Chapter 001

The old gray door curtain fluttered in the wind.

The kitchen was filled with steam and the aroma of meat.

The flames licked the edge of the pot, and the diced pork belly was fried in the iron pan until it was golden and crispy, sizzling with oil.

Add diced mushrooms and minced garlic and stir-fry for a few more times, the aroma will be even more fragrant.

Two girls with pigtails smelled the scent and lifted up the gray curtain, and were instantly filled with the rich aroma of meat.

Neither of them could hold back and saliva formed on the tip of their tongues.

The girl with shorter braids asked, "Chuxia, what are you doing?"

Every time she is busy in the kitchen, the place is filled with mouth-watering aroma.

Chuxia stood in front of the stove, carefully pouring the sauce prepared in advance into the fried pork belly cubes, turned around and smiled faintly, saying, "I'm making noodles with soybean paste."

The girl with longer braids swallowed her saliva and asked, "You brought some sauce from home?"

Chuxia went around to the back of the stove to add firewood and continued to fry the sauce over a low fire. "Yes, Brother Han Ting loves the noodles I make the most, so he brought some when he came."

The two girls were attracted by the aroma and wanted to go into the kitchen to take a closer look.

But they also knew that it was more painful to see the food without being able to eat it, so they resisted the urge to go in.

They exchanged a few more words with Chuxia, then suppressed their greed, lowered the curtain and left.

Chuxia was focused on her own face and didn't pay much attention to anything else.

She made the meat sauce and washed the pot, then added more firewood to boil a ladle of water, put the shredded cabbage and carrots that she had cut in advance into the pot to blanch them, and then cooked the rolled noodles.

The cooked noodles are scooped into a large porcelain bowl printed with red flowers and green leaves.

Add the blanched cabbage and carrot shreds while the food is steaming, and pour the meat sauce you just made on the side. A bowl of brightly colored and fragrant noodles with soybean paste is ready.

Chuxia leaned in and sniffed it gently, a bright smile appearing in her eyes and on the corners of her mouth.

She thought to herself - it smells so good, Brother Han Ting will definitely like it.

The joy of happiness jumps in my heart in early summer.

Suddenly, there was a burst of muffled thunder outside the house, and the thunder was so close that it seemed to be rolling over the roof.

Chuxia turned her head and looked out the window.

The sun is still setting outside, but it doesn't look like it's going to rain.

But she remembered that the villagers told them that today was the Waking of Insects.

Jingzhe is the day when spring thunder begins and all things wake up.

Chuxia is not interested in the solar terms.

She sat down at the table, waiting for Han Ting to come back with great anticipation.

Just as the feeling of happiness filled her heart again, thunder suddenly rolled over the roof again.

This time the thunder was different from the last time. It exploded suddenly after two muffled sounds.

Chuxia was startled, and was too frightened to react. Then another loud thunder struck, and this one seemed to hit her directly on the forehead, which instantly stunned her.

My whole body was paralyzed and my brain went blank.

After a brief blank, a large amount of strange information suddenly flooded into her mind.

My head aches like a splitting pain, and every nerve seems to be experiencing a life-and-death pain.

She wanted to shout but couldn't.

I don't know how long it was before I heard someone calling her, "Chu Xia."

The sound started out vague and ethereal, as if coming from another world, and then became clearer and clearer.

The last sound was clear enough to reach her ears, and she snapped back to reality.

The person who called her was the one she was waiting for - Han Ting.

She didn't know when he came back. Now he was sitting opposite her. He took the big porcelain bowl from her hand and looked at her and asked, "What are you thinking about?"

Chu Xia looked at Han Ting in front of her, still feeling shocked.

Every beat of her heart seemed to shake her whole body.

She looked at Han Ting, blinked, and suddenly withdrew her hand.

As he withdrew his hand, he also took back the large porcelain bowl containing the noodles with soybean paste.

Han Ting was stunned when his fingers missed.

Before he could react, Chu Xia had already run out of the kitchen with a porcelain bowl and chopsticks.

Han Ting: “?”

What happened to this girl suddenly?

The aroma of noodles with soybean paste still lingered in his nose, and he blinked at the door curtain.

***

Chuxia walked out of the fenced yard quickly with the bowl in his hand.

She walked all the way to a deserted river before stopping.

Her head no longer hurts, but it feels extremely confused, as if it was completely reorganized.

She sat down on a rock by the stream, lowered her head and closed her eyes.

She was holding a large porcelain bowl in one hand, trembling slightly, and with the other hand she tightly covered her chest, pressing down on her heart, hoping to slow down her heartbeat a little.

She didn't know what happened exactly after the thunder, she only knew that there was a lot of strange and bizarre information in her mind.

Moreover, these information are not like those in normal dreams. Once you wake up, the images become blurry and unreal.

The more awake she is now, the clearer the information is in her mind.

Take one last deep breath and raise your head.

She seemed to be still herself, but also seemed to be no longer herself.

The information exploding in her mind told her that the world she lived in was actually a novel, and it was a novel with a male protagonist.

The hero of the novel is her neighbor brother whom she has liked since childhood—Han Ting.

However, she is not the heroine of this novel, but just a supporting role used to enrich and complete the hero's life, a love-sick woman with only the hero in her mind.

As the male protagonist, Han Ting has the most exciting life.

He had been a dissolute and carefree person for most of his life. When he was in middle school, he had a beautiful, innocent and pure first love. After graduation, he broke up with his first love. Then, when he went to the countryside to work in a production team, he met his true love, who was deep, passionate, entangled and heartbreaking. He experienced the bitterness, sweetness, sourness and spiciness of love in the tide of the times.

After burning his youth and passion passionately, Han Ting finally returned to an ordinary life. However, she, as the infatuated female supporting role, was still silently waiting for him under the gray tiles and green eaves of the courtyard.

At this time Han Ting finally saw her, was moved by her and married her.

After marriage, Han Ting was no longer involved in love affairs. He settled down and wanted to do a career that belonged to a man. So she sold the small restaurant and courtyard house at home to support him in starting his own business.

Later, Han Ting became successful in his career and was busy outside all year round.

She became a full-time housewife, staying at home alone, helping Han Ting to take care of his parents, and finally even helping Han Ting raise his illegitimate child with his once beloved.

After sorting out this information, Chu Xia could no longer suppress the feeling of nausea in her heart.

Before this, her life goal was indeed to marry Han Ting, and achieving this life goal was also the greatest fulfillment and happiness in her life.

But at this moment, she felt extremely cold.

It was probably the thunder that woke her up just now.

Whether she thinks back to her childhood or thinks carefully about the early summer in the novel, she feels as if she has been bewitched and is a body without any thoughts.

Suddenly, a burst of muffled thunder rolled overhead.

Chuxia was sensitive to thunder at this time and was startled back to her senses.

As soon as I came to my senses, I heard the croaking of frogs all around me.

The last rays of sunset disappeared among the reeds, and the croaking of frogs awakened the chirping of insects. Listening to the faint chirping of insects in early summer, a sense of the reality of "all things reviving" arose in my heart.

This was a very fresh and wonderful feeling for her, because she had never paid attention to anything other than Han Ting before, nor had she ever experienced such a new life.

After listening to the chirping of insects and frogs, she smelled the delicious aroma of fried noodles in the porcelain bowl.

At this moment, looking at the bowl of noodles in her hand and smelling the aroma of the meat sauce, she no longer thought about how happy Han Ting would be when eating this bowl of noodles, but thought about her hungry stomach.

My hungry stomach growled.

Chuxia swallowed her saliva, took the chopsticks in her right hand, held the bowl high in front of her, put down the chopsticks and stirred the noodles, meat sauce, shredded cabbage and carrots in the bowl.

As soon as I started stirring it, I couldn't help it in early summer.

She rolled up the noodles, put them into her mouth, and took a big bite.

As soon as she finished chewing and swallowing the noodles, her eyes suddenly lit up.

The chewy noodles mixed with meat sauce and shredded cabbage and carrots satisfy the taste buds and stimulate a great sense of satisfaction and happiness on the tip of the tongue.

This feeling shocked Chu Xia.

It’s not that she had never eaten such delicious food before, but this was the first time that she felt such a strong sense of satisfaction and happiness in her heart after eating something delicious.

This feeling was something she had never experienced before.

She usually likes to study food, and of course she can taste whether something is delicious or not, but she will not feel happy and satisfied just because she eats delicious food.

Only when Han Ting ate what she made and gave her a thumbs up with satisfaction, would she feel happy and think that what she was doing was meaningful.

This new and wonderful life experience once again surprised Chuxia.

She took the second and third bites... and soon finished the big bowl of noodles with soybean paste.

It has been more than half a month since I arrived at Tanxi Brigade, and this is the first time in early summer that I have eaten a full meal.

She looked at the empty porcelain bowl in her hand, burped and sighed comfortably, feeling that the previous eighteen years of her life seemed to have been wasted.

She put the dishes and chopsticks on the stone beside her.

Stretch your body completely and slowly digest the satisfaction from body to mind.

The reeds by the river swayed gently in the wind, and the chirping of insects and frogs blended together, as if weaving a piece of music.

If the weather wasn’t still cold in early spring, I would want to put my feet in the river and kick up some water in early summer.

While digesting the satisfaction, she was also digesting the extra information in her mind.

She wasn't sure whether the strange information was true, but her life experiences over the past eighteen years were completely consistent with the situations described as the background in the novel.

Just like what is said in the novel.

She has been following Han Ting mindlessly since she was a child.

Han Ting is her life goal and ideal, and the whole content of her life.

Ever since she could remember, the only important thing in her life was marrying Han Ting.

Ever since she could remember, she had been silently giving to Han Ting.

She knew all of Han Ting's preferences, and would save money to buy him things he liked. She would also devote herself to studying all kinds of delicious food and cook them for him in different ways.

Her love for Han Ting was selfless, silent, and completely unrequited.

Han Ting had no romantic feelings for her and had only treated her as a younger sister since she was a child. She didn't care.

Han Ting met Tong Rui, the first woman in his life who made his heart beat faster, at school. He launched a mad and passionate pursuit of Tong Rui and successfully won her heart. Even though she witnessed the entire process of their love, she was only secretly sad and had no idea of ​​pulling away.

She becomes invisible when he is happy and proud, and appears when he is sad and frustrated.

But whether it was audible or invisibly, she always followed him and gave silently to him.

When she graduated a few years ago, she didn't need to go to the countryside.

But because Tong Rui did not give up the opportunity to join the army to go to the countryside with Han Ting, she ignored her parents' dissuasion and opposition, gave up the opportunity to stay in the city and work, and took the initiative to sign up to go to the Tanxi Brigade to join the team with Han Ting.

In the more than half a month since she arrived at Tanxi Brigade, her life is still filled with Han Ting.

Because life in the countryside was hard, in her spare time she was thinking about how to make Han Ting eat better food, eat more meat and taste more sweetness, and suffer less bitterness.

Just like today, she didn't even have lunch at noon. She squeezed in the little time during her lunch break to run to the commune, bought half a pound of pork belly at the supply and marketing cooperative, and then went to the grain station to exchange it for half a pound of white flour.

After getting off work in the evening, she borrowed two vegetable leaves and half a carrot from the home of a familiar fellow villager, and hurried back to the kitchen of the educated youth center to make a bowl of her best fried noodles with soybean paste.

If she hadn't suddenly woken up, things would have developed the same way as in the novel - Han Ting would eat the noodles she made in the kitchen with big mouthfuls, give her a thumbs up and praise her for her improved cooking skills, and she would be very happy despite being hungry, and then take the dishes from Han Ting and wash them for him.

Thinking of this, Chuxia was already 70% convinced of the extra information in her mind.

Regardless of how much she believed it, what she was thinking in her heart now was - no matter what, she could not continue to live like a sucker in the novel, she had to stay away from Han Ting.

Perhaps another self awakened in her body, when she thought of Han Ting now, she no longer felt the crazy excitement as before, as if she was blinded.

Before, Han Ting was glowing in her eyes, like the morning sun and the evening glow.

And now, he seemed to have returned to his most authentic self.

Another rumble of thunder rolled overhead.

When I looked up in early summer, I saw lead-gray clouds gathering in the sky, as if the weather was changing and it was going to rain.

It was getting late, so Chuxia didn't sit there any longer.

She put her thoughts aside, picked up the bowl and chopsticks beside her, stood up and went back to the educated youth point.

The small river is not far from the educated youth point.

Chuxia walked at a leisurely pace and arrived in three or four minutes.

When I entered the fenced yard, I saw Chen Sisi and Li Qiao collecting clothes in the yard.

Like Chen Sisi, Li Qiao and Chuxia, they all went to the Tanxi Brigade together this year.

There were a total of twelve educated youth who came here, seven boys and five girls, and they all lived here.

Seeing Chu Xia enter the yard, Chen Sisi glanced at the dishes in her hands and greeted her with a smile: "Chu Xia, where have you been? Han Ting was looking for you just now."

Chu Xia smiled and said perfunctorily: "Just taking a walk."

Of course, she couldn't tell anyone else about the strange thing that had just happened to her.

As he spoke, Chuxia went to the water well to pump water for washing dishes.

She squeezed out half a basin of clean water, squatted down with the dishes and chopsticks in her hands, and was about to put them in the basin to wash them when she suddenly realized that her face reflected in the water looked blurry as if there was a thick fog.

She thought it was because of the uneven water surface.

But when the water calmed down completely, she still couldn't see her own appearance clearly.

She had never paid attention to this matter before, but now she understood it after thinking about it for a while.

It's not because of the water, but because she is a tool female supporting role and has no clear appearance at all.

In the eyes of others, she shouldn't look like this, but there's nothing memorable about her.

In the past eighteen years, she had no memorable appearance, no memorable personality, and had no sense of presence wherever she went.

Take a deep breath.

Put the bowls and chopsticks in the basin in early summer.

Breaking the blur of myself on the water surface.

On the other side of the yard, Chen Sisi and Li Qiao were still collecting clothes.

I received the last piece and found that someone had pushed it to the edge of the clothesline.

The clothesline is tied high at both ends.

Chen Sisi and Li Qiao couldn't reach it even if they stood on tiptoe.

When they were trying hard to reach it, the male educated youth Lin Xiaohan just came back and entered the yard.

Lin Xiaohan is the tallest among them.

Seeing him enter the yard, Chen Sisi hurriedly called him: "Lin Xiaohan, can you help me collect some clothes?"

Although he had the sack on his shoulders, he could pull off his clothes with just a lift of his hands.

“No time.”

As a result, Lin Xiaohan didn't even look at Chen Sisi, and went straight into the kitchen carrying the sack.

"..." An instantly awkward look flashed across Chen Sisi's face.

Li Qiao, who was standing next to her, pulled her and whispered, "No, why are you looking for him? You've been together for more than half a month, don't you know what kind of person he is?"

Among the seven male educated youth in their educated youth point, Lin Xiaohan was the most ungraceful and stingy.

When they first went to the countryside from the commune to the team, other boys all rushed to help the girls carry their luggage, enthusiastically and passionately. Only he didn't even lend a hand, and was unwilling to exert any strength, just minding his own business.

At that time, Li Qiao saw that he was very good-looking, so she deliberately asked him to help her carry the luggage, hoping to get closer to him. As a result, he rudely said to her: "Don't you have hands?"

Li Qiao was made very embarrassed by him and never asked him for help again.

During the more than half a month since he arrived at the Tanxi Brigade, he had not done anything for the other female educated youth. Even if it was just a small favor, he would decisively refuse.

Chuxia was washing dishes by the well water, watching this scene silently.

Because she now has the content of a novel in her mind, she now has a better perspective when looking at the people around her.

From the perspective of the novel, Lin Xiaohan is the male supporting character who appears the most.

He appears throughout the novel and is the lifelong enemy of the male protagonist Han Ting, and is also used to set off Han Ting's existence.

Unlike Han Ting, who is passionate, righteous, unrestrained and romantic, Lin Xiaohan is a completely opposite villain.

He is arrogant and selfish, indifferent and mean to others, petty and unsympathetic, narrow-minded and profit-driven. He is a guy with no popularity or friends and is very unpopular with people around him.

This scene before him, as well as all his previous performances, also confirm the character in the book.

After spending more than half a month together, the other educated youth at the educated youth site all disliked Lin Xiaohan. They treated him as a freak and tried not to have any contact with him unless necessary.

Lin Xiaohan entered the kitchen and Chu Xia withdrew her gaze.

He glanced across the yard and saw Han Ting carrying a sack into the yard.

When Han Ting entered the yard, he happened to look towards the well, and his eyes met Chu Xia's briefly.

Chu Xia subconsciously tensed up, lowered her eyebrows and pretended not to see Han Ting, quickly picked up the washed dishes, and turned into the kitchen.

Han Ting was feeling doubtful when he suddenly heard Li Qiao calling him, "Han Ting, please help us collect some clothes."

Han Ting came back to his senses, walked to the clothesline and pulled the clothes down, "Here."

Li Qiao reached out to take the clothes and whispered, "This is like a man, not like some people."

Han Ting naturally knew who Li Qiao was talking about, but he didn't continue the conversation. He raised his hands and patted the sack on his shoulders twice, smiled and said, "The brigade has distributed our food. From tomorrow we will start working independently. Go call the others and we will have a meeting in the kitchen."

They had always eaten together at their fellow villagers' homes before, and had long been looking forward to cooking on their own.

Chen Sisi and Li Qiao were naturally happy to hear this and responded in unison: "Okay!"