The next day, when Xu Ye got up, there wasn't a soul left in the house.

Old Zhang and Old Xu, Little Aunt and Wang Yuxin, and Second Aunt's family of three who had come all this way — all of them had gone down to the countryside to his grandmother's.

Xu Ye glanced at the note on the table, brushed his teeth and washed his face alone and in a hurry, ate a couple of mouthfuls of something, and drove to Red Leaf Estate.

In a few more days it would be Major Heat, one of the twenty-four solar terms.

By around eight the sun was already hanging high overhead.

Getting into the car felt like stepping into a steamer basket. It was a good while before the air conditioning got going and his forehead stopped beading with sweat.

The car stopped in front of the villa.

Xu Ye sounded the horn twice, and Chen Qingqing came running out with a bounce in her step. She had on a pale blue floral dress and a sun hat. The effect was fresh and simple, and at the same time somehow that of a rich girl.

She pulled the door open, got into the passenger seat, fastened her seat belt in high spirits and said playfully, "Off we go."

Yesterday's misunderstanding had made one thing clear to Chen Qingqing.

She had discovered that she liked Xu Ye completely and utterly. In all the time they had been together before, she had never had any concrete sense of what that liking amounted to. But after what happened yesterday she realized she could no longer do without him.

The car had barely left Red Leaf Estate when Xu Ye said, out of nowhere, "Lying to me again?"

Chen Qingqing turned to look at him, her big eyes full of confusion.

She didn't follow. "What did I lie to you about?"

Xu Ye said with a completely straight face, "Didn't we agree last night that you'd put them on for me today?"

Chen Qingqing hadn't expected that to be what he meant. She turned…