What should I do if my pet loves watching anime?

The river breeze picked up and ruffled Su Wenya's hair.

She raised her hand and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear; this simple gesture had a unique gentleness in the moonlight.

"Actually..." she suddenly began, her tone hesitant, "sometimes I envy you."

"Envious of me?" Gu Beiri chuckled. "Envious of my poverty? Envious of my family having loans?"

"I envy that you have a choice," Su Wenya said earnestly. "I envy that you know what you want and then work hard for it, even if the road is difficult."

I envy your courage to refuse and your freedom to say no.

She stopped and turned to face the river.

"My life... seems to have been planned from the very beginning."

Go to the best school, choose the right major, get a respectable job, and marry someone of equal social standing.

Someone told me how to do it step by step, and what the correct way was.

"It sounds like a puppet," Gu Beiri said bluntly.

Su Wenya smiled wryly: "Yes, sometimes I feel like a carefully dressed-up doll, placed in a display case for people to admire, evaluate, and trade."

"Then jump out," Gu Beiri said. "Like now, take off your high heels and walk barefoot along the riverbank."

No one says Miss Su has to wear high heels all the time.

Su Wenya turned to look at him, something flickering in her eyes.

"You make it sound so easy."

"It's not difficult to do." Gu Beiri pointed to the river. "Look at that water. It flows however it wants. It goes around rocks and jumps off cliffs. It won't change direction just because someone says, 'You should flow to the sea.'"

"That's a fallacy."

"But it's useful."

The two smiled at each other.

After walking for a while, the flood control wall came to an end, and ahead was a gentle slope that connected to the mudflats below.

"Shall we go down?" Gu Beiri asked.

"Let's go down and take a look."

The slope was a bit steep, and it was inconvenient for Su Wenya to walk barefoot. Gu Beiri went down first, then turned around and reached out to help her.

Just as Su Wenya was carefully walking down, she suddenly let go of Gu Beiri's hand.

It wasn't intentional; she stepped on a loose stone and instantly lost her balance.

"what!"

Her body shook violently, and Su Wenya opened her eyes wide in terror as she fell backward!

"Be careful!"

Gu Beiri reacted almost instinctively, lunging forward to grab her.

But the force of the fall came through their clasped hands and pulled Gu Beiri down as well.

The two lost their balance and tumbled down the gentle slope!

"Splash! Splash!"

Two sounds of water splashing were heard in quick succession.

Fortunately, the water was not deep in this section of the river, only reaching the waist of an adult.

But the sudden fall into the water caught them off guard.

"Cough cough..." Su Wenya popped her head out of the water and wiped the water off her face in a disheveled manner.

Gu Beiri also surfaced and immediately looked at her: "Are you alright? Are you hurt?"

"N-nothing..." Su Wenya's voice trembled slightly, whether from the cold or from fright, it was hard to tell.

The two stood in waist-deep water, looking at each other.

Both of them were soaking wet, their hair plastered to their faces, and their clothes tightly wrapped around their bodies, looking both comical and disheveled.

The soaked evening gown clung tightly to Su Wenya's body, outlining her graceful curves.

The pure white moonlight fell on Su Wenya's face, which was still dripping with water droplets, reflecting a shimmering light like tiny crystals.

nice.

Very beautiful.

Gu Beiri was infatuated.

He stared blankly at Su Wenya's face.

Then, Su Wenya suddenly laughed.

Not the polite smiles you see at parties, but genuine, hearty laughter.

"Haha...hahaha...what are you doing...?"

When Gu Beiri came to his senses, he couldn't help but laugh when he saw her laughing so hard she was doubled over.

"I'll save you, young lady."

"Is this a rescue? They clearly fell together!"

"At least I'll stay with you."

Su Wenya laughed even harder, laughing until tears streamed down her face, indistinguishable between river water and tears.

She laughed for a while before gradually stopping, but a smile still lingered on her lips.

"Thank you," she said softly.

"What are you thanking me for? For letting you take a shower in the middle of the night?"

"Thank you for giving me a night where I can laugh so awkwardly." Su Wenya looked up at the night sky. "It's been a long time since I've felt like this."

Looking at her wet profile, Gu Beiri finally found an outlet for the heartache he felt.

"If you get tired in the future, just call me," he said. "I'll take you to see the river, or somewhere else."

Don't always bear it all alone.

Su Wenya turned her head and looked at him intently.

Under the moonlight, the boy's eyes were clear and sincere, without calculation or ulterior motives, only pure concern.

"Okay." She nodded. "I've got it."

The two climbed out of the water and sat on the rocks on the mudflats, wringing out the water from their clothes.

The evening breeze was so cold that I shivered.

"You'll catch a cold if you go back like this," Gu Beiri said. "My farm is nearby, go change into some dry clothes."

Su Wenya looked at her soaked dress and said with a wry smile, "It seems this is the only way."

It was almost 1 a.m. when we got back to the farm.

Gu Beiri opened the door quietly; his parents were already fast asleep.

He pulled out a clean set of his own clothes for Su Wenya: a white T-shirt and sweatpants, which were clearly several sizes too big.

After changing into the clothes, Su Wenya looked at her loose and baggy reflection in the mirror and couldn't help but laugh.

"Like a child who has stolen and put on adult clothes."

"It's better than wearing wet clothes." Gu Beiri handed her a dry towel. "Dry your hair."

"To be honest, this is the first time I've ever brought a girl home."

"What a coincidence, this is also the first time I've stayed at a boy's house."

The two sat on the floor of Gu Beiri's room, talking quietly under the lamplight while drying their hair.

The sheep was woken up and crawled out of its burrow, looking curiously at the strange yet familiar human.

"It still remembers me." Su Wenya reached out and patted the sheep's head.

"It has a very good memory."

After chatting for a while, I felt sleepy.

Gu Beiri took a clean, thin quilt from the closet and spread it on the floor.

"You sleep on the bed, I'll sleep on the floor," he said.

"No need, I'll sleep on the floor..."

"You're a guest, and you've had a long day." Gu Beiri pressed her down onto the bed without saying a word. "Go to sleep, you have to go to work tomorrow."

Looking at the boy who was a few years younger than her but inexplicably reliable, Su Wenya felt a warm current welling up in her heart.

"Well... goodnight."

"Good night."

The table lamp went out, plunging the room into darkness.

Only moonlight filtered through the gaps in the curtains, casting a silvery line on the floor.

Su Wenya lay on the bed, smelling the boy's hot scent on the blanket, listening to the faint chirping of insects outside the window, and the boy's steady breathing on the floor.

A long-lost feeling of peace enveloped her.

She closed her eyes and quickly drifted into a dreamless sleep.

On the floor, Gu Beiri lay with his eyes open, listening to the even breathing sounds from the bed, his heart at peace.

Before tonight, Su Wenya was a senior, a researcher, and someone he needed to look up to.

After tonight, she became a friend who gets tired, laughs, gets embarrassed, and needs company...

That's good, he thought.

Then she closed her eyes and fell asleep.

Outside the window, the Qingzhu River flows quietly, the moonlight is like water, and the night is gentle.