Joyful Welcome

Qin Yanan helped Liu Chang'an wrap zongzi all morning, and they ate zongzi for lunch as well. Before she left, Liu Chang'an even gifted her a bundle of four.

Qin Yanan sent some photos she had taken to her great-grandfather. Of course, there was no way of knowing when he would see them; even for his closest kin, one could not disturb Qin Peng at any time or place. Everything depended on the arrangements made by his personal health physician.

Returning to Baolong Center, Qin Yanan went to find Zhong Qing. Since she intended to spend the Dragon Boat Festival accompanying Liu Chang'an, she didn't want to run back and forth, so she stayed here with Zhu Juntang, which was closer to Liu Chang'an's place.

Zhong Qing was taking her dog to the riverside to swim—the dog was the one swimming, of course. Zhong Qing found certain lecherous gazes disgusting; she was practically allergic to them. Sometimes, she would even experience skin redness, swelling, difficulty breathing, or even vomiting.

Naturally, it wasn't that these people's gazes were poisonous; it was simply a physiological overreaction triggered by a psychological condition, which was very difficult to treat.

She had no way to appear in places like open-air baths or beaches wearing swimwear. Given her figure, it was almost impossible to avoid attracting the very gazes that caused her allergic reactions.

"This dog seems different from the last one?" Qin Yanan didn't have a hobby of keeping pets, but she could tell this dog was sturdier.

"The old one ran away."

Qin Yanan nodded. A fierce dog like that running off meant that, essentially, no one would dare approach it to adopt it or bring it home as a pet. It was probably already in some dog-meat hotpot restaurant by now.

"Want a zongzi?" Qin Yanan held up the four zongzi. "They're steamed; just heat them up. I don't know what the filling is, but it has peanuts. It's not greasy, the saltiness is just right, and it's quite delicious."

"I prefer sweet zongzi, fruit zongzi, the kind you can eat in one bite. I couldn't finish one of these big ones." Zhong Qing declined.

"Going shopping this afternoon?" Qin Yanan could have spent the entire day with Liu Chang'an, but it was clear that Liu Chang'an didn't find her company particularly delightful; he had sent her packing as soon as the zongzi were finished.

Surprisingly, Qin Yanan wasn't angry; she even felt a sense of habituation. Perhaps this was the tolerance of being the older sister.

In terms of blood relations, they were already quite distant, but compared to the status of a fiancé, getting along with her little cousin felt much more natural. Qin Yanan didn't resist it; today, she even felt a bit like she was standing up for her little cousin, which was quite nice... Qin Yanan recalled that time he said, strictly speaking, he had no blood relations with anyone. What kind of nonsense was that?

"I have to arrange some things regarding the Third Mistress coming over. I suddenly received a call from the secretariat this morning saying the Third Mistress decided to visit Junsha on short notice." Zhong Qing shook her head.

"Alright then, you go ahead and get busy. I'm going to take a shower and then a nap." Qin Yanan knew very well that the person the Zhu Family fussed over most was this Third Mistress. Zhong Qing would have her hands full for a while.

Zhong Qing had studied in Junsha until high school. When her mother married into the Zhu Family during her high school years, Zhong Qing went to Taiwan to study as well. By university, she had already been groomed to be Zhu Juntang's assistant... In truth, Zhu Juntang didn't have much for Zhong Qing to do; it was the Third Mistress who dispatched Zhong Qing more often.

Qin Yanan returned to her room and stood by the window, gazing out. She realized that from this aerial view, the location was quite close to the residential complex where Liu Chang'an lived. Qin Yanan took binoculars from Zhu Juntang's room and could just barely see Liu Chang'an moving a lounge chair out, lying there for a nap with a large fan in hand.

She couldn't make out his face, only discern that it was him. There was a custom Zeiss 1700mm lens and matching camera in Zhu Juntang's room, but that thing weighed five hundred pounds just for the lens. Even with the motorized base for easy movement, Qin Yanan wasn't bored enough to move it over just to peek at Liu Chang'an, and the angle from Zhu Juntang's room was wrong anyway.

Closing the curtains of the entire room, she plunged it into darkness. As the lights gradually came on, Qin Yanan went to the dressing room and tried on a pink brocade qipao. Just like many clothes Qin Yanan liked but felt completely different in once worn, this qipao looked like lingerie on her. Qin Yanan frowned and sighed... They all said she looked just like her great-grandmother, but why did her great-grandmother look so beautiful in a qipao? Quiet, elegant, and as indifferent as bamboo—surely no one would have looked at her great-grandmother with the same kind of gaze and eyes used on her?

Qin Yanan usually could only wear bras with zero lifting capability, or simply nipple covers and a small camisole; any possibility of increasing her bust size had to be eliminated.

Maybe she would try to have a qipao custom-made in the same pattern and style as the one her great-grandmother wore in their photos. A sudden, intense anticipation rose in Qin Yanan's heart, along with an urge to let Liu Chang'an see a living Ye Sijin. Perhaps then, he might understand what that inexplicable closeness and protectiveness he felt toward her great-grandmother was all about.

After showering, Qin Yanan didn't take a nap. She changed her clothes and headed straight to a tailor shop. With her mother working in Junsha alongside her father, finding the highest-level qipao master in Junsha was simple.

Liu Chang'an woke up from his nap and pushed aside Killing Commendatore, which he had been using to shield his face. He was reading the Japanese version; many of Haruki Murakami's translated works always revealed a sour, bitter taste between the lines, which Liu Chang'an didn't particularly like. One had to know that the emotional infectiousness of Chinese was too strong, so many translations into other languages often seemed like the artistic conception and scenes had been re-processed.

In this lazy afternoon, with the lonely paulownia branches, the wind whistling powerlessly, and the creaking of the lounge chair, he yawned and waved his cattail fan. Liu Chang'an wanted to recite a poem to express his feelings, but his phone rang, so he abandoned the idea. He couldn't help but think that if those brothers in the textbooks had phones back then, their overflowing talent would likely have been spent trolling and spouting nonsense on Weibo, Tieba, or Zhihu.

"Happy Dragon Boat Festival. Mom and I took the morning flight and have already arrived in Sanya."

"Did you read another article on your feed claiming you can only say 'peace and health' and not 'happy' for the Dragon Boat Festival?"

"Many articles on my feed are actually quite educational."

"The Book of Rites says: 'Use joy to welcome, use sorrow to send off; thus there is music for the Di sacrifice, but no music for the Chang sacrifice.' This Di refers to the summer sacrifice, which can be joyful... Why is everyone suddenly swarming to say 'peace and health'? Truly uncultured."

"Are... are you scolding me?"

"No. Is Sanya fun? Going out for the Dragon Boat Festival seems a bit rushed." Liu Chang'an quickly changed the subject.

"Hehe, it's alright. Mostly Mom wanted to buy some skincare and cosmetics for me; the duty-free shops here are cheaper, and I can earn points."

"Doesn't your mom use them?"

"My mom rarely uses them. Her skin is very, very good. She only uses some skincare, and she uses very little makeup."

After a while, Liu Chang'an smiled and stood up, finding the "Happy Dragon Boat Festival" message An Nuan had sent and replying to it.

"I just woke up from my nap."

"You're comfortable. My mom and I headed straight to the duty-free shop as soon as we got off the plane. We've been shopping here all day. She used up all my duty-free allowance to buy skincare and cosmetics for herself, and only gave me one lipstick—the one she liked the least from a YSL gift set. It's infuriating!"

"Get some rest and relax. Your mom probably wants you to clear your mind before the college entrance exam and get into the best condition."

"I think she's just having a second spring. You wouldn't happen to be having an online romance with her, would you?"

"No."

"Show me your phone when you get back!"

Liu Chang'an stopped replying. Do you understand what privacy is? Honestly, why do little girls love checking other people's phones so much?