Xie Qingci only mentioned it was useful, then handed the phone to her to order food delivery.

Yu Xia glanced at him, took the phone and looked at it.

"Are there still food delivery services today?"

"Yes."

It wasn’t until she asked that she remembered when Mr. and Mrs. Xie weren’t home in previous years, he probably spent the New Year all alone, ordering delivery food.

Thinking of this, she softened a bit and asked him warmly, "What do you want to eat? Or do you have any recommendations?"

He couldn’t think of anything particularly tasty at the moment and sat right next to her, the two squeezed together browsing through stores.

On such a major holiday, many stores showed they were closed, while the options left didn’t offer anything appealing. After looking around, they hadn’t made a decision.

Yu Xia simply said, "Forget it, I’m not hungry yet. We’ll talk once I am."

Xie Qingci’s fingers continued sliding across the screen, but his gaze was entirely focused on her, asking meaningfully: "Really? Then I won’t order anything?"

"Yeah, don’t order, for now..."

Before she could finish speaking, Xie Qingci tossed the phone aside, his eyes locked on her. He smiled and slowly leaned close to whisper in her ear, "Since you’re not hungry, why don’t we revisit the most memorable moments, dear sister?"

Yu Xia’s eyes widened, immediately reaching for the phone: "Actually, I can be hungry too..."

"Too late."

——

The neatly laid clothes were put back on item by item, the curtains pulled open, the bright sky outside the window once again reflected in the glass.

Yu Xia’s cheeks still bore traces of tears as she was pulled into Xie Qingci’s embrace, her hands weakly pushing against him.

"Stay away from me." She was truly a bit afraid of that spasmodic feeling, as if having drunk too much beer, even hiccupping two hours later would still let her experience that pungent feeling, the response duration too long.

But Xie Qingci didn’t let go, tightly holding her, resting his head on her shoulder, taking a deep breath.

Like a big cat clutching onto its toy, the action of squinting satisfied in its entirety.

"Hungry now?" he asked.

Yu Xia was annoyed, refusing to speak; wasn’t he asking this knowing full well that several hours had passed since noon.

Even without her speaking, Xie Qingci could continue talking to himself, mumbling as he buried his head into her, letting out a couple of muffled laughs.

"Definitely hungry. But we’ll have to go back for dinner later, want me to buy you some snacks to tide you over?"

She slapped his face, pushing it away.

"Not eating!"

"How about some bare cake? There’s a decades-old cake shop nearby." 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

"Not eating that either!"

"Alright, then I’ll buy that. One portion should be enough."

Yu Xia: "...Are you asking for a scolding?"

"Yeah, I’m waiting for you to scold me."

He didn’t mind the scolding at all, the lazy attitude as if he hadn’t even processed her words.

Yu Xia was out of options, rolling her eyes but it didn’t lessen his good mood. Frustrated, she took it out by biting his ear.

He hissed and touched his ear, finally willing to lift his head.

But his eyes were the familiar deep and dark.

Sign of impending madness, Yu Xia quickly covered his eyes, pretending not to understand his intentions, and said to herself:

"Actually, I am a bit hungry—the bare cake, right? Fine, let’s get that."

Xie Qingci chuckled, tugged her hand, and reciprocally bit her little finger.

Then he said, "Let’s go now."

After eating the cake himself, it was his turn to buy another cake for the one in his arms.

As they left the room, he turned around to take a look.

It wasn’t much different from before; the space, the furnishings, and the person in his arms had not changed. Besides, three or four years had indeed passed.

But they would have many, many more three or four years to spend together, and the memories here would grow increasingly abundant.

"Let’s go."

They left behind what was behind closed doors and headed through the main entrance to another street, in search of that cake shop.

A generously portioned freshly baked plain bare cake, shakingly duangduang, the fragrance wafting away irresistibly.

Yu Xia didn’t want to move, directing Xie Qingci unceremoniously to feed her.

Using the fork to carve out a piece from the box, feeding it to her mouth, she ingested it and nodded continuously.

"It’s quite tasty. But could you serve with some sense of timing? Watch when I’ve swallowed and then feed again."

"Alright—"

She eyed him sideways: "Are you dissatisfied with my orders?"

"Who dares? One must give to receive. I fully understand that, here, have another bite."

As they strolled around the street, they were garnering enough attention, passersby all glancing over, and their intimate feeding drew even more eyes. Even girls who walked past could hear their conversation, turned around a few steps out, to look back.

"Oh my gosh, even on New Year’s you come across people flaunting their relationships."

"That guy is so tall, he’s holding the other one tightly while walking, speaking with a smile, awww."

"Poor me, a young girl only experienced being forced into medicine by my dad when I was little in such a domineering posture."

"How do I find it so familiar? The voice, and that girl’s side profile."

"All pretty people look similar, it’s just us who are wonderfully diverse, it’s normal."

"...Could we take a back view picture? It’s truly like a novel has come to life."

They secretly snapped a photo and submitted it to a handsome-and-beautiful blog, unexpectedly, this photo shot up to hot search.

#Even on New Year’s these people don’t spare single dogs#

Normally, amateur beauty shots and couple sweet snapshots make it to hot search, on a holiday with no other news gossip, it becomes even more likely.

The back view photo got reposted by major bloggers everywhere with many fans cheering in comments, stating it’s like a novel coming to life, with romance protagonists all around.

Finally, it was recognized by an ardent fan for handsome guys and beauties.

[The more I look, the more it resembles the "Goodbye Summer and Hello Xie" CP of my dear sister and brother!]

Once that suspicion arose, it really started looking more and more like it.

[Oh my god, it really kinda looks like it. Xie Qingci seemed to have worn this jacket last year]

[Yu Xia also owns a gray scarf, but can’t clearly see the pattern, so not sure if it’s the same one]

[Where is this place anyway? Are they together going home for the holiday?]

[Star-chasing expert like me can recognize it in an instant, it’s surely Yu Xia]

[The way they’re hugging seemed too tight. At first glance, I thought Xie Qingci had gained ten pounds]

[That’s Yu Xia and Xie Qingci! The photo is taken in the vicinity of Xie Qingci’s home!]

[Whoa, meeting the parents?]

[Awww, listening to the contributor saying it’s the brother feeding the sister, I want a brother to feed me too]

[Isn’t this just feeding? Relationship fodder/Passerby begging and getting kicked. jpg]

[Xie Qingci, holding so tightly just in case we don’t know how much you like Yu Xia right?]

[Older sister and younger brother romance is absolutely amazing/salivating, hehe. jpg]

[...]

It wasn’t long before the whole internet learned about Yu Xia and Xie Qingci returning home to meet the parents.

Also that the two were closely intertwined and feeding each other on the street.

The speed of the back view photo’s spread accelerated again, so much so that refreshing any page might bring it up, clicking into some browsers could see pop-up latest gossip featuring their names.

With simple titles like "During Spring Festival, Yu Xia and Xie Qingci did something like this..."