“I was just about to put it down when you arrived,” Xu Yan said.

Xie Zhuo didn't say anything more. Seeing that Xu Yan had recovered, he took the basket off his back and put all the books inside.

Xu Yan glanced into the basket subconsciously. Xie Zhuo had already sold all the wild mushrooms he had brought, but there were a few small boxes at the bottom of the basket, and he didn't know what they were for.

Now, with the book so casually covering it, it's completely invisible.

She glanced at Xie Zhuo again, but didn't ask any further questions.

The two were talking at the entrance of the bookstore when the old man who had already gone inside came out again. When he saw Xie Zhuo and Xu Yan standing together, his expression was a little strange.

"You two know each other?"

The old man suddenly spoke up and asked.

The voice was right behind Xu Yan. Xu Yan was startled and turned around to look.

The old man stood not far from them with his hands behind his back, staring at Xie Zhuo, probably speaking to Xie Zhuo as well.

Sure enough, Xie Zhuo saw him too, stopped what he was doing, nodded to him, and called out "Uncle".

Then he said, "My partner."

Xu Yan was stunned for a few seconds by his calling her "my boyfriend," and didn't even have time to think about whether he knew the old man who had cheated her out of eighty yuan.

It was almost noon, and the sun was right in the middle of the day, making people's faces feel hot.

Xu Yan pulled his straw hat down to block out the intense sunlight.

After a long pause, she turned to look at Xie Zhuo.

Xie Zhuo's lips were taut, revealing no particular expression, except for those pointed ears...

It looks a bit red again?

Xu Yan found it rather strange, and her earlier unease dissipated considerably.

She really didn't expect that Xie Zhuo, a strong man who was almost 1.9 meters tall, could be so innocent. Even though he was the one who said the words, he was the one who felt most embarrassed in the end.

While Xu Yan was staring at Xie Zhuo, the old man was also staring at Xu Yan.

"That little girl from the Sun family?" The old man's gaze was still on Xu Yan's face. After a while, he frowned. "I don't remember her looking like this."

“It’s not her,” Xie Zhuo said.

The old man was still waiting for him to continue, but Xie Zhuo had no intention of saying anything more. After a long while, he only said, "We're getting married in a couple of days. If you have time, come to the village for the wedding banquet."

The old man's brows furrowed even more.

Xie Zhuo didn't pay much attention to his reaction. He turned his head and saw Xu Yan standing in the sun. He pushed his bicycle to the side a little to make room for him. "Move over."

Xu Yan snapped out of her daze.

The old man watched their interaction, opened his mouth, then closed it again when his gaze swept over Xu Yan. Finally, he gave Xie Zhu a wink.

Xie Zhuo glanced at him, pretending not to understand his meaning, tied the basket to the front beam of the cart, and then straddled the seat.

His legs are really long.

Most people riding these old-fashioned bicycles rarely manage to sit on the seat with both feet firmly planted on the ground.

Xu Yan glanced at it a few more times.

"Get on," Xie Zhuo said, folding the cloth that had been used to wrap the radio and laying it on the back of the bicycle. Seeing that Xu Yan was still standing still, he continued, "It's quite thick, it shouldn't hurt your head."

Xu Yan hadn't thought of that, and only now did she have time to think about Xie Zhuo's acquaintance with this old man.

Yes, we know each other.

Since we know each other...

Her gaze swept over the old man.

"What's wrong?" Xie Zhuo was still waiting for Xu Yan to get in the car. Seeing that she didn't react for a long time, he was about to turn his head when a hand grabbed the corner of his clothes.

The young educated youth were truly innocent.

Xie Zhuo wore a dark-colored outfit when he went out today. Compared to the hands hanging on the clothes, the clothes looked almost the same color as charcoal.

"Hmm?" Xie Zhuo looked away.

“He just robbed me of eighty yuan,” Xu Yan glanced at the old man.

"Hey! Why are you talking nonsense, you little brat!"

Almost as soon as Xu Yan finished speaking, the old man shouted, "Who stole it? Didn't you give it to me yourself? How can you accuse someone of this?"

There were four sentences in total, each one louder than the last.

A few people on their way to a state-run restaurant heard the commotion and, thinking something interesting was going on, craned their necks to look over.

The old man immediately shut up.

"You're selling me these few books for eighty yuan?" Xu Yan pointed to the books in his basket. "Isn't that just robbery?"

Xie Zhuo immediately turned to look at the old man.

"I, I," the old man said, feeling a little guilty under the scrutiny, but he still stubbornly insisted, "I already said that it's the store's prized possession, and it's only worth that price. If you don't want it, you don't have to."

"What book?" Xie Zhuo had already looked down into the basket on his back.

He was in a hurry to get back when he was packing the books in, so he didn't look at them carefully. He only caught a small book for children to learn to read.

"High school textbooks," Xu Yan continued to complain, "He said he was the only one in the whole county who had them, and no other place could gather them all."

Upon hearing this, Xie Zhuo glanced at the old man again.

“That’s right,” the old man didn’t even dare to look Xie Zhuo in the eye, “I’m the only bookstore in the city, of course you won’t find it anywhere else!”

Xu Yan: "..."

Having spent over twenty years in the future and only a few days here, she really didn't know how many bookstores there were in a remote town like Qingping County in this era.

She had just seen Xie Zhuo and knew him, and was thinking of getting her money back before going to other bookstores.

She couldn't find a bookstore; Xie Zhuo should know.

I never expected that such a big county town would only have one bookstore!

"Here's your money back," the old man said, shoving the eighty yuan he had just received into her hand before turning and entering the bookstore without looking back. "Hurry up and leave."

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