"Your hands are tired today."
At four o'clock in the afternoon, apart from the stall owners taking a break, there were only a few customers walking around the vegetable market.
The vegetable and fruit stall owner was lying on an armchair, holding a palm-leaf fan in his hand, fanning himself leisurely to swat away flies from his ears when he caught a glimpse of two young men at the vegetable market.
One was yawning listlessly, while the other was smiling.
She sat up suddenly.
She knew the one who was smiling; he was a high school teacher. She also knew the one who was suffering; he was selling mutton noodles.
Seeing the two of them looking over here, she smiled and said, "Cooking so early."
Wu Meilai smiled and nodded, then walked to the stall and asked Zhou Qianling while selecting vegetables: "Is there anything you want to eat?"
"I like everything you like."
Wu Meilai glared at her and grabbed a handful of chili peppers.
"Well..." Seeing Wu Mei's evil smile, Zhou Qianling changed the subject, "It's edible."
The stall owner saw their interaction. She glanced back and forth at them and said with a smile, "You two have such a good relationship."
Zhou Qianling's hand trembled as he was picking vegetables. He straightened the collar of his shirt to cover the half-exposed red mark on his neck.
"My cousin and I grew up together." Wu Meilai answered.
"No wonder they look so similar." The stall owner took the dish and weighed it, saying casually.
After the two customers paid and left, the stall owner winked at the stall owner selling eggs next door in a gossipy manner.
"You saw it too, right? I saw them hugging each other behind the big banyan tree at the city entrance last time."
Egg: "No, maybe we just have a better relationship."
"I told you, but you just don't believe me. A lot of women have this habit nowadays. Take the girl next door. They keep urging their newly graduated daughter to find a partner. This year, she found one, and when she brought him home, it turned out to be her mother's college roommate."
egg:!
The gossip between the two did not reach the ears of the parties involved. They bought some seafood and beef offal, planning to make seafood soup and dry pot beef offal.
Zhou Qianling took the lead and took the bag from the boss.
"Can you carry so much? Give me some," Wu Mei said as she reached for the bag in her hand. Zhou Qianling hid it behind her and said with a smile, "Your hands must be tired today. I'll cook later, and you can rest."
Hearing this, Wu Meilai's face wrinkled up, "Zhou Qianling, why didn't I realize you were so coquettish before?"
Zhou Qianling felt quite aggrieved, "I'm just concerned about you." Then she thought of something and said, "You're talking less. Your tongue must be tired."
“…”
Wu Meilai slapped her butt hard again, "Believe it or not, I'll tell you everything. Let your classmates see what your cold-blooded head teacher is like in private."
"I told you to stop, but you wouldn't listen."
"...Then can I use my kick?" He raised his foot and was about to kick.
"teacher?"
The two turned around and saw a girl with a schoolbag on her back looking at them in the distance.
Wu Meilai silently withdrew her foot.
"Going back to school to get something?" Zhou Qianling asked.
The class representative shook his head and said, "I'm taking extra classes nearby."
"Well, go home quickly, it's getting late." Zhou Qianling put on the airs of a class teacher again.
The girl stood for a moment, looked at Wu Meilai, and waved to them, "Goodbye, teacher, goodbye, sister."
Seeing her leave with her huge schoolbag, Wu Meilai sighed: "Children nowadays are too tired. They have to take extra classes after school during the holidays. It must be very depressing."
"Hmm..." Zhou Qianling looked at the girl's back, his thoughts drifting back to ten years ago: "Very tired."
Wu Meilai tilted her head, and the woman frowned, as if she was thinking of something unhappy, or even painful.
Standing on tiptoe, she kissed the corner of his eye. "It's all in the past. We can share the hard work in the future."
His thoughts were pulled back, and Zhou Qianling kissed him back, saying in a disastrous tone, "That won't work. I'm at a disadvantage. Ouch!"
The foot that was retracted finally kicked out...
——
In the afternoon of mid-July, the bell for the end of get out of class rang slowly. There were not many students today, only a few occasionally came out with suitcases.
Wu Meilai did not set up a stall, but paced around the school gate.
A few minutes later, Zhou Qianling came up to her with a sunflower and gave it to her. "We sold flowers here at noon. I bought one."
Wu Meilai was wearing a snow-white shirt and a black long skirt. After taking the flowers, she looked around in her pockets.
Zhou Qianling laughed, grabbed her hand and pushed the flower close to her nose.
"Smell it."
Wu Meilai took a deep breath.
"Does it smell good?"
"Um."
"This flower has completed its mission." After saying that, Zhou Qianling threw the flower into the roadside trash can and hailed a taxi.
After getting in the car, Wu Meilai was still not able to react and asked, "Just throw it away?"
"You want to carry it all the way?"
"I don't really want to..."
The car started, and Wu Meilai asked again: "Where are we going?"
"My mother's house."
"Go directly?"
Zhou Qianling leaned gently on her shoulder and asked with a smile, "You have so many questions today. Are you nervous?"
Touched by the truth, Wu Meilai said bluntly, "Your mother doesn't like me very much." She still remembered Zhou Fang's attitude towards her last year. She had no idea at that time, but later she thought that the other party was probably testing the relationship between her and Zhou Qianling.
At that time, their relationship was still relatively pure, but now...
"She asked you to go home for the summer vacation. It's not appropriate for me to go with you. Besides, it doesn't make sense to go home empty-handed."
"Master, stop for a moment."
The taxi pulled over, and Zhou Qianling pushed the door open and went out. Half a minute later, he returned with a bottle of Sprite and a bag of potato chips, stuffing them into her hands. He said with a stifled smile, "Okay, now both of your hands are full."
“…”
Wu Meilai put the things aside and said, "You know that's not what I meant."
"Okay~ I just want to take you to meet my mother, or..." She paused, her eyes dimmed slightly, and said in a voice that only the two of them could hear: "You don't like to meet her just as a friend."
Wu Meilai shook her head, "I understand, I don't mind."
"That's good. Don't worry. If my mom is mean to you, I'll be mean to you back."
“…That’s not necessary.”
The driver glanced in the rearview mirror and laughed, "How come your two daughters act like they're meeting their boyfriend's parents? My daughter's friend is the same way. We pooled our money together and bought a house downtown. She often takes us older people on trips."
"Haha." Wu Meilai laughed dryly, thinking to herself: Aunt, you actually have in-laws.
Today is summer vacation and the traffic was terrible. It was already past dinner time when we arrived at Zhou Fang's house.
Father Zhou happily opened the door, but was visibly taken aback when he saw Wu Mei coming in. "This is..."
"This is my friend, sister."
"Oh, okay, okay, okay." Zhou's father said "okay" several times. Since high school, his daughter seemed to have changed and never brought friends home again.
Wiping his tears with his back turned, he looked at Wu Meilai and said lovingly, "Come if you want to. What else do you want to bring..." His eyes moved to the Sprite and potato chips, "What snacks do you want to bring? Uncle will go cook right away. Eat less junk food."
After saying that, he turned and walked towards the kitchen.
"Why are you crying again?" Zhou Fang stood by the hanging cage teasing the bird and complained to her husband who was not steady enough.
He turned to look at the door, was stunned for a few seconds, and then greeted politely: "Sister, why did you come to Yanzhou?"
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