Originally, Wen Qian was just an onlooker, but unexpectedly, she found herself personally involved.
After Xie Zhou expressed his liking, hearing no response from the other side, he continued: "Actually, I had feelings for you when we were in school, but afterwards we didn't study in the same city, nor did we work in the same city after graduation.
"After starting work, you didn't attend the reunions either, so I've been wanting to find an opportunity to tell you. Today I finally mustered up the courage."
In fact, the previous time he mustered up courage was when they were checking their grades in school. Back then, he was planning to confess his feelings to her, but someone else got ahead of him, though Wen Qian rejected that person.
At that time, Xie Zhou was glad that the person who confessed first was rejected, but it also made him hesitate, as he was afraid of being rejected along with that person.
Years later, he nervously conveyed his feelings to her again.
Upon hearing her high school classmate's confession over the phone, Wen Qian's first reaction was that it was fortunate it was over the phone, as it would have been awkward if it were face-to-face.
"Sorry, I don't like you," was the only thing Wen Qian could say.
Xie Zhou: "Was it because I said it too late? Perhaps I should have told you when we were filling out our college applications."
Wen Qian: "Thank you for your liking, but my answer remains unchanged."
Xie Zhou: "Okay, I understand. Goodbye!"
Wen Qian: "Goodbye."
Xie Zhou: "Just think of it as me being momentarily insane. Don't take it to heart."
Wen Qian: "Okay, goodbye." She then hung up the phone.
Xie Zhou: "..."
Wen Qian recalled Xie Zhou from high school, and it seemed her impression of him had stopped there.
In the years that followed, she couldn't remember what he looked like, only that he had excellent grades, but she didn't know anything else about him.
This episode didn't cause any ripples. After rejecting him, Wen Qian continued to sleep.
The next day, her hiking trip was about to end. Next, Wen Qian planned to go shopping and then prepare for a second, half-month-long hike around the lake.
She had no time to think about Xie Zhou anymore. Or rather, since she had decided to find a safe place and live alone, she wouldn't have a chance with anyone.
These were just thoughts she kept to herself, and she would never say out loud that she intended to live alone for the rest of her life.
Moreover, Wen Qian never spoke about setting flags for herself, especially nonsense like "Even if you were the last man on earth, I wouldn't marry you" or "After finishing this task, I'll quit and retire."
She was particularly afraid that words spoken aloud would lead to the opposite outcome.
So her goals and plans could remain in her mind or written down, but never announced publicly.
The next morning when Wen Qian woke up, she saw messages that had been sent from the same number Xie Zhou had called from in the early morning hours.
The text messages were quite long, basically reiterating what he had said over the phone.
However, it was of no use, as Wen Qian's goals and behaviors were largely inconsistent with most people's, and her current actions could even be considered incomprehensible to the majority.
Explanations would be useless, and could even put her life in danger. Why would she involve others?
Wen Qian didn't even trust herself, so how could she trust others?
So after reading the text messages, Wen Qian didn't reply. Instead, she continued to take down her tent, wash up, eat, and then set off.
With the end of the hike in sight, Wen Qian just wanted to finish hiking quickly and then leave by vehicle.
Zhang Zixuan ran into Wen Qian when they were setting off, so they walked together, with Zhang Zixuan's three companions not far behind them.
Since Zhang Zixuan was just traveling the same route and didn't talk to Wen Qian much, Wen Qian didn't speed up to leave her behind.
When they finished, they took the same bus back to Xia City.
Wen Qian put on her headphones and closed her eyes to listen to music, while Zhang Zixuan checked the schedules for upcoming flights and high-speed rail on her phone.
The trip was rather awkward. Even if Zhang Zixuan wanted to spend a few more days in Xia Province, she didn't want to do so alone, and this girl whose name she didn't even know seemed to be a lone traveler.
If Zhang Zixuan expressed her desire to travel together, would the other girl think she was sick?
Despite her apprehension, Zhang Zixuan decided to give it a try.
So when Wen Qian opened her eyes to drink water during a break, Zhang Zixuan expressed her request to travel together.
Wen Qian stated that she was going to hike for half a month next, hoping Zhang Zixuan would decline due to the difficulty.
Although hiking alone would be lonely, having a stranger around, and having to worry about their character, was less desirable than going alone.
Zhang Zixuan was in a difficult position. Such a long trip would require a lot of time and effort to prepare for, so it was clear they couldn't travel together.
So Zhang Zixuan settled for getting Wen Qian's Penguin Number instead, hoping to see the scenery Wen Qian would capture during her upcoming hike.
Wen Qian gave Zhang Zixuan her Penguin Number and also realized she could film and edit videos of her hike herself.
Unfortunately, she didn't take many photos during this short hike.
So Wen Qian planned to properly film and photograph her upcoming hike, as she could earn a bit of money from it.
After returning to Xia City, Wen Qian first found a youth hostel, washed up, and took a nap. In the afternoon, she went to the local fruit wholesale market.
At this time of day, the prices of watermelons, apples, and pears were very affordable, so she planned to buy some.
Wen Qian had bought these fruits before, but not much.
In the rural areas of An Province, they also grew watermelons, but the produce from different places tasted different. Wen Qian still remembered that fruits from places with a large day-night temperature difference tasted sweeter.
So she wanted to buy some more.
She had also researched that the prices for these items were very low at this time.
Additionally, this area had an early autumn and winter, with winter arriving in September and October. After that, she would be settling down to overwinter, so it was necessary to stock up on more fruit.
Furthermore, she thought there wouldn't be many more opportunities to spend money, so she might as well spend some now since she didn't know when the next chance would come.
Similarly, she rented a small van and drove to the wholesale market.
She would load the items into the van, make a round, unload them, and then go buy another type of produce.
Before entering, she only planned to buy three types of fruit, but once inside and seeing the local specialty fruits, she bought some of those as well.
She also bought some local specialties like wolfberries and walnuts.
It had been a long time since she last stored items in her space, and Wen Qian was delighted. She took out a local pear, wiped it, and bit into it directly - it was indeed very sweet.
On her way back to the youth hostel, a light rain started to fall. Even in a light rain, Wen Qian used an umbrella, as catching a cold at this time and place would not be good.
The current temperature in Xia Province was still fine, and there was relatively little rainfall.
After returning to the hostel, Wen Qian sat in the lobby to eat. She still couldn't fully adapt to the cuisine here, so for the time being, she mostly ate what she had made back home.
In contrast to the pleasant weather in Xia Province, heavy rains had started in her hometown of An Province.
Areas south of An Province experienced flash floods due to the heavy rainfall.
