This kind of thing is just so hard to keep a straight face about

Gu Yue squeezed her way into Lin Yu's arms, whining and clinging to him.

Her tongue was so pickled by alcohol that she could barely form words clearly.

But she stubbornly kept nuzzling into Lin Yu's chest, as if she were about to pin him down right then and there and have her way with him.

Lin Yu half-held, half-hugged Gu Yue.

Facing a Gu Yue who was already showing signs of turning into a drunken mess,

Lin Yu pulled her hands out from inside his clothes while waving over a waiter to settle the bill.

After paying,

Lin Yu struggled to press the uncooperative Gu Yue down into the wheelchair.

Then he pushed her out of the restaurant.

As a staff member in an apron helped push open the heavy glass door at the entrance,

a sudden gust of cool autumn night air rushed into the shop.

Lin Yu pushed the wheelchair.

When the wind brushed against his skin,

he was startled to realize that he had broken out in a sweat at some point without even noticing.

So much so that when the wind hit him, it actually felt cold.

Pushing Gu Yue out onto the main road in front of the restaurant,

Lin Yu gave a comfortable shiver.

His original plan had been to get out of the restaurant, quickly hail a taxi, shove this drunk mess into it, and drop her off in front of the girls' dormitory, handing her over to her roommates.

But Lin Yu suddenly changed his mind.

This hotpot restaurant was the classic case of "good wine needs no bush."

It was located in a remote suburb.

Once you stepped out the door,

there was a straight asphalt road.

Vibrant green sycamore trees lined both sides of the road one after another, stretching all the way to the edge of the horizon.

Maybe it was because there wasn't all that messy light pollution like in the city,

but Lin Yu always felt that the streetlights here were especially white and bright.

Shining on the sycamore leaves by the roadside,

they made the leaves look like jade, so green they seemed translucent.

Lin Yu suddenly felt that this was a pretty nice night.

The kind that made you want to linger here a little longer.

Gu Yue had already closed her eyes, drunk by now.

Lin Yu looked at her, feeling that consulting her was a bit like playing music to a cow.

But Lin Yu said it anyway.

He asked softly:

"Are you in a hurry to get back?"

"If not, want me to push you around for a bit?"

The words had barely left his mouth when Lin Yu felt something was off.

Before,

Gu Yue's feelings and opinions mattered less than nothing to him.

What?

Don't want to take a stroll?

Then wheel yourself back on your own!

But now,

even though Gu Yue was already a drunk mess,

Lin Yu still wanted to ask for her opinion.

This was, without a doubt, caring about someone's feelings.

Though Lin Yu absolutely refused to think too deeply in that direction.

And earlier too, just now.

Lin Yu thought to himself that he had been a bit out of shape lately.

But he definitely wasn't so weak that merely getting Gu Yue into a wheelchair would tire him out enough to drench himself in sweat.

That sweat probably wasn't from exhaustion.

So it was...

Nervousness?

...

He sniffed.

Lin Yu felt his face getting warm.

He looked down at Gu Yue.

Sure enough, she had no reaction, as if she were asleep, quietly resting her closed eyes.

The bright streetlights replaced the moonlit glow that would have filled the night.

Shining on her face, they let Lin Yu see her delicate little face with absolute clarity.

Mm.

Gu Yue's face was still that face.

People always say "a girl changes eighteen times as she grows up."

Lin Yu thought that was a bit of a stretch.

Gu Yue's face didn't look any different from her senior year of high school.

Her eyes, nose, and lips were all pretty nice.

They leaned slightly toward having dimension, but not in that sculpted, Western way.

It was more of a liveliness.

The kind that told you at a glance she wasn't some shy, introverted girl.

But come to think of it,

although Gu Yue hadn't changed physically, so to speak,

Lin Yu always felt she was somehow different now.

She had become a bit more alluring.

The more you looked at her, the more you wanted to look, unable to tear your eyes away.

Could it be that the saying "a girl changes eighteen times" was actually meant for the guys to notice?

Lin Yu thought about it.

Found it possible.

Back in childhood, rolling around fighting with the girl next door in simple summer clothes, like two little crickets tussling, never felt weird.

All he cared about was how to make her surrender in defeat.

But now, as adults?

Never mind tussling.

Just catching a glimpse of those two slender, fair legs under a girl's shorts was enough to make a guy zone out for a few seconds with his mind wandering.

Lin Yu was staring at Gu Yue, lost in thought,

when Gu Yue suddenly—like that one friend who loves jumping out from behind you to scare you—

burst out laughing without the slightest warning, a snort escaping her.

Lin Yu was genuinely stunned.

But he snapped out of it quickly, glaring at Gu Yue in outrage:

"You weren't even drunk at all, were you?!"

Gu Yue raised her hand to cover her face, deeply embarrassed but still unable to stop laughing.

She didn't want to break character either!

But it's just really hard to hold it in!

When you like someone, and just being near them makes you feel satisfied and happy,

even with your eyes closed, you can still feel them watching you with an unusually serious, intense gaze.

It gives you this strange feeling—like an itch, yet not quite, something fleeting and formless.

Under those circumstances,

Gu Yue felt like she had held it together for a surprisingly long time already!

Gu Yue covered her face, too embarrassed and too busy trying to suppress her laughter to even dare look at Lin Yu.

Lin Yu watched her laugh until she was swaying, and the embarrassment and irritation in his heart quietly began to fade.

Somehow, he even felt a faint, smug sense of pride because Gu Yue's joy was connected to him.

But Lin Yu didn't just bask in the satisfaction.

He was quick to catch on.

He immediately realized that during the time Gu Yue was faking sleep, he hadn't let many telltale signs slip.

At least not as many as Gu Yue had shown!

With that thought,

Lin Yu perked right up, no longer in a hurry, looking at Gu Yue with a hint of barely visible menace in his smile and said:

"Oh-ho~"

"So someone was faking being drunk all along!"

Lin Yu mimicked some exaggerated dialect, then lowered his voice and asked:

"So that means what someone said earlier wasn't drunk talk at all~"

Gu Yue, sitting in the wheelchair, pressed her hands even tighter over her burning red face.

Her retort sounded flustered, completely lacking any confidence:

"I, I just sobered up!"

"Huh?"

"Just sobered up?"

"Really now?"

Lin Yu looked at Gu Yue's cute display of stubbornness, the smile at the corners of his mouth growing wider as he continued:

"Just a little while out here?"

"A little breeze."

"And you're instantly sober?"

"Exactly!"

Gu Yue stuck out her neck, pink in the light of the streetlamps, insisting stubbornly with all her might.

"Oh~"

"Is that so~"

"Pretty amazing, huh."

"After drinking that much."

"Sober up just like that."

"Your liver's really something."

"Metabolizes alcohol fast!"

Lin Yu piled on the sarcasm from every angle, needling Gu Yue.

But Gu Yue acted like she couldn't hear it at all—or maybe she was determined to double down on her stubbornness—and kept her face covered while nodding emphatically, declaring loudly:

"Right!"

"My family's just got naturally great livers!"