A Farewell Kiss

After lounging in bed with Shen Nian for quite a while, Xia Yanchun finally brought herself to get up.

She brushed her teeth, washed her face, and then went to Shen Nian's house to eat.

Today she was wearing a simple short-sleeved shirt and pants. She looked lazy, and in fact, she really was lazy. She didn't even put her slippers on fully, making a flip-flop sound as she walked.

"Why do you look like an edgy street girl?" Shen Nian served himself a bowl of porridge and sat across from her.

"Hey now, I can even do this." Xia Yanchun waved her hands, struck a signature edgy street girl pose, and did a flower-hand spin right in front of Shen Nian.

"So my arch-nemesis has always had the potential to be an edgy street girl. What a waste of talent. The edgy street world without Xia Yanchun is like the math world without Gauss."

"Hahahaha, I couldn't help it. I saw others doing it in middle school, so I learned it too, and I still haven't forgotten."

Shen Nian smiled faintly. As if everyone hadn't learned something silly. He had even learned Banana Guy's famously seductive look back.

The breakfast menu, though called breakfast, was actually eaten as lunch.

Whenever it was the holidays, eating two meals a day was the norm.

Xia Yanchun held her bowl, picking up a bunch of greens to go with her porridge. Under the table, her little foot lightly stepped on Shen Nian's instep, her five toes secretly gripping him. She took her sweet time eating two bowls of porridge before running off to wash the dishes.

"What time do you plan to head back?"

"I'll head out at one, otherwise it'll be too late by the time I get home." Shen Nian tapped on his phone, already asking Su Kexi for leave.

His reason was straightforward: he was under a lot of stress and needed rest.

Going back this time, he would definitely only return after completing his task, so the end date of his leave was to be determined. For a leave of absence exceeding three days like this, the grade director's approval was required. High stress as an excuse might not have actually gotten him the leave back when he was only scoring 550 points.

But now, he was the provincial top scorer of the grand unified exam. In many situations, the school had to accommodate him and pave the way for him. This was the most direct advantage of having good grades.

Hashtag Grinding. Hashtag Thanks to the teachers. Hashtag Thanks to myself. Hashtag Outscoring your boyfriend. Hashtag See you at the top.

Sports students have their sports tags, so us academic students must have ours too.

It was just a pity that Shen Nian didn't wear white knee-high socks.

Although he could have had Shen Yue act as a parent and send the leave approval to Su Kexi, Shen Nian still ended up receiving a message from his mom.

Knowing Shen Nian was asking for leave, Chen Minyue called him right away.

"Hey Mom, what's up?"

"What do you mean, what's up? Your stress is so high you have to take time off, and you're asking me what's up? Is it serious? Should I have your sister take you to the hospital to see a psychiatrist? Let me tell you, the year before last, someone came back and... a perfectly fine person, but the moment they came back, they didn't want to live anymore..."

"Mom..." Shen Nian scratched his cheek and said softly, "Don't worry, I'm perfectly fine."

Having absolutely zero stress, how could he possibly do anything stupid?

"Perfectly fine? You're so stressed you had to ask for leave!" Chen Minyue was frantic.

"I'm really fine. Is the family draining the fish pond these next couple of days? I'll come back to help out, just to clear my mind."

There was a long silence on the other end of the phone before Chen Minyue's voice came through again.

"Do you want your dad to go pick you up?"

"No need, I'll head back this afternoon. Mom, I want to eat tangerine peel fried pork ribs, a large portion."

"I guarantee you'll eat until you're stuffed."

"Alright, I'll hang up now... Bye-bye."

Beep beep beep.

The call ended, and the leave was smoothly approved, but Chen Minyue's huge reaction was somewhat unexpected for him.

It seemed he was just too honest. If he went back and acted carefree for a few days, his mom wouldn't have to worry about whether his study pressure was too high.

Xia Yanchun sat on the sofa, hugging her legs. Having listened to Shen Nian's entire phone call, she sighed in admiration, "Auntie really cares so much."

"Isn't that normal? What's wrong, does your mom pressure you to study hard every day?"

"Of course not, my mom cares about me a lot too."

"Does Auntie care about whether you've found a boyfriend?"

"Yeah, sometimes she drops hints telling me not to date too early and stuff like that."

"Hehe, Chunbao, you didn't listen to your mom."

"And whose fault is that? Isn't it yours..." Xia Yanchun's eyes suddenly curved, and she crossed her arms, raising her voice dramatically. "You're right. I am my mother's good child, and I must listen to my mother. Since that's the case, we should temporarily separate!"

"To think there's even a breakup segment. I'm scared to tears."

During their arch-nemesis phase, it was cutting ties. During their dating phase, it was breaking up. Once they got married, they'd probably be lying under the covers shouting for a divorce.

Xia Yanchun hummed smugly and patted the sofa next to her. "If you're scared to tears, then come sit over here."

"Coming, coming." Shen Nian plopped down, his large hand spawning on Xia Yanchun's far shoulder, pulling her in close for a snuggle.

Blinking, Xia Yanchun raised her hand and untied her hair tie. Spreading her five fingers, she slipped her black hair tie onto Shen Nian's left wrist.

The hair tie contracted. The size was just right; it wouldn't squeeze Shen Nian's wrist, nor would it accidentally fall off.

"This trick again. Silly Chun, you really are something."

"Is there a problem?" Xia Yanchun pouted. "You're not allowed to take it off until you get home, got it?"

"If I never take it off, do you think my mom will know it's yours?"

"You can't do that!" Xia Yanchun patted his arm, huffing angrily.

She would find the time to tell his family herself. That stinky Shen Nian wasn't allowed to mess up her plans.

"Alright, alright, whatever Chunbao says goes."

Xia Yanchun fell silent, afraid that Shen Yue might wake up at any moment and hear them talking.

It was already noon, and Sister Shen Yue could wake up at any time. She even swatted Shen Nian's hand away to stop him from rubbing her arm.

But stopping Shen Nian was simply wishful thinking. Swat the hand off her arm, and one would respawn on her shoulder. Swat it off again, and it would respawn on her leg.

Unable to do anything about Shen Nian, Xia Yanchun simply slipped one of her hands into Shen Nian's embrace, letting him squeeze and play with it so she could get comfortable too.

Looking at her phone while someone gave her a massage, how was this kind of life any different from an emperor's? It felt amazing!

In fact, she had definitely overestimated Shen Yue. They sat there for another half hour before Shen Yue finally emerged from her room.

The moment she heard the door open, she had already snatched her hand back in a panic.

She looked sideways at Shen Yue. Shen Yue, sporting a head of messy hair, glanced back at her as if this was an everyday occurrence, turned into the bathroom, and after using the toilet, retreated back into her room without saying a single word.

"..." Xia Yanchun's eyes narrowed into slits. So people who slept until twelve-thirty still needed to go back to sleep.

"Sigh, my sister is just like that." Having enjoyed rubbing her hand, Shen Nian patted his butt and stood up. "It's about time, I should head home too."

"Mhm, do you need to pack anything?"

"No need, I'll just grab my earphones and charger and go."

"Then I'll go with you. I'll ride the electric scooter to the subway station, and then I'll ride it back."

"Let's go, let's go."

Shen Nian put on his canvas shoes and headed out, with Xia Yanchun following closely behind, her slippers going flip-flop, flip-flop.

Just as he pressed the elevator button, his shoulder was poked by someone behind him.

"Hmm?" Shen Nian turned around. The narrow hallway was spotlessly clean, and the young girl stood there gracefully with her hands behind her back.

"Shen Nian..." Xia Yanchun wrapped her arms around Shen Nian's neck, her small face visibly turning red.

Without waiting for Shen Nian to speak, she quietly closed her eyes and stood on her tiptoes.

The tender kiss ended as quickly as it began. Xia Yanchun covered her lips, shyly averting her gaze. "Let's go!"

"Chunbao..."

"Come on, let's go!"

Xia Yanchun didn't want to hear another word from him and pushed him straight into the elevator.

"Even giving me a goodbye kiss... Chunbao, are you really falling madly in love with me?"

"Shut up, you're asking for a smack!"

That idiot Shen Nian already knew the answer, yet he still had to ask.

...