When it was time to get off work, Jiaren Wu transferred the charge to someone else. She took off her clothes and got off work with her motorcycle keys.

  She had just walked out of the Public Security Bureau when she saw a familiar Volvo parked at the entrance.

  Jiaren Wu was quite surprised to recognize Wei Shuyi’s car.

  She jogged over to it.

  When Wei Shuyi saw her, he immediately rolled down the window. Jiaren Wu was leaning against the passenger seat window, her body outside and her head inside. She asked Wei Shuyi with a smile, “Why are you so free to look for me today? Do you miss me very much?”


  Ever since Wei Shuyi had returned to his original position, he was quite busy every day. He was no longer as carefree as he was when he was a teacher.

  Occasionally, Jiaren Wu would send him a message to tease him whenever she was free. It would take a long time before she would receive a reply.

  Wei Shuyi did not explain and only said, “If you’re not free, take the time.”


  He picked up a bag of sugar chestnuts from the front passenger seat and motioned for Jiaren Wu to get in.

  Jiaren Wu immediately opened the car and sat in.

  She took the fried yogurt from Wei Shuyi’s hand, peeled the chestnuts with both hands, and put them in her mouth. She could eat freely alone.

  Wei Shuyi could not help but say, “Can you not eat when you’re alone?”


  It was too painful to only smell but not eat.

  Wei Shuyi had just started the car. He was about to drive away when Jiaren Wu suddenly pounced on him and kissed him hard.

  Wei Shuyi’s mouth was filled with the smell of chestnuts.

  “It’s delicious, right?” Jiaren Wu wiped her mouth and fastened her seatbelt.

  Wei Shuyi narrowed his eyes and looked at her without saying anything.

  He did not know if it was delicious, but he wanted to eat it very much.

  He wanted to taste Jiaren Wu more than the chestnuts in her hand.

  After peeling a few chestnuts, Jiaren Wu threw a chestnut into Wei Shuyi’s mouth. “What are we going to do?” Jiaren Wu thought that it was time for a date, a movie, or something.

  Wei Shuyi said, “I’ve never been to your house before. Aren’t you going to invite me to your house?”


  Jiaren Wu seemed to hesitate.

  She recalled she had locked her brother’s room when she had left this morning. Therefore, she nodded. “Sure.”


  On the way to her house, Wei Shuyi suggested, “Why don’t you move to my place?”


  Jiaren Wu glanced at him sideways and did not fall into his trap. She said, “Why don’t we register our marriage now? I’ll move to your house tomorrow morning.”


  Wei Shuyi stopped talking.

  Jiaren Wu thought that her words had stunned him. Little did she know that the reason Wei Shuyi went silent was that he was thinking about marriage.

  Jiaren Wu’s house was on the fifth floor, and she had to climb the stairs.

  Wei Shuyi walked behind her. Jiaren Wu opened the door to the corridor. She climbed two steps and suddenly stopped inside the corridor. Wei Shuyi followed her. When he saw her stop, he stopped as well. He asked her, “Why did you suddenly stop? Are you feeling unwell?” Jiaren Wu was on her menstruation period, and Wei Shuyi thought that she had a stomachache.

  Jiaren Wu leaned on the armrest and looked at him from top to bottom.

  “Aiyo, my legs are exhausted after working the entire day,” Jiaren Wu exaggeratedly said.

  Wei Shuyi understood what she meant and cooperatively asked, “Then… I’ll carry you?”


  Jiaren Wu solemnly nodded. “That’s what I was thinking.”


  Wei Shuyi bent down in front of her.

  Jiaren Wu was wearing denim shorts, so she easily jumped onto his back. It was quite hot today, and their bodies were pressed together like two balls of fire.

  Jiaren Wu was 1.7 meters tall. As she often exercised, she looked slender, but she was not light; she weighed 110 pounds.

  Her flesh was all muscle. She looked thin, but she was actually quite heavy.

  Wei Shuyi carried her on his back. When he climbed to the third floor, he started to pant.

  Jiaren Wu kept sighing on his back. “Aiyo, young man, you have to train more. You’ve only climbed a few steps, yet you can’t walk anymore? How embarrassing. You men are really embarrassing.”


  Wei Shu was so angry that he wanted to throw her down.

  “Carry me if you dare!”


  Jiaren Wu smiled at him. “How dare you say that?”


  “Put me down,” she said to Wei Shuyi.

  Wei Shuyi was indeed a little tired. He did not force himself and put her down.

  Jiaren Wu bent down in front of him and remained silent.

  Her actions puzzled Wei Shuyi. “What are you doing?”


  Patting her back, Jiaren Wu turned around and said to him, “Come up, I’ll carry you! I’ll show you that women can do big things too.”


  Wei Shuyi was worried that he would crush her. After all, he was a person weighing 146 pounds. Besides, she was on her period, so it was not good for her to carry weight.

  “Stop being so wishy-washy. Hurry up!”


  Wei Shuyi stopped hesitating and gently pressed himself onto Jiaren Wu’s back.

  Jiaren Wu weighed him and said, “It’s okay. You’re about the same weight as my senior brother.”


  “You piggy-backed him before?”


  “No, I felt it when I threw him over my shoulder.”


  Wei Shuyi stopped talking.

  Jiaren Wu carried Wei Shuyi upstairs in her five-centimeter high heels. She looked especially relaxed. When they arrived at the entrance of her house, Jiaren Wu put Wei Shuyi down. Wei Shuyi carefully looked at Jiaren Wu and realized that she was calm and composed.

  His pride as a man was instantly hurt.

  Jiaren Wu’s house had two rooms, two halls, and a small study. After entering the house, Jiaren Wu found a pair of disposable shoe covers for Wei Shuyi. Then, she took off her leather shoes and entered the house in cold slippers.

  Jiaren Wu went to pour tea for Wei Shuyi.

  Wei Shuyi lowered his head and put on his shoes. When he looked up, he saw a photo hanging on the wall of the entryway.

  It was a handsome young man who looked to be about 14 or 15 years old.

  If one looked closely, one would discover that this young man was a little similar to Jiaren Wu, especially the part above his nose.

  After staring at the photo for a moment, Wei Shuyi said to Jiaren Wu, who was holding a teacup and walking over to him, “Is this your brother?”


  Jiaren Wu smiled and said, “Yes, my brother looks like me. Is he handsome?”


  Wei Shuyi nodded. “Yes.”


  “Come over for tea.”


  Jiaren Wu placed the tea on the coffee table.

  Wei Shuyi walked to the Buyi sofa and sat down. Holding a teacup, he saw a few photo frames on the custom counter beside the television cabinet. There were pictures of Jiaren Wu alone, pictures of her and her brother, and pictures of the siblings and their parents when the siblings were young.

  Jiaren Wu’s father was especially good-looking. Even though it was just a photo, Wei Shuyi could see that her father was a handsome man when he was young.

  Jiaren Wu’s mother looked more dignified. She was not very beautiful, but she had good facial features and gentle temperament.

  This should have been a happy family.

  “When did your parents die?”


  They were both people without parents. Wei Shuyi saw Jiaren Wu’s usual behavior. He was not the kind of person who would be immersed in the sorrow of the past and not dare to advance. Hence, when he asked this question, he did not avoid it and asked directly.

  Jiaren Wu did not look too sad.

  Her reaction was calm. She said, “When I was quite young, about seven or eight years old, my father passed away. My mother ran an advertising company alone and took me and my brother with her. After that, she suffered from cancer and passed away.” Too many years had passed. Even the most painful injuries were over.

  “However, after our mother passed away, she left us a lot of money, so our lives were fine.” The siblings had one another, so life was not too bad.

  Wei Shuyi nodded and said, “Then we’re about the same.”


  He was not used to black tea, so he took a few sips.

  Wei Shuyi looked up and took a few more glances at the pictures before asking, “Does your brother live with you?”


  “Yeah.”


  Wei Shuyi was surprised. “Why haven’t I seen him before?”


  Jiaren Wu’s hands, which were holding the teacup, trembled slightly.

  A hint of pain appeared in her eyes.

  However, she quickly suppressed it.

  “You must not have seen him.” Jiaren Wu sounded quite calm. She said, “I was seventeen… no, almost eighteen when my brother died.”


  Wei Shuyi tilted his hand that was holding the cup and almost shook the tea out.

  He put down the teacup and composed himself before carefully looking at Jiaren Wu.

  Jiaren Wu had a calm and composed expression. For a moment, Wei Shuyi could not tell if she had walked out of her brother’s death blow or if she was too good at pretending. His throat was a little tight. He heard himself worriedly ask, “H-How did he die?”


  Jiaren Wu looked up at him with a calm and indifferent gaze as if she were not sad.

  “He died of illness.”


  Jiaren Wu saw that Wei Shuyi seemed to heave a sigh of relief. She continued, “His heart was not too good. There was no hope in curing him.”


  Wei Shuyi was relieved.

  For some reason, when he heard Jiaren Wu say that her brother had passed away, he thought of the story Jiaren Wu told him about the mentally challenged youth and the problematic youth not long ago. He quickly picked up the cup of black tea and drank it all without tasting anything.

  The two of them chatted about Zhang Yang’s condition for a while. Soon after, Jiaren Wu felt hungry.

  Wei Shuyi suggested, “Let’s go out to buy groceries. I’ll cook when we get back.”


  “Forget it! You’ve been working hard these few days. Let’s go out and eat.”


  After thinking about it, Wei Shuyi brought Jiaren Wu out for dinner.

  There were a few restaurants outside the district. Jiaren Wu wanted to eat food with strong tastes today, so Wei Shuyi chose a Sichuan restaurant. When they were done with the meal, it was already past eight o’clock. The two of them stood at the entrance of the restaurant, neither getting into the car nor talking.

  The weather was completely hot. Even though it was already night, the weather was still a little hot after the two of them stood by the street for a while.

  Wei Shuyi was not joking when he had said that he wanted Jiaren Wu to move to his place today. He was testing her. However, Jiaren Wu had taken it as a joke and rejected him. It seemed like they would not cohabit until they got married.

  Wei Shuyi thought that since he was already here, he would stay at Jiaren Wu’s house tonight. However, Jiaren Wu did not seem to have any intention of inviting him. Wei Shuyi could not thicken his skin and make a request.

  “Er…”


  The two of them spoke at the same time.

  Jiaren Wu said, “Tell me first.”


  Wei Shuyi said, “If there’s nothing else, I’ll go back first.”


  Jiaren Wu opened her mouth but did not say anything. She wanted to tell Wei Shuyi that if he did not mind, he could stay at her house tonight.

  However, since Wei Shuyi had spoken first, Jiaren Wu shelved the idea of inviting him.

  “Fine.”


  Wei Shuyi was quite disappointed. He gritted his teeth and got into the car. Without saying goodbye to Jiaren Wu, he drove off.

  Jiaren Wu touched her nose. She felt that Wei Shuyi was angry.

  As she walked home, she bought a bag of ice cream at the small shop by the entrance of the district. She took out a mango-flavored one and ate it in her mouth, eating as she went home.

  Behind her, the sound of a car horn rang.

  Jiaren Wu confirmed that she was walking beside the road and did not look back.

  The horn was still ringing.

  Jiaren Wu angrily turned around, planning to teach this unscrupulous driver a lesson. However, when she turned around, she saw a familiar Volvo.

  Jiaren Wu was speechless.

  She was stunned. When the car stopped, she walked over.

  She knocked on the car window, and it rolled down, revealing Wei Shuyi’s gloomy face.

  Jiaren Wu asked in surprise, “Why are you back?”


  Wei Shuyi finally turned his head to look at her. Their gazes met, and Jiaren Wu saw many shadows in his eyes.

  Wei Shuyi pulled a long face as if someone owed him money. He educated Jiaren Wu, “Although we’re not married, you’ve already stayed at my house for a few nights. Isn’t it natural for you to invite me to stay at your house for a night?”


  Jiaren Wu was at a loss for whether to laugh or cry. “Are you angry at me about this?”


  Wei Shuyi unnaturally looked away.

  “Actually, I planned to invite you to stay over at my house.” Seeing that Wei Shuyi was finally willing to look at her again, Jiaren Wu smiled faintly and said, “But before I could say anything, you took the initiative to say that you wanted to go back to your house. I didn’t say anything because I thought you didn’t want to go to my house.”


  “Really?”


  “Really!”


  After parking the car in her apartment complex, Wei Shuyi got out. When he saw the unfinished ice cream in her hand and the shopping bag filled with ice cream in her other hand, his eyebrows furrowed. “You don’t know that you can’t eat cold things now?”


  Jiaren Wu said, “I don’t suffer from menstrual pain. It’s fine to eat.”


  “No, eating ice during menstruation can easily cause uterine coldness. Throw it away.”


  Jiaren Wu could not bear to. “No, I bought it with money. It’s a pity to throw it away.”