Chapter 43

Wang Song (inner voice): Who’s this? Xi Siyan’s colleague? Why is he ruining the mood?
Gan Zishen (inner voice): He is good-looking… but what kind of question is that? Of course Jing Miao is upset. The fact he isn’t already sobbing is impressive enough.
Su Wan (inner voice): Oh no, oh no, how are we supposed to comfort Miaomiao now?
Xi Yucheng (inner voice): What is Xi Siyan doing? Why hasn’t he even called?
Jing Miao (inner voice): Wuwuwu I miss gege so much.
Everyone scrambled on the surface to save the moment, burying all their private thoughts.
Only Jing Miao honestly started crying.
In his graduation gown, holding the sunflowers Xi Yucheng had given him, he lowered his head into the bouquet and his eyes filled with tears.
Su Wan panicked and pulled him into her arms. She had already learned expert-level soothing from Xi Siyan.
“Miaomiao, don’t cry. We’ll video-call gege in a minute, okay?”
Jing Miao sounded unbearably wronged.
“Wuwu, Mom… I miss gege so much.”
Song Fuxue couldn’t hold back and turned to Fang Heng with a low rebuke.
“Why bring that up right now?”
The others, who had originally been in a “let’s make Xi Siyan jealous to death” mood, all turned flustered.
“When Xi Siyan comes back, you can beat him up!”
“We’ll hold another graduation ceremony for you!”
“Don’t cry, don’t cry—so many classmates are here, they’ll laugh at you.”
Fang Heng: “…”
This? That’s it?
Pretty, sure. High IQ, sure. Rich, unknown.
Good personality… *this* is “good personality”?
A grown man crying whenever he wants?
Fang Heng felt pure disdain. What was this pampered-prince white-lotus syndrome? Xi Siyan had to be annoyed by it.
He deliberately added fuel:
“Jing Miao, sorry. Don’t cry, okay? If Xi Siyan heard this, he’d say you’re being childish, right?”
Everyone else: “…”
Hearing that, Jing Miao forced himself to stop crying.
“I… I…”
This time, even Su Wan was getting irritated and was just about to teach this tactless junior a lesson.
“Miaomiao!”
Jing Miao’s sobbing cut off instantly.
He looked up and saw Xi Siyan ahead.
Gasps rose and fell all around them:
“Ooooooooh~~~”
Xi Siyan had no flowers in his hands. He had clearly run all the way there, bracing himself on a tree and catching his breath.
No matter how many years passed, every time Jing Miao saw him, it was the same first heartbeat.
The world muted. Everything else faded.
And with one thought, that handsome, gentle man became the end point of his long years.
Xi Siyan had never failed him.
If he said he would come, he would come.
He had once taken him out of an endless hell.
Under broad daylight, they could still live inside an impossible fairy tale.
“Gege… gege!”
Jing Miao stuffed the flowers into whoever was nearest and ran over.
Zhong Yuan, forcibly handed the sunflower bouquet: “…I think a gust of wind just passed me.”
The boy crashed into that tall figure’s arms.
Joy, relief, and all the grievance he hadn’t finished releasing surged up together.
He held back tears, face buried in Xi Siyan’s shoulder, sobbing quietly.
Xi Siyan held him tight, then lifted his face. Jing Miao’s cheeks were red from forcing himself not to cry.
“Good baby, gege’s here. Don’t be sad anymore. I didn’t have time to prepare flowers for you. Miaomiao, don’t be mad at gege, okay?”
Jing Miao couldn’t speak.
He was trying too hard to hold back.
“What’s wrong? Why are you stopping yourself from crying?” Xi Siyan noticed something was off.
“I was scared… scared gege would think… think I’m not sensible,” he said between hiccuping sobs.
Fang Heng, who had just said that: “……”
Instantly snitched on.
Xi Siyan’s face darkened at once.
“Who said that? When have I ever said you’re not sensible? Is there a better, more considerate child than our Miaomiao in this world? Baby, cry if you want. Gege missed you. Did you miss gege?”
The moment he heard that, Jing Miao couldn’t hold back at all.
He wailed and clung to Xi Siyan.
“I missed gege! I missed gege! We haven’t seen each other for four days!”
Xi Siyan finally felt a little relief and happily bear-hugged him while walking back.
“No more being apart this long, okay? Baby, don’t cry now—so many gege-jiejie are here. Be good. When we get home I’ll cook for you, okay? I’ll kiss you three hundred times, okay?”
Su Wan was speechless.
“This perverse behavior of making him cry first and then coaxing him not to cry—who did he inherit that from?”
Xi Yucheng covered his face. “Not me, anyway.”
Everyone watched Jing Miao, crying so hard he couldn’t even lift his face, and Xi Siyan, radiant with joy.
“…”
To be fair, it *was* pretty unhinged.
“Dad, Mom, has Miaomiao finished taking photos?” Xi Siyan asked while turning to kiss him.
Su Wan replied irritably, “Yes! Finished! You missed your wife’s graduation photo!”
Xi Siyan didn’t care.
“It’s fine. The person is still in my arms.”
Su Wan: “……”
“Gege.” Jing Miao rarely clung to Xi Siyan and acted this sweet in front of others. Maybe because it was graduation day, he had grown a little braver.
“Gege, can I take a photo with you?”
Xi Siyan kissed the tip of his nose.
“Of course.”
He slowly set him down and took out tissues to wipe his tears.
“Who can help take one photo of me and my Miaomiao?”
Su Wan raised her camera, not yet even getting out the words *I can*—
“Me!”
“I can, I can!”
“We can, we can!”
Jing Miao got shy.
So… everyone had been watching them this whole time?
Song Fuxue proposed:
“How about… all of us take one together with them?”
Wang Song clapped.
“Hey hey, yes! Juniors! I was Huada too back then!”
Gan Zisen refused to be outdone.
“I’m from neighboring Huayi Medical University, but I’m Xi Siyan’s iron-bro. I was best man at his wedding!”
A girl cried excitedly.
“Holy crap, I’m going to be in the same frame as my CP!!!”
Students from the neighboring Physics department looked bitter and envious at once, uncertain whether to hate themselves for majoring in physics or hate Jing Miao for majoring in math.
“Can the leader’s family do one more shot too?”