Lu Yichen was on vacation—at least officially.
In truth, it was a forced break. He had barely stepped foot in his hometown before his mother started again: nagging about blind dates, pushing photos under his nose, talking endlessly about marriage. He was twenty-one, for heaven's sake. A special soldier. Most of his life was spent on missions, not in drawing rooms sipping tea with strange girls his mother picked out from old family contacts.
It wasn't that he disdained love or marriage.
He just didn't want to give his heart to someone out of obligation, and he sure as hell didn't want to ruin a girl's life by marrying her when he could barely guarantee being home once every few years. Love, for someone like him, wasn't just rare—it was dangerous.
Tired of the walls closing in, he escaped for a walk—just him, the breeze, and the quiet city.
That's when he saw her.
A girl with ice cream, humming sweetly to herself as she skipped along the street, completely carefree. Her smile was wide, innocent. Her eyes lit up like the world had never once betrayed her.
He stopped walking without realizing.
"She's… cute," he murmured under his breath.
There was something so untouched about her, so pure, it made his chest tighten. He had the sudden, irrational urge to shield her from the ugliness he'd seen in the world. The kind of urge he'd never felt before.
But the moment shattered all too soon.
A commotion nearby—a scream.
"Thief! Thief!!"
Lu Yichen turned sharply. An old woman was crying out, and in front of her, the same little girl was sprinting after a man who had snatched the lady's bag.
"Wait—what the hell are you doing?" he muttered and broke into a run.
She chased the thief into an alley. Brave—but stupid.
Very stupid.
By the time he reached, the thief had stopped, cornering the girl.
He heard him call her "baby."
The word burned like acid in Lu Yichen's blood.
Without hesitation, he lunged forward, tackled the thief to the ground, and twisted his wrist back in one practiced motion.
"Too late for you to realize," he growled, eyes hard, "that she's not alone."
The man whimpered beneath him, dropping the bag.
Only after the situation was under control did Lu Yichen turn around—ready to scold the girl for being reckless.
But what he saw instead…
The little firecracker who had just chased a thief barefoot through city streets now looked at him wide-eyed, face flushed in stunned silence. Her lips parted as if to say something but failed.
He froze.
God. She was even cuter up close.
"Thank you…" she whispered, breath catching.
She blinked at him like he was some kind of superhero, and he almost laughed—but didn't.
Instead, when she asked for his name, he smiled mischievously and said:
"Maybe I'll tell you… if we ever meet again."
He turned and walked away.
But even as he disappeared around the corner, he smirked to himself.
We'll meet again, little ice cream girl. That—I'm sure of.