In the quiet living room.
Twilight flowed silently around them.
White Moonlight's abrupt, contextless words made Tang Song's heartbeat genuinely skip several beats.
"Qing..." His hand, suspended in midair, finally settled lightly on her back and patted soothingly, his voice very gentle. "What's wrong? Did something happen?"
Liu Qingning still said nothing.
Her forehead rested against his jaw, but the hands cupping his cheeks did not loosen at all, stubborn in their grip.
As the person who knew her best, Tang Song could clearly feel that White Moonlight was in a very unusual state right now.
There was cherishing in it, and also a fear that was almost like regaining something lost, even tinged with lingering dread.
As if even she herself thought she had almost lost something completely.
But he could not guess the cause or the chain of events, so he could only hold her back even more gently.
A long time passed.
The sunset outside the window sank completely below the horizon.
Dusk closed in from all sides.
Along the shores of Shen City Bay, neon lights and the glow from buildings lit up one after another, sketching the city's outline anew.
The main light in the living room had not been turned on, leaving the room dim and quiet.
The two of them stood there in that slightly peculiar posture, like two trees leaning on each other.
Until the tense body in his arms finally began to relax little by little.
Liu Qingning slowly let go of his face, and her arms slipped down from around his waist as well.
Tang Song lowered his head and, by the faint light seeping in from outside the window, looked at that incredibly familiar, adorable face of hers.
His eyes were full of tenderness as he kissed her swollen