In a moment of impulse, I forcibly kissed my brother's best friend.

The moment Cui Yutang saw her, he knew he was doomed.

Under the pear tree.

A little girl wearing a green ruqun (a type of traditional Chinese dress),

He was standing on a rock, trying to stand on tiptoe.

She picked the nearest pear blossom branch.

"Ding! Target detected approaching." A strange voice suddenly exploded in Xie Yige's mind.

"oops--"

Her gasp and the fall occurred simultaneously.

Cui Yutang instinctively rushed over and wrapped his arms around her slender waist. It was so thin that he almost dared not exert any force.

She turned her head in a panic.

The soft, warm touch brushed against the corner of his lips, and then landed firmly on them.

They pinned him to the ground.

Time stood still.

The pear blossoms were falling, the wind was blowing, but Cui Yutang felt nothing at all.

Only the unfamiliar, soft touch on his lips and the unprecedented roar that exploded in his mind.

He froze.

The person in his arms froze.

"You...you get off me!" Cui Yutang's face turned bright red. In broad daylight, this...how could this be allowed?

"Yes, I'm sorry." Xie Yige finally realized what was happening and tried to get up.

"Ding! Energy replenishing, please continue kissing him." That strange voice echoed in my mind again.

Xie Yige panicked and lost her strength, falling down again, and kissed his lips once more.

Her cheeks were burning hot. Xie Yige could hear her own heart pounding like a drum, thump-thump-thump, almost bursting her eardrums.

"You, you..." Cui Yutang's voice was hoarse, and his fingers trembled slightly inside his sleeve.

"I'm so sorry!"

Her cheeks were flushed, and her lips remained slightly parted, glistening with an unnatural moisture.

Cui Yutang's gaze swept over her lips, then quickly looked away as if he had been burned.

His ears were burning badly, and he knew he must look very out of sorts.

Just then, that voice rang in Xie Yige's mind again, trembling with guilt: "System restart... Energy replenishing."

Xie Yige looked up at him with a mixture of confusion and shyness, and their eyes met.

The two of them quickly and hurriedly looked away.

Her eyes were bright, the kind of amber color that looks like they've been washed with water. Her beautiful peach blossom eyes were now filled with panic and embarrassment, like a frightened fawn.

Then she shoved the person away abruptly, flipped herself up, took two steps back, and only managed to say, "Excuse me."

He turned and ran away.

The light green skirt swept across the sky in a hurried arc and disappeared outside the moon gate.

Cui Yutang sat there blankly, not moving for a long time.

The soft, warm touch lingered stubbornly on his lips, like a small flame, burning him from his lips to his heart.

He, the eldest son of the Cui family of Qinghe, had strictly adhered to the four thousand family rules since childhood and had never overstepped them in the slightest. Yet, in broad daylight, he was kissed by a strange girl. He was no longer clean!

He lowered his head, closed his eyes briefly, and when he opened them again, he saw a jade pendant on the ground, carved with pear blossoms. He bent down to pick it up; it was smooth to the touch, and there was a small "Thank you" character on the back.

His eyes had regained their usual calm. He didn't return to the dormitory, but instead went around to the artificial hill not far away.

From this vantage point, you can see the pear tree from before, as well as the blue stone beneath it.

He didn't know why he was hiding here, or why he was acting like a despicable spy.

But he just couldn't move—he wanted to see if she would come back, and who she would be waiting for.

My heartbeat grew heavy as I waited.

Then, he saw her.

The pale green reappeared outside the moon gate. She looked around and, seeing that no one was around, breathed a sigh of relief and quickly walked to the pear tree.

She seemed to be looking for something, and when she looked down, a slender, fair nape of her neck was visible.

It was indeed her jade pendant.

Then, she stopped what she was doing, looked up and tried to think, and accidentally touched her lips with her fingertips.

Her face turned red again.

Behind the artificial hill, Cui Yutang's breath hitched.

Just then, a familiar voice came from the direction of the academy.

"Yi Ge?"

Cui Yutang froze.

He saw the girl's eyes suddenly light up, and all the unease and embarrassment on her face vanished, like a candle being lit in an instant.

"Zhou Xuan'an, you've finally arrived."

She ran over, lifting her skirt, her steps so light she almost jumped.

"Don't call me by my full name!"

The visitor offered a mild, innocuous criticism.

Zhou Xuan'an

His classmate and roommate was also the only person he could call a "confidant" during his two years at Donglin Academy.

At this moment, Zhou Xuan'an, dressed in a moon-white long robe, looked at the girl running towards him with a smile in his eyes, and naturally raised his hand to brush away a pear blossom from her hair.

"Climbing trees again?" The voice was gentle, with an affectionate teasing tone.

"No, it was the wind!" she argued, her eyes crinkling with laughter.

"Little girl, have you been waiting long?" Zhou Xuan'an took a bundle from her hands.

"If you don't come soon, the flowers will wither." As she spoke, she glanced mischievously at the pear blossoms covering the tree.

Zhou Xuan'an chuckled and tapped her head affectionately.

After exchanging a few more words, she waved and turned to leave. As she reached the moon gate, she turned back and smiled at Zhou Xuan'an.

That smile was so bright, it was blinding.

Cui Yutang stood motionless behind the artificial hill, watching Zhou Xuan'an see her off before turning back to the academy.

Looking around, there was no one under the pear tree, only fallen blossoms scattered on the ground.

The heartbeat that had just occurred, the palpitation that felt like it was about to burst out of my chest, has gradually cooled down.

It turned out she was waiting for Zhou Xuan'an.

Who is she to Zhou Xuan'an?

Fingertips dug deep into his palms, pressing until they turned white. The lingering warmth on his lips now felt like the sharpest irony.

He slowly released his grip and looked down at the red marks on his palm from where his fingernails had dug.

Years of unwavering commitment. Yet today, because of an accident, because of a smile, because of... a girl who belongs to someone else, it's all shattered.

"Cui Yutang," he murmured his name, his voice as cold as ice, "you really are... finished."

The wind blew, and another round of pear blossoms fell.

In the shadows behind the artificial hill, he turned and left, his back straight as a pine tree, yet inexplicably revealing a stiff and disheveled air.

Xie Yige, who had already left the academy, was covering her burning cheeks, her mind replaying the blurry voice she had heard before she fell.

That low, suppressed voice, tinged with a kind of desperate tremor—

"It's over."

Who exactly said that?

Is that man? But there's clearly no one around.

It must be an illusion, or an auditory hallucination caused by being too embarrassed.

She turned to look in the direction of the academy, where the pear tree stood quietly in the twilight.

"Yi Ge!"

A familiar call came from ahead.

Xie Yige looked up and saw a blue-curtained carriage parked across the street. A corner of the curtain was lifted, revealing a gentle and beautiful face.

It was Xie Wanrou, her brother Zhou Xuan'an's fiancée.