Only After I Was Reborn Did I Realize That I Had Childhood Sweethearts Chapter 407: IF Side Story – Bound by Fate: (Fang & Youxi) (

The first night Lin Youxi spent at the i household unfolded with all the tension of a spy thriller. Xiang Xiaoxia had graciously given up i Fang’s bedroom for their “guest,” relegating her son to the living room couch—a arrangent that lasted precisely until 1:17 AM.

That’s when i Fang’s phone illuminated with a ssage that made his lingering chest pain flare anew:

[Can’t sleep. Co service .]

[Are you insane? Mom’s room is right across the hall!]

[AngryHamster.jpg]

The ensuing silence lasted just long enough for i Fang to relax before the bathroom door creaked open. He’d barely closed his eyes when an arctic presence slithered beneath his blankets.

“Shhh.” Lin Youxi’s gloved hand clamped over his mouth as her body molded against him. “Your bed slls like you… calms down.”

“If mom catches us—”

“We’ll improvise.” Her teeth grazed his earlobe. “Now about that ‘service’…”

What followed was an hour of silent torture—Lin Youxi’s expert fingers tracing patterns that left i Fang biting the couch cushions to suppress moans. Only when she finally succumbed to exhaustion did he dare carry her back, her sleeping form curled like a contented panther in his arms.

Dawn found Xiang Xiaoxia shaking her son awake with unsettling enthusiasm. “Sleeping in while Youxi helps with chores? What kind of host are you?”

“Chores? She volunteered?” i Fang’s disbelief evaporated upon seeing Lin Youxi—dressed in borrowed sweatpants and an oversized sweater—industriously folding laundry. The dostic tableau was so surreal he pinched himself.

“Take her to Pan’s Beef Noodles,” Xiang Xiaoxia ordered, shoving them out the door. “She ntioned craving them last night.”

The winter air carried the scent of fried dough sticks as they walked hand-in-hand through Bai i’s waking streets. Lin Youxi’s grip tightened whenever they passed landmarks from her fractured childhood—the shuttered ice cream stall where she’d stolen her first kiss (target: Xia Yuan, age 6), the alley where she’d bloodied a bully’s nose for mocking her motherless status.

“This mall’s new,” she noted, pausing before a gleaming shopping center. “Used to be the night market where mom bought my birthday cakes. One ti—” Her voice hitched. “She let lick the frosting tube clean.”

i Fang studied her profile—the way sunlight gilded her lashes, the barely-there tremor in her lower lip. This Lin Youxi, soft with rembrance, existed only in these stolen monts between manic episodes.

“What?” She caught his stare.

“Just thinking how lucky I am.” He leaned in—

“Hair.” Lin Youxi jerked back, plucking an imaginary strand from her cheek. “You were going for my hair, right?”

“Obviously.”

Her resulting pout launched a tickle war that ended with them breathless against a bus stop ad, Lin Youxi’s laughter drawing stares from passing aunties.

“Look at them,” she whispered, nodding toward a group of uniford students. “We could’ve been like that.”

“Skipping class to make out behind the gym?”

“Normal.” Her smile faded. “Just… normal.”

The cetery custodian recognized Lin Youxi imdiately—“You’re that little girl who used to bring candy!”—directing them to the neglected plot where her parents rested beneath layers of gri.

i Fang watched silently as Lin Youxi scrubbed the headstone with monastic focus, her motions growing increasingly frantic until the engraved nas shone through:

Lin Guochan

You Lihua

Together in eternity

“Mom, Dad… I brought soone.” She arranged oranges with ritual precision. “My human weighted blanket.”

i Fang’s kowtow rattled the offerings. “Uncle, Auntie, I promise to—”

“—love forever,” Lin Youxi interjected, pressing their joined hands to the cold stone. “Even when I’m… difficult.”

The wind carried her whispered confession away as they turned toward Xia Yuan’s family plot—a lavish monunt now cracked with neglect. Lin Youxi froze before the triple portrait: Xia Yuan’s beaming face forever preserved at age twelve, flanked by her elegant parents.

“Hey, crybaby.” She laid out strawberry lollipops with trembling hands. “Brought your favorite…”

i Fang’s vision blurred at the edges—a flicker of movent resolving into a translucent figure. The ghostly Xia Yuan knelt beside Lin Youxi, her featureless face tilted in rapt attention as Lin Youxi recounted their childhood adventures.

When the spectre turned, i Fang glimpsed fleeting features—Xia Yuan’s signature dimples, the mole above her lip—before she dissipated into golden motes that settled over Lin Youxi like a blessing.

“You okay?” Lin Youxi frowned at his gaping expression.

“Just… thought I saw sothing.”

“If it was Yuan-yuan,” she teased, “she’d have hugged first.”

Yet as they left, i Fang could’ve sworn he heard childish laughter trailing them through the rows of silent stones.

New Year’s Eve brought unexpected traditions to the i household—Xiang Xiaoxia insisting on joint birthday cakes (their birthdays fell within ten days), i Lijun sneaking red envelopes into Lin Youxi’s luggage (“For luck!”), and the unspoken understanding that Lin Youxi’s nocturnal visits to the living room required strategically tid coughs from the master bedroom.

At the train station, Xiang Xiaoxia’s hands trembled as she pressed the family heirloom jade bracelet into Lin Youxi’s palms.

“This belonged to A-Fang’s grandmother… I’d be honored if you—”

“It’s beautiful.” Lin Youxi admired the piece before gently returning it. “But we’re just friends.”

“You can’t expect to believe—”

“Bipolar disorder.” The clinical term dropped between them like an anvil. “Incurable. Hereditary. And…” She tapped her temple. “When the darkness cos, I destroy everything I love.”

Xiang Xiaoxia’s stricken expression didn’t falter even as Lin Youxi leaned close, her next words carried on a breath of citrus shampoo:

“Your son deserves sunlight, not my endless winter.”

Then, with perfect timing, she brightened to greet i Fang’s approaching figure—the flawless mask sliding back into place as she waved farewell to the woman who might have been her mother-in-law.