"What was your dream when you were little?"

After dinner, Shao Yan dragged him downstairs. She wanted to have a quiet night stroll to digest the food. Both of them drank the whole bottle of wine, and she felt so bloated. Li Xiqing happily complied with her request.

With their fingers intertwined, they were strolling around the apartment area, while enjoying the night breeze. The garden in his neighborhood felt more peaceful and soothing for her.

Once in a while, they would meet senior couples or even kids still running around the area.

Shao Yan scrunched her eyebrows, and tilted her head to the side, "Hm. Let me think. I had always wanted to be a doctor" and then she laughed at herself, before turning her head to the side and stared at Li Xiqing.

"But you know what? I am actually scared of blood" she shrugged, and softly sighed, "So, there goes my dream" she looked down and watched their overlapped shadows on the pathway.

After smiling at the dancing shadows for a while, she looked up again and gave him a gentle smile, "What about you? What was your dream?"

Li Xiqing was paying attention to every single thing that she did. The way she scrunched her soft eyebrows when she was thinking. The way she lightly squeezed her nose and grimaced when she laughed at herself. Or the way she would sway their joint hands together every now and then.

He was staring back at her, looking deep into her twinkling eyes; and then smiled.

"Believe it or not" he winked at her, "I, too, wanted to be a doctor" and then he gave her a silly grin when her eyes went so round, and her mouth shaped like an "O" at his answer. And then he turned his head back to look at the road in front of them.

"Both of my parents are actually doctors. So growing up, I really wanted to be like them" he matched her pace while walking beside her. His broad palm kept her tiny hand warm. He was also paying attention on the wind breeze and once in a while, he would stay ahead of her to protect her from the cold.

"Mandy, my sister, actually started to study to be a nurse in the university" he turned his head back to look at her, "But destiny said otherwise. She fell in love with literature, and went to Germany to study for a while."

He smiled at her, "That was where she met her husband, Yufeng" and then he squeezed her hand lightly, "You will get to meet them next year. They are planning to open an office here".

Shao Yan was so excited, this was the first time Li Xiqing had spoken so much about himself. She shook her head saying yes, "I would love to" and then she let go off their linked fingers, and her hand wrapped around his upper arm, and held onto it.

"Xiqing, do you think, we would make a good team of doctors if we decided to go through with our dreams many years ago?"

He saw her childish att.i.tude and his eyes were emitting a tenderness that could rival the clouds. He raised his other hand and patted her arm, "I would definitely be a good doctor. As for you," he paused and looked as if he was contemplating, "Hm. I think you would just be a wife of a doctor, that's enough."

"HEY!" she slapped his arm, earning his hearty laugh that roared through the tranquil night.

Both of them ended up laughing for a while, before he finally held her waist and pulled her close, "Let's go back? You must be so tired now, let's sleep early tonight?"

Shao Yan looked up and docilely answered him, "En" and then she leaned her head in his embrace.

When Li Xiqing and Shao Yan arrived back in their apartment, he told her to quickly wash up, and prepare to go to sleep.

He himself actually went back to the kitchen to clean up. After all the cooking just now, he wanted to quickly wash all the dishes from the grease.

After he put all the plates into the dishwasher, he turned off all the lights and walked back to their bedroom.

Shao Yan had just climbed into the bed when he stepped in.

"Go wash up now. I'm feeling so tired" a yawn escaped her as she was saying this, she stretched a little before quickly laid down on the pillow, "I think I'm going to fall asleep soon".

Li Xiqing chuckled at her drowsy state. He walked over and tucked her inside the blanket. He sat on the bedside and patted her arm, "En, you sleep now. I will go and wash up, you don't have to wait for me".

He leaned over and kissed her forehead, and let his lips lingered on her soft skin for a while.

When his lips left her, her eyes were still closed, but her lips were curved up and she softly sighed.

"Sleep now." his fingertips lightly tapped her nose tip and then he reached over to the bedside table, and turned off the desk lamp.

Shao Yan searched for a comfortable position to sleep, and she quickly drifted to cloud nine.

After he was done was.h.i.+ng up and walked out of the bathroom, he saw Shao Yan was already sound asleep.

He wiped his wet hair lightly, and tried to keep the noise down. He walked back to the bathroom and hung his towel back before walking out again.

He watched her sleep for a while. He might have looked so calm when he was faced with all those stories about her past.

His face slowly darkened before he stood up from her bedside, and walked out of the bedroom. When all was still and quiet now, he started to recall all the words that she had told him today while walking to the study room.

He took the whiskey decanter and a gla.s.s before sitting down behind his mahogany desk.

He was enraged and full of jealousy. He very much wanted to hurt that b.a.s.t.a.r.d. But he had decided to hold his emotion back to not scare her.

His priority had always been her. He had to calm her down first, he had to make her forget about her turbulent heart, and that was why he was pretending to be calm.

But no one but him knew how vex he was feeling right now.