Evening.
Yanjing City.
Gui Street.
These days, crayfish had only just become popular. They cost much more than they would in later years, especially here in the Capital.
But Wei Yi knew that a little money like this was nothing to either his older sister or Sister Lin. Neither of them was short on cash.
His older sister was a career woman and already something of a rich young lady. Lin Siyan was the only child in a family from Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai. Strictly speaking, she was even richer than his sister.
So they ordered a huge basin of each: spicy crayfish and thirteen-spice crayfish.
Chen Xinyi’s shrimp-peeling technique was downright professional. One every three seconds, with the vein pulled out cleanly each time. But after peeling them, she didn’t put them in her own bowl. She piled them all up in front of Wei Yi.
“Sis, eat some yourself.”
“You’re thin. Eat more.”
Looking at the little mountain of shrimp meat in front of him, Wei Yi couldn’t quite put his feelings into words.
Today, his sister had already said “thin” at least ten times.
In his previous life, he would have been deeply moved. Now, though, he couldn’t help feeling like a pig being carefully fattened up.
His sister was waiting for the day he’d be ready for slaughter.
Lin Siyan sat across from them, quietly peeling her own shrimp and occasionally looking up with a smile. She ate so daintily, taking small bites, in stark contrast to Chen Xinyi beside her, sleeves rolled up as she dug in.
After finishing the crayfish, they took a walk along Houhai to help digest.
The June evening breeze swept in from the lake, carrying moisture and willow fluff.
The lights along the bar street came on in strings. Nearby, a folk singer happened to be strumming a guitar and singing 《Miss Dong》. The sound system wasn’t great, but the atmosphere was just right.
Tourists wandered in twos and threes. Some held up selfie sticks to take pictures, while others sat on the railing drinking soda.
Chen Xinyi naturally slipped her arm through Wei Yi’s.
She leaned against him, her shoulder resting on his upper arm, the hem of her white dress brushing his jeans.
It was an intimate gesture, a habit etched into her bones. She didn’t even need to ask.
He could feel the warmth of her body against the inside of his arm.
Summer clothes were thin. With only two layers of fabric between them, it felt as if there were none at all. He tried to tug his arm free.
Chen Xinyi clung to him even tighter.
“Behave.” She turned her head and looked at him with smiling eyes.
“Sis, it’s hot.”
“What do you mean, hot? The breeze is so strong.”
Wei Yi tried to pull away again.
Chen Xinyi simply wrapped both arms around him, hanging off his arm. “I said, behave. You used to be like this when you were little. The older you get, the less obedient you are.”
When he was little.
When he was little, she really had held his hand and hugged him every day. But back then, he hadn’t understood anything. Now he understood everything, and that only made him more afraid to let her touch him.
Couldn’t he have a little more time to train first?
A barbecue-stall owner passed by with a cigarette in his mouth. He glanced at the two of them and grinned at the worker beside him. “That young couple sure are affectionate.”
Chen Xinyi heard him and smiled even more broadly. Wei Yi sighed inwardly again.
Lin Siyan walked alongside them, a cup of yogurt she’d bought on the way in her hand, her expression calm.
When the owner’s “young couple” drifted over, she held the straw between her teeth for half a second, then lowered her head and continued drinking, as if she hadn’t heard a thing.
“Siyan, hurry up,” Chen Xinyi called back to her.
Lin Siyan answered and quickened her pace, catching up to walk beside Chen Xinyi.
The three of them wandered around Houhai.
They stood on Yinding Bridge for a while, and Chen Xinyi took several photos, all of Wei Yi.
Wei Yi offered to take some of her and Lin Siyan, and Lin Siyan was clearly tempted.
But Chen Xinyi waved him off, saying there was no need—they’d already taken plenty together.
After that, they found a quiet bar on the bar street and had a little to drink.
They got home at almost eleven.
The three of them took turns showering.
Wei Yi went first. After his shower, he put on the pajamas Chen Xinyi had bought him. The fabric felt unbelievably soft; they must have cost a pretty penny.
He sat on the edge of the bed, drying his hair with a towel. Water ran in the bathroom; his sister must have gone in.
A little while later, as he was scrolling through World Cup news on his phone— the door opened.
Chen Xinyi came in carrying a cup of warm milk. She’d changed into a pale pink cotton nightdress, and her hair was still wet. As soon as she entered, she casually locked the door behind her.
Click.
Wei Yi’s scrolling hand froze.
“Drink some milk. It’ll help you sleep and soothe your stomach after the drinks.” Chen Xinyi handed him the cup and sat down beside him. The mattress dipped, their shoulders nearly touching.
“Sis, I’m not going to sleep tonight. I’m watching the World Cup.”
“Oh, right. Good thing I remembered—I bought you beer and soda for the fridge. Later, I’ll have your Sister Siyan make you a few snacks to go with them. She’s a much better cook than I am.”
“Your hair’s still wet!” Chen Xinyi picked up the towel beside her and turned toward him, drying his hair strand by strand. Her fingers threaded through his hair, her fingertips brushing his ear. Her breath was close enough to feel.
Warm steam rose from the milk.
The scent of shampoo and body wash drifted straight into his nose.
Holding the cup, Wei Yi swallowed.
The neckline of his sister’s nightdress was a little low.
They were jiggling all over the place.
At this distance, he didn’t dare look over there. He could only stare into his milk, pretending to study the skin on top.
It wasn’t that he was some paragon of virtue. He was afraid of dying. He didn’t think he’d mastered divine powers yet, and he still didn’t dare make a reckless move.
“Sis, that’s enough.”
“It’s still wet.”
Chen Xinyi’s voice was sweet to begin with, and when she lowered it, it sounded as if she’d added a thickener.
Her movements grew slower and slower, shifting from drying his hair to stroking it, her fingertips circling his ends.
Wei Yi was just about to speak.
She turned her head and leaned in, her lips brushing the corner of his.
Her warm breath washed over him.
Wei Yi’s mind buzzed. His body reacted faster than his brain, and he turned his head away. Her lips grazed his cheek and landed near his ear.
During the summer after ninth grade, he’d been napping at home. In a hazy half-sleep, he felt something soft and squishy against his lips.
It was fragrant and soft, and a sly, sweet little snake kept trying to slip inside.
Half-asleep, he let it in.
A few seconds later, something suddenly felt wrong. He opened his eyes to find Chen Xinyi pressed cheek to cheek with him, gazing at him with bright, sparkling eyes.
He sprang out of bed in fright. She smiled and said, “Mine,” then left.
Things like that had happened often ever since.
The same thing had happened tonight in his previous life.
But this time he’d been reborn, and the way he’d died in his previous life had been so absurd.
Until he was sure he’d mastered divine powers, he really didn’t dare challenge the Great Demon King.
Chen Xinyi wasn’t annoyed when he turned away. She ran a fingertip along his chin, her voice full of laughter. “Why are you embarrassed? It’s not like we’ve never kissed. You weren’t like this when I came home over Labor Day!”
“Sis, it’s late…”
Chen Xinyi was about to say something.
Footsteps sounded outside the door.
Lin Siyan had come out of the bathroom. Her footsteps on the floor grew closer.
She paused outside Chen Xinyi’s bedroom, probably to pick up a change of clothes, then headed toward the living room.
Chen Xinyi glanced toward the door and stood up.
“Get some sleep early.” She tossed the towel onto the bedside table and headed for the door. The lock turned with a faint click, and she left.
The door didn’t shut completely, leaving a narrow gap.
Her voice drifted in from the living room as she spoke to Lin Siyan, sounding as natural as if nothing had happened. “Siyan, don’t forget to hang up the clothes in the washing machine. Once you’ve hung them up, make my little brother a few snacks to go with his drinks. You’re a much better cook than I am.”
“I know. Go dry your hair.”
“Can’t be bothered. I’ll let it air-dry.”
“You’ll get a headache.”
“Then dry it for me.”
“Okay…”
Their voices gradually faded.
Wei Yi sat on the edge of the bed, still holding the cup of warm milk.
He took a sip.
The temperature was just right—not too hot, not too cold.
She’d even gotten the milk’s temperature exactly right. This woman always knew exactly what she was doing.
Including that kiss just now.
Including their first kiss back in ninth grade.
Including what would happen a month later in his previous life.
It had all been planned.
In his previous life, he’d thought he’d simply lost control. Looking back now, whether he could hold back hadn’t mattered at all. She’d never intended to let him hold back in the first place.
Another sound came from outside the door.
It was Lin Siyan passing by with her clothes.
Wei Yi suddenly realized something.
While Chen Xinyi had been in his room, Lin Siyan had finished showering and was heading to the master bedroom.
His little bedroom wasn’t on the way.
Yet she’d still passed by this doorway—and even paused.
In his previous life, Wei Yi had always thought Lin Siyan had only been drawn into this later on.
He’d thought this quiet woman had gradually come to accept that absurd relationship.
But this time, he’d been given another chance.
He stared at the light coming through the gap in the door.
He knew Lin Siyan must have been pretending from the very beginning.
She’d known the whole time. She knew what Chen Xinyi was doing to him, and she knew what kind of relationship everyone in this household had with each other. She was just pretending not to see.
Why?
The answer surfaced in his mind.
Wei Yi finished the rest of the milk in one gulp.
There was no need to guess.
He looked at the wall next door.
This answer— he’d actually known it in his previous life.
Late at night.
In the master bedroom, on the big bed.
Chen Xinyi lay on her stomach on the pillow, flipping through the calendar on her phone. The screen’s glow fell across her face, a smile playing on her lips. Her fingertip rested on one date, tracing over it back and forth.
It was in mid-July.
The exact date was July eighteenth.
The day Wei Yi came to the Chen Family and was adopted by her. Well, actually, he was adopted by her parents.
But Chen Xinyi had always insisted that she was the one who’d adopted him.
“Siyan.” She rolled over and held her phone up for Lin Siyan to see. “Look, there’s only a month left.”
Lin Siyan lay with her back to her, not turning around.
“What about a month?”
“It’ll be exactly seventeen years since he and I officially met.” Chen Xinyi’s voice brimmed with excitement, like a child counting down the days to the New Year. “When that day comes, I’m going to take him for myself. I’ve raised him for so long, and now I can finally eat him. What do I do? I’m kind of excited.”
She didn’t know. Or maybe she did.
As she said those things, Lin Siyan’s fingers clenched around the edge of the blanket.
Hard.
“Aren’t you afraid your little brother won’t want to? Maybe he really does only see you as his older sister.” She tried to make her voice sound teasing.
“No way.” Chen Xinyi rolled back onto her stomach, resting her head sideways on the pillow. “He’s been mine since he was little. I’ve put so much effort into him, all these years. I held his hand on the way to school when he was a kid, tutored him in middle school, and saved up his living expenses in high school. I even washed his underwear the first time he soiled it. What didn’t I keep an eye on?”
“That’s called raising a childhood betrothed husband.”
“Right, a childhood betrothed husband.” Chen Xinyi smiled, sweetly and smugly. “I’ve raised him for seventeen years. I can finally eat him.”
She said “eat him” so casually.
Lin Siyan didn’t answer.
In the dark, her eyes stayed open, fixed on the sliver of streetlight leaking through the gap in the curtains.
Something weighed on her chest, bitter and sour.
She loved Chen Xinyi.
Since her freshman year of college. Since the first time they met in the dorm hallway. Since the first time Chen Xinyi smiled at her.
It had been years.
She’d never said it aloud.
She had only quietly stayed by her side, helping manage the Coffee Shop’s accounts, accompanying her to negotiate beauty salon contracts, cooking for her, and reminding her not to stay up late. There wasn’t much she could do, so she took it one day at a time.
But that woman’s eyes had never held anyone but her little brother.
Her whole heart and gaze— were all for Wei Yi.
Lin Siyan’s nose stung, and she hurriedly closed her eyes.
“Siyan, how do you think I should eat him when the time comes?” Chen Xinyi rolled over again and rubbed her foot against Lin Siyan’s leg.
“Just tie a bow around yourself and send yourself over,” Lin Siyan said, forcing a laugh into her voice.
“Oh, that’s so tacky. I’ll think of something else.”
Chen Xinyi turned off her phone, wrapped herself in the blanket, and soon her breathing became even.
She’d always fallen asleep astonishingly fast. Three minutes after her head hit the pillow, she was out.
Maybe that was also why she had so much energy: her sleep habits were so healthy.
Lin Siyan listened to her steady breathing.
In the darkness, she sighed softly.
It was brief.
Her voice was very low.
So low that only she could hear it.