Chapter 903

In Room 402 of Jincheng Community.

Surrounded by flowers and balloons, Li Luo and Ying Chanxi leaned against each other, both wearing junior high school uniforms, sitting on the sofa flipping through the photo album in their hands.

This photo album was obtained by Li Luo from Lin Xiuhong.

When they were just born, Lin Xiuhong had specifically bought this album to document every little moment of her son's life with photographs.

And so this album came to be.

Because Ying Chanxi had grown up alongside Li Luo since childhood, her image inevitably appeared frequently within it.

"Look at this one—it was when we were still in kindergarten," Li Luo pointed to the first few photos. "Xingxing Kindergarten seems to have been renovated too."

"Is this the time you had surgery?" Ying Chanxi pointed to a photo of a young Li Luo sitting propped up on a hospital bed.

"Yeah, I think so," Li Luo touched the hair near his left temple. "I can barely remember it."

"Back then, a teacher wore a monster mask and led their class of kids playing on the playground," Ying Chanxi recalled the scene. "All the kids followed behind the teacher, holding onto the hem of the clothing of the one in front, like a long wriggling worm—it was terrifying."

"I had just come down from the second floor and was frozen in fear—you pulled me away."

"Then that teacher kept chasing us, you dragged me running along the wall, and I hit my head on a protruding faucet."

"I just remember there was a lot of blood."

"And you turned into a big smudged cat," Li Luo added with a laugh. "You thought I was going to die—you cried and wailed, clinging to me and refusing to let go, even as I was about to have surgery."

"I was just worried about you!" Ying Chanxi's cheeks flushed, and she huffed. "It's your own fault for being so careless—you didn't even look where you were running, didn't even notice the faucet."

"That really hurts my feelings."

"Alright, alright, let's look at the next one," Ying Chanxi quickly changed the subject, pointing to a photo further back.

There were many kindergarten photos, because Yan Ruqing was still alive then and often accompanied Lin Xiuhong, taking the two children out to play.

On regular weekdays, they sent the two to kindergarten and cooperated with the teachers' activities; the two mothers frequently took part in parental tasks.

"Look at this—Lin Yi's sewing skills are amazing," Ying Chanxi pointed to one photo. "This was from a school cultural event, right? Everyone dressed up as whatever they liked."

"Lin Yi made you a tiger costume and made me a little flower fairy outfit."

"Back then, some classmates' parents didn't have time, so Lin Yi volunteered to make clothes for many other kids too."

"Mm," Li Luo nodded. "The breakfast shop was pretty empty after morning hours, and she had nothing else to do. I remember Yan Auntie helped out a lot too."

"Yes," Ying Chanxi noticed a photo of herself with Yan Ruqing, and fell into a long silence of memory and longing.

"Look at this one too," Li Luo realized he shouldn't have mentioned Yan Auntie and immediately shifted topic. "We went to Xihu back then—there was a little stream, and we caught a bunch of snails by the water and brought them home for my dad to stir-fry."

"I remember—filled up a whole bottle of mineral water with snails," Ying Chanxi laughed. "And here—we went on a trip to Thousand Island Lake, and you hugged that snake for a photo, while I was too scared to even look."

"Its teeth were all pulled out—it wasn't dangerous at all," Li Luo said. "You're just a coward."

"Hmph, only you think you're so great."

As they flipped through the album, recalling the past, Li Luo and Ying Chanxi suddenly realized how deeply intertwined their lives had become, how many beautiful moments they had shared together.

Counting them up, there were too many to name—each page turned brought more memories rising up, one after another, and they grew more and more animated as they talked.

"This was my fifth-grade birthday, right? I invited a few close classmates over to my place," Li Luo pointed to a photo of himself with eyes closed, making a wish. "You looked kind of upset back then—I asked you, but you wouldn't say."

"Idiot," Ying Chanxi, reminded by him, suddenly remembered and puffed out her cheeks, poking his waist. "You forgot who you invited?"

"Who?" Li Luo couldn't recall. "Just Zhao Rongjun and a few other guys?"

He glanced at a few more photos, cross-referencing them with his memory. "Oh, right—Shi Jinxiao and Fang Chilu too."

"Exactly," Ying Chanxi nodded lightly, then muttered quietly, "Both of those girls liked you—how could I possibly have been happy?"

"Huh?" Li Luo froze. "Really? I had no idea."

"You have no idea of a lot of things!" Ying Chanxi huffed. "All the girls in class knew—otherwise why do you think they insisted on coming to your birthday? You didn't even invite them at first."

"Oh, right—they heard from Zhao Rongjun and the others that I was having a birthday, then came to ask if they could join," Li Luo recalled—it did sound familiar.

But back then, Li Luo had no concept of romantic feelings—he simply thought they were classmates wanting to celebrate his birthday, and never gave it a second thought.

Yet there had been such hidden feelings all along.

"So you've liked me since elementary school?" Li Luo grinned mischievously, lifting Ying Chanxi's chin. "I thought it started in junior high—turns out it was even earlier."

"I—I didn't!" Ying Chanxi instinctively denied it. "I never said I liked you."

"Then why were you upset back then?" Li Luo chuckled. "If other girls like me, what's it got to do with you?"

"Shut up," Ying Chanxi, flustered, bumped her head against him twice. "Look at the photos, stop talking nonsense."

They continued flipping forward—the timeline had reached elementary school graduation, and many of the photos were taken by Ying Chanxi herself.

Even on graduation day, she dragged Li Luo around the elementary school campus taking countless commemorative photos, later having extra copies printed and giving them to Lin Yi for safekeeping.

After that came junior high.

It was precisely from junior high that their relationship began to show cracks.

Ying Chanxi set Qianjiang University as her goal and studied hard, rising straight to the top of her grade.

But Li Luo couldn't keep up with the majority, gradually slipping to the lower-middle ranks, falling far behind Ying Chanxi.

From this point on, their joint photos became fewer and fewer.

If you carefully examined the kindergarten and elementary school photos page by page, you'd never finish flipping through them in a short while.

But the junior high photos? Only four or five pages total—and most were single shots of Li Luo taken by Lin Xiuhong, or family group photos; Ying Chanxi's presence had become scarce.

There were barely one or two photos each year, mostly during the New Year.

Especially then, as Li Luo became rebellious—Lin Xiuhong had to come up with all sorts of tricks to drag him over for photos, or he'd refuse outright.

Now, looking back, Li Luo just wanted to slap his junior high self.

"Wait," Ying Chanxi flipped through and noticed how few junior high photos were in the album—she immediately stood up from Li Luo's lap, hurried into her bedroom.

In a moment, she came running back, clutching another photo album, snuggling into Li Luo's arms again, spreading the new album open on their laps, and carefully turning the pages.

"Look," Ying Chanxi, cheeks flushed, opened her own album to the junior high photos and said to Li Luo. "These are all of them."

"Huh?" Li Luo blinked, reached out to flip through—and found over a dozen consecutive pages filled with junior high photos, nearly every one featuring Li Luo.

But front-facing photos are rare; the angles look more like candid shots.

Many were taken from the classroom window, looking down at Li Luo playing basketball on the playground.

Thinking of this, Li Luo turned again to look at Ying Chanxi's rosy cheek, grinning: "So someone was really into sneaking photos back in middle school?"

"It's because some people just never woke up," Ying Chanxi huffed, giving him two light punches to ease her shyness. "I wanted to ask you to take photos together, but you'd never have paid attention—just basketball, video games, and never studying."

"That's because of my mom," Li Luo sighed. "She's always in my ear: 'Look at Xi Xi—such great grades. If only you had half her drive.' I've heard it until my ears are calloused."

"Lin Yi just wants what's best for you," Ying Chanxi said helplessly. "But her methods are a bit off. What was I supposed to do? I asked you to study and review, but you never listened."

"That's just puberty," Li Luo chuckled. "Keep looking."

The two continued flipping through the album, finally reaching high school.

Many of these photos were taken by Ying Chanxi, capturing moments deeply etched in their memories.

Like birthdays, National Day, filming music videos, New Year's Eve parties, Lunar New Year, competitions—

So many, too many to count.

Especially after they started sharing a home in high school, Ying Chanxi loved taking photos, never missing a single chance.

Li Luo hadn't realized until he flipped through it—inside Ying Chanxi's thick album lay so many high school photos.

As they flipped through the album and reminisced, they only snapped back to reality when they noticed it was already past ten in the morning.

They'd spent over two hours just looking at these photos.

"Oh right!" Ying Chanxi suddenly stood up after closing the album. "I promised Lin Yi I'd deliver something for her—"

"Little fool," Li Luo pulled her back into his arms, laughing helplessly. "You really thought that was real? It was just my way of getting you here—my mom's in on it."

"Oh… oh oh—" Ying Chanxi finally realized, her cheeks reddening further. She gave him two soft punches. "Ugh, I should've guessed—I just didn't think straight."

"So clueless," Li Luo pinched her cheek, then finally lowered his head, gently claiming her sweetness.

Ying Chanxi instinctively closed her eyes as Li Luo covered, enveloped, and softly sucked her lips.

But the next second, she opened them again, unwilling to let him out of her sight—until her gaze grew hazy, her eyes slowly glazed over, and she unconsciously closed them once more.

When she came back to herself, Ying Chanxi was lying on the sofa, pinned beneath Li Luo, having been teased for so long she'd nearly lost track of heaven and earth.

After being apart for nearly a month, their longing had thickened like ink; revisiting these cherished memories had heated their love to a boil.

This kiss was not intense—only soft, deliberate, brimming with affection and warmth, just like the long twenty years they'd walked together.

Blending slowly, gently, together.

Only when Li Luo's phone alarm rang did they finally pull apart, dazed.

"Why'd you set an alarm?" Ying Chanxi lay on the sofa, cheeks flushed, biting her lip, still pouting. "It's so loud."

"Huh—still not done kissing?" Li Luo pinched her cheek and showed her the phone. "It's eleven. Time to make you lunch."

"Huh? Wasn't it ten just now?"

"We kissed for an hour," Li Luo gently brushed her lips, grinning. "Keep going and they'll actually swell up."

Saying that, Li Luo got up from the sofa and walked straight toward the kitchen.

Ying Chanxi quickly rose and followed him in, helping him tie on his apron, then slipping on a small one of her own.

Two kids dressed in middle school uniforms began bustling in the kitchen, as if they were real middle schoolers, sneaking in a pretend life as husband and wife while their elders were away.

Ying Chanxi loved the middle school uniform—because back then, Li Luo belonged only to her.

By high school, he'd become Li Luo shared among three girls.

Though she'd long accepted this truth, if heaven gave her another chance, she'd never again be weak in love.

Thinking of this, Ying Chanxi turned to look at Li Luo, watching his skilled knife work—chop, chop, chop—her gaze settling on his focused profile, lost in admiration.

Li Luo didn't notice her stare, but suddenly recalled the time he'd been reborn, right before and after the high school entrance exam.

Back then, Ying Zhicheng had returned home for summer vacation, planning to cook a surprise meal for Ying Chanxi—but hurt his finger, so Li Luo ended up cooking the whole meal himself.

Smiling, Li Luo teased: "Try some today—see if Dad's cooking's still good."

"Dare you say that?" Ying Chanxi rolled her eyes, clearly remembering too. "You're asking for a beating."

Saying that, she gave him two more light punches.