It took Gu Ran two seconds to react before she understood what Ji Shiyu meant.
Ji Shiyu's eyes and brows were curved with a smile.
Gu Ran: "..."
She wriggled out of the man's embrace like a little loach, emphasizing, "I told you to pick a doll, not me!"
"Hurry up and pick, this is your last chance."
Ji Shiyu could only sigh and picked a Peppa Pig from Gu Ran's shelf.
Among all the dolls in this cabinet, besides LinaBell, Peppa Pig was Gu Ran's favorite. Her fans hadn't picked it tonight, but now Ji Shiyu had taken a liking to it.
However, since she had promised he could pick anything, Gu Ran didn't stop him, though she couldn't help muttering, "You sure know how to pick."
Ji Shiyu held Peppa Pig and glanced at Gu Ran. "Reluctant to part with it?"
"No," Gu Ran refused to admit her little thought had been seen through, pushing Ji Shiyu out of the study. "Go on, get out."
Ji Shiyu was pushed out of the room.
Seeing Gu Ran's pouting expression that clearly spelled out "Baby is unhappy," he handed the Peppa Pig back to her.
"Can I exchange it for something else?"
Gu Ran stuffed Peppa Pig back into Ji Shiyu's hands. "Take it, take it. I said it's yours, so it's yours. I'm not that stingy."
Ji Shiyu laughed, suddenly leaning down to kiss Gu Ran's pouted lips.
"I meant exchanging for this," he said after the kiss, placing Peppa Pig into the pocket of Gu Ran's pajamas.
Gu Ran pressed her lips together, looking at the man before her, her face growing warm again.
...
That night, Gu Ran went to bed holding Peppa Pig and LinaBell.
Lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, she tossed and turned, unable to sleep.
She faintly heard the sound of water from the bathroom.
She wondered if Ji Shiyu was taking a cold or hot shower tonight.
Gu Ran turned over and pulled her phone from under the pillow.
A real estate agent had sent her a few property listings earlier, suggesting she could buy a bigger house now.
Gu Ran browsed the details pages of several houses for half an hour before her eyelids finally grew heavy and began to droop.
She started dreaming again.
First, it was the same dream as last time: Ji Shiyu tutoring her in English in the classroom, and Qin Wenyi standing at the door watching when he kissed her.
Then she dreamed of the sports meet. Ji Shiyu carried her to the infirmary for the doctor to treat her wound. It hurt when the iodine touched the scraped skin on her knee. Her upper body curled entirely into Ji Shiyu's embrace, and she tightly gripped his hand.
Finally, it was the basketball court again. After Ji Shiyu finished playing with his friends, she mustered the courage to walk up, and Ji Shiyu accepted the water she offered in front of everyone.
At this point in the dream, Gu Ran was in a daze, hovering in a half-asleep, half-awake state.
Because she knew these were all dreams, unreal, figments of her imagination.
But she was too tired. Gu Ran struggled to move her eyelids but couldn't open them, and then she fell back asleep.
What followed was still a dream, but the scene had changed.
In a hospital smelling of disinfectant, a doctor in white regretfully told her the rescue had failed, the person was gone, and she should go sign the papers.
She crouched by the wall in the emergency room hallway, crying her heart out. Someone silently walked over, pulled her up from the floor, and drew her into his embrace.
All her tears and sobs were absorbed into the fabric of his shirt.
Then, the Ji family began supporting her through university.
Ji Heyuan liked her very much after meeting her and occasionally asked Ji Shiyu to pick her up from school.
At first, she was reserved, but later she would always run towards him happily.
When her roommate saw Ji Shiyu driving to pick her up, she pressed Gu Ran for the whole story. After hearing it, the roommate scoffed, "He just pities you," and added, "No one can ever forget their first love, especially one who has passed away. A living person can never compare to a white moonlight."
The smile gradually faded from Gu Ran's face.
The scene shifted to a bar with dazzling lights and loud music.
She felt dizzy after just a couple of sips. A male classmate confessed his feelings to her.
She shook her head in refusal. The male classmate persisted, saying he had liked her for a long time, and even tried to force a kiss on her.
Frightened, she struggled desperately. Finally, the male classmate was dragged away and thrown out by several bodyguards in black, and Ji Shiyu appeared before her.
Looking at him, her mind was filled with the phrases "just pities you" and "Qin Wenyi."
Ji Shiyu frowned, scolding her harshly for being there, more fiercely than he ever had before.
She cried, remembering how he had once let Qin Wenyi lean on his shoulder.
He would probably never be this harsh with Qin Wenyi.
She kept crying, sniffling, saying she was sorry, she was drunk, and she would go back to school right away.
Then she remembered that the school dormitory gates were already closed at that hour. Panicked and flustered, she apologized to Ji Shiyu while crying that she couldn't go back.
She still remembered the little scheme in her heart when she spoke to Ji Shiyu then. She despised her own dishonesty. She wasn't really that drunk; she could have found a hotel herself. But she wanted Ji Shiyu to take care of her for that night.
Most of her tears back then were for herself, crying over why she liked the person before her so much.
The next morning, she woke up in Ji Shiyu's bedroom, wearing clean pajamas. She went downstairs and saw Ji Shiyu, who told her not to live in the dorm anymore.
"Let's be together."
She was in a daze, hearing those words as if floating on a cloud.
She had always thought something must have happened between them that night, which was why Ji Shiyu said that. It wasn't until a year later, on a night with the right atmosphere, feeling dejected that Ji Shiyu, who had supposedly been with her before, never touched her after they got together, she cast aside all restraint to seduce him. Only then did she discover Ji Shiyu hadn't touched her at all that night.
That was the first time. It hurt, and they soiled the bedsheet.
In her senior year, Ji Shiyu bought the Nancheng Mansion.
By then, he had officially taken over Xinbo and was busy from dawn till dusk. During his rare leisure time, besides visiting Ji Heyuan at Beiyi, he would go to the Nancheng Mansion to tend to his little golden canary.
...
This dream was extremely long, so long that every detail from the time at Nancheng Mansion replayed one by one.
Gu Ran's emotions fluctuated wildly throughout the night's dream. When she woke up the next day, she sat dazedly on the bed.
The first half of the dream, about high school, was likely her fantasy. But the latter part was less a dream and more a recollection of past events.
Because it had truly happened.
Gu Ran ran her fingers through her hair and rubbed her head. The surge of past memories from the entire night seemed to overwhelm her brain capacity, giving her a slight headache.
Gu Ran took a deep breath, trying to sort out her thoughts.
She threw off the covers and got out of bed. The moment her toes touched her slippers, she suddenly paused.
Because she realized that among those surging memories, there seemed to be some new ones, things she had never recalled before.
She had always thought she wasn't drunk, ashamed of her deception. But she actually had been drunk, thoroughly drunk. So drunk that the second time, when he whispered "I only want you" in her ear over and over, he reminded her, "Remember this time."
She had forgotten a very important thing he said.
Gu Ran's nose suddenly stung with emotion. She ran out, wanting to see Ji Shiyu, but the man had already left for work.
...
The second date was set at an amusement park.
They had bought VIP passes so they didn't need to get up early to queue. Gu Ran had deliberately dressed in a very youthful style: a navy blue double-breasted short coat paired with a pure white inner layer and a plaid skirt, a brown scarf with brown long boots, and two bright red cherry hair clips pinned in her hair.
Ji Shiyu noticed the exposed parts of Gu Ran's knees and thighs.
She only wore a pair of sheer stockings on her legs.
Remembering today's temperature, Ji Shiyu frowned at Gu Ran's legs. "Aren't you cold?"
Gu Ran slung a small brown bag over her shoulder. "I am cold."
"But I want to look good," she said with a proud lift of her chin.
Ji Shiyu felt a bit worried. "You look good now, but what about when you're old?"
Gu Ran: "When I'm old, you can push me in a wheelchair."
After saying this, she ran off to press the elevator button. Ji Shiyu stood rooted to the spot, momentarily stunned.
The amusement park wasn't crowded today, and with their VIP passes, they didn't have to queue at all. By the end of the day, they had basically tried every ride, and a few of Gu Ran's favorites they even rode twice.
After finishing the rides, the remaining time was spent strolling around, taking photos, and waiting for the evening fireworks and the illuminated carousel.
Gu Ran stood in front of the castle, making a peace sign for Ji Shiyu to take her picture.
Ji Shiyu's photography skills were quite good. Gu Ran directly picked two photos to post on her social media.
Just after posting, Ding Ze sent her a WeChat message, his radar incredibly sharp: ["Who did you go with today? Who took your photos?"]
Gu Ran was just about to reply when Ding Ze sent another: ["Even if you don't tell me, I know who it is. Hah, it's that tool guy."]
["The photo-taking tool guy is so pitiful."]
Gu Ran: ["..."]
It was time to go see the fireworks.
During the day, while walking around and having fun, she hadn't really felt it, but now that they were going to watch the fireworks outdoors, with the temperature dropping after nightfall, Gu Ran started to feel the cold in her legs.
The thin layer of sheer stockings offered negligible protection against the cold.
"I don't want to watch anymore," Gu Ran turned around and said to Ji Shiyu with a pained expression.
Ji Shiyu regretted not bringing her a pair of thicker pants. "Really not watching?"
Gu Ran: "Let's go back, go back. Not watching. We'll watch next time we come."
They returned home much earlier than planned.
Gu Ran had already finished editing her photos in the car. Now, having changed her clothes, she sat on the sofa and started posting updates on her Cat Paw streamer platform and Weibo.
Ji Shiyu watched Gu Ran, who was diligently managing her social media accounts after their outing.
Xu Hui had taken some initiative this time and said some things to her, leading her to change their dates to once every two weeks.
A sour, swelling sensation gradually spread through his chest.
Ji Shiyu took a deep breath and then went over to sit beside her.
Gu Ran had just finished posting her updates.
Seeing Ji Shiyu sit down, she made some room for him. "I think your photography is pretty good. Everyone praised my photos."
Ji Shiyu: "Thank you."
Gu Ran turned her head and looked at Ji Shiyu seriously. "By next year, I should be able to move you to a bigger place."
Ji Shiyu raised an eyebrow. "Really?"
Seeing that he seemed not to believe her, Gu Ran puffed out her cheeks. "Well, when I move to a big house, you can just keep living here then, Ji the live-in housekeeper."
Ji Shiyu found this pouting Gu Ran utterly adorable and leaned down to kiss her.
"Mmm... wait." Gu Ran tilted her head back slightly, her arms resting on Ji Shiyu's shoulders. "I have a request."
Ji Shiyu stopped.
Gu Ran took a breath, looked at the man before her, and spoke with a somewhat domineering, even commanding tone: "Say you like me."
Ji Shiyu was slightly taken aback, not expecting Gu Ran's request to be merely this.
He pulled Gu Ran a little closer and said each word very clearly: "I like you."
"Of course I know you like me." Hearing this, Gu Ran was in an extremely good mood, as if she had never been in such high spirits before. Suppressing a smile, she actively kissed him.
Today's kiss seemed particularly intense, as if the temperature of the entire room had risen by two degrees. They kissed from the living room all the way to the bedroom, the door slamming shut with a bang.
After a period of quiet, light snow gradually began to fall outside the window.
The faint, intermittent sounds from the room were covered by the sound of wind and snow. Finally, she seemed to grow impatient, wanting to tell him she was truly willing, and a sweet, silky, even slightly tearful urging finally escaped: "Come in."
