Outside the door, Tao Shuran clutched her chest and gasped for breath.
She felt everything teetering on the edge of losing control, long-buried emotions now stirring like a restless volcano.
In an instant, the building would collapse, all life would wither.
The room just one wall away was utterly quiet, not even a sliver of light seeping out.
The air filled again with that deathly stillness. He did not come out to chase her. Tao Shuran let out a long breath and half-squatted down to calm her mood.
Suddenly, she heard a bout of violent coughing, soon followed by the sound of something falling to the ground.
It was somewhat dull, not very crisp. Tao Shuran remembered the kettle of hot water she had placed on the edge of the coffee table before leaving.
She wondered if Liang Yuanjing had accidentally knocked it over. The splashed hot water was no joke.
She bit her lower lip in hesitation, leaned against the wall and listened for a while, but heard no further sounds.
In the end, she still pushed open the door and walked in worriedly to check on him.
Just as she drew near, a surge of force suddenly appeared, and she was pulled into a scorching embrace.
Just as Tao Shuran’s head was about to collide with his firm chest, Liang Yuanjing reached out and cushioned the back of her head.
He smoothly wrapped his arm around her waist,
lowered his head and buried it in the crook of her neck, his tone deep and muffled with laughter.
“Caught you, you little liar who says one thing but means another.”
Tao Shuran reacted.
“You tricked me?”
There was no scene of a fallen kettle and scalding injury at all. It was all a self-injury ploy he had used to test her true feelings.
Tao Shuran felt this man was too scheming.
Liang Yuanjing chuckled lowly twice. Having confirmed a certain matter, his chest overflowed with joy.
Even his voice carried more laughter: “The illness is real, and missing you is real too.”
“What did I trick you about?”
“Compared to that, aren’t you the real liar, always saying you don’t like me when you do?”
Liang Yuanjing lowered his head and met her gaze.
“Hmm? How are you even deceiving yourself?”
Hearing this, Tao Shuran fell into a long silence.
In order to decisively forget Liang Yuanjing, every day she had brainwashed herself with the fact that she did not love him.
In the end, her numb emotions could no longer stir any waves, yet she still thought of him every day.
But Tao Shuran firmly believed she only remembered him to remind herself that she no longer liked him.
Five years had passed.
Once again, she saw her entire self reflected in his eyes.
This unforgettable lifetime scenery finally made Tao Shuran close her eyes in despair, hearing once more the reviving force of her own heartbeat.
This familiar throbbing rhythm seemed to carry her memories back to that unparalleled summer, when the sound of his footsteps running from afar landed in her heart, becoming the eternal heartbeat of her life.
Tears welled in Tao Shuran’s eyes as she involuntarily lifted her hand to caress his face.
In this moment, all her hidden emotions poured out, her greedy gaze lingering on his unchanged youthful features.
Finally, she could no longer deny it. All these years, she had never forgotten Liang Yuanjing.
She had always loved him deeply.
Liang Yuanjing smiled as he looked at her, his gaze burning and candid, like that summer year, his unchanging true feelings now tinged with tender affection because he gazed upon her.
Before her fingertips could reach, he turned his head slightly and pressed his face closer to hers.
In that instant, electricity surged from her fingertips through her entire body.
Liang Yuanjing’s throat rolled with difficulty, his breathing suddenly deepening. His fingers rubbed her wrist, the shiver of skin brushing skin making both of them tremble at the fingertips.
He gradually leaned closer, his breath ravaging, the thick ink of love and desire in his eyes surging forward.
At the critical moment, Tao Shuran suddenly spoke—
“Fu Changpei said he likes me today.”
Liang Yuanjing: ……
He conceded defeat, bracing both arms against the wall behind her. His low, hoarse voice carried a hint of helplessness as his gaze slowly trailed down from her slightly pursed lips, the dangerous aura drawing even nearer.
“Do you have to say something like that right now?”
Tao Shuran’s cheeks heated up, and she turned her head to avoid his gaze.
She said softly, “Do you think you have the right to kiss me right now?”
Liang Yuanjing raised an eyebrow.
He chuckled with a bit of interest. Over these years, the little girl had developed quite a temper.
His lips curved up, his smile a little wicked.
He deliberately reached out and pressed heavily on her lips. Liang Yuanjing gripped her shoulders and tilted his head to look at her.
“Fine then, let me tell you now, Tao Shuran.”
“I like you. I just like you.”
He was utterly domineering, not even allowing her gaze to dodge. Wherever her eyes shifted, he leaned his head that way.
Those pitch-black, narrow eyes brimmed with laughter, filled with an irresistible deep affection and tenderness.
Tao Shuran remained trapped in his embrace, hearing his words all the more clearly because of it.
Liang Yuanjing looked down at her from above, his voice resounding firmly as he met her gaze, familiar and resolute.
“All the cold shoulders, scoldings, and rejections can’t drive me away—unless you find someone a hundred times better than me right now, unless you let me see with my own eyes that you’re truly happy.”
“Unless…” Liang Yuanjing paused, gently caressing her cheek.
“Unless you no longer shed sad tears.”
He said softly, “As long as you’re happy, anything I do is worth it.”
Even if she didn’t choose him, it didn’t matter.
Tao Shuran slowly raised her head, her eyes red, looking misty in the night.
Her voice trembled as she asked, “How do you know I’m not happy now?”
“I get up on time at seven every morning, return to the dorm from the library at nine at night, occasionally gather with friends for meals. Every day passes calmly and steadily.”
“Calmness never means happiness.” Liang Yuanjing looked at her with knowing eyes. “I know when you’re unhappy, you repeat one thing over and over. Before, it was hiding in the classroom doing problems nonstop; now, it’s staying in the lab and not coming out.”
“Repressed emotions need release. You should be like a child, with the right to laugh heartily and cry freely.”
……
“Why are you always acting like a child? Can’t you grow up a bit?”
“How old are you? Why are you still in your rebellious phase?”
Tao Shuran closed her eyes deeply. In this moment, she knew all words seemed pale and powerless.
Everything about her had been seen through by Liang Yuanjing.
Suddenly, uncontrollably, she burst into sad tears in his arms.
Tao Shuran remembered the first day of departmental rotation. She had gone to the lacquer workshop and suffered an allergy to raw lacquer, itching so badly she couldn’t sleep all night, her arms covered in red rashes. Even chlorpheniramine didn’t help.
Back then, she still lived in the dorms and bit her pillow at night, crying silently.
Later, when working on projects, whether in the north or west, she went to even the harshest places.
How could she not be afraid? How could there be no difficulties?
She had simply made up her mind to walk this path.
The path pursuing craftsmanship was just like the path she had taken toward Liang Yuanjing back then, destined to be strewn with tears amid thorns.
The moment one arrived in a strange city, they often felt like a lonely star, the city’s lights hard to connect with into a whole.
The moment she saw Liang Yuanjing, even if their relationship was like strangers, that feeling of loneliness and wandering vanished.
Because she finally became a star caressed by the moonlight.
No matter how the sun and moon turned, in Tao Shuran’s heart.
Her moon hung high, never falling.
No one expected how things developed that day afterward. Tao Shuran cried until her eyes were swollen with tears, completely ruining the romantic atmosphere.
Liang Yuanjing truly had no temper left.
He pressed his tongue against his palate, playfully gripping her chin with a husky edge, his breath dangerously close.
“You interrupted just as I was about to kiss you earlier. Then I confess, and you cry nonstop. Tao Shuran, tell me, are you doing this on purpose?”
Tao Shuran’s crying had just stopped, tears still hanging on her long lashes, dripping down with each blink.
She looked down and saw a small wet spot on Liang Yuanjing’s clothes, saying embarrassedly, “I’ll buy you a new shirt for the clothes.”
“Is it about the clothes?”
Liang Yuanjing half-squatted down, suddenly tilting his head up close to her face, lifting his eyelids to lock gazes.
“Hmm? Give me a reaction?”
Tao Shuran’s heart was in chaos.
She shot to her feet, stammering, “We’ll talk about tomorrow tomorrow, okay? You’re feverish; rest well tonight. I won’t disturb you.”
Liang Yuanjing grabbed his jacket and followed her out. “I’ll walk you.”
“You’re sick; that’s dangerous driving.”
“Can you call a ride?” He smiled, looking into her eyes. “Stay tonight.”
Tao Shuran couldn’t refuse the gaze he directed at her.
Her heart suddenly softened. While she hesitated, Liang Yuanjing had already picked up her bag and put it back on the sofa.
He finally turned on the light, and the room brightened in an instant.
Their faces became clearly visible. In the small living room, even an inadvertent crossing of eyes sparked flickering flames.
Tao Shuran’s heart raced so fast that the high frequency left her unable to think.
She asked softly, “Where do I sleep?”
The smile on Liang Yuanjing’s face brightened brilliantly.
In his flawless smile, Tao Shuran felt a direct hit to the heart. She realized once again that she had hopelessly fallen for him.
She sighed softly and sat on the sofa, waiting quietly.
Liang Yuanjing tilted his head toward her. “In this house, it’s just me and Zhao Zhengnian. Pick one—which of us do you want to sleep with?”
Tao Shuran grabbed a pillow from the sofa and threw it at him hard.
Liang Yuanjing let out a lazy laugh, poured a cup of warm water and handed it to her, then pointed to a nearby room and said slowly, “You sleep in that one.”
The room was simply furnished: a bed, a desk, no extra decorations.
Tao Shuran quickly realized this was Liang Yuanjing’s room.
After showering and lying in bed, she stared at the ceiling blankly, tossing and turning, unable to sleep.
Subconsciously, she reached under the pillow for her phone to check the time, but her fingertips touched a hard edge.
Tao Shuran sat up and slowly pulled out a diary from under the pillow.
She paused, about to put it back, when the wind from the open window flipped open the first page.
—“Captain’s Diary”
Liang Yuanjing’s bold, flying-penmanship handwriting was on the first page, like the opening chapter of some story.
Everything seemed to return to the first day, when she wrote the first entry of her secret crush diary, harboring a girl’s unspeakable feelings.
In this moment, Tao Shuran began to believe in fate’s gift.
She believed time could reverse, valleys could echo, and the love she guarded could await a reply one day.
Finally, Tao Shuran hugged the diary and fell into a deep sleep.
When the sky was dimly lit, her biological clock woke her on time as always.
Everything around was utterly quiet. After a moment of disorientation in the unfamiliar surroundings, she pushed open the door and walked out slowly.
Tao Shuran saw the figure on the sofa.
Liang Yuanjing sat silently, his tall, straight back silhouetted in the light and shadow before the balcony floor-to-ceiling window, appearing somewhat lonely and desolate.
Hearing the sound, he slowly turned around and raised an eyebrow at her.
“Awake?”
Tao Shuran asked hesitantly, “You didn’t sleep?”
“Couldn’t sleep.”
He smiled lazily, leaning back on the sofa with his head propped on his hands behind, turning to gaze at her languidly, even his voice sounding affectionate.
“Like a dream.”
“Also afraid you’d leave again.”