Always.

When did this “always” begin?

It wasn’t until Lin Zhexia returned to her class formation, standing at attention under the blazing sun, that she realized she had forgotten to ask.

Probably from before, she supposed.

She thought maybe it was from when they separated, and Chi Yao was afraid of missing her messages, so he pinned her chat.

When her dormmates learned that Lin Zhexia was going on a date, they were even more invested than she was.

Lan Xiaoxue especially thought ahead for her: “Should we buy you some clothes, and then do your makeup? Do you know how to apply makeup?”

Lin Zhexia: “…I don’t.”

Although she had entered university, she still went bare-faced every day out of habit. Plus, with military training having them bake in the sun on the field every day, there was no time to learn makeup.

“How can you not wear makeup?” Lan Xiaoxue was drawing her eyeliner, and from Lin Zhexia’s angle, the scene looked terrifying. She lifted her eyelid and poked at her eye repeatedly, “For your first date, you’re just planning to go with a bare face? When are you going to see the movie? I’ll do your makeup.”

On the agreed day, Lin Zhexia sat in Lan Xiaoxue’s seat, as if waiting for an execution.

Lan Xiaoxue had laid out a pile of makeup tools on her desk. Before applying foundation, she leaned in to examine Lin Zhexia’s face: “Your skin is so smooth. I’m jealous. My flawed skin is unbearable without makeup.”

The other dormmates sat in a row across from her.

Lin Zhexia was wearing a dress Lan Xiaoxue had chosen for her and nervously said: “You don’t need to sit in a row watching me like this…”

Qin Lei: “We searched for a lot of dating tips for you. While you’re getting your makeup done, we’ll read them to you.”

Lin Zhexia: “…”

“Did you bring gum?” Qin Lei asked halfway through the makeup session.

“Huh?”

“The guide says you can chew some before kissing.”

“…”

Lin Zhexia stammered: “We, uh, haven’t moved that fast yet…”

Qin Lei: “What’s fast about it? You’re together now, isn’t it normal?”

But she wasn’t ready.

And she always felt that Chi Yao had noticed this, which is why these days he only held her hand, at most just hugging her like he did on the day they confirmed their relationship.

After the makeup was done, Lan Xiaoxue packed up her makeup bag and called out, “Beautiful lady, you can look in the mirror now.”

Lin Zhexia picked up the mirror.

Only then did she realize how different the person in the mirror was from her usual self in her memory.

The formerly somewhat immature face had long shed its rawness. Her eyes and brows, under subtle definition, further highlighted the unique radiance of a young woman. Before makeup, her features were rather muted, but now her whole face looked more striking.

It looked good.

But she didn’t know if Chi Yao would think so too.

Before setting out, she sent Chi Yao a message:

Have your classes ended?

Boyfriend: Yes

Boyfriend: Still have something to do, you come over first

This contact name had been changed for almost a week, and each time these three characters popped up, her heart still raced.

Lin Zhexia replied with an “Oh.”

Chi Yao’s major was special, and it was the university’s most prestigious program, so they had their dedicated teaching building.

This building had a prime location, situated in the center of campus.

Lin Zhexia usually attended classes in the buildings at the corners of campus. Today was her first time stepping into the elite program’s building.

The building was unusually quiet, with almost no classes making loud noises.

She walked up the stairs and reached Chi Yao’s classroom door, nervously straightened her skirt, then carefully pushed the door open.

His class had ended, but the teacher had left homework that needed to be completed before they could leave. Since Chi Yao was responsible for collecting the assignments, when she pushed open the door, the scene she saw was a group of people surrounding someone—the person being surrounded had lowered eyes, hands in his coat pockets, looking tired and impatient. He wore a silver earring, sat in a chair with his legs made to look even longer by the reversed chair, and was being crowded by others.

Someone was pleading with him: “Brother Yao, I can’t turn it in now. Can I give it to you tomorrow?”

Chi Yao didn’t even lift his eyelids: “Unless you’ve got a terminal illness and need to rush to the hospital right now, get back and finish it before turning it in.”

“…”

“Is there no room for negotiation?”

Chi Yao seemed to sense something and raised his eyes toward the door. His gaze fell on the girl standing at the doorway, and he lowered his voice: “…You think I want to be stuck here?”

“Stop wasting time, finish writing and turn it in,” he added. “Don’t make my girlfriend wait too long.”

After he said this, the group surrounding him realized something.

Then they all turned their gazes toward the door.

“Holy shit,” someone called out, “Hello, sister-in-law.”

Lin Zhexia was already uncomfortable, and now felt even more awkward: “…”

Chi Yao stood up and offered his seat to her: “Just ignore them.”

She didn’t want to engage with them either.

Right now, she wished she could be mute.

But awkwardness aside, she couldn’t deny that the feeling of being publicly introduced as his girlfriend… felt pretty good.

This way, everyone would know he had a girlfriend.

Maybe people would stop sending him random chocolates and stuff.

While waiting, Lin Zhexia opened an app on her phone and sat quietly memorizing vocabulary words.

After a while, she couldn’t help but ask: “Haven’t you noticed anything different about me today?”

Chi Yao’s gaze fell on the girl’s mascara-coated eyelashes, and he deliberately said: “What’s different?”

“…Are you blind?” she said.

“My eyesight isn’t great today.”

Lin Zhexia didn’t want to bother with him anymore and continued memorizing vocabulary. Before she could memorize two words, she heard him say: “I saw it. You’re wearing makeup today.”

Chi Yao rarely gave positive feedback, but today he spoke seriously: “Very beautiful.”

Lin Zhexia pressed her lips together, suppressing her delight: “It’s nothing special. After all, I’m naturally beautiful.”

With half an hour left before the movie started, Chi Yao finally finished collecting all the assignments.

Though he had excellent grades in middle and high school, he rarely served as a class officer.

Lin Zhexia had asked him why before, and he only said it was “troublesome.”

Thinking about it, she had to agree.

This person was already difficult to get along with; he couldn’t look after others and didn’t want to either.

But the university version of Chi Yao was a bit different. That year and more seemed to have transformed him into a more “reliable” person.

Although—

His attitude when collecting assignments was still pretty terrible.

“If we head over now, the timing should be perfect,” Lin Zhexia said as they walked together toward the university town’s cinema. “By the way, are you your class’s monitor?”

Chi Yao: “Something like that.”

Lin Zhexia: “I can’t believe you’d agree to be class monitor.”

Chi Yao: “My scores were too high, I couldn’t refuse.”

“…”

Lin Zhexia, with her middle-of-the-pack grades in her major, couldn’t comprehend the world of top students.

The path they were taking was rather narrow, so Lin Zhexia walked in front. Halfway there, Chi Yao reminded her: “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

“What?”

“Your hand.”

“Oh.”

Lin Zhexia slowed her pace to hold his hand.

The moment she touched his hand, Chi Yao turned his palm and gripped hers.

Lin Zhexia couldn’t help but call out to him: “Chi Yao.”

“?”

“I never expected,” she said slowly, “that you’d be so clingy when dating.”

Chi Yao scoffed: “Boyfriend and girlfriend walking without holding hands? Did you think you were finding a stranger to walk one in front and one behind?”

Lin Zhexia: “Watch your words.”

Though she felt more at ease when Chi Yao talked this way, it didn’t mean she wouldn’t get annoyed with him.

“You were so gentle when you were pursuing me.”

She thought of Chi Yao’s “abnormal” behavior during that time and deliberately sighed: “I guess that’s just how men are.”

Chi Yao moved his fingers, squeezing her delicate knuckles.

“That wasn’t gentleness,” he said.

Lin Zhexia didn’t immediately grasp his meaning.

As they talked, they arrived at the cinema.

Chi Yao released her hand to queue for the tickets, telling her to find a place to wait for him.

While queuing, he lowered his head, looking for the ticket code while admitting defeat in his heart, saying that back then, he was just being too formal.

Because he cared too much.

Also, because the person in front of him was too precious.

So language seemed to regress, unable to come up with elegant phrases or pleasing words, unable to maintain his usual arrogance. When facing her, his speech could only regress to the simplest, most primitive mode.

Regressing to those four ordinary words: “I like you.”

Lin Zhexia stood aside, waiting for him to get the tickets.

She had watched many movies with Chi Yao. From childhood to adulthood, they had seen all the popular films in theaters together.

But only two occasions were special.

One was Valentine’s Day, and the other was now.

When she accidentally ended up spending Valentine’s Day with Chi Yao, she had even secretly rejoiced upon discovering during ticket checking that her seat was next to his.

“Here,” Chi Yao got the tickets and handed one to her. “Row six, seat ten, in the middle.”

Lin Zhexia took the ticket.

Back then, she never imagined that one day would come when she could openly watch a “couple’s movie” with Chi Yao.

The movie they chose was a standard commercial film with good box office numbers and reviews, one of the recent big hits.

Which movie they watched didn’t matter; what mattered was that today was their first official date.

Chi Yao had also bought her cola and popcorn when getting the tickets.

He carried the snack bag in one hand and handed the tickets to the ticket checker with the other.

Lin Zhexia followed close behind him for ticket checking, just like in high school.

The ticket checker tore off the stubs and pointed the way: “Theater three—go straight ahead and turn left at the second entrance.”

But unlike high school, after she had her ticket checked, Chi Yao took her hand again.

Just as she had hoped for back then.

Fingers intertwined.

The two hands were tightly entwined.

The warmth from Chi Yao’s palm transferred to her hand.

“What are you spacing out for?” Chi Yao led her forward. “Watch where you’re going, don’t get lost again.”

Hearing this, Lin Zhexia’s steps faltered.

She had thought that the small mishap from high school was remembered only by her.

After all, it was such a minor thing, something that shouldn’t be remembered like this in the long river of time.

She paused and asked: “How do you still remember… that I got lost back then?”

Chi Yao countered: “Is it strange that I remember?”

…

It wasn’t particularly strange.

He might simply have a strong memory.

Sure enough. His next sentence was:

“Unlike a certain idiot girlfriend,” Chi Yao said casually, “I have a good memory.”

“…”

She didn’t want to speak anymore.

The two entered theater three, and just as they sat down, Chi Yao stuffed the popcorn bucket into her hands as the lights in the hall dimmed.

The film officially began.

Even though they had confirmed their relationship, Lin Zhexia’s state of mind watching this “couple’s movie” with him wasn’t much better than last time. It still took her over ten minutes to get into the movie-watching mode, figuring out which actor was which, and what they were doing at the beginning of the story.

She watched while stuffing popcorn into her mouth.

Halfway through, she remembered the person beside her: “Do you want some?”

Chi Yao turned his head, and after a moment, extended his hand.

But his hand wasn’t reaching for the popcorn bucket; it was heading toward her mouth.

Lin Zhexia had just taken a piece of popcorn from the bucket and had just put it to her lips, lightly biting it, when that hand reaching across took away the piece touching her lips.

“…”

Her face instantly turned red: “I just…” bit it.

But Chi Yao didn’t mind, even commenting: “Sweeter than last time.”

“It all tastes the same,” she hugged the popcorn bucket, the movie plot she had just barely managed to follow now disrupted by him. When her gaze drifted back to the big screen, she could no longer understand what the protagonist was doing. “Couldn’t you just take your own? Why steal mine?”

Chi Yao had already withdrawn his hand. He leaned back and said indifferently, “I’m sick. Take me to the hospital.”

“…”

She couldn’t win this argument.

Lin Zhexia decided to ignore the topic.

After all, given their current relationship, his eating a piece of popcorn she had bitten didn’t seem like a big deal.

Chi Yao didn’t plan to drop the subject and calmly urged her: “Eat faster.”

Lin Zhexia was flustered: “Why? Is there a rule that popcorn must be finished within a certain time at the cinema, or else they’ll call the police to arrest you?”

“I don’t know if anyone will call the police to arrest you.”

As Chi Yao spoke, using the cinema’s dim light, he extended his hand in front of her, resting his wrist on the armrest between the seats. From Lin Zhexia’s angle, she could only see the vague outline of his arm—

“I only know that if you don’t hurry up and finish, I won’t be able to hold you.”