Chapter 230: Like To See Them

Zeyu could smell dinner before anyone came to call them, but he stayed where he was, with Zhiyi’s cheek resting against his shoulder.

The laptop sat open on the table, its music repeating while their characters waited beside a locked gate. He had heard the same tune enough times to hum along with it, although he hadn’t picked up his controller again.

Zhiyi shifted her fingers in his hand, and he looked down, wondering whether she wanted him to move.

Instead, she settled a little closer, her hair slipping across his sleeve. He liked the weight of her against him. After spending so much of the afternoon trying to find the right thing to say, he was grateful that she seemed happy to sit with him.

"I should save this before someone comes looking for us," Zeyu said, reaching for the controller with his free hand. "Unless you’ve worked out that gate and want to try it before dinner."

"I have an idea, but it can wait," Zhiyi replied. She lifted her head from his shoulder to watch him save. "I’d rather stay here until we have to move."

Zeyu set the controller down again.

Her cheek returned to his shoulder, and he found himself smiling at the screen. He had hoped she would enjoy the game enough to play again; he hadn’t let himself expect that she might want the quiet afterward too.

By the time Hanchuan appeared, Zeyu had closed the laptop, and Zhiyi was tracing the seam along his cuff. Hanchuan paused beside the table, looking at her before reaching for the wheelchair.

"Are you ready to eat?" Hanchuan asked. He brought the chair closer and moved its footrest out of the way. "Shichen’s threatening to start without us, and Jingwei’s already taken him seriously."

Zhiyi lifted her head, though her fingers stayed curled around Zeyu’s for another moment. "We’re coming. I didn’t realize everyone was waiting."

Zhiyi gave Zeyu’s hand a gentle squeeze before letting go.

She reached for Hanchuan, resting her hands on his shoulders while Zeyu moved the table aside and held the wheelchair steady.

Once she was seated, Zeyu gathered the cushions from the sofa, smiling as he remembered her asking to stay beside him. He was still holding them when she looked back from the doorway.

"Leave them there," Zhiyi told him. "I’d like to come back after we eat."

Zeyu laid the cushions against the arm of the sofa and followed her, carrying her water.

The dining table was crowded with dishes.

Shichen had put a folded towel beneath a hot bowl, and Qinghe was shifting plates to make room for it while Jingwei ate beside him. Zeyu took the chair next to Zhiyi and accepted the rice Shichen passed across. He hadn’t noticed how hungry he was until the steam reached his face.

For the first few minutes, he was content to eat and listen. Qinghe asked about the game, and Zhiyi described the courtyard while Zeyu watched her use her fork to show where their characters had stood.

She explained the switches carefully, then glanced at him when she reached the part where he had fallen into the water.

"I removed the floor while he was standing on it," Zhiyi admitted, lowering her fork. "I hadn’t realized that switch controlled both."

"She looked so pleased when I fell in that I forgot to swim," Zeyu added, smiling at her across the edge of his glass. "By the time I remembered, I had to start again."

Zhiyi smiled back, and he felt the same urge to lean closer that had distracted him during the game.

Across the table, Shichen laughed while reaching for another helping, apparently unsurprised by either the accident or Zeyu’s explanation.

"You should have seen him making your box," Shichen told Zhiyi. "He spent an entire evening changing one piece because it made a clicking sound he didn’t like."

Zeyu pointed his fork at his friend. "You agreed it sounded wrong. Don’t make it seem as though you sat there wondering what was wrong with me."

"I sat there wondering whether we were ever going to bed," Shichen replied, but his smile remained as he turned back to Zhiyi. "He wanted it to open smoothly when you found the right piece. I think he tried it another 20 times after I left."

Zhiyi’s hand settled briefly on Zeyu’s sleeve. He looked at her, expecting a question about the box, but she only smiled before returning to her meal.

He was glad she hadn’t thanked him again. Knowing she had enjoyed opening it was enough, and the afternoon they had just spent together was more than he had known how to ask for when he began making it.

Shichen finished before the others and leaned back with his water. There were faint pencil marks on the side of his hand, and Zhiyi noticed them when he reached to move an empty dish.

"Were you drawing today?" Zhiyi asked. "You have pencil on your hand."

"Only something for the garage," Shichen replied, rubbing at the mark with his thumb. "I used to draw other things, but I haven’t done much of that lately."

Zhiyi asked what he had drawn, and Shichen began telling her about places he had visited for work.

Zeyu remembered him disappearing for an hour and returning with a sketchbook tucked beneath his arm, usually after everyone else had given up waiting and ordered food. He offered that detail while Shichen was drinking, earning a look over the rim of his glass.

"I’d like to see them," Zhiyi said, leaning back as Hanchuan collected her empty plate. "Did you bring a sketchbook here?"

Shichen nodded, looking pleased by her interest, and offered to get it while they moved back to the sitting room.

Zeyu was beside Zhiyi on the sofa when Shichen returned. His friend pulled a chair close enough to share the book, then opened it across his knees.

The first pages held buildings, shaded doorways, and a street crowded with signs. Zhiyi asked about one of the shops, and Shichen smiled as he described the meal he had eaten there.

Zeyu listened while they turned the pages. He recognized a hotel courtyard and the view from an office they had once shared, but farther into the book, the drawings became less familiar.

Then Zhiyi put her fingers against the edge of a page before Shichen could turn it.

The drawing showed her bent over a table, her hair tucked behind one ear and a pencil held near her mouth.

Zeyu recognized her expression immediately. Shichen had even caught the slight crease between her brows when someone interrupted her thinking.

Zhiyi studied it before lifting her eyes to Shichen’s face.

"When did you draw this?" Zhiyi asked, keeping her hand on the page. "I didn’t know you looked at me like that."