No Need to Rush to Grow Up

Chapter 64

The room was quiet, with only the rustling sound of a pen tip gliding across paper.

Ye Zhenzhen sat beside Gu Ran, holding a workbook in her hands, but her gaze occasionally drifted toward the boy next to her.

She noticed that Gu Ran was gripping his pen and staring at his composition book, but his eyes were somewhat unfocused.

The light from the window fell on his profile, outlining the boy's sharp features, but it also left the faint, barely perceptible trace of melancholy between his brows with nowhere to hide.

"Gu Ran," Ye Zhenzhen called him softly.

"Hmm?" Gu Ran snapped back to reality and turned to look at her, his lips curving into a habitual smile. "What's wrong?"

But the smile didn't reach his eyes.

Ye Zhenzhen pursed her lips, put down the book in her hands, and looked at him seriously. "Are you unhappy?"

Gu Ran paused for a moment, then laughed. "No, I'm doing great."

"Liar."

Ye Zhenzhen reached out and gently poked his arm. "I saw your expression just now."

Gu Ran fell silent for a moment before finally dropping the smile from his face.

He leaned back into his chair and let out a long breath. "It's just... I suddenly thought of some things."

"What things?"

"Some... things from the past."

Gu Ran's voice was very soft. "Sometimes I wonder what things would be like now if I had made different choices back then."

Ye Zhenzhen blinked, not quite understanding what he was talking about.

But she could feel that, in this moment, Gu Ran was... very depressed.

She didn't like seeing him like this.

"Gu Ran," the girl called his name gently, reaching out to grasp his hand.

The boy's fingers were long and slender, his palm warm.

Ye Zhenzhen's hand was a size smaller than his, her fingertips slightly cool, yet they wrapped firmly around his fingers.

"The way things are now is great," she said earnestly. "No matter what happened in the past, right now... you're not alone."

Gu Ran looked down at their clasped hands, and the inexplicable heaviness in his heart suddenly loosened.

She was right. Things were different now.

He was no longer struggling alone, no longer needing to suppress all his emotions inside.

Someone would notice when something was wrong with him, would hold his hand, and would tell him that everything is fine.

Squeezing her hand in return, Gu Ran finally revealed a genuine smile. "Yeah, things are great now."

Ye Zhenzhen finally breathed a sigh of relief, but then she frowned again. "So... what exactly were you thinking about just now?"

"I was thinking..." Gu Ran deliberately dragged out his words, unable to hold back a laugh at her nervous expression. "Thinking about why you insist so much on being the older sister."

Ye Zhenzhen was taken aback. "Do you even need to think about that? I'm older than you to begin with."

"Does being older mean you have to be the older sister?" Gu Ran tilted his head to look at her. "Actually, you don't have to be in such a hurry to grow up."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean," Gu Ran sat up straight, his tone turning more serious, "before, when it was just you and your mom, you probably needed to grow up quickly to help share her burden. But things are different now."

He paused, then continued, "Now you have our family, you have me... You can take your time. You don't have to push yourself so hard."

Ye Zhenzhen stared at him blankly, unable to speak for a moment.

So he knew everything.

He knew about her past cautiousness, knew that she was always thinking about growing up quickly, being sensible, and becoming someone her mother could rely on.

Those pressures that she rarely voiced herself, he actually understood them all.

A warm current welled up in her heart, and Ye Zhenzhen's eyes grew slightly hot.

She turned her face away and muttered softly, "You say that as if you understand everything..."

"Of course I do." Gu Ran laughed.

Ye Zhenzhen glared at him, but the corners of her mouth curled up involuntarily.

However, in the next second, Gu Ran added, "So, do you want to consider calling me older brother from now on? Being the younger sister is pretty nice too."

Ye Zhenzhen: "..."

The little bit of emotion she felt just now vanished into thin air.

She raised her foot and lightly kicked Gu Ran's calf. "In your dreams!"

Gu Ran was quick and caught her ankle, his hand meeting a patch of icy coldness.

He frowned. "Why are your feet so cold?"

"Mind your own business..." Ye Zhenzhen tried to pull her foot back, but he gripped it even tighter.

Gu Ran sighed helplessly, wrapping his palms around her freezing foot. "I told you to make sure you stay warm. Didn't Mom buy you thick socks? Why aren't you wearing them?"

"I forgot..." Ye Zhenzhen said quietly, the tips of her ears turning slightly red.

Actually, she hadn't forgotten; she just thought the thick socks were ugly.

But she was too embarrassed to say that out loud.

Gu Ran glanced at her and roughly guessed the reason.

He shook his head and gently rubbed her foot with his palms, trying to bring the temperature up a bit. "Remember to wear them from now on, otherwise you're the one who will suffer if you catch a cold."

The warmth spreading from her foot made Ye Zhenzhen narrow her eyes in comfort, but she still refused to yield verbally. "I know, you're so nagging."

"I'm only doing this for your own good," Gu Ran said, his fingers accidentally brushing against the sole of her foot.

"Ah!"

Ye Zhenzhen let out a soft cry and flinched. "What are you doing?"

"It was an accident." Gu Ran looked completely innocent, but his eyes lit up. "Are you ticklish?"

"No, I'm not!" Ye Zhenzhen denied it immediately, but subconsciously pulled her foot back.

Gu Ran smiled like a cat that had found a new toy. "Really? I don't believe you."

"Gu 'Dog' Ran..."

Before she could finish speaking, the sole of her foot was lightly tickled again.

Ye Zhenzhen couldn't help but laugh out loud, her whole body twisting into a ball on the chair. "Haha... stop it!"

"Call me brother and I'll let you go." Gu Ran pushed his luck.

"In your dreams... hahaha... Gu Ran, you're dead... just wait... haha..."

The two of them messed around together, and the heavy atmosphere from earlier completely vanished.

Ye Zhenzhen finally broke free, glaring at Gu Ran while panting, her cheeks flushed from the roughhousing.

She reached out and smacked his arm, not too lightly but not too heavily. "That's for bullying me!"

Gu Ran laughed and dodged. "I admit I was wrong, okay?"

"Now you know you're wrong? Too late!"

Ye Zhenzhen lunged at him again. This time, Gu Ran was prepared, and the two of them started wrestling again.

In the end, Ye Zhenzhen finally won a round and lifted her chin triumphantly. "Now do you know who the older sister is?"

Gu Ran raised his hands in surrender. "I know, I know, you're the older sister."

"That's more like it."

Ye Zhenzhen nodded in satisfaction, sat back down in her chair, and pushed the composition book in front of him. "Hurry up and do your homework. This time the topic is a semi-open composition. You need to write an argumentative essay centered on Dogs are man's most loyal companions. You can't write prose, and the word count must be over eight hundred words."

Gu Ran picked up his pen, wrote the title in the composition book, and then began to brainstorm.

Ye Zhenzhen leaned over to look and found that the first sentence he wrote was: "The world is in tatters, but little dogs are always sewing and patching it up..."

She couldn't help but laugh out loud, reaching out to smack him. "Write properly! An argumentative essay needs to have a thesis and evidence, it's not for you to write lyrical sentences."

"I know, I know." Gu Ran smiled, crossed out the sentence, and started writing again.

The sunlight outside the window gradually slanted westward, dyeing the room in a warm golden hue.

The two of them sat side by side at the desk, one seriously writing an essay, the other quietly reading a book beside him, occasionally pointing out the other's mistakes.

An afternoon like this.

Peaceful and beautiful.

New Year's Eve was just two days away.

That afternoon, Ye Zhenzhen took a rare moment to dress up.

She tied a red cord in her long hair, which made her complexion look even fairer.

She had secretly applied a bit of Ye Shulian's lipstick. It was a very pale pink, almost unnoticeable unless you looked closely, but it gave her whole appearance a bright and radiant touch.

When Gu Ran pushed open the balcony door and walked in, his shoes were still covered in snow.

He stomped his feet at the doorway, causing the snowflakes to scatter to the ground.

"Hey!" Ye Zhenzhen immediately frowned. "I just mopped the floor!"

"I'll clean it up," Gu Ran said hastily, turning around to find the mop.

Lately, he had been completely tamed by Ye Zhenzhen's education—mostly because this girl was getting increasingly skilled at putting him in his place. Every time they messed around, it always ended with him begging for mercy.

Ye Zhenzhen crossed her arms and watched him busy himself, then suddenly said, "You come through the balcony every day, couldn't you just sweep the snow while you're at it?"

"I'll sweep it. I'll sweep it tomorrow," Gu Ran replied without even looking up.

"Always tomorrow..." Ye Zhenzhen muttered softly, but she didn't say anything else.