When Will My Childhood Sweetheart Marry Me?-Chapter 125: The Gift

Today, at eighteen, was undoubtedly the most unforgettable birthday she had had in her teenage years.

Yangjin had sent a notification of her pre-exam success, and, smoothly, she had secured an entrance ticket for the re-examination next March.

Jiang Shuyao got off the bus holding her phone, her heart filled with an indescribable taste, that intense joy of being one step closer to her dream, which was far beyond words.

"Congratulations, little Jiang, the artist."

As they entered the elevator, the young man beside her spared no effort in complimenting her.

If she savored his words, it really wasn’t flattery.

Jiang Shuyao thought he was being very genuine.

She had always believed she could become an outstanding painter in the future.

The girl looked up at the rising floor numbers, her eyes sparkling like stars, "How about I sign something for you now? In the future, you’ll have to line up for it."

She allowed herself a rare moment of vanity, showing off her pride in a low-key yet light-hearted way.

Behind her, there was silence for a full ten seconds.

Unsure what he was doing, Jiang Shuyao grew curious and turned to look at him.

At that moment, the elevator doors dinged open.

Before she knew it, she was being whisked out by someone’s firm grip.

"Getting your signature isn’t hard. How about finding a quiet moment at night for an all-around, unrestricted signing session?"

"..."

Pei Yan’s way of holding her was somewhat perverse.

Her head, influenced by gravity, could only face down, and after hearing his audacious words, she felt a rush of blood to the head.

"Put me down, are you the Devil, talking to me like that?" The girl struggled with both arms and legs.

He unlocked the door and entered, and finally, in the entryway, her legs touched the ground.

Her face flushed, and she glared at him fiercely.

The lights were off, leaving the room pitch black.

But the eyes of the person in front of her were even darker than this night.

She couldn’t make out his expression, only feeling the scorching intensity of his gaze.

Then, his hand slowly lifted, and the cool touch of his fingers gently traced her cheek.

The muffled voice seemed to come from the depths of the sea, "Yaoyao, I am only your Devil."

Jiang Shuyao was momentarily dazed, then pursed her lips about to speak when the lights overhead suddenly turned on.

At first, she didn’t notice anything different about the room.

Not until a breeze from the window wafted in, and she acutely smelled something in the air, a vaguely familiar scent.

Jiang Shuyao slowly turned, took a few steps, and entered the living room.

The sight before her made her stare in astonishment.

What she saw now was even more heart-stirring than when Pei Yan had seemingly conjured up a painting studio out of thin air for her.

The walls were filled with paintings, watercolors, sketches, oil paintings, her doodles at four years old, competition entries at five, bamboo and stone drawings at six, and live sketches of Tengwang Pavilion at seven...

These paintings should have been buried under the ruins of the old house, destroyed in the earthquake ten years ago.

But now, they were all vividly displayed before her.

For a long, long time, she looked sideways at Pei Yan, who had somehow appeared beside her, and asked him, "Did you really go to Minle that year?"

Minle was a small town on the outskirts of Rong City.

When her parents were just starting out in their careers, she spent a happy childhood there with her grandparents.

But one earthquake had since robbed Minle of its vitality.

Later, the economy recovered, Rong City rapidly developed, and Minle, forsaken for rebuilding homes, is now a bustling tourist destination.

Yet these paintings, having lost them once, she had cried over them countless nights.

The young boy, naïve and clueless back then, had coaxed her by outrageously promising to retrieve them for her. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

After the earthquake, the aftershocks kept coming.

He actually pulled off a clever ruse, heading all the way to Minle, his hometown, alone.

At the age of seven or eight, I didn’t understand why life was precious.

Jiang Shuyao still remembered, the boy covered in dirt, comically standing in front of her and saying, "I’m sorry, I couldn’t find your family’s home."

At that moment, she actually burst into laughter, her joy outweighing the disappointment.

She wondered how someone could be so foolish. He had been there several times and still couldn’t find where she lived.

It wasn’t until later, when she followed her parents back to her homeland and looked out over the vast plains, that she realized the bright homes from before the earthquake were no longer there.

Only then did she suddenly understand that it wasn’t Pei Yan who was foolish, but the Minle of the past that no longer existed.

In the blink of an eye, ten years had passed, the boy had shed his immaturity, now carrying a sense of reckless abandon.

It was also on her eighteenth birthday that he presented the fulfillment of a childhood promise so unexpectedly, like an unannounced surprise.

It turned out the guy had found the painting but had intentionally hidden it from her.

How terrible.

The girl was still immersed in the joy of having regained what she lost when Pei Yan nonchalantly passed by behind her, heading toward the balcony.

He brought a box from the storage cabinet and placed it on the table, indicating for her to "Take a look inside."

Hmm?

Another gift.

The girl looked too surprised, as if the evening’s pleasures were only meant to be the paintings on the wall.

With a languid expression, Pei Yan leaned back on the sofa, watching her with intense eyes.

She had the strange impression that he seemed very tired tonight.

Jiang Shuyao slowly walked over, crouched in front of the coffee table, and didn’t rush to open the box. Instead, she turned her gaze to Pei Yan.

With a hesitant heart, she tentatively asked, "How much is the thing inside worth?"

Perhaps the previous painting of "Xici" had left a deep impression on her, so that she now felt as nervous and uneasy as if she were unlocking Pandora’s box.

Seeing her reaction, Pei Yan couldn’t sit still any longer.

With a large hand, he picked her up onto the sofa.

He leaned over and quickly removed the ribbon outside the gift box, then dug out a dress from inside.

Jiang Shuyao’s eyes nearly bulged out as she stammered, "You, you actually bought this for me!"

Heaven knows, she hadn’t worn a skirt for six whole years.

And the culprit that made her afraid to wear skirts was this person beside her.

In the sixth grade, Pei Yan once used a caterpillar to scare her, and during the fray, he accidentally lifted her skirt, and then...

Although she was wearing safety shorts, her young mind was deeply traumatized.

Jiang Shuyao was too embarrassed to tell her parents about the incident. For a while, she would run away upon seeing Pei Yan, avoiding him from afar and finding it difficult even to speak coherently with him.

His actions had left a significant psychological shadow on her.

So, from that point on, she refused to wear skirts ever again, not for anything.

The girl’s resolved expression amused Pei Yan to the point of laughter and tears.

He squinted his eyes and pinched her chin, commanding in a low voice, "Go change into it; I want to help you overcome that psychological barrier."

Jiang Shuyao shook her head vigorously, her eyes full of resistance.

"Who wants to wear your skirt, don’t force me to fall out with you! Take it away now!"

Heh.

Pei Yan smirked with interest, tugging at the corner of his mouth, "Yaoyao, you’re an adult now. Why cling to those old sesame and rotten millet matters from your childhood? Be good, go try it on for me, see if the size fits."

His voice was sultry and deep in the winter night.

She felt like she was going crazy.