Chapter 160: All

“Wow, wow, wow, did the screen crack?”

“No, it’s fine, I got lucky.” Xu Nian was still wearing that same smiling expression, picking up the phone he’d just dropped from the ground with the same easy nonchalance as always.

It was as if nothing had happened, as if everything was perfectly ordinary.

“Be more careful. How could you let go when you’re holding something valuable?” Yang Shuli, rarely, started lecturing Xu Nian. “When I’m holding ice cream, even if someone took a dump right next to me, I wouldn’t let go.”

Xu Nian raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything.

He just chalked up these suddenly appearing remarks as part of Yang Shuli’s unique, surprising charm.

“I’d keep eating the ice cream while watching, well, except if it’s chocolate flavor,” Yang Shuli added.

Xu Nian calmed his slightly racing heart and suddenly looked toward the entrance of the mall.

There was the little gift shop the two had just browsed together. The cat ear headband perched on Yang Shuli’s head was something Xu Nian had just bought at that gift shop.

But now, Xu Nian’s eyes were on the world outside the entrance, where the rain was pouring down, like some ill-mannered woman upstairs in a bad mood dumping her foot-washing water.

“What are you looking at? Why aren’t you looking at me?” Yang Shuli tugged at Xu Nian’s sleeve and followed his gaze outside.

It was raining—pouring, in fact.

“Eh—” Yang Shuli lowered her head and glanced at Xu Nian’s hands: phone in his left, a little hat in his right—the same one they’d just bought, besides the cat ears.

It was a straw hat, bought at Ye Qingchang’s strong insistence. She’d said that if you wanted to be the Pirate King, you absolutely needed a straw hat given by a particularly reliable man.

At that moment, she’d glanced at Xu Nian’s healthy arms and praised him for being even better than Shanks.

Xu Nian would always retort, saying that Shanks was actually holding something back at the time.

“It’s raining today, and you didn’t bring an umbrella? That’s not like you.” Yang Shuli circled Xu Nian, head down, looking for a hidden umbrella, but didn’t find any sign of one.

No wonder Yang Shuli was surprised by this.

Before, Xu Nian was always thoroughly prepared for anything, as if everything was always within his expectations.

But now, with this downpour practically right in front of them…

“Oh, I get it—this rain’s just going to stop soon, right? We’ll go out later and it won’t affect us at all.” Yang Shuli, trusting Xu Nian, offered what seemed the only reasonable explanation.

“No.” Xu Nian denied it. “This rain’s going to last at least two hours.”

Yang Shuli froze.

Her little head spun as she tried to work out the logic, but in the end, she came up empty.

“Lao Xu, if you arranged it this way, you must have your reasons.”

Anyway, Xu Nian would never let her get soaked.

Xu Nian, still smiling, switched his phone to a certain screen and held it up for Yang Shuli to see.

“A movie?” Yang Shuli looked at the e-ticket displayed on Xu Nian’s phone. “The last time I watched a movie was… the last time.”

She simply couldn’t remember.

Her only family was her grandparents, and her only friends seemed to be Xu Nian and her roommates.

Watching movies recently was just huddling in the dorm with her roommates, watching horror flicks.

Those horror movies were so effective that they needed two computers—one playing the horror movie, the other paused on Teletubbies, ready to switch over at the first scary scene.

“Yeah, it’s a two-hour movie. By the time it ends, the rain will have stopped and we’ll head back.”

Today was Sunday, so they had this rare leisure.

Usually, they were pretty relaxed too, but there’s nothing quite like the carefree feeling of a day off, when it feels like tomorrow doesn’t exist.

“What movie?”

“A suspense film.” Xu Nian checked and said to Yang Shuli.

“Eh—” The petite Yang Shuli replied, “I actually prefer horror movies. You know, if you get scared and jump into my arms, that’s totally fine with me.”

Xu Nian just smiled faintly.

He knew Yang Shuli couldn’t handle horror movies, and he also knew that for a date with a girl, horror movies usually got you the most for your money.

But Yang Shuli was different.

Even if Yang Shuli was frightened to tears, even if she had to cling to him to sleep that night, it wouldn’t matter.

He still couldn’t get into Yang Shuli’s heart.

Someone so small and seemingly simple was actually the hardest to reach.

She’d locked herself up, long ago, in a time he couldn’t pinpoint. No matter how much Xu Nian gave, this was as far as he could go—he couldn’t get any closer.

He couldn’t touch Yang Shuli’s heart.

Just like the psychologist had said before, Yang Shuli had built a wall to keep the original pain inside from leaking out.

It blocked the pain from spreading, but it also blocked anyone who wanted to come in and ease it.

So no matter how close they seemed, in Yang Shuli’s heart, their relationship had never changed.

Xu Nian wanted more. He wanted to be Yang Shuli’s one and only, just as he treated her as his only one.

He wanted to try—if he could solve Yang Shuli’s problems, that would be best. If he couldn’t, he’d still stay with her like this.

He wouldn’t give up on Yang Shuli.

Even this movie was an attempt—he had deliberately chosen a suspense film with dramatic ups and downs.

He’d even watched it in advance—there were laughs, there were tears, there were lighthearted and tense moments.

The psychologist had said before: Yang Shuli’s current state was like a self-protection mechanism, constantly patching itself up to keep that wall strong.

What he needed to know was: what kind of emotion would trigger Yang Shuli’s protection mechanism?

If he could get close to that emotion, maybe he really could find a way to cure it.

That’s what he thought, putting the only bucket of popcorn on his side—meaning that if Yang Shuli wanted any, she’d have to reach past him.

It should have gone smoothly.

But Yang Shuli kept reaching over and over.

Xu Nian soon figured out what kind of emotions would set off Yang Shuli’s protective eating habit.

Joy, hope, anticipation—under these positive feelings, Yang Shuli could sit still in her seat, showing no sign of greed or desire to eat.

But almost every negative emotion in the film that Yang Shuli could feel and relate to would make her start eating, cutting herself off from the outside world.

Anxiety, sadness, anger, helplessness, despair—almost all of them.

Almost all.