“Uncle Bai, Uncle Bai…”
Her voice was tight with an aching urgency.
Gao Hongyi pushed open the front door.
Without even taking the time to straighten her shoes, she rushed into the living room.
It was empty.
The familiar figure was not on the sofa.
He wasn’t on the balcony either.
The wind gently tugged at the curtains, but Gu Yebai did not poke his head out to answer her.
“Uncle Bai, are you home?”
Her voice fell into the quiet air, swallowed by the walls.
There was no response.
In that instant, anxiety pierced the softest part of her chest like a cold needle.
‘Did he go out? Without telling me?’
Gao Hongyi instinctively pressed a hand over her heart.
It was beating in a wild, frantic rhythm, like a drum that had lost its tempo, threatening to shatter her sanity.
The mere thought of Gu Yebai leaving the house without reporting to her made her eyes grow damp.
‘What if he runs into danger? What if he gets lost? What if his phone dies right when he needs help? What if…’
‘Why can’t he just be good?’
It was true they had just left Linchuan County to move to a bustling, dizzying metropolis like Donghai.
It was perfectly normal to feel a sense of novelty and curiosity about everything.
But at the very least, he should have waited until she came home from school so they could go together.
No matter where he wanted to go, she would have accompanied him.
Suddenly, she realized something.
The bedroom.
Her pace quickened immediately, her movement stirring the air into a whistle.
She threw the door open.
The bed was tidy, the pillows resting undisturbed.
The large bed where the two of them had slept side by side the previous night was currently empty.
The study.
He must be in the study.
“Ah, Uncle Bai…”
When she pushed open the door to the study, her voice had already softened with a light, lucky sense of relief.
He was indeed there.
Gu Yebai had fallen asleep slumped over the desk.
The computer screen was still glowing, the page stayed on the “Writer’s Assistant” app.
The word count clearly displayed 3,300 words.
He was still 700 words short of 4,000.
One chapter usually consisted of about 2,000 words for Uncle Bai, so his task for the day was nearly finished.
He had promised his readers that as long as there were no special circumstances, he would maintain a pace of two updates a day.
It turned out he had simply grown too tired from writing his novel.
The rich aroma of coffee lingered on the desk, but the cup itself had long since gone cold.
There was a single bed in the study, yet he had stubbornly fallen asleep at the desk.
He probably got sleepy in the middle of writing and thought he would just rest his head for a moment to organize the plot before getting back to the keyboard, only to fall into a deep sleep.
These were all deductions she had learned from reading Gu Yebai’s novels.
“Really…”
Gao Hongyi frowned slightly, her expression a mix of undeniable heartache and subtle dissatisfaction.
“Didn’t I tell you that no matter what you do, you have to tell me in advance?”
She grumbled in a low, soft whisper.
The phone on the desk was still lit.
The QQ chat interface was open to her conversation with him.
His nickname for her had already been changed.
She had asked him to change it the previous night, acting a bit spoiled.
The nickname was “Wife.”
Their couple profile pictures were already set.
Seeing the two of them together made her feel a sweetness that was almost overflowing.
Aside from that, there was the Couple Space.
To be able to establish such a public and clear relationship with such a cute creature made Gao Hongyi feel as if she were being lifted into the clouds.
That lightness and satisfaction made her dizzy.
Next would be WeChat and all his other social media accounts.
She would change them all.
She wanted nothing more than to announce to the entire world—Gu Yebai was Gao Hongyi’s property.
But before that, she should wake him up.
Sleeping slumped over a desk was hardly proper rest.
As expected, one could only truly rest well in a bed.
And it had to be her bed.
She had finally made it home from school.
She desperately needed to absorb Uncle Bai’s energy.
It was a sentiment that made her sound a bit like a succubus or a vampire, but for Gao Hongyi, simply holding Gu Yebai for a moment really would make her feel a hundred times more energetic.
Gao Hongyi slowly leaned down.
Her red hair cascaded over her shoulder, softly brushing against his cheek.
She pressed her lips against his face and left a gentle kiss right on his exposed cheek.
“Mm—”
Gu Yebai’s body gave a slight shudder.
A muffled yawn escaped his throat.
He opened his eyes very slowly, his expression still a bit dazed.
He looked around as if everything were unfamiliar, as if he still thought he was back home in Linchuan.
But he quickly realized something was wrong.
Almost as a reflex, he sat up straighter.
“I am so, so sorry! I was writing the novel, and I accidentally fell asleep! I really didn’t do it on purpose!”
“Hmph…”
Gao Hongyi put her hands on her hips and pouted.
‘Fine. Even if Gao Hongyi is a yandere, so what? Her angry face is actually kind of cute…’ Gu Yebai thought silently.
“Will you punish me?”
He raised his hands in a gesture of someone ready to reform and become a better person.
“Then Uncle Bai, please hold me in your arms. Then repeat ‘I love you’ twenty times. And then give me a French kiss.”
“Let me think. When we go out for a walk tonight, we have to hold hands the entire time. You aren’t allowed to even think about letting go. This young lady is walking with you, so you must be grateful.”
“Okay…”
Gu Yebai nodded.
Honestly, this couldn’t even be called being a yandere.
At most, she was just clingy.
Gu Yebai didn’t dislike her clinginess at all.
On the contrary, having spent so much time alone, having a girl who was so devotedly in love with him felt like a light of salvation shining down on him.
“I’m still missing about 700 words.”
He looked at the screen.
“I’ll be done with today’s task once I finish writing.”
“Honestly, Uncle Bai, you…” Gao Hongyi sighed softly.
“No. I’m going to install cameras in the house. I need to be able to watch what’s happening at home at any time. Otherwise, when I’m at school, I get really anxious because I can’t see you.”
“And another thing, Uncle Bai. I need to install a GPS system on you because I start worrying for no reason if I can’t confirm your exact location. We finally managed to see each other; I really don’t want to be apart again.”
“Seriously. Once your school registration is sorted out, you can go to school with me. Then we won’t have to be apart anymore.”
Gao Hongyi took Gu Yebai’s hand, interlacing their fingers.
The warmth of their palms met as if they were trying to firmly embed each other’s existence into their very lives.
“It should be soon, though. Mom and Dad are coming back to Donghai today. Once they’re here, we can get your affairs settled as quickly as possible so you can start school. Lately, a lot of people at school have been confessing to me. Each one is like a fly, annoying me to death!”
“Some of them actually think they’re great. They think that just because they have a prominent family background or top grades, it’s a given that I’ll be interested in them. They’re dreaming!”
She gave a small smile.
“But I have zero interest in those people. Even if you added them all together, they wouldn’t be as noble as my Uncle Bai.”