Ji Ting's breath caught abruptly in his throat, his fingers curling without his realizing it. He stared unblinkingly at the words on the sign, but at some point his vision blurred, the scattered light in his eyes shimmering with a childhood wish.
"I want to open a steamed bun shop."
"The kind where I knead the dough myself, make the filling myself, then shape them one by one and steam them one by one..."
Ji Ting had never imagined his dream would come true. His life had long since been set on a single track, allowing him only to scale one towering peak of scientific research after another.
Yet the instant Ji Yanzhi pulled down the red silk, that whispered wish curled deep within his heart seemed to turn into a skyful of stars, falling onto his heart with searing warmth.
Ji Yanzhi walked back and put an arm around his shoulders, looking up at the sign with him. "Originally, I wanted to call it Little Ear's Steamed Bun Shop, but Shen Mu Lan said the name sounded like there was something extra in the filling, which made it a little inappropriate."
"Then I thought about it for a long time. You said you wanted to open a steamed bun shop because that puff of white mist when the steamer lid came off looked so warm and comforting." Ji Yanzhi paused briefly and exhaled. "I figured that when you saw that as a child, Aunt must have been beside you, so I came up with this name."
With that, he looked at the man beside him, a little nervous. "Do you li-"
Ji Yanzhi suddenly staggered backward. Before he had even steadied himself, his arms instinctively closed around the man who had thrown himself into his embrace.
Ji Ting pressed