The sky was very dark, but his eyes were very bright.
Tao Shuran had deeply understood the meaning of Fang Qingyi’s previous comment these past few days—that Liang Yuanjing had a pair of eyes that looked at dogs with deep affection.
She asked sincerely, “How do I coax you?”
“Does coaxing someone need to be taught?”
Liang Yuanjing gave her a sidelong glance and drawled, “Tao Shuran, in the end, are you coaxing me, or am I coaxing you?”
He provoked her. “Or else, why don’t you go clarify our relationship to them?”
Tao Shuran pressed her lips tightly together and, after a long moment, squeezed out, “Can’t explain it.”
“What’s so hard to explain? Have we kissed or slept together?”
“Liang Yuanjing!”
She glared at him furiously. “If you say one more word, I won’t pay attention to you anymore.”
This sentence worked better than anything else.
Liang Yuanjing chuckled, lazily raised both hands in surrender, and cooperatively sat back down.
“Fine, fine, fine. I’ll shut up.
“I’ll listen to you and peacefully be your secret… friend.”
Tao Shuran hadn’t realized before that Liang Yuanjing had this mischievous streak in his personality.
She stood in place to straighten her clothes, adjusted her breathing, and took the initiative to walk forward a stretch to meet them.
“Back?”
Jin Boyu’s gaze flicked to the car parked by the roadside. He indifferently withdrew his eyes and just gave an instruction.
“There might be heavy rain the day after tomorrow. Teacher Lin said we need to speed up our progress tomorrow, so we’ll probably have to get up early.”
“Let’s go. I’ll take you back.”
Tao Shuran stared at her toes and let out a particularly guilty “Mm.”
On the way back to the dorms following Jin Boyu, neither of them took the initiative to speak. The atmosphere was a bit quiet.
When they reached the dorm door, Jin Boyu took the key and opened it himself.
He stood outside the door without entering her room, his hands restrained behind his back.
His gaze fell on her flushed cheeks, and he half-jokingly said, “Tao Shuran, do you know what your current state looks especially like?”
Tao Shuran let out an “Ah,” then lifted her head. Her pair of bewildered and clear eyes did, to some extent, have a naive cuteness.
Jin Boyu couldn’t help but chuckle lowly.
Having long seen through all her pretenses, he deliberately leaned in slowly by her ear and whispered—
“Like a kid caught early dating.”
The temperature across Tao Shuran’s entire body surged. An embarrassment like having done something guilty and been found out kept climbing.
Others might not know anything, but with her senior brother’s perceptiveness far beyond ordinary people—a philosopher’s temperament—he had probably already guessed her relationship with Liang Yuanjing from bits and pieces of their interactions.
Tao Shuran shamefully lowered her head.
Jin Boyu reached out and touched her cheek. “Too hot.”
After closing the door, she immediately ran to the mirror to check her face.
There had been no overly intimate contact at all, but for some reason, her whole body felt very hot.
After showering and lying in bed, Tao Shuran pulled out her phone and slowly sent a message to Fang Qingyi.
“Little Yi, do you have any spare sanitary pads? My period came early; I didn’t have time to buy any.”
Fang Qingyi quickly replied, saying she’d bring two packs tomorrow.
Online shopping wasn’t very convenient here—no free shipping, and even then, it took days for transit.
Pressing her faintly aching lower abdomen, Tao Shuran swallowed a Brufen tablet with warm water and secretly felt relieved.
All that restless emotion was just because of her period.
She no longer had any feelings for him.
Because of her period, Tao Shuran didn’t sleep comfortably that night. In the latter half of the night, she was woken by the sound of rain hitting the windows.
She struggled to get out of bed in a daze and vaguely saw flashing lights outside the room along with various hurried footsteps.
Knock knock knock—
At one in the morning, her door was knocked on.
“Junior Sister, are you awake?”
Jin Boyu leaned sideways against her door and said lowly, “Sudden heavy rain. The passageway has a risk of collapse at any time. They’ve ordered us to do our best to salvage tonight.”
Tao Shuran was instantly wide awake.
She threw off the covers and immediately stood up, packing to head out at her fastest speed.
Outside the door, Jin Boyu was waiting for her with rain gear.
The rain was truly too heavy, the wind fierce. An umbrella was snatched away the moment it opened.
While helping her into the raincoat, Jin Boyu instructed, “Professor Lin said safety first.”
He hesitated. “Or else, you stay in the room first. Songnian and I will check the situation outside.”
Tao Shuran took the rain boots from his hand without any hesitation and put them on.
“I need to go back and check the situation at Pit 2.”
Pit 2 was under Tao Shuran’s responsibility. No matter how heavy the rain, returning to the site to check was her duty.
When they returned to the site, many people had already gathered.
Many didn’t even have raincoats. Everyone spontaneously carried out protective work in various places.
Later, the strong wind mixed with rain pelted their faces painfully, and sharp, long whistle blasts rang out.
“The rain’s too heavy!
“Everyone evacuate, quick! Everyone get in the cars and head back to base.”
Tao Shuran had just arrived at the site when a gust of wind flipped off her rain hood. The immense wind made it hard for her to even take a step.
She hugged a heavy plastic sheet in her arms, thinking to cover as much as she could.
But the wind made her unable to even stand steady. The evacuation whistles sounded from afar. Tao Shuran decisively set down what she was holding and slowly withdrew.
Water had already begun pooling in the passageway, overflowing the rain boots and flooding her feet with bone-chilling cold. Even walking became a numb ordeal.
Tao Shuran struggled to lift her legs, dragging what felt like thousand-pound weights forward with difficulty.
The fog grew thicker, the lights dimmer. Car horns sounded from near to far. The main group’s evacuation proceeded in an orderly manner.
Tao Shuran grew more anxious and quickened her steps, but she suddenly stumbled forward after stepping on a rock.
Her knee knocked against a stone, sending a drilling pain surging up. Tao Shuran bit her lip, her entire face instantly draining of color.
“Tao Shuran!”
Someone shouted her name urgently from afar. Tao Shuran laboriously lifted her head and looked ahead.
In the hazy night, someone parted the invisible thick fog and strode forward under the moonlight.
Liang Yuanjing’s steps were steady and urgent as he waded through the rushing water toward her.
This was the first time Tao Shuran had seen Liang Yuanjing come to her without hesitation.
The scene she had imagined countless times in her dreams, in the throes of a girl’s secret crush—she had thought it impossible.
But it happened just like that, real and tangible.
Tao Shuran struggled to stand and walked forcefully forward.
“Wait, let me check that side a bit more.”
“Tao Shuran, do you not understand the words ‘evacuate’?”
Liang Yuanjing rolled up his sleeves, revealing the defined lines of his forearms.
His dark eyes lowered as he stood in place watching her for a moment, then suddenly reached out and scooped her up into his arms princess-style.
Tao Shuran was startled. Splashing water hit her face. Before she could react, her head was pressed against a broad chest by a large, thick palm.
She had never listened to someone’s powerful heartbeat from such close range.
This position was really too strange. Tao Shuran pressed her lips together, afraid of falling, and grabbed the hem of his clothes with both hands.
“Put me down. I won’t look anymore. I can walk myself.”
No sooner had she spoken than Liang Yuanjing lightly patted her waist and hip.
“Don’t move.”
He was uncharacteristically serious. “Be good, Ranran.”
He opened the car door, buckled her seatbelt, and tossed Tao Shuran into his heavy-duty off-road vehicle.
Before she could react, Liang Yuanjing turned on the roof light. Standing before her, he directly removed her completely soaked shoes and socks.
He casually pulled out two pieces of tissue paper, then half-squatted down, earnestly and attentively wiping her feet dry.
The whole set of movements flowed smoothly, as if he’d done it a thousand times.
Tao Shuran was completely stunned in place. Her foot, which had instinctively shrunk back, was gripped by his hand, unable to break free.
The rain still poured outside, completely soaking his hair. Water streamed down from his straight brow bone, making those ink-black eyes gleam.
“Get in the car, Liang Yuanjing.”
Tao Shuran’s gentle eyes looked at him. “The rain outside is too heavy.”
Liang Yuanjing agreed with a “Good” and went around to the other side to open the door.
The moment the car started, Tao Shuran saw the full car full of people through the rearview mirror reflection.
She froze for a moment.
The people in the back probably didn’t know how long they had been stunned; everyone’s expressions could almost be called dumbfounded.
Only Lin Tingzhou turned her face toward the window and sighed helplessly.
Yuan Xiangzhi sat beside her. At this sight, he wiped his reading glasses on his clothes over and over, put them on, squinted and sized things up for a good while before speaking.
“I say, Professor Lin, this is that arrogant, haughty grandson of yours with eyes higher than his head?”
Lin Tingzhou closed her eyes.
Nothing to say.
“Good grief. No wonder Little Tao always refused to come to the Clock Group with me. So you used a honey trap.”
Yuan Xiangzhi tsked repeatedly. “Teacher Lin, that’s not fair play.”
Tao Shuran lowered her eyes, hardly daring to look up at Lin Tingzhou’s expression.
But when everyone started discussing Liang Yuanjing’s illustrious exploits, she suddenly interjected—
“Little Tao is a very outstanding child.
“As for matters of the heart, some people need to work hard on their own.”
Liang Yuanjing smiled, not stopping his driving, his smile roguish.
He shouted loudly, “Mission guaranteed complete.”
Tao Shuran’s face burned hot. She shot Liang Yuanjing a glance that had no deterrent power.
He ignored it completely, as if his attention was entirely on driving.
Back at the temporary base, everyone got out of the car looking utterly bedraggled.
On the road, Tao Shuran immediately called Jin Boyu to report she was safe.
She turned to Lin Tingzhou. “Teacher Lin, Senior Brother and the others are in the car behind us.”
Lin Tingzhou nodded. “Boyu is steady. I’m relieved with him looking after things.
“How are you? I see you’re soaked through. How about I have Yuanjing find you a room to rest?”
The car pulled up at the former Aviation Base, where the terrain was relatively high. Even with nonstop rain, there was no worry of flooding.
Most of the dorms hadn’t been used in a long time. North City used solar power here, and with no sun today, there was no hot water.
Tao Shuran stood in place and sneezed, wondering whether to take off her outer coat to dry.
Then she heard Liang Yuanjing say to Lin Tingzhou, “Grandma, I’ll take her to my dorm to freshen up first. I’ll return her later.”
Tao Shuran hurriedly waved her hands. “No need. There are heaters here too. My clothes will dry in a bit.”
Liang Yuanjing turned around, looking at her with an inscrutable expression. “If I hold your hand while walking, won’t it make us look very intimate?”
Lin Tingzhou watched her grandson use both threats and coaxing, finally unable to hold back and bursting into laughter with a puff.
She coughed and made a shooing gesture.
“Little Tao, hurry and go tidy up. Look at you like a drowned rat.”
Tao Shuran pressed her lips and had no choice but to slowly follow behind him.
After a moment, Liang Yuanjing suddenly stopped.
“You walk in front.”
Tao Shuran let out an “Ah” and at first didn’t understand. Then she saw their elongated shadows on the wall.
She instinctively turned her head and saw him with hands in pockets, lazily strolling behind her.
“Just go forward. Don’t look back.”
Liang Yuanjing leaned down close to her ear. “And I will always follow you.
“But we don’t need one of us to stop.”
Standing at the door, Tao Shuran suddenly said this to him very seriously.
In a tone of release, she said:
“We’ve all grown up.”
Liang Yuanjing pulled out his keys from his pocket, opening the door while lowering his head to gaze intently at her.
She hadn’t changed much from before. Loose white knit sweater, brown sweatpants—simple and neat. Her tied-up long hair revealed a jade-like section of neck. The gaze she now directed at him was calm and serene, without any hint of a smile.
“Is that so?” Liang Yuanjing indifferently withdrew his gaze, defiant. “But I’m willing.”
Whatever he wanted to do, he went all out.
This stubborn drive hadn’t changed all these years.
His gaze nearly enveloped her completely in the narrow space, turning it once again into a private world for just the two of them.
Their back-and-forth breaths seemed wrapped in an aura named Liang Yuanjing.
This made Tao Shuran instantly recall those days when she had been crazily infatuated with him.
Pain always made one subconsciously shy away from it, so she couldn’t help but retreat two steps.
In a cold voice, she said, “Liang Yuanjing, don’t forget—it was you who personally said you had no interest in me.”
“On the day we broke up, it was also you who personally said we wouldn’t see each other again.”