### 275. Lantern Festival
The Lantern Festival was upon them, the day meant for munching on tangyuan and ogling at lantern displays.
For Lin Nan, tangyuan basically equated to meat-stuffed dumplings. She could still vividly recall the handmade tangyuan she had at a quaint little alley shop when she was a kid—its taste lingered in her memory for over a decade! Unfortunately, she couldn’t find that place anymore, and the street vendor’s offerings tasted like the frozen stuff from the supermarket.
As for the lantern display this year, there were no high hopes. In previous years, Lin Nan had only ventured to the provincial city’s Sanfang Qixiang once, back when it hadn’t been renovated. Who knew what it had morphed into now?
Meanwhile, a bunch of relatives were busy in the kitchen, hand-making tangyuan and glutinous rice cakes filled with red beans, happily chatting and bursting into laughter occasionally. In stark contrast, Lin Nan and her friends were in the living room, yawning and aimlessly watching TV.
On the screen, **Bears Out and About** was playing, and Lin Nan’s little cousin—a.k.a. Wu Jiaming’s sister—was glued to it, while the teens were utterly bored to d*ath.
“What’s your little cousin’s name again?” Lin Nan whispered to Liu Xinyi, who was seated beside her.
“Forgot!” Liu Xinyi replied with bold confidence.
It was only during the New Year that this little cousin returned; ordinarily, she lived abroad. With such a huge age gap, they hardly interacted, naturally leaving Lin Nan and her friends clueless about the name. Maybe their aunt hadn’t mentioned it at all.
Lin Nan glanced at Wu Jiaming, who was entertaining his little sister. The two were asking each other the silliest questions, and she was surprised to see her cousin being so patient with a child. If it had been her, she would have been annoyed in less than half an hour.
“Hey, sis, why do you keep glancing at your phone?” Liu Xinyi teased, nudging Lin Nan with her shoulder, full of mischief. “Waiting for brother-in-law to text you?”
“As if!” Lin Nan shot back, rolling her eyes.
Just then, an engine roared outside. They turned their heads, and before they knew it, a dude decked out in a black leather jacket and helmet rolled up on a scooter.
Lin Nan froze, grabbing Liu Xinyi and darting towards the bathroom.
“What’s going on? What’s happening?!”
“Help me fix my hair, quickly!” Lin Nan’s face turned red as she shoved Liu Xinyi into the bathroom. Then, peeking out, she called to Wu Jiaming, “Cousin, find me a mask!”
With that, Lin Nan dashed into the bathroom as well.
Wu Jiaming was momentarily confused. He hadn’t seen the guy outside, but judging by Lin Nan’s frantic behavior, it had to be that boyfriend they teased her about!
He glanced over at Chen Yao, who just happened to be removing his helmet. His masked face wasn’t exactly handsome, but at least the top half was somewhat decent.
He nodded to Chen Yao. They weren’t exactly close, so no words were exchanged. Wu Jiaming merely grabbed a mask from the TV stand and set it on the table.
A moment later, Lin Nan emerged from the bathroom, her hair finally tamed.
Her heart was racing, and she felt a little wobbly as she walked. Her usual movements were unexpectedly light and delicate.
Wu Jiaming was seeing Lin Nan in this shy and charming form for the first time, and he was left somewhat dazed. With a hint of jealousy, he shot a glance at Chen Yao.
This guy looked as plain as a slice of bread! How did he manage to snag his cousin?
Lin Nan put on the mask, her movements a bit hurried, yet conscious of not wanting to appear overly eager to avoid teasing from her cousins. She forced herself to walk leisurely to Chen Yao, looking up at him.
Seeing Lin Nan like this for the first time made Chen Yao’s eyes squint with laughter as he reached out to tousle her hair.
“Don’t touch! I spent forever fixing it!” Lin Nan batted his hand away.
Her hair, which Liu Xinyi had styled, turned into a wild mess again, leaving Lin Nan flustered.
“Let’s go see the lantern display!” Chen Yao said, pulling out a helmet and offering it to Lin Nan. “Hop on.”
“The lantern display?”
Lin Nan asked, puzzled, but her legs moved on their own as she swung onto the scooter.
“Yeah, didn’t you know? There’s a farm nearby that hosts a lantern display every year. Not sure if it’s happening this year, but if not, we can just cruise around.”
Lin Nan had no clue, given that her parents would usually rush back to work right after the New Year’s greetings, leaving her home alone.
“Hold tight!” Chen Yao put on his helmet.
“Not happening!”
Before Lin Nan could say goodbye to her cousins, the scooter roared back to life. Caught off guard, she nearly toppled over backward and instinctively grabbed onto Chen Yao’s waist, her face paling.
“You’re insane!” Lin Nan pressed herself against Chen Yao’s back, knocking her helmeted head against him a few times.
“That’s how these things start up!” Chen Yao found her flustered look amusing and didn’t mind one bit.
With hardly anyone on the road, Chen Yao sped up, which only made the timid Lin Nan cling to him more tightly.
“Slow down! Slow down!”
Even though the helmet blocked the harsh wind, Lin Nan was still startled by the rapidly passing scenery. “Are you racing to the afterlife? You drove like a maniac last time too!”
Chen Yao didn’t get why Lin Nan was so scared. To him, this speed was practically a considerate crawl.
He slowed down a bit, grinning, “How could anything happen? This isn’t fast at all!”
“Slower!” Lin Nan squeaked, clutching his shirt.
“Any slower, it’d be a bicycle level, alright?”
Before long, their speed dropped to that of a bicycle, letting Lin Nan finally breathe easier.
She had barely ever ridden a bicycle in her life, and now, not being in control of it made the experience terrifying.
After a moment of relief, Lin Nan suddenly asked, “Where’d you get the scooter?”
Of course, it was from home.
But there was no way Chen Yao would say that out loud, instantly cooking up an excuse: “My cousin came to visit for the New Year, so I borrowed it without telling anyone.”
“Is that so?”
Lin Nan had already caught on to the earlier fib about his electric scooter getting a flat tire. While she didn’t care much, she decided to use it against him, playing confused. “Then why didn’t you borrow one earlier? Didn’t the roads remain open?”
“I… I just forgot!” Chen Yao attempted to wipe off his cold sweat—though with a helmet on, it was impossible. He began frantically brainstorming excuses to keep Lin Nan from getting mad. “You know my memory is awful… and it was so dangerous out there! What if I borrowed a bike and got sick?”
“But you drove to pick me up that day,” Lin Nan retorted, unimpressed.
This guy couldn’t even come up with a decent excuse.
“…”
