On the twenty-third day of the twelfth lunar month, the Northern Little New Year.
The night before, Chu Fanyin had called Chu Luyu early to invite her and Jiang Hezhou over for dinner.
Chu Luyu thought back to the night she was “caught” by Jiang Hezhou and the things he’d said about her and Chen Zhou. Though she knew perfectly well that there was nothing between her and her stepbrother, since Jiang Hezhou was bothered by it, she didn’t want to stir up any more trouble.
So she hesitated for a moment, then asked Chu Fanyin: “Will big brother be coming to our place tomorrow?”
“I don’t know—he hasn’t contacted us, so probably not.”
Chu Luyu was still uneasy. She thought for a moment, then added: “Mom, if he does reach out to you or Chen Mian later, just tell him directly that Jiang Hezhou and I are coming back together, and it might be a bit inconvenient—ask him to come another time.”
Chu Fanyin didn’t understand and sounded puzzled: “Why? Did you two have a falling out?”
“No, it’s not that.” Chu Luyu paused, ultimately deciding not to tell the truth and instead made up a small lie. “We had already said we were calling off the engagement with the Jiang family, and now suddenly I’m showing up with Jiang Hezhou again—what’s he supposed to think? Anyway, I just don’t think it’s a good idea. If he’s coming, then Jiang Hezhou and I can just wait until the Spring Festival in a few days.”
“Oh no, that won’t do. I picked out all the dishes—they’re all your favorites, both of you.” As soon as Chu Fanyin heard her daughter might not come, she stopped pressing and quickly said, “Alright, I get it. I won’t let your big brother come tomorrow. Even if he calls, I’ll tell him to come another day.”
Chu Luyu hummed in satisfaction on her end and replied, “Thanks, Mom.”
After she hung up, she stood by the window. Before she could turn around, Jiang Hezhou silently came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her.
She jumped, startled, and instinctively raised a hand to hold his forearm, letting out a helpless sigh. “Why do you always have to be so quiet?”
“I wanted to hear what you and your mom were talking about.”
As he spoke, he couldn’t help lowering his head to kiss her earlobe and the side of her neck. It tickled, and she shrank back, only to be caught again a moment later.
“Why won’t you let your stepbrother come to dinner? You don’t want him to see me—are you afraid I’ll find something out?”
Chu Luyu was so done with how suspicious this male lead was being. She deliberately teased him: “If you’re going to talk like that, then I might as well call him myself and invite him over tomorrow?”
The man didn’t say anything, but the next second, he bit down firmly on the hollow of her neck—clearly making his stance known.
Chu Luyu winced at the pain but hadn’t even gotten a chance to get mad before she felt the bitten spot being covered by a warm, moist sensation.
Jiang Hezhou held her tightly, resting his chin on her shoulder. After a moment, he said quietly, “I know you don’t have any feelings for him. But that man has ill intentions toward you—it’s only right that you keep your distance.”
Chu Luyu thought Jiang Hezhou might be overthinking it. Though she did sometimes find her stepbrother a bit odd, she didn’t think it warranted the phrase “ill intentions.” From what the system had said and from what her mother had mentioned about the past, her stepbrother was probably just being a bit more attentive to his stepsister than usual.
Still, she wasn’t about to argue with Jiang Hezhou about it. Since he didn’t like Chen Zhou, she’d just go along with him and avoid seeing the guy.
The system was already working on a solution, and it seemed like it could actually set the plot straight. That meant the time she and Jiang Hezhou had together now was dwindling—one day less with each passing day.
She didn’t want to waste whatever time they had left arguing and bickering.
So Chu Luyu paused and replied softly: “I understand.”
Jiang Hezhou was very pleased. His heart melted completely at the girl’s obedient, gentle attitude. Holding her, he murmured softly: “Baby, if you keep being this easygoing, I might just end up taking even more advantage of you.”
“Then do you want me to get angry at you?” Chu Luyu asked.
“No.”
“Then why say all that just now?”
Jiang Hezhou paused, and when he spoke again, his voice carried a faint sigh. “I just feel like this isn’t real. Like everything lately has been an illusion. I’m scared of truly losing you.”
Chu Luyu didn’t know whether to call him perceptive or something else. The moment she heard those words, a flicker of guilt passed through her heart.
A moment later, he said again—as he had said countless times over these past few days—what he constantly repeated to her.
“Baby, tell me you won’t leave me.”
Chu Luyu’s hands, clasped in front of her, tightened. She responded quickly, afraid he’d sense something was off: “I won’t leave you.”
But after saying it, a weight settled on her heart, as if another boulder had been pressed down on it.
Jiang Hezhou stood behind her and didn’t see her expression at that moment. After hearing the answer he wanted, he curled his lips in a satisfied smile. “Baby’s so good.”
Early the next morning, Chen Mian’s call came through.
Chu Luyu was still sound asleep in Jiang Hezhou’s arms at the time. She vaguely heard a ringing tone, followed by a few “mm”s from Jiang Hezhou above her head. By the time she groggily opened her eyes, the man had already hung up.
“Who was that?”
The little girl was still half-asleep, her voice all sweet and milky. When Jiang Hezhou heard it, he couldn’t help but bury his face into the crook of her neck and nuzzle against her. If he weren’t afraid that she’d be too sensitive right after waking up, he would have followed his impulse and bitten her neck hard.
“It was Chen Mian. He called to ask us to come help—said there are no servants at home right now, and his mom dragged him out of bed early this morning to cook and make dumplings with her.” He finished speaking, then leaned down and gently kissed her lips. “You sleep a little longer. I’ll go help first, and when it’s time to eat, I’ll come back to pick you up.”
“Don’t bother. I probably can’t fall back asleep anyway. Let’s just go together.”
By the time they arrived, it was around 9:30 in the morning. Chen Mian was being held hostage by Chu Fanyin at the cutting board, chopping dumpling filling. He looked like he’d been yanked out of bed to work, his ash-gray hair sticking up like he’d been electrocuted—clearly not having had any time to tidy up.
When he saw his sister and brother-in-law arrive, Chen Mian acted like he’d seen his saviors. He dropped the cleaver and lunged over with a wail.
“Sis! Bro-in-law! You’re finally here! Mom’s been torturing me to death—there’s a meat grinder right there but she refuses to use it, insists that hand-chopped filling tastes better… My wrist has been vibrating from that cleaver all morning, I can barely lift it!”
He clung to Chu Luyu, howling in misery. Jiang Hezhou held back for a moment beside them, but ultimately couldn’t take it anymore. He frowned slightly and pulled Chen Mian off her.
“You still look pretty tired. Since your sister and I are here, why don’t you go back to your room and catch up on sleep?”
“Bro-in-law, you’re a saint—a true saint!” Chen Mian was completely oblivious to anything amiss, his voice full of nothing but gratitude toward Jiang Hezhou.
But Chu Fanyin heard the commotion and came out of the kitchen, spatula in hand. “Sleep?! I told him yesterday to get up early today, and this kid stayed up playing games until two or three in the morning again! He needs to learn his lesson today—he’s staying awake until bedtime tonight!”
Chen Mian let out another wail, accusing his mom of being inhuman, but Chu Fanyin completely ignored him. After she finished speaking, she turned to Jiang Hezhou, and her expression softened considerably.
“Hezhou, sorry to make you and Xiaoyu come over so early. I didn’t even know this brat called you—otherwise I would’ve stopped him.”
“It’s no trouble, Auntie. We’re family—no need to be so polite.”
With that, the man took off his watch, rolled up his sweater sleeve to reveal a solid, pale forearm, and said, “I’ll go wash my hands and come help.”
Seeing him step away for a moment, Chu Fanyin quickly walked over to Chu Luyu and lowered her voice. “What’s really going on? You’ve been quiet these past few days, and I didn’t dare call and ask too much since I knew you two were together. Didn’t you say before that you’d broken up? How did you get back together? And the other day, Hezhou even sent me a message saying he’d proposed successfully and that you plan to register after the New Year?”
Chu Luyu felt at a loss for words. She couldn’t really explain much to her family, since there were bound to be more changes between her and Jiang Hezhou down the line.
After a moment’s thought, she brushed it off vaguely: “Mom, let me tell you more about it later. For now, let’s just enjoy the holiday today.”
This was the first holiday they were celebrating after moving into the new place. Though it wasn’t anything too formal, Chu Fanyin had still prepared a huge table full of dishes.
The dumplings were the last thing brought to the table—four large plates piled high, with even more left uncooked in the kitchen.
“After we finish eating, I’ll cook the rest of those dumplings, and you two can take them home.”
As Chu Fanyin spoke, Chen Mian was busy wincing from burning his mouth on a hot dumpling. Without looking up, he said, “There’s gotta be at least two or three hundred left—no way they can finish all that even if they take it.”
Chu Fanyin had prepared way too much filling today, and the number of dumplings made was completely excessive. Chu Luyu thought Chen Mian had a point. After a moment’s thought, she tilted her head and asked Jiang Hezhou: “Since it’s a holiday today, are your colleagues at the bureau still working?”
“No major cases lately—probably just a few on duty, everyone else went home.”
Chu Luyu pursed her lips and blinked a couple of times. “Then how about after we finish eating, we bring some dumplings to those colleagues on duty?”
Ever since Jiang Hezhou had voluntarily requested a temporary suspension, he hadn’t asked about or followed up on anything at the bureau. Chu Luyu felt like he was deliberately avoiding it. She didn’t want him to sink deeper in his own field, so she tentatively brought it up.
But Jiang Hezhou didn’t seem to care much one way or another. He just went along with her suggestion and nodded. “Sure.”
The two of them later went to the municipal bureau, and the colleagues on duty were all surprised to see them.
Yao Meng happened to be there too, so she personally came downstairs to the security office to help them register. Since Jiang Hezhou was still on suspension and Chu Luyu counted as an outside visitor, everyone could only sit and chat in the cafeteria.
Besides Yao Meng, there were three male colleagues on duty today. They hadn’t seen Jiang Hezhou in a while and were absolutely thrilled, pulling him into a lively conversation about recent cases at the bureau and two that had been closed recently.
“In that domestic violence homicide case, Old Wang mentioned you during the forensics examination—said you’d handled a similar case back in the day. Originally it was supposed to be a decade-plus sentence, but you managed to build the evidence chain solid enough to turn it into life without parole.”
Chu Luyu overheard this from the side and was taken aback. “Huh? That… that’s… isn’t that falsifying evidence? Is that allowed?”
Yao Meng smiled and turned to Chu Luyu. “Xiao Jiang is an upright guy—there’s no way he’d do anything illegal. At the time, some of the victim’s family members wanted to settle for money and didn’t want us to do any more investigation, nor did they want an autopsy. It was Xiao Jiang who found the victim’s direct relatives, spent days persuading them, and got them to agree to the autopsy—which led to the more complete chain of evidence.”
“So that’s how it was!” Chu Luyu instinctively glanced at the man beside her and beamed at him. “So you’re awesome!”
Jiang Hezhou didn’t say anything, but after being praised by his beloved, a soft smile tugged at the corner of his lips. His hand, which had been holding hers under the table, gave hers a gentle squeeze—a silent response.
As the conversation went on, someone eventually brought up Jiang Qiyou’s case.
“It’s been about a month now—wonder when the prosecutor’s office will file the public indictment with the court.” This serial murder case involved a wide scope, so the procedural timeline was much longer than ordinary cases.
After those words, Yao Meng instinctively glanced in Jiang Hezhou’s direction.
Seeing that he didn’t seem to have any unusual reaction, she ventured cautiously: “Xiao Jiang, would you like to apply to see your brother?”
In theory, family members aren’t allowed to visit suspects at this stage, but since Jiang Hezhou was a case-related individual who had provided key evidence, he could apply for a meeting as other personnel involved in the case.
Jiang Hezhou was silent for a long while after hearing that, then finally shook his head. “No.”
He honestly didn’t know what kind of attitude he should take toward Jiang Qiyou.
Because they had once been the closest of family, he couldn’t bring himself to fully hate him; but because he had killed their father—the man Jiang Hezhou had respected and loved most—he could never forgive him either…
Unable to hate, yet equally unable to continue as family—caught in such relentless contradiction, it was better simply not to go.
On the way back, Jiang Hezhou grew noticeably quiet.
They hadn’t driven. After leaving the police station, no taxis had passed by, so the two walked hand in hand for a stretch.
The man’s silhouette looked somewhat cold and somber under the harsh night air. His face was expressionless, gold-rimmed glasses perched on his nose, his profile still as sculpturally perfect as ever.
Held by his hand, Chu Luyu kept sneaking glances at him. Eventually, she couldn’t help asking the system: [Cuihua, the male lead seems really unhappy.]
System Cuihua: [They were just talking about his brother—and the fact that his brother’s a murderer who killed their father first is basically a lifelong trauma for him. He’s probably going to go quiet every time he hears it brought up.]
Chu Luyu sighed inwardly. [But I don’t want him to be unhappy.]
She thought for a moment, then hesitantly asked: [You said before that fixing the plot won’t require my points. So can I use my points now to redeem something else?]
System Cuihua: […………Baby, are you a little bit lovesick?! You’ve been busting your ass for points, haven’t spent a single one on yourself yet—it’s all been on the male lead!]
Chu Luyu: [If the giving isn’t equal, then the one being drained is called lovesick—and that word has a negative connotation. But clearly, between him and me, he’s the one giving more… so I don’t think I’m lovesick. Even if I am, I’m the positive kind.]
System Cuihua: [I’m done. I can never win an argument with you on this. Fine, what do you want to exchange?]
Chu Luyu thought for a moment, then grinned and told the system a couple of things.
A moment later, she tugged at Jiang Hezhou. They happened to be on a bridge, standing at its midpoint.
Jiang Hezhou turned around and saw the girl blinking her beautiful apricot eyes, looking up at him with a serious, bright smile.
“Jiang Hezhou, do you want to receive some flowers?”
“Flowers?” His expression flickered with confusion, not understanding why she’d suddenly say that.
Chu Luyu didn’t keep him guessing. She pulled her small hand free, pressed her wrists together under her chin, palms cupping her cheeks. Then, like a magician, she spread her hands open—and her face appeared framed between her palms.
“Look! A sunflower!”
The girl was already pretty, but with the deliberately cute expression she was making, she became even more endearing. Jiang Hezhou’s heart softened instantly. Just as he was about to pull her into his arms for a proper hug, she spoke again.
“Jiang Hezhou, do you want to see some other flowers too?”
He didn’t know what other adorable tricks she’d come up with, but he smiled and nodded. “Yes.”
Chu Luyu’s smile grew even brighter. She raised her hand and pointed at the distant night sky. “Look over there! Three, two, one!”
At her final count, fireworks suddenly burst across the dark sky above.
The dazzling, brilliant flashes of light instantly chased away the vast darkness of the night. Jiang Hezhou stared at the magnificent display, genuinely frozen in astonishment.
He turned back in surprise to look at Chu Luyu again.
And there she was—also looking at him, her beautiful eyes curving into two crescent moons, beaming.
“Jiang Hezhou, today is January 15th, the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month. Happy Little New Year! Happy every day! Happy forever!”
At that moment, Jiang Hezhou felt as though his heart had stopped.
In a daze, he thought: in this lifetime, he had once possessed countless things—but never, at any moment, had he been as grateful as he was now.
Grateful that she had come to his side. Grateful that she had appeared in his life like a gift. Under this night sky, she was even more radiant than the fireworks in the distance.
Unable to hold back, he pulled her into his arms, pressing her firmly against his chest, resting his chin on the top of her head.
“Chu Luyu.”
“What is it?”
“Thank you for coming.”
Thank you for coming into my life. As long as you’re here, no matter what happens in my life, in the end, it will always be happiness.
Because having you means having happiness itself.
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