"Auntie, Auntie!" Yuan Tingting called out a few times at the door.

Fang Meixiang had already gotten up and was sitting at the table waiting for Fang Dongqiang to get up.

As soon as she opened the door, she put her index finger to her lips in a "shh" gesture and pointed upstairs.

"Auntie!" Fang Yu called softly.

Fang Meixiang smiled at them, stepped aside to make room for them to come in.

Fang Meixiang looked left and right, as if she wanted to find something to eat for them, but there was nothing to eat in the room.

Just then, Fang Dongqiang came downstairs. As he reached the bottom of the stairs, he instinctively took a step back. He quickly wiped his face, smoothed his hair, and walked out somewhat awkwardly to ask, "Fang Yu, Hua Hua, what are you doing at my house?"

“Grandma asked Fang Yu and the others to come with me,” Yuan Tingting said quickly.

"Grandma?" Fang Dongqiang was also puzzled as to why his grandma would call Fang Yu over. It would be awkward to have a female classmate at his house so early in the morning, so Fang Dongqiang didn't ask any further questions.

"Dongqiang, how is your school?" Fang Yu asked.

"How's school?" Fang Dongqiang didn't understand why Fang Yu suddenly asked this. "It's alright!"

"Breakfast," Fang Meixiang said.

"Yes, Grandma asked me to call Auntie for breakfast."

"You guys eat first, then we'll head home. Tingting said we'll go chestnut picking this afternoon. I'll come over after I've eaten," Fang Yu said.

"Sister Fang Yu, aren't you going to visit my grandma?"

"Let's play together again this afternoon. I'll go home and do my homework this morning."

"Okay, then come to my grandma's house after you've had lunch. We'll go together this afternoon."

"good."

Fang Dongqiang and the others went to their maternal grandmother's house. Fang Yu and Fang Huahua walked together toward Fang Yu's house. "Fang Yu, is that all you're asking? Are you asking him if the school is good?"

"No, actually I just wanted to talk about school. We're going to pick chestnuts together this afternoon, so we can chat more later."

"I know we're going together this afternoon, and we'll chat then. We'll also come to his house together to wake him up."

"No, Tingting asked me to come along."

“You want to come too,” Fang Huahua said, running ahead of Fang Yu. “You also want to see him soon.”

"Nonsense," Fang Yu chased after Fang Huahua, "They're going to have breakfast, are we going to follow them?"

"That's right." The two girls chased each other all the way to Fang Yu's house in the village.

"Fang Yu, come to my house for lunch today. My dad and grandma aren't home."

"No, I'm at home."

“It’s okay, I’ll burn it. My brother and I play together. My mom isn’t like my grandma. It’s fine for you to come at noon.”

"No, I'll finish my homework this morning. You go home and make lunch early, then come over."

"All right!"

After lunch, Fang Huahua, along with Fang Jingming, brought a long stick and a snakeskin bag. "You brought more things?" Fang Yu asked.

"Where would you put the things you picked up if you didn't bring anything with you? You can find a bag to put them in later," Fang Huahua said.

"I picked it up and gave it to you."

"You can pick it up and give it to Fang Dongqiang."

"You're talking nonsense again." The two laughed and chased each other again.

"Oh, for Tingting, you picked it up for Tingting."

Fang Dongqiang and the others were all ready, and Fang Meixiang's mother and Fang Meixiang were also going.

The afternoon sun shone the rice paddies golden, and the group hurried toward the woods behind the village.

Yuan Tingting stayed close to Fang Yu, while Fang Jingming followed Fang Dongqiang, asking him about the latest happenings at the junior high school in the county.

Seeing that Fang Yu had no chance to speak to Fang Dongqiang, Fang Huahua anxiously pulled Fang Jingming, "Why are you always following Dongqiang?"

Fang Jingming shook his arm. "If I'm not with him, I'll be with you female classmates?"

Once inside the woods, the trees were laden with thorny chestnut pods hanging from the branches, looking like they were covered in tiny hedgehogs.

Fang Dongqiang raised his long stick and struck the branch hard. With a few "thumps," chestnut balls came crashing down with the wind. Fang Jingming, who was shorter, also struggled to reach them with the stick.

"Be careful of the thorns when you pick chestnuts, don't peel them with your bare hands!" Fang Meixiang's mother reminded everyone.

Fang Yu walked up to Fang Dongqiang and asked, "Dongqiang, do you know how I can transfer to your school?"

"I don't know, my aunt and the others took me to register." Fang Dongqiang stopped what he was doing. "What, you want to transfer schools? Are there many of our old classmates in your current class?"

"There are many, but some are in other classes."

"Are you thinking of transferring schools?"

"Let me ask first, besides you, are there any other students in your class who didn't go to elementary school in the city but went to the countryside? Are there any who went to junior high school after that?"

"Yes, my deskmate is one, and there are quite a few others."

This seemed to give Fang Yu hope. "Could you find out how I can get into your school, and how much it costs?"

Fang Dongqiang scratched his head, a chestnut leaf stuck to his trouser leg. "I'm not quite sure either. How about this, I'll ask my classmates and teacher when I get back from class."

"Okay, let me know if you ask."

“Hmm,” Fang Dongqiang thought for a moment, “I’ll probably come back next time during winter break.”

Fang Yu bit her finger. "Can you write to me? My mom writes to me from all over the place, and I read her letters often."

"Writing a letter? That's fine too!"

“I am in the first year of junior high school (1). You asked me to write a letter to the school. I will receive it. Thank you for your help.”

"It's nothing, it's just writing a few words."

"Your school must be much better than ours, right?"

"It's so much better than our primary school. We can do experiments in the physics and chemistry lab. Our Chinese teacher is really good. When he teaches classical Chinese, it's like he's from ancient times." Fang Dongqiang became more talkative when talking about the school.

Fang Huahua watched the two of them chatting amiably from a distance and thought to herself, "Fang Yu should have gotten all the information she wanted to know about Fang Dongqiang by now, right?"