Fang Yue came out of the studio and happened to meet Xu Xiuhe.
"Xiuhe is here," Fang Yue asked.
"Mom, you're here too. I've come to pick up Yin and Zheng to go home," Xu Xiuhe replied.
"Okay, it's getting late. I'll head back first. Be careful on your way home tonight," Fang Yue reminded them.
"Sure, you drive slowly too when you go back."
"Mm, got it. You go on up." Fang Yue walked towards the car shed at the back, with a smile spreading across her face. Xiuhe called her daughter Yin, meaning the two must be on good terms now. The more she thought about it, the happier she felt. As a mother, seeing her daughter happy is all she needs.
When Xu Xiuhe passed the first floor, Chen Nuan and Li Huanhuan finally saw his true appearance. Girls really are amazing—with just a glance, without saying a word, they can understand each other's thoughts.
Xu Xiuhe went up to the third floor. Zheng was still playing with the little building blocks that his grandma had bought him on the carpet. Shen Yin was sitting at the table, seriously drawing design sketches.
"I just saw Mom heading back," Xu Xiuhe broke the silence.
Shen Yin looked up. "She said yesterday that she'd come over to help me look after Zheng. I thought she was just saying it, but she really did come today."
"Mm, she went out of her way. Are you done? Let's go to the mall," Xu Xiuhe suggested.
"Go to the mall for what?"
Xu Xiuhe felt a bit awkward about saying he wanted to buy her clothes, so he replied in a roundabout way, "You said I could try out clothes in other colors, didn't you?"
"You really want to try?" Shen Yin hadn't expected Xu Xiuhe to take her casual joke seriously.
"I've never tried menswear before. Do you want to practice on me?" Shen Yin's tone was probing. She had only done women's clothing before, but now it seemed that menswear could also be a lucrative path.
Xu Xiuhe: !! What a great opportunity. "Sure."
Shen Yin picked up the tape measure from her table and said, "Come over here, let me take your measurements."
Upon hearing this, Xu Xiuhe walked over to Shen Yin's table.
Shen Yin stood behind Xu Xiuhe. At over 1.8 meters tall, she had to raise her hand to be level with his shoulders. With the tape measure in her left hand and her right arm stretched out, his shoulder width was 46 centimeters—quite standard. Shen Yin made a note of it.
"Turn around and stretch your arms out to the sides," Shen Yin instructed.
Xu Xiuhe obediently turned to face Shen Yin. Shen Yin picked up the tape measure to measure his chest circumference, but this position felt a bit awkward—from any angle, it looked like Xu Xiuhe had his arms open wide, waiting for an embrace.
Shen Yin's expression became a bit unnatural, but since she'd come this far, she couldn't just give up now. Xu Xiuhe could clearly feel Shen Yin's breathing.
When Shen Yin had stood behind him earlier to measure his shoulder width, he had felt her hand touch his shoulder. Wearing so little clothing in the summer, that touch of her hand on his shoulder had made him feel a ticklish sensation—he couldn't tell if it was his shoulder or his heart that was itching.
Now he understood: it wasn't his shoulder, it was his heart that itched. Xu Xiuhe lowered his head, bringing his face very close to Shen Yin's. Shen Yin slid the tape measure under one of Xu Xiuhe's arms with her left hand, then reached her right hand from the other underarm to grab the tape measure. Unable to quite reach, Shen Yin took another step forward.
Xu Xiuhe looked at this face right in front of him. If he lowered his head just a bit more, he could kiss Shen Yin's forehead. Her skin was fine and fair, without any makeup. Her lips were glossy and slightly parted.
Shen Yin raised her face a little as her right hand strained to reach, and Xu Xiuhe, looking at those lovely red lips, finally leaned down on an impulse and kissed her.
In that moment when their lips met, both of them were stunned. Shen Yin's eyes went wide, and the tape measure fell from her hand. Xu Xiuhe didn't know what had come over him to make such a bold move, but he found the soft, jelly-like feel of her lips quite nice, and wanted to deepen the kiss.
Shen Yin was completely caught off guard—how could she have expected Xu Xiuhe to do something so daring in broad daylight? In reality, she was still just a young woman who had never been this intimate with a man before.
Her instinctive reaction was to forcefully twist her right leg, using the momentum to spin and throw Xu Xiuhe over her shoulder and onto the sofa.
It was an awkward scene: Xu Xiuhe lying stunned on the sofa, his right hand touching his lips, his expression one of disbelief—he had just been shoulder-thrown!
Shen Yin stood by the sofa, awkwardly straightening her hair, pretending that nothing had happened. Yes, that's it—just keep telling herself that over and over.
The commotion had drawn Xu Yunzheng's attention from the moment Xu Xiuhe was thrown onto the sofa. He set down the building blocks and, completely unaware of what had just transpired, toddled over to the sofa with a plaintive look, saying, "Daddy, hurt."
Xu Xiuhe recovered his composure, sat up, and stroked Zheng's face. "Zheng, Daddy's not hurt."
"Daddy fall down, Daddy hurt," Zheng persisted, reaching out to touch Xu Xiuhe's face.
"Zheng, I'm sorry, it was Mommy's fault. Mommy was just playing a game with Daddy, he didn't fall down," Shen Yin explained, not knowing how much Zheng had seen. But she truly hadn't meant it—it was just an instinctive reaction, since she had never been kissed on the lips by a man before.
"Zheng, Daddy's fine. Daddy was just playing a game with Mommy," Xu Xiuhe also explained. Although he had been quite embarrassingly thrown down, it did seem that he was the one at fault for kissing Shen Yin without her consent.
"Game, Zheng want play game too!" With that, Xu Yunzheng clumsily climbed onto the sofa and flopped down, motioning for Shen Yin to do the same.
"The game is over, Zheng," Shen Yin said, not wanting to continue this kind of "game."
"I'm really sorry about that. It really was just an instinctive reaction," Shen Yin apologized again.
Xu Xiuhe had been about to apologize too, since he was the one who had initiated it, but hearing Shen Yin's explanation, he no longer felt like apologizing. Instead, he asked, "Well, how can I avoid that kind of instinctive reaction?"
This question touched on an area of ignorance for Shen Yin—she didn't know how to respond. Feeling her face grow hot again, she turned and fled to the bathroom.
The faucet was turned on, and cool water flowed as Shen Yin splashed her face repeatedly. Why had Xu Xiuhe kissed her? She touched her lips. Did he... like her?
Shen Yin was lost in a muddle of thoughts, staring at her reflection in the mirror, uncertain of how to face Xu Xiuhe going forward.
Xu Xiuhe came to the bathroom door with Zheng in his arms and said, "We didn't finish taking the measurements earlier."
"Oh, right. You go over first," Shen Yin replied.
Xu Xiuhe stood next to the sofa again. Shen Yin regained her composure, picked up the tape measure once more, and realized she couldn't remember the chest measurement from before, so she would have to redo it!
Shen Yin was a bit frazzled—what was even happening here? "Raise your arms," she instructed curtly.
