Going home for Chinese New Year, I squeezed onto a bus with three energetic young women.

The next morning.

Bai Li rolled over and half-closed her eyes.

At the other end of the earthen bed, Chen Tingting was still sleeping soundly on her pillow.

Bai Li turned her head and picked up her phone from beside the pillow.

The screen lights up, revealing a long list of unread messages.

Li Mengmeng's profile picture is displayed at the very top.

Li Mengmeng: [Brother Bai Li, where did you go?]

Li Mengmeng: [I knocked on your door, but no one answered...]

The young heiress's check-ins were extremely punctual.

Bai Li quickly tapped the nine-square grid with his thumb to reply:

I need to take care of some business.

I might not be home for the next couple of days.

The send button had only been pressed for two seconds.

"Buzzing—"

My phone started vibrating, and a video call popped up.

Bai Li pulled a blanket over her lower body and answered the call.

Li Mengmeng's delicate face appeared on the screen.

She had been full of anticipation, but after seeing the surroundings of Bai Li, her eyes immediately welled up with tears.

Wooden beams, blackened earthen walls, and cabinets with peeling paint along the edges of the earthen bed.

"Brother Bai Li went back to his hometown?" Li Mengmeng's cheeks immediately puffed up like a little pufferfish, her eyes darting around, looking for a clue.

Bai Li's Adam's apple bobbed, and he coughed twice.

"Uh... I... I'm at Tingting's house."

Upon hearing this, Li Mengmeng on the other end of the video call immediately became agitated.

The young heiress was stomping her feet in frustration, even through the screen.

"Hurrah!"

"So you were secretly meeting your mistress's family behind your wife's back!"

Bai Li raised her phone slightly to avoid the sleeping Chen Tingting.

"Oh dear, Uncle Fugui can see me all the time, can't he?"

Bai Li reasoned with a soft tone:

"The short drama is finally showing promise, so let Tingting and the others go home and share the good news."

"When I get back this time, I'll spend a lot of time with Mengmeng, okay?"

Li Mengmeng was very jealous, and her nostrils twitched twice.

But deep down she's the type who responds better to gentle persuasion than force; after being coaxed by these soft words, her anger dissipated by more than half.

"You're so good to them."

Li Mengmeng pouted and poked the screen with one finger:

"I don't care, when you come back, Mengmeng will cling to you and you won't be able to shake her off!"

"Okay, okay~" Bai Li agreed repeatedly.

After calming the young lady down, I hung up the video call.

Bai Li let out a long breath and switched back to the WeChat home screen.

The next second, the red dot below popped up again.

Jiang Ruyue.

Bai Li tapped the voice message and held the phone close to her ear.

"You slut, do you want to see me today?"

This girl really doesn't pick any time to go crazy.

Bai Li typed: [Didn't I tell you not to use your phone during class?]

Jiang Ruyue replied instantly: 【Why don't you check what day of the week it is today?】

Bai Li switched to the new interface and glanced at the top status bar.

Friday.

Bai Li: [Holy crap, it's Friday!]

The moment the message was sent, the screen displayed "The other party is typing."

Two seconds later, a message that shocked everyone popped up.

Jiang Ruyue: [Why are you even complaining about Fridays?]

Jiang Ruyue: [Are you Robinson Crusoe?]

Absolutely.

Another thunderous statement, still the same old madman's words.

Bai Li was so shocked by these lewd words that he ground his teeth.

Bai Li: [It's been a week, and you've gotten even more mischievous. Just wait until I get back, I'll teach you a lesson.]

Jiang Ruyue sent three tongue-out emojis in a row.

Jiang Ruyue: [Hehe, I'll be waiting for you~]

Jiang Ruyue: [If you don't see me... you know what I can do.]

We can't afford to mess with them.

Bai Li stuffed his phone into his trench coat pocket and slapped Chen Tingting's blanket with his other hand.

"get up."

Chen Tingting, her eyes still blurry, let out a long yawn and sat up straight with her messy red hair.

The two, dressed properly, pushed open the door to the main room.

Three more young women came out from the east wing next door.

Zhang Qian was wearing a tank top, and the white expanse of her chest was dazzlingly white in the morning sunlight.

Lin Xiaoshuang was still rubbing her eyes, her soft, cute baby face full of sleepy confusion.

Li Jiaxin had a rubber band in her mouth and was gathering her purple hair behind her head with both hands, her movements cool and efficient.

The elderly couple had already finished cooking in the kitchen, and the large iron pot was steaming hot.

After eating the hot soup noodles.

Bai Li dusted off his hands and glanced at the sun.

"After washing up, it's time to say goodbye."

Bai Li beckoned the girls to walk towards the well in the courtyard.

Lin Xiaoshuang moved a small stool over and sat down, then took a toothbrush out of the basin and squeezed toothpaste onto it.

She tilted her head, spitting out a mouthful of white foam as she brushed her teeth.

"Whose house should we visit next?"

Li Jiaxin, who was standing next to her, paused.

She rolled her eyes and kicked Lin Xiaoshuang's stool leg.

"I'm going to call the Old Summer Palace (Yuanmingyuan). They've found the pig's head."

Li Jiaxin slung the towel over her shoulder and launched into a scathing retort:

"We just said yesterday morning, first Tingting's house, then yours, and you've already forgotten?"

Lin Xiaoshuang didn't argue back after being scolded. She just chuckled foolishly and washed her face with water.

These girls, who were used to being wild on the streets since they were young, never cared about the limits when they bickered, and the more they argued, the closer they became.

Chen Tingting, with her large, tattooed arms, braced herself against the handle of the water pump at the well, pumping water out with a "creaking" sound.

The icy well water washed over Bai Li's hands.

Chen Tingting took a half step closer, her red hair brushing against Bai Li's shoulder.

She nudged Bai Li's arm with her shoulder, her voice low and tentative.

"Big brother."

Chen Tingting glanced to the sides:

"I was half asleep just now, but I overheard you talking to another woman..."

These ears are more sensitive than radar.

Bai Li didn't stop washing her face.

He casually wiped his face with a towel, coughed twice, and gave a perfectly tactful answer:

No, you must have misheard.

"Really not?"

Chen Tingting stared into Bai Li's eyes.

"No, really."

Bai Li hung the towel on the rope and turned around.

Chen Tingting looked at him suspiciously for two seconds.

She threw the water ladle in her hand into the basin.

"You'd better not make things up."

Li Jiaxin stood half a meter away, shaking the water droplets off her hands:

What does it mean to create something from nothing?

Li Jiaxin's cool and collected face was filled with confusion and a thirst for knowledge as she began to correct him, word by word:

"How come I remember there was something that could be created from nothing?"

She even turned to Lin Xiaoshuang, who was still washing her face, and asked her quite seriously:

What does this idiom mean?

Lin Xiaoshuang, her face covered in water droplets, looked even more bewildered than Lin Xiaoshuang and shook her head repeatedly.

Zhang Qian covered her mouth and stood to the side, trying to suppress her laughter so hard that her shoulders twitched.

Two academically challenged students got together and even dared to create their own idioms.

Bai Li, on a whim, followed Li Jiaxin's lead and continued the conversation:

"If there's something in the middle, call him 'Uncle'."

The words fell.

Lin Xiaoshuang held up one finger, revealing a wise expression:

"He's really difficult to deal with..."