Yan Beicheng hummed in agreement and released her to reach for his back pockets. Lin Chu realized that he brought a short-handled shovel with him. 

"When did you take this with you?" she asked with surprise. This man was really a little unorthodox. 

"When I went to the study for the photo, I remembered that we'll have to dig something out, so I brought it with me," Yan Beicheng explained, and he pulled Lin Chu along until they were underneath the shade of the old poplar tree. 

They started digging when they found the spot.

When the two of them were younger, Yan Beicheng had also sneaked in through the wall to meet Lin Chu in secret, so they had only a toy shovel that Lin Chu found for them when they wanted to bury something.

With only such a flimsy tool, the two of them had dug for an entire afternoon non-stop, but the result was not that deep a hole. Although the shovel Yan Beicheng brought was not big, it was enough.

After a while, they unearthed a hard, metal box. 

Lin Chu took it out. The box was one of those metal containers for fruity drops a decade ago. Those sweets were not that tasty in truth, but people back then, back when most people were not well off liked them because they could only eat them during the Chinese New Year. This metal box looked old-fas.h.i.+oned, with a picture of a starlet printed on top — she was astronomically popular back then, but now she was buried under the sands of time.

The box was rusty after so long. Lin Chu could not pry the box open so after a long time, she thrusted it onto Yan Beicheng's hands. "Quick, open it."

Yan Beicheng had to try a few times before he succeeded in opening it, teeth gritted.

Lin Chu took out her phone and turned on the flashlight on the back.

There were two small bags in the box — one was hers while the other belonged to Yan Beicheng. 

The two of them had agreed to pack their things into small cloth bags so that the other could not see what they had packed, put them into the box and buried it. 

Lin Chu took her bag out first and opened it, revealing two hand-holding dolls.

"So this is what you buried," Yan Beicheng's melodic voice, one suffused with mirth and warmth, said.

Lin Chu nodded. "I remember that the arts and crafts cla.s.ses from back then taught us to make these dolls out of gloves. It's simple, even kids our age can also learn it."

The dolls in Lin Chu's hands were made from white yarn gloves that had now turned yellowish.

Cotton was stuffed into the gloves, and the part where the palm would be in was tied into two parts, the upper part being the heads and the lower part bodies. The thumb was cut off, the forefinger and middle finger repurposed as arms and the other two fingers as legs. 

Two curvy lines and a small dot — eyes and the mouth, respectively — were drawn on with black watercolor paint, but then they faded after years weathered under the soil.

"I sewed the two dolls' hands together because in my mind this was like me holding hands with the older boy," Lin Chu said with a smile. 

In retrospect, the two dolls were simple and crudely made, shape barely recognizable, but she had thought that these were good.

Yan Beicheng lifted his brow. These dolls were a little too simple; there was not anything that resembled hair or clothes when she could have drawn them on.

"Which one are you? Which one is me?" Yan Beicheng asked, scooting closer.

"This smaller one is me, and the bigger one you." Lin Chu picked up the dolls with her fingertips and shook them towards Yan Beicheng.

"You were quite ingenious when you were little," said Yan Beicheng with a smile, "You cut corners while making those, so now we can only rely on size to tell them apart."

"I was only six! This is already quite impressive," Lin Chu said exasperatedly. She looked at the dolls with affection; these mementos bore a significant meaning. 

The old princ.i.p.al kept all her stuff she had left in the orphanage for her. There were not many, nothing that could be preserved. After she went to the Lin home, there were even fewer things worth keeping. 

"Take these home and put them in the room," Yan Beicheng said, "This is a symbol of our young love."

Lin Chu, "..."

She had only wanted to keep this as a memento; she did not even think of such shameless implications.

"Open yours and see," Lin Chu pestered, hugging her dolls. 

Yan Beicheng looked at her before he smiled and opened his bag.

In it was a red velvet box, revealing the ring lying inside when opened. It was a very simple, unornamented circle of metal. 

Yan Beicheng took the ring out and said, "I bought this with all my savings. My father had just pa.s.sed away, and my mo...mother brought up the topic of my marriage again. It never gained momentum after the ma.s.sive tantrum I threw and my grandparents' support for me. I thought, back then, that I wanted to look for girls that I like by myself. My marriage should not be controlled by other people, they shouldn't tell me who I should marry. No one can control my life and achieve their ulterior motives from it. Right then, I thought of you."

"You were still a little girl, but your face appeared in my mind. Maybe it's because I felt carefree when I was spending time with you — I didn't think of stuff that made me unhappy, and my heart was filled with undiluted happiness. My mother made me unhappy, so I automatically thought of you to cheer me up."

Yan Beicheng continued with a warm smile, "You were so young back then. I was mystified, too, how could I possibly feel that towards you? Also, how our futures would turn out and if fate would make our orbits collide — those are questions that no one could answer. We both had to embark on our own paths, paths that no one knew when they would diverge. No one knew if we would still stay in contact. Maybe we would have grown apart after a few years due to circ.u.mstances beyond our control, and we would be nothing more than strangers. Maybe we would forget that the other ever existed."

"When you told me that we should bury our treasures and unearth them after we grew up, I emptied my savings and went to a jewelry store. My allowance was not that much back then, so I could only afford the cheapest ring. I thought if we were so lucky as to have the chance to unearth this together when we grew older and were the same people as before, you becoming my girlfriend was definitely inevitable, and so was me giving this ring to you."

"I think it's time for this to return to its owner," Yan Beicheng said, holding up the ring with his fingertips.

"So, is this ring for me? If you did not find me after you had buried this, you wouldn't dig out this and gift this to someone else, would you?" Lin Chu looked down at the ring pinched in Yan Beicheng's fingers.

This ring was a simple one. Its design was outdated by two decades, and the patterns carved on the metal could not compare to modern designs. Its making did not involve complex techniques. 

Lin Chu still thought it was beautiful, though, even more so than more expensive rings.

This was the ring that Yan Beicheng had bought with all his savings. It was most valuable; any other ring now could not compare to this. 

Lin Chu thought of wearing this as her wedding ring if she got married in the future.

She did not say this to Yan Beicheng in this moment, though, as he may laugh at her. 

Saying that would make her look desperate to be his bride. 

Yan Beicheng chuckled, his low, rich baritone resonating in the darkness. "Yes. This has always been yours, even though years have pa.s.sed since then. This ring will always be yours."

He never had any fiancée. If there had to be one, it would be her. Her, who he had been engaged to years ago.

He did not expect to find the girl from back then again and take her here to recover the treasures that they had buried together — those treasures that he had thought would stay underground forever. 

Yan Beicheng held Lin Chu's left hand up lightly and slipped the ring onto her middle finger.

Her pale, slender fingers were beautiful. The silvery-white ring looked elegant and delicate worn on her finger.

He looked at her, the smaller girl from then, wearing the ring that he had bought for her, a gesture that felt like a symbol that he had tied her down for good. Yan Beicheng became inexplicably emotional at the gesture, feeling like he had successfully finished a ma.s.sive task. 

He held her hand and kissed the knuckle of her ring-wearing finger.

Lin Chu a.s.sumed that the ring was all that he had buried. She had wanted to stand up, but then she saw Yan Beicheng remove the cus.h.i.+on inside the box. She shone her flashlight towards it and noticed that a piece of paper was hidden under the cus.h.i.+on.

The piece of paper, folded four times, was miraculously whole and undamaged from the multiple layers of protection it was under — it was hidden well under the cus.h.i.+on in the ring box, which was wrapped by a layer of cloth, which in turn was put inside a metal box.

Yan Beicheng handed the ring box to her so that she could remove the piece of paper herself. 

Curious, Lin Chu removed it gingerly and opened it, only to reveal two characters written on it: Ji Yan.

The penmans.h.i.+p was grand — it was evident that the writer practiced calligraphy since young and poise bled out of every single stroke — in a style which was obviously Yan Beicheng's but was less defined due to his young age. It also had a feel of overt brazenness when compared to his current handwriting, which had mellowed out into strong, sure strokes as reservedly composed as the person who wrote them.

"The fact that everyone in the Eight Dominant Families has a second name is quite widely known. The Yans are descendants of the Emperor of the Yan kingdom, who once had the last name Ji. When the royal family deserted the country and went under the radar, they did not dare to retain their last name, so they hid it in their second name. This is mine; I'll only reveal it to my wife," Yan Beicheng said quietly, his smile warm and pure in the moonlight, his irises illuminated under the ray of gentle light.

Lin Chu had wanted to ask him why he had said it so ambiguously when this was not a proposal — why he told her his second name when he had said before that he would only share it with his wife. 

What was really his intentions? He might as well give her a direct answer!

But then the corners of her mouth were involuntarily rising until she was at the brink of losing control over her expression, and she gave up on resisting and laughed, clear and loud. She folded the piece of paper and stored it in her pocket carefully, feeling as it was burning hot inside.

Yan Beicheng observed her series of actions and asked with a smile, "Are you cold?"

Lin Chu shook her head, and she heard him say, "Should we sit here for a while, then?"

Lin Chu nodded and saw Yan Beicheng sit down on the ground, with nothing cus.h.i.+oning him and back resting on the old poplar tree, looking relaxed.

The ground was cold. Lin Chu was bunching up her coat and getting ready to settle on the ground when Yan Beicheng pulled her into his lap, her back reclining on his chest.

"The ground's cold. I'll be your cus.h.i.+on," Yan Beicheng said, his slender fingers brus.h.i.+ng her hair to the side and revealing the back of her pale neck, on which he lowered his head and planted a kiss on. 

The kiss felt warm when his wet, tender lips landed on her skin, but the area was left damp and cool when they departed; she shuddered.

Afraid that she felt cold, Yan Beicheng opened his coat wider and wrapped her in it tightly.

"That picture of us might be taken here." Yan Beicheng scooted closer to her ear and directed his gaze below to see her earlobe flush red gradually. He could not resist landing a kiss there.

Lin Chu hummed softly. 

Who would have thought?

When she had first taken that picture with Yan Beicheng, the two of them were naive and did not harbor any other thoughts. She was still little and did not know of feelings of affection between different genders; Yan Beicheng, on the other hand, would definitely not have such feelings towards a little girl. Their relations.h.i.+p back then, depicted in the picture of them, was more similar to one between siblings. 

The difference between their ages seemed big then, but that difference seems meaningless now.

Yan Beicheng looked down at Lin Chu. The little, milk-scented child who once had fit in his arms now grew up to be a beautiful young lady.

A lady that he, after painstakingly devising and deploying various plans and strategies, had managed to abduct into his bed and then his home, became his girlfriend and the woman that he wanted to marry in the future. 

This was something he definitely did not think would happen at the age of fifteen.

Who would have thought that the child from back then would now be tightly held in his arms, exchanging kisses and touches and sharing close and intimate gestures with him? 

Even someone like Yan Beicheng was a little guilty when he thought of how she had looked like at the age of six.

Looking down at Lin Chu, face flushed red, Yan Beicheng, too, felt that destiny was really a mysterious being. The child from his memories had grown up into a woman; the little girl he had seen as a sister became his girlfriend who ended up locked in his arms. 

His heart was nearly bursting with affection. Lin Chu's beatific face was mere inches from his, and he succ.u.mbed to his increasing hunger by sucking on her neck until a red mark appeared and kissing it gently a few times. 

Lin Chu retracted her neck and burrowed into his arms, still feeling surreal.

Surreal that she had met him when he snuck into the orphanage from up the wall, and that she had ended up with him after eighteen years of various circ.u.mstances.

If he had not pursued her with resolve, their paths would have diverged forever.

Lin Chu had felt lucky and also fearful of the alternative possibilities at the same time. She tucked herself closer to him.

As if he knew what she was thinking, Yan Beicheng kissed her forehead tenderly. He took his phone out from his coat pocket.

Lin Chu saw him turn on his camera and open night mode. Yan Beicheng's rich, slightly hoa.r.s.e baritone sounded from the top of her head, saying, "We were posed exactly like this in the photo. How about we take a photo of us now?"

His voice, deeper than a rich, full-bodied wine in this freezing winter night, warmed her from head to toe.

Lin Chu nodded, and Yan Beicheng stretched his arm forward, raising his phone. Although the night was dark, the image of the two of them was clear under the night mode.

He set up a timer, and the camera shuttered a few times after three seconds, taking a few pictures.

Yan Beicheng retracted his arm, and he, together with Lin Chu entwined in his arms, chose the best one and saved it. 

"The little lady from back then has grown up," Yan Beicheng said warmly while looking at the photo.

Lin Chu's mind had wandered while looking at the photo, but then she immediately blushed when she heard his words. 

The sentence had sounded pretty normal, but she heard the ambiguity in his words. 

His warm words scattered on her like rays of sunlight while she was wrapped tightly by his arms, his coat an impenetrable fortress protecting her from the wind and giving her warmth. His embrace was like an oven.

Lin Chu embarra.s.sedly hid her impossibly reddened face in his arms. Remembering that her current lover was the older boy from years ago felt somewhat weird. 

It was like realizing that your lover was also your sibling — weirdly mortifying.

Yan Beicheng chuckled, and his chest vibrated with his mirth. He looked at the woman in his arms, and spikes of l.u.s.t surged up his spine. He lowered to kiss her on the lips and wrapped her even tighter in his coat.

Under the moonlight, a lean, charming man, reclined on the tree's trunk and stretched his long legs. The woman in his arms seemed more diminutive to him as he held her tight in his arms, covering everything up, even her face, except for some tendrils of her long hair.

Everything was serene and beautiful.

Suddenly, a piercing light shone at them and a shrill voice shouted, "Who's there?"

Lin Chu regained her senses from her position in Yan Beicheng's arms, and she, together with Yan Beicheng, turned their heads towards the direction of the voice and was faced with the blinding ray of light from a flashlight. 

Lin Chu could not open her eyes under the strong light, and she blocked it with her arm, eyes half-open. Yan Beicheng hoisted her up together with him, and she pushed for him to let her down onto the ground.

The person took a good look at them, and he said, "Lin Chu? It's past midnight, what are you —"

What are you two doing, coming to the orphanage to make out in the middle of the night?

Are all couples doing something so outlandish?

Lin Chu recognized the person. He was Mr. w.a.n.g, a teacher in the orphanage, who was in his forties and had a strong physique. 

Under Mr. w.a.n.g's flashlight, Lin Chu was so embarra.s.sed that she did not know what to say. 

Barring the fact that they had trespa.s.sed the orphanage by climbing up the wall from outside, they had also been caught red-handed making out. It was so embarra.s.sing. 

Mr. w.a.n.g turned off the flashlight. He noted that there was a hole under the poplar tree. Yan Beicheng piped up, "I was chatting with Lin Chu this night, and we remembered that we had buried something under this tree. We came here to dig them up on impulse, like a midnight treasure hunt."

Mr. w.a.n.g broke out a smile. He thought, "How did these two start making out when they were digging stuff up?"

He was less surprised, though, after he understood how affectionate young people were when they dated.

He still glared at them. "You, really! You could just give us a call if you've wanted to come, and I'll open the door for you. What are you doing, climbing up the wall? I went out for some water and I saw silhouettes in the window. I was almost shocked to death!"

"Little w.a.n.g, what's happening? Is there anyone outside?" The old princ.i.p.al came out wearing her pajamas and an overcoat. She started when she saw Lin Chu and Yan Beicheng, "Why did you come in the middle of the night?"

Lin Chu, Yan Beicheng, "..."

Yan Beicheng repeated what he had told Mr. w.a.n.g to her. She was skeptical but did not pursue the matter.

These two, as close as they were, had probably devised another game of theirs. 

"You're here anyway, so don't go back when it's already so late into the night. I've saved your room for you, so you can just stay here for the night," the old princ.i.p.al yawned and said.

They had been unperturbed by the temperature outdoors, what with them being entwined with each other and their old memories warming them up, but they started feeling as if they were frozen solid. They did not want to bother driving all the way back home, too, so they agreed to stay; the next day was a Sat.u.r.day so they did not need to work anyway. 

After they returned to their room, Yan Beicheng went to shower first, while Lin Chu stared at the ring on her finger.

When Yan Beicheng returned, freshly showered, he saw Lin Chu daydreaming while staring at the ring and hoisted her onto his lap. "The ring is going to break into halves from your stare."

"I just think that it's miraculous. Who would have thought that we would end up together after we've grown up?" Lin Chu hugged his waist.

Their first meeting was really a work of fate.