### Chapter 226: Should We Change How We Address Each Other?
Xu Yong and Su Ran stared at Lin Tian with their jaws dropped.
Half a second later, they simultaneously exclaimed,
“Ah??? ”
“No way, bro?!”
“You—you—you’re human?!”
“.”
The conversation went entirely off the rails.
The room was filled not just with Su Ran, the self-proclaimed love expert, spilling her first-ever shocked thoughts, but also with Xu Yong’s colorful outburst:
“You say you’re not dating, yet you’re already engaged?!”
“Dude, aren’t you two high school students?!”
“How can you be engaged if you’re not even dating?! Am I a monkey to you?! Is catching the bro off guard that much fun?! You’ve got to be joking!!”
Xu Yong, in despair, buried his face in his hands,
“Here I am, 18 years old, and I still don’t know what my crush looks like, and you’re already planning a wedding?!”
Faced with their machine-gun barrage of comments,
Lin Tian quickly waved his hands and patiently explained:
“Well, here’s the thing.”
“Teacher Gan and I talked about it. If we start holding hands, kissing, or doing those naughty things now, it would only affect our competition.”
“So, we agreed that, at least until we achieve our dreams, we won’t do any of that.”
“Once we win the Ke’er Cup next year, we’ll get married!”
“So, if you’re asking me what kind of relationship we have, I honestly can’t say.”
Lin Tian shrugged, trying to understand their reactions.
After all, this sort of relationship must seem strange to outsiders.
It’s not quite like dating, yet it seems far beyond a simple boyfriend-girlfriend thing.
“Good grief.”
Xu Yong was completely flabbergasted.
“A whole year without kissing or doing naughty stuff and you two are just going to get married next year?!”
Having long been corrupted by the internet, and no longer believing in pure relationships, Xu Yong couldn’t help but feel a twinge of respect.
He said,
“Even though I can’t understand it, I really think that’s awesome.”
“My goodness!”
Over on the other end of the phone, Su Ran gasped and hugged a pillow, covering her mouth in disbelief.
“You’ve already confessed your feelings to each other, and you can really hold back?!”
“Looking at the girl you like, you can resist not kissing her?”
“You can really resist not holding her hand when walking down the street, announcing to the world she’s your girlfriend?”
“And can Xiao Gan really hold back?!”
“.”
After hearing Su Ran’s words, Lin Tian fell into deep thought.
He pondered for a moment and replied,
“If I had to say, I can’t guarantee anything, but I’ll try my best.”
“To someday stand on the Ke’er Cup stage with Teacher Gan, to let the whole world hear our music and fulfill our dreams.”
Lin Tian lifted his head seriously.
“That little sacrifice is worth it.”
“As long as we always have each other in our hearts, that’s enough.”
“.”
As soon as he finished speaking,
Su Ran immediately buried her head into the pillow!
“Waaah!! This kind of love is something I’ve never even dared to dream of!”
“I knew picking you two was the best decision I ever made.”
“Xu Yong, look at them!”
“Hey, why am I suddenly involved in this?!”
Hearing Su Ran’s rant and being inexplicably called out, Xu Yong protested loudly.
But unexpectedly, Xu Yong didn’t snap back at Su Ran this time.
“Seriously impressive. Brother Tian, real man!”
He then gave a thumbs-up to Lin Tian.
“In ancient times, ladies didn’t even hold hands before marriage, and that was totally normal. For you guys to manage this nowadays is just… wow!”
Compliments aside, Xu Yong had his doubts:
“I just don’t buy that you two can truly hold back. Once you’ve confessed everything, how can you not think about those things?”
“You’re the one with the dirty mind, don’t go projecting that onto others,” Su Ran shot back.
“.”
“Ding-dong—”
Just then, the doorbell rang from the living room.
“Oh, Teacher Gan must be here.”
Lin Tian stood up, “Let’s put a pin in this for now; I’ll go get the door.”
“Sure.”
“Go get ’em, Lin Tian! I want to be the bridesmaid at your wedding!”
The two continued to bicker.
“.”
With that, the call ended.
Lin Tian put on his shoes and walked to the door.
He opened it.
It was the same familiar, cool figure.
She wore a plaid dress, looking cute and demure, standing in the sunlight, her long, ink-black hair glinting with golden tones where the light hit.
“Good morning~”
Gan Yan Yu greeted him with a smile.
“Good morning.”
Lin Tian welcomed Gan Yan Yu into the living room.
This morning, she said she had something serious to discuss with him, so he invited her over directly.
Sitting on the familiar soft sofa,
Gan Yan Yu looked around, feeling like nothing had changed, yet everything felt different.
“So, what did you want to discuss?” Lin Tian asked.
“Oh right.”
Gan Yan Yu turned her head, straightened her back, placed her hands on her thighs, looking all serious,
“Lin Tian, do you think we should change the way we address each other starting today?”
“This is what you call ‘serious business’?”
Lin Tian chuckled.
“Of course.”
Although Gan Yan Yu’s face was already slightly flushed, she still spoke seriously,
“Before, you called me ‘Yan Yu’ and I called you ‘Tian.’ That was a partner-to-partner thing, right? Even though we’re still partners… I was wondering if we should change how we address each other so we can always remind ourselves not to forget our promises.”
“That makes some sense.”
Lin Tian agreed.
“Right?!”
Seeing Lin Tian’s approval, Gan Yan Yu continued,
“And, we can also adjust that line we set before.”
“Line?”
“Yeah! Didn’t we say before that to maintain a harmonious partnership we shouldn’t cross any lines?”
At this point, the young woman whispered,
“I feel like… even though we agreed not to do those things until we achieve our dreams, our relationship can’t stay the same as before.”
“There are some areas we can relax a bit. For example… hugs!”
“Hugs?”
“Yeah.”
Gan Yan Yu’s eyes dropped, unable to look at Lin Tian,
“Actually, I still really like you.”
“Uh, huh?”
Before Lin Tian could process her words,
“So!”
Gan Yan Yu quickly raised her voice,
“If one of us is feeling down because of the competition, the other should be able to give a hug for encouragement! Of course, not too frequently, maybe just once a month!”
“Alright, that’s my suggestion for relaxing the ‘line.’ You make a suggestion now!”
(End of Chapter)
