Chapter 20

After they’d bought everything they needed at the neighborhood supermarket, Zhao Ge and Lin Zhe walked back to the apartment together.

Lin Zhe tied his apron strings again and disappeared into the kitchen.

Zhao Ge hadn’t stopped smiling since they left the store. She felt light, almost giddy—as if they really were a couple picking out groceries for the week. On the way home she kept sneaking glances at him, greedy for the small, ordinary moment.

If only it could stay like this forever...

She was about to follow him in and help prep when he lifted a hand, blocking her path.

“I’ve got this,” he said calmly. “Don’t you still have a deadline? I already messed up your afternoon by showing up.”

“Mm.” Zhao Ge nodded obediently and settled at her desk, fingers flying across the keyboard like a concert pianist mid-symphony. The sight of her working so hard was almost as satisfying as the food itself.

Forty minutes later, three dishes and a soup were ready. Lin Zhe lifted the rice-cooker lid; steam rolled out, every grain distinct.

He slipped the apron over his head, walked up behind her, and studied the waterfall of black hair trailing to her waist, the cute, concentrated tilt of her profile.

She had changed—grown even more adorable than he remembered.

“Zhao Ge, food’s up. You can finish the chapter after we eat.”

Her hands slowed. She shot him a sideways look. “One second—let me wrap this paragraph.”

Her stomach had other ideas. It growled loudly, lured by the smell of actual home-cooking. She hadn’t eaten a real meal since she’d locked herself away to hit her quota; without this visit, dinner would have been another sad bowl of instant noodles.

When she finally typed the last sentence, she stretched like a cat and padded over to the table. Lin Zhe was already waiting.

Four dishes and a soup—perfectly plated. Her pale eyes lit up.

“Just like before,” she said wistfully. “Looks good enough to make you hungry just staring at it.”

She lifted a piece of stir-fried pork with her chopsticks and held it to his mouth.

“Open.”

He obliged, biting the morsel clean off the chopsticks.

“Eat properly,” he mumbled while he chewed.

After feeding him, she fished a cube of potato from the same dish and popped it into her own mouth—then realized her chopsticks had just been in his. Her cheeks flushed.

Indirect kiss...

Heart skittering, she propped her chin on her hand and looked straight at him.

“Xiao Lin, how about I keep you? Be my full-time house-husband.”

A flicker of hope crossed her face.

Lin Zhe met her eyes, then declined in the same even tone.

“No.”

Zhao Ge let out an exaggerated sigh and drooped like a wilted flower, poking her rice.

“My proposal... brutally rejected.”

Lin Zhe’s eyelid twitched. He rapped her forehead with the blunt end of his chopsticks.

“Stop playing with your food. And that wasn’t a proposal—learn how to confess properly first.”

Chastised, she settled down and ate, savoring every bite. Strands of hair slipped forward, hiding her eyes.

“Xiao Lin...”

“Hmm?”

“Do you remember our promise—graduation day?”

His chopsticks stilled.

He’d hoped to dodge the topic a little longer, but he knew he couldn’t run forever. Too many people were tangled up in the answer now.

Between her bangs and the light reflecting in his lenses, she couldn’t read his eyes.

“I remember,” he said simply. “Once I get into Lihai University, we’ll be together.”

Zhao Ge’s face reddened. She turned away, voice small.

“Then—”

“If you want to keep that promise right now,” he cut in, “I’m ready. We can start today.”

“But before that, I only want to ask one thing: Senior Sister, do you really want to keep that promise while you’re feeling like this?”

“You haven’t said it aloud, but you can’t fool me.”

As he spoke, Lin Zhe slipped off the half-rim glasses perched on his nose and raked the black hair that kept falling into his eyes straight back, baring a gaze clouded with quiet melancholy.

A faint iridescent film seemed to veil his pupils.

He could see a flicker of wavering doubt in the color of the emotional flame burning inside Zhao Ge senior sister.

Ever since the day her memories returned, Zhao Ge had never once mentioned the fact that she had once forgotten them.

Like that socially-anxious idiot Chen Zhijing, she chose to play tough and bury the matter deep in her heart.

If the two of them stayed together while hiding things and nursing guilt, Lin Zhe couldn’t accept it.

He had been waiting—whether for Chen Zhijing or for Zhao Ge senior sister.

He had been waiting for either of them to voice, with her own lips, the guilt she carried inside over the memories she had lost.

Only then could the thread that had once snapped between them be retied.

Lin Zhe had been serious about every girl he had ever won over and made whole.

If they hadn’t suddenly recovered their memories this time, he probably would never have stepped into another relationship of his own accord.

Zhao Ge, the one being questioned, froze for a moment. Faced with the earnestness in Lin Zhe’s eyes, she didn’t know what to do.

All she wanted was to look away.

Deep down, she had always felt guilty for having forgotten Lin Zhe—and that important promise—without permission.

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