Be Passionately In Love

The first thought that flashed through Chen Luzhou's mind was that if she asked again, he might actually agree. But luckily, the next second, the stern and old-fashioned face of Xu Guangji flickered through his mind, instantly bringing him to his senses. He then remembered it had been a while since he last checked in with Dr. Xu.

"If I’d known you were this kind of person, I wouldn’t have even let you kiss me," Chen Luzhou leaned against the door, looking down at her with a cold gaze. "You really take an inch and demand a mile—it’s like the phrase was made for you."

Xu Zhi immediately tilted her head up and kissed him on the chin, her eyes challenging him, then pressed another kiss to his lips.

"Really? Can you resist? Chen Luzhou, it’s not like I can’t tell—you have feelings for me."

Both of them knew, more or less, about the electrifying, fatal attraction between them. How could there not be feelings? Honestly, between the two of them, there was nothing left but feelings. Yet, because they had met at this most unstable, uncertain age where futures were still unclear, neither knew if these feelings could—or should—become the stakes they’d bet their futures on. No one dared to gamble.

"So just because I have feelings, you mess with me like this?" Chen Luzhou was already irritated at the mention of the word "boyfriend," a smoldering fire of frustration burning in his chest. His arm around her waist abruptly tightened, and he lowered his head, pressing his warm breath against her neck. Xu Zhi was forced to arch her neck back. His hair seemed freshly cut, no longer as soft as before, the short strands prickling against her skin like freshly trimmed summer grass—lush and vibrant, yet utterly harmless as it brushed lazily against her. "Keep this up, and I’ll leave a hickey on your neck. Then you’ll really have to face your dad’s wrath—"

See how good he was at this?

Xu Zhi wasn’t scared in the slightest—if anything, she seemed excited, her eyes gleaming as she stared at him. Chen Luzhou had no choice but to admit defeat. And so… he gave in. Whether it was because it was his first time leaving a hickey and he didn’t know his own strength, or because Xu Zhi’s skin was just that sensitive, the moment he touched her, her skin flushed red. Chen Luzhou froze—he had actually left a mark.

"Will your dad hit you?" He lightly traced his fingers over the spot on her neck, confirming it really had turned red.

"No," Xu Zhi looped her arms around his neck, grinning. "But he’ll hit you."

Chen Luzhou laughed, utterly unbothered. "That’s fine. I’ve got thick skin. As long as he doesn’t hit you."

After that, he refused to kiss her again no matter what. Eventually, after Xu Zhi’s relentless pestering, he half-heartedly allowed a couple of pecks.

Xu Zhi secretly glanced up at him. Maybe it was because Chen Luzhou was just too good-looking—though he didn’t exactly seem like the disciplined, well-behaved type, there was something aloof and clean about him, natural and unguarded. Even when she was sitting in his lap kissing him, he remained restrained and composed, his veins standing out starkly as he kept his hands calmly at his sides. That very restraint was what made him so maddeningly irresistible.

Xu Zhi had heard that people whose veins bulged easily either had varicose veins or were… well, you know. Or maybe it was that he clearly knew exactly what he was doing, yet chose to do nothing. Every time they kissed, she was the one who initiated—he had never once kissed her first. Either he was a ticking time bomb waiting to explode, or he was just… doomed to wither in silence.Xu Zhi had planned to search for details about the movie "Cartou" that day, but she discovered how alarmingly invasive phone surveillance had become. She suspected she and Chen Luzhou had been recorded when a Q&A forum automatically recommended her a post titled—"Are there guys who kiss without touching breasts?"

She was about to click and reply with a "Yes." when she saw a resounding top-voted answer below—

Anonymous User: "No."

Xu Zhi suddenly recalled how during senior year, Cai Yingying once complained to her about accidentally witnessing the class beauty from the next class arguing with their own class's meek academic committee member in a grove. Just as she was considering whether to intervene, the two ended up embracing and kissing—with the academic committee member slipping his hand under the class beauty's shirt... From then on, Cai Yingying could never look at that "meek" academic committee member the same way again.

Xu Zhi sighed silently, feeling a mix of emotions. She had thought he was upright, but never expected him to be this upright. She was just about to sarcastically remark, "Campus Idol Chen, how do you manage to be both a scumbag and so upright?"

Then, a series of loud, urgent knocks suddenly pounded on the door—

"Chen Luzhou!"

"Open up, you jerk, you bastard."

"Chen Luzhou! Your dad's here."

The two were still kissing at that moment, with Xu Zhi's arms looped around his neck. Hearing the sharp, insistent knocking, they paused simultaneously, their breaths still tangled and reluctant to part, the air between them warm and thick. Chen Luzhou initially thought of pretending not to be home, but since he'd done that too often in the past, Zhu Yangqi was certain he was inside. Outside, Zhu Yangqi yelled, "Chen Luzhou, I know you're home! I can even hear you farting!"

Damn it.

It was the sound of Xu Zhi accidentally kicking the shoe cabinet next to them during the kiss.

So, Xu Zhi had no choice but to disentangle herself from him, sighing, "Open the door. We have a guest."

Chen Luzhou gave an acknowledging hum, glancing at her neck. "Let me get you a band-aid?"

Xu Zhi agreed. Chen Luzhou straightened up from the door but didn’t rush to let Zhu Yangqi in. Instead, he gave Xu Zhi a long, helpless look before calling out indifferently to the person outside, "Wait there. I need to put on some pants."

Zhu Yangqi grunted in response.

But Chen Luzhou forgot Xu Zhi was still there. So when Zhu Yangqi stepped inside, he found the two sitting properly on opposite ends of the couch, watching TV with the politeness of strangers, as if an insurmountable galaxy separated them. Xu Zhi even greeted him courteously, "Hello, Zhu Yangqi."

Chen Luzhou, as blunt as ever, asked, "What are you here for?"

Zhu Yangqi looked baffled. "Didn’t you ask me over to watch the game?"

Chen Luzhou: "..."

He’d forgotten. He really had invited Zhu Yangqi to watch the match today.

Xu Zhi had a fresh band-aid on her neck, which Zhu Yangqi immediately recognized. "That’s a hickey, isn’t it?"

Xu Zhi froze. "You—"

Even Chen Luzhou, leaning back on the couch with the remote in hand, stared at Zhu Yangqi in shock.Zhu Yangqi grinned smugly, clearly relishing their ignorance, and began his explanation: "The girls in our class sometimes come to school with those things stuck on their necks. But you know our head teacher, that walking gas tank—he’s got way too much experience catching puppy love. He’d say, ‘Don’t bother with band-aids for scars on the neck. If you’re hurt there, you either belong in a hospital or should be wearing gauze. Who the hell uses band-aids?’ So, under his guidance, the couples in our class learned never to leave hickeys on the neck. So, Xu Zhi, care to tell me which clueless idiot left a hickey on a girl’s neck?"

Xu Zhi: "..."

Chen Luzhou: "..."

The silence stretched for nearly two minutes before Xu Zhi stood up to leave. Chen Luzhou tossed the remote to Zhu Yangqi and said, "I’ll walk her back. You can watch TV for a bit."

Zhu Yangqi had appeared perfectly composed at the time, but the moment the door opened again, he suddenly pulled out a party popper—probably left over from when Chen Luzhou had been dragged into being a groomsman at a teacher’s wedding. Without even checking who had entered, he hid around the corner of the living room. Hearing the door click shut, he twisted the popper open with a loud "BANG!" and leaped out like a monkey unleashed from a mountain, shouting, "Young Master Chen is finally off the market—!"

"..."

The grin on Zhu Yangqi’s face froze. Instinctively, he blurted out, "...Huh? Mom? Oh—no, Auntie Lian."

**

The moon hung pristine and undisturbed in the sky, as if nothing had happened.

The distance between Chen Luzhou’s place and Xu Zhi’s wasn’t far—just two streets, about a twenty-minute walk. Since it was still early, the streets were lively with bright lights and bustling crowds. The two of them strolled leisurely, stopping to browse any interesting shops along the way. Passing by a scent museum, Xu Zhi immediately ducked inside and began rummaging through the displays. When Chen Luzhou asked what she was looking for, she glanced up at him and said, "A scent that can cover up your body wash." She ended up picking out a pungent perfume with a faint garlic note, which made Chen Luzhou wrinkle his nose in distaste. The sales assistant enthusiastically chimed in, "This one’s our bestseller—light milk and fresh grass."

Light milk and fresh grass... but it smelled sharp, like wet roots mixed with soil after rain.

Hearing "light milk and fresh grass," Xu Zhi decided it suited him perfectly and bought it without hesitation. Chen Luzhou had assumed it was for her, but the moment they stepped outside, she handed it to him and commanded in true domineering CEO fashion, "Wear this every time you see me."

Chen Luzhou turned on his heel, bag in hand. "...Then I’m going back to exchange it. That sea salt one was alright."

Xu Zhi, of course, wouldn’t let him. Using the excuse of wanting candy from the shop across the street, she dragged him away.

Naturally, Chen Luzhou couldn’t win against her. He walked her all the way to her apartment building, stopping under the parasol-like canopy of a lush plane tree at the entrance. Its dense leaves cast fragmented moonlight over them, and with Chen Luzhou’s shadow added to the mix, Xu Zhi felt doubly sheltered—utterly safe.Xu Zhi pointed to one tightly shut window among the haphazardly opened ones upstairs, reluctant to part as she told him, "The one with the gardenia plant is my room. Since gardenias can only grow in aluminum pots, they don’t look very pretty. When it’s not blooming season, the bare stems look especially ugly. The aunt next door kept thinking I was trying and failing to grow green onions. Every now and then, she’d ask if I still wanted the pot—if not, she’d take it back to use as a foot basin."

Xu Zhi sighed and continued, "Later, the gardenia bloomed, but since our floor is so high up, many of my classmates couldn’t clearly see what kind of flower it was when they came looking for me. So they told others, 'The house with the aluminum pot by the window—the one with a few socks sticking out of it—is hers.'"

Chen Luzhou burst into laughter, then calmly pointed upward. "And that round head above the socks—that’s your dad, right?"

Xu Zhi glanced up and, sure enough, there was Old Xu’s inscrutable face peering down. She turned back in a hurry and said, "I’m done talking to you. I’m going up now."

Chen Luzhou gave an acknowledging hum, planning to leave once she went inside. But Xu Zhi, standing just inside the building entrance, secretly waved him over. With a resigned sigh, he shoved his hands into his pockets and walked toward her. Xu Zhi tugged him into the dim stairwell, where Chen Luzhou—one hand holding the bag of perfume, the other lazily tucked in his pocket—let himself be dragged to the stair landing.

Both of them were still chewing the candy they’d bought earlier, now nearly melted. Chen Luzhou leaned against the stairwell wall, slowly working the last remnants in his mouth. He looked down at her with a lazy, teasing gaze and asked knowingly, "What?"

Xu Zhi asked curiously, "What flavor is your candy?"

"Cherry."

"Liar."

Chen Luzhou leaned against the wall, eyeing her for a long moment before finally laughing and looking away. "If you want to kiss, just say so. No matter what I say, you’d insist on checking for yourself anyway."

"......"

Just as Xu Zhi was about to reply, Old Xu materialized behind them like a ghost. Startled, she leaped away from Chen Luzhou. "Dad—!"

Chen Luzhou instinctively turned and saw Xu Guangji’s familiar face—though this time, without the white lab coat, his features seemed even more ordinary. In the dim stairwell light, he almost didn’t recognize him.

For all of Chen Luzhou’s usual social prowess, he found himself inexplicably tongue-tied. He wasn’t sure what to call him—"Dr. Xu" might reveal that he’d once visited his clinic, while "Uncle" felt like he was hiding something. Xu Guangji glanced at Xu Zhi. "I was wondering why you hadn’t come up after all this time. What are you two discussing down here? What needs to be 'checked personally'?"

Luckily, he’d only caught the tail end. Xu Zhi exhaled in relief. "Nothing. He took some photos for me today, and I just needed to confirm them."

Xu Guangji eyed her skeptically. "Go on upstairs first. I’d like a word with him alone."

Xu Zhi gave an "Oh" and glanced at Chen Luzhou before heading up. Probably too nervous to question why her dad wanted to talk to him, she didn’t realize something was off until later. Then, tiptoeing back, she crouched stealthily by the second-floor landing to eavesdrop. She missed most of the conversation but caught her father’s earnest advice to him—"...You haven't come back for your follow-up check this month. Young people like you never take these things seriously. The issue of deformity rate can be quite severe. I had a patient just like you before—didn't pay attention when he was young, only came for examination when he was about to get married, and went through hell. I'm not trying to scare you, but you really should come back for your follow-up. Don't think just because you're young, nothing will happen. Use your hands more these days, come back for a check-up in three to five days, and don't delay any longer. Listen to me."

Chen Luzhou: "..."

Xu Guangji had originally been teasing him, but ever since that patient came back and underwent various puncture examinations—screaming so loudly the entire department could hear—his medical ethics made him somewhat concerned for this handsome young man, Chen Luzhou. So when he spotted someone who looked like him upstairs earlier, he rushed down without hesitation to remind him to come back for the follow-up.

By the time Xu Guangji returned home, Xu Zhi was leisurely sipping a cup of coffee and sauntered over to him, asking quietly, "Dad, does Chen Luzhou have some kind of problem?"

Xu Guangji had just changed into his slippers. Leaning against the wall, he gave her a measured look and said, "It's not something a girl should concern herself with. Are you hungry? Go heat up the food. I'll talk to you while we eat."

Too many things had happened at home recently. Because of the fraud incident, Xu Guangji had been juggling work with frequent visits to the police station to check on the progress of the case. On top of that, it was the rainy season, and Grandma had gone back to the countryside to clean the house, leaving just the two of them at home. But Xu Zhi had been busy working odd jobs to earn money, so after the college acceptance letters were sent out, father and daughter hadn’t really had a chance to sit down and talk properly.

After Xu Zhi heated up the food, Xu Guangji patted the table, signaling for her to sit down—clearly preparing for a heart-to-heart talk. He wasn’t opposed to his daughter dating, and after some inquiries about Chen Luzhou from Old Cai, he felt the young man was decent in most aspects.

So he hadn’t planned to make things difficult for her on this matter. When it came to parenting, he and Old Cai both believed in one principle: suppression is worse than guidance. Besides, at their age, full of youthful passion, how could a few words from them possibly stifle the budding feelings of adolescence? But since certain issues had already arisen...

They needed to face them head-on and guide them in the right direction. At this age, kids shouldn’t be completely stifled, but they also shouldn’t be left entirely unchecked.

When Xu Zhi saw Old Xu take out that half-finished bottle of Wuliangye from the fridge—a bottle that had been there for months—she instantly realized tonight was going to be a tough battle. Sure enough, as he poured himself a drink, Old Xu asked, "You’ve been going out at night to see Chen Luzhou recently, haven’t you?"

Xu Zhi replied, "No, I told you—I’ve been tutoring."

Xu Guangji was sharp. Behind his glasses, his eyes gleamed with a hint of suspicion. "That doesn’t add up. I thought you were tutoring in Chunshan. Why do you come back every night from the direction of Yifeng Road? Those are two opposite sides of town."

"I was eating with friends there. You usually eat at the cafeteria, and no one cooks at home, so I just ate in the city center," Xu Zhi explained.

Xu Guangji let out an "Oh," took a small sip of Wuliangye, smacked his lips, and said, "Alright. I’ve been neglecting you lately. Starting tomorrow, we’ll have dinner at home. Come straight back after your tutoring job, and don’t go out at night."The living room light was on, two foxes scheming against each other, but the older ginger is spicier. The younger fox sighed, realizing that honesty might lead to a dead end. "...Maybe you should ask again."

Xu Guangji had originally intended to talk to her about the future, about their life ideals. After all, both she and Chen Luzhou had good grades. With hard work, they could definitely carve out a bright future in China. So even after entering university, they couldn’t slack off—economic stability was the foundation for everything.

Most importantly, Xu Guangji had a bit of a selfish motive. Chen Luzhou was a local, so they could get married here in the future, keeping his daughter close by. Otherwise, he’d end up like that colleague of his—not only a widower but with a daughter married abroad who hadn’t come back in over a decade. During holidays, he had no one to talk to. That was truly pitiful.

Xu Guangji cheerfully repeated his question: "So, you’ve been going out at night with Chen Luzhou recently?"

"Yes, we’re dating, but we’ll break up soon. He’s going abroad." Xu Zhi had no choice but to say this—she couldn’t very well admit they were just fooling around. Old Xu would faint on the spot.

Xu Guangji, who usually wouldn’t waste a single drop of alcohol, spilled his drink. Without another word, he rushed into the kitchen and came back with another knife. "That scumbag—does he live in Yifeng Lane?!"

Author’s note: 200 red envelopes.

Zhu Yangqi: Chen Luzhou, run! I just got slashed at your place...