I Promise to Walk With You for Half of my Life’s Journey - Chapter 32

Cheng Xia adopted a wisdom of “seeing through things without speaking them out” regarding their relationship, but occasionally, that wisdom would go offline.

One weekend, Cheng Xia came over for dinner. After three rounds of drinks (though it was actually just two beers), he became quite talkative.

“An Chuxin,” he said, patting An Chuxin’s shoulder. “I am entrusting my daughter to you from now on.”

An Chuxin was in the middle of ladling soup; her hand jerked, and the spoon nearly fell into the pot.

Cheng Sutong quickly cut in, “Dad, you have had too much to drink.”

“I haven’t!” Cheng Xia waved his hand dismissively. “I am serious. Tongtong has been without a mother since she was little, and I did not know how to teach her. Fortunately, she met you. You are older and more sensible than she is. In the future, give in to her a little more.”

An Chuxin glanced at Cheng Sutong, who was desperately shooting her meaningful looks.

“Uncle Cheng,” An Chuxin said, choosing her words carefully, “I will take good care of Tongtong.”

“Good, good.” Cheng Xia nodded with satisfaction, then turned to Cheng Sutong. “Tongtong, you need to be sensible too. Do not always bully An Chuxin. I can tell she lets you have your way.”

Cheng Sutong did not know whether to laugh or cry. “Dad, when did I ever bully her?”

“How haven’t you? Last time I came, I saw you making her peel an apple for you. Do you not have hands of your own?”

“That was because”

“And the time before that, you made her massage your shoulders. Is she not tired after a full day of work?”

Cheng Sutong’s face flushed. “Dad!”

Suppressing a smile, An Chuxin placed a piece of fish into Cheng Xia’s bowl. “Uncle Cheng, please eat.”

Cheng Xia took a bite of the fish and then remembered something else. “By the way, you two, what are your plans for the future?”

The air went silent instantly.

Cheng Sutong and An Chuxin looked at each other, both seeing the word “Help” written in the other’s eyes.

“I mean,” Cheng Xia added, “do you want to adopt a child?”

“Pfft!” Cheng Sutong sprayed out a mouthful of water.

An Chuxin was choked into a coughing fit.

Cheng Xia looked from one to the other with a bewildered expression. “What is wrong? Is adoption not possible now? You both have proper jobs and stable incomes; you meet the requirements.”

“Dad!” Cheng Sutong’s face turned bright red. “We, we just got together!”

“So what if you just got together? You should plan early,” Cheng Xia said earnestly. “An Chuxin is not getting any younger. In a few more years”

“Uncle Cheng,” An Chuxin interrupted him, her voice trembling slightly, “this matter is not a rush.”

“How can you not be in a rush? Look at me, I am looking forward to holding a granddaughter now.”

Cheng Sutong pressed a hand to her forehead. “Dad, your daughter is only twenty-three.”

“Twenty-three is not young. Back when your mother and I”

“Dad!” Cheng Sutong stood up. “You are drunk. I am taking you home.”

“I am not drunk!” Cheng Xia tried to continue, but Cheng Sutong dragged him out the door.

Silence filled the room after the door closed.

An Chuxin sat at the dining table looking at the leftovers and suddenly laughed. It started as a chuckle, then she could not stop, her shoulders shaking with mirth.

Returning after sending her father off, Cheng Sutong saw her laughing like this and felt both embarrassed and helpless. “You are still laughing!”

“I am sorry.” An Chuxin wiped away tears of laughter. “But your dad is too cute.”

“What is cute about that!” Cheng Sutong sat down beside her and buried her face in An Chuxin’s shoulder. “It was so humiliating.”

An Chuxin stroked her head. “It is okay, I do not mind.”

Cheng Sutong looked up, her eyes sparkling. “You really do not mind?”

“Mhm.”

“Then” Cheng Sutong leaned in like a mischievous puppy, her voice dropping low. “Sister, do you want a ‘Little Xin’?”

The question made An Chuxin blush slightly, and she shook her head.

“You do not?” Cheng Sutong sounded a bit disappointed.

“It is not that I do not want to,” An Chuxin said. “It is that I do not want to now. We have only just found each other. I want to have a few years of just the two of us first.”

She took Cheng Sutong’s hand. “Let us wait until we are both ready before considering other things, okay?”

At this moment, Cheng Sutong’s mind was filled with impatience; she could not listen at all. Whining softly, she picked the other woman up. With a blushing face, An Chuxin hooked her legs around Sutong’s waist and wrapped her arms around her neck.

“What are you doing?! Put me down, Sutong!”

Sutong gave a wicked grin. “Sister, let us prepare for the process first then.”

?

An Chuxin played dumb. “What process?”

As she spoke, Sutong started to pull at her clothes. Seeing she could not fool her way out, An Chuxin began to plead, “Later, later, let us do it after washing up, okay?”

Sutong immediately nodded, though she was clearly burning with impatience.

An Chuxin teased, “Sutong! You really have a dual personality. Before you were a weak little kitten, and now you are a bold, bad dog.”

Sutong wore a cheeky “Yeah, so what?” expression. An Chuxin punched her shoulder lightly. “I hate you.”

“I love you.”

“Go away! I am going to wash up.”

Eleven o’clock at night.

An Chuxin’s hair was loosely pinned up, revealing her fair neck. She sat on the edge of the bed in a purple nightgown. This was their first intimate encounter.

Sutong stepped forward, pressing An Chuxin down beneath her. One hand circled An Chuxin’s waist while the other supported the back of her neck as she leaned in for a kiss.

Cheng Sutong’s kiss was light at first, like a probe, like a confirmation. The moment their lips touched, both their bodies trembled slightly. The kiss deepened rapidly, becoming full of possessiveness.

An Chuxin did not resist. Her hands climbed onto Cheng Sutong’s shoulders, her fingers tightening as she tilted her head back to respond to the kiss.

Six years, Cheng Sutong thought. For six years, she could only touch this woman through memories: her gentle eyes while playing the flute by the river, her carrying her princess-style on Mount Qingwu, her focused profile in the lab. Those memories had been retraced countless times in the dead of night, yet they were ultimately just phantom shadows.

But now, this person was truly in her arms, under her lips, and within her palms. Warm, soft, and so real it made her want to cry.

Sutong kissed her way down the jawline to the pulsing carotid artery and over the collarbone, her movements becoming more unrestrained. This woman had a great figure; she even had abdominal muscles.

“An Chuxin,” her lips pressed against An Chuxin’s collarbone, “do you know how many portraits of you I have painted over these six years?”

An Chuxin breathed heavily, her fingers sliding into Cheng Sutong’s hair. “How many?”

“Three hundred and twenty-seven.” Cheng Sutong lightly bit that delicate skin, feeling the person beneath her shudder. “From every angle in my memory, but I realize now they were all wrong.”

She looked into An Chuxin’s hazy eyes. “Because not a single one could capture you looking like this.”

An Chuxin’s face was flushed. She looked at this girl whom she had personally sent away and who had now returned whole. No, she was no longer a girl; the woman before her had a wild light in her eyes and strength in her movements, radiating a dangerous attraction.

“Cheng Sutong,” An Chuxin called her full name, her voice carrying a warning, but even more so, indulgence.

“Mhm,” Cheng Sutong answered, her fingers already touching the skin of An Chuxin’s chest, warm, delicate, and rising and falling with her hurried breaths.

An Chuxin kept her eyes open. Those eyes, usually calm and restrained, were now filled with a vulnerability and longing she had never shown anyone. They gazed at each other’s faces, both written with deep attachment.

Cheng Sutong kissed her eyes again, kissing away the tears that were about to fall, and then moved further down. Her hands, her lips, and her breath covered every inch of skin.

An Chuxin opened her eyes dazed, looking at the young, powerful face above her. She had seen this face at its most fragile, seen it pale and tormented by illness, seen it stained with tears of longing. Now, this face was filled with desire and possessiveness, breathtakingly beautiful.

“Cheng Sutong, Ah Tong,” she finally spoke.

Cheng Sutong smiled with satisfaction. There had always been a reserved, gentle, and intellectually sophisticated Eastern beauty about An Chuxin that attracted her. Sounds of heavy breathing echoed in the dim room. Cheng Sutong did not pull away immediately; she lay atop An Chuxin, her face buried in her chest to steady her breathing, feeling the slight pulse where they were closely joined.

Only after a long time did she slowly withdraw. Her hand was wet, and after a small taste, she wiped away the excess, lay down on her side, and pulled An Chuxin into her arms.

An Chuxin closed her eyes, the flush on her face not yet faded. Her whole body felt soft and weak, her eyelashes wet and clumped together. Cheng Sutong kissed her eyes, the tip of her nose, and her slightly swollen lips with care.

“Does it hurt?”

An Chuxin shook her head and huddled closer into her arms, her voice lazy and hoarse from the aftermath. “You are more experienced than I imagined.”

Cheng Sutong chuckled softly. “Six years was enough for me to rehearse it countless times in my head.”

An Chuxin opened her eyes to look at her, her gaze exceptionally tender in the dim light. “And what exactly did you rehearse?”

Cheng Sutong’s fingertips traced lightly over her smooth back. “I rehearsed how to touch you, how to kiss you, and how to make you” She leaned close to An Chuxin’s ear and whispered a few words.

The base of An Chuxin’s ears turned red instantly. She raised a hand to lightly punch Cheng Sutong’s shoulder. “No respect for your elders.”

Cheng Sutong caught her hand, pulled it to her lips, and kissed the scar there. “An Chuxin, I am your lover now, your partner, the person who will be closest to you for the decades to come.”

An Chuxin’s eyes grew wet again as she reached out to caress Cheng Sutong’s face.

The two embraced quietly, listening to each other’s breathing and heartbeats. The six-year distance was completely dissolved this night, replaced by a deeper connection: one based on a complete choice, an equal love, and two people who had been hurt by life but still chose to love bravely.

From April 7, 2018, to the infinite future; from the wind of Mount Qingwu to the warmth of this bedroom; from a single princess-carry to this moment of unreserved surrender.

From now on, they would spend the seasons together and share the same pillow at dawn and dusk. The mountains and rivers may change, but their hearts would not waver through the years.

The next afternoon, as the two sat on a small sofa, Sutong said softly, “An Chuxin.”

“Mhm?”

“I like you so much.”

An Chuxin’s grip tightened. “Mhm.”

“I like you especially, especially much. Who says the person you like in your youth cannot last? I met my lady when I was 17, and I am 23 now and it is still her. It was love at first sight, and I have been lusting after her beauty ever since!”

“I know.”

“What about you?” Cheng Sutong looked up, her eyes bright. “Do you like me?”

An Chuxin’s heart turned into a soft puddle at the sight of her expectant gaze. She leaned down and kissed her eyes.

“I like you. I like you very much.”

After hugging for a while, Sutong suddenly thought of something and looked up to ask, “An Chuxin, let us go to Yunnan.”

An Chuxin’s eyes were full of doting affection. “Mhm, alright. When do you want to go? We should make a plan.”

“The National Day holiday!”

“No problem.”

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