The taste of orange spread in his mouth.

Zhou Wan glanced at the time. It was already past midnight.

She had woken up early today and was a little sleepy. Her eyelids drooped involuntarily, and she couldn't help but yawn.

Lu Xixiao crunched the candy. "Going back?"

"Yeah."

He hailed a taxi, and they both sat in the back seat.

Lu Xixiao's phone had a lot of messages. He glanced at them—all birthday wishes. He was about to swipe them away when his hand slipped and tapped on a voice message. Jiang Fan's piercing voice came through, wailing happy 18th birthday to him.

Zhou Wan froze for a second, then turned her head to ask, "It's your birthday today?"

"Yeah," he said coolly.

"Happy birthday, Lu Xixiao," Zhou Wan said at once, her tone serious.

Lu Xixiao's lips twitched into a smile, and he let out a laugh.

"I didn't know before, so I couldn't prepare a gift for you."

Lu Xixiao actually didn't care about these things at all.

He genuinely felt that birthdays were nothing to celebrate.

Besides, he was not someone who lacked gifts. Many girls would stuff presents into his desk drawer; he couldn't even match their names to their faces, and in the end, who knows where those gifts ended up.

Lu Xixiao turned his head to look at her for a moment, then said, "I'll give you some time to prepare then. I'll come get my gift tomorrow night."

Zhou Wan paused, then smiled faintly. "Okay."

The taxi stopped at the entrance to Zhou Wan's home.

Away from the bustling city center, the residential complex was even more silent and deserted in the dead of night. Even the sound of shoes stepping on fallen leaves seemed particularly piercing.

Zhou Wan walked, avoiding the fallen leaves.

"I'm here."

"Yeah."

"Happy birthday," Zhou Wan said again. She turned around, tilting her head up to look into Lu Xixiao's eyes. "Were you happy today?"

Lu Xixiao raised an eyebrow. "It was alright."

"That's good then."

"What," he chuckled deeply, "you want to make me happy?"

Zhou Wan nodded, speaking seriously. "Yes."

Lu Xixiao was taken aback.

The girl before him had a faint smile on her face, but her eyes and brows seemed to have melted. Her two dimples were filled with honey, and her shoulder-length hair rested softly against her fair neck. She looked obedient and delicate, fragile yet resilient.

She looked at him and blinked, her eyelashes fluttering.

Lu Xixiao's heart felt as if it had been tickled by those long, thick eyelashes.

His voice was a little hoarse. "Go on back."

Zhou Wan waved to him. "Goodbye, Lu Xixiao."

His hands were in his pockets and he didn't take them out, merely lifting his chin in acknowledgement as he watched her walk into the building's corridor.

Lu Xixiao stood there for a few more minutes before turning to leave.

The next morning, after waking up, Zhou Wan first finished the rest of her weekend homework. After having lunch at home, she left.

She had thought all night about what birthday gift to buy for Lu Xixiao, but still couldn't come up with anything.

She couldn't afford anything too expensive, and he didn't seem to be lacking anything.

She had no choice but to go out and browse around to see if she could find a suitable gift.

Finally, she stopped in front of an accessory shop.

All sorts of picture frames were displayed on a glass counter. One of them was a very retro, carved, openwork metal frame that would fit well with the small Western-style house Lu Xixiao lived in.

Zhou Wan remembered the wooden picture frame she saw at his house last time, the one holding her mother's photo. Perhaps because of the heavy rain and humidity that summer, it had already faded and turned whitish.

This one would be quite suitable.

Zhou Wan decided on the gift and took it to pay.

"135 yuan," the clerk said.

"That's expensive."

"Little sister, just look at the workmanship and you can tell it's intricate and exquisite. Nowadays, it's the manual labor that's expensive."

Zhou Wan didn't say more. She picked a simple gray gift bag and put the frame inside.

Lu Xixiao said he would come for the gift tonight, so he would probably come to the Arcade.

Zhou Wan didn't message him to say she had already bought the gift, feeling that would be too deliberate.

After dinner in the evening, Zhou Wan carried the gift bag to the Arcade.

It was more crowded on the weekend, and she was busy for a while before she had any free time.

Not long after she sat down, a boy suddenly walked over. "Hello."

Zhou Wan looked up. "Can I help you?"

The boy scratched his hair, his smile bright and sunny. "Miss, do you have a boyfriend?"

"Ah." Zhou Wan was slightly taken aback.

"Then can I have your number?" the boy continued, taking out his phone. "My name is—"

Before he could finish, a cold male voice cut in from the side, "Zhou Wan."

Lu Xixiao's whole face was dark, his features and contours appearing even sharper. His long fingers snatched the guy's phone and tossed it back to him.

The boy was stunned for a moment. "...Are you her boyfriend?"

Lu Xixiao turned his head and gave him a cold look.

The boy felt as if he'd been slashed by an icy blade. He was an easygoing person, so he immediately said "Sorry," turned, and left.

Lu Xixiao narrowed his eyes, lifted Zhou Wan's face with one hand, and looked at her for a moment. He then gave an ambiguous sneer. "You're quite popular."

"..."

When he was unhappy, his presence was extremely oppressive. Even the air around them seemed to thin, making it hard to breathe.

"I didn't give him my number," Zhou Wan explained meekly.

She could feel that Lu Xixiao was curious and interested in her, and from this interest stemmed a bit of affection and possessiveness.

Perhaps it wasn't much, but he had always been casual and couldn't be bothered to pretend, so his displeasure was written plainly on his face, as if magnified a thousand times, leading people to mistake it for deep affection.

Lu Xixiao said coolly, "Where's my gift?"

Zhou Wan took the gift bag from under the table and handed it to him.

Lu Xixiao opened it, took out the picture frame inside, and raised an eyebrow. "Just a frame?"

Zhou Wan pursed her lips. "Anything else more expensive, I..."

She didn't finish before Lu Xixiao interrupted her. "I mean, where's the photo?"

Zhou Wan paused.

She had originally bought this frame thinking it could replace his mother's damp-damaged one, but she knew that mentioning his mother in front of him was taboo, so she didn't dare say it.

Lu Xixiao looked at her for a moment, then took out his phone and snapped a picture of her.

The Arcade was dimly lit, so the flash went off automatically. The moment the picture was taken, the girl had a stunned expression, her eyes wide and round, like plump black grapes.

Lu Xixiao looked at the photo for a moment and chuckled lightly.

"This one will do."

"..."

Jiang Fan called him at that moment, asking him to come out and hang out.

It was noisy there, so Lu Xixiao put the call on speaker.