Nesting

At six in the morning, the sun had yet to rise fully.

Lu Yan stood by the window, looking at the place where he had lived for three years.

In the cramped room, Aemeath's increasingly rich fragrance still lingered in the air.

"A-Yan, are you reluctant to leave this place?"

At some point, Aemeath had come up behind him. She was wearing his white shirt again, her long hair hanging loosely.

She hugged Lu Yan from behind, clinging to him.

"It's not that." Lu Yan turned around and gently brushed the stray hair from her forehead. "It's just that everything happened so fast. A few days ago, I was still living the same life day after day, and today I'm taking you to live in a house with its own courtyard."

He gave a self-deprecating smile and held up his phone. On the screen was a confirmation message from Venus: [Teacher Lu, I've given the address and keys to the agent. I hope your move goes smoothly.]

"This isn't a dream," Aemeath corrected Lu Yan, her eyes full of his reflection. "It's what you deserve. A-Yan is the best person in the world."

"That Venus must have seen it too. That's why she wanted to... keep you."

Aemeath spoke the words "keep you" very softly.

Lu Yan didn't notice the deeper meaning behind her tone. He simply nodded. "Yeah. So I don't let the client down, and so I can give you a better life, I'll work even harder."

"Let's go. We'll get breakfast first, then go look at the house."

Half an hour later, the taxi stopped at the entrance to a quiet alley.

Lu Yan got out of the car. Before he could look around, a middle-aged woman in a suit came hurrying over, a fine sheen of sweat on her forehead.

"Hello, Mr. Lu, Miss Ai! My surname is Yun. Venus arranged for me to show you the house."

"This way, please, this way." As she spoke, Agent Yun took out a key and unlocked the courtyard's iron gate.

Lu Yan followed her inside.

The courtyard was neither particularly large nor particularly small. It was paved with blue-gray bricks, and a persimmon tree grew in one corner. Beneath it sat a wicker loveseat.

Sunlight slanted in, bathing the whole courtyard in warm tones.

"The courtyard faces a good direction, so it gets light from morning through the afternoon." The agent turned sideways to lead them on, talking all the while. "You could grow some flowers and plants, set out a chair, enjoy the sun and have some tea. It's very comfortable."

Aemeath followed behind her without speaking, but her ahoge stood perfectly straight as she looked at the persimmon tree in the courtyard.

The agent went to the front door, turned the key twice in the lock, and pushed it open. "Please, come in."

The house was well lit. The living room's floor-to-ceiling window faced the courtyard, and sunlight streamed through the glass, spreading a broad patch of brightness across the floor.

The solid wood floor felt firm and warm underfoot, neither uncomfortable nor hard, giving one a particular sense of peace.

The open kitchen flowed into the living room. The countertops were spotless, and the range hood and gas stove were already installed. They all looked brand-new.

The agent opened the bathroom door and showed it to them.

Lu Yan stood in the doorway, sweeping his gaze from left to right. "This bathroom... is quite a bit bigger than I expected."

The agent immediately replied, "Yes, the original storage room was incorporated into the house when it was remodeled, so the bathroom is especially spacious."

The vanity was wide enough for three people to stand side by side, and the light gray stone countertop felt cool to the touch. The mirror covered nearly half a wall, making the already large space feel even more open.

What surprised Lu Yan most was the bathtub: a large, built-in white porcelain tub.

Aemeath's eyes swept over the mirror, the vanity, and the bathtub. Her ahoge twitched.

"Do you like it?" Lu Yan asked, noticing Aemeath's reaction.

"Mm." Aemeath nodded, her gaze finally settling on the bathtub. "We can bathe together in the future."

Lu Yan's ears quickly turned red.

The agent then led them toward the bedroom. "You can move right in with just your bags. Look, the water heater and air conditioner were both recently replaced."

The master bedroom was on the other side of the living room, its door standing open.

Lu Yan walked in. The first thing he saw was the floor-to-ceiling window facing the courtyard, with a perfect view of the persimmon tree.

Aemeath stepped out from beside him, her gaze falling on the window.

"Do you like it here?" Lu Yan asked her.

The swaying shadows of the trees outside the window were reflected in Aemeath's eyes. "Mm, you can see the courtyard from here."

A spring breeze swept over the courtyard wall, lifting a few fallen leaves and sending them whirling across the blue-gray bricks. This little courtyard, which the years had treated so gently, was now quietly waiting for its true owner.

Lu Yan stood before the master bedroom's floor-to-ceiling window, watching sunlight filter through the tree's shadow and cast dappled spots of light on the solid wood floor.

The clean scent of wood fibers mingled with the smells of earth and sunshine in the air.

The sense of peace, absent for so long, left him lost in a daze for a moment. It was as if he weren't viewing a house, but had stumbled into an exquisite dream.

But the sweet fragrance unique to Aemeath constantly reminded him that reality was even more enthralling than a dream.

He noticed that the agent, Ms. Yun, had retreated to the living room and was looking down at the notes in her hands, leaving him and Aemeath plenty of privacy.

Lu Yan swallowed, without immediately showing the wild delight of someone who had stumbled upon a bargain.

He was extremely cautious by nature, and this stroke of good fortune, almost beyond reason, instinctively made him think of hidden dangers.

He turned slightly and moved closer to Aemeath without drawing attention to it.

"Aemeath." He lowered his voice, speaking almost against her ear, his warm breath brushing the girl's pink hair.

Aemeath was narrowing her eyes, enjoying the quiet afternoon. As she felt Lu Yan draw near, her ahoge moved like a radar.

She turned her face toward him, her eyes full of amusement. "What do you want to whisper to me, A-Yan~?"

Lu Yan looked serious as he spoke in a voice only the two of them could hear. "Use your ability to check the house for any suspicious electronic devices, like pinhole cameras or listening devices."

"At this price, in a place like this, Venus is being generous enough to give me the creeps."

Aemeath froze for a moment, then a deeply meaningful glimmer flashed through her beautiful eyes.

She chuckled to herself. He really is vigilant.

As the mastermind behind it all, Aemeath found the scene absurdly cute.

He was asking the mastermind to inspect the nest she had built with her own hands.

If there had to be a suspicious device, then the girl holding his arm at that very moment was the gentlest round-the-clock surveillance system.

Aemeath obediently closed her eyes, her long lashes trembling slightly, as though she really were conducting a large-scale inspection.

For an instant, a faint blue spark flashed across her fingertips and vanished, a subtle frequency only Lu Yan could detect.

A moment later, she opened her eyes and gave Lu Yan a smile that put him completely at ease.

"Don't worry, A-Yan~" Aemeath drew out her words, with a hint of reassurance. "I've checked. Every outlet and every screw is clean."

"There's nothing here except sunlight and dust."

"Venus probably really, really thinks highly of you, A-Yan."

Aemeath silently added to herself, So highly that she wants to keep you penned up here forever.

Lu Yan's tense shoulders finally slumped completely, and he let out a long breath.

Since Aemeath said there was no problem, there probably really was no problem here. After all, I don't want to be subjected to any special attention or anything like that.

"That's good," he said softly to Aemeath.

Lu Yan turned and beckoned to Ms. Yun, who was waiting in the living room. "Ms. Yun, we're very happy with the house."

"As for the contract, Teacher Venus mentioned in her email that she was interested in a long-term lease..." Agent Yun immediately put on a brilliant professional smile, hurried over, and pulled a thick stack of paper contracts from her briefcase.

"You certainly get straight to the point, Mr. Lu. Teacher Venus hopes to sign a long-term lease with you, so that moving or fluctuations in rent won't disrupt your creative work." Agent Yun turned the contract to the relevant page.

"The lease term is twenty years. Rent is paid annually, and Teacher Venus has already prepaid the twelve thousand yuan for the first year. You only need to cover the annual basic management fee and utilities."

"Twenty years?!" Lu Yan rubbed his fingers along the edge of the contract.

Twenty years... That meant the golden years of his life would be bound to this little house.

"Twenty years..." Lu Yan murmured, subconsciously looking at Aemeath.

Aemeath stood in the sunlight, the persimmon tree with its fresh leaves behind her. She was smiling, her eyes curved, as though she had no idea of the weight of the contract.

A sense of responsibility unlike any he had ever felt suddenly welled up in Lu Yan's heart.

Since the client and Aemeath had given him such a dreamlike start, he could only repay them with all the inspiration he had for the rest of his life.

He picked up the pen and carefully signed his name on the signature line.

"It's signed." Lu Yan handed the contract back to the agent.

"Congratulations, Mr. Lu, Miss Ai."

Agent Yun put the contract away, handed Lu Yan a heavy set of keys, and tactfully took her leave. "Here are your keys. I won't disturb your new life together."

The courtyard gate closed again, and quiet returned to the courtyard.

Lu Yan clutched the cool keys in his fingers as the leaves in the distance stirred gently in the wind.

He turned around and looked at the empty living room, then at Aemeath, who was staring absentmindedly at the bathtub. He couldn't help laughing.

"All right, let's stop standing around in a daze."

Lu Yan walked over and took Aemeath's hand. "The contract's signed. Our next task is to go home and pack!"

"Go home?" Aemeath corrected him. "You mean go back to the old place, right?"

Lu Yan led her outside. "Right. We'll take what we need and throw away what we don't."

"I'll contact a moving company this afternoon. If we're quick, we can move in this afternoon."

"Mm! I want to bring A-Yan's old pillow. It smells like you."

"That thing's been used for three years. It should have been replaced ages ago..."

Aemeath puffed out her cheeks. "No, I want that one!"

The two of them walked out of the alley, playfully bickering.