When Ning Chu woke up, it was only 7:30 in the morning.
Even though it was winter break, her body was still used to waking up early for class, and she hadn’t managed to reset her internal clock just yet.
Yawning, she quietly got out of bed, moving gently so she wouldn’t wake Black Bean sleeping beside her.
That darn cat snored! Noisy enough that she barely slept at all last night!
She wasn’t even that big or heavy, but her snoring could rival Wang Jie’s thunderous snores.
Luckily, Ning Chu was already used to this kind of noise from living in a dorm before, or else she might’ve been up all night.
She opened the bedroom door and instinctively glanced toward the living room—only to see Wen Yang sitting quietly on the couch, staring out the window at the morning light with a blank expression.
Her brother, meanwhile, was still passed out on the futon, snoring like a chainsaw.
Wen Yang seemed completely lost in thought, so deep in it that he hadn’t even noticed her coming out.
“Wen Yang~” Ning Chu called softly, “Can’t sleep? Want to come to my room and rest a bit more?”Her voice snapped him back to reality.
“I’m fine. I’m already up.”
“You must be like me then—used to waking up around seven, right?”
She stretched, her tail behind her twitching straight out as she yawned.
Though her pajamas were loose-fitting, her graceful figure still showed through clearly—especially the gentle curve of her chest, shaped with Wen Yang’s careful encouragement.
But Wen Yang’s gaze stayed locked on her face.
Ning Chu instantly picked up on his mood.
Even though her thinking hadn’t changed much since becoming a girl, she couldn’t deny that both her body and emotions had become more sensitive.
“What’s wrong?”
From a few meters away, she looked at him with concern.
“Are you not used to staying at my place? I can take you to look for a rental today.”
“My grandpa has a few apartments in the old town district. He could give you a discount, though it’s kinda far—maybe 30 to 40 minutes by bus.”
“It’s not that,” Wen Yang shook his head.
“Then why do you look so down?”
Normally, even if Wen Yang wasn’t overly enthusiastic, he would always greet her with a gentle smile—and there was always a glint of possessiveness in his eyes.
But today, there was… nothing.
No warmth, no spark.
Ning Chu frowned slightly and walked toward the bathroom.
“I’ll go wash up and change. Let’s go out for a walk after, clear our heads?”
“…Alright.”
After a quick rinse and a change into her winter clothes, Ning Chu was ready in about ten minutes.
She stepped carefully over her sleeping brother in the living room, tiptoeing toward the door.
“Scarf.”
Wen Yang handed her a scarf from the coat rack and gently draped it over her shoulders.
“Thanks.”
She opened the door and crouched down to put on her shoes.
While doing so, she glanced up at him.
“You’re still down, huh? Want to talk about it?”
“…”
“C’mon, tell me?” she prodded gently.
Wen Yang let out a long sigh.
“It’s nothing serious. I just… don’t feel like I fit in.”
“I told you it’s ‘cause you’re not used to it,” she mumbled as she laced her boots. “Still being stubborn about it.”
Once they stepped outside, the cold morning air hit her like a slap. She flinched, immediately tightening the scarf around her neck and pulling it up to cover half her face.
She pressed the elevator button and finally looked back at him.
“It’s fine. I feel awkward too when I visit someone else’s home.”
“…That’s not it.”
Wen Yang paused and met her bright, curious eyes. A bitter smile tugged at his lips.
“It’s your family… I’m just really envious.”
“Envious? Of all the yelling and chaos?”
“I never had parents growing up. No siblings either…”
“…”
Ning Chu paused, eyes lowering.
Quietly, she reached out and wrapped her arm around his.
“Yeah… I get that. I used to feel that way too. When I saw other kids getting picked up by their dads after school, I’d feel a little jealous too.”
“When kids got bullied at school, their dads would show up in person to stand up for them,” Ning Chu murmured. “But my mom could only tell me not to stir trouble—that sometimes suffering a loss was a blessing...”
She lowered her voice.
“Good thing my brother always protected me. If he saw someone picking on me, he’d get into fights for me. But he’s only a few years older than me. When those kids went tattling to adults, we were always the ones who got the short end of the stick.”
Even then, at least she had a mother and a brother to shield her.
But Wen Yang—he had no one at all.
Wen Yang gently rubbed her head. “Well, you have me now.”
“Mhm…”
She looked up at him. “Your life before this… wasn’t easy, huh?”
They stepped into the elevator and soon exited at the ground floor.
The banyan trees along the roadside rustled softly in the breeze, their trailing vines swaying under the gentle morning sun. The two of them strolled along the small path that followed the stream outside the apartment complex.
Wen Yang had always been the quiet type. After a long silence, he finally spoke, voice calm and understated:
“It wasn’t all bad. My uncle’s family looked after me. I could get a hot meal there every day, and sometimes my older uncle would sneak me some snacks…”
“But they had their own families. Just feeding me was already generous.”
“I guess I was like that kid you find in every class—the tall, awkward one. Easy to push around. Sat quietly in the corner and never said much…”
Ning Chu stayed quiet, simply holding his arm as she walked beside him.
As he spoke, she could slowly picture the lonely boy he had once been.
Wen Yang, she realized, carried deep-seated insecurity.
Even if he rarely showed it, she could sense it. The way he lacked confidence in his background, in his abilities, in relationships… all of it was quietly written into how he moved, how he talked.
“You’re good-looking though…” she mumbled. “Weren’t you popular at school?”
“I was still just a stray kid.”
“…”
She paused briefly, then gently corrected him:
“You’re not a stray. You’re my protagonist. My boyfriend.”
Wen Yang gave a soft, warm smile.
He squeezed her hand a little tighter and explained, “When I was in the countryside, no one really looked after me. I was messy and unkempt. It wasn’t until I moved to the county for high school that things got a little better.”
“Then in college I started growing into my looks. Suddenly girls started chasing me like crazy.”
He looked away, guilty under her suspicious glare.
“I don’t even know what they saw in me…”
“Don’t think about all that.”
Ning Chu tugged at his arm. “It’s all in the past now.”
“Yeah.”
“You didn’t have family before—but you have me now,” she said softly. “And you have Black Bean too. She called you Dad, remember?”
“And my mom’s actually a really kind person. She’s just worried you’re too poor for me right now… but once she warms up to you, she’ll treat you like family. Like she does Black Bean.”
“As for being poor—I don’t care. It’s not like I’m gonna let you starve to death or something.”
“Of course not.”
“Well then. That’s all that matters, isn’t it~”
Wen Yang looked at Ning Chu with even more tenderness.
Thinking back on these past two months of living with her, he realized they were the happiest days of his entire life.
For the first time, he knew what it felt like to have a family.
Sure, there were arguments over small things. The chaos of daily life. Anxiety about the future…
But he was no longer alone.
He had someone willing to walk that long road of life beside him.
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