After lunch, Chu Yang took Chi Yan out and said, "I'll go buy groceries and come back tonight."
The shoes Chi Yan was wearing were Chu's dad's and didn't quite fit.
It took over ten minutes to get to town, but Chu Yang didn't like how they looked, so she drove with Chi Yan to the city instead. They had originally planned to buy two air conditioners, one for Chu's parents' room and one for Chu Luo's room, but Chu Yang thought it would be good to have one in the living room as well, so they bought three in total. The salesperson happily gave them a discount, and they ended up spending close to 10,000 RMB.
Chi Yan had wanted to pay at first, but a look from Chu Yang made him sheepishly put his bank card away. Chu Yang handed over her own card instead.
After buying the air conditioners, the two went shopping, buying clothes for Chi Yan.
Each with a milk tea in hand, they strolled through the shopping mall in the city center hand in hand. Suddenly, a group of people walked towards them. Chu Yang and Chi Yan passed by without glancing at them.
One person in the group said, "Wasn't that Chu Yang just now?"
Everyone immediately turned around, and someone shouted, "Chu Yang?"
Hearing someone calling her name, Chu Yang turned around to look. She didn't recognize them.
Chi Yan also turned to look. He asked Chu Yang, "What's up? Do you know them?"
Chu Yang shook her head. "I don't know them."
The group said, "...Chu Yang, what's going on? Got rich and now you don't recognize your old classmates?" They looked at Chi Yan next to Chu Yang, everyone gasping. Was there such a figure in Jiazhou?
Chu Yang frowned. They were probably her high school classmates from her original life. "Can I help you?" she asked.
The group looked at each other, and then a boy came forward and said, "Chu Yang, weren't you always following Gu Xiao and the others? Where are Gu Xiao and them?"
Before Chu Yang could say anything, Chi Yan next to her snapped. "The two people you mentioned don't know my Chu Yang. Even if they did, they wouldn't be good enough for my Chu Yang to follow around."
"You..."
"Let's go," Chi Yan said, ignoring them and pulling Chu Yang away. He didn't like their attitude towards his Chu Yang and didn't feel the need to be polite.
The group watched as Chu Yang left. They could only swallow their resentment and quickly posted about it in their high school group chat.
"Saw Chu Yang in the city center. She's gotten really arrogant and pretended not to recognize us, her old classmates."
"Right, right."
"There was also a guy with her who was super condescending."
"Wonder what their relationship is."
Someone replied, "Didn't you guys watch the literature competition finals? Chu Yang has a boyfriend now. That's probably Chu Yang's boyfriend."
"Don't know what he sees in Chu Yang."
"I know, she can't compare to Qinglu at all in terms of looks or family background."
"Exactly!"
Li Qinglu saw the discussion in the group chat but didn't say anything. Still, everyone's words made her quite happy.
Chi Yan didn't know much about Chu Yang's past, but he felt that if anything was wrong, it definitely wasn't his Chu Yang's fault - it was those people's fault. His Chu Yang had such a good personality after all.
And which classmates pretend not to recognize each other after getting rich? How ridiculous. It's not like he recognizes and remembers every single one of his high school classmates either.
Chi Yan secretly glanced at Chu Yang's face. Seeing that she didn't seem upset or sad at all, he felt much more relieved.
Chu Yang didn't know Chi Yan was thinking so much. Those strangers weren't worth paying too much attention to.
Seeing a men's clothing store nearby, Chu Yang brought Chi Yan inside and picked out two outfits and a set of pajamas for him. They then went to a shoe store and bought two pairs of shoes - one sneakers and one sandals. After buying the shoes, Chi Yan immediately changed into them.
While picking out clothes, Chu Yang suddenly remembered the clothes she had dried at Chi Yan's place. "Did you put away my clothes properly?" she asked.
Chi Yan knew which clothes she was talking about. "I put them away, I put them away!" he said quickly. "They're in my closet!" When he had collected the clothes at the time, just holding that small set of clothes in his hands nearly gave Chi Yan a nosebleed. He then secretly scolded himself for being like a pervert. How shameful!
"Good then," said Chu Yang.
After buying the clothes, they went to the supermarket and bought a batch of groceries before heading home.
When they got home, workers were already installing the air conditioners. Chu's dad and mom were watching, while Chu Luo was picking peanuts in the yard.
After putting everything away, Chi Chi also hurried to help pick peanuts. By the time the workers finished installing the air conditioners and left, it was already evening and Chu's mom had finished making dinner in the kitchen.
The new air conditioner in the living room made it especially cool. At dinner, they no longer needed to turn on the fan.
That night when going to sleep, Chi Yan didn't wake up from the heat again, and Chu Luo slept even more soundly.
Lying in bed, Chu's mom patted Chu's dad's hand. "I didn't expect we'd have air conditioners installed at home."
Chu's dad also sighed. "It's because I'm not capable enough, making you suffer."
Chu's mom said: "It's not your fault. We've been self-reliant and haven't let anyone down. Following you, I have no regrets."
Chu's dad held her hand tightly. "Sleep now. We still have to get up early tomorrow to work," he said.
"Mm," she murmured.
And so, Chi Yan was very happy staying at Chu Yang's home. Sometimes he would go help with farm work, and sometimes he would just stay home, wearing T-shirts, shorts, slippers and a straw hat, either holding a watermelon and eating it or nibbling on a honey peach or plum.
One day, Chu Yang looked up at the sky and said, "It's going to rain soon. Let's bring in the wheat. It's almost finished drying today, so we won't need to dry it anymore after this. It'll be time to bag it up."
Chu Luo looked up at the sun shining brightly in the sky. "How can it possibly rain with the sun so strong?" he said.
On the other side, Chi Yan was already gathering the wheat with tools. "Listen to your sister," he said. "Hurry up."
Chu Luo: ...Bootlicker!
After gathering up the wheat and taking it indoors, a loud rumble sounded from afar and a big black cloud floated over. Not long after, the rain came pouring down heavily.
Watching the downpour outside, Chi Yan proudly said to Chu Luo, "See, I told you your sister was right!"
The rain washed away the scorching heat, but it also affected the work.
It wasn't long before Chu Yang's parents rushed back home, muttering, "Did you gather the wheat? Did the wheat get wet in the rain? The rain today was so sudden."
Chu Luo walked out the door. "We already gathered it all. It didn't get wet. We finished gathering before it started raining."
Chu's mom breathed a huge sigh of relief. "That's good then." For farmers, nothing was more worrisome than crops being ruined.
After the heavy rain passed, the grass grew vibrant and lush. Chu Yang picked up a flat bamboo tray and said to Chi Yan, "Let's go catch some fish."
Chi Yan immediately scampered after her excitedly.
Chu Luo also threw down what he was doing. "I wanna go too!" he shouted, grabbing another bamboo tray and scampering after them.
On the way, they met up with some other friends, and a whole group followed along.
"Chu Luo, is that your sister's boyfriend?" someone asked.
Chu Luo held his head up high. "Yup. From B University. So awesome."
"Whoa, amazing. And he's so tall and handsome too. Your sister got a good catch."
Chu Luo said proudly. "Of course!" His sister was indeed incredible. Her boyfriend listened to her every word like an obedient puppy. He had witnessed it himself these past few days. Chi Yan followed Chu Yang everywhere and agreed with everything she said. When asked to work, he worked. Super enthusiastic.
Even if his sister pointed at a deer and called it a horse, Chi Yan would probably insist it was a horse.
