That night, Song Anan couldn't sleep.
Scenes of her interactions with him these past days kept playing through her mind like a movie, looping endlessly.
After tossing and turning all night, the next day, Song Anan still shamefully escaped.
She booked a ticket back to City B, called a taxi by herself to the airport, and only sent Pei Kuang a message right before the plane took off, saying she had something come up suddenly back home and was heading back, telling him not to worry.
As soon as the message was sent, she immediately turned off her phone, as if Pei Kuang would come crawling through the internet line any second.
In a hospital room.
Pei Kuang leaned against the bed reading a book. This was a book Song Anan had bought while out shopping with Li Xiaoxian yesterday, worried that he'd be bored.
But if you looked closely, you could see that his mind wasn't on the book at all, and he kept glancing towards the door of the room, clearly waiting for someone.
"Brother Pei, why don't you give auntie a call? She's probably still sleeping in," Liu Hao said.
Pei Kuang looked at his phone next to him but didn't say anything.
He knew Song Anan didn't have the habit of sleeping in, and since she still wasn't here this late, chances are she was deliberately avoiding him.
The door handle turned and Pei Kuang instinctively looked over.
It was Luo Yi.
"What's with that look, you're not happy to see me?" Luo Yi said.
Pei Kuang ignored his joking tone. "You're busy with work, you don't have to come every day."
Luo Yi sprawled lazily into the chair next to him. "What work, I'm on vacation. I'd just be bored at home anyway."
"Oh right, how come it's just you two? Where is everyone else?" He scanned the room.
They all knew who this 'everyone else' referred to.
Liu Hao answered: "Auntie is still at the hotel, she hasn't come yet."
With Luo Yi here now, Liu Hao happened to have something to take care of outside, so only Pei Kuang and Luo Yi were left in the hospital room.
Just as Luo Yi was about to say something, Pei Kuang's phone suddenly buzzed.
He picked it up and saw it was a WeChat message from Song Anan.
"Take care of yourself, I have something to take care of urgently so I'm heading back to City B first. I'm at the airport now and the plane is about to take off. I'm turning off my phone first, don't worry."
After reading the message, Pei Kuang's first reaction was to immediately call her, but it went straight to voicemail.
"What happened?" Luo Yi asked.
Pei Kuang put his phone down. "She went back."
"Who went back..." Luo Yi didn't react at first, but realized halfway through his sentence who 'she' referred to.
"What, auntie asked for four days off yesterday, how could she suddenly go back? Was it an emergency?"
Pei Kuang didn't speak, and was silent for a few seconds before replying, "She's probably avoiding me."
"Avoiding you?" Luo Yi sat up straighter. "What's going on, don't tell me you confessed and got rejected?"
Pei Kuang paused. "Can't really call it a confession."
But he also wasn't sure if he had been rejected.
Luo Yi raised his eyebrows, waiting for the story.
Pei Kuang hesitated briefly, then gave a simple summary of what happened yesterday.
Luo Yi let out a long exhale. "Well, this step was bound to happen sooner or later. If you don't address the ambiguity, were you planning to keep being her nephew forever?"
In Luo Yi's eyes, Pei Kuang and Song Anan's relationship was indeed complicated, but if they wanted to move forward, this process was necessary.
"Give the girl some time, don't pressure her too much."
Of course Pei Kuang understood this reasoning.
While he understood, he was still anxious.
He had been trying to pave the way these past days, so that when he did reveal his intentions, she would be a little mentally prepared.
In fact, he barely slept at all last night, not just Song Anan. He just hadn't expected her to directly leave like that.
Luo Yi patted Pei Kuang on the shoulder and solemnly said, "Love makes one fret endlessly."
Two hours later, Song Anan's plane landed at City B airport.
As soon as Song Anan turned her phone on, she saw Pei Kuang's message.
"Give me a call when you get off the plane, I'm worried about you."
Song Anan stood at the airport exit for a while before finally dialing Pei Kuang's number.
The call connected.
Song Anan hesitated briefly before saying, "I'm off the plane, don't worry, very safe."
Pei Kuang lightly hmm'ed. "That's good, as long as you're safe."
For a while, neither spoke.
Song Anan's hand gripped the phone tighter. She didn't know what to say. Her heart was full of questions she wanted to ask, but she didn't dare.
"Did I...scare you?" Pei Kuang's voice sounded somewhat hoarse, as if suppressing something.
Song Anan's body stiffened. "...No."
They fell silent again.
After some unknown amount of time passed,
Song Anan opened her mouth. "My ride is here, I have to hang up."
Pei Kuang seemed to sigh, and could only say, "Be careful."
Before hanging up, Song Anan still couldn't help adding, "Focus on recovering, listen to the doctor."
Pei Kuang paused a few seconds. "Okay."
-
Song Anan didn't go back to her dorm. She went straight to Song Linchuan's place.
As soon as she pushed open the door, Qiúqiú who had been napping on the sofa rushed right over, circling around her feet meowing loudly,
As if complaining about where she had gone these past few days without coming to see it.
Song Anan squatted down and picked up Qiúqiú, stroking its head. "Qiúqiú, good kitty, I'm back."
The day Pei Kuang got hurt, she hadn't been able to find someone to look after Qiúqiú on such short notice. It just so happened Jiang Han was in City B these few days, so she brought Qiúqiú to stay at Song Linchuan's place and asked Jiang Han to come feed it every day.
Luckily Qiúqiú had stayed here a few days previously so it wasn't too unfamiliar with the environment.
Song Anan wasn't sure if Jiang Han had come today, so she called him first to let him know she was back, saving him an extra trip over.
After hanging up, she went to pour some cat food and water for Qiúqiú, then scooped its litter box.
The little guy wasn't too hungry, just ate a couple bites of food before bringing over a cat teaser, pestering Song Anan to play with it.
Song Anan absentmindedly played with it for a while before sitting spaced out on the sofa.
Qiúqiú seemed to sense her bad mood and didn't continue fussing. Instead it curled up by her feet and slept.
Song Anan still didn't know why she had run away.
That morning Li Xiaoxian's boyfriend had come to pick her up, and Song Anan had anxiously waited alone in the hotel, not knowing how to face Pei Kuang. In the end she had directly booked a ticket and rushed to the airport.
She had made the most shameful decision, to flee.
Maybe it was out of fear. It was like some object she desperately desired yet couldn't obtain had suddenly and unexpectedly appeared right in front of her. Of course she would be panicked about how to reach out and grab it.
What panicked her even more was being unsure if this might just be an illusion.
Ever since they met again, she had suppressed her own feelings, and even when noticing anything amiss, she would tell herself she was imagining things.
She didn't hold out hope anymore, didn't dare hold out hope, afraid it was just her own wishful thinking.
Song Anan went into the bedroom and from the bottom of a cabinet dug out that countdown calendar from back then. Over these two years it had just been pressed down here.
The calendar's countdown was still stopped on the day she had given up, and that former reckless courage to confess seemed to have stayed frozen on that day as well.
The current her was a coward, without even the courage to go find certainty, only able to slink back here alone.
Song Anan's fingers traced the date on the countdown, her heart filled with complex emotions she couldn't describe.
-
She had asked for four days off but came back after only one.
With things weighing on her mind, Song Anan didn't go back to use up her remaining vacation. She needed time, to be alone.
She muddled through aimlessly at home by herself for a day. She had thought she could figure something out, but in the end figured out nothing.
And in that day, besides the brief phone call with Pei Kuang at the airport, they had had no contact at all, not even a WeChat message.
Sometimes Song Anan even felt like maybe everything had just been her imagination.
Pei Kuang had just been joking with her that day, but because her heart had ghosts, she had taken the joke seriously.
It was the last day of vacation, and no matter what, Song Anan had to pull herself together and not let it affect her work.
After dinner that night, she tidied up the house from top to bottom, mopping, wiping tables, cleaning Qiúqiú's litter box, and even washing its food and water bowls squeaky clean.
By the time she finished everything it was already nine o'clock.
Very good. Go downstairs to take out the trash, and you can take a shower and go to sleep when you come back.
But when she picked up a bag of trash and opened the door, she saw an unexpected person in the hallway.
Pei Kuang.
What is he doing here?!
When Song Anan saw him, he was leaning against the wall, staring at his shoe tips in a daze.
She didn't know what he was thinking about or how long he had been there.
Hearing the sound of the door opening, Pei Kuang was also startled. When he looked at Song Anan, he didn't even have time to take back the expression on his face.
The two made eye contact, and it felt like the world had stopped.
After a brief stunned moment, Song Anan noticed that Pei Kuang's complexion was clearly not very good, and his whole person was even more haggard than the day after his surgery.
She couldn't care about anything else for the moment, "How did you come back? Didn't you say you'd be hospitalized for a week?"
Not only was he discharged early, but he also took a plane. It was simply reckless!
Pei Kuang quickly explained, "I asked the doctor, he said it was okay to take a plane."
Song Anan's eyebrows were tightly furrowed, but she knew his words were true.
She was quite clear about Pei Kuang's condition. Although he said it wasn't too serious and he could be discharged, it would still be better if he stayed in the hospital.
She took a deep breath: "When did you come?"
Pei Kuang replied: "For a while."
Song Anan stopped for a moment. "Why didn't you knock on the door?"
"I didn't dare," Pei Kuang lowered his eyes, looking quite pitiful, "I was afraid you wouldn't open the door for me."
Song Anan: "..."
She was silent for a few seconds.
Pei Kuang suddenly stood up straight, and the expression on his face became much more solemn in an instant, "Anan, I have something to tell you."
Song Anan was startled, and put the garbage by the door.
"Let's go inside to talk."
After entering, when Pei Kuang wanted to bend over to get his slippers, Song Anan stopped him and took a pair of slippers from the shoe cabinet and put them at his feet.
He still had an abdominal injury, and she was afraid he would pull the wound.
The two came to the living room, one after the other, and sat down on the sofa.
Song Anan pursed her lips and looked at Pei Kuang, "What do you want to say?"
Pei Kuang took a deep breath, his eyes exceptionally sincere: "The things I said at the hospital that day, I don't know if you understood, but in any case, there are some things I still want to say properly."
Song Anan's breath suddenly stalled. She had a vague premonition of what he was going to say.
"Anan, I like you." His gaze was ambiguous and serious. "It's the kind of liking between a man and a woman."
Although she had a premonition, Song Anan was still shocked when she heard it with her own ears.
She didn't expect Pei Kuang to be so straightforward.
He didn't even have any subtle lead up.
All the uncertainty before this moment had settled.
Song Anan didn't know how to describe what she felt in her heart. If she had to describe it, it was very complicated.
But she could be sure that in all the complex emotions, joy prevailed, overwhelmingly so!
The person she had liked for so long finally liked her back.
Song Anan exerted all her strength to hold back the sourness in the corners of her eyes, pretending to be calm and unperturbed.
Seeing her reaction, Pei Kuang was also very nervous in his heart.
All the anxiety and uneasiness of the past few days had reached its peak at this moment.
Pei Kuang was pretending to be calm on the surface, but he had already been breathless with tension for a long time. But since the arrow was already on the bowstring, he had no choice but to let it go.
"Anan, I know this is a bit sudden for you, but if you don't dislike me too much, can you let me try to pursue you first? Is that okay?"
Song Anan was startled for a moment, "Try to pursue me?"
Pei Kuang nodded lightly, "It's my business to like you, don't feel burdened, and don't have to consider anything else."
"During this process, if there is anything you are uncomfortable with, you can refuse. If you find you can't come to like me, that's okay too, you can call it off anytime."
After saying that, he looked at Song Anan quietly, his eyes carrying a hint of expectation, and even a trace of unnoticeable humility and pleading.
Song Anan felt a prick in her heart, which hurt a little.
She hesitated for a few seconds, and asked, "Can you be sure you really like me?"
Pei Kuang's gaze was firm. "Very sure."
This was the most certain thing in his life, without a doubt.
Song Anan was stunned for a moment, seemingly burnt by the light in his eyes. Her gaze subconsciously avoided his.
She didn't know why, but she suddenly became a little flustered, and blurted out anxiously: "But didn't you say you treated me like an elder?"
Pei Kuang was startled, and couldn't help but laugh.
It was just an offhand remark, yet the little girl still remembered it.
In fact, when he thought about it, Song Anan was also very annoyed with herself, but words spilled out couldn't be taken back, so she could only pretend to be firm.
The atmosphere suddenly lightened up a lot.
The tension in Pei Kuang's heart inexplicably dissipated a little. Judging from the little girl's reaction, she hadn't directly rejected him at least.
Then it means there was still a chance.
He tentatively asked, "Then...can I be unfilial just this once?"
Song Anan looked at him quietly, not saying yes or no.
After a long time, she nodded lightly, then whispered with a red face.
"Then I will also, disrespect my elder, just this once!"
