They finished the broth in a silence that no longer required filling.
When Xu Chen reached for his wallet, Aum's hand was already resting flat against the small wooden table. He held out the crisp, now familiar paper currency, placing the exact notes down with mechanical precision."Calculated including the tip," Aum murmured.
Xu Chen paused, looking from the money back up to Aum's face."Where did you get the money?"
"Advanced payment from my boss," Aum said, his voice entirely even as he adjusted his cuffs. "She is a lovely lady."
A faint, surprised smile touched Xu Chen's lips. The image of Aum navigating a bookstore hiring process and winning over the owner enough to secure an advance, warmed something deep in his chest.
"She is," Xu Chen agreed softly. "And you're adapting too fast."
They stood up together from the small wooden table.The cold mountain wind caught them the moment they left the shelter of the food stall awning, sweeping down from the dark peaks of Cangshan. It whistled through the narrow stone alleyways, sending the remaining Sanyuejie wish ribbons into a frantic, whispering dance above the canal.
They walked side by side toward the parking area.Fifteen minutes through the deepening quiet of Old Dali.Their hands didn't find each other again in the open streets, but the distance between their shoulders remained entirely non-existent. Aum adjusted his pace seamlessly, tracking Xu Chen's steps over the uneven cobblestones as if matching frequencies.
When they reached the car, the warmth of the heater took a few minutes to fight off the high-altitude spring chill.Neither of them spoke much during the drive back to the bookstore.
The city blurred outside the windows in fragments of fading lantern light and dark stone architecture. Xu Chen kept his eyes on the road, but his mind remained entirely anchored to the quiet weight of the passenger sitting beside him. The alien who had just used his very first earth earnings to buy him a bowl of broth.
The car pulled to a stop in front of the bookstore where Aum had recently moved.
The building looked dark. Still.Xu Chen turned off the engine, but he left his hands resting on the steering wheel. Reluctance settled heavily in his chest. He looked across the dark console at Aum, the dim dashboard lights casting sharp shadows across his profile.
"Come back to the villa," Xu Chen said softly.The request slipped out before he could structurally analyze the risk of asking.
Aum turned his head slowly. His gaze was steady. Universal.
"I cannot," Aum declined politely. His voice held no coldness, only a grounded, unyielding reality. "I need to figure out the survival on earth by my own."Xu Chen looked at him for a long moment. He understood. He knew Aum's logic wasn't a rejection of him, but a structural necessity for a creature trying to find his footing on an entirely foreign planet.
Still, the understanding didn't make the space between them feel any less vast.
"Okay," Xu Chen murmured.He leaned across the console before his second-guessing could stop him.
He pressed a soft, lingering kiss against Aum's cheek. The skin was cool from the mountain air outside, but beneath it, the warmth was entirely real.
"Thank you," Xu Chen whispered against his skin. "For accompanying me tonight."
Aum became very still. His breath caught in a way that defied statistical prediction.
Then, Aum stepped out of the car.
Xu Chen didn't drive away immediately. He kept the car idling in the quiet street, his eyes fixed on the bookstore. He watched Aum unlock the door, step inside, and move through the shadows until a soft, warm light finally bloomed through the upstairs window.He saw Aum's silhouette move past the glass. Settled. Safe.
Only then did Xu Chen shift the car into drive.As he turned the vehicle back toward the direction of his lonely villa, the mountain wind still buffeted the frame of the car. But the cold outside no longer seemed to matter.
Xu Chen drove into the night with a terrifying, permanent warmth blooming directly against his heart.
Author's Note:
Thank you so much to all my readers for reading these chapters patiently.
A special thanks to Bertha_Pearl who made sure to add her valuable thoughts on almost every chapter that helped me boost my thoughts to bring to you all, a better love story of Aum and Xu Chen.
I am officially wrapping up the festival narration and would move on with the main plot.