When the last star disappeared, the muscles in Cheng Mingjiao’s back, which had been tense all night, twitched once. His entire body relaxed as he fell back onto the bed.
The sky had already begun to lighten. Without the curtains drawn, the room grew brighter as well. He lay there contentedly, the thin sheen of sweat on his Adam’s apple gliding gently as he brought the night to a perfect close.
Zhang Xiyue was so exhausted she could barely open her eyes. Though she still hadn’t fallen asleep, she lay motionless on the bed, with only her lower abdomen occasionally trembling.
After resting enough, Cheng Mingjiao wrapped his hot body around her from behind. Zhang Xiyue tried to push him away, but she had no strength left and could only mumble for him to let go.
“What did you say?” Cheng Mingjiao leaned over and nuzzled her neck.
It tickled, and Zhang Xiyue shuddered before raising her voice. “Get lost.”
“I heard you. You said you love me.” Cheng Mingjiao sounded satisfied.
Zhang Xiyue: “?”
The weather had already turned hot. The air conditioner was set very low, but even the coldest air-conditioning couldn’t counteract the heat generated by intense exercise.
Zhang Xiyue was drenched in sweat and only wanted to lie alone for a while beneath the cool air. But the warm source behind her kept pulling her closer, bringing wave after wave of humid heat.
After resting for a long time, she finally recovered a sliver of strength and weakly braced herself against the mattress to turn over.
Sensing her movement, Cheng Mingjiao, who had still been resting with his eyes closed, immediately released her and cooperated as she turned around.
“Zhang Xiyue, do you want to…”
Before he could finish, Zhang Xiyue pushed him. “It’s so hot.”
Realizing he had misunderstood her, Cheng Mingjiao wasn’t embarrassed in the slightest. He immediately hugged her again. “You’ll get used to it. Then it won’t feel hot anymore.”
“...Cheng Mingjiao.”
“What?”
“I’m back now, and I don’t plan on leaving again anytime soon.”
“I know.”
“Sustainable development, understand?”
Cheng Mingjiao fell silent for a few seconds, then nodded. “I understand.”
Zhang Xiyue let out a sigh of relief.
The next second, Cheng Mingjiao spoke in distress. “But I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Every time I see you, it’s like I’ve developed a binge-eating disorder. No matter how much I have, it’s never enough. Zhang Xiyue, I really want to do it again.”
“...Aren’t you tired?” Zhang Xiyue asked, genuinely curious.
Even if he worked out year-round, even if he were made of iron, surely a whole night of exertion should have left him exhausted.
Cheng Mingjiao never exaggerated in this regard, nor did he bother hiding his true condition from Zhang Xiyue. After thinking for a while, he gave her a solemn answer.
“I’m tired. But people with binge-eating disorder can’t stop just because they’re full.”
They couldn’t stop even when they had eaten until they were painfully stuffed.
Even if they were bursting, they would still keep forcing more down their throats.
Cheng Mingjiao felt that he was already being fairly restrained. After all, he hadn’t worked himself to death.
Seeing the expression on his face, Zhang Xiyue knew exactly what he was thinking. She refused to continue the conversation, pulled back the covers, and walked toward the bathroom.
Cheng Mingjiao’s eyes lit up, and he immediately moved to follow her.
“No.” Zhang Xiyue didn’t even turn around. She knew exactly what he wanted.
Cheng Mingjiao protested, “Zhang Xiyue, this is our home. Everything in it belongs equally to both of us, and we both have the same right to use it. You can’t take away my right to use the bathtub!”
“I’m not taking away your right to use the bathtub.” Zhang Xiyue reached the bathroom door and glanced at him. She had no intention of falling for his argument. “But do you really only want to use the bathtub?”
Cheng Mingjiao stared at her for several seconds before giving her a perfectly sincere smile.
Bang.
Zhang Xiyue shut the bathroom door without mercy.
The instant her figure vanished from his sight, the smile disappeared from Cheng Mingjiao’s lips as well. His heart seemed to plummet from a great height. The violent sensation of weightlessness made him forget to breathe for a moment, while memories of the past suddenly flashed before his eyes like scenes from a film: Zhang Xiyue calling his name in panic before suddenly disappearing from their home.
The bathroom door opened.
Zhang Xiyue stood in the doorway, looking at him with a softness tinged by helplessness.
The smile returned to Cheng Mingjiao’s lips. He threw off the covers and ran toward her.
In the end, they didn’t do anything at all. They simply stood together beneath the shower, washing away the exhaustion and madness of the night.
Cheng Mingjiao pumped out two portions of body wash and worked them into a mound of foam on the shower puff before diligently spreading it over Zhang Xiyue’s body.
His fingers were so strong that whenever they passed over hickeys or finger marks, they brought a brief, tingling soreness. It didn’t hurt; if anything, it eased the discomfort.
Zhang Xiyue let him lather her until she smelled sweet and clean, then returned to the bedroom with him.
“What are we going to do now?” Cheng Mingjiao was unnaturally excited, eager to do something—anything—with her.
Zhang Xiyue thought for a moment, then pushed him down onto the bed. With one hand, she pulled back the covers, and with the other, tossed him an eye mask.
“Do nothing. Go to sleep.”
Cheng Mingjiao hadn’t yet processed her words. “Which kind of sleep?”
“The kind where you sleep and I sleep, and we don’t disturb each other.” Seeing him holding the eye mask without putting it on, Zhang Xiyue simply put it over his eyes herself.
Cheng Mingjiao was plunged into artificial darkness and then pressed down onto the bed by his girlfriend. He immediately began struggling. “I’m not tired. I don’t want to sleep…”
“I’m tired. Keep me company.”
With that one sentence from Zhang Xiyue, Cheng Mingjiao stopped moving.
Zhang Xiyue lifted the corners of her lips. She found a comfortable position in his arms, then solemnly stroked the Mercedes emblem twice.
“Go to sleep without worrying. Even if you sleep for a very, very long time, you’ll still see me when you wake up,” she whispered.
Cheng Mingjiao, who had just been insisting that he wasn’t tired, yawned. In a drowsy voice, he asked, “Zhang Xiyue, do you have some kind of magic sleep spell? Why do I get sleepy the moment you start talking…”
Zhang Xiyue didn’t respond. As his voice gradually faded, she closed her eyes.
They both slept exceptionally well.
It was the best sleep either of them had gotten in five months. They didn’t even dream. In the deliberately created darkness, they slept deeply and completely.
Cheng Mingjiao slept for a very long time. When he finally woke, his eyes were still closed, but his hand had already reached for the space beside him.
He found nothing.
His heart went hollow for a moment. He immediately tore off the eye mask and was about to sit up when an arm reached out from behind him and slowly draped itself across his waist.
Cheng Mingjiao instantly rolled over. When he met Zhang Xiyue’s gaze, he habitually lifted his chin.
“Zhang Xiyue, why did you move over to my side?”
Zhang Xiyue hadn’t missed the panic and alarm on his face when he turned over. She knew that restoring him to the way he used to be would probably take a very, very long time.
Fortunately, she had all the time in the world now.
“I went to the bathroom earlier. Then I lay down on this side,” Zhang Xiyue explained with a smile.
Cheng Mingjiao frowned. “Then remember to tell me next time you change sides.”
“Okay.”
His girlfriend was completely agreeable to everything he said, and Cheng Mingjiao was very pleased about it.
They hugged for a while longer before Cheng Mingjiao remembered to check the time.
“It’s already four in the afternoon. We really slept for a long time.” As he spoke, he turned off airplane mode. The next second, WeChat began vibrating violently, and a flood of messages soon came in.
They were all asking what he was doing and why he hadn’t replied.
Cheng Mingjiao held his phone screen out in front of Zhang Xiyue, complaining, “Look at them. The moment they can’t find me, they act like the sky is falling. When are they going to learn not to rely on me?”
Zhang Xiyue took a casual glance and immediately saw a whole list of familiar names.
Instead of thinking Cheng Mingjiao was being narcissistic as she once would have, she was silent for a moment before asking, “Zhuangzhuang, have you done anything dangerous lately?”
Cheng Mingjiao’s gaze wavered slightly. “What do you mean by dangerous? What exactly counts as dangerous?”
“Cheng Mingjiao.” Zhang Xiyue called him by his full name.
Cheng Mingjiao frowned. “Zhang Xiyue, don’t call me that.”
Although “Mingjiao” wasn’t particularly unique and “Zhuangzhuang” was terribly old-fashioned, at least he could stand hearing either of them from her.
He really disliked hearing her call him by his full name. Every time she did, his heart started to race and he felt distinctly uncomfortable.
Of course, he disliked her calling him Mr. Cheng even more. Not even as a joke.
“Then don’t you call me Zhang Xiyue?” she countered.
Cheng Mingjiao thought about it and nodded.
That was right. He didn’t like Zhang Xiyue calling him by his full name, so Zhang Xiyue shouldn’t like him calling her by hers either.
As an equal couple, they had to follow the exact same standards in every respect.
After a long silence, Cheng Mingjiao spoke. “Honey.”
Zhang Xiyue’s face instantly flushed red. She turned away and refused to pay him any attention.
“Honey.” Cheng Mingjiao pursued the attack. “Honey, honey, honey…”
Zhang Xiyue buried her face in the blankets, refusing to listen.
Finding her reaction rather amusing, Cheng Mingjiao climbed under the blankets after her and continued calling her that.
At last, Zhang Xiyue could take no more and covered his mouth.
A flicker passed through Cheng Mingjiao’s eyes. He was just about to make his next move when Zhang Xiyue slowly exhaled a warm breath. “If you dare lick me, you’re dead.”
Cheng Mingjiao: “…”
Had he really made it that obvious?
The two of them fooled around in bed for a while longer before finally getting up.
After sleeping all day, their bones felt thoroughly lazy. Neither of them wanted to cook, so after discussing it, Zhang Xiyue and Cheng Mingjiao decided to go out for dinner.
Five months later, the two of them once again stood side by side at the sink brushing their teeth. Their tall and short figures were reflected clearly in the mirror, and even the rhythm and movements of their brushing had gradually fallen into sync.
Cheng Mingjiao’s chest felt tight with emotion, and his eyes stung slightly. His binge-eating disorder was beginning to stir again.
But his reason still managed to put a stop to the impulse.
Compared with Cheng Mingjiao, who was struggling desperately to suppress his urges, Zhang Xiyue’s thoughts were much simpler. She was merely staring at his reflection in the mirror, trying to figure out whether there was something she had suddenly stopped halfway through doing earlier.
But what had it been?
Zhang Xiyue couldn’t remember anything except that it had involved Cheng Mingjiao.
She still hadn’t figured it out by the time they finished washing up, so she asked Cheng Mingjiao uncertainly, “You’re not hiding anything from me, are you?”
A trace of guilt flashed across Cheng Mingjiao’s face. “No. Why would you ask that?”
Zhang Xiyue really had only been asking offhandedly. It would have been fine if he had simply said no, but he had followed it up with a question.
That was a little suspicious.
Zhang Xiyue narrowed her eyes. She was just about to question him more closely when Cheng Mingjiao’s phone rang.
He visibly let out a sigh of relief. As he went to pick up the phone, he loudly announced, “That’s not my alarm going off. Someone’s actually calling me!”
Once he had the phone in hand, he even turned on the speaker.
“Fengnian, what do you need?” he asked casually.
There was two seconds of silence on the phone before Guo Fengnian’s aggrieved voice rang out.
“Cheng Mingjiao, why haven’t you answered your phone all day? What are you working on this time?! Did you check the weather forecast, realize there’s going to be a thunderstorm tonight, and decide to get yourself struck by lightning again like last time?! I told you ages ago, lightning will only kill you—it won’t send you traveling through time—why do you…”
Before he could finish, Cheng Mingjiao hung up.
The air fell silent for several seconds. Cheng Mingjiao rallied and said, “Zhang Xiyue, eavesdropping on someone else’s phone call is rude. But if you pretend you didn’t hear anything, I might consider forgiving you.”
Zhang Xiyue smiled. “We need to talk, Mr. Cheng.”
Cheng Mingjiao: “…”
