Always Always

"Hahahahahaha, Yuyou, look at this character, so silly."

In the living room at night, Tang Keke was laughing out loud. The two girls were watching an anime on TV. Perhaps because the plot was too funny, Tang Keke was laughing so hard that tears were almost coming out of her eyes.

Turning her head, Keke noticed that Bai Yuyou was spacing out, as if she was thinking about something. She reached out her hand and waved it in front of the girl.

"Yuyou, what are you thinking about? You're so absorbed."

Bai Yuyou slowly snapped back to reality and shook her head, "I took my medicine."

"Oh right, it seems that taking that medicine makes you a bit quieter?" Tang Keke reached out and poked Bai Yuyou's soft cheek, asking curiously, "You seem to be doing fine lately. How about taking less medicine? All medicine has some toxicity."

"If I don't take it, I get suddenly sad... and can't sleep," Bai Yuyou said softly. "I don't know why either, but I can't control it."

"Alright, let me give you a hug." Tang Keke had no choice but to reach out and hug Bai Yuyou.

"Keke, am I a burden?" Bai Yuyou asked softly.

"Yuyou, how can you think like that? You are definitely not a burden," Tang Keke said seriously.

"Mhm..."

"I don't know if my brother is coming back tonight though. He seemed to have gone out for a late-night snack with Uncle Chen Hai and the others? They'll probably be drinking, right?" Tang Keke said, and then she asked Bai Yuyou with a grin,

"Yuyou, Yuyou, let's sleep together tonight?"

"Waiting for Ye Shuang," Bai Yuyou said.

"Oh, it doesn't matter. Who knows when my brother will be back. Let's just chat and go to sleep," Tang Keke said. She felt that it would be better for Yuyou to focus less on Ye Shuang and more on other things.

"Oh."

In the end, Bai Yuyou was led back to the room by Tang Keke.

...

...

"Say, how is Little Yuyou's depression doing now?" Chen Hai asked while eating a skewer, not forgetting to ask Ye Shuang how he was handling it. "I heard that the child even started having auditory hallucinations?"

"Yeah, so I don't dare to make her do anything she dislikes right now," Ye Shuang replied. "But the situation is okay for now. With the medication controlling it, as long as there's no trigger, there basically won't be any problems."

"Baby Yuyou has had that kind of experience, so her sensitivity to everything is different from normal children. Little Shuangshuang, sometimes your way of handling things isn't correct either," Aunt Li also said.

"Special circumstances require special handling, right?"

"I know, I've already reflected on it properly." Therefore, Ye Shuang also knew he should give Bai Yuyou more time to adapt and grow.

After eating the late-night snack, everyone drank a little wine, but they weren't very drunk. After all, it was just beer, just to wash down the barbecue.

"Ye, want to go for a walk by the sea?" Chen Qin suddenly asked.

"Hmm? Sure." Ye Shuang did not refuse. Seeing this, Chen Hai and Aunt Li had no intention of disturbing them and were about to call a designated driver to go back and rest.

The barbecue stall was quite close to the seaside. After calling a designated driver, the two soon got out of the car at the seaside parking lot.

"There are quite a lot of people. They're probably here to watch the sunrise. There are even tents."

Stepping onto the sand, Ye Shuang held Chen Qin's hand and walked slowly. The two didn't have any particular destination and just kept walking like that—until the seawater gently washed over the tops of their feet, did they realize they had unknowingly walked to the water's edge.

"It's a bit cool." Chen Qin took off her canvas shoes and stepped barefoot onto the sand.

"Put your shoes on, what if you step on something sharp?"

"It's fine," Chen Qin smiled sweetly. Because the two had walked quite far, it was relatively dim here, and even the glow of the streetlights wasn't very bright.

She simply tilted up her chin and kissed Ye Shuang's lips.

The faint taste of alcohol made both of them a little intoxicated. It wasn't until the sea breeze gently ruffled their hair that Chen Qin, with a blushing face, adjusted her clothes, "Couldn't you just hold my waist? You've unbuttoned my clothes."

Ye Shuang just smiled, "Just going with the flow, going with the flow."

However, Chen Qin didn't mean to blame him. She used her hand like a fan and fanned her flushed face, as if to dispel some of the heat. Then she looked around, and seeing that there was no one nearby, she asked softly,

"If you like it, you can reach inside."

"Ahem." Ye Shuang coughed lightly. Being looked at by Chen Qin's slightly misty eyes, he suddenly felt a little embarrassed.

"Coward," Chen Qin playfully stuck out her tongue.

After calming down a bit, Chen Qin also turned around to look towards the sea. The dim sea horizon had a hazy moonlight reflecting on the surface, along with a few scattered lights. Just looking at it seemed to calm a person's heart.

Chen Qin held Ye Shuang's hand. After feeling the warmth radiating from his palm, she suddenly took a deep breath, as if to disperse her drunkenness.

"Ye, can we always be together like this?"

"Why do you ask that?" Ye Shuang said.

"I don't know. The world is so, so big. I always feel like if I let go of your hand, I won't be able to find you," Chen Qin tilted her head, as if pouring out her heart.

"I always lack confidence in myself... Ye, I didn't use to be like this, but time really can change a lot of things."

"Perhaps." Ye Shuang didn't know how to answer Chen Qin either. He slowly tightened his grip on Chen Qin's slightly cold little hand.

"I'm sorry."

"Ye, don't apologize," Chen Qin said, and then let out a soft laugh. "Because you didn't do anything wrong either. We just missed out on a lot because of certain things."

"But it's okay, we still have a long life ahead of us, right?"

"Yeah," Ye Shuang nodded.

"Ye, hold me tight."

Hearing Chen Qin say that, Ye Shuang reached out and pulled her into his arms. Chen Qin's body was slightly warm, but her clothes were icy cold. It was hard to tell whether the coldness was brought by the sea breeze or emitted by the girl herself.

"Ye, we must always be together in the future. Even if you don't want me anymore, I won't give up easily."

"Because I only want you, whether it was in the past or now."

Chen Qin whispered softly into Ye Shuang's ear.

Ye Shuang held Chen Qin in his arms. He didn't know what he was thinking about at the moment, only feeling that he seemed to have let Chen Qin down in far too many ways, but he didn't know how to make it up to her.

Perhaps if he had made the right choices in the past, he would have been able to recover all that lost time with Chen Qin?

But the past doesn't exist in this world.

It is precisely because of different times and different events that different versions of oneself are created.

"In the future, we will have plenty of time, so... don't worry." Ye Shuang gently stroked the girl's hair, passing through it like the sea breeze, yet for some reason, he couldn't seem to grasp it.

Chen Qin smiled faintly, shook her hair a little, and buried both her face and her hair into Ye Shuang's embrace.