The bus slowly pulled to a stop.
The two of them got off. Xue Rui stretched and looked around.
There were no tall buildings, only a solitary bus stop surrounded by endless, vibrant green fields teeming with life.
School had let out at No. 2 High shortly after two in the afternoon. From the moment they got on the bus until now, it was already past five.
Xue Rui glanced at the schedule posted at the bus stop and saw there was one last bus for the day.
'Why am I even looking at this?' Xue Rui shook his head.
He wouldn't be caught dead on that bus again. A two-hour ride, bumpy and crowded, with no air conditioning… for "President Xue," who was used to traveling in luxury cars, it was absolute torture. He'd just call a taxi to get back later.
"Let's go. You lead the way," Xue Rui said.
As he took in the scenery on both sides of the road, Xue Rui was filled with a sense of wonder.
He had imagined the countryside would be a muddy mess, with dilapidated houses, wooden utility poles, and the stench of cow dung everywhere...
That was because his mom had once "exiled" him to a poverty-stricken mountain village where conditions were exactly like that.
But Lin Ruoxi's village was different. The roads were paved, clean, and tidy. Although he could still catch a faint whiff of cow dung, it wasn't nearly as foul or pungent.
In the distance, a massive wind turbine's blades turned slowly. The blend of modern and rural styles created a beautiful landscape, a cut above the urban center of Hedong City.
"Your village is quite pretty. It's not what I expected."
Xue Rui remarked, then asked, "How much farther? I feel like we've already walked a couple of miles."
The bus had stopped on a national highway, and they had already walked a long way since getting off.
Lin Ruoxi carried a faded, well-washed bookbag on her back and held a tote bag in her hand, her pace steady and unhurried.
As for Xue Rui, he had no intention of doing homework. With his hands empty, he swaggered behind Lin Ruoxi, plucking a foxtail grass from the roadside and sticking it in his mouth like he owned the place.
He kept plucking them as he walked, soon holding a large handful of foxtail grass.
"I remember you can weave these into a rabbit," Xue Rui mumbled. He thought for a long time but couldn't figure it out.
He had lived in the countryside as a child, and his grandmother used to weave little rabbits from this grass to cheer him up.
Lin Ruoxi paused her steps. She also plucked a few stalks of foxtail grass from the roadside. Her long, slender fingers moved deftly, and in an instant, the stalks transformed into a fluffy little rabbit with a pair of vibrant green ears. It was exceptionally cute.
Lin Ruoxi kept her head down as she handed the "little rabbit" to Xue Rui, then continued walking as if nothing had happened.
Xue Rui fiddled with the rabbit's ears. 'Lin Ruoxi is full of surprises,' he thought, 'She even knows how to do this.'
So, Xue Rui simply put the other end in his mouth, dangling the grass rabbit from his lips.
Soon, they passed an apple orchard with bright red apples hanging from the trees. Xue Rui was reminded of his childhood in the village, when he and his friends would steal peaches from other people's trees.
They had their own peach trees, but for some reason, the stolen ones always tasted better.
Lin Ruoxi stopped walking, slipped a hair tie off her wrist, and gently gathered all her hair behind her ears, tying it up.
"Hm?" Xue Rui's eyes lit up.
At school, Lin Ruoxi always wore her hair down, looking like a ghost from a horror movie, but now that she was back home, she had tied it up.
Her beautiful, fair neck and clearly visible collarbones, combined with a face so natural it couldn't be more so, complemented the surrounding scenery perfectly. More importantly, Lin Ruoxi was wearing her school uniform.
'Uniforms really are the best.' Xue Rui stared intently at Lin Ruoxi's beauty, a tickle of excitement in his heart.
Gu Muxue was just as beautiful, but he'd been looking at her for too many years. Lin Ruoxi, on the other hand, usually kept her looks hidden, which made it impossible for Xue Rui to tear his eyes away.
"It looks much better tied up. With your hair all over the place like that, if you weren't second in our grade, the teachers would definitely chew you out," Xue Rui suggested.
"It's better down. If I tie it up..." Lin Ruoxi didn't finish her sentence.
Xue Rui suddenly realized something. If Lin Ruoxi showed her face, wouldn't she be just like Gu Muxue, constantly surrounded by a crowd of admirers?
Gu Muxue came from a good family and had a confident personality, so she could reject everyone without a second thought.
But Lin Ruoxi… if a group like that started pestering her, it would be a complete disaster…
'This girl keeps her head down to protect herself.'
'But she can tie her hair up once she's back in the village?'
Just as Xue Rui was thinking this, Lin Ruoxi had already ducked into a field. She picked a bunch of tomatoes and stashed them in her bookbag.
Xue Rui was surprised. 'So Lin Ruoxi is a mischievous little girl too. You really can't judge a book by its cover.'
Some people put on one face in public and another in private.
Like Lin Ruoxi, who was currently stealing someone else's tomatoes.
Xue Rui suddenly felt something awaken inside him. He glanced around, acting as a lookout for Lin Ruoxi. Seeing that the coast was clear, he ducked down too.
He was nimble, scrambling up a tree to pick two apples. He wiped them on his shirt and took a bite.
"Here." Xue Rui offered one to Lin Ruoxi. 'This girl probably doesn't dare to climb trees,' he thought, 'that's why she only picked tomatoes.'
"Those apples aren't mine," Lin Ruoxi reminded him in a small voice.
Xue Rui's hand, holding the apple, froze in mid-air. "The tomatoes are yours?"
"This little patch of vegetables is mine." Lin Ruoxi pointed and traced a circle in the air over a section of the field.
Xue Rui's eye twitched. He thought Lin Ruoxi was stealing tomatoes, so he joined in by stealing apples.
It turned out he was the only one stealing someone else's fruit.
"Why didn't you say so earlier?"
Xue Rui suddenly felt his image crumble.
"You… didn't ask," Lin Ruoxi said meekly.
"..."
Xue Rui took out a ten-yuan bill and placed it under the apple tree, weighing it down with a clod of dirt.
It was in a fairly obvious spot, so the orchard's owner should be able to find it. It was like paying the fare after getting on the bus.
Chatting and laughing, the two finally walked into a residential area, where many houses lined the neat alleyways.
But the styles… varied greatly. Some families lived in three-story Western-style houses, while others had old, single-story homes, weathered gray-brick houses, or even earthen houses with blue-gray roof tiles.
These so-called earthen houses weren't actually built by just piling up dirt. They were made from bricks formed by mixing clay with things like wheat straw, packing it into molds, and letting it sun-dry.
Because there was no firing process, these houses retained their original earthen color.
"I can't show up empty-handed," Xue Rui suddenly realized as they passed a small convenience store.
He had been too nervous when they set out, and on top of being carsick the whole way, he was only just now remembering that he hadn't brought a gift.
"You don't have to." Seeing that Xue Rui was about to go in and buy something, Lin Ruoxi quickly shook her head.
"It's necessary."
Xue Rui walked into the store anyway. He looked around but didn't see any gift boxes or anything of the sort for sale.
However, he figured that since there were only two people in Lin Ruoxi's family, her grandmother probably wasn't too particular about such things.
Besides, for a girl who didn't always have enough to eat, staples like rice, flour, and cooking oil were probably the most practical gifts.
He bought a jug of soybean oil, a bag of flour, and a sack of rice.
Lin Ruoxi also bought some seasonings and daily necessities like toothbrushes and toothpaste.
All in all, the total came to over two hundred yuan.
Xue Rui still had the three hundred-plus yuan that Ren Jun had left him and was about to pay for everything, but Lin Ruoxi insisted on paying for her own items.
"Xixi, is this a classmate of yours?" the store owner asked.
"Um… he's here for a home visit," Lin Ruoxi replied.
As the two walked through the village, the villagers saw the unfamiliar young man shouldering a large sack of flour and greeted Lin Ruoxi one after another.
And Lin Ruoxi, in turn, greeted each of them back.
Fortunately, Lin Ruoxi's house wasn't far from the store. Otherwise, with all that weight on his shoulder, Xue Rui really wouldn't have made it very far...
"Are we there yet?" Xue Rui asked, craning his neck. His face was already dusted with flour.
"We're here." Lin Ruoxi, walking behind Xue Rui, reached up to steady the sack of flour, helping to ease his burden.
Xue Rui took a deep breath and was about to walk up the steps to the single-story house in front of them.
But then, Lin Ruoxi tugged on the corner of his shirt and pointed to the dilapidated earthen house next to the single-story one.
Lin Ruoxi pressed her lips together, her gaze shifting away as she said, flustered and uneasy, "That's my house."