Warmth

The two went to watch the dolphin show next. For Bai Yuyou, who had never experienced anything like it before, she watched with rapt attention.

Ye Shuang, however, wasn’t visiting for the first time. Instead, he found himself more focused on Bai Yuyou’s reactions—as if trying to pluck a few strands of fur from the time she had lost.

After the dolphin show ended, Ye Shuang took Bai Yuyou to the souvenir shop and bought her a large dolphin plush.

Seeing Bai Yuyou hugging the plush with her usual expressionless face, Ye Shuang found it oddly endearing.

“What’s that?” Bai Yuyou pointed at a rectangular structure near the souvenir shop—more accurately, a photo booth. But the girl had no idea what a photo sticker was.

A flicker of something unreadable passed through Ye Shuang’s eyes. He turned to her and asked, “It’s for taking photos. Want to try?”

“Photos?”

Bai Yuyou tilted her head, confused. Couldn’t phones take photos too?

“Yeah, photos.” Ye Shuang led her to the booth and pointed at the scrolling screen above. “The pictures taken here print out immediately—they’re physical copies. You can even choose different frames.”

“Look, this one’s a collaboration with the aquarium. Aren’t the dolphins on the border cute?”

Then, he gestured to the sample photos rolling on the screen. One glance would be enough for Bai Yuyou to understand.

But the next second, Ye Shuang’s smile froze.

Because he saw a familiar photo among them.

One of them was him. The other…

“Ye Shuang?” Bai Yuyou noticed the abrupt shift in his tone and followed his gaze to the screen. There, she spotted a familiar face.

Ye Shuang was in the picture, though he looked younger, brimming with vitality.

Beside him stood a girl with a calm expression. She wasn’t particularly beautiful, but there was a hint of pride in her delicate features. The two stood at a measured distance, yet the composition felt harmonious.

“Ye Shuang… is in there,” Bai Yuyou murmured.

She turned to look at him, only to find an expression she had rarely seen—a trace of weariness and sorrow, no different from the night he had collapsed outside the convenience store in the rain.

“Hah. Using someone’s photo for promotion without permission… If I weren’t too lazy to bother, I’d sue them.” Ye Shuang muttered to himself, exhaling slowly. He reached into his pocket for a cigarette but pulled out a box of candies instead.

His frown deepened.

He poured four or five candies into his palm and shoved them all into his mouth, crunching down hard, as if trying to suppress the turmoil inside.

The candies tasted bitter.

Chaotic emotions surged from all directions, and Ye Shuang felt a sharp pain pierce his skull. He had always suffered from chronic headaches, but he hadn’t expected it to flare up now—like a drill stabbing into his brain and twisting violently.

The agony was so intense it even made his stomach cramp. Waves of nausea rose in his throat.

“Ye Shuang.”

Just then, warmth enveloped him. He lifted his gaze slowly—Bai Yuyou had wrapped her arms around him, her small face tilted up to meet his eyes.

“What…?”

“Ye Shuang, you’re sad.” Bai Yuyou didn’t understand what was happening, but she held him tighter, as if trying to share some of her “energy” with him.

Strangely, the pain in Ye Shuang’s stomach began to fade. Even the splitting headache dulled. Her faint body heat felt like something warm enough to melt everything cold inside him.

“Yuyou… Can I hug you?” he suddenly asked, snapping out of his daze.

“Mm.”

Ye Shuang wrapped his arms around her in return, holding her tightly.

Bai Yuyou didn’t know what was wrong with him, so she clumsily imitated how he had once comforted her to sleep—gently stroking the back of his head.

Gradually, Ye Shuang felt his heart settle. When he pulled away, he found her watching him with concern.

People around them cast curious glances, but Ye Shuang paid them no mind. When he looked back at the scrolling screen, the storm inside him had quieted.

“She was my ex-girlfriend. We came to this aquarium once and took photo stickers together.” He smiled self-deprecatingly at the image. He had thought he’d moved on, but it turned out he was still fragile.

“Ex-girlfriend?”

“Yeah. A woman I loved for many years. I gave up a lot for her.” Ye Shuang glanced at the girl beside him.

“But you know what? In that relationship, I had no dignity. I thought I could melt her heart, but in the end, it was just my own wishful thinking. All that effort only moved myself.”

“An unequal relationship never works out.”

“And in the end… I realized my feelings for her weren’t entirely love.”

“It was just unwillingness.” Ye Shuang chuckled.

Bai Yuyou listened quietly. She didn’t understand these things, but she knew Ye Shuang was hurting.

If Ye Shuang was sad, she was sad too.

“Don’t worry about me. I just need a little time.” Ye Shuang reached out and gently ruffled her hair.

“I thought I had nowhere to go, but now… I have something I want to do.”

The candies in his mouth had turned sweet again. What warmed him wasn’t the sunlight outside the glass—it was the lingering warmth from the girl who had just held him.

“Want to take a photo sticker?” He pointed at the machine with a smile.

Bai Yuyou nodded.

The two stepped into the booth and posed in front of the camera.

Five quick shots.

Bai Yuyou still struggled with looking directly at the lens. Ye Shuang suddenly wondered if she’d finally look at it if he had a camera growing out of his head.

Seriously, is it normal for a 27-year-old to not have a built-in camera yet?

When they stepped out, the stickers printed almost instantly. Ye Shuang trimmed the edges and handed one to Bai Yuyou. “Here, this is a photo sticker. Physical photos feel different, don’t they?”

Bai Yuyou stared at the tiny picture in her palm, then lifted her gaze to Ye Shuang. “I… want to keep it.”

“This one’s yours.” Ye Shuang pressed a button on the vending machine nearby and spent ten dollars on two sticker albums.

After slipping the photos inside, Bai Yuyou cradled the album like a treasure.

“Fun, right?”

“Mm.”

“Ready to go?”

“……”

But Bai Yuyou remained rooted in front of the machine. “More.”

“You want to take more?” Ye Shuang blinked.

She nodded.

“Alright.”

And so, they took photos to their hearts’ content.