Abstinence Pei, don't be too sweet when chasing your wife

A week later, in the evening.

The chirping of cicadas in late summer gradually weakened, and the evening breeze, carrying the first scent of osmanthus, slipped into Gu Fanxing's apartment.

She had just poured the takeaway sugar-roasted chestnuts into the white porcelain plate when she heard her grandmother's rattan chair creaking on the wooden floor.

The old man was wearing reading glasses and looking through Gu Fanxing's photo album.

"Xingxing, how are Xiao Kong and Fangfei doing recently? Have you ever added fuel to the fire for them?" Grandma looked up at Gu Fanxing and asked.

Gu Fanxing's hand shook, and the chestnut shell cracked into tiny cracks.

On the glass coffee table, the bottle of bayberry juice that Pei Luonan had delivered this morning was still covered with water droplets, and cold air was dripping down from the air-conditioning vents.

"Grandma is even more impatient than us young people." She piled the peeled chestnuts into a small mountain. "How can you force love? It has to be developed step by step. Haste will only backfire. Last time at the Fangfei competition, Haoyu was so nervous that he dropped the flowers on the side of the track. Shi Yunchen was so anxious that he covered his eyes and couldn't bear to look at it."

"But I heard from Aunt Wang next door that her grandson is a referee at the racetrack. She said that Xiao Kong holds up a sign that says 'Come on, Xiao Fangfei' to cheer for Fei'er in every race. Doesn't this mean that she has made progress?" Grandma asked Gu Fanxing with a little pride.

"I ran into Kong Haoyu at the supermarket last week. He was standing next to Fangfei's Harley, holding his helmet. His ears were as red as a boiled shrimp, and he was very shy. If we want to see any breakthrough from them, I'm afraid we'll have to wait for some time." Gu Fanxing retorted, "We still need to let them work on it on their own."

Grandma suddenly hit her hand with the photo album: "You seem to understand the truth, but what about you? I see that Pei Luonan looks at you differently from others, and he is particularly attentive to you. I feel that he has a special feeling for you. Do you have any different thoughts about him?"

"You were talking about someone else, why are you bringing me into this? Pei Luonan and I are just ordinary friends, don't think too much." Gu Fanxing pretended to be angry and wanted to stand up, but the old man grabbed her wrist.

The silver bracelet on my wrist made a clear sound, mixed with the shouts of the scrap collector downstairs, creating ripples in the sweet-scented osmanthus fragrance.

"Xiao Pei came to fix the router yesterday and curled up on the bay window for half an hour." Grandma pushed her glasses, which had slipped to the tip of her nose, but her cloudy eyes gleamed brightly. "The back of his shirt was so sweaty you could wring water out of it, and he said he was just passing by—but I asked the property management, and we're the only one in the entire building without internet. What ordinary friend would be so concerned about your situation?"

Gu Fanxing's fingers froze and she was speechless.

That day, she stared blankly at her black laptop screen when she suddenly saw a data cable snaking through the peephole. A message from Pei Luonan popped up on her phone: "Idiot, the reset button is on the back of the router." In the dialog box was a photo of the toolbox he had taken half an hour ago. Each tool was covered with a bumper - for fear that the metal would scratch her bay window countertop.

"Last month, when you had a fever of 39 degrees, who was it that ran through five blocks in the middle of the night looking for a 24-hour pharmacy?" Grandma stuffed a piece of warm osmanthus cake into her hand. "Xiao Pei squatted by the bed to change the fever-reducing patch. He even wrote down your nonsense request for bayberry ice in his phone's notes."

The sweetness of the pastries mixed with the fragrance of osmanthus melted between his teeth, and Gu Fanxing thought of the emergency room at three in the morning.

Pei Luonan dozed off on a plastic chair covered with a thin hospital blanket. When the morning light climbed up his eyelashes, she inexplicably wiped the sweat from his forehead with a wet wipe.

Later I found out that he still had the mint candy she mentioned casually in his suit pocket, saying that he was afraid of the stuffy smell in the hospital.

"Every time the Pei kid comes over, he secretly restocks your refrigerator with yogurt." Grandma scooped a spoonful of osmanthus wine, the amber broth swirling with gold flakes. "Because he knows you like yogurt. He even remembers that you're lactose intolerant and need to buy the low-sugar variety."

The osmanthus flowers outside the gauze curtain fell on the cat keychain that Pei Luonan left this morning.

Gu Fanxing suddenly remembered the night of the company's annual meeting. When she stumbled in the wrong high heels, Pei Luonan leaned over to block the corner of the table, his palms loosely protecting her waist.

Half a movie ticket stub was sticking out of his inner suit pocket. It was the art exhibition she had been talking about for half a month. He had booked a VIP guided tour of that exhibition two weeks in advance, with the reason being "I was afraid you'd be squeezed."

"Nannan," Grandma suddenly held her hand, her fingertips stroking the calluses on her palm, "Grandma is seventy years old and has seen too much sincerity and hypocrisy. The way Xiao Pei looks at you is just like the way your grandfather looked at me back then—protecting those under the umbrella when it rains, and always moving your favorite dishes closer to you during meals..."

Dusk spread over the bluestone slabs, and Gu Fanxing's face was burning.

Those details that she had regarded as habits suddenly became clear: Pei Luonan remembered that she liked flowers, and would regularly send her favorite flowers to her desk; when she stayed up late to finish a project, he would always bring her hot milk in the early morning; even the out-of-print comics she casually mentioned would be turned into a hardcover gift box on her birthday, with a hand-drawn bookmark on the title page.

"Love isn't a race, where you have to fight to win." Grandma replaced the cold tea with hot milk, and fine water droplets condensed on the wall of the glass. "But sincerity is like the fragrance of osmanthus. If you don't seize the opportunity and dry it into osmanthus honey, once the wind blows..." The old woman's voice softened, and her fingertips stroked the silver bracelet on her wrist. "If you miss it, there will only be an empty branch left. It's not easy to meet someone who treats you sincerely in your life. Don't let Xiao Pei down."

The night wind lifted the gauze curtains, shaking off a few early-blooming osmanthus flowers.

Gu Fanxing looked at the white frost on her grandmother's temples and suddenly remembered what Pei Luonan had said: "Wait until the osmanthus flowers are in full bloom in autumn, and take grandma to the botanical garden to make osmanthus cake. I have found a mold for the intangible cultural heritage handmade cake."

It turned out that even his intention to please his elders was hidden in her daily nagging.

Grandma dozed off, her breathing as light as the chirping of cicadas outside the window.

Gu Fanxing tucked in the thin blanket for her, and her fingertips touched the note left by Pei Luonan on the coffee table: "There is freshly made bayberry jam in the refrigerator. It is delicious when spread on bread."

The handwriting was vigorous, with a crooked osmanthus flower drawn at the end.

Osmanthus petals fell on the phone screen, illuminating the photo of the two of them on the lock screen.

Pei Luonan stood half a step behind her, his palms loosely protecting her shoulders. In an angle not captured by the camera, his eyes always followed her profile.

But the water droplets on the wall of the glass suddenly became scorching, and Jiang Chengjun's face appeared in front of her at an inopportune time - the man who vowed "I will support you and love you forever", eventually betrayed her together with his best friend in order to take possession of her company's property, leaving her badly hurt.

Amid the hum of the refrigerator compressor, she stared at the sticky drawing on the note.

Pei Luonan really remembered all her preferences - from not eating coriander to her love of watching old movies, and even when she casually mentioned last week that she "wanted to drink almond tea from the corner shop", the next day there was a thermos on his desk.

But could this just be the boyfriend's "professionalism"? After all, the contract signed with his own name clearly states "playing the role of intimate lover."

Gu Fanxing took out his cell phone and turned to Pei Luonan's dialog box.

The pinned message was a photo of a sunset he'd taken three days earlier: "Does it look like the orange soda you mentioned?" In the accompanying picture, a fiery sunset painted half the sky red. Suddenly, a car engine roared downstairs.

She lifted a corner of the curtain and saw Pei Luonan's black car parked under the sycamore tree. Before the lights went out, the canvas bag with a cat pattern on the passenger seat was particularly eye-catching - it was clearly because she mentioned yesterday that she "wanted to adopt a stray cat."

The cicadas started chirping again, breaking the late summer night.

Gu Fanxing curled up on the sofa, letting the scent of osmanthus permeate her clothes.

Maybe grandma is right. True love is like osmanthus flowers blooming before your eyes, but people who have been hurt always lack the courage to easily believe in love and give their feelings again because they are afraid of losing again and getting hurt again.

But at this moment, the petals falling on her shoulders were so gentle that they burned her eyes - it turned out that what she didn't dare to reach out to catch was never love, but the possibility of it being broken again.