Yingqu Liuzi was pampered by her wealthy daddy.

The day after the successful proposal, Xize didn't mention it to anyone.

He didn't message his friends, didn't post anything on social media, and didn't even notify the housekeeper.

The rings were on both of their fingers. Shen Yu'an would occasionally glance down at the two silver rings stacked together on her ring finger, while Xize would occasionally twirl the new platinum ring on his hand. But neither of them said anything to others.

Xize didn't say anything because he felt this matter shouldn't become news and didn't want Shen Yu'an to be disturbed.

Shen Yu'an knew his habit and didn't ask if he should tell anyone.

The two of them quietly wore the rings for a few days. Only during meals did the butler glance at Shen Yu'an's finger a few more times, but he didn't ask any questions.

For the first few days, Shen Yu'an felt great.

He paints, eats, and sleeps every day. The ring on his hand has some weight, reminding him that what happened that night was real.

But by the fifth day, that good feeling started to turn sour.

He woke up in the middle of the night, lay in bed staring at the ceiling, his mind filled with all sorts of random thoughts.

He thought of the Caesar family's ancestral home in Scotland, and of the Leicester people he had met at that Christmas dinner.

They were dressed in elegant formal attire, used silver cutlery, and spoke with perfect tact.

He remembered his grandmother's ring, which had been passed down for two hundred years, and he remembered Xize saying, "From now on, you are a member of our family."

Family members.

He was an ordinary Chinese student studying abroad. His parents worked in public institutions and he lived in an apartment allocated by his employer since he was a child.

He rolled over.

Xize slept beside him, his breathing steady. Shen Yu'an looked at his profile; in the darkness, only his outline was visible.

He had been looking at this face for a long time, but at this moment he suddenly felt that this person was very far away from him.

He is the heir to the Leicester family, but he is just an international student.

He turned over again, his back to Xize.

He rubbed against the blanket, making a sound. He paused, thinking he had woken Xize, but there was no movement.

He closed his eyes, but couldn't fall asleep.

He thought about his future life.

Moving into that old house, attending dinners with all strangers, and being introduced to others as Mr. Leicester's lover.

How would those people see him? What kind of gaze would they cast over his clothes, his mannerisms, and his speech?

He lay awake in the darkness, his mind growing clearer with each thought.

He didn't know how much time had passed when he felt the mattress behind him move.

A hand reached out from behind and rested on his waist. Xize's voice was low and hoarse from just waking up, close to the back of his neck.

"Can't sleep?"

Shen Yu'an froze for a moment: "Did I wake you up?"

"You've rolled over five times."

Shen Yu'an neither moved nor spoke.

Xize withdrew his hand from his waist, the mattress shifted again, and he heard Xize sit up.

"stand up."

Shen Yu'an turned over and saw him sitting on the edge of the bed with his back to her, picking up his phone from the bedside table.

The screen lit up briefly and then went dark again. Xize put his phone down and stood up.

"Go to the study."

"Now?"

"Um."

Shen Yu'an sat up and followed him out of bed. The corridor was unlit, with only moonlight streaming in through the windows, casting a pale gray glow on the floor.

Xize walked in front, with Shen Yu'an following behind. After entering the study, Xize turned on the small desk lamp. The light was dim, just enough to make out a person's shadow.

Xize told him to sit on the sofa and went downstairs.

After a while, he came up with two glasses of milk, handed one to Shen Yu'an, and sat down on the single sofa opposite him with the other glass.

The milk was hot, and the cup burned Shen Yu'an's fingers.

The study was quiet, with only the occasional soft hum of the radiator. Shen Yu'an looked down at the white liquid in his glass, remaining silent.

Xize didn't rush him. He picked up his own glass, took a sip, and then put it down, looking at him.

"What are you thinking about?"

Shen Yu'an ran his fingers along the rim of the glass. "I was thinking about the ring."

"What?"

"That heirloom ring you gave me. It's two hundred years old. It's been passed down through your family for two hundred years, from generation to generation." Shen Yu'an looked up at him. "And then you put it on my finger."

Xize looked at him: "Mm."

"Don't you think it's too fast?" Shen Yu'an placed the cup on his lap. "You've only been with me for a short time, you've never even seen me in a suit, and you don't know if I can handle the kind of occasions your family hosts. And you've already given me the ring."

"Yes, I have."

"What?"

"I've seen you in a suit before," Caesar said, leaning back on the sofa. "The first time I had a suit made, you were standing in front of the mirror at the tailor shop, wearing a white shirt with that gray one. I saw it."

Shen Yu'an was stunned for a moment. He had indeed worn that suit once, when he went with Xize to a small event with few people.

He remembers being very nervous at the time, afraid of wearing the wrong clothes or saying the wrong thing.

"You didn't make a mistake that time," Caesar said.

"That's because you didn't see me squeezing a tissue in my pocket."

"We saw it. But your expression was normal when you crumpled the tissue; nobody noticed."

Shen Yu'an remained silent for a while, then looked down at his milk cup.

"And there's more. All those family rules, what to say when you meet someone, waiting for the elders to start eating first. I didn't understand any of these things back home, and I understand even less here."

Xize didn't reply immediately. He took a sip of his milk glass, then placed it on the sofa armrest, leaned forward slightly, and rested his arm on his knee.

"You don't need to know those things."

Shen Yu'an raised his head.

"The rules in my hometown are things I learned from elementary school, not things you're supposed to learn," Xize said, looking at him. "Just follow me when you get there. You don't need to memorize any of that stuff beforehand."

"What will others think of me?"

"What I think of you is none of my business. What matters is how you think of me."

Shen Yu'an's fingers stopped on the side of the cup.

"I made you wear that ring not because you can recite the Leicester family history," Caesar's voice was still not loud, but his tone was even flatter than before, "because you are Shen Yu'an. The person with you is me, not you or my family."

Shen Yu'an looked into his eyes.

The light from the table lamp shone from the side, half of Xize's face was in the light and half in the shadows, his gray-blue eyes were calm.

"Will you regret it later?"

Xize looked at him: "Do you think I'll regret this?"

"I don't know." Shen Yu'an put down the cup and rubbed his fingers on his knees. "I paint at home every day now, so I don't have to deal with anyone. If we move to the ancestral home in the future, and I have to attend family gatherings and deal with people I don't know, I'm afraid I'll mess it up."

Xize listened to him finish speaking. He stood up, walked over and sat down next to Shen Yu'an, the sofa sinking slightly because of him. He reached out and picked up the cup that Shen Yu'an had placed on his lap, put it on the coffee table, and then took his hand.

"More than myself, I'm afraid you'll regret it. I'm no longer young." Xize looked into Shen Yu'an's eyes.

Shen Yu'an was a little surprised to hear this.

Xize continued, "So what if the baby messed up?"

Shen Yu'an felt the warmth of his palm as his hand was held.

"If we mess it up, we mess it up," Caesar said. "I'll take over those parties; you just stay behind me. If you don't want to go, you don't have to; nobody can force you. With me there, they won't say anything."

Shen Yu'an looked down at the two people's clasped hands.

Two rings were stacked on his ring finger, gleaming a very faint silver in the dim light of the lamp.

"I'm just afraid of embarrassing you."

Xize tightened his grip on his hand: "You've never embarrassed me in any way. That painting at the exhibition was so beautiful; did anyone say it was my doing? No, it was all your own."

Shen Yu'an's throat tightened. He lowered his head and remained silent for a while.

"Those things you're afraid of," Xize's voice rang out again, softer than before, "I'll shield you from them one by one. I'll go to the places you don't want to go, and I'll block the people you don't want to see. You just need to do your own thing."

Shen Yu'an looked up at him. Xize's eyes appeared light in the lamplight, but there was no impatience or perfunctoriness in them.

"When did you start thinking about all this?" Shen Yu'an asked, "To shield me from those things."

"I've been thinking about this since the day you moved in."

Shen Yu'an looked at him and remained silent for a long time.

Then he leaned forward, resting his forehead on Caesar's shoulder. Caesar released his hand and gently patted his back twice.

Shen Yu'an's voice muffled against the fabric of Xize's pajamas: "I've got it."

Xize's hand paused on his back for a moment: "Just remember that. Good boy."

Shen Yu'an straightened up after leaning against the wall for a while.

He picked up the glass of milk on the coffee table, took a sip—it was warm—and put it back.

"Go back to sleep?"

Xize looked at him: "Can't sleep?"

"Now I can fall asleep."

Xize stood up and extended his hand to him.

Shen Yu'an grasped that hand and was pulled up by him. The two of them walked out of the study. The moonlight in the corridor was still that pale gray.

Shen Yu'an walked beside him, her steps lighter than when she went downstairs.

Back in the bedroom, he lay down in bed, and Xize lay down next to him.

Shen Yu'an turned over to face him, reaching out to place his hand on his waist. Xize's hand covered the back of his hand, his thumb rubbing the edge of the platinum ring on his ring finger.

Shen Yu'an closed his eyes.

He heard Caesar's breathing gradually become steady, and the moonlight outside the window shifted slightly through the gap in the curtains.

He thought about something before he fell asleep.

Xize said he would go to any occasions he didn't want to attend and block any people he didn't want to see.

If what he said is true, then everything else is good; all the parts he likes are kept, and the parts he doesn't like are shielded from view.

He pressed his face against Caesar's chest in the darkness.