In her spare time, Fang Yu always liked to go to the mailroom to see if there was any mail for her.

The walls of the mailroom are covered with wooden grids labeled "Grade 7", "Grade 8", and "Grade 9". After the postman delivers the mail, the old man at the mailroom will put the letter into the corresponding grid according to the class information on the envelope.

A light gray envelope with a two-cent stamp featuring a morning glory in the upper right corner. Fang Yu could tell at a glance that the handwriting on the envelope was from Fang Dongqiang!

Fang Yu held the envelope, found a secluded corner, and carefully opened the seal.

The letter was torn from a workbook. Fang Dongqiang said that their studies this semester were more intense than last semester. Their science teacher was an old man who did an interesting experiment. Fang Yu watched it and couldn't help but laugh out loud, as if she were in class with them.

Just as Fang Huahua enjoyed listening to her talk about the junior high school in town, she also enjoyed hearing Fang Dongqiang tell her about the interesting things that happened at their school.

In a letter written after the May Day holiday, Yu Jihong asked Fang Yu when she would have her holiday and told her how to take a bus to the provincial capital after the holiday.

Waiting for letters from her mother and Fang Dongqiang gave Fang Yu something to look forward to and some wonderful moments amidst her busy studies at the new school.

As agreed with Yu Jihong in the letter, Fang Yu boarded the bus to the provincial capital. The bus passed through the county town station, where people boarding the bus were busy carrying their luggage.

Fang Yu looked out the window. It was just the start of the holiday, and Fang Dongqiang hadn't gone back to his maternal grandmother's house; he was still in the county town. They hadn't seen each other yet.

The car bumped along until it arrived at the provincial capital's train station, where the crowds were even more dense than at the town's market. As soon as Fang Yu followed the flow of people out of the station gate, she saw her mother standing on tiptoe, looking in her direction, while her father stood beside her, clutching a faded cloth bag filled with cool boiled water to quench her thirst.

"Fang Yu!" Yu Jihong saw her first and ran over quickly, gently pinching her arm. "You must have been terribly hot on the way here." Fang San Di also came over and handed her the cloth bag. "Have some water first, then we'll go home."

The road was farther than Fang Yu had imagined. It took almost an hour by bus and then a long, bumpy alley before they finally arrived at a low-lying courtyard.

Fang Yu followed her parents into a small room. The light bulb on the ceiling was dim, and there were flour sacks and coal briquettes piled up in the corner. A small bed was set up next to an old wooden bed, and a small stove was squeezed on the other side.

She was taken aback; this seemed quite different from what her mother had said in her letter—that everything was "pretty good."

Fang Yu was woken up by her alarm clock at three o'clock the next morning. Fang San Di was kneading dough, and Yu Ji Hong was starting a fire. Seeing her get up, Yu Ji Hong smiled and said, "You really came with us this early?"

"Okay, let's go." Fang Yu also wanted to see what her parents' stall was like.

Before dawn, they pushed their cart to the breakfast stall. The wind on the road was cool. Fang Yu followed behind her parents, watching their backs, and suddenly felt a lump in her throat.

After the breakfast stall was set up, Fang Yu helped pack the rice balls and collect change.

An auntie who frequents the restaurant took the rice ball, looked at Fang Yu and smiled, "The girl is really pretty. Looking at her, she looks more like her mother." Fang San Di paused in his chopsticks flipping the fried dough sticks, and replied softly, "Yes, she looks just like her mother, very pretty."

Fang Yu didn't notice anything unusual. People often praised her for being beautiful. She just smiled and said, "Take care, Auntie." Fang San Di's hand, which was hanging by his side, clenched tightly.

Yu Jihong pretended not to hear and continued making glutinous rice balls.

Yu Jihong occasionally took Fang Yu to the provincial capital's department store one afternoon. It was Fang Yu's first time seeing an escalator. Standing on it, she gripped Yu Jihong's clothes tightly. Her eyes lit up when she saw the cartoon erasers, scented notebooks, small portable music players, and candies and chocolates with foreign labels displayed in the cabinets.

Yu Jihong bought her a cream popsicle and said with a smile, "Study hard, and after you graduate from junior high school, see if there are any schools in the provincial capital where you can attend."

Fang Yu nodded, biting into her popsicle. She still wanted to get into a high school in the county town.

As the start of the school term approached, Yu Jihong took Fang Yu to a stationery store.

Fang Yu picked out an eraser with daisies printed on it and a notebook with a lock; these were for Hua Hua.

Seeing a ruler with a basketball pattern on it at the counter, she suddenly thought of Fang Dongqiang, her face flushed, and she touched the ruler with her fingers before quickly pulling them back. Remembering the little basketball figure he had drawn in the letter, she felt a little flustered and ultimately didn't buy it, only carefully putting the gift for Huahua into her schoolbag.

Returning home a few days before the start of the semester, Fang Yu put down her bag and went to find Fang Hua Hua with the things she had bought for her.

"Fang Yu, you're back! I went to your house a few days ago to see if you were back yet." Fang Huahua cut a slice of watermelon and handed it to her.

"I came to see you as soon as I got back. Here's a gift I brought for you."

Fang Huahua wiped her hands on her clothes. "Thank you! It's really pretty, and the notebook even has a lock." Fang Huahua fiddled with the small lock in the middle of the right edge of the notebook, then leaned closer and whispered, "Fang Dongqiang came back during the summer vacation."

Fang Yu, biting into a watermelon, said calmly, "His home is here, of course he has to come back."

"He seems to have just gone back a few days ago. He came back with Tingting, and Tingting even asked about you."

"Oh!" Fang Yu lowered her head, finished eating the watermelon, and prepared to throw away the watermelon rind. "Huahua, isn't your grandma home now?"

"She went to the hospital."

"What's wrong?"

“I heard that the hospitals in the city could cure her, so my dad took her to the hospital.”

Hua Mei was bringing in the clothes from outside, but she was still busy with her own things.

"Fang Yu, why don't you have dinner at my place?"

"No, I'll go home and cook some porridge. I've been traveling all day and I don't feel like eating anything else." Fang Yu stood up, intending to go home.

“We have porridge at home. In the summer, we cook a pot in the morning and eat it all day long. I’ll also make you some pancakes, and dinner will be taken care of. Why bother cooking for one person?” Fang Huahua pulled Fang Yu along. “It’s okay, my grandma isn’t home.”

"I don't want the pancakes, I'll just have the porridge."

"Okay, I'll have porridge for dinner too, and I'll eat with you. I'll make something else for my dad and the others later."

Fang Huahua served two bowls of porridge with pickled vegetables, and the two of them sat in the kitchen to eat.

Hua Mei walked in, and Fang Yu smiled shyly and called out to her, "Hua Hua's mom, I'm having dinner at your house."

Hua Mei paused for a moment, then nodded with a forced smile to Hua Hua, "It's okay, my mom was happy to see you eating at my house," Fang Hua Hua said.