Wu Man struggled for half a second with her remaining rationality before deciding to wave the white flag in surrender.

But on the surface, she still couldn’t let go of her pride, dishonestly demurring: “No, you’re overweight. Such a large item, our company doesn’t accept it.”

She thought Zhui Ye would cling to her and play shamelessly, then she could go along with it, naturally flowing downhill.

But instead…

“Then forget it. Let’s stick with the original plan of sending her one kiss.”

Zhui Ye withdrew his hands from her knit shirt, smoothing it down neatly for her, then cupping Wu Man’s face with both hands, gently pressing a kiss on her forehead.

His breathing was still rapid, but his whole body moved back a bit, creating space between them.

Wu Man glanced down. Even in the darkness, that swollen bulge was excessively obvious.

That thing had just been rubbing against her.

Zhui Ye said with a bitter smile: “Sister… I’m going to the bathroom.”

It wasn’t until the sound of running water came from inside that Wu Man hazily came to her senses. This… why wasn’t this following her script? Did he really think she was unwilling?

She was speechless.

In his early twenties, at the peak of youthful vigor—shouldn’t his mind be full of that sort of thing? She couldn’t let herself, a mature thirty-year-old woman, appear so desperate as to say she wanted it! How could he actually put on the brakes!

Wu Man huffily kicked the bathroom door. The door seemed to automatically sense it and opened from inside. Zhui Ye came out with only his lower half covered, his whole body still emanating cold moisture.

She glanced at him from head to toe and snorted: “Took a cold shower?”

He uncomfortably wiped his hair, mumbling: “Mm…”

Wu Man pushed him aside as if he was an eyesore: “Hurry back to your room after washing. Don’t let me see you still in my room when I come out.”

*

When Wu Man came out after showering and freshening up, someone was still shamelessly lingering in her room, having even gone so far as to remove his bathrobe and lay in the only king-size bed.

He was very sleepy now, half his face buried in the soft pillow. The floor lamp in the distance cast heavy shadows on him, making him look like a still black-and-white sketch.

Only then did Wu Man belatedly realize that Zhui Ye had filmed for a full twelve hours today—not just today, but every day before as well. Even after returning to the hotel, he couldn’t fully rest. Looking at his physique, she knew he hadn’t relaxed his daily fitness regimen.

Her heart instantly softened like a cloud, silently cursing herself for being a beast seduced by beauty.

Wu Man lightened her footsteps, turned off the light, and rustled into bed. As soon as she entered the covers, a pair of hands accurately wrapped around her waist, dragging her toward him.

“I thought you were asleep.”

Zhui Ye lazily lifted his eyelids: “Just resting my eyes. My stamina isn’t as poor as Sister thinks.”

She said noncommittally: “Sleep quickly. Don’t you have to get up at eight tomorrow morning?”

“I’m really not tired. I’m very used to it.” His eyes were indeed very clear, which made Wu Man’s heart waver again. Was this hinting they should do it? Or not?

Sigh, the thoughts of young men were too hard to guess.

Zhui Ye moved closer, lightly nuzzling her nose with his.

“What are you thinking about, Sister?”

She blurted out: “I’m thinking about earlier…”

Damn, she’d let it slip.

Wu Man closed her eyes, her cheeks burning hot in the darkness.

She murmured, pretending to yawn: “I’m sleepy. Good night.”

She rapidly turned over, burying her embarrassed face in the covers.

Zhui Ye laughed softly, saying: “Okay, good night.”

The room fell silent until Wu Man’s breathing became steady. Only then did Zhui Ye carefully kiss her hair, talking to himself without making a sound: “Sister, I don’t want it to be so quick.”

He had coveted her for too many years, starting from when he didn’t even know what the emotion called “liking” was.

Back then, some girls at school had already matured physically. Although the little boys were still quite insensitive to sex, their natural instincts would make them curiously stare at their protruding chests.

After playing basketball in gym class, they would huddle together, pointing at the girls watching from the sidelines, animatedly discussing whose chest was bigger.

“Our class beauty still has the best figure!”

“Really, her chest is so big.”

“She’s walking over!! Her chest is even bouncing, oh my god.”

Zhui Ye had absolutely no interest in their topic. He tossed the ball distantly into the hoop, plugged in his earphones, casually wiped his sweat, and headed to the school store to buy water.

But the very person they’d just been discussing blocked his path, holding out a bottle of mineral water she’d prepared in advance.

He froze in place, looking around at a loss. Everyone was staring at them.

The class beauty’s face flushed red, her outstretched arm trembling slightly.

“Here…”

Her voice was as faint as a mosquito’s.

Zhui Ye paused, accepting her water: “Thanks.” He was about to pull out money from his pocket to pay her, but she bounced away joyfully the moment he took the water.

As soon as she left, the boys who had been watching eagerly surrounded him with jeers, bumping his shoulder knowingly.

“Wow, does she like you?”

“Tsk tsk tsk, do you like her big chest!”

Zhui Ye was baffled. He’d only accepted that bottle of water because so many people were watching—he didn’t want to embarrass the girl by refusing.

He had to lie: “You’re overthinking it. I just asked her to buy water for me.”

“Yeah right, you don’t like her?”

Zhui Ye simply asked back: “What is liking?”

The boy was stumped by the question, stammering for a long time: “Wanting to grab her chest and kiss her!”

Zhui Ye calmly said oh: “Then I don’t like her.”

However, when this reached the class beauty’s ears, it was misunderstood as his shyness.

After all, he had personally accepted her water.

Her older sister in high school had told her that to judge whether a boy likes you, don’t look at what he says, look at what he does.

Therefore, those words were easily filtered out by her, only leaving the impression in her heart that Zhui Ye was somewhat shy. If that was the case, she could be bolder—it was fine.

Not long after, when the school organized a movie-watching activity, she secretly switched seats in the darkness and sat next to Zhui Ye.

However, he seemed completely oblivious to her arrival, only looking up intently at the movie.

…What movie was so captivating to him?

She resentfully shifted her gaze from his profile to the big screen.

The school had organized a Red Revolution Memorial Day activity, so the movie arranged was also a very boring Republican-era war theme. After watching for two seconds, she found it dull, inwardly wondering if boys just liked watching this kind of spy film? However, seeing him watch so seriously now, she decided to watch too, planning to use the movie to start a conversation when it ended.

She thought this happily, following his gaze to the big screen, where a woman wearing a qipao appeared.

The woman was playing an insignificant supporting role—a warlord villain’s mistress, with probably just these few seconds of screen time in the entire film.

She had small curls, her bangs slicked smoothly against her temples with pomade, the excess pinned behind her head with a brilliant peony hairpin. Her qipao was in the same floral pattern, slit high to her thigh. She smiled seductively at the camera, captivating with just one glance.

Zhui Ye looked up, not blinking once.

Because that was his Sister.

The class beauty, seeing an expression he’d never shown before, felt her heart sink halfway.

After the movie ended, all the boys’ conversation topics shifted very concentratedly to Wu Man.

“That woman’s thighs were so white, her chest was so big…”

“Bigger than the class beauty, right!”

“There’s no comparison—the class beauty is just a little girl.”

They chatted excitedly, not noticing Zhui Ye’s continued silence beside them.

He exerted force with both hands, crushing the plastic Coke bottle. The splashing water sprayed those people in the face, rudely interrupting this idle chat.

“Damn, what’s wrong with you?”

They came to their senses, cursing and hopping around complaining. One of them said with sudden realization: “Tsk, are you angry because we talked about the class beauty? You’re so awkward, and you said you don’t like her!”

He didn’t argue, just placed the Coke bottle on that person’s head, flicked his hand, and left.

At that time, he still didn’t know exactly what “liking” meant.

His reaction was very pure—simply hearing them covet Sister made him irritable.

As for the class beauty… sorry, she wasn’t even within his detection range. At least they got one thing right—there was no comparison.

Precisely because of this, his little thoughts were even more unspeakable. Who would believe that several years ago, he’d had a brief encounter with the woman on screen? He’d held her waist. They’d spent a spring night together.

He was different from these people who couldn’t even touch Sister’s hem!

He felt somewhat dejected yet unwilling, not quite understanding this sudden possessiveness. Like a fire scorching, almost burning him through.

On the night after watching that movie, young Zhui Ye had a dream.

In the dream, he became that upright-postured warlord, no longer the little boy whose height only reached Wu Man’s waist. He stepped down from an old-fashioned four-wheeled car. Wu Man stood gracefully on the second-floor balcony, leaning down and beckoning to him with her finger. Golden powder, two rows of flowers urging wine—the wine doesn’t intoxicate, one intoxicates oneself. He seemed to see snow in a volcano, ice at the equator. Heat and cold leaked from between his legs, flowing into a bed full of mess.

At six in the morning, he lay dazed on the muddy sheets, as if deeply mired in a swamp. That crude phrase ran through his mind: liking, liking means wanting to grab her chest and kiss her.

That person wasn’t wrong—liking brings desire.

But that person didn’t tell him that liking would make his heart feel so empty.

His Sister wasn’t a girl from class who could be won over by delivering soy milk and fried dough sticks through wind and rain. She was high above, framed in a 1.33:1 screen, as if living in another parallel world.

Therefore, when he could actually hold her in his arms, just like now—one bed, one blanket, bare skin pressed together, his hand pressing down her hair, her scent, all the entanglement made Zhui Ye feel both dazed and cherishing.

Through the long years, he had always harbored desire for her. But when the day finally came when he could completely possess her, he couldn’t bear to.

He feared she would hurt, feared his own complete ignorance would embarrass him before her.

He also feared the timing and conditions weren’t right, the atmosphere not good enough, making her recall it as not wonderful.

His desire, compared to her feelings, truly wasn’t worth mentioning.

Up to this day, he had gradually come to understand through exploration that liking was an easy thing—one could kiss on the spot, go to bed, scatter desire.

But love? Even when consumed by desire, one must split off another self and watch from across the shore.