little to drink, that he told Yunque directly: the birthmark on Lu Zaozao’s arm looked very, very much like the one Lu Zhitao had had.

Yunque was silent for a long time after hearing that.

Then she made up her mind to enroll Lu Zaozao in taekwondo instead of ballet.

Lu Rangchen teased her. “Didn’t you say you couldn’t bear it? That all you wanted was for her to be a little princess?”

Yunque hedged for a moment, then said that wouldn’t do — she couldn’t let her develop a delicate disposition. She’d rather her be a little tyrant.

Lu Rangchen raised an eyebrow.

A little tyrant it was, then.

Only even tyrants needed some managing. So even though Lu Zaozao wept rivers of tears when she was sent away, Lu Rangchen still resolutely delivered her to Cheng Liru’s door.

As it turned out, however —

This child had been a natural little performer from the very beginning. It had all been an act.

The moment she arrived at Cheng Liru’s and caught sight of her own dear grandmother, her face broke into an immediate, beaming smile.

Cheng Liru adored the child completely. Seeing her was like seeing her most precious treasure. That same afternoon, she took her off to Disneyland.

It happened to fall during the summer holidays.

She could stay with Cheng Liru the entire break.

Not just Cheng Liru — there were also several young boys from relatives’ families, all of whom were utterly charmed by the beautiful and adorable Lu Zaozao and practically orbited around her.

Even before the two of them had left the villa, Cheng Liru had already urged them: go on, you two enjoy your time together, and if nothing urgent comes up, don’t come over to take my Zaozao away.

Lu Rangchen immediately laughed and said: Mom, nothing I could ask for more.

With that, the two of them finally had a moment to breathe.

After leaving, they hadn’t even rushed to drive away. They simply stopped outside Cheng Liru’s villa and looked at each other — then smiled.

It had to be said: time is never unkind to beautiful people.

Lu Rangchen noticed that even after having a child, that luminous, bright quality in Yunque’s eyes was just as it had been in their university days.

He himself had simply taken on more of a composed, grown man’s presence.

But time had also steeped him in something richer, more settled, and more captivating.

They looked at each other for a few seconds before Lu Rangchen leaned in and kissed her lips. He then said, “A rare spell of freedom, my dear wife — shall we go on a date?”

Yunque’s lips gave a little tremor.

But she still kept her laughter in and said, “Did you forget? Tomorrow is Deng Zhe and Xu Linda’s wedding. I need to go help Xu Linda get ready tonight.”

Lu Rangchen’s brows shot up as though he had genuinely forgotten — and then he let out an involuntary laugh.

He clicked his tongue and said, “Those two really know how to get in the way.”

Yunque pushed Lu Rangchen lightly and said with a laugh, “The man has worked so hard all these years and finally gets to be a groom. Show a little generosity.”

Lu Rangchen gave a languid, easy chuckle and started the engine.

Two seconds later, he couldn’t help himself and glanced over at her, bargaining. “We’ve got time. Come home first. Let me have a kiss.”

“……”

Yunque’s ears warmed. She mumbled something about him having no decency.

The words had barely left her mouth.

When Lu Rangchen reached over and took her hand, the corners of his mouth pulling into a reckless, unrestrained curve.

Yunque curved her lips into a sweet smile and looked straight ahead.

Before them, the tree-lined path lay dappled in shade, and overhead the sky was a clear blue dotted with drifting clouds.

It was the road home — the road that the two of them, no matter how many times they walked it, never tired of walking together.

— The End —