The boat of early love swayed all the way through to the final exams. The short and intense two-day exam period passed quickly, and the nearly month-long winter break arrived unexpectedly.
In previous years, no matter how busy they were, Lin Yongcheng and Fang Yisong would always take a seven-day vacation to take Lin Tiao on trips to the mountains and scenic spots.
This year, they had planned a trip as well, but due to some unforeseen reasons, the family didn’t go anywhere and spent the New Year at home in Xicheng instead.
The day before New Year’s Eve, Lin Tiao and Hu Hanghang, Xu Yichuan, and the others were playing games. During the conversation about holiday plans, Hu Hanghang accidentally let slip that Jiang Yan hadn’t gone home for the New Year for several years and always spent it alone outside.
“Why isn’t his family in Xicheng?”
Lin Tiao only had a vague understanding of Jiang Yan's family situation.
A gentle and appeasing mother, a father who often caused trouble, a neurotic second uncle, and his constant desire to escape that family.
Though strange, these people and situations made up his family life.
On the other end of the line, Hu Hanghang was hesitant and didn’t elaborate much. “Anyway, his family situation is complicated. We know about it but not in detail, so it’s not something we talk about much.”
Xu Yichuan, trying to deflect the awkwardness, jokingly changed the subject. “But our Yan is genuinely a good person. If you two are together, he definitely won’t let you down.”
Lin Tiao and Jiang Yan’s relationship was not something they had kept a secret, and their friends knew about it.
At school, they had often received teasing and mockery from their single friends. But hearing such serious words from them now was rare.
Lin Tiao smiled and sincerely replied, “I know.”
They played a few more rounds of games. As it neared mealtime, everyone quickly wrapped up the game and made plans to hang out together after the holidays.
After quitting the game, Lin Tiao held her phone and thought for a while before opening WeChat to send a message to Jiang Yan.
"Jiang Yan, how about a date?"
To be honest, they hadn’t had a proper date since they got together. One reason was that the final exams were approaching, and Lin Tiao’s academic workload was too heavy. The second reason was that Jiang Yan didn’t like going out. Most weekends, he would invite Lin Tiao to an internet café, where they would hide in a small room on the third floor. He would work on test papers while keeping an eye on her studying.
In the evenings, they would go out to try local delicacies, then he would take her home. The two days would pass like that.
At first, Lin Tiao had protested about this kind of “Platonic date,” though each time her protest was dismissed. But under his guidance, she had managed to regain a spot in the top three in the class for the final exams.
Because of this, Old Yu had been quite happy for a long time, both relieved that the young girl had gotten back on track and proud of Jiang Yan’s number-one rank in the year.
What he didn’t know was that the two of them had already secretly been on a path of early love, one that would lead them far from the point of no return.
Remembering this, Lin Tiao worried that Jiang Yan might call her to the internet café again and resume their “study hard and improve every day” dating model. So she quickly sent another message.
"No internet café. A proper date."
This time, he replied quickly.
"Before, it wasn’t proper. It was just holding hands."
This made Lin Tiao think. She didn’t really understand whether other couples were like them. Even though they had been together for more than a month, they were still at the stage of holding hands.
She had seen many posts on the “Flirting with Guys” forum about couples who had gotten together and eventually ended up together forever. Though the stories started differently, one thing they all had in common was that the couples transitioned quickly from first base to second base shortly after getting together.
“...What am I even thinking about?” Lin Tiao muttered to herself, rubbing her face. She was about to reply when he sent another message.
"I’ll see you in half an hour."
Lin Tiao smiled and got up to change clothes.
True to his word, Jiang Yan arrived exactly half an hour later. When Lin Tiao finished getting ready, she went downstairs and slipped on her shoes.
She had previously given Jiang Yan the access code to her community gate. Every time he came, he would wait by the flower bed downstairs. This time was no exception.
He wore a black down jacket, paired with matching black jeans. With his back to the high-rise buildings, his hands were in his pockets, and his head was lowered, his gaze on the ground. His figure was tall and slender.
From Lin Tiao’s angle, she could only see his short black silhouette and his ears, which were slightly red from the cold.
The sound of the building’s security door closing reached them.
Jiang Yan turned his head at the sound.
The winter afternoon sunlight was crisp and clear, and a thin layer of mist fell, which made his youthful outline even more defined and bright. When he turned and saw her, his expression remained cold, but there was a smile in his eyes.
Lin Tiao ran over in a few steps, landing in his open arms. She reached up to hug his slim waist, looked up at him, and smiled. “You’re really obedient.”
The words might sound odd to anyone else, but Jiang Yan understood.
Back when they studied together at the internet café, if they finished early in the evening, they would go out to enjoy the nearby food.
At first, Lin Tiao hadn’t noticed, but after going out a few times, she realized that every time, he only wore a thin woolen coat with a jacket or a baseball jacket over it.
In Xicheng, where winter temperatures often stayed below zero, Lin Tiao, being someone who was easily cold, would wear a down jacket with warm packs inside.
In her eyes, his outfit was almost like running around naked. Whether or not he really wasn’t cold didn’t matter to her; her only request was that he had to wear a down jacket when going out in such cold weather.
Jiang Yan chuckled, pulling her out of his embrace and holding her hand tightly. “Let’s go. Where do you want to eat?”
“Have you eaten?” Lin Tiao rubbed her stomach. “I haven’t eaten yet, and I’m a bit hungry.”
“Then let’s eat first.”
“Let’s go have BBQ.”
“All right, whatever you want.”
The two went to a Korean BBQ restaurant in the city center.
It was a place Lin Tiao found on a food review app. It was highly rated in the barbecue section in Xicheng. They arrived just as the lunch rush started, and they had to wait outside for half an hour before they could get a table.
During this time, Lin Tiao went to the bathroom. When she came back, she saw two girls standing in front of Jiang Yan, dressed in cute, fashionable outfits.
She walked over and overheard the girls' conversation. “Hey, it’s the 21st century. Saying you don’t have WeChat is so outdated.”
The taller girl stood in front of Jiang Yan, blocking his view. Lin Tiao couldn’t see him, but she could hear his cold voice. “What reason I have is none of your business.”
The two girls weren’t particularly thick-skinned either. Hearing this, they muttered under their breath and walked away. “What’s he being so arrogant about? He’s just got a pretty face.”
“But that face is really something,” one of them commented.
“Whatever, it's just a face.”
They walked away, and Jiang Yan raised his hand to irritably rub his brow. When he saw Lin Tiao standing behind them, his expression softened, and he gestured for her to come over. “Come here.”
Lin Tiao walked over, grabbed his finger and pinched it, purposely putting on a serious face. “You’ve got a pretty serious case of rotten peach blossoms.”
He smiled and pulled her closer with the momentum. “Who says that? My peach blossoms only bloom one at a time, and they last for a lifetime.”
Lin Tiao wasn’t at his level, and after a few words, she was so embarrassed she couldn’t say anything. Her face flushed as she turned away from him.
The beginning of the new year brought plenty of festivities to the mall. After eating and drinking, the two of them wandered around the mall and then headed to the cinema on the fourth floor, where they bought two movie tickets.
During the holiday period, the mall was packed, and the cinema was especially crowded. The two films Lin Tiao wanted to watch had all the regular sessions fully booked, so they ended up buying VIP tickets for the giant screen theater.
The VIP theater was smaller, with sofa booths, and it was also quite crowded, mostly with couples.
The lights were off in the theater, with only the flickering glow from the screen.
When they bought the tickets, the only seats left were the ones in the very front row. Jiang Yan bought seats deeper into the theater, close to the wall. Normally, no one would choose this spot because it was noisy, too close to the screen, and uncomfortable for the neck after a long period.
Not long after they sat down, the booth next to them was quickly occupied as well.
The theater's booth design was quite nice, with sofa cushions and partitions on all sides. Unless someone was standing on the stage looking up, no one could see inside the booths. It provided a lot of privacy.
Lin Tiao only felt something was off when she heard the couple next to them talking.
Surrounded by couples, their sweet and intimate conversations were all hidden in the booths. The atmosphere was intimate and flirtatious, combined with the near darkness in the theater where no one could see anyone.
It was the perfect place for this kind of atmosphere.
Thinking of this, Lin Tiao couldn’t help but glance at the person sitting beside her.
He was facing forward, his features sharp and defined, with his gaze locked on the screen. His nose bridge was high, and the light from the screen shifted across his face, making different shadows, but his expression remained unconcerned, as though unaffected by the surrounding movements.
Perhaps noticing her gaze, Jiang Yan turned his head toward her, his lips moving slightly. “What’s wrong?”
Lin Tiao straightened her back and quickly turned her eyes away, feeling her ears grow hot in the dim light. “Nothing.”
He chuckled softly, purposely leaning closer to her, his breath warm against her ear and neck. “What are you thinking about? Your ears are all red.”
Lin Tiao was flustered and her face turned even redder. She pushed him away and, in a serious tone, said, “We agreed before we left the house that this is a proper date.”
Jiang Yan was pushed back by her. He lazily leaned back against the seat, hooked her finger with his, his tone teasing, “Mm, proper date.”
The theater was warm, and as soon as Lin Tiao entered, she took off her coat. After seeing that it was comfortable, she took off her shoes, crossed her legs, and sank into the soft sofa.
The film was a domestic movie for the New Year, a mix of suspense and comedy. It was light-hearted and didn’t require too much thinking. At the beginning, Lin Tiao could still hear the laughter around her, but gradually, that sound was replaced by something more intimate and suggestive.
In the darkness, the soft moans of a woman were occasionally heard, clear and muffled at times. Lin Tiao was incredibly awkward, her back stiff as she kept her eyes glued to the screen, afraid to make any movement.
As the film reached its climax, the comedy atmosphere gradually faded, and suspense took over. The protagonist was chasing a deranged murderer along a mountain road.
The protagonist slipped and fell, and the murderer raised his axe to strike. The atmosphere became tense.
Lin Tiao held her breath, watching as the axe was about to fall. She wanted to cover her eyes with her hands, but she found that her hand was already being held by someone.
This movement caused their gazes to meet in the air, one side illuminated by the fluctuating screen, the other filled with the intimate sounds of the booth.
Neither of them moved.
On the screen, the murderer’s axe fell, and gasps filled the theater, with some of them blending with the suggestive murmurs.
Jiang Yan's gaze grew brighter in the darkness. The lights flickered and became dimmer. Lin Tiao couldn't see his expression clearly, but she couldn't help but subtly move the fingers intertwined with his.
Jiang Yan let go of her hand but didn’t pull away. Instead, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her closer, their faces just inches apart, their breath mingling.
Lin Tiao met his eyes, her breath caught in her throat as her heart pounded.
In the next moment, he reached out, his thumb pressing on her chin, his voice tinged with helplessness. “Looks like today’s not going to be all that proper.”
With that, his hand lifted slightly, and he leaned down to kiss her.
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