PAID

At 2:23 a.m., outside the Huo family villa.

Qin Yao unbuckled Ye Leyao’s seatbelt, glancing at him with a soft expression. “Are you ready?”

Ye Leyao took a deep breath and then shook his head slightly.

Qin Yao chuckled, the warmth of the soft light highlighting the redness around his eyes.

They exchanged glances for a moment before Ye Leyao gathered the courage to speak, only to lose it just as quickly. “Do you think my parents won’t be mad enough to hit me?”

“They won’t,” Qin Yao reassured him.

Ye Leyao sighed once again.

In truth, before coming to see Qin Yao, Ye Leyao had already secretly visited Huo Papa and Huo Mama. He had also gone to see Huo Jing at work, visited Huo Yan on set, and even made a quick stop by Huo Ze’s club.

However, Ye Leyao had observed them all quietly and left without a word.

Though Ye Leyao had been in a dormant state for the past two years, he had been aware of everything happening in the A20231007 world. He knew that everyone had been waiting for him to return, which is why, upon waking up, his first decision was to come back to this small world.

Yet now that he was about to see them face to face, Ye Leyao felt a wave of unease wash over him.

Seeing Ye Leyao lost in thought for a long time, Qin Yao reached over and took his hand, offering comfort. “They won’t blame you, Leyao.”

Ye Leyao pressed his lips together, gathering his courage once more. “Alright, let’s go in then.”

With that, he opened the car door.

Qin Yao followed suit.

Once outside, the Huo family villa came into full view.

The yard was illuminated, and the flowerbeds, meticulously tended, stood out under the lights.@@novelbin@@

Qin Yao commented, “Uncle Huo retired, and for the past two years, he’s taken up gardening and fishing. These flowers are the ones he took from my place.”

Ye Leyao’s eyes widened slightly. “So, the flowers on your balcony…”

“I replanted them. Didn’t you notice just now?” Qin Yao asked with a smile.

“I did. They’re blooming beautifully,” Ye Leyao replied with a smile of his own.

It was summer, the perfect season for roses to be in full bloom. Ye Leyao had seen them as soon as he stepped onto Qin Yao’s balcony earlier. He had admired them for a while, unable to resist picking one before heading to the kitchen to find his milk.

Since Ye Leyao’s departure, Qin Yao had made a cup of milk every morning, placing it in the refrigerator before heading to work. And every evening when he returned home, he would check the milk, untouched, still there as he had left it.

For two whole years—730 days—the milk remained exactly as it had been each morning.

That is, until tonight, when for the first time, someone other than Qin Yao took it out of the fridge.

But Ye Leyao, in his clumsiness, had accidentally spilled it.

It wasn’t that he was nervous; it was simply that, after spending two years in a data-driven system state, he wasn’t used to using a human body again. And this body was brand new.