Chapter 63: You Seem Different.

To be honest, Chen Yi had to admit that her dedication to studying during her recent lessons with Xu Yan far surpassed anything she’d managed over the past twenty-odd years.

She threw herself into it completely, drawing connections from the slightest hints…

There was nothing she couldn’t master.

That night, the roses had bloomed almost everywhere in her house.

Once the lesson ended, Chen Yi gazed down at Xu Yan, who was sprawled across her chest.

Xu Yan was especially excited today—though they were excited every day, there was something different about her this time. Compared to her usual gentle guidance, today’s Xu Yan had revealed a dominant urge to take control. A faint mark lingered on Chen Yi’s wrist.

Xu Yan had demanded that she keep her hands still, allowed only to move her tongue.

All in all, Xu Yan deserved credit as today’s MVP.

Chen Yi suspected her own waist was more exhausted than a motor that had run two hundred kilometers nonstop.

As she gently massaged for her partner, Chen Yi patted Xu Yan’s slender back.

No one would ever guess that the woman who seemed capable of single-handedly holding up the entire company was so fragile and delicate. Stripped of her professional facade and trappings, she was little more than a delicate handful.

Xu Yan lay there as peacefully as a child.

“What are you thinking about?” Chen Yi asked.

Xu Yan’s throat was hoarse from all her cries. She nuzzled against Chen Yi’s chest, and whatever thought flashed through her mind made her let out a soft chuckle.

“Hm?”

“It’s nothing.” But the moment Xu Yan spoke, her voice gave her away.

“Want some water?” Chen Yi asked, concerned.

“I’m fine,” she replied. “I just never imagined we’d share a moment like this.”

“Really?”

Xu Yan nodded faintly. “Mm.”

She was an odd one. When she truly loved something, she preferred not to claim it for her own. That way, it seemed, losing it wouldn’t shatter her heart. Of course, there was another possibility: deep down, she simply believed she wasn’t worthy of it.

Those moments had all melted into fragments amid her time with Chen Yi.

Chen Yi was like a gentle flame that didn’t scorch, thawing the ancient ice that had long encased her heart.

Even so, the fear of loss still haunted Xu Yan’s thoughts.

“Baby…” Xu Yan murmured softly.

Chen Yi keenly sensed the fragile tremor of unease rippling through the intimate air between them.

Those fragments shone in Xu Yan’s eyes as she looked up.

The ancient saying about painting the eyes on a dragon rang true here—a single stroke could bring the whole image to life, the spark in the pupils being everything.

It was the same for Xu Yan.

The softness beneath her icy exterior lay revealed, her gaze burning with intensity, the subtlest emotions flickering in her eyes.

Chen Yi leaned down to kiss her forehead and pulled her closer.

“I’m here,” she said. “I love you.”

Xu Yan let out a soft hum in response. “I love you too.”

“Tired?” Chen Yi noticed Xu Yan starting to yawn in tiny bursts. “Want to sleep?”

She had quit her job that Friday, and tomorrow was the weekend—Xu Yan shouldn’t have to work.

“I should sleep,” Xu Yan said. “I’ve got to head out tomorrow afternoon for some business.”

“Work stuff?”

“Mm.”

In their line of work, things only got busier as holidays approached. Christmas was non-negotiable, and New Year’s meant prepping a massive year-end gala. As the linchpin, Xu Yan had to be the pillar holding it all together.

“My wife’s working so hard,” Chen Yi said. She never pitied herself that way at her own job. “Will you be back for dinner tomorrow? I can cook at your place and wait with Xu Yixiao.”

Xu Yan shook her head. “Probably not.”

“Right, what are your plans now that you’ve quit?”

Chen Yi laid it all out honestly—her idea about live streaming, along with the worry that had been nagging her before.

At twenty-one, she’d never been so fixated on early bedtimes and wake-ups. She’d once imagined that without a job, she’d revel in sleeping in and staying up late like some freelance dream. Now that the day had arrived, she realized the truth: late nights meant nothing compared to syncing her schedule with her wife’s.

“What if I just can’t get up and end up sleeping all day?” Chen Yi muttered. “Wife, you’ll have to call and wake me.”

“What if even the phone doesn’t do it?”

Chen Yi hesitated. “Uh…”

What then? She’d channel the endurance she’d built fighting jet lag and pull all-nighters at home. Maybe after enough late nights, she’d wake up early without the pain.

Xu Yan’s eyes gleamed as an idea took shape.

“Then I’ll come wake you myself?”

“Won’t that be too much trouble?”

They spent plenty of time glued to each other, but she couldn’t count on it every single day. These days, she was at Xu Yan’s place just as often as her own.

Wait—

There was a way to fix that.

“Wife.” Chen Yi pinched the dip at her waist. “What if we moved in together?”

“But wouldn’t that be moving too fast?”

In the lesbian world, it’d be the equivalent of a whirlwind romance and elopement.

The three big lesbian lies: shacking up, adopting a cat, and beach trips.

This one move would catapult her past 99 percent of couples straight into the modern era.

“Too fast?” Xu Yan didn’t seem bothered. “Everyone has their own pace. We have ours.”

“Oh—” Chen Yi blinked. “So that’s a yes to living together?”

Suddenly, she wasn’t sleepy at all.

Living together—where? Xu Yan’s place or hers? And what about Xu Yixiao? Sure, kids that age insisted they didn’t need company, that gaming on their phone was paradise. But in Chen Yi’s view…

“As her parents, we should still keep a closer eye on her.”

“What’s that about?” Ever since she’d said it, Xu Yan had been staring into her eyes without a word, a hint of amusement sparkling in them. That smile made Chen Yi’s heart race. Even now, she still melted at the sight of Xu Yan’s icy reserve thawing into warmth. Embarrassed, Chen Yi looked away. “Don’t stare at me like that.”

“Did I say something wrong?” Chen Yi wondered aloud.

“No.” Xu Yan’s lips curved in satisfaction. “You’re right—you’re her parent too.”

“That’s some good initiative,” Xu Yan added, clearly pleased.

“Aaaah—”

If she’d been standing, Chen Yi would’ve stomped her feet so hard the neighbors downstairs would’ve thought it was an earthquake. But she was lying in bed with Xu Yan in her arms. With nowhere for her emotions to go, she simply hugged Xu Yan tighter and buried her face in her hair. Static electricity sent their strands dancing wildly.

Xu Yan couldn’t help but laugh, half exasperated.

Sometimes she truly wondered where Chen Yi’s innocence came from.

They’d done far more outrageous things—things where Chen Yi lost all restraint. And yet here she was, blushing over a single sentence.

Xu Yan teased her about it.

Chen Yi turned as red as a boiled lobster, her words stumbling out. “Then… then I won’t do that anymore.”

“Sister, you don’t like it?”

Xu Yan toyed with the soft lobe of her ear.

“What do you think?”

Chen Yi paused, then grinned. “I think you love it.”

“Your wetness was—”

Before she could finish, Xu Yan clapped a hand over Chen Yi’s mouth.

Chen Yi blinked up at her innocently.

Now it was Xu Yan’s turn to flush beneath her gaze.

“Don’t say stuff like that.”

Chen Yi hadn’t been making it up.

If platforms allowed detailed replays, she’d describe it even more vividly.

Xu Yan admitted she loved this bolder side of Chen Yi—but that didn’t mean she had some weird kink. Before Chen Yi, her life could only be described as sexually indifferent.

After meeting Chen Yi, though, she found herself captivated by those rare bursts of madness and possessiveness. In everyday moments, Chen Yi was steadier than she was despite being younger—always opting for calm talks and clear communication. Only in bed did she cast aside words and civility, unleashing every raw desire on Xu Yan without hesitation.

Devouring her whole, in a frenzy.

Xu Yan was utterly hooked.

“Wait… what were we even talking about?”

Somehow the conversation had veered off into dangerously spicy territory.

Chen Yi was sure they’d been discussing something serious.

This kept happening lately.

Was it a classic young-couple-in-love thing, or just her?

Did other people veer off-topic like this, abandoning subject A for some wild, unpredictable detour?

“Moving in together,” Xu Yan said, sharper-minded as always and reeling them back in. “You were talking about Xu Yixiao.”

“Right, right.” Chen Yi remembered.

Xu Yan considered it for a moment, her gaze lowering thoughtfully.

“My place only has two bedrooms and a study. We could convert the study into a game room for you, but I’m worried it might interfere if you’re live streaming while I’m working in there.”

“Then come to my place,” Chen Yi said without hesitation. “I’ve got tons of empty rooms anyway.”

“We can set one up for Xu Yixiao, leave my current game room as is, and make you a study too. Then we’d have everything we need.”

“Or else, since our two places are so close anyway, we could alternate—odd days at my house, even days at yours. One, three, five with me; two, four, six with you.”

Xu Yan: “What’s the difference from what we’re doing now?”

Chen Yi: “True.”

“Ugh.” Xu Yan let out a sudden sigh.

Chen Yi looked puzzled. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m starting to think that agreeing to look after Xu Yixiao for her mom was a mistake.”

What couple wanted a full-grown niece dropping by their home every single day?

Chen Yi burst out laughing, unable to contain herself. She turned to Xu Yan. “But if it weren’t for her, who knows where we’d be right now.”

Xu Yan considered it and realized she had a point.

Still, she really needed to have a serious talk with Xu Yixiao’s real mother, Xu Qing.

Did she seriously plan to just dump her daughter here and wash her hands of the whole thing?

The next day, Xu Yan made time to call Xu Qing.

Xu Qing picked up right away, assuming something urgent had come up.

Xu Yan: “Can’t I just call to check on you for once?”

Xu Qing: “…”

“Want to review our call history and see what usually happens?”

Whatever. Xu Yan was too lazy to bother.

“I’m asking you—what are you planning to do about Xu Yixiao?”

Xu Qing huffed. “She wants to stay? Fine, let her stay. It’s not like anyone’s dying to take care of her.”

“Don’t be so childish. Fighting with your own daughter out of spite?”

“When have I ever?”

“Or try talking to Xu Yixiao a different way.” Xu Yan continued, “I don’t think Yixiao’s unreasonable. It’s just that your decision to go abroad came out of nowhere. You didn’t discuss it with her at all—just bam, you informed everyone else to get ready for the transfer. If this had happened to you back in the day, would you have been okay with it?”

Xu Qing: “Why wouldn’t I? If our parents had had the means to go abroad back then, I’d have been over the moon.”

“But sis—” The words caught in Xu Yan’s throat. After some hesitation, she finally managed to get them out. “Don’t forget. Back then, what we wanted most was love.”

That was something their parents could never give them.

In that moment, Xu Yan suddenly understood everything.

If they couldn’t even love themselves, how could they love a child? She had been so fixated in the past, desperately trying to wring something out of them. Maybe that was just what children did. And Xu Yixiao still carried a trace of that instinct within her.

“Sis, just think it over again,” Xu Yan said.

There was a long silence on the other end of the line. Finally, Xu Qing replied with a simple “Okay,” then added, “Yan-mei, you’ve changed.”

Xu Yan’s lips curved into an unconscious smile.

“Maybe.”

If she had changed, then that change had a name: Chen Yi.

It was like some aurora forgotten for a thousand years, bursting suddenly into her world and making her open her eyes to the truth: love was, indeed, a force.