A little while later.

Lu Yibei looked up like a vampire who had just had a full meal:

“Absorbing Qingqian energy… Completed.”

He let go of his girlfriend.

It's comfortable to hold, but walking is still too slow.

As soon as he let go, Ji Qingqian clung tightly to his arm, her small, fair face peeking towards him with a hint of smugness:

"Abei~"

"Um?"

"Actually, I guessed it in the end."

"What?"

"The one who hit the game-winning shot."

Seeing her boyfriend turn to look at her, Ji Qingqian's bright eyes gleamed with even more pride: "When you were about to throw at the last moment, but before you did, I suddenly thought, 'Hmm—it doesn't seem to be Abei.' I predicted it. I'm better than the person guarding you."

Actually, being on the sidelines gives you a God's-eye view.

The players on the field don't have her kind of vision.

But Ji Qingqian didn't care; all she wanted was the boy's praise.

Lu Yibei was surprised.

Ji Qingqian pouted, a little annoyed: "You don't believe me?"

Lu Yibei seemed to be savoring something before he said:

"I knew it."

"?"

"I was supposed to take the game-winning shot, but just as I was about to release it, I heard a voice in my head that sounded like a celestial being, like a god, 'Next to me, next to me'—so I passed the ball to PG next to me."

Lu Yibei looked at it seriously and laughed, "Looks like our telepathic package needs to be renewed."

Ji Qing narrowed her eyes and smiled.

That's ridiculous.

But she loved listening to it.

"It's all thanks to me!"

"The medal belongs to me and to you."

Lu Yibei gently pinched his girlfriend's still-dewy cheeks despite the dry winter. Beautiful and adorable.

Ji Qingqian didn't speak, but continued to look up with her bare face up, and even shook her head slightly, her eyes almost squinting.

Lu Yibei chuckled, lowered his head slightly, and gently kissed the girl's rosy lips.

The girl pursed her lips contentedly, and the corners of her lips turned up slightly.

"Abei, you're really good at basketball," Ji Qingqian said again.

While on the field, she didn't have the ability to shout at the top of her lungs like the cheering squad.

After the event, she attended another party, but she still couldn't talk to Ah Bei alone.

So she wanted to praise her boyfriend as much as possible.

"If it weren't amazing, I wouldn't have invited you to come and see it."

Lu Yibei laughed: "A boy like me likes to show off in front of his girlfriend."

“I think I heard Jingyi say ‘childish’,” Ji Qingqian said.

“Isn’t admitting your own immaturity a kind of maturity?” Lu Yibei said.

"You used to play on the school team?" Ji Qingqian asked again.

Lu Yibei blinked, as if asking how he knew.

“You told me about this a long time ago,” Ji Qingqian said.

“That was a very, very long time ago, I’d completely forgotten,” Lu Yibei said.

Ji Qingqian's eyes darted around, and although she still held onto her boyfriend's arm, her tone was icy:

"So you were just joking. I took it so seriously. You jerk."

Faced with his girlfriend's sudden outburst, Lu Yibei coughed lightly twice and immediately chimed in:

"I'm not just saying this jokingly, it's just that I'm getting old and my memory isn't what it used to be. But thankfully, even with my bad memory, I haven't forgotten to love you."

Ji Qingqian lowered her eyes, chuckled softly twice, then raised her face expressionlessly again:

"You're so lucky to have met such an easy girl to please."

Lu Yibei smiled and nodded, "Yes, I'm really lucky."

He patted the back of his girlfriend's hand, which was wrapped around his arm, and said, "Let's go for a walk somewhere."

He's been quite busy lately in preparation for this basketball tournament, especially at night, when he's almost always training intensively.

I feel like I'm spending less and less time with my girlfriend.

Although Qingqian is not the kind of girl who would make a fuss over this, she is very sensible.

But it is precisely because she is so sensible that Lu Yibei wants to be the best boyfriend.

Ji Qingqian neither agreed nor refused, but asked:

"Aren't you tired?"

"Please believe in your charm, my lady. Being with you will only make me happy, not tired."

Okay~

"Hmm, I'm thinking about where to go for a walk... It's only a little past six now..."

As Lu Yibei pondered, Ji Qingqian pressed her arm tightly against his and said:

"No matter where we go."

Lu Yibei smiled.

The two wandered aimlessly down the street.

The temperature has dropped even more in the last two days compared to the previous few days.

Although people kept saying it was cold a while ago, the nighttime temperature was still in the single digits, but these past two nights it has plummeted to below zero.

Although this temperature is nothing new for Ms. Ji, who comes from Northeast China, she couldn't help but sigh as temperatures in Jiangnan dropped below zero, realizing that the coldest weather was just around the corner.

It's the dead of winter.

"Abei, does it snow in Jiangnan?"

"have no idea."

"Was it last year?"

"It seems like it's already downloaded."

Lu Yibei couldn't quite remember.

He rarely remembered these things, such as when it would snow or when the weather would warm up.

What's meant to come will come.

“Our first winter together,” Ji Qingqian said.

Ji Qingqian, whose hometown is on the Northeast Plain, doesn't find winter romantic.

I don't find snow romantic at all.

What's romantic is "being together"; as long as you're together, everything is romantic.

“There will be many, many more in the future,” Lu Yibei said.

Ji Qingqian hummed in agreement, continuing to hold the arm of the boy she would spend many winters with. Until they became young adults, middle-aged, and then old, their hair turning as white as the snow in Northeast China.

The incandescent streetlights in front of us continued to illuminate the road surface, turning it into a snow-white glaze.

Ji Qingqian thought for a moment, then asked very seriously:

"Abei, do you want to see heavy snow this winter?"