One portion of hard work, one portion of harvest. On the day the high school entrance exam results came out, Chen An took Cheng Lele to school to check the results. On the list, Cheng Lele had scraped into Taixi High School right at the admission cutoff score. Cheng Lele was overjoyed. She charged over and jumped onto Chen An’s back. At this time, Chen An already had broad shoulders and long legs—hooking Cheng Lele up was no problem at all. He held Cheng Lele’s legs, his face rippling with smiles: “What gift do you want?”
Cheng Lele thought for a while and asked: “Little Brother, how about we go traveling?”
“Sure. Up to you.”
Easier said than done—how could adults feel at ease letting two middle school students travel alone? However, another matter created an opportunity for the two to travel.
In small places, interpersonal relationships were always tangled together in countless threads. Although Cheng Lele’s family tree was thin, she still had various aunts and relations.
That day, Cheng Lele’s third great-uncle was marrying off his daughter, and the groom was precisely the second son of Chen An’s great-uncle’s family. The two held their wedding at a big hotel in the county town. It wasn’t appropriate for all the old and young of such distant relatives to attend, so two soon-to-be high school students each carried red envelopes as representatives to offer congratulations.
Chen An and Cheng Lele were arranged in the most corner position, squeezed at a table with a group of children around ten years old. For now, only a few dishes of dried fruit and a plate of fruit were placed on the table.
The little kids were chirping and chattering very noisily. Although Cheng Lele’s intelligence was about the same as the little kids’, she still maintained her dignity and didn’t blend in with them. Bored out of her mind, she plucked a grape and stuffed it in her mouth. However, what she didn’t expect was that this grape, with its fragrant entrance and sweet aftertaste, was astonishingly heavenly—it could be called the Hermès of grapes.
Monopolizing the entire plate in front of everyone was too shameless to do. Cheng Lele could only desperately accelerate her eating, but she didn’t know how to spit out grape skins, so she stared at the eyes of the children who hadn’t yet discovered the treasure while peeling the skin with trembling hands. Chen An didn’t like eating grapes, but given Cheng Lele’s wolfing-down posture, he was forced to join the battle for grape occupation. Unlike Cheng Lele, Chen An was very good at peeling grapes. His right hand gently lifted a corner of the grape skin, his left hand cooperated with a turn, and clean grape flesh was revealed.
Cheng Lele was like a little chicken—every time Chen An placed one down, she’d slurp one up. She stubbornly wiped out ninety percent of the grapes.
Chen An wiped his hands and went to the bathroom. When he came back, he found the kitchen and inquired where the grapes had been purchased from. The kitchen said the grapes were purchased by the hosts themselves. He ran around asking again and only then learned they were grown by his great-uncle in the countryside.
He calmly pondered whether to go play at his great-uncle’s house. When he returned, the lights dimmed—the newlyweds were about to enter.
Chen An and Cheng Lele had never seen the newlyweds before. Coming here was purely to join the excitement. The two cracked sunflower seeds, listening intermittently to the host digging up the couple’s love history. They seemed to be classmates from the same village. The host exaggeratedly talked about childhood sweethearts, a match made in heaven. Cheng Lele spit out a sunflower seed shell and said: “Little Brother, is there anyone you like at our town middle school? Did she get into Tai High with you?”
Chen An said: “I’m with you every day. Don’t you have any idea in your heart whether I have someone I like?”
Cheng Lele tilted her head and thought, then said: “That’s true. Hey, what do you think of Chen Xiaomu from our class? The one sitting behind me.”
Chen An ate meals with Cheng Lele in her classroom every day, so he was fairly familiar with those sitting in front of and behind her. He thought of a general appearance and said: “Is it the one wearing glasses?”
Cheng Lele disdainfully dusted off her hands: “That’s Zhang Ying. I’m talking about the one with especially big eyes.” She was influenced by Ye Xiaomei and naturally had a good impression of people with big eyes.
Chen An was too lazy to think anymore and asked: “What do you want to say?”
Cheng Lele said: “The other day, Chen Xiaomu asked me if we got tired of being together all day. She said if we keep going like this, it would be incest.”
Chen An was drinking water and nearly choked to death.
Cheng Lele patted Chen An’s back and said: “Why such a big reaction?”
Chen An caught his breath and questioned: “Do you know what incest means?”
Cheng Lele opened her eyes wide and said: “Of course I know. In terms of kinship relations, we don’t fall into that situation.”
Only then did Chen An calm down, but in less than an instant, Cheng Lele added: “But psychologically it’s also about the same as incest. When Chen Xiaomu said it like that and I made that association, I got goosebumps. Hey hey hey, look, now that I’m saying this, my arm is getting bumps…” As she spoke, Cheng Lele stretched her arm under Chen An’s eyelids and continued on her own: “So I salute this couple of newlyweds as a fierce couple.”
Cheng Lele hadn’t read many romance novels and couldn’t develop rich imagination about other people’s love. She thought the childhood sweethearts on stage were in about the same situation as her and Chen An. Putting herself in their shoes, she found them particularly fierce.
Chen An swatted Cheng Lele’s arm away: “You’re getting goosebumps because the air conditioning is turned up too high.”
Cheng Lele grabbed Chen An’s arm and asked: “Aren’t you getting them?”
Chen An said: “Where did this Chen Xiaomu girl come from with such a gossipy mouth? Don’t associate with this kind of person in the future. When you get to Tai High, cut ties with her.”
“How can I do that? She and I are tong dan.”
“What tong dan?”
“Hey, you wouldn’t understand even if I told you.” Cheng Lele said, “Little Brother, Chen Xiaomu really likes you. Do you want to consider it?”
“If she likes me, I have to consider her?”
“Then what else? Consider those who don’t like you?” Cheng Lele said, “Though that’s true too—you’ve always liked challenging things.”
“If I found someone else, would there still be a place for you on the back seat of my bicycle?”
Cheng Lele really hadn’t thought about this question. With his reminder, she immediately put away her matchmaking heart and said: “Right, the teacher doesn’t allow us to date early. Studying well is most important.”
Speaking of Cheng Lele’s brain not turning the corner—she hadn’t thought at all that if she dated someone else, she wouldn’t need to covet Little Brother’s back seat either.