Green plums cannot become lovers.

"Grandma Tiantong has been waiting for you to truly call her Grandma."

She knew that the boy understood some of these truths perfectly well.

His father's decision to leave the Anhe family and abandon the family business, choosing a path that many people did not agree with, brought many consequences.

Some consequences fell on his father, some on Anhe's family, and some, by a twist of fate, fell on the boy.

He picked up the things that weren't his responsibility, one by one, and carried them on his shoulders.

He had been memorizing them for so long that he had forgotten that he didn't need to memorize them in the first place.

An and Asuka remained silent for a long time.

The office was quiet, with the hum of the air conditioner unit seeping in through the window cracks, mixed with the occasional car horn sounds from the distant street.

The colors of the sunset changed from orange-red to purplish-red, and then from purplish-red to dark gray. The sky outside the window looked like a painting being slowly darkened.

"I know, Sister Zhu Yin."

He finally spoke.

When she looked up, a smile was already on her face. It wasn't a big smile; the curve of her lips was just enough for people to see. There was light in her eyes, but beneath that light, there was something else.

"I will definitely make Grandma happy."

Akane Akane looked at him, opened her mouth as if to say something, but then swallowed it back.

She wanted to say, "You don't need to laugh so hard," "You don't need to pretend you've figured things out every time," "You don't need to put on such a brave face in front of me." But she said nothing, because she knew that this boy had his own convictions.

"You..."

She reached out and gently ruffled his head, making his hair, which had just been patted, even more disheveled.

"Never mind, let's go."

"Gift......"

"I know, I'll give you some ideas."

She walked past him, casually picking up her coat draped over the back of the chair. As she reached the door, she turned back, a mischievous smile playing on her lips.

"Just buy a ribbon, tie yourself up, and take it to Anhe's house."

"So Sister Zhu Yin has this strange quirk."

An and Asuka stood up and followed behind her, their tone smug, as if they had caught her red-handed.

"You brat, I'm going to beat you up."

Akane Akasaka raised her hand, as if to strike again. An and Asuka dodged to the side, their movements so agile that they didn't seem like people who had just gotten out of bed this morning while holding their backs.

The two walked out of the office one after the other, and the motion-activated lights in the corridor were awakened by their footsteps, turning on one after another, leaving a trail of delayed, gradually dimming light behind them.

The sky outside had completely darkened, taking on the colors unique to late summer.

The streetlights were already on, their orange glow spreading across the asphalt, casting long, long shadows of the two people behind them, like two plumes of smoke bent by the wind.

They found their private car in the underground parking garage. An and Asuka sat in the passenger seat and fastened their seatbelts.

Then the car drove out of the garage and merged into the evening traffic.

Tokyo's nights are never short of lights; neon signs on both sides flash past the windows one after another, red, blue, and yellow, like a flowing, overturned palette.

An and Asuka leaned against the car window, watching the reflections of the lights on the glass, without saying a word.

Akane Akasaka remained silent. Her hands gripped the steering wheel, her gaze fixed on the road ahead. A wordless piano piece played from the car stereo; the melody was soft, like someone gently tapping the keys from afar.

By the time the car stopped in front of Anhe's courtyard gate, it was completely dark.

The old locust tree in the yard swayed gently in the night breeze, its branches and leaves rustling as they brushed against each other.

The lamp above the door was lit, casting a dim yellow light that illuminated the two characters "Anhe" on the doorplate. The strokes of the characters had been worn smooth by time, but they were still clearly legible.

Akane Akasaka rang the doorbell, waited a few seconds, and the door opened.

The two changed their shoes and walked down the corridor. The wooden floor of the corridor was polished to a high shine, and it made a slight creaking sound when you walked on it, as if someone was whispering something under your feet.

The living room door was open.

The light shone from inside, a warm yellow, illuminating the corridor floor like a soft blanket laid out there.

An elderly man with white hair sat upright on the tatami mat.

She stood very straight, with a book on her lap. The book was turned halfway through, and her fingers were pressing down on the pages, as if she had just stopped after hearing footsteps.

His face was expressionless, his brows were slightly furrowed, and his lips were pursed into a line. He looked solemn and serious, like a statue polished by time.

"Grandma Tiantong".

Akane Akasaka spoke first, her voice softer than usual, as if afraid of disturbing something.

The old man turned his head.

He first glanced at Akane Akasaka, nodded, and then shifted his gaze from her to what was behind her—

Then it paused.

Those eyes, surrounded by wrinkles, seemed to have a wick turned on the moment they saw the boy's figure. Light surged from the depths of their pupils, spreading outward layer by layer, gradually dispelling the original calm and solemnity, revealing something softer, more real, something that had been waiting for a long time.

"Birds..."

The old man's voice trembled slightly, not in a violent, uncontrollable way, but rather a slight tremor that had been suppressed for a long time and was finally able to be released.

An and Asuka stood at the living room doorway, not going in immediately.

His hands hung at his sides, his fingers slightly curled, the fingertips brushing against the seams of his trousers. The living room light fell on him, casting a warm glow on his silhouette, but the expression on his face was not clearly visible.

Akane Akasaka stood beside him, not urging him.

The old man didn't urge him.

The living room was quiet for a few seconds. Only the wall clock was ticking, the second hand moving slowly and steadily, making a soft, mechanical ticking sound.

An and Asuka took a deep breath.

"install--"

He paused for a moment, then a smile appeared on his lips as he looked at the old man not far away.

"grandmother."

He said.

The sound wasn't loud, but in the quiet living room, every syllable was crystal clear.

Anhe Tiantong was stunned.

Her body didn't move, her back was still straight, the book on her lap was still pressing on that page, and her fingers were still pressing the edge of the page.

But her eyes changed... from expectation to disbelief, from disbelief to confirmation, and from confirmation to a moist brightness that was overflowing with too much.

"What...what did you call me?"

Her voice trembled even more than before.

An and Asuka took two steps forward, knelt down in front of her, and looked at her with gentle eyes.

The warm light fell on the old woman's white hair, on the deep wrinkles at the corners of her eyes, and on her slightly parted, somewhat chapped lips.

There was a light shining in her eyes, not from the reflection of the lamp, but from a warm liquid seeping out of them, a liquid that carried both grievance and joy.

"Grandma," Anhe Feibiao called again, this time more steadily, "I've come back to see you."

Anwa Tendo lifted his hand from the pages of the book, trembling as he reached towards his face. His fingertips paused for a moment above his cheek, as if afraid of breaking something, before gently falling down.

His wrinkled palms pressed against his skin; they were rough and cool, but warm.

This was a warmth from blood relatives that An and Asuka had never experienced before.

His childhood was unhappy; his parents never gave him any real care, and there was always arguing at home.

His maternal grandparents always treated him as a child who shouldn't have been born, and never gave him a kind look.

This old woman, even though they didn't know each other when they first met, gave him a warmth he had never experienced before.

Volume 1: Chapter 287 Even if it's just helping Grandma wash the chopsticks and dishes

After calling out "Grandma," Anhe Tiantong felt as if she were enveloped in something warm.

She held onto An and Asuka's hands tightly, her thin fingers gripping his palm, her knuckles turning slightly white, as if afraid that if she let go, the boy would disappear from her sight.

Her gaze remained fixed on his face, from his eyebrows to his eyes, from his eyes to the corners of his mouth, and from the corners of his mouth to his jawline, looking at him over and over again, as if trying to confirm whether he had really grown up.

During dinner, she ate much more frequently than usual.

She wasn't serving herself, but to Anhe and Feibiao. The broth from the braised pork hadn't even drained before it fell into his bowl, the stir-fried vegetables were piled up like a small mountain, and she even scooped out several pieces of tofu from the soup and arranged them neatly on the rim of his bowl.

"Eat more, Asuka, you seem to have lost weight again."

Her tone carried a kind of concern unique to the elderly, as if no matter how An and Asuka grew up, in her eyes they were "getting thinner again".

An and Asuka looked at the small mountain in their bowl that looked like it was about to collapse, and without refusing, they ate it all, bite by bite.

Anhe Tiantong ate and asked questions in rapid succession, each one wrapped in cotton wool.

From studies to life, and then to career, nothing is too small.

She actually knew the answers to these questions. Akane Akane would occasionally mention Asuka's recent situation to her, and she would even wear her reading glasses to read every single one of his social media posts.

But how can unspoken concern compare to someone saying it out loud?

An and Asuka answered patiently, without being perfunctory or brief, treating each question as a serious test.

He talked about funny things at school, the progress of club activities, and interesting things about his hometown. When he got to a funny part, his tone would rise slightly, his eyebrows would lift, and the corners of his mouth would curve into a just-right arc.

Anhe Tiantong was amused by him several times. When she laughed, the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes would fold into several deep folds, like the surface of water rippled by the wind.

She didn't say anything like "Come back and visit more often in the future."

If it were any other elderly person, they would probably hold their grandson's hand and say something that makes one's heart clench, in a tone that says, "I don't know how many more times I'll see you."

But Anhe Tiantong did not.

She simply smiled, listened, served him food, and asked if he had eaten enough. Her satisfaction was written all over her face; her eyes shone brighter than when she first entered, her cheeks were flushed, and even her voice was a little louder than usual.

An and Asuka maintained high spirits throughout. They answered all questions, and when they encountered a difficult one, they used a well-timed joke to deflect the question without making it seem like they were avoiding the issue or letting the atmosphere become awkward.

Their topics kept changing.

"Grandma, isn't Subaru home today?"

"Oh, you mean Subaru ah group chat_ling er er yi ji ⊙ ba wo."

Anhe Tiantong put down the soup bowl, wiped the corner of his mouth with a handkerchief, and spoke with a hint of helplessness.

"She moved out and lived alone a long time ago."

"Oh?" An and Asuka tilted their heads slightly, showing moderate curiosity.

"I also started a band with some other people, something like Thorns... I've been incredibly busy lately."

Anhe Tiantong waved her hand, as if she were talking about something she didn't quite understand but didn't want to interfere with, "I don't really understand the affairs of young people either."

"I see."

An and Asuka nodded and did not ask any further questions.

Anhe Tiantong glanced at him, assuming he wanted to see his granddaughter. She secretly hoped the two children could get along well; after all, both her grandson and granddaughter were people she couldn't let go of.

"Do you want to see her? Should I call her back?"

“No need to trouble yourself.” An and Asuka shook their heads, their voices soft. “I was just asking.”

He knew, of course, that the girl had formed a band called "Thornless," after all, they had performed on the same stage not long ago, but he didn't know that she had moved out.

This was the first time he had heard this information from his grandmother.

He picked up his teacup, took a sip, then put it down, making a mental note to himself that he should come back to visit more often in the future.

Then, somehow the topic turned to Akane Akasaka.

Anwa Tendo put down his chopsticks and looked at Akane Akasaka sitting opposite him, his eyes filled with a kind and slightly mischievous smile that was unique to an elder.

"Xiaoqian, have you found a guy you like lately?"

Akane Akasaka was drinking soup when she heard this and almost choked. She put down her bowl, wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, and looked as if she were facing a formidable enemy.

"Grandma Tiantong, why are you also concerned about my important life event?"