Before leaving school, Xia Wenxi and her roommates made a promise to get together again the day after tomorrow.

After Jin Wenyao goes back this time, she probably won't be back for a while. Zhang Jiayi is also going home and will come back when school is about to start. So they took the opportunity to have a meal together before they went home.

After arriving home, she went upstairs to change clothes and remove her makeup. Downstairs, Ke Shurong grabbed her son and whispered to him, "Is that Lin Shen doing something to your sister...?"

Xia was startled by the sound, "My mother, are you that perceptive?"

"Hmph, your mother has been through this before, do you think I couldn't tell? I saw right through that look in her eyes. If you knew about this all along, why didn't you say anything?"

Xia Wensheng sighed, "What's there to say? Xia Wenxi isn't a child anymore. Can you just leave this alone?"

"I didn't say I was going to get involved, I was just asking!"

Xia Wensheng gave his mother a "Do you think I believe you?" look. "Can you really just stand by and do nothing? You've treated Xia Wenxi like a child since she was little. Listen to me, don't interfere in her love life."

"Lin Shen is a good young man. He's handsome, capable, and polite. It would be great if things could work out. However, the Lin family isn't very good. They have many siblings, so it's a complicated situation. Will Xiao Bao be bullied if she marries into the Lin family?"

Xia Wensheng was utterly speechless. "My goodness! This is nothing, what are you thinking? Xia Wenxi herself doesn't even know she's going to marry Lin Shen, right? Can you just pretend you don't know anything about this?"

"Alright, alright, do you think I don't know?!" Ke Shurong said irritably. "I'm just nagging you a bit, I don't even tell your dad!"

"What? What's wrong that you won't tell me? The noodles are ready, honey."

As soon as Xia Hengyuan got home, Ke Shurong sent him to cook noodles.

"They're here. I asked Da Bao when he's bringing his girlfriend home."

Xia paused upon hearing this. Why was he always the one who got hurt?

"Is that all? What's wrong with telling me this?"

Ke Shurong casually replied, "Isn't he afraid you'll put pressure on him?"

Hearing this, Xia Hengyuan smiled and patted his son's shoulder. "Don't worry, Dad isn't that kind of person. It's not up to me and your mom to decide when I bring my girlfriend home. You two decide for yourselves. You and... what's that kid's name again?"

Ke Shurong reminded her, "Call her Huanhuan. What's wrong with your memory? You should go to the hospital for a checkup sometime. You can't even remember what your future daughter-in-law's name is."

"Yes, yes, you and Huanhuan can discuss it together. If you're going to meet her parents, you should prepare well."

"Okay, Dad. You and Mom can stop worrying about Xia Wenxi and me. We're both grown up now. You two should just enjoy your own life together."

Upstairs, after changing her clothes and removing her makeup, Xia Wenxi exported all the photos from her camera. She sent the photos of her roommates to the dormitory group chat, and sent the rest to the family group chat, including the "ugly photos" that Xia Wensheng had taken at the beginning.

So when she came downstairs, she saw her parents and Xia Wensheng huddled together discussing the photos.

"Look at me! Didn't I get dressed up for nothing today? I look incredibly handsome!"

When Ke Shurong saw Xia Wenxi coming over, she said to Xia Wensheng, "That's because Xiaobao is good at taking pictures. Look at these pictures you took. What have you done to make a perfectly good person look like? They're not even as good as your dad's. When you go on vacation with your girlfriend, the pictures you take are also like this?"

Xia Wensheng shrugged, "Huanhuan never lets me be in the camera."

"It seems that Sister Minghuan saw through you a long time ago."

"So what? I'll just take a photography class when I have time and learn properly."

While the Xia family was bustling with activity, Lin Shen returned to his empty house alone.

On his way home, Lin Shen received another call from his father, who asked him why he went to school without saying goodbye to his older brother and sister-in-law who were attending Lin Junying's graduation ceremony.

Then, in a concluding dialogue, he said that he should get married, otherwise his older brother would be a grandfather and he still wouldn't be married.

Lin Shen listened to his rambling as usual and then hung up the phone; he was tired of hearing those words.

Getting married...

Lin Shen thought of his parents. They had a marriage without love, yet they were able to have one child after another. To be honest, Lin Shen thought they were quite amazing.

Lin Shen once thought that his parents had given birth to him at such an advanced age because they had a very good relationship, but as he grew older, he realized how naive he had been.

“Xiao Shen, you are your mother’s last hope. Your older brothers and sisters are not good enough. The future of the Lin family depends on you. Otherwise, your father will go to other women to have smarter children. You must be smarter than your older brothers and sisters.”

He was born as the future hope of the Lin family, as a bargaining chip in the struggle for the family fortune, but not because of love.

Back home, Lin Shen sat wearily by the window, his mind filled with the photos he had taken of Xia Wenxi earlier that day.

The photo was on her own camera; he couldn't see it.

But it also exists in his mind, and he can see it every day whenever he wants.

Xia Wenxi has a beautiful smile; I hope she stays happy.

——

Xia Wenxi sneezed a series of times while she was having dinner, which startled Ke Shurong so much that she immediately asked someone to get her a thermometer to take her temperature.

"I'm fine, Mom. It's so hot, I won't catch a cold."

But Ke Shurong insisted, "It's only in hot weather that people are more prone to catching a cold. Did you turn on the air conditioner when you slept at night?"

"Um."

Xia Wenxi nodded and took the forehead thermometer herself.

"What? It's red? Does it really have a fever?"

"Let me see, it's 38.8 degrees Celsius, that's a fever, it must be from catching a cold."

Xia Wenxi found it very strange. She felt perfectly fine and had a good appetite, so why did she have a fever?

She had just felt her face was a little hot, but she thought it was because the soup she had drunk was hot.

Xia Wensheng reminded him, "Forehead thermometers aren't very accurate, try a mercury thermometer instead."

Xia Wenxi obediently took the mercury thermometer and tucked it under her arm. "So it really is a fever. I thought someone was missing me."

"Don't believe in nonsense, trust science."

Science—Although the temperature displayed by the mercury thermometer is not as high as that of the forehead thermometer, it is still above 38 degrees Celsius.

Xia Wenxi guessed that he caught a cold because he had turned on the air conditioner and kicked off the blankets last night.

Seeing that Ke Shurong was worried, Xia Wenxi comforted her, "It's okay, the temperature isn't high. I'll eat and go to bed, and I'll be fine tomorrow."

"That's right, Mom. She can eat two bowls of rice. She looks fine, so don't worry."

Fever reducers shouldn't be taken indiscriminately. Seeing that their daughter was eating well, Ke Shurong and Xia Hengyuan felt a little relieved. However, after dinner, they urged her to go upstairs to sleep and told her not to lock her bedroom door tonight, so that no one would know if she had a fever again.

Because of her fever, Xia Wenxi didn't sleep very well.

I hadn't had a dream for several days, but it came back to me last night.

But this time, it seems a little different from my previous dreams.