Mm, I favor you

Zhou Chi replied very quickly.

[???? Are you using me as Baidu?]

Wen Ce clicked his tongue. Aside from having a little dating experience, Zhou Chi seemed pretty useless. Getting an answer out of him was such a struggle.

Fortunately, his next message arrived soon enough. [You probably should. You can't skip the sense of occasion.]

Wen Ce nodded and ignored the string of messages that followed.

[Going on a date?]

[Hehehehe, I'm such a miserable simp. I even have to teach you how to date my goddess!]

[Unlucky in love, lucky on the court. Come play ball with me!?]

Wen Ce ordered a bouquet of purple lilacs from a flower shop because they meant first love in the language of flowers.

Wen Ce felt that suited his current situation perfectly.

Then he picked a highly rated cake shop and bought its signature dessert.

Both offered home delivery.

Only after finishing all that did he finally show some mercy and open his chat with Zhou Chi, who had already rattled off a whole pile of messages.

The gist was that they should play ball together. He had to earn that money.

Wen Ce clicked his tongue, not understanding why Zhou Chi insisted on bringing him along.

So he replied.

[But after tonight, I'll probably be lucky in love, so we won't be much of a match. You can ask Wang Meng. He's unlucky in love too.]

To show his friendliness, he even sent a smiling emoji.

Staring at his phone in the dorm, Zhou Chi's face twisted for a moment, and he cursed, "What an absolute animal!"

Fucking Wen Ce was even harder to deal with than the girls he'd tried to pick up before!

After offering his sincere suggestion, Wen Ce stopped paying attention to Zhou Chi. He had to prepare the ingredients for cooking later.

In a good mood, he opened the fridge, cleaned things up first, then put the ingredients beside the sink.

He didn't check his vibrating phone again, so naturally, he missed Zhou Chi's furious, triggered curses.

Luo Lianqing arrived a little earlier than he'd expected.

Wen Ce put the dessert that had just been delivered into the fridge. After thinking about it for a long time, he'd finally taken out the bouquet and arranged it in a vase in the living room, where it would be immediately visible.

When Luo Lianqing knocked on the door with the cat in her arms, Wen Ce had just finished clearing away the bouquet's wrapping.

The moment he opened the door, he came face-to-face with Egg Yolk's pretty face, and the cat meowed at him.

Holding up the cat, Luo Lianqing peeked out from behind her, her voice tinged with complaint. "Egg Yolk kept pawing at me and wouldn't let me leave, so I brought her over."

As she spoke, she raised her fair, delicate arm toward Wen Ce's eyes. "Look, she scratched me. It's all red."

Wen Ce looked at the fair arm and saw that it did have several red marks. He reached out to take Egg Yolk, then lightly brushed a finger over Luo Lianqing's arm. "Egg Yolk, don't bully your big sister."

His voice held a smile. "She'll cry. She's very delicate."

Egg Yolk meowed, then stretched out her head to nuzzle Wen Ce's hand.

Luo Lianqing stared wide-eyed as the two of them went back and forth.

"You two are on the same team," she said, sounding a little sour.

Wen Ce took her wrist and pulled her inside. "No, I'm on your team. I'm telling her off."

A gentle, coaxing note entered his voice.

His hand was wrapped around her wrist.

Luo Lianqing's face grew a little warm. Lowering her eyes, she murmured an acknowledgment.

She reached out to tap Egg Yolk's nose and said smugly, "Did you hear that? He won't favor you!"

"Mm, I favor you."

Wen Ce added that.

He didn't let go of Luo Lianqing's hand, and she didn't pull away either.

They both seemed to have forgotten about it.

Only Egg Yolk, held in Wen Ce's arms, seemed to hear two heartbeats pounding wildly, one after the other.

She was a little puzzled and a little irritated, then reached out a paw to bat at Wen Ce's hand.

The two exchanged a glance, something like shyness flashing through both their eyes.

Wen Ce let go naturally and carried Egg Yolk toward the sofa. "Have a seat. I've got the ingredients ready, and I started the soup early. We can eat soon."

As he spoke, he set Egg Yolk on the sofa.

This clearly wasn't Egg Yolk's first visit. She walked elegantly along the sofa toward the windowsill, then hopped up beside the window and settled down.

She looked as though she were saying, You two talk. Don't disturb my rest.

Watching her, Luo Lianqing couldn't help muttering, "Look how familiar she is with this place. Much more familiar than I am."

"Then come over more often," Wen Ce blurted out without thinking.

Luo Lianqing's gaze flickered, and she smiled. "Okay."

She looked at the flowers on the table. They were very fresh, but they hadn't bought any flowers on their way back.

"What flowers are these? They're beautiful," she asked.

It was Wen Ce's first time doing something like this, after all, and he was still a little embarrassed. Feeling his ears grow hot, he couldn't help reaching up to touch them. "Purple lilacs. I just had them delivered."

Luo Lianqing gave a seemingly puzzled hum. "You didn't seem to keep flowers at home before."

"Mm, because you were coming over for lunch." With that, Wen Ce turned toward the kitchen. "I'll go cook."

Because you were coming, I prepared flowers and cake ahead of time, looking forward only to spending a pleasant noon with you, and, in the end, the afternoon too.

A young man's feelings were straightforward and earnest.

Standing where she was, Luo Lianqing watched his slightly flustered retreating figure, then took out her phone to look up the meaning of purple lilacs.

The language of purple lilacs: purity, first love, longing, shyness, radiance. They represented the innocent stirrings of first love, so they were also known as "a hundred knots" and "love's guest."

And purple lilacs bloomed from May to June.

This very season.

They really were like the two of them now.

Luo Lianqing's face slowly reddened. She looked up at his figure in the kitchen and couldn't help smiling.

Look, it turned out their thoughts were so perfectly in tune.

Luo Lianqing walked over to the sofa and sat down. The tiny flowers in full bloom were right in front of her. Compared with roses and other popular bouquets, they seemed a little unassuming, but Luo Lianqing thought they were truly beautiful.

From today onward, these were her favorite flowers.

In the kitchen, Wen Ce's heart was racing. He'd just been having lewd thoughts about her in the bathroom, yet now a single sentence had made him blush.

"Fuck, Wen Ce, can you get it together?" Wen Ce muttered in self-disgust.

He suddenly put the lid on the pot and turned to look into the living room.

He could only see her from behind, her long, dark, curly hair probably still loose because she'd washed it. It looked beautiful spread down her back.

Wouldn't it look even better spread across his bed?

Wen Ce shook his head, dragging his lewd thoughts back.

He let out a breath and glanced at the beef brisket, which still needed to simmer for a while.

After hesitating for a moment, he picked up his phone, deciding to calm down.

Then Zhou Chi, who had just finished ordering takeout, received a message. [Can you kiss after confessing for the first time? Would that be too forward?]

Zhou Chi: ????

What the fuck!

He gritted his teeth as he stared at the message. Was Wen Ce trying to kill him and stab him through the heart too?

Fuck? This guy had gone beyond being an animal, hadn't he!

He sneered and typed rapidly on his phone with both hands.

Then he stopped, sighed, and deleted the long string of curses he'd typed.

He sent a reply. [Hold hands, hug, and if she doesn't mind, you can try kissing.]

[Wen Ce, I really think you're an animal.]