Back to my 1980s

"If you don't want to talk about it... that's fine too."

Seeing that he remained silent for a long time, Song Xueping glanced at him sideways and led Zhao Hua to continue walking forward.

"It's not that I don't want to talk about it," Zhao Hua quickly said, stopping in his tracks and looking at Song Xueping.

"I'm just worried you won't believe me."

Seeing Zhao Hua suddenly stop and hearing his words, Song Xueping also stopped, turned to look at him, and asked with a hint of curiosity in her eyes, "I don't believe you? You haven't even told me how you know I don't believe you?"

Zhao Hua slowly took a few steps forward, gesturing for her to talk as they walked.

Song Xueping followed quietly, and the two of them headed towards Song Zhiqiang's direction.

Zhao Hua was silent for a moment before lowering his voice, gazing at Song Xueping, and softly saying, "I don't know why, but the first time I saw you, I felt a sense of familiarity... as if I had seen you in a past life."

Song Xueping paused for a moment, finding it somewhat amusing. Seeing how solemn Zhao Hua's words were, she looked up at him and asked, "We've only met once, and you...you just stared at me like that?"

Zhao Hua scratched his head and subconsciously looked around. Seeing that it was quiet, the villagers were all busy cooking at home, and only he and Song Xueping were on the road.

So he moved a little closer to her, his tone becoming much more serious: "Of course it's not just that I felt like I'd seen you before. When I looked at you, my heart was pounding so hard I couldn't say a word."

"I feel like we've already lived a lifetime together in our past lives, and in this life, I want to do it all over again with you."

"I'm not joking, I really think so."

Song Xueping was taken aback. She hadn't expected this guy to be so direct, so direct that it made her feel awkward. She couldn't help but glance around, thankfully no one was there.

Song Xueping breathed a sigh of relief, lightly spat at him, and said, "Stop talking nonsense, let's go, we'll be there soon." Then she quickened her pace.

He watched her somewhat flustered figure as the corners of his mouth unconsciously turned up, his eyes full of laughter.

She wasn't angry, and not being angry is already a good start, isn't it?

Thinking of this, Zhao Hua quickly followed, deliberately lagging behind by a step, not getting too close to make her more nervous, nor falling too far behind, just quietly staying by her side.

The roadside weeds were wilted by the sun, and felt slightly hot underfoot on the dirt road. All around was quiet, except for the waves of heat that washed over my face.

The two walked slowly, one in front of the other. Although they didn't say much, they didn't feel awkward at all.

Soon after, I followed Song Xueping into the backyard of an earthen house. The wall was made of wooden planks and covered with nylon cloth, completely obscuring the backyard.

As soon as Zhao Hua entered, his vision went dark. He stopped and paused for a moment to adjust before he could see the courtyard clearly.

Song Zhiqiang was standing next to a middle-aged man who was holding a boning knife. In front of him was a wooden table with half a cleaned pork carcass spread out on it.

There were several wooden buckets on the ground next to him. Zhao Hua went up and took a look. Inside, there were bits and pieces of pig offal soaking in water.

Hearing the commotion, the butcher turned around and saw that it was the person Song Xueping had brought in. He then looked away and continued to look at Song Zhiqiang.

Seeing Song Zhiqiang deep in thought, his brows furrowed, Zhao Hua and Song Xueping stepped forward and asked, "What's wrong? What are you thinking about?"

Upon hearing this, Song Zhiqiang looked up and saw Zhao Hua and Song Xueping. He smiled and said helplessly, "Uncle Zhang said that now that it's wheat harvesting, every household needs to buy meat to treat the people who are helping to eat. They need a lot of pork, so the price of meat has gone up. The key is that all the fatty meat has been snapped up, and there's only this little bit left."

Zhao Hua and Song Xueping took a closer look at the meat placed in front of them. The fatty meat had been snatched up long ago, leaving only some lean meat and bones, which didn't look very juicy.

Zhao Hua didn't care at all, and even thought that lean meat was tastier. Zhao's father was a carpenter and could only eat meat occasionally, so he wasn't lacking in oil. Hearing Song Zhiqiang say this, he laughed and said, "What can we do if we're late? It's okay, a little lean meat is fine. I like lean meat, it tastes better!"

Song Zhiqiang nodded and said, "Yes, you think leaner meat tastes better. I'm just afraid that if I buy a lump of lean meat, my mother will render the fat off my body and eat it."

Zhao Hua chuckled speechlessly at Song Zhiqiang's words. No wonder he had been in such a predicament for so long. He reached out and poked Song Zhiqiang's arm. Sure enough, it did have some flesh on it.

He glanced back at Song Xueping, seeking her opinion with his eyes, and Song Xueping looked back at him, puzzled.

Seeing that his brainwaves weren't connecting with his future daughter-in-law, Zhao Hua could only smile and say, "What should we do? There's not much meat left, should we buy it or not?"

Song Xueping didn't expect Zhao Hua to turn to her for her opinion. After hesitating for a moment, she said, "Should we buy it? I'm going to buy meat to treat you. Since you like it, then we should buy it. If we don't, I'll probably be even angrier."

Zhao Hua nodded and nudged Song Zhiqiang again. Actually, he just wanted to find fault with Song Xueping and talk to her. He didn't really want to ask for her opinion. He had fallen behind her a step earlier to let her catch her breath, but he couldn't let her catch her breath too long.

Hearing his sister's words, Song Zhiqiang nodded and looked at the butcher. The butcher, surnamed Zhang, was getting a little impatient. Seeing that Song Zhiqiang had finally made up his mind, he was also happy and grinned, "Okay, whichever piece you want, I'll give you some extra after I weigh it."

After hesitating for a while, Song Zhiqiang finally chose the meat he wanted, paid the butcher, and called Song Xueping and Zhao Hua to go home together.

After leaving the courtyard and closing the gate, I walked back and asked, "What brings you two here? Why didn't you stay home for a while? It's so hot."

Zhao Hua walked beside Song Xueping. Seeing that Song Xueping didn't respond, he replied, "I wanted to come and ask you where to buy meat, but you walked too fast and I didn't know where it was, so I asked Xueping to bring me here."

Song Zhiqiang wondered to himself, "Was I walking very fast just now? It doesn't seem like I was walking that fast."

Shaking his head to stop overthinking, he pulled Zhao Hua and said, "Let's go, let's go home quickly. Mother must be worried after we've been out for so long. It's too hot. Let's talk about it when we get back."

Zhao Hua followed Song Zhiqiang's lead towards the Song family home. He glanced back at Song Xueping, who was silently following behind him. He then turned back to continue chatting with Song Zhiqiang.

On the way, whenever Song Zhiqiang wasn't paying attention, he would turn around and exchange glances with Song Xueping, until Song Xueping felt slightly uncomfortable again, before Zhao Hua would look away.

Not far from the Song family's house, the smell of burning wheat straw could be smelled, and Song's mother had already started cooking.

Song Xueping quickly ran inside to help, while Zhao Hua and Song Zhiqiang didn't want to run and strolled leisurely behind, hiding from the sun.

"Why are you the only one back? Where are they?" Song's mother asked curiously when she saw that Song Xueping was alone.