Today's meal was a very fresh vegetable and seafood porridge.

Zhou Li stopped looking at Old Zhou. Bowing his head to eat his porridge, he mulled over his plans.

In the end, he chose the simplest one.

He suddenly looked up, an expression on his face as if he had just remembered something. "Oh right! Today, Brother Nan invited me to visit her hometown for a couple of days, along with her classmate."

After saying that, he looked towards Zhu Shuang and Zhu Bing. "When we get back, I'll take you two to Caiyun for a trip."

Zhu Shuang and Zhu Bing both nodded.

Aunt Jiang, however, felt a bit sad upon hearing this and said softly, "Then, by that count, you haven't even been home for a full week this summer vacation, have you?"

"It's been a week." Zhou Li paused, then added, "I stayed home longer during the pandemic."

Aunt Jiang nodded and then asked, "Brother Nan isn't actually taking you back to her hometown to help harvest crops, is she?"

Zhou Li was silent.

Seeing his expression, Aunt Jiang knew the answer and found it amusing. She wasn't worried about the work tiring her son; she just laughed as she cautioned him, "Well, you have to make a good impression on Brother Nan's elders. Show them you're a real man, dependable."

Zhou Li felt a bit embarrassed and didn't say much.

Seeing his reaction, Aunt Jiang dropped the subject and continued, "Is Huai Xu going too?"

"He's going too."

"You're going to Brother Nan's house; why not invite Brother Nan to our place for a visit?"

"That's her hometown."

"Oh..." Aunt Jiang understood. Then she added, "You spent so much time at Huai Xu's house this summer. So, when we move out of this small apartment, you can invite Huai Xu over to our new place for a few days during your winter or summer vacation."

"Got it."

After finishing the meal, he went back to his room.

In the trash can, an ice cream wrapper was vaguely visible. Huai Xu was lying on the bed, idly licking a lollipop.

Zhou Li said helplessly, "Zhu Shuang has found you out."

"No, he hasn't."

"He has."

"How would he find out? He just noticed the snacks mysteriously decreasing. It could also be that ghosts stole them," Huai Xu replied nonchalantly. "Besides, didn't Old Zhou already take the blame for me?"

"What about next time?"

"You should eat more snacks; you can cover for me," the Old Monster said, not the least bit polite.

"Anyway, you should eat less too."

"That's impossible!"

Zhou Li was speechless for a moment.

He began to pack his things. He had to make sure to bring all his charging cables and grab a book. Although he probably wouldn't actually read it, he figured reading ancient books at Brother Nan's ancestral home would make him look quite sophisticated. Other than that, it was just a change of clothes for the next two days. Since they would be working, he would need at least one change of clothes per day, and he'd also need to bring a long-sleeved shirt.

The phone chimed.

Zhou Li thought it was Brother Nan messaging him, but it turned out to be from Zheng Zhilan.

Last night, he had asked Zheng Zhilan how she, Xing Hui, and Ji Bai were getting along. It had been late, so she had most likely already gone to sleep. His chats with Zheng Zhilan were mostly like this. If it was daytime and Zheng Zhilan heard the notification, she would almost instantly reply. But if she didn't hear the message at the time, it would be a long while before she noticed it—how long was purely a matter of luck.

Today, his luck was good.

Little Zheng sent a picture, followed by a message: "They also helped me harvest the corn."

Zhou Li opened the picture. The camera couldn't capture demons, so the crookedly framed photo only showed a row of corn, some of which had been peeled open. The peeled husks looked like blossoming, creamy-yellow flowers. As Zhou Li looked further down, his sharp eyes soon spotted a cob that was half-peeled; it must have been Xing Hui or Ji Bai.

"That's pretty good," Zhou Li typed back.

"They seem to find it fun too," Little Zheng replied.

"Anything to pass the time, they'd find it interesting."

"Yes."

"Now that there are two more of them, do you still have enough food?" Zhou Li asked.

"Not anymore."

"What will you do then?"

"We can buy some from down the mountain."

Zhou Li was momentarily speechless. I think my brain might be broken. How did I not think of such a simple solution?

Little Zheng seemed to guess his thoughts. "You think I'm living in ancient times."

Well... Zhou Li typed, "Then I'm relieved. Boss Zheng has plenty of money."

Little Zheng replied with, "Haha."

"I'll bring two more companions over in a few days," Zhou Li added. "They're two very adorable little pals. They don't eat much and can fend for themselves."

"Got it," Little Zheng responded.

After chatting for a while, Brother Nan's message came through.

Zhou Li said goodbye to Zheng Zhilan, picked up his bag, and left the room. He also grabbed three yogurt puddings from the fridge, planning to eat them in the car before they set off.

After a moment's thought, he grabbed one more.

Walking to the living room, he handed the extra one to Old Zhou, who was watching the news, and said, "Eat this, so you won't sneak any later."

Old Zhou's expression was priceless.

Zhou Li, in a very good mood, left the house with a light step.

In fact, this time Brother Nan hadn't called any of her other classmates, only Zhou Li and Huai Xu, saying there was no need for so many people.

Zhou Li felt even more embarrassed.

Thank goodness Huai Xu is here, my fig leaf.

Brother Nan's grandparents were still as hospitable as ever. They beamed at the sight of young people, their smiles wide, and they chattered endlessly. It was clear these elderly people were quite lonely living by themselves in the countryside.

「Lunchtime.」

Brother Nan, unusually, served them rice and laid out the plan. "After lunch, go back to your rooms for a nap, or you can play on your phones. When the sun isn't so strong, around four or five in the afternoon, we'll start working. It should be dark by eight-thirty. If we move quickly, we can finish moving the maize. Then tomorrow, we'll spend the day threshing the grain, and the day after tomorrow, we can head back."

"Sounds pretty relaxed."

"It is very relaxed." As she spoke, Brother Nan generously put a large piece of beef onto his plate. "Eat more, eat up, so you won't be hungry before we even head out."

Zhou Li quickly glanced at the grandparents, who were all smiling, and he almost blushed.

「After the meal.」

Brother Nan didn't take a nap, nor did she let Zhou Li play on his phone in his room. Instead, she called Zhou Li into her room. To be precise, it was the room she had shared with her mother as a child, filled with traces of her growth.

Zhou Li saw chalk marks on the doorframe in various colors. Looking from top to bottom, the lowest mark was barely half a meter from the ground.

"Is this your height?" he asked.

"Yeah!"

"This one..."

"That one was from when I was very small; I don't even remember it myself. They probably held me up against the doorframe to mark it."

"I see..."

Zhou Li imagined a half-meter-tall Brother Xiao Nan. Must have been cute, right? Of course, it's more likely she was naughty. But even if she was naughty, she must have been adorable. Zhou Li still remembered Brother Xiao Nan from his dreams: when he pinched her face, the look of defiance and anger in her eyes as she glared at him had greatly enhanced his experience.

And Brother Nan had one other advantage— She wouldn't cry from a beating! How great!

Just then, Brother Nan's suspicious voice sounded from beside him, "What are you thinking about? I feel like your expression is hiding a really weird smile!"

"Is it?"

"Yes."

"I was thinking—" Zhou Li pointed to a higher mark on the doorframe, where the chalk gradually changed from plain white to various colors, "—this chalk must have been stolen from the classroom by you. When I was a kid, I always wanted colored chalk but was too shy to take some from the teacher's desk, afraid of being scolded."

"You guessed wrong!" Brother Nan chuckled. "I stole these from the school's storage room. They had whole boxes there. The ones in the classroom were all broken pieces."

Zhou Li was speechless. Look at the difference.

Suddenly, he began to wonder again, how exactly did he and she end up together? So inexplicably...

But he had achieved his goal of changing the subject.

He continued to look at the marks on the doorframe. The highest was only about one meter sixty. Brother Nan probably moved to the city after that.

Brother Nan at that time... she must have been in junior high? So tall already in junior high? Zhou Li mused.

Using these marks, he imagined Brother Nan's appearance at each stage, how she would have stood in front of the doorframe—probably with her back against it, trying to stand as straight as possible to seem taller, perhaps even standing on her tiptoes. And her parents or grandparents would be standing beside her, seriously using their hand to mark the top of her tuft of hair and then transferring that to the doorframe, drawing a line with chalk.

The girl standing before the doorframe gradually grew from a little girl into a tall, slender teenager, her tuft of hair still standing resolutely, her chest still as flat as ever. Brother Nan must have been at least in high school before she started to develop even a little. Such a late bloomer.

Zhou Li momentarily felt a bit of regret, wishing he had met Brother Nan earlier. Then he could have been part of those marks on her doorframe and experienced her growing-up years sooner. Or perhaps he could have been beaten by her sooner.

Almost simultaneously, Brother Nan, sitting on the bed, also said, "If you had known me when you were a kid, that would've been great. I would have given you as many boxes of chalk as you wanted."

Zhou Li smiled.

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