Reward

"Long time... no see." Bai Heng's voice was slightly hoarse.

[You thought you were alone, but she has returned.]

[Later, you learned from A Ruan that when she found you on the battlefield, your life force was almost completely depleted, but the power of "Preservation" within you gave you a glimmer of hope. After treatment, you were out of danger and she brought you here to recuperate. After sleeping for half a month, you finally woke up.]

[Accompanied by A Ruan, you returned to your hometown with your parents' belongings and kept vigil for your loved ones for seven days. During this time, A Ruan stayed by your side.]

[During these seven days, you noticed that A Ruan had changed a lot. Although her appearance was more gentle and refined than before, you always felt that her personality had become colder and more indifferent.]

[During those seven days, you opened a jar of wine at the grave of your old man, who never let you drink, and had a drink with him. Actually, you used to sneak drinks before, and you only thought that wine was spicy and bitter, and there was nothing good about it. But now, you seem to have also come to like its taste.]

[The twelfth lunar month was bitterly cold, and the once lively city streets had turned into tombs. Only the plum blossoms on the walls were still blooming proudly in the frost and snow. When you were a child, even your parents, who were often away on business, would come home to see you every New Year's Eve. But this year, neither of them came back.]

In the dilapidated courtyard, Bai Heng sat on the wall, raised his wine pot, and the spicy liquor passed through his intestines, suppressing the emotions in his heart.

"There's no moonlight tonight. What are you thinking about?"

A Ruan walked to the broken wall, her almond eyes slightly raised, looking at Bai Heng.

"Nothing... I just feel a little bored drinking alone." Looking at the girl walking towards him, Bai Heng forced a smile.

"Then come down."

"Why?"

"I can have a drink with you."

Bai Heng paused, then laughed:

"This wine is very strong."

"It's just a try. Everything has a beginning."

Her expression was still calm, not like she was joking.

Bai Heng looked at those clear and clean eyes, which he found a little unfathomable, and said:

"Let's go. Let's go to the pavilion, it's too cold here."

Leaping down from the ruined wall, Bai Heng and A Ruan walked side by side, neither of them speaking, and silently arrived at the stone pavilion facing the plum tree.

At this moment, the incense burner in the stone pavilion was not yet extinguished, and pastries and tea sets were placed on the table.

Bai Heng picked up the wine pot and poured wine into the teacup. After the wine reached one-third of the teacup, he pushed the wine cup in front of A Ruan.

"Please."

A Ruan stretched out her slender fingers, pinched the corner of the teacup, and took a small sip like she was tasting tea.

But the next moment, she coughed softly.

Bai Heng looked at her appearance and said with a smile:

"See? I told you, this wine is very strong."

But A Ruan just calmed herself down, then picked up the teacup again and drank half a cup of wine in one gulp.

If you think this book is good, please remember to add it to your bookshelf to avoid not finding it next time.

After the cold wine went down, A Ruan's body trembled slightly, and a faint blush appeared on her fair cheeks.

Bai Heng looked at her without saying a word.

A Ruan gently put down the teacup.

She looked at Bai Heng and said:

"The lips and teeth are the most sensitive. Pastries need only a small bite to be judged. I think this wine should be the same. Drinking such strong wine alone, you probably have something on your mind..."

"I don't know what you need. If it's a 'reward', I can satisfy anything you want."

Bai Heng noticed the seriousness in her words, and the hand he reached out to the wine pot hung in the air, eventually slowly dropping.

He looked at A Ruan, his expression touched, and forced a faint bitter smile:

"Can you... give me a hug?"

A Ruan was slightly stunned, then slowly straightened her expression.

She got up and came to Bai Heng's side, stretched out a pair of plain hands, and gently embraced him.

The courtyard was exceptionally quiet, with only falling snow shaking on the branches. A Ruan gently stroked Bai Heng's back, comforting him:

"I know you've had a hard time these past three years. After all the people you cherish left, you couldn't find anyone to talk to, so you could only bury your pain and bitter wine in your heart. It must be very tiring... I just hope my 'reward' can help you relax. If you can, please have a good cry, okay?"

Ever since she picked Bai Heng up from the battlefield that day.

A Ruan had never seen Bai Heng shed even a single tear, not even in front of his parents' graves.

His expression was so desperate, so desperate that he had lost even the courage to cry...

Just like when he was a child, if his mother was by his side after he fell, he would cry loudly.

But if there were only unfamiliar strangers around, he would just pat his butt and leave.

And now, he has finally found someone he can rely on and talk to.

Bai Heng felt a slight ache begin in his nose.

Feeling the warmth so close, he seemed to become the boy who had fallen in front of his mother again, crying unrestrainedly...

[With A Ruan's companionship, you spent your last Spring Festival here.]

[At eighteen, you followed A Ruan away from your homeland, heading to the planet where Uncle Ruan and Aunt Mei were conducting scientific research.]

[Here, Uncle Ruan and Aunt Mei held your eighteenth birthday coming-of-age ceremony. Just like before, they still treated you as their own, throwing you a grand coming-of-age ceremony, hoping you could emerge from the shadows of the past as soon as possible.]

[In the days that followed, you realized your childhood dream. You successfully embarked on the path of life science research. Although you hadn't undergone systematic study, the researchers at the institute all believed you had a very high aptitude. However, after a period of work, you discovered that A Ruan's research in the field of life science had reached a height that no one else could match. She was the real genius. While others were still studying the external forms of life, A Ruan had already achieved its "cultivation," "recombination," and "reproduction." She was already capable of creating life.]

[After realizing the gap between you and her, you began to work doubly hard to catch up with her. In just a few months, you organized all the known data in the institute, progressing at an incredible speed.]

[At nineteen, hard work paid off, and you became the only person in the institute who might be able to keep up with A Ruan, and thus became her assistant. Perhaps your performance was too dazzling, or perhaps your appearance became more handsome and your temperament more refined, many girls of similar age in the institute confessed their feelings to you. Sometimes, when you and A Ruan went to some planets for research, you would also gain the favor of local women. However, you politely refused them all.]

[After receiving these confessions, your concept of love gradually became clear. After much deliberation, you clarified your feelings and decided to confess to A Ruan on her nineteenth birthday.]