This summer was even hotter than usual. Even the cicadas clinging to the tree trunks had started singing half a month earlier, letting out wave after wave of irritating buzzing.

Fortunately, the weather forecast showed:

Beicheng City would be sunny for the next week, suitable for going out.

Lin Zhu was very afraid of heat, so some time ago he simply cut his hair completely short, changing to an easy-to-manage short style. From roots to tips, it was a deep black. It made him look much steadier.

That was what Yan Ruojun said.

In the front passenger seat, Lin Zhu was wearing his summer school uniform. The white short-sleeved stand-collar shirt fit his tall, agile young body especially well, making him look youthful and spirited.

His black schoolbag rested on his lap.

As the driver beside him kept asking questions, Lin Zhu’s hands occasionally moved inside the bag, checking things.

“Did you bring your admission ticket?”

“I did.”

“What about your stationery? Missing anything?”

“It’s all in the pencil case.”

“Mmm… and…”

The car window was lowered halfway. The afternoon sun wasn’t too harsh, and the breeze was cool, very comfortable against his face. Lin Zhu couldn’t help smiling, cutting off the man’s deep concentration.

“Ge, I didn’t forget anything. Didn’t you already help me check once last night?”

There was a traffic light ahead.

Yan Ruojun slowly stopped the car. Both hands stayed on the steering wheel, his index fingers tapping lightly against it one after another. He couldn’t help turning to glance at Lin Zhu and sighed.

“Lin puppy, you’re the one taking the college entrance exam today and tomorrow, so why am I the one this nervous?”

After thinking for a moment, he added,

“I wasn’t even this nervous when I took my own exam.”

Lin Zhu answered with complete sincerity, “Then you’re really amazing.”

Yan Ruojun said, “You’re even more amazing. Back then, I didn’t have a husband to drive me to my college entrance exam. I went by myself.”

Lin Zhu touched his nose and turned to look at the scenery outside the window.

As for the college entrance exam, for him it was almost a case of doing it once and then doing it a second time more easily. Since he had prepared exceptionally well, Lin Zhu was very relaxed.

If anything…

Compared to the exam, he was much more nervous about something else.

Over the past half year, Lin Zhu had confirmed with the system countless times—that after successfully completing the final role-playing task, he could give up the revival reward and exchange it for the right to stay permanently in this world.

Although the prerequisite was extremely difficult, and the ending might not turn out as perfectly as he hoped… at the very least, he and Yan Ruojun would no longer have to be separated by an entire world.

It was his first time loving someone.

Vigorous, wholehearted, without reservation.

Lin Zhu thought:

As long as there was even the slightest possibility, he would never let go.

Strangely enough, perhaps because of Lin Zhu’s influence, the faint insecurity Yan Ruojun had shown before had completely disappeared. The two of them had never argued again.

The most obvious sign of this was that Yan Ruojun no longer had thoughts about having a child, and would even主动 bring up the need for protection when they were together.

After that argument, Lin Zhu had personally watched him pull out little packets from the flower vase on the dining table, the sofa crevice, the living room cabinet, the bathroom shelf… and all kinds of other corners. Then the two of them would use them right there on the spot, not wasting a single one.

The only problem was that cleaning up afterward was a little troublesome.

But once they entered the final hundred days before the college entrance exam, their frequency dropped sharply. It was mainly because Yan Ruojun’s self-control was extremely good, and he was afraid of affecting Lin Zhu’s study state.

In reality, Lin Zhu didn’t need anyone to worry about him at all. He had even achieved excellent results in the first, second, and third mock exams. Getting into the university he wanted was no problem whatsoever.

Day after day, time passed.

In the blink of an eye, it was June again, and Lin Zhu迎来了 this important day once more. Yan Ruojun had specially cleared two days from his schedule and personally drove him to the test site.

Outside the exam venue, traffic was jammed and the crowd was thick.

After getting out of the car, Lin Zhu couldn’t help leaning down to remind the person inside,

“Ge, I saw a café nearby. Go sit there for a while, it’ll be more comfortable.”

Yan Ruojun crooked a finger at him.

So Lin Zhu leaned his head into the car window. Then the man raised both hands to hold his cheeks and leaned over to give him a soft kiss.

“Husband, good luck on the exam. I’ll wait for you.”

Lin Zhu answered with an “Mm,” then held Yan Ruojun’s hand and pecked his palm twice before turning and walking toward the exam hall.

In that short stretch of road, he saw many students and the family members who had come to escort them. Most were being dropped off by parents, a few by older grandparents.

Lin Zhu’s face felt a little hot under the sun.

…Among all the people being sent to the college entrance exam by family, he was probably the only one being sent by his wife, right?

Thinking that, his steps grew lighter and quicker.

Before entering the exam venue, he couldn’t help looking back once. He found that Yan Ruojun had also gotten out of the car and was holding up his phone in Lin Zhu’s direction, as if taking pictures.

Without thinking, Lin Zhu raised a peace sign.

He only felt as though his whole body had turned into a light little bubble, exposed beneath warm morning light. Then the wind blew—whoosh—and he floated up.

Once the exam officially began, Lin Zhu immediately calmed down.

When he opened his eyes again after adjusting himself, his gaze had already turned firm and steady…

Lin Zhu picked up his pen and began writing, his handwriting clear and neat.

The college entrance exam lasted two days, and those two days passed in the identical atmosphere of the exam classrooms.

The afternoon of the second day.

The final exam ended.

When the papers were collected, everyone in the classroom let out a sigh at the same time, a sigh full of emotions like finally being free. Even Lin Zhu couldn’t help exhaling deeply.

He quickly packed up his bag and strode outside. Along the way he brushed past many shoulders, his pace getting faster and faster…

The main gate slowly opened.

The area outside the exam venue was packed with people. Every face was turned inward, every gaze carrying similar expectation and eagerness.

Among the dense crowd, Lin Zhu suddenly caught sight of a bright patch of yellow.

It was Yan Ruojun.

He wasn’t squeezed into the crowd at the very front. Instead, he stood under a nearby tree.

Leaning against a red Ferrari, he held a huge bouquet of blooming sunflowers in his arms. The moment he saw Lin Zhu come out, he raised the flowers high above his head and waved them several times.

That brilliant color flashed across Lin Zhu’s eyes.

He stopped for a beat.

The weather was perfect, the sky cloudless for miles.

Through the crowd, Lin Zhu gazed at Yan Ruojun’s figure and couldn’t help smiling slightly, fierce joy echoing through his chest.

The wind swept past his ears.

Lin Zhu ignored its attempts to hold him back. Without taking his eyes off him for a moment, he ran toward his lucky star and then threw his arms around him hard.

Without letting go.

A moment later, Yan Ruojun awkwardly folded his wrist and patted the boy’s elbow.

“…Let go. People are looking at us.”

But Lin Zhu didn’t want to care about that. He shook his head and said in a low voice,

“No. Let me hold you a little longer.”

His newly cut hair was prickly, brushing against the man’s neck and making him want to dodge, but the boy’s arms held him tightly in place.

Yan Ruojun sighed in mock helplessness.

Suddenly, the car window behind them rolled down with a click. Two pairs of eyes looked out at them, and one of the people inside abruptly asked,

“It’s been five minutes. Can we go eat now?”

Lin Zhu: “…”

Yan Ruojun stuffed the bouquet into his young husband’s arms, a sly smile hidden at the edge of his lips.

“I forgot to tell you—my mom and grandpa came to pick you up too. We’re going back to the Huanshan residence for dinner tonight.”

That same night.

The two of them stayed over at the Huanshan estate.

Lin Zhu was already very familiar with the place. There was no shortage of spare clothes for him in the room’s wardrobe. As soon as they went back to the room, Yan Ruojun urged him to take a shower.

Lin Zhu obediently went into the bathroom.

Halfway through, Yan Ruojun came in as well.

Although they still slept together every night, it had been a long time since they had touched each other deeply. Through the steaming mist, Lin Zhu’s eyes met the man’s, and invisible sparks flashed between them.

No extra words or gestures were needed. Lin Zhu reached out, caught the man by the forearm, and pulled him beneath the warm curtain of water in one motion.

Yan Ruojun asked by his ear,

“Lin puppy, do you still have the energy? If you’re tired, I can do it myself…”

Lin Zhu didn’t feel slighted in the least. Instead, he used actions to make the man change his words.

At first, Yan Ruojun pleaded softly, but then his voice gradually got louder and louder, until he started sounding almost reckless.

Only then did Lin Zhu belatedly remember that they were in the Huanshan estate, not in their own little home. He quickly freed one hand to cover the man’s mouth.

“Ge, quieter.”

Yan Ruojun answered with several aggrieved little hums.

“… ”

Out of consideration for the elders in the house, they stopped early. Even after washing again, it was only around midnight.

Lin Zhu had specially asked one of the household staff for a transparent vase and arranged the big bouquet of sunflowers in it. The vase was now sitting on the bedside table, though just now the man had accidentally knocked off a few petals.

Yan Ruojun hugged Lin Zhu’s pillow and carefully replayed the experience in his mind before giving his verdict:

“I feel like… it wasn’t enough.”

Maybe it was just because they’d gone without for too long.

Anyway, it wasn’t enough.

With his back to the man, Lin Zhu was crouched in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, using a tissue to wipe up a wet stain that had accidentally gotten onto the curtain.

The man had splashed it there by mistake earlier.

Lin Zhu casually replied,

“Better not…”

“Ge, you were really too loud.”

At that, Yan Ruojun clicked his tongue in dissatisfaction, but he had no real way to argue back. So he just lay there on Lin Zhu’s pillow and scrolled his phone. After a few minutes, he suddenly asked,

“Lin Zhu, now that your exams are over, what are you planning to do?”

The college entrance exam was over.

The boy’s high school life had finally come to an end. Ahead of him lay a long vacation, and another stage of life.

Hearing that, Lin Zhu paused in the middle of wiping the stain. He only felt that time had passed far too quickly.

So quickly that it felt unreal.

In a daze, Lin Zhu thought:

The last plot point is almost here.

What is meant to come will come.

Lin Zhu took two deep breaths and calmed down again, then answered according to the plan he had already made:

“I want to find a part-time job first and earn some money.”

Yan Ruojun buried his nose in the mint-candy scent on the pillow.

“Our family isn’t short of money. If you’ve got that much free time, you’d be better off getting exposure to your field…”

Lin Zhu patiently waited until he finished, then continued:

“I want to earn it myself and buy you a ring.”

The moment those words fell—

The air went quiet for a second.

Yan Ruojun sat straight up at once.

“Do you need me to introduce you to a high-paying job?”