When Gu Muxue saw Xue Rui approaching, she had planned to ignore him.

But Xue Rui was holding up a flattened tanghulu, his forehead glistening with sweat.

’Did he just climb the wall to go out and buy another one?’

A sudden pang of sympathy for Xue Rui hit her. ’Have I been a little too stubborn?’

Seeing how tired he looked, she pulled out a tissue and handed it to him, taking the tanghulu from his other hand.

"Hee hee." Gu Muxue beamed.

She instantly forgot the "firm" resolution she’d just made to ignore him for the next two periods.

She took a bite and felt something was off. It didn’t taste quite like usual.

Gu Muxue tilted her head, scrutinizing the candied hawthorns. After a moment, she noticed what was wrong.

She asked, "Where are the sesame seeds?"

The regular round ones didn’t have many sesame seeds.

But the flattened ones were usually coated in them, which gave them a different flavor.

"Oh, I licked them off," Xue Rui said with a grin.

Gu Muxue’s hand froze. Her face instantly flushed.

’If Xue Rui licked them... then I just ate one...’

Seeing that Gu Muxue was about to lose it, Xue Rui quickly explained:

"I’m just kidding. The man who sells them said he ran out of sesame seeds for the day."

In reality, this flattened tanghulu wasn’t bought at all—it was "made" by Xue Rui himself.

He had found two dictionaries and pressed each hawthorn berry flat, ensuring they were all a uniform thickness. It actually looked quite appealing.

That’s why there were no sesame seeds to begin with.

"Hmph! You wouldn’t dare." Gu Muxue bit into another hawthorn berry.

She looked a little flustered. ’What if he really had licked it?’

’Hit him? Yell at him?’

’Or actually ignore him?’

Gu Muxue thought it over and honestly couldn’t imagine what she would do.

"Xue Rui, why is mine so ugly?" Mei Lili was also holding a skewer of flattened candied hawthorns.

It’s just that the presentation was... well, some of the berries were crushed to smithereens, while others were still oval-shaped.

"Take it or leave it," Xue Rui said irritably.

Mei Lili’s candied hawthorns weren’t made by Xue Rui; they were "made" by Qiu Mengze sitting on them.

While Xue Rui was making Gu Muxue’s treat...

...he’d casually placed another skewer on Qiu Mengze’s chair.

The careless and clumsy Qiu Mengze had returned to the classroom and plopped right down, flattening the skewer.

So, it was perfectly normal that some berries were still round while others were flat.

After all, no one’s backside is a perfect plane.

Thankfully, the plastic wrapper was still on it.

Otherwise, the candied fruit would have likely ended up stuck directly to Qiu Mengze’s pants.

Even so, Qiu Mengze had chased Xue Rui around, trying to beat him up.

The two of them had chased each other around the classroom for a while, which was why Xue Rui was sweating.

Driven by the noble thought of not wasting food, Xue Rui had given the mangled skewer to Mei Lili.

Besides, as long as the person eating it didn’t know the story behind it, the snack was, for all intents and purposes, pure.

And besides... he hadn’t forgotten that the little brat had called him an idiot earlier.

"Muxue, I ran into my dad when I went out today. Your father got hurt because he fought with my dad. My dad was hurt pretty badly, too..." Xue Rui began, telling her the truth.

Gu Muxue’s heart leaped into her throat. She didn’t know what to think.

’If Xue Rui’s father was the one who fought him, doesn’t that make our families enemies?’

’That would make Xue Rui the son of my family’s enemy.’

For some reason, she suddenly felt like Xue Rui was drifting away from her, and her nose inexplicably began to sting.

She turned her head to the window, not wanting him to see her face.

In truth, Xue Rui hadn’t noticed Gu Muxue’s emotional state at all. His own mind was racing.

’I absolutely cannot let her know that her father once pursued my mother. That would be way too awkward...’

’And it would bring up the whole issue of her mother being a "substitute."’

So, he focused his story on the fact that their two families had once been good friends but hadn’t spoken in over a decade due to a misunderstanding.

Now that the misunderstanding was cleared up, their families were going to start reconnecting.

"Really?" Gu Muxue couldn’t help but smile when she heard their families were going to have a meal together on the weekend.

"It’s true. We’ll most likely eat at my family’s restaurant. My sister and I will both be there," Xue Rui said with a smile.

...

"I’m going to eat you out of house and home!" Gu Muxue scoffed.

She thought men were so strange. Thirty-somethings still fighting like little kids.

"To be precise... it was Uncle Gu who threw the first punch..." Xue Rui added.

"Huh? How could that be...?" Gu Muxue’s brain short-circuited.

Seeing Gu Muxue’s conflicted expression, Xue Rui figured her mind was probably going into overdrive.

Xue Rui just smiled and headed back to the classroom.

Outside the window, the listless drone of cicadas signaled the coming of autumn.

The sound made Xue Rui drowsy, and he soon fell into a deep sleep.

He didn’t wake up until his phone vibrated during the afternoon activity period.

It was Ren Jun.

The hospital results were back. The old woman had no major health issues, and Lin Ruoxi was relatively healthy, too.

Ren Jun had already delivered the prescribed medication to the old woman’s home.

"How much was the medicine?" Xue Rui asked offhandedly.

"Almost two thousand, and that’s just for a half-month supply," Ren Jun said.

Xue Rui sucked in a sharp breath. A month’s worth of medicine for the old woman would cost almost four thousand yuan.

And this was only 2012. Even for a family in the city, very few could afford to support a patient with those kinds of costs.

Xue Rui glanced at Lin Ruoxi. He genuinely admired the girl for shouldering such a heavy burden all on her own.

No wonder she was so thin. When you have something weighing on your mind, you worry so much you lose your appetite.

"No wonder..." Xue Rui sighed. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

The old woman had looked so somber at the hospital.

The exorbitant medical fees had pushed Lin Ruoxi to her limit and backed the old woman into a corner.

But now that he was involved, he was going to help Lin Ruoxi shed those burdens, one by one.

Yesterday, Village Chief Hua had called to tell him that Lin Ruoxi’s paperwork had been submitted and would be approved soon.

With official status as a low-income household, her medicine would be much cheaper.

He’d asked around at the hospital; about eighty to ninety percent of the cost could be reimbursed.

"Heh heh, enough about that. Uncle, go buy the black stockings. I have a plan."

Ren Jun had helped him out in a big way, so it was only natural for Xue Rui to help fulfill his uncle’s little wish.

It was just a matter of getting Xue Xiaying to wear black stockings, right?

"For real?" Ren Jun asked, surprised.

"Yeah, but you can’t *just* buy the stockings..."

Xue Rui thought for a moment and then listed everything he needed.

Not long after, around dinnertime, Xue Rui "made contact" with Ren Jun at the school gate.

Ren Jun was already deep in conversation with the gate guard, Uncle Wang.

"Master Wang, I can’t believe you still remember me."

Ren Jun was sitting in the security booth, shooting the breeze and swapping stories about the old days with Uncle Wang.

"You used to be the one bringing me smokes, and then you’d come mooch off me when you ran out..."

"Master Wang, this is my nephew, Xue Rui." Seeing Xue Rui approach, Ren Jun pulled him forward for an introduction.

"I know who he is. You think he needs an introduction?" Master Wang laughed.

"If you were on duty this morning, you think I’d have had any trouble getting in?"

"If I was on duty, I’d be even less likely to let you in."

Uncle Wang put on a stern face. He knew exactly what kind of troublemaker Ren Jun was.

"Uncle Wang, you gotta remember the good old days!"

"What good old days? Don’t think I don’t know you used to swipe my cigarettes."

"In that case, how about you tell me... is anyone at school pursuing Teacher Xue Xiaying?"

Ren Jun said with a fawning smile, holding out a pack of cigarettes.

"Stop," Xue Rui cut in, looking at Ren Jun.

"Where’s the stuff I asked you to get?"

Xue Xiaying wasn’t on duty today, so she might leave school early.

They couldn’t afford to waste too much time here at the security booth.

Ren Jun pointed to a large cardboard box in the security booth. "It’s all in here."

Xue Rui opened it to find flowers, a back cushion, black stockings...