"You two seem to be having a lot of fun."
"Hey, hey, hey, is it okay to discuss this kind of topic?!"
Upon entering the room, mother and daughter knelt at the low table, discussing the art of flower arranging.
Dubian Che asked for a vase, picking the unwanted stems and arranging flowers based on feeling and preference.
Jiutiao Meijie saw this and occasionally offered him some advice.
"You can break the longer branches, and the softer ones can be tied into knots."
"You're using a low vessel, consider more from a bird's-eye view and the front and side perspectives."
At this moment, her voice became soft and gentle, as if worried about waking a child in a cradle, leaving a gentle lingering impression in Dubian Che's heart.
The completed flower arrangements were placed in the main room, including the one that Dubian Che had tied into a knot.
"Shall we play chess, have fireworks set off, eat something, or watch a movie?" Mrs. Jiutiao suggested enthusiastically.
Jiutiao Meijie elegantly yawned, "No thanks, I'm tired."
"Then let Mr. Dubian play chess with me, and you go to sleep," Mrs. Jiutiao said with a teasing look in her eyes.
"Ask him," Jiutiao Meijie got up from her seat, "I'm going to take a bath first."
After she left, Dubian Che said to Mrs. Jiutiao, "I can only play one round."
"No way," Mrs. Jiutiao said with charming laughter, "You can go only if you win."
Her expression when saying "no way" was strikingly similar to Jiutiao Meijie's.
"Then I have no choice but to show you the full force of Goda Dragon King," Dubian Che said, sitting up straight.
Thirty minutes later.
"Mrs. Jiutiao, I give up!"
"I'm thinking about the game, shh—"
"Mother, my lady, I was wrong, please let me go!"
In Go, a single game could last from sunrise to sunset; if this dragged on, he wouldn't be able to leave even by dawn.
"Young people are so impatient, unable to control themselves," Mrs. Jiutiao said, pinching a white piece, her eyes on the board, "Go ahead."
"Good night, my lady."
After Dubian Che left, Mrs. Jiutiao looked at the board for a long time, and finally let out a sigh.
The game seemed undecided, but she truly didn't know where to place the next piece. All the endings she could think of resulted in her loss.
"Meijie, don't get played in circles."
Dubian Che walked along the winding corridor, thinking of Jiutiao Mei waiting for him in her room, his heart aflame with the anticipation of entering the bridal chamber.
Various insects chirped in the courtyard, playing a symphony of procreation.
Stepping into the bedroom, Jiutiao Mei had already bathed and was waiting for him in her bathrobe.
She lay on the bed looking at a tablet, the neckline of her bathrobe wide open, exposing her shoulder and a trace of snowy white skin.
Hearing Dubian Che's footsteps, she didn't raise her head, speaking casually as though chatting with a husband who had just returned from a card game:
"I lost," Dubian Che walked over and knelt on the soft edge of the bed.
He reached out to lift Jiutiao Mei's snowy white thigh that peeked out from the bathrobe, his lips gently landing on it.
"Lost?" Jiutiao Mei's gaze remained on the tablet.
"Go, your mother didn't move a single piece for ages," Dubian Che's breath, mixed with his words, warmed Jiutiao Mei's smooth leg.
Jiutiao Mei still watched the tablet.
"Meji," Dubian Che kissed her swan-like neck, the shoulder exposed by the bathrobe, and her shapely collarbone.
Tickled, Jiutiao Mei brought a hand to his head to stop his wandering lips.
But Dubian Che's hand was free.
"What are you looking at?" Dubian Che glanced at the tablet screen with her.
"What sort of information?"
When her cheek was touched, Jiutiao Mei's eyelashes fluttered like butterfly wings, and she slowly opened her eyes.
"What do you want for your birthday?" she asked, caressing Dubian Che's face as if trying to see through his soul, her eyes intent on his.
"Instead of my birthday, our one-year anniversary of dating is closer. What do you want?"
"You actually remember?"
"May 29th," Dubian Che said, "What do you want, my Mei?"
The moonlight seeping through the window illuminated the overlapping silhouettes of the two.