After sitting down in the small pavilion with Liu Xiaoxiao, Chen Bing helped her poke the peanut milk.

"Give."

After taking a sip, Liu Xiaoxiao didn't rush to eat breakfast. Instead, she looked at Chen Bing and slowly said, "During the National Day holiday, Liu Fu is going to Suzhou on a business trip, and Aunt Su is going back to her hometown. I don't want to go with her, and there's no one at home right now."

Liu Fu? Oh, that must be Liu Xiaoxiao's father's name. Hmm? Why are you calling him by his real name? Is that so impolite?

Chen Bing's thoughts wandered aimlessly, and she unconsciously appeared somewhat sluggish.

Seeing this, Liu Xiaoxiao's expectations were dashed, and she naturally felt a little sad. She grabbed the breakfast her brother had brought her, said, "I'm done talking, I'm leaving now," and prepared to go.

At that moment, Chen Bing finally realized something. He realized that Liu Xiaoxiao's words to him might mean she wanted to come and stay at his house.

But why not just say it directly? What kind of relationship do we have? My sister Yue is your aunt, isn't she? What's the point of being so secretive and then walking away without a word?

Knowing there was no time to think, Chen Bing immediately stood up, took the other person's slender wrist, and said, "Then, come to my house for a few days. I'll tell Sister Yue, and she'll be very happy."

Upon hearing this, a rare blush appeared on Liu Xiaoxiao's pretty and delicate face.

"You said it yourself."

"Yes, I said it!"

Hearing Chen Bing's affirmative tone and seeing his sincere eyes, Liu Xiaoxiao didn't say anything more. She quietly sat down in the chair and began to eat the breakfast her brother had brought.

Although she appeared calm, the way she unintentionally swung her legs betrayed her current mood.

However, Chen Bing didn't notice. In his mind, Liu Xiaoxiao was still a child, a child who was too shy to directly ask to visit her aunt for a few days during the holidays.

Chen Bing chatted and ate with Liu Xiaoxiao for a while. Then, she suddenly remembered that she had told Shang Yunmiao a few days ago that she wanted her to come to her house for a few days during the National Day holiday.

He then remembered that Shang Yunmiao and Liu Xiaoxiao hadn't officially met or gotten to know each other yet.

So he decided to tell Liu Xiaoxiao in advance that another girl would be coming to stay with him.

"Waiting for National Day..."

"Ding ding ding ding ding ding!"

A series of school bell rings interrupted Chen Bing's attempt to continue. Facing Liu Xiaoxiao's gaze, he thought for a moment, realizing that explaining this would take a lot of talking, so he decided to wait until later.

So Chen Bing changed her mind and said, "Then wait for me in your classroom after school this afternoon, and I'll come find you so we can leave school together?"

Upon hearing this, Liu Xiaoxiao nodded to indicate that she understood.

"Okay, that's all. Give me the plastic bags and stuff, I'll go throw them away for you."

After receiving the leftover breakfast packaging from each other, Chen Bing and Liu Xiaoxiao parted ways and headed to their respective classrooms to begin their last day of study before the seven-day National Day holiday.

Just as the school bell rang, Chen Bing successfully returned to her seat before the teacher arrived.

Xiao Shang, sitting in front of her, turned around, glanced at Chen Bing with a hesitant expression, and then turned her head away silently without saying anything.

It wasn't until the third period of physical education class in the morning, during Chen Bing's usual walk on the playground, that Shang Yunmiao told him about the things she cared about.

"Chen Bing, your cousin is really pretty." Xiao Shang's words were pointed, but she made them sound very casual.

Chen Bing, who hadn't grasped the hidden meaning in Xiao Shang's words, couldn't help but feel a little smug.

His face showed three parts smugness, three parts pride, and four parts nonchalance as he replied rather smugly, "There's nothing I can do, our family has good genes."

Me, my mom, my aunt, my two uncles, my cousins, and my younger cousins ​​all live with my grandma. My sister Yue told me that after she and my aunt came of age, countless people came to propose marriage to them during holidays.

Moreover, Old Chen is quite good-looking, and with both of us having excellent genes, of course I…”

Chen Bing's little mouth continued to chatter, completely unaware of Shang Yunmiao's strange little face beside her.

After talking about his genetic advantages for several minutes, Chen Bing finally stopped talking, and Shang Yunmiao was able to interject, "That's great. When you're with your sister, you must find it very pleasing to the eye, right?"

"Hmm...it's alright. When I make friends, I don't care whether the other person is good-looking or not. As long as we get along, it doesn't really matter."

Because Chen Bing was with her most often, Shang Yunmiao felt that these words were very targeted at her.

"And what about me?"

"What do you mean, 'you'?"

Chen Bing, whose thoughts had been somewhat scattered from the start, was stumped by Xiao Shang's question. But in a moment, he understood: Xiao Shang meant that she was asking him if he considered looks when he spent so much time with her.

Thinking of this, Chen Bing quickly added, "You mean we considered appearance together?"

"Uh-huh."

This is a problem that needs to be carefully considered. Just then, the boys playing soccer accidentally kicked the ball over here, and Chen Bing caught it with his foot and kicked it back to them.

Taking advantage of this lull, he sorted out his thoughts before turning to look at Xiao Shang's anxious face and slowly saying, "Well... you're a little different..."

Xiao Chen's face was unusually flushed. His gaze seemed to dodge Shang Yunmiao. After a moment of hesitation, he added in a moderate tone, "Strictly speaking... I don't consider you a friend..."

After saying this, Chen Bing didn't care whether Xiao Shang understood him or not, and continued walking forward with his hands behind his back.

How should we understand the sentence "They didn't treat me as a friend"?

Coming to her senses, Shang Yunmiao jogged a few steps to catch up with Chen Bing, and then silently began to think.

Chen Bing and I are such good friends, we've played together and grown up together since we were little. The fact that he doesn't consider me a friend doesn't mean that our relationship is bad, but rather that we have a relationship beyond that.

Between opposite sexes, if not friends, what other kind of feelings could there be?

Xiao Shang felt like she understood, but also like she didn't. The problem was that Chen Bing had been too vague, leaving room for endless speculation...

But... it's not appropriate to directly ask Chen Bing about this, so we can only leave it at that for now and deal with it later...

A small hand gently grabbed Chen Bing's clothes from behind. Without much hesitation, Chen Bing directly grabbed the restless little hand in return.

Two hands, one big and one small, were clasped together in a secluded corner.

Thinking they were fairly well hidden, the two continued walking around the playground again and again. Once almost everyone on the field had noticed them, Xiao Shang, afraid of being seen, voluntarily let go of Chen Bing's hand.