dull

Huayue Market is located in the city center of City A. Every weekend, long queues form at the restaurants on the third floor of the market.

Yu Xi got up very early, caught the first bus, and then transferred several times on the subway before finally arriving at the mall within the allotted time.

As she jogged to get there, the boss she had arranged to meet was nowhere to be seen. Yu Xi walked into the event venue, her eyes searching around.

The person who was leisurely playing on their phone behind the computer noticed someone's arrival, glanced up casually, and said, "The event hasn't started yet. Buy your tickets first, and come in later."

Yu Xi quickly shook her head, bent over, and held her knees. It took her a while to recover. "I'm not here to participate in the event. I already told the boss that I'd be working part-time this Sunday."

Hearing this, the girl playing on her phone glanced at her disdainfully again, raised her chin, and gestured, "So you're the one who came for the part-time job today. You're so late, and three minutes late."

"The mascot costume and flyers are over there, hurry up." She got up, stretched, yawned, and said somewhat indistinctly, "Don't be lazy, make sure all the flyers are handed out today. The more people you bring in, the more bonus you'll get."

"Okay, I'll do my best," Yu Xi said, putting on the bulky mascot costume.

Huayue held a bread festival on the first floor of the mall this Sunday. After a month of promotion, an inflatable archway was set up outside the mall entrance today. Stalls selling bread with the characteristics of various provinces had already set up their stalls on the first floor. In addition to selling bread, they also specially set up a bread-making activity that parents and children could do together.

Even before the event started, a long queue had already formed at the ticket booths outside, mostly parents with their children.

Yu Xi was responsible for wearing an inflatable mascot costume and handing out flyers about the event to passersby.

It was the height of summer, and the air conditioning inside the mall was blasting. But outside the main entrance, it was a completely different story. Waves of heat were rising up, and the ground was so hot that it was almost burning your feet to walk on.

There was a small blower inside the inflatable doll. Yu Xi carried the battery on her back, but the blower couldn't chase away the summer heat. The vision window inside the doll costume was very small, so she couldn't see the ground under her feet. She took each step very carefully.

"Hello, please take a look at the bread festival activities."

"Hello, may I ask about this?"

Holding the flyers, she reached out to hand them to the people passing by, but her movements were not agile due to the inflatable mascot costume. Most people just hurried past and did not want to linger for even a second longer in front of the sweltering mall entrance.

Several hours passed, and Yu Xi hadn't handed out many flyers. Instead, she found a lot of flyers at her feet that people had casually picked up and then tossed aside.

The girl who had been sitting and playing on her phone ran out when she saw this, and angrily shouted at Yu Xi: "Look at you, you can't even hand out a flyer. I really don't know what my dad hired you for. You can't even do this little thing right."

"They're scattered all over the ground, can't you see them?"

The blind spot of the mascot costume meant that Yu Xi could only see a few scattered pieces of paper lying not far away. She quickly squatted down and said, "I'll pick them all up right now."

"Get back to work properly, or I'll be watching you from inside," the girl warned, venting all her anger on Yu Xi.

"It's so annoying. I already told my dad I wouldn't come to help him keep an eye on things, but he insisted I come."

The stuffiness inside the mascot costume made Yu Xi's ears ring. She couldn't quite hear what the girl said next. Sweat soaked her forehead and her hair, sticking to her cheeks. It felt like she had swallowed a whole piece of burning coal.

As she gradually felt short of breath, she forced herself to stand up.

The next second, several children who had been queuing with the adults at the ticket booth rushed towards her. Yu Xi saw them through her line of sight and instantly felt something was wrong.

Just as expected, several children surrounded her, laughing and patting the mascot costume. Yu Xi was a little unsteady on her feet and turned slightly to look at the parents still in line.

The people in line were all staring at their phones, only taking a step forward when the line was moving, without making any attempt to stop the children.

"Kids, don't pat the mascot costume, I can't stand up anymore." Yu Xi said slowly, trying to keep her throat dry. Pushes came from all directions, and she swayed. She hadn't had a sip of water for several hours, and in this weather, she really couldn't hold on any longer.

The children weren't going to listen to her. Instead of stopping what they were doing, they became even more unruly, laughing and saying, "The doll can talk. It's fun!"

"I'm going to pat its head."

"Look, it has so many papers. Let's fold them into paper airplanes and play with them," one of the children said, reaching for the flyer in Yu Xi's hand.

Yu Xi raised his hand, but he missed.

"Kids, these are our flyers, you can't play with them."

"I don't care, I want it! If you don't give it to me, I'll tell my mom you're bullying me." After saying that, he burst into tears.

Yu Xi was getting annoyed by the crying. The stuffy mascot costume and the boss's daughter's harassment were already bothering her, and now she had to deal with this unreasonable child.

"Mommy, this older sister hit me..." The little boy ran away, looking aggrieved, shouting loudly. His sharp voice attracted the curious glances of the people in line.

Yu Xi: "..."

I hate these unreasonable kids the most; there's bound to be a parent who's biased and comes to argue with them.

It's as if the whole world is wrong the moment he cries.

Sure enough, the little boy took his mother's hand, and the two of them ran towards her together.

Yu Xi was quicker and simply fell to the ground, "Ouch, these kids are so rude, they all pushed me down."

"Everyone come and see! My child keeps pushing me. And this kid, when I don't give him a flyer to play with, he immediately accuses me of hitting him."

"It's so hot, and I'm just a student working part-time. Do you think it's easy for me?"

She poured out her heart with a sob in her voice, saying that Yu Xi was never the type to tolerate being bullied without fighting back; she would retaliate on the spot if she had a grudge.

The woman, wearing bright red lipstick, held a little boy's hand with one hand and pointed at her with the other, saying, "My child said that you hit her. How could a five-year-old lie?"

"A kid this small, would it fall off a piece of flesh if he pushed you a couple of times?"

An unreasonable and aggressive attitude swept over her, and Yu Xi continued to complain, "I'm handing out flyers under the scorching sun, and I still get slandered by a little kid. It's outrageous!"

Someone in the queue said, "When I was taking a selfie, I saw those kids constantly pushing, shoving, and hitting the doll. Don't you, as a parent, do anything about it?"

"That's right. If your own child is so rude, who knows if he might lie?"

"Do you think it's easy for that young girl who's only doing part-time work? You parents are being unreasonable."

More and more voices refuted her, and the crowd left the line, surrounding Yu Xi.

The air around her seemed stagnant, and the temperature seemed even higher with so many people. Yu Xi felt a little breathless, and the scene of the thronging crowd became increasingly blurry through the mascot costume.

She couldn't hold on any longer and fainted. The woman with bright red lipstick was still relentless and even kicked her while she was lying on the ground.

"Get up, what are you pretending for here?"

"Get up and apologize to my child."

Seeing that she didn't react, the woman reached out to grab the mascot costume and pull Yu Xi up, but before she could touch her, she was stopped by a sharp shout from the person who squeezed in.

"Don't touch her!"

Without a second thought, Meng Chou scooped up the person who had fainted on the ground, unzipped the mascot costume, and freed the person from the sweltering costume.

He nimbly carried the person on his back, and didn't forget to tell Meng Yun, who had come with him, "What are you standing there for? Call 120."

—

When Yu Xi slowly woke up, the glaring light made her squint. Just as she was about to raise her hand to block it, she felt something being pulled and turned her head to look up to see the IV drip.

"I remember I was handing out flyers and then I met a lying kid. How did I end up in the hospital?" she muttered to herself, getting up to pull out the IV from her right hand.

The sudden movement startled Meng Yun, who was lying by the bedside. He quickly stopped Yu Xi, saying, "Lie down quickly. The doctor said you have heatstroke, and you fainted because of malnutrition."

Ignoring his advice, Yu Xi insisted on leaving, saying, "I'm fine, I feel much better, really."

Meng Yun said with concern, "I've already asked the school for leave for you, so don't worry. I've also told your parents."

"Where would I get parents from?" Yu Xi muttered to herself.

Meng Yun seemed not to have heard clearly and asked, "What?"

Yu Xi smiled and brushed it off, "It's nothing."

She looked around the ward. It was a private room, fully furnished with all kinds of furniture. It was just like a small house. How could this be a hospital room?

"Hospitalization fees are too expensive; I can't afford them."

She said it jokingly, but the bitterness in her heart was hard to swallow. It seemed that the little money she had managed to save was going to go down the drain.

“I’ve already paid for it for you.” Meng Yun said, picking up an apple from the bedside table. With a slight movement of her fingertips, she easily peeled the apple with a fruit knife. “Consider it a thank you for stepping up to save me that time.”

"We're all classmates, so let's just help each other out."

Yu Xi took the apple he had cut into small pieces. "Did you carry me to the hospital?"

Upon hearing this, Meng Yun was taken aback and agreed that she would definitely leave a deeper impression on Yu Xi.

That day was supposed to be the bread festival for the whole family, but Meng Chou made an excuse to skip the part of making bread with his family. Meng's father told him to go out with him and keep an eye on Meng Chou.

That's how he got the chance to meet Yu Xi. But at that moment, Meng Chou and his father were having a disagreement because he had asked for leave to see her, which made him hesitate.

At this point, Meng Chou agreed without knowing it, and even if he did know, what could Meng Chou do to him?

Will Yu Xi believe it?

After all, he was the first person she saw when she opened her eyes.

“Yes, it was me,” Meng Yun murmured calmly. “I went to the bread festival that day, and when I came out, I happened to hear people arguing.”

"When I saw someone faint, I quickly carried her to the hospital. I never expected that the person under the doll was you."

"We really are destined to meet."

He smiled gently, a hint of tenderness appearing in his eyes.

Before Yu Xi lost consciousness, she could only see the person who saved her through the narrow field of vision of the mascot costume, so she couldn't see what they looked like, but their appearance was indeed very similar to Meng Yun's.

After he said that, she completely believed that Meng Yun had carried her to the hospital.

"Thanks."

"If you really want to thank me, can you grant me one request?" Meng Yun suddenly leaned closer to her and said with a hint of mystery.