Lin Xiao stood at the door. The moment he slid his key into the lock, he suddenly felt that something was off.
A faint scent of lemon cleaner drifted through the apartment. Lin Xiao stood in the entryway and flipped the light switch, then froze.
Was this really his apartment, which had sat empty for three months?
The floor had been polished until it shone, and the windowpanes were so clean they might as well not have been there. His battered folding table was covered with a beige checked tablecloth he had never seen before, with a bouquet right in the center. They weren't expensive flowers, just the little daisies most commonly sold at roadside flower shops, blooming a brilliant yellow under the light in a washed glass bottle. The remote sat beside the magazines, even its angle perfectly straight. There wasn't a trace of grease on the kitchen counter. All the dishes in the sink had been washed and stacked neatly upside down on the drying rack.
Lin Xiao stood in the middle of the living room, looking at everything, unsure what expression to make.
He had spent three months away, seen the desert sunrise, heard the shriek of bullets skimming past his ears, and hauled Tony out of a cave under a hail of gunfire. Those sights had all been stunning, but none had made him feel the way he did now, standing in his own living room, looking at a bouquet of little daisies, as though someone had tucked a wad of warm cotton into his heart.
He didn't know when the flowers had been put there or when the floor had been cleaned, but he knew who had done it.
He set down his backpack, walked to the table, and bent to smell the flowers. There wasn't much fragrance, just the faint, barely perceptible plant scent of the daisies themselves. But it smelled better than anything he had smelled in Afghanistan.
Behind him came the sound of a key sliding into the lock.
Lin Xiao turned just in time to see the door thrust open.
May stood in the doorway wearing a beige cardigan, her hair hanging somewhat untidily over her shoulders. She held a kitchen paring knife, its blade gleaming coldly under the light.
"Who's in there?" Her voice was very low, but steady, without the slightest tremor.
Then she saw who was standing in the apartment.
It was Lin Xiao, his face marked by windblown sand and exhaustion, standing beside the table with his head lowered to smell the daisies. The overhead light fell across his profile, illuminating the sharply defined jawline she hadn't seen in so long.
The paring knife fell from May's hand. Its blade struck the wooden floor with a crisp clink, bounced twice, then lay still.
"...Lin Xiao?" Her voice finally lost its steadiness.
"I'm back." Lin Xiao grinned and took two steps forward. "I wanted to surprise you, but you ended up scaring me first. What's the knife for? Thought you had a burglar?"
May didn't answer.
May still stood rooted to the spot, one hand against the doorframe. Her eyes held surprise, joy, three months' worth of worry and anxiety, and a complicated feeling even she couldn't put into words. She watched Lin Xiao approach, watched that familiar face draw closer, watched the small new scar at the corner of his eye. There was so much she wanted to say, but it all caught in her throat. What finally came out was, "Why didn't you tell me you were coming back?"
"I wanted to surprise you." Lin Xiao scratched his head, looking unusually sheepish. "Ended up giving you a fright instead?"
May bit her lower lip without speaking, and Lin Xiao didn't give her a chance to speak, either. How could he describe their relationship over these three months? Although they had been worlds apart, they had called each other every single day without fail. They had been polite at first, then gradually grown closer, to the point that even Lin Xiao now found it a little unbelievable.
He stepped forward, slipped an arm around her waist, and lowered his head to kiss her. May went rigid. Her hands instinctively pressed against his chest, pushing twice with so little force it was barely there.
Then May closed her eyes and rose onto her toes. Her hands slid up from his chest and hooked around his neck as she began returning the kiss. His kisses left her a little breathless, and her fingers scratched the back of his neck, lightly, like a cat.
A long while later, their lips parted.
May was red all the way to her ears, her lips slightly swollen from his kisses and her eyes faintly reddened. Leaning against the shoe cabinet, she looked up at Lin Xiao and thumped his chest with her fist.
"Three months. What were you doing in Afghanistan?" May's voice was so husky it didn't sound like her own.
Lin Xiao paused, then decided not to worry her.
"Carrying out a mission. You know S.H.I.E.L.D. has things it needs to keep confidential, but it was pretty easy." Lin Xiao said nothing about the gunfire or the constant dangers.
"You're just an office worker. How did you end up on a battlefield?" May's eyes widened.
"It's all right. I came back safe." Lin Xiao took her hand, making his voice very, very gentle. "Look, not a hair missing. I'm even better-looking."
May couldn't help laughing, then quickly put on a stern face again. "Stop joking. If anything happened to you, I..."
She didn't finish. She lowered her head and pressed her face against Lin Xiao's chest, her forehead resting against the cold zipper of his leather jacket. Her voice was muffled. "What would I do?"
Lin Xiao tightened his arms around her. His movements were gentle, as though he feared breaking her, but his embrace was tight, as though he feared she might run away.
They held each other like that for who knew how long before May finally released his waist, wiped the corners of her eyes with the back of her hand, stepped back, and looked him up and down.
"Have you gotten even bigger?" She poked his arm with a finger.
"Impossible. I've lost plenty of weight these past three months," Lin Xiao said with a perfectly straight face. "Can't you see how thin my face has gotten?"
May studied him for a long while, then shook her head seriously. "What I see is that you've gotten a size bigger."
Lin Xiao: ...
He decided to change the subject. Walking over to the coffee table, he picked up the daisies and turned to May. "Did you put these flowers here?"
May blushed again and turned away, pretending to straighten the keys on the shoe cabinet. "I just put them there. I had a few extra flowers at home. Throwing them out would've been a waste."
Lin Xiao didn't call her out. He put the flowers back, plopped onto the sofa, and patted the spot beside him.
"Come sit down. I've been gone for three months. Let me hold you properly."
May gave him a mild eye roll, but still obediently came over and sat down, only to be pulled straight into his arms.
The light outside shifted from bright to golden, then to orange-red. They stayed curled up on the sofa without speaking, simply enjoying the sweetness of the moment.
When it was almost dark outside, Lin Xiao's phone rang.
He glanced at the caller ID and answered.
"Lin Xiao!" Tony Stark's voice blasted out of the receiver, loud enough for May beside him to hear every word. "My great hero, whose loving arms are you lounging in? There's a private party at Stark Tower tonight. You have to come! I'll introduce you to a few friends, and you can try some of my private stock of Scotch-it's a hundred times better than what you drank at the hotel last time!"
Lin Xiao held the phone half an inch farther away, waiting for Tony's barrage to pass before bringing it back to his ear. "Tonight?"
"Yes! Tonight! Don't give me any excuses-Yinsen's here too. He says he wants to thank you in person. Are you coming or not?"
Lin Xiao looked down at May, curled up in his arms. She was looking up at him, curiosity and a barely noticeable hint of nervousness in her eyes.
"I'll come later," Lin Xiao said into the phone, his voice carrying a smile. "I've got my sweetheart here."
The other end fell silent for two seconds.
Then Tony Stark let out a drawn-out "Ohhh!" He slapped something on his end of the line, producing a tremendous clang, and his tone suddenly became infuriatingly teasing. "It's that nurse, right? The one you mentioned when we were drinking. What was her name-May? You sly dog. Fine, come later, then, but don't stand me up!"
The call ended.
Lin Xiao tossed his phone onto the coffee table and looked down. May had burrowed completely into his arms, red even to the tips of her ears.
"Who's your sweetheart?" she muttered, her voice as faint as a mosquito.
"You," Lin Xiao said, as though it were only natural.
May said nothing, only burying her face a little deeper against his chest.
They spent a long while cuddling. Only when it was completely dark did May reluctantly sit up out of his arms, gather her disheveled hair, and say she should go back, since Peter might already be home.
Lin Xiao walked her to the door. May opened it, stepped outside, then turned around and rose onto her toes to brush another light kiss against his lips, quick as a child sneaking candy.
"Welcome home," she said softly, then turned and hurried toward apartment 308 next door.
Lin Xiao leaned against the doorframe, watching her take out her keys and open the door, watching her walk inside, watching her glance back and smile at him before closing the door. The hallway lights made that smile a little indistinct, but Lin Xiao thought it was more beautiful than any scenery he had ever seen.
Lin Xiao went back inside, shut the door, leaned against it, and grinned foolishly for about five seconds. Then he rubbed his hands together, sat on the sofa, and took a deep breath.
"Doupao."
Ding-here. Significant emotional fluctuations detected in the host. Would you like psychological counseling?
"No need." Lin Xiao grinned. "I'm in a great mood right now. Let's settle the rewards."
A blue screen of light unfolded before his eyes.
The five-star mission's completion rewards appeared first. When Lin Xiao saw the words "Strength +20," he felt nothing, and even wanted to laugh a little-his strength was already at five hundred points. Twenty more or twenty fewer hardly made any difference anymore, like pouring a bucket of water into the Pacific Ocean.
Then he saw the line below.
Freely allocatable points: 10.
Lin Xiao stared at those words. The smile on his face slowly froze, then bloomed again, and his eyes reddened. He wasn't faking it. He had waited far too long for freely allocatable points, so long that he had thought he would spend his whole life as nothing but a human steamroller. Ten points wasn't much, but this was the first time he had the right to decide for himself which direction to take. This was the beginning of his escape from the label of "lopsided monster."
"Doupao." His voice trembled a little. "You've finally found some humanity."
Ding-this system has always been a system. Having humanity or not is inapplicable. But... you're welcome.
Lin Xiao wiped his eyes and laughingly cursed. Purple light shone out of the screen, illuminating his entire face.
An S-rank piece of equipment appeared before him. It was a necklace with an obsidian pendant carved with runes he didn't recognize, giving off an extremely faint glow under the light.
Unyielding Heart Necklace (S-rank) Both defenses +50%. Unique equipment effect: Unyielding Heart-automatically triggers once when HP falls below the critical threshold, restoring 100% of HP and stamina attribute values. Cooldown: 24 hours. Note: Dedicated to you, wandering alone in another world. May you find a reason to persevere in every darkest hour.
Lin Xiao looked at that note and remained silent for a long time.
"Thanks, Doupao."
Ding-you're welcome. Good luck, host.