It was already past 4 p.m., and the light rain outside was still drizzling. The last two or three customers had left the store, and Su Yiran walked over to Gu Yuanting, watching him work on his wood carving. “How’s it coming along?”

Gu Yuanting stiffened. “…It’s not done yet.”

Su Yiran saw him holding a carving knife, measuring and marking the wood, seemingly preparing to do the final hollowing-out. “Hollow carving is really hard. Half of what I made looks really stiff. I think it’s because I saw through it too easily.”

A good hollow carving should look translucent—bright but not transparent—creating a feeling of hidden depth and mystery.

Gu Yuanting was very familiar with these theories. He nodded. “You have to carve from different angles to make the layers connect and interact.”

Su Yiran relaxed upon seeing how well Ting-ge understood it. Last time they’d done it, neither of them knew a thing—they just muddled through.

He noticed the bowl of mango sago pudding still on the table. Ting-ge had obediently only eaten about half of it. Su Yiran picked it up and started eating the remaining half with the same spoon.

Gu Yuanting watched Su Yiran eat spoonful after spoonful with the spoon he had used, and couldn’t help swallowing. Suddenly, he had an urge to kiss him.

Su Yiran, mid-bite, noticed Ting-ge had stopped carving and was staring at him with an expression that seemed full of longing. He glanced down at the last spoonful of pudding in the bowl and understood.

He held the spoon up to Gu Yuanting’s lips. “Here, the last bite is for you.”

Gu Yuanting: “…”

After Gu Yuanting ate it, Su Yiran was about to pull his hand back, but Gu Yuanting suddenly grabbed his wrist. With intense eyes, he licked the spoon clean—every drop.

Su Yiran’s face flushed red instantly. He hastily pulled back his hand and almost tripped over his own feet. “I-I-I-I’m gonna get back to work. You keep carving!”

Gu Yuanting watched Su Yiran flee, savoring the lingering taste, then looked down and resumed carving.

Su Yiran scurried to the back room. Employee Zhang Xiaohong was cleaning and looked at him in surprise. “Boss, are you okay? Your face is super red.”

Su Yiran pressed the back of his hand to his cheek. It was hot. He coughed. “I’m fine, I’m fine.”

He quickly changed the subject. “By the way, is the crispy sugar set?”

“It’s done,” Zhang Xiaohong said. “I just put it in the fridge to keep it fresh.”

Su Yiran took out a tray of crispy soft sugar from the fridge to check. Zhang Xiaohong had made it herself. He tasted one—it was soft, sweet, and springy. He couldn’t resist eating several more and praised her. “It’s delicious! You’re amazing! We should start putting these out for customers at the counter too.”

Zhang Xiaohong smiled shyly.

Since she started working there, she’d been diligent, smart, and helpful—and she could even make sweet treats on her own.

Whenever Su Yiran had time, he liked to make nougat, milk candies, and orange jelly. He’d snack on them himself or put them in a candy tray at the counter for customers to enjoy while waiting. It was a well-liked feature of the shop.

Su Yiran refilled the tray, putting some crispy sugar in one section and setting it back on the counter—snacking on a few more pieces during the process.

As he chewed, a thought hit him. He peeked toward the utility area. Ting-ge was still deeply focused on his carving, oblivious to Su Yiran’s sneaky candy binge.

Relieved, Su Yiran sat behind the counter, munching and checking the shop’s sales on the computer.

Back when he was in middle school, he once got a cavity from eating too many sweets. After days of toothaches, Ting-ge had forbidden him from eating too much sugar. Even in college, when they opened a milk tea shop together, Ting-ge would keep him in check.

But ever since opening this shop, with Ting-ge working elsewhere, Su Yiran was on his own. The “emperor was far away,” so to speak. He would snack on a few candies or desserts here and there—because really, he was grown up now. No way he’d get toothaches like a kid anymore, right?

Ting-ge just worried too much.

After checking the daily revenue and doing some mental math, Su Yiran realized he’d eaten all the milk candies in the tray.

He went to the back room to make another batch—mixing milk powder and matcha, adding condensed milk, kneading, rolling in coconut flakes, and letting it sit. It was a simple process. He figured he could teach this in his next livestream.

He also made chocolate, original, and coffee-flavored milk candies, storing some in the fridge and putting others back in the candy tray. He even packed a small bag for himself—planning to sneak them home and eat them behind Ting-ge’s back.

He was getting bolder.

Time flew by. By 5 p.m., customers started coming in waves again. The quiet afternoon passed, and Su Yiran got busy until 7 p.m., when it was time to close.

After he and Zhang Xiaohong finished cleaning, he let her leave for the day and glanced toward Gu Yuanting. “Ting-ge, how’s the carving going?”

From afternoon to evening, he’d worked three straight hours—surely it had turned out great?

Getting no reply, Su Yiran ran over excitedly. “Let me see!”

Gu Yuanting: “…”

Su Yiran looked at the… weird and ugly thing in his hands and almost burst out laughing.

Well, neither of them had improved at all—just graduated from clueless to theoretical knowledge.

Gu Yuanting glanced at the beautifully carved piece on the counter—the one Su Yiran and the original store owner had made—then looked at his own disaster of a carving. “…”

Su Yiran couldn’t hold in his laughter. He had known better than to hope. Last time they did this, he had already seen Ting-ge’s “talent.” That pretty sculpture on the counter had only looked nice because a professional craftsman had completely reworked it.

He saw Gu Yuanting staring seriously at the new, hideous carving, clearly baffled and questioning his life choices. Feeling a little bad, Su Yiran took it and studied it carefully, trying to find something “cute” about it.

After a long moment, he coughed. “Uhh… Ting-ge, it’s fine, this one is… um… it’s ugly-cute.”

Gu Yuanting: “…”

Su Yiran kept flipping it over in his hands and the more he looked, the more “ugly-cute” it really did seem.

Thinking about how Ting-ge had been working on this for days—finding wood, sketching designs, studying techniques, determined to get it right—Su Yiran made a decision.

He would swap out the old one with this new, ugly one. No repairs, no touch-ups. Let it be ugly—this would be their shop mascot.

This time, it was 100% handmade by just the two of them.

He replaced the old carving with the new one and turned to smile at Gu Yuanting. “From now on, this one is our shop mascot—the treasure of our store, haha.”

The store’s treasured mascot.

Gu Yuanting: “…”

…Well, at least it replaced the one the original owner made.

Seeing that Ting-ge still looked gloomy, Su Yiran went over and hugged him, playfully pinching his nose. “Come on, I really do think it’s cute. I like it a lot.”

Gu Yuanting looked into his smiling eyes—full of twinkling stars—and felt his heart swell. He wanted to kiss those eyes, right now.

He didn’t hesitate. Following his heart, he cupped Su Yiran’s face and kissed his eyes. Su Yiran closed his eyes with the motion, his long lashes fluttering like butterfly wings.

Gu Yuanting kissed him softly, once, twice—until he felt satisfied.

Su Yiran laughed. “Okay, okay,” he gently pushed him away. “Let’s go home.”

They closed up the shop and walked toward the parking lot under a transparent umbrella in the drizzle. Gu Yuanting tilted the umbrella toward Su Yiran, shielding him fully while his own left shoulder got slightly wet.

On the drive home, they chatted casually. Su Yiran occasionally touched the little bag of milk candies he’d stuffed into his pocket earlier.

Having candy in his pocket made him restless—he just wanted to eat it all.

It was like stocking a week’s worth of snacks in the fridge… if he didn’t finish them in two days, it’d feel like an injustice.

He sneaked a look at Gu Yuanting, who was focused on driving. Su Yiran quickly opened the little bag and popped a candy into his mouth.

Gu Yuanting glanced at him, saw the candy, and said nothing.

If he liked it, let him eat.