◎“……Can I kiss you?”◎
Afraid the dream would repeat, Lan Yan used a dry social sciences monograph as her bedtime reading. The hypnosis tool that once worked so well fell short today, and she didn’t fall asleep until after dawn.
After staying up late, no matter how late she got up, it couldn’t compare to the refreshment of an early bedtime and early rising.
Lan Yan yawned as she entered the bathroom to brush her teeth. She glanced at the dark circles under her eyes in the mirror and couldn’t help cursing someone in her heart.
But she was the type who subconsciously avoided jinxing when cursing others—she never dared touch on life or health. After racking her brains, she could only curse him to go bald early. Getting uglier would work too.
Footsteps echoed in the hallway, and she instantly straightened her neck, entering high alert.
She was being overly paranoid. Those footsteps headed toward the living room, followed by the sound of him talking with Lan Junwen.
She knew it wasn’t time to relax yet. Until this Spring Festival ended, she would be locked in continuous encirclement and counter-encirclement struggles with Liang Jingchuan.
…Wasn’t that basically a real-life battle game?
After washing up, Lan Yan went to the living room. Lan Junwen and Liang Xiaoxia were about to head out to stock up on supplies for the next few days of staying home.
Lan Junwen didn’t forget to assign tasks: “There’s millet porridge and dumplings on the stove. Yanyan, eat breakfast with Jingchuan and put up the spring couplets. Clean your room too.”
“……Okay.”
Lan Yan suspected Liang Jingchuan had some mental manipulation power. Otherwise, why did the adults always step away at key moments, leaving him space to act freely?
She walked to the kitchen and carried breakfast to the dining room. Lan Junwen and Liang Xiaoxia closed the front door.
Now only the two of them remained in the space. Lan Yan doubled her vigilance but didn’t let the tension show on her face.
She bit into a thin-skinned dumpling, her peripheral vision glancing at the person sitting on the sofa.
The house had heating, so no one needed to bundle up too much.
He wore only a gray thin sweater, sitting there with his head lowered, casually fiddling with his phone, exuding a distant, weary nonchalance.
She couldn’t help recalling high school. After overhearing the fangirl chatter that “Fourth Middle School has two handsome guys, one cold and one hot, equally dividing the spotlight,” the first time she actually saw Chen Boyu and Liang Jingchuan appear together.
It was a Friday, right after the monthly exams for senior year ended. There was no evening self-study that night. Chen Boyu accompanied Liang Jingchuan home to drop off things and change clothes before going to play ball together.
Lan Yan had forgotten her phone when she went out in the afternoon and needed to come home. She also had to pick it up before going to the movies with Lu Ying that evening.
While she and Lu Ying were in the room, she heard voices at the door. One voice sounded unfamiliar, so she grew alert and walked to the hallway to look toward the entryway.
Two boys of equal height stood at the door, both in Fourth Middle School’s black-and-white uniforms. One wore his loose and baggy, the other neat and tidy.
A head poked over from behind, resting on her shoulder to join the peeking. Lu Ying whispered in her ear, “Who are they?”
“……Probably Liang Jingchuan’s good friend.”
“Oh, that legendary rich second-gen?”
“Aren’t you one too?”
“Our Lu family’s little business is nothing compared to touching porcelain on the Chen family.”
The boy in the loose uniform was talking to Liang Jingchuan about class matters. The latter occasionally responded, seeming not very engaged, but every sentence he said hit the key points.
After a moment, as if sensing the scrutinizing gaze, the boy looked up.
Lan Yan immediately pressed down on Lu Ying’s forehead and retreated, hurrying back to the room and closing the door.
Lu Ying asked quietly, “Which one do you think is handsomer?”
“……The rich second-gen.” Her stance made her answer that way.
She admitted that objectively, the two split the spotlight evenly. But aesthetics were highly subjective. Like young Takeshi Kaneshiro versus Daniel Wu—she would always pick Kaneshiro, while Lu Ying would blindly side with Wu.
Lu Ying muttered, “Looks like our tastes will never align. I think your brother has a face with more story to it.”
Wrong. This was the one time their aesthetics perfectly matched.
She never told Lu Ying the truth, nor admitted it to herself.
Even when she hated Liang Jingchuan the most, she couldn’t pick out anything unpleasant on his face.
The height of his brow bones and nose bridge, the position of his eyes and lips, the proportions of the three courts and five eyes… they perfectly matched her ideal aesthetic standard. Even his eyelashes and nails were good-looking.
Lan Yan swallowed a bite of dumpling, thinking painfully that this person could be anyone—why did he have to be the son of her de facto “stepmother”?
Noticing Liang Jingchuan put down his phone, Lan Yan immediately lowered her eyes.
His gaze turned toward her. After a long moment of silence, she wondered what prank he was brewing. This person could be as upright as he was wicked.
She ignored him and finished breakfast on her own, then took the bowls and chopsticks to the kitchen to wash them clean.
During the holidays, the family always received all sorts of festival gift boxes. Lan Yan found several pairs of spring couplets in the drawer—not just the one she bought, probably unpacked from the boxes.
She took them all out, unfolded them flat, compared them by content, and picked the most beautiful and auspicious one for the front door.
The couplets came with several nail-sized crystal gels—no need to cut them herself.
Lan Yan took the items to the door.
The security door opened outward. She pushed it open just a crack and peeled off last year’s dusty old couplets from bottom to top.
The top half stuck firmly. She tiptoed to try, but it wouldn’t budge, so she had to jump a little.
When she landed, her elbow bumped the door handle.
Lan Yan inwardly cried out in alarm. Sure enough, she heard a click as the door closed.
…She hadn’t brought her keys or phone.
Worst of all, the next instant, a light laugh came from behind the door.
…He’d been given the perfect chance to dictate surrender terms.
To her surprise, the door opened. Liang Jingchuan didn’t mention any conditions.
He stepped out, and she instinctively moved back.
Liang Jingchuan raised his arm and easily reached the top of the couplet. As he tore it down, he reminded her, “Turn your face away. There’s dust.”
Familiar words. Lan Yan blanked for a moment.
He rolled up the torn couplet and set it on the ground for now.
She placed the new couplet on the handrail. Lan Yan picked up the top end and applied the crystal gel upward bit by bit. For a pair of hands that could turn decay into magic, this task was effortless.
Liang Jingchuan stepped closer and pressed down on the gel in her hand, as if to help paste it. She held her breath for an instant, took a new piece from below his fingers, and handed it to him.
He chuckled and took it, but stayed in place.
Lan Yan had no choice but to step back herself.
Working together, they quickly finished the upper couplet. Liang Jingchuan picked it up, walked to the door, held it high, and looked back at her.
She had to speak: “A bit high on the left.”
He adjusted it and looked at her again.
“Still a bit high, just a little… okay now.”
Liang Jingchuan peeled off the backing from the crystal gel, fixing it from top to bottom while saying leisurely, “Do we have to do this task every day?”
Lan Yan didn’t understand what he meant but didn’t ask.
Liang Jingchuan didn’t seem to need any reaction from her and continued on his own: “Every day, I have to find ways to make you talk to me.”
Lan Yan showed no expression.
“You’re the most rational person I know.” Liang Jingchuan pasted the couplet down from top to bottom. “Maybe that’s one reason I like you.”
His tone was as casual as if describing that bananas were easy to peel and not messy—one reason he liked them.
Lan Yan felt her scalp explode. She instinctively turned to look at the opposite door. The neighbors across were on good terms with her family, and she absolutely didn’t want that prim and proper auntie to hear Liang Jingchuan spouting such nonsense.
“……Can you watch the occasion?” She frowned and scolded in a low voice.
Liang Jingchuan chuckled lightly. “Then what’s a suitable occasion? In the car? Your room?”
“……”
He rarely pressed step by step because stopping at the point was devastating enough.
Thank goodness for the red sweater she’d dug out of the closet that morning—it hid her reddening ears.
With the lower couplet and horizontal scroll pasted, Liang Jingchuan patted the dust off his hands. As if to check the overall effect, he reached out and pushed the door shut.
“……Did you bring the keys?”
Liang Jingchuan paused. “……Forgot.”
“……”
“What now?” Liang Jingchuan turned to her with a half-smile. “Did you bring your phone? Call Uncle?”
“……No.”
“Then we can only wait at the door.” He shrugged slightly, feigning helplessness.
“You definitely brought them.”
“Nope.”
“Who’d believe you.”
“Don’t believe me? Come search me.” He spread his arms slightly, posing as if at her mercy.
His slightly high brow bones made his eye sockets seem deeper. When his eyes held a smile, they took on an especially affectionate quality— even slightly frivolous words didn’t make people dislike him.
Lan Yan didn’t argue with him. She turned and walked toward the opposite door, planning to ask the neighbor auntie for shelter.
Her wrist was grabbed.
Just as she thought to pull away, a key was stuffed into her palm.
As the electric shock-like pain spread from her fingertips, Lan Yan heard Liang Jingchuan hiss too.