### 624. Qixi Festival Gift
==============================
A few days later, Lin Nan heard about Wu Guodong and Liu Xuefei.
Liu Xuefei’s visit to meet the parents went smoothly.
At nearly thirty, Wu Guodong had yet to date anyone seriously, and his grandfather was already gearing up for matchmaking. If it weren’t for the fact that Lin Nan’s mother had just gone through a divorce—giving Wu Guodong a front-row seat to the horrors of blind dates—he would have been driven mad by the non-stop matchmaking schedule.
Initially, his grandfather thought he’d kick the bucket before ever meeting his little grandson, but lo and behold, Wu Guodong had actually brought home a pretty girl this time.
Sure, Liu Xuefei was a bit younger and was even in the same year as Lin Nan, but that hardly mattered. What was really important was planning the wedding!
Lin Nan figured it was probably because Liu Xuefei really wore padded bras that her grandparents seemed so smitten with her.
He might actually end up calling her “Aunt” one of these days…
“Time really flies,” Lin Nan mused while sitting on her bedroom windowsill, fiddling with a little hamburger.
Seriously, what was this thing made of? After sitting around for days, it still looked juicy and fresh—magic, perhaps?
Outside, rain poured down in torrents, buffeted by howling winds. The streets were nearly deserted, and this year’s typhoon seemed to be a bit overzealous. Wherever Lin Nan went, it felt like the wind was personally targeting her.
The rain had been relentless since last night and had already turned the small county’s already subpar drainage system into a swimming pool, with water levels creeping up to people’s shins in the low-lying streets.
She vaguely remembered meeting Lilith on a similarly rainy day, but that didn’t last as long.
Chen Yao was slouched in a computer chair, his screen displaying an unskippable Monster Hunter cutscene.
Lin Nan’s uncle and aunt had also closed up their restaurant, opting to stay home and watch TV. Chen Yao yawned, utterly uninterested in the game’s animated scenes, then turned to glance at Lin Nan’s profile.
“When is this rain going to stop?”
Lin Nan tossed the little burger into a drawer and replied, “The weather forecast says three or four days.”
“Great, by then the whole county will be underwater,” Chen Yao leaned back in his chair, crossing his legs. “So, we’ve known each other for about eight years now, huh?”
“Yep, it’ll be eight years on September 1st,” Lin Nan replied, her legs curled up on the chair as she continued zoning out at the rainfall.
Chen Yao checked his phone and gave a nod. “Do you know what day it is today?”
“Uncle and Aunt’s birthday?” Lin Nan blinked, failing to get it.
“Other girls remember these kinds of days, why don’t you ever bother?” Chen Yao sighed, “It’s Qixi Festival, today.”
That’s because some girls are too busy expecting gifts from their boyfriends.
Sure, some girls might also give gifts to their boyfriends on such occasions, but Lin Nan had zero interest in any form of Valentine’s Day; she could never remember such days.
Heck, she had to check her ID just to confirm her own birthday.
She absentmindedly mumbled a response, then buried herself in her phone.
Chen Yao paused for a moment, then eventually asked, “Aren’t you even a little curious about what gift I got you?”
“Is it a game? A skin? A bouquet of roses?” she guessed without looking up, “Or maybe a new parrot perch? You really don’t have to get me anything. Qixi isn’t exactly like Valentine’s Day.”
Lin Nan couldn’t care less about Chen Yao’s gift. After all, he was effectively already hers; if she wanted something, she could just take it, as long as it wasn’t too extravagant.
With an exasperated look on his face, Chen Yao got up and left the room.
Lin Nan looked up briefly at his retreating figure, furrowed her brows, and tried to think of what this dense guy could possibly gift her.
The most romantic thing he’d ever done was probably that candlelit dinner, right?
And the time they kissed while bungee jumping…
The latter felt a little embarrassing, making her cheeks flush just thinking about it.
Moments later, Chen Yao burst back into the room, flushed, holding a bouquet of roses, with his parents trailing behind, eager to be part of the scene.
Without a second thought, he slammed the door shut, tossing the roses onto the windowsill in front of Lin Nan. “Here, for you.”
Clearly, Lin Nan’s indifference toward Qixi had sent Chen Yao into a huff.
“Got it right,” Lin Nan said, chuckling at the fuming Chen Yao as he plopped down in the computer chair. She reached over to ruffle his hair, smiling as she reassured him, “Alright, alright, I’ll definitely remember Valentine’s Day next time.”
Taking a deep breath of the roses, she suddenly exclaimed with delight, “Wow, they smell amazing! I love them!”
“You’re so extra,” Chen Yao replied, still sulking as he gripped the mouse, ready to dive back into his game.
Honestly, he was acting just like a kid.
Lin Nan shook her head with a laugh, only to notice that there were three cards tucked amid the roses.
Curiosity piqued, she set the flowers aside and picked up the cards to inspect them.
They were hand-drawn pictures, beautifully crafted, though as someone from a graphic design class, Lin Nan had seen her fair share of impressive illustrations.
The first card depicted a classroom, where two boys, one tall and one short, were huddled over a desk, whispering nervously, clearly terrified of being discovered by their teacher.
That image looked familiar—the short guy with a delicate face was probably her!
Furrowing her brows, she examined the second card. It depicted a man and woman strolling through a garden, the girl with her head down, her hands at her sides, while the boy’s left hand was cautiously reaching, trying to hold her hand.
This scene felt even more familiar; it seemed to depict the moment right after Chen Yao had confessed to her in the community garden not long before.
At that time, Lin Nan had been too nervous to notice how anxious Chen Yao had been while holding her hand.
The third card had several lines of text.
“Beautiful Lin Nan, my lovely wife: Your handsome and charming husband has officially initiated the century plan on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month in 2020. From now on, every year on this day, your husband will present you with two hand-drawn pictures to commemorate our youth and love. Here’s to hoping that a hundred years from now, we can still remember this moment.”
Lin Nan couldn’t hold it in any longer and burst out laughing, “Wow, you’re so full of yourself! Are you stupid? And calling me wife? That’s just cringe!”
She seriously hadn’t expected Chen Yao’s love letter would make her laugh out loud.
Without looking back, Chen Yao turned even redder and grumbled, “I spent over a month working on those, and you’re laughing at me!”
“I was gonna save this for your birthday, but I ran out of time. Now you don’t even want it? Really? Just give it back!”
He wanted to hurl a couple more insults, but then he noticed a pair of arms gently wrapping around his waist. He froze, and the character on his screen promptly got annihilated by a dragon.
But he didn’t notice; he looked down to find Lin Nan’s head lightly pressed against his chest, feeling the heat radiating from her flushed face through his short sleeve.
In a daze, he thought he could even see Lin Nan’s eyes shimmering with a faint blush.
“Thank you.”
