NOVPUBXia Xiaoxiao’s group was scheduled to get off at Shuilong Village, one stop earlier than Chuxi Village.
The bus had been traveling for almost an hour, and it was almost time to reach Shuilong Village.
"Next up, Shuilong Village!" Xu Qingfan loudly reminded the bus driver in Cantonese.
The local buses here wouldn’t make stops unless you called out in advance. If you didn’t signal your stop and there was no one waiting to board, the bus would just speed off without pausing.
Many people with social anxiety struggled to speak up and often ended up passing their stops before they could muster the courage to exit.
"Auntie, you and Xiao Xiao take care, call me when you arrive," said Xu Qingfan as the bus began to slow down and move right, standing up to let the two passengers by him get off.
"Thank you, Xiao Fan. You take care too. Call... call Xiao Xiao to let us know you’re safe," Lin Jing said with a smile, patting his head.
"Be careful on your way, and don’t just stare at your phone!" Xia Xiaoxiao, still upset about him not giving her flowers earlier, glared at him as she got off.
"Got it. When are we visiting your grandparents?"
"Is the second day of the New Year okay?" Xia Xiaoxiao suddenly remembered this and asked, hoping to get it over with soon.
The real reason was that she could see him on the second day of the New Year — her so-called stinky dog.
"Okay."
The bus waits for no one, and after briefly exchanging a few words, Xia Xiaoxiao was already at the back door. She took one last look at Xu Qingfan before stepping off.
After getting off, she and Lin Jing stood watching the bus as it drove away.
"Happy New Year, hey!" Xu Qingfan called out from the window, waving goodbye to them.
Only when the bus completely disappeared from sight did Xia Xiaoxiao smile brightly.
[Happy New Year, you stinky fool!]
After walking a short distance with her mother, Xia Xiaoxiao remembered the roses still in her backpack. Worried that they might get crushed by other items, she quickly unzipped the bag and carefully took them out.
Upon seeing that they were still intact, the girl smiled softly at the flowers before placing them back and shouldering her backpack again.
Lin Jing watched her daughter’s little actions and smiled as well, but she said nothing, clearly not wanting to interfere in the young people’s relationships.
The walk back to the village wasn’t long, just about five or six minutes.
Xia Xiaoxiao was no longer shorter than Lin Jing; in fact, she was now a few centimeters taller than her mother at one meter seventy.
Walking arm in arm with Lin Jing, Xia Xiaoxiao couldn’t help but notice the beautiful bunch of pink roses out of the corner of her eye.
Though they were meant for her mother, she still felt a bit unhappy — what about her mother, didn’t she deserve a bit of jealousy too?
Recalling what Qingfan had said about pink roses meaning ’tenderness and elegance’, Xia Xiaoxiao suddenly became curious about the meaning of red roses — after all, this was the first time he had given her roses, the first time all for her!
No sooner had she thought it than she pulled out her phone to search.
Familiar with the keyboard shortcuts, she quickly typed ’the language of red roses’ into the search engine one-handedly.
[The language of red roses is love, and roses are the flowers of love. One rose means — you are the only one in my heart, two roses mean — it’s just us two in this world!] Xia Xiaoxiao read quietly to herself, giggling as she did.
[So, the language of two roses is a world for two, hehe... hmph~ the cheeky fool, as if I want a world of just the two of us!]
Satisfied, Xia Xiaoxiao put her phone away, sneaking a glance at her mother to make sure she hadn’t been peeking before she relaxed.
"Mom, are you tired of holding the flowers? Want me to carry them?"
"Sure, thank you, sweetie."
"Mhm, no need to thank me, Mom!"
...
On the other side.
Five minutes later, Xu Qingfan also got off the bus.
Watching the departing transportation, he felt speechlessly bemused. Despite being a billionaire, he still had to travel on such an old, shabby vehicle.
"How much to Chuxi Village?"
"Ten yuan."
"Isn’t it usually five yuan?"
"It’s Chinese New Year, handsome. If you’re not riding, don’t waste my time. Traveling back and forth isn’t free of fuel cost!" the motorcyclist said impatiently.
"Okay, okay. Just don’t drive too fast, I’m scared of dying..."
"Talking like that on New Year’s, just sit tight!"
A few minutes later, Xu Qingfan, with a heart full of trepidation, got off the motorcycle after paying.
Having not returned for half a year, the village had changed so much that he barely recognized it.
The standalone bungalows he remembered were completely gone, and the shortest building in sight was now three stories tall, at least ten meters high.
At the village entrance, there were many unfamiliar faces. Many of his childhood friends had gone to work at the Haowei Group factory right after middle school, got married and had their weddings at sixteen or seventeen, and by the time they were 22 and went to register their marriage, their kids were old enough to "fetch soy sauce."
Xu Qingfan didn’t stop and went straight to his grandparents’ house because today was Chinese New Year’s Eve, and many people were visiting to give gifts.
"Grandma, aunty." Grandma was sitting in the yard by the fire, holding her new grandson in her arms.
"Xiao Fan is here, come and see little Zixin, he’s blowing milk bubbles." Since she was worried about waking her just asleep grandson, Lai Man Yao did not stand up.
"How did Xiao Fan get here?" Song Zhujun asked with concern.
"Came by bus, stuck with such unreliable parents," he said with a helpless expression.
Aunty nodded her head to show she understood, then bent down again to look at the baby.
Song Zhujun’s baby was successfully born last November, a boy weighing eight jin and two liang, now just three months old and at the cutest age of his life.
The baby was named Yao Zixin, nickname Zixin.
When naming him, Xu Qingfan suggested the younger cousin should be named Yao Zixuan. Grandpa asked why, and he said it sounded mighty; then he was swiftly kicked out of the decision-making process.
"Grandpa, Uncle."
"Hmm."
After greeting all the adults inside, he found a corner to sit down randomly.
Clearly, due to the birth of his younger cousin, a large portion of his grandparents’ love, which was previously directed at him, had been diverted. After all, this was their blood grandson who they could hold in their lifetime, making both quite content.
Xu Qingfan, however, didn’t mind it much; he wasn’t short on love, nor was he about to be jealous of a little cousin.
In fact, as long as the whole family was living better and better, he would be very satisfied.
[However, he wondered how that wicked woman aunty was doing now, and that cousin who was seventeen years older, uncertain whether to call him a cousin or a nephew.] He mused to himself.
Zhong Wenqing later specifically asked a teacher from Yanshi University to pull up the records of Chen Zipei, because her parents were both university professors, so it was relatively easy to inquire about them.
After making inquiries, the result was that they had moved abroad with their family in the 1990s.
And with that, the matter had come to an end.
