“Are you done?”

“Not yet.”

“Are you done?”

“Not yet.”

This wasn’t padding. Repeated lines don’t count toward the word count.

But Chen Dao really had asked twice, and Xia Jiuli had answered twice.

The sofa chair was soft. Its edges were peeling from wear. The wooden coffee table in front had been wrapped in a full layer of sponge padding for protection. It looked like this family of three often suffered from banged knees or stubbed toes.

Chen Dao had bumped into it just now too, and it made Xia Jiuli laugh through her tears.

After she finished drinking water, she hadn’t cried much anymore. She’d already realized there would never again be three cups set out at home. So she just held the cup her mother used to use and stared blankly at it.

Chen Dao couldn’t just let her squat by the doorway. So he reached both arms around Xia Jiuli, who was clutching her schoolbag tight, hoisted her up, and dumped her onto the sofa.

Then Xia Jiuli, hugging her schoolbag and holding a water cup, looked very cramped and awkward. Chen Dao, empty-handed and unburdened, looked like he was one step away from kicking up his legs.

The two of them sat at opposite ends of the sofa. There was some space in the middle, but it was just right. The restless one was Xia Jiuli’s little hand, quietly advancing.

It brushed over the sofa’s surface. Then, while both of them were looking at the TV ahead, it reached Chen Dao’s palm.

Her fingertips were rosy. Her fingers were slender, the joints distinct. Right now, they were lightly hooking onto Chen Dao’s pinky.

A light tap. A soft rub of fingertip against fingertip. Then touching, then hooking together.

From the moment they entered the house until now, Xia Jiuli had been hooking Chen Dao’s finger the whole time.

The two of them hadn’t had much other contact. There was still enough space between their shoulders for another person. But these fingers, especially their two pinkies, felt as if they’d been set in concrete and couldn’t be separated.

“You really won’t let go?”

Chen Dao urged her again. Honestly, nature calls when it calls. He was getting a little desperate.

If you drink water and don’t go to the bathroom, let’s see if you panic or not. If you don’t panic, who will?

“Just a little longer...”

She lightly scratched at his finger again and again. A faint itch came from her fingertips, but she didn’t care. She kept repeating the small scratching motion.

She didn’t dare hug him. She didn’t dare lace their fingers together. So for this little bit of finger-to-finger contact, she could only ask Chen Dao to forgive her.

Actually, this was far more intimate than ordinary contact between friends. But she didn’t know that, and she didn’t care.

She only knew that in this home of white walls, white lights, tiled floors, and a brown sofa, Chen Dao was the only one staying by her side.

“Can’t you really, really, really give me one minute?”

Chen Dao was obviously reaching his limit.

He remembered that back in first grade, a classmate had taught him how to hold it during class. The method was to let a little out, clamp down, let a little out again, then endure until class ended.

But the classmate who taught him that had actually heard it from someone else. In the end, he staged a full-on dam collapse right there in Chinese class.

But now was obviously not the time for that kind of thing!

“Can’t you really, really, really wait just a little longer?”

Xia Jiuli looked straight ahead at the clock hanging above the TV. The hands pointed to ten-thirty. It was already half an hour past the time she’d originally planned to go home.

Anyway, there was no school tomorrow. She really wasn’t worried about staying up late.

But precisely because there was no school tomorrow, she instead had the illusion that even staying here with Chen Dao tonight would be fine.

She was afraid that this improper feeling would be noticed, so she simply kept dragging things out.

Actually, she wasn’t sad at all anymore.

She didn’t want to say it was because Chen Dao had comforted her. But crying under the ridiculous little farce he’d carefully put together really had let out a lot of pressure.

“I need to pee.”

“Go, then!”

Xia Jiuli was both annoyed and amused. She flicked her hand away, then watched Chen Dao sprint toward the bathroom. After that, she buried her face in her schoolbag and laughed.

By the time Chen Dao came out, Xia Jiuli was still laughing. She’d just changed posture. Curled up on the sofa, her feet wrapped in white socks resting on the cushion, her back against the armrest, she looked at Chen Dao with tender eyes.

Chen Dao met her gaze, but quickly turned to the clock on the upper left wall.

“You should go home. See you tomorrow.”

He almost completely ignored that affectionate look.

“Hm?”

Xia Jiuli pretended not to hear. She wriggled her toes a little and also looked at the clock she had already checked countless times.

How she wished the clock had run out of battery, or suddenly broken. Unfortunately, she’d already been wishing that forty minutes ago.

Even more unfortunately, she and her aunt had changed the clock battery during Monday’s cleaning.

“I said, you really should go home.”

Chen Dao restated his position.

“I just finished crying... and this is how you treat me?”

After thinking about it, she decided to act a little unreasonable.

Both she and Chen Dao had plenty of time. There was no need to fuss over this one or two hours. Besides, this was her own home. Wasn’t she allowed to throw her weight around once on her own turf?

“Come on, you stopped crying half an hour ago!”

“That was an accident! How about another half hour? I promise I’ll cry properly!”

She puffed out her cheeks. Her brows drew together slightly. A trace of dissatisfaction showed on her face, like she was saying, Can’t you indulge me just a little?

“If we wait another half hour, I’ll be going to sleep. You can’t expect me, the guest, to sleep on the sofa, right?”

It wasn’t that Chen Dao absolutely had to drive Xia Jiuli away. It was just that she’d slept in his bed last time. Was it really too much for him to sleep in it this time?

As for why he wouldn’t sleep in her parents’ bed?

No thanks. What if he ended up chatting with the two elders in the middle of the night? Wouldn’t they point fingers and make snide remarks?

Though in that case, it really would be actual ghosts making snide remarks...

“So you can bear to let your good friend sleep on the sofa? Haven’t you shared a bed with your bros before? But with a good friend, suddenly it’s not okay?”

Xia Jiuli deliberately tilted up her nose. Her gaze landed on a spiderweb in the corner of the ceiling. She didn’t look at Chen Dao. That was her way of enduring without losing nerve.

As long as she didn’t feel shy, this kind of inviting, submissive move wouldn’t collapse on its own.

“Sigh... I don’t want to make a mistake, good friend.”

“A mistake?”

Actually, Xia Jiuli had already guessed some of the possibilities. She just didn’t quite dare face them.

If she was too proactive, would Chen Dao think she was scheming? If she was too reserved, would he lose interest?

This was the first time she’d met someone she felt she could entrust herself to. Naturally, she had no idea what she was supposed to do.

Chen Dao had already walked over and sat down beside Xia Jiuli. The moment she felt his weight beside her, she swiftly stretched out her lower leg and planted her straightened foot on Chen Dao’s thigh.

The sole of her foot was soft and warm, but her toes were a little cool. Chen Dao instinctively reached out and rubbed it. Under the white sock, he saw the faint flesh tone curl up and pull away.

“A little ticklish...”

Xia Jiuli muttered, then placed her pretty foot back into Chen Dao’s palm.

Her heel happened to be supported by his right hand, while the sole of her foot was pressed by his left. Left and right, above and below, it felt extremely comfortable.

“Then I’ll go home?”

“Wait a little longer.”