“Are you scared?”
“Yes.”
Yang Shuli grabbed Xu Nian’s sleeve.
She was still wearing Xu Nian’s jacket, which was clearly a size too big, hanging on her like a trench coat.
“Then let’s go back to the dorm,” Xu Nian said, ruffling Yang Shuli’s hair.
But Yang Shuli still tugged at his sleeve, even putting a little force into it.
“What’s wrong?”
Yang Shuli held out her hand. “Your hand.”
She wanted to hold his hand; maybe it would make her, after everything she’d just been through, feel a bit more at ease.
So Xu Nian took her hand.
Yang Shuli loved to act spoiled in front of Xu Nian, asking for all kinds of affection.
She was still scared, wanting to use his care to fill the void left by what happened.
And fortunately, Xu Nian would always give her that care, no matter what.
Yang Shuli looked at her phone camera, tidying up her dusty face. Xu Nian had already brushed off the dirt on her clothes earlier, but she didn’t bother with the stubborn spots.
“Are we going back to school?”
Yang Shuli and Xu Nian were still walking slowly along the road. Not in a hurry, not for any reason, without any goal—just walking.
“Do you want to go back to school?” Xu Nian asked her in return.
“I don’t know.”
“Then let’s take a walk. No rush. We can act when we figure out what we want to do.” Xu Nian seemed very relaxed.
Or maybe he just wanted her to relax.
“Walking like this will make us hungry.”
“That’s perfect. We’ll go eat when we get hungry,” Xu Nian said unhurriedly.
The lollipop in Yang Shuli’s mouth was sucked continuously, but she couldn’t bear to crunch it.
Just like when watching fireworks, you always look forward to another burst shooting into the sky after the interval.
“I’m sorry. This whole thing was essentially because of me,” Xu Nian finally said.
“Was it that Xiao Yue?” Yang Shuli asked softly.
“Yes.”
“Then I can accept it. At least it’s someone I directly provoked,” Yang Shuli said, letting out an inexplicable sigh of relief. “If I didn’t know, and someone who had a grudge against you suddenly tried to harm me, I’d probably be very angry.”
“Would you leave me then?” Xu Nian asked, as if casually.
“No,” Yang Shuli tightened her grip on his hand. “Because we’re lifelong gluttons.”
The sky was gradually darkening.
“There should be a curfew in the dorm tonight, right?”
“Every night,” Xu Nian said, bending down to pick a weed from the roadside and handing it to Yang Shuli. “Do you want to go back to the dorm?”
That weed was nothing special, just tall and straight. In Yang Shuli’s hand, it would definitely become a qualified fantasy sword.
“I should go back to the dorm…” Yang Shuli changed the topic. “But I think I forgot my keys. There’s no one else in our dorm.”
“Is that so?” Xu Nian’s expression changed slightly, but he kept walking with her.
“I’ll ask my roommate to bring them,” Yang Shuli said, as if she didn’t care that she was talking nonsense.
She picked up her phone. There was no sound on the other end.
“Hey, Third, I forgot my dorm keys. Bring them over for me,” she said, then put down the phone.
As they walked, both could clearly hear a jingling sound.
It was the clinking of keys.
So Yang Shuli could be shy?
Xu Nian didn’t know. He only knew that in the past, Yang Shuli would have said without hesitation that she just wanted him to spend more time with her.
And he wouldn’t have said much either.
But now, Yang Shuli would secretly, behind Xu Nian’s back, pull this kind of girlish little scheme.
After a moment of thought, Xu Nian understood.
He had originally thought Yang Shuli didn’t have such teenage girl’s thoughts.
But now it seemed she did.
Or perhaps before, she simply hadn’t seen him as a possible other half.
In other words, even though Yang Shuli still called them gluttons, she actually now saw herself as a true girl and Xu Nian as a true boy.
“I’m still very scared.”
“Are you still scared when I’m by your side?”
“No.”
The two held hands and walked side by side, sweet and peaceful.
“Then I’ll always be with you, so you won’t be scared,” Xu Nian said. Even if his eyes weren’t on her, Yang Shuli could feel his complete attention on her. “Except for meal times, I can be with you too.”
“Then it’s not just gluttons anymore,” Yang Shuli suddenly said.
“I never wanted to be just a glutton.”
Yang Shuli’s steps faltered slightly.
“The relationship of being gluttons is too fragile. With the slightest mistake, or even being apart, it could break,” Xu Nian said softly. “I don’t want you to be scared anymore. I want to stay by your side forever.”
Xu Nian had said such things before, but this time it seemed especially effective.
Yang Shuli was like a clingy little cat, leaning against Xu Nian, nestling against him.
“Xu Nian, I think you’re a good person.”
“I think you’re pretty good too.”
Yang Shuli looked at Xu Nian, whose expression didn’t change.
“Then the two of us…”
“We’re both great,” Xu Nian replied quite calmly.
Yang Shuli was stunned.
Xu Nian naturally knew what Yang Shuli wanted to say and what she wanted now.
But he felt this was taking advantage of her vulnerability.
This time, Yang Shuli had been kidnapped and was extremely lacking a sense of security, so she needed a reason she could be sure of that Xu Nian would always stay by her side.
And that reason seemed easy to find—if Xu Nian agreed to be with her.
But wasn’t that taking advantage of her?
To be precise, Yang Shuli was in danger because of Xu Nian in the first place. If he could profit from it, he couldn’t bear it himself.
Yang Shuli really needed that sense of security now.
So what should he do?
“I’m going to start courting you from now on. You can treat every meal we have together as a date, but if you’re not comfortable, you can still treat it as just a meal. Either way, the way we interact won’t change at all.”
Xu Nian added, “Don’t agree too easily. You have to make me understand that this relationship was hard-won. Never sell yourself short.”
Yang Shuli swallowed the agreement she was about to say.
With two clinks, the keys fell out.
Xu Nian and Yang Shuli both turned around and looked at the set of keys on the ground.
“I think these are the keys for something else, right?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Yang Shuli said, crouching down and putting the dorm keys back into her pocket. “Third is really slow. Why is she taking so long?”