Ruan Xi had a pretty good sleep.
As for whether Cheng Daichuan ever dreamed of Ais, she didn’t know, but it seemed like she had dreamed of Ais herself.
She dreamed of Ais’s fluffy tail, like a smoky gray feather duster, brushing against her leg, tickling her.
Before Ruan Xi was fully awake, she kept feeling like Shi Chao’s slightly noisy voice was faintly ringing in her ears.
She thought she’d traveled back to some terrifyingly chaotic morning, and was so startled that she snapped her eyes open, instantly sitting up in bed.
Directly ahead, a Seagull Plush sat upright in a cubby, and an empty Ice Bucket was sitting on the table.
The curtains were open, sunlight was bright, the sea breeze brushed her face, and outside the window was the endless Ocean.
What the heck, she was still on the Cruise Ship after all.
But she could still hear Shi Chao’s voice…
And also Cheng Daichuan’s light laughter as he said, “Ruan Xi, you woke her up.”
Ruan Xi rubbed her eyes and turned her head.
Cheng Daichuan was sitting on the single bed next to her, holding up his phone, video calling with Shi Chao.
He seemed to be in a pretty good mood today, smiling as he said to her, “Morning.”
Ruan Xi blinked, “Morning…”
As expected, Shi Chao wouldn’t let it go about them taking the Cruise Ship. His voice was super loud: “Xi-zi, I saw your post in your Friend Circle!”
Ruan Xi felt a bit guilty, “Hehe…”
Shi Chao kept questioning her: “You two actually went off on your own? Traveling, taking a Cruise Ship, even watching a magic show! You! You actually abandoned your dear friend!!!”
Ruan Xi had just woken up, her mind still not turning fast enough, so she weakly refuted, “Didn’t you go celebrate your Granny Shi’s Birthday…”
Ais was meowing.
Shi Chao picked up Ais, one person and one cat, two fluffy faces squeezed together on Cheng Daichuan’s phone screen: “Didn’t I already come back this morning? If your Dusk had set out a few days later, I could’ve caught up with you guys.”
Ruan Xi glanced at the time, “My parents also had to go on a last-minute Business Trip, so how come you’re with Ais?”
Shi Chao was at Cheng Daichuan’s house, saying he’d gone over to play with Ais.
But judging from Ais’s expression, the Maine Coon clearly wasn’t happy to be in the arms of such a noisy human, meowing in protest.
A noisy morning, with both cat meows and human chatter, easily made Ruan Xi think of a similar scene.
But that morning was even more chaotic…
The morning after they’d watched Titanic together, Ruan Xi was jolted awake by Shi Chao’s howling, her eyes as wide as copper bells, and she stared at the big Maine Coon at Cheng Daichuan’s house.
She hadn’t realized at first that it was the familiar Ais, and sucked in a cold breath, scrambling to hide under the blanket.
In her panic, she ended up rolling onto Cheng Daichuan’s arm, leaning against his chest.
Ruan Xi heard Cheng Daichuan’s voice.
He was half-awake, his voice lazy: “Hm?”
Shi Chao, clutching his hair, shouted in collapse: “Chuan-bao! Xi-zi! Get up, it’s seven o’clock! We’re going to be late!”
They’d fallen asleep in the pitch-black living room, watching the movie.
Ruan Xi was also panicking: “But…we didn’t even do our homework last night!”
What was even more disastrous was that, as she shouted this, she realized there was a school jacket several sizes too big covering her, and she felt something being pulled out from under where she was sitting…
She turned her head, lowered her gaze, and saw Cheng Daichuan gently pulling out his hand, the back of it red from being squashed.
Ruan Xi: “……”
That morning was just too absurd and complicated.
Ruan Xi was completely flustered, but couldn’t even tell what exactly she should be flustered about.
Shi Chao’s voice on the video call was just as loud as that morning: “Hey, Ruan Xi! You two ditched me and now you’re ignoring me too?!”
Cheng Daichuan helped explain: “She just woke up, she’s still in a daze.”
Amid Shi Chao’s accusations, Ruan Xi’s mind gradually came alive and she began to retort: “You’ve ditched us before too, you know.”
She brought up what she’d just remembered— how, on the day the three of them didn’t finish their homework and were late, Shi Chao pretended to be sick and escaped the teacher’s punishment.
Ruan Xi wasn’t in the same class as them. She stood in the hallway, head turned to watch their Homeroom Teacher scold them.
She clearly heard that person, who’d been so loud in the morning, suddenly put on a weak mosquito-like whimper to wheedle the teacher: “Chen Mama…I really had a fever last night, it was thirty-nine degrees…”
Ruan Xi imitated this line in a rough voice for Shi Chao to hear, originally wanting to mock him with a “Unbelievable,” but suddenly remembered her image, so she straightened up and tidied her hair.
Cheng Daichuan was laughing so hard he almost dropped his phone.
Shi Chao plucked a cat hair off his face: “Xi-zi, maybe you remembered wrong, I really did have a fever.”
Fever my foot.
When Rose and Jack were running hand in hand through the ship’s cabin, he was yelling louder than anyone!
Ruan Xi pouted, “Hmph,” at Shi Chao: “I have a great memory, Cheng Daichuan is way more reliable than you!”
Their Homeroom Teacher, Chen, was the one who made them stand as punishment.
Shi Chao, who always called Chen Laoshi a demon, was actually gentle and warm in front of her.
Chen Laoshi’s face was full of concern: “A few students from your class told me you were sleeping in class. I already contacted your parents, I heard it’s because your mother is sick,
But even so, he stood at the classroom door with Ruan Xi, keeping her company.
He told the teacher he was still sleepy, and asked if he could just stand by the classroom door for a bit…
Ruan Xi questioned Shi Chao: “When the two of us were being punished, what were you doing?”
“What did I do? Ow, Ais…”
“You were eating spicy sticks during English class!”
Shi Chao was kicked by Ais, and clutched his chest, grimacing as he denied, “I wasn’t eating!”
“Your English teacher’s voice is so loud, I could hear her scolding you all the way from the hallway!”
Ruan Xi, in order to argue with Shi Chao about these things, kept leaning closer to Cheng Daichuan.
Arguing over video just wasn’t satisfying, so she leaned as far as she could, her neck going stiff. Finally, she simply climbed off her bed and crawled onto Cheng Daichuan’s single bed.
Ruan Xi knelt by the bedside, both hands gripping Cheng Daichuan’s wrist, turning to look for a witness: “Cheng Daichuan, you heard it too, right?”
Cheng Daichuan smiled, “Yeah, I heard it.”
“Criminal Shi Chao, do you have anything else to say!”
Ruan Xi listed Shi Chao’s crimes one by one: “Enjoying good times but not sharing hardships, eating alone, faking illness…”
Shi Chao touched the Bluetooth Earphone on his ear, shouting, “I’m innocent, okay! I was just hungry because I didn’t eat breakfast.”
Cheng Daichuan let Ruan Xi and Shi Chao fool around all morning, and reminded them at the right time: “Speaking of breakfast, it’s about time.”
The criminal Shi Chao seemed to suddenly think of something and perked up: “I meant to ask, are you two staying in the same room?”
Ruan Xi’s swagger instantly vanished.
She opened her mouth, more nervous than when facing the Homeroom Teacher with an empty homework sheet, and dryly explained: “…Second person is half price, of course it’s cheaper to stay in one room…”
Ruan Xi was worried Shi Chao would tease her.
But Shi Chao’s eyes lit up after hearing that: “That’s such a good deal, sharing a room, did you two stay up playing Hearthstone? Did you battle? Loser has to wear a Sticker.”
Ruan Xi said, “You think I could beat him?!”
Cheng Daichuan was laughing again at the side.
Because the topic was a bit sensitive, she felt a little uneasy and hurriedly told Shi Chao to keep being jealous, they were going to wash up and have breakfast.
After hanging up the call, Cheng Daichuan suddenly asked, “Did you tell our parents?”
Ruan Xi was still dazed on Cheng Daichuan’s bed: “Tell them what?”
Cheng Daichuan said, “About sharing a room.”
How could she say that?!
Ruan Xi wasn’t that open, so her scalp tingled instantly and she nervously asked, “Why?”
Cheng Daichuan said, “Nothing much. Ms. Shang saw your Friend Circle post in the middle of the night and called me this morning, told me to go to your room more often, not to always do things separately. She was worried you’d get bored.”
Ruan Xi didn’t know what to say.
Cheng Daichuan, on the other hand, joked openly, “Want to tell Ms. Shang together?”
She instinctively reached out to cover his mouth, pouncing like Ais: “Don’t you dare.”
Cheng Daichuan was knocked over onto the bed by Ruan Xi, but didn’t struggle, leisurely resting his arm under his head, his lips moving slowly beneath her palm as he said, “I won’t. But you’re wearing a dress, and you’re still pouncing like this?”
Only then did Ruan Xi remember she was wearing a nightdress, and she jumped off Cheng Daichuan’s chest in a panic as if burned.
Cheng Daichuan said, “Go wash up. Didn’t you leave a Note yesterday, saying you had a thousand plans for today to take me to experience?”
This interrupted Ruan Xi’s panic, and she asked in surprise, “You saw the Note?”
“Yeah.”
“And the Birthday Gift too?”
Cheng Daichuan got up from the bed and walked over to the fridge: “Saw it.”
Ruan Xi followed in her nightdress, “So, have you decided what you want?”
Cheng Daichuan opened the fridge door, then nodded toward Ruan Xi’s overstuffed suitcase: “That one.”
“The Down Sleeping Bag?”
Ruan Xi was a little surprised, her calves feeling the cold air from the fridge and stepping back half a pace, “That thing is really warm.”
“Good for Camping.”
Wishes were supposed to be romantic, so why did Cheng Daichuan want a Down Sleeping Bag?
He could’ve wished for her to treat him to a day out or a meal or something.
Watching Cheng Daichuan carry a bottle of mineral water back to the bed, Ruan Xi followed, still not quite giving up.
She moved closer, repeating what she’d written last night, “Do you really want the Sleeping Bag? If there’s anything else that’ll make you happy, I can do it for you.”
Cheng Daichuan suddenly looked up.
Cheng Daichuan’s eyes were as clear and gentle as ever, but this time, when their gazes met, there seemed to be some dangerous emotion flickering in his eyes.
Ruan Xi froze.
Cheng Daichuan stared at Ruan Xi for three seconds, then suddenly smiled, “It’s fine, the Sleeping Bag is great.”
She felt like Cheng Daichuan was a little weird today, but his mood seemed inexplicably good.
He was talking more and smiling more than the last few days.
Maybe he’d finally figured things out.
But this Birthday Gift still had nothing to do with her.
It’s not like they were going Camping together.
After washing up and changing, Ruan Xi was still muttering to herself as she got ready to go for breakfast: “The Birthday Gift really is the Sleeping Bag? I’ll just give you both. You know, it wasn’t easy for me to make up my mind to splurge for once, so if you don’t treasure it, whatever.”
Cheng Daichuan took out his wallet.
In the transparent slot where his ID should have been, there was Ruan Xi’s Paper Crane and a folded Note.
He said, “I treasure it. Let’s go, Friend.”