People always have to face the consequences of their actions, whether it's after a year, ten years, or maybe they're lucky enough not to wait that long to the point of forgetting what they did.
But when the moment comes, they suddenly realize that those things they did have always existed, they were just hidden and not triggered yet.
Of course, the foolish Jiang He would never blame her fear of ghosts on her past obsession with reading ghost stories on forums, so she didn't really regret anything, preferring to snuggle in Xu Qing's arms, quietly forgetting about even the times she made him mimic the braying of a donkey.
But Xu Qing remembered, and so he avoided braying like a donkey, as well as the risk of Jiang He recording a video of his braying.
Xu Qing thought this was intellectual suppression. No matter how much time passed, the great Mr. Qing was always able to outsmart the foolish Jiang He, even though she had become a smart modern-day person.