Ding Xiao Yu put one of his hoodies on Yu Yan and pulled the hood over her head as they sat together in the park.

"I don't want to wear it, it's too hot," Yu Yan complained even though she let Xiao Yu do as he pleased.
"It's safer like this if you're covered up," he replied, "You're lucky it's still during school hours otherwise if any of Gou Gou Meng Zhu's people saw you, they would have captured you immediately."
Yu Yan snorted, "So I'm a wanted criminal now?" she asked.
"You always were," he corrected with a smile.
"Why are you still protecting me after what I did to you last time?" Yu Yan inquired as she inhaled his scent from his hoodie.
"You didn't take all my yi neng so I've worked my battle index back to what it was before and physical injuries will always heal so it's all fine," he explained before turning to her and holding her hand, "And besides, I don't want my girlfriend to be imprisoned. I’ll always forgive her."

Yu Yan scoffed and pulled back her hand with a smile, "Who wants to be your girlfriend?" she questioned.
"You do," he replied before she turned around and pinched his cheeks, stretching them.
"When did your tongue get so long, Little Fish?" she questioned as she leaned forwards to stretch his cheeks further.
His next words came out slurred and incoherent because he could not speak properly with his mouth stretched so wide. After hearing his gibberish sounds, Yu Yan let go and hid a small giggle.

"Do you want me to be your girlfriend?" Yu Yan asked him in a lower and serious tone.
"I do," he replied firmly.
Yu Yan's small smile fell flat. "Are you sure?" she questioned, "I'm going to die soon," she said.
Xiao Yu's face fell and he held onto her hand tightly, "I won't let that happen, Yu Yan," he reassured her.
"I'm blind and useless. I won't be able to do anything for you or myself. I'm illiterate and stupid," she continued, "And I'm not the nicest person either. Why would someone like you want to date me?"
He gave her hand a soft squeeze and smiled at her, "I don't care about what you can't do Jiang Yu Yan. I never did and never will. I love you for who you are and what you can do." He explained before holding up their connected hands, "And I can do the things you can't and vice versa; like this we're like two halves of an apple, complementing each other."

Yu Yan snorted at his cheesiness, "When did you get so cheesy?" she laughed.
Xiao Yu chuckled, "You start to learn a thing or two after being surrounded by Ya Se and Wu Xiong for so long," he replied before flicking her forehead, "And when did you care about such small things like this? What happened to the proud and confident Yu Yan?"
She hit him back playfully, "She's still here. She just wants to enjoy this happiness with her little fish," she laughed before getting her forehead flicked again.
"Who's being cheesy now?" Xiao Yu questioned, teasingly only to be hit again by Yu Yan. The two then shared a light hearted laugh.

Xiao Yu then paused and then turned to Yu Yan, "Hey Yu Yan, since Da Yu and I both have fish related names, I think you should have one too," he said.
"No way!" Yu Yan exclaimed in disapproval, "Fish stink, I don't want a fishy name!"
"What about.... Fish Eye? ('yu yan') or... Fish Feast? ('yu yan')... Jade Eye? ('yu yan’)" he suggested and Yu Yan huffed.
"Those are ugly nicknames!" she commented.
"Oh, how about this one: Fish Salt! ('yu yan')" he exclaimed, standing up.
"Ding Xiao Yu!" Yu Yan exclaimed, "It's not funny!"
"Do you like Smokey Fish?" he inquired, playfully.
"What the hell is smokey fish?" she snapped.
"Salt Feast? ('yan yan')" he asked as he ran around the park trying to avoid being hit by Yu Yan.
"You're about to become a feast when I feed you to the fish!" Yu Yan exclaimed as she began chasing him.
"I know! Castrated Fish!" he yelled with a beaming grin as he jumped onto a park bench.

"DING XIAO YUUU!!!!" she cried out, fuming whilst Xiao Yu on the other hand continued to laugh at her reaction. [A/N: if any of the Chinese is wrong, blame google translate J]

Suddenly, Xiao Yu's mobile phone began ringing and he stopped abruptly, causing Yu Yan to bump into him.

"Hello? Ya Se?" he spoke into the device.
"Ding Xiao Yu, where are you? It's not like you to skip classes," Ya Se's voice through.
Xiao Yu smiled, "I'm in the park," he replied.
"What are you doing in the park? We have exams to study for!"
"You should come and see for yourself," Xiao Yu told him.
"Is it worth it to cut class?" he asked.
"It's okay, we can wait for you to finish class," Xiao Yu replied.
"We?" Ya Se repeated, "Who's we?"

Xiao Yu chuckled and purposefully cut the call.

"Was that Ya Se?" Yu Yan inquired and Xiao Yu nodded.
"Yeah."
"Where's Da Dong?" she asked and Xiao Yu's face went blank.
"He went missing," he replied.
"Missing?" Yu Yan repeated in surprise, "My father and I had nothing to do with it!" she quickly added in her defence.
Xiao Yu pat her head, "I know," he answered before he began to tell her the situation with Da Dong.

After he finished, Yu Yan sighed. "Okay maybe my father contributed to the disruption of the dimension flow," she admitted before realised something, "And perhaps I did too since I'm not from this dimension."
"Don't worry about it, it's partly because of Xiu in the silver dimension too and that was our fault," Xiao Yu responded, ruffling her hair. "Oh yeah, Yu Yan why did you return all of a sudden?" he asked.

This caused Yu Yan to sigh and turn her back to him. "I'm on a new mission," she replied. When Xiao Yu stayed silent for her to continue, she spoke again. "My father wants me to return to Zhong Ji Yi Ban and find a chance to steal Ban Dao's battle points," she explained.
"But Ban Dao doesn't have yi neng..." Xiao Yu replied in confusion.
"She has over a million battle points."
At the mention of her index, Xiao Yu's eyes went as wide as saucers. "That's incredible," he muttered in astonishment.
"Not anymore it isn't since my father wants it all for himself. And he wants me to kill her as well," Yu Yan finished.
Xiao Yu's face turned pale, "And will you?" he asked nervously.
"I don't know what to do," she whispered, "If I don't do it, he'll do it himself in a far more violent way."

"Xiao Yu!"

Xiao Yu turned to see Ya Se running towards them. "Ya Se?" he called out in surprise, stepping in front of Yu Yan. "I thought you weren't going to skip class," he added.
When Ya Se reached him, he continued, "I wanted to see what made you truant. And you mentioned 'we', so I wanted to know who you were with," he explained, bending his head to try and see who stood behind his friend.
Xiao Yu smiled as he stepped to the side to cover Yu Yan from Ya Se's sight.
"Who is it?" he inquired.
"Ya Se, I'm going to introduce you to someone special," Xiao Yu told him.
"Go on," Ya Se replied.

"Meet my girlfriend," Xiao Yu said, stepping away and pulling Yu Yan's hood down, revealing her face, "Jiang Yu Yan."

Instantly, Ya Se's face was overcome in surprise and happiness, "Yu Yan?!" he exclaimed, "You and Xiao Yu?! Where did you come from?! When? How?" he babbled, shocked.
Xiao Yu grabbed Yu Yan's hand gently and entwined their fingers, smiling at Ya Se. "Fate has its way," he replied before putting his free hand on Ya Se's shoulder, "And Ya Se, I won't be getting a free meal in ten years so you should compensate for that."
Ya Se stared at the two in confusion, "What meal?" he asked but the new couple just laughed.

The rest of the afternoon was spent at Duan Chang Ren's stall, catching up and talking about their plan for dealing with Yu Yan's father.

"We can't get Hong Guang Ge, Selina or Ella involved in this," Ya Se spoke seriously, "Right now they are working for Gou Gou Meng Zhu and they have been instructed to capture Yu Yan. If they join us, Meng Zhu will punish them."
"Then we should have the rest of Zhong Ji Yi Ban join us," Xiao Yu replied, "Yun Han, Wu Xiong, Sha Jie - every yi neng xing zhe in our class."
Yu Yan sighed before putting her now empty glass of bubble tea down onto the counter, "I don't have confidence in your plan," she stated, "My father will surely pull some of his hidden strings."
"There's power in numbers," Ya Se reminded her.
"Yeah definitely," Yu Yan replied in a sarcastic tone, "Especially when his battle index is so incredibly high."

Ya Se sighed, "Okay let's not talk about this anymore for today," he spoke.
"Let's eat now," Yu Yan said, leaning into dig into her bowl of noodles.
"Wait," King Arthur instructed, quickly pulling her bowl away so that her face fell flat onto the table.
"Wang Ya Se!" Yu Yan groaned as her stomach rumbled loud enough for them to hear.
Xiao Yu chuckled and slid his own bowl to her, "Here," he said.
"Aiyo Xiao Yu, don't spoil your girlfriend," Ya Se retorted.
Yu Yan stuck her tongue out at him, "He's already been doing that since day one," she replied with a proud smirk.
Ya Se rolled his eyes, "I have something to give you two," he announced.

"Is it food?" Yu Yan inquired as her head turned to him.
"Feel for yourself," Ya Se told her, sliding two objects onto the table.
Xiao Yu's eyes widened and Yu Yan's did the same once she felt them.

"It's our bracelets," Xiao Yu spoke. He looked at his brother in surprise, "How did you get them back?"
Ya Se leaned back in his chair and scoffed, "Well you see, unlike the two of you, I believe in the power of love - your love," he explained, "So I, Ya Se Wang, worked my off to get them back for you."

[Flashback]

"Where is that stupid bead?" Ya Se hissed out in irritation as he crawled around the floor of the room where the three brothers had encountered Yu Yan. Currently, he was trying to find every single bead from the bracelet Yu Yan had broken and well, Ya Se Wang was getting pretty fed up.

He was now crawling under a low table, stretching his fingers to retrieve a fallen bead. But then suddenly, as he leaned forwards his knee knocked over the jar that was holding the handful of beads he had already collected. He cursed as he bashed his head against the table. Groaning, he crawled back out and tried to get back another bead that had rolled under a cabinet instead. He slid his hand beneath the cabinet to reach the bead only to scream out it pain. He pulled his hand back only to see a mousetrap clamped over his fingers. He cursed for the nth time that night and huffed as he tried to get the damn thing off his hand.

"The things I do for you, Yu Yan!" he exclaimed, exasperated.

...

"Ow!" Ya Se cried out as he pricked his thumb again with a needle. He took in a deep breath to calm himself down before looking at the pink bracelet that was close to being fixed. He then looked at his fingers that were covered in plasters from needle pricking. "I can't believe the great Ya Se Wang is being defeated by his own clumsiness," he grumbled under his breath.

...

Ya Se sat in a chair beside the bank of the canal the next night, watching his men swim around the cold waters.

"Young Master! Is this what you're looking for?" One of his men asked as he popped up from the water. He held up a single blue wellington boot and Ya Se Wang face palmed.
"Do you think it looks like a bracelet?!" he barked angrily.
"I think I found it!" Another of his men exclaimed, holding up a diamond ring.
Ya Se just shook his head in disappointment at his men.

He then looked over at the pile of junk that his men had fished out from the deep depths of the canal. There really were hundreds of things there. There were teddy bears, musical instruments, hats, books, jewellery, drink cans - anything you can think of except Xiao Yu's bracelet.

Ya Se huffed at the pathetic nature of his men. "How hard is it to find a stupid bracelet in such shallow water?!" he barked, "It's been over an hour!"
Annoyed and fed up, he stood up and took off his jacket before jumping into the canal to search himself. But suddenly, Ya Se sunk right down to the bottom. "Why is this canal so deep?!" he exclaimed whilst he tried to swim to the top. The canal was certainly way deeper than he had expected.

"Wait! Is that a shark?!....AAAAAAAAAAAAGGHHHH!"

[End of Flashback]

Xiao Yu and Yu Yan couldn't help but laugh at Ya Se's story. Ya Se huffed and averted his gaze from them.

"You've worked hard, Ya Se, thank you," Xiao Yu told him and Ya Se smiled back at him.
"It's what brothers do," he replied and the two bumped fists.
"Am I still a bro?" Yu Yan asked Ya Se.
"Of course," he said with a grin before bumping her fist with his.
"Thanks, Ya Se," Yu Yan replied, "You were actually bothered to get these back for us."

As Xiao Yu slipped on the pink bracelet onto Yu Yan's wrist, she said, "What was your bracelet doing in the canal?"
Xiao Yu paused and stuttered, "Uh..."
How would she react if he told her that he threw it in himself?
"He dropped it," Ya Se interrupted as he smiled reassuringly at Xiao Yu.
Yu Yan shrugged in acceptance and didn't ask further.

"Yu Yan, will you go back home or stay with Xiao Yu?" Ya Se asked as they walked down the streets.
"Uh," she paused and faced up to Xiao Yu.
"You can stay with me," Xiao Yu told her and she nodded with a smile.
"Actually," Ya Se spoke up, "I think it's better for her to stay with me."
"Why?" both Xiao Yu and Yu Yan asked at the same time.
"I don't want to break you up or anything, but if anyone finds you, Yu Yan, you'll be broken up faster than you got together," Ya Se explained, "If you stay with me, my men will be guarding you around the clock. You're vulnerable if you stay out in the open like this and the first place Gou Gou Meng Zhu will go to look for you is Xiao Yu's apartment."
Yu Yan sighed and shoved her hands into her pockets, "Makes sense," she grumbled.

The three then stopped outside Xiao Yu's block, "Then I'll see you tomorrow, Yu Yan," Xiao Yu said with a smile.
Yu Yan nodded casually, "Bye," she replied as she waved.
"What about me, Xiao Yu?" Ya Se cried, "Have you forgotten about me, your wifey?"
"Aren't you brothers?" Yu Yan inquired.
Xiao Yu rolled his eyes, "Bye, Ya Se Wang," he replied before entering the building.
 

~*~*~
 

That night, Xiao Yu had that dream again. But this time it was quite different. Yu Yan reached him at the altar this time before everything crumbled away. The two then fell into the abyss together, hand in hand. Then it ended.

He woke up calmly. His heart beat was steady and his body temperature was normal.

"It's getting better," he muttered with a small smile.