I was approached by a cat-eared girl.

"I'll buy another box after I finish writing," Chen Shuo added at the opportune moment.

Enthusiasm has returned.

"But you are only allowed to eat three a day."

It's gone again.

Pouting, Bai Xiaoqi sat back on the sofa, took a small bite of the half-eaten ice cream, picked up her pencil, and was about to continue working on her problems when her phone suddenly rang twice.

She picked up her phone and tapped the screen. It was a message from Anya. She thought for a moment, pressed the call button with her finger, and replied indistinctly, "I don't celebrate June 1st. It's Children's Day. I'm not a child."

Release her finger to send the message automatically. Bai Xiaoqi tapped the voice message to listen to it, then withdrew it. She took the ice cream out of her mouth, spoke into the phone again, sent the message, and listened to it once more.

The voice was the same as before, only less muffled.

For some reason, she always felt that the voice recorded on her phone was different from the voice she heard, but Chen Shuo's voice coming through the receiver was similar to his usual voice. She suspected that the phone had altered her voice, but unfortunately, she had no evidence.

We can't just change our own ideas and not Chen Shuo's.

That makes no sense.

"Who are you sending a voice message to?" Chen Shuo leaned over to look at her phone screen and realized that it was Ya Ya who had sent her a message asking how she planned to spend Children's Day tomorrow.

"She probably wants to ask you to go shopping or somewhere fun on Children's Day, not really to ask how you're going to spend Children's Day."

As soon as Chen Shuo finished speaking, Anya sent a message: "[Want to go shopping on Children's Day?]"

Bai Xiaoqi glanced at her phone screen, didn't reply immediately, and turned to look at Chen Shuo.

"Go if you want to, why are you looking at me like that?"

"Do you want to come with us?"

"Why would I go shopping? It's hot and tiring in the middle of summer. It's much more comfortable to stay at home and lie down."

Chen Shuo shook his head directly. Shopping is a woman's hobby. He is a man and hates shopping the most. Even if the weather is cool, he is too lazy to go shopping.

"Then I'll tell Ya Ya that I'm not going and will stay home with you."

"No, I think you should go."

Chen Shuo pressed down on her hand, which was about to reply to the message. "Your life is too monotonous. It's a good thing that someone is asking you to go shopping. You should say yes."

"is it?"

“Yes.” Chen Shuo nodded. “If you spend all your time revolving around me, you’ll miss out on a lot of excitement.”

Bai Xiaoqi pondered for a moment after hearing this, and then asked, "Do you want me to have a friend of my own? Like we talked about last time?"

"More or less, but not entirely."

Chen Shuo thought for a moment and nodded, then said, "Your social circle is too small. Even if you don't know Ya Ya, you should go out more, meet different people, and experience different things. You can't stay in this small house all day; it will be very boring."

"Aren't you bored?"

"I prefer staying at home to going shopping."

"I also like staying at home."

"Maybe so. Maybe you like it, or maybe you've been influenced by me. I'm a bit of a homebody, and you've been influenced by me to like staying at home too. So your social circle has always been very small and monotonous. Uh... I don't know if I'm right."

But now that you've finally made a friend, you should be thinking about how to maintain that friendship. You don't want to lose this friend, right?

"...Um."

Bai Xiaoqi nodded gently. After thinking about it carefully, she really didn't want to lose Anya as a friend. She had even helped her talk back to those grumpy shop assistants.

But if I go out, I'll really miss that bad dog.

"Will you miss me when I go out?" she asked.

"Why would I miss you? It's not like you're not coming back." Chen Shuo almost blurted out that he missed her, but if he said he missed her when his girlfriend went out shopping with someone else, it would sound incredibly pretentious.

This shouldn't be the case.

"?"

Bai Xiaoqi looked at him without saying a word, her rosy lips slowly pouting. She felt like all her feelings had been wasted. After a moment, she picked up her phone. "I'm going to text Ya Ya and tell her that we'll go shopping every day from now on."

"As long as you don't mind the heat, and she agrees, I have no objection."

【We'll do this every day from now on...】

She had just typed a few words into the chat box when she turned to look at Chen Shuo again, "You said you would miss me."

"You're not not coming back, I don't think it's necessary..."

"Tell me quickly."

"Okay, I'll miss you." Chen Shuo readily agreed; this was out of necessity and couldn't be considered being coy.

Bai Xiaoqi was finally satisfied and leaned over to give him a kiss on the cheek. "I missed you a lot when I was out."

Chapter 156 Take Care of Yourself

Children's Day fell on a weekend. After breakfast, Bai Xiaoqi dressed up, slung her bag over her shoulder, and went out to go shopping with her friends.

This time, Chen Shuo didn't secretly follow behind; he enjoyed a rare moment of peace and quiet at home by himself.

When I'm typing, I don't feel like a pair of restless little feet are sticking into my clothes, and I feel like I can type much faster.

Sure enough, with no women around, my writing naturally flowed like a god.

Just after noon, there was a knock on the door. Chen Shuo went to open it and said, "You're back so soon... Dad, what brings you here?"

"The Dragon Boat Festival is almost here, and your mom asked me to come and bring you some zongzi (sticky rice dumplings)." Chen Jianwen waved the plastic bag in his hand, revealing about a dozen zongzi.

Chen Shuo took it, opened the plastic bag and looked inside. He could tell from the way the string was tied that it was made by Wu Yulan, and it was definitely filled with jujubes. Over the years, no other fillings had ever appeared in the family's zongzi during the Dragon Boat Festival.

"Alright, I'll go first... um,..."

Chen Jianwen turned to leave, then exclaimed "Hey!" and turned back to ask in a low voice, "Where's your girlfriend?"

"She went out shopping with her friends."

Hearing this, Chen Jianwen turned back halfway around, then pushed the door open and said, "Move aside, I'll sit here for a while."

"Oh."

Chen Shuo led the old man to sit on the sofa. Chen Jianwen sat down and looked around the living room, feeling a surge of emotions.

I used to come to this little shabby place often to escape to some peace and quiet. But ever since this guy got a girlfriend, I've lost my warm haven. I've only come here three times in a year, and this is the fourth time.

This shows that marrying a wife not only makes one forget one's mother, but also one's father.

Why didn't you go shopping with her?

"She has her own friends, why should I follow her? Besides, it's so hot, shopping is too tiring."

"Too."

Chen Jianwen agreed, then noticed two bricks on the TV cabinet and pointed at them, asking, "What are those two bricks for?"

"It's for warding off evil spirits and protecting the home."

"Old blue bricks are used for warding off evil spirits and protecting the house, and they need to be placed in a corner. Yours..."

The old man stood up, walked over, picked up the brick, and examined it closely. Then he adjusted his glasses and began to observe it carefully.

No matter how you look at it, this thing is just an ordinary brick, and the kind of red brick whose production date is definitely no more than twenty years ago.

"Alright, Dad, stop studying it. That's not something to ward off evil spirits or protect the house. We found it and have just left it there."

"You two are picking up bricks for your home?" Chen Jianwen frowned.

"This brick has a history, it's just... well, it's complicated to explain."

Chen Jianwen didn't ask any more questions. He wandered around looking at the place, and glanced at the kitchen. Wow, it's obvious that they cook there every day.

Take another look at the balcony, and there are several men's and women's clothes hanging there. Tsk, it looks so homey.

Sitting back on the sofa with the fan blowing, I felt the airflow was still a bit lacking. I glanced at the old air conditioner in the corner, then turned to Chen Shuo and asked, "Why aren't you turning on the air conditioner?"

"It consumes a lot of electricity."

"Open it, open it, let me blow on it for a while."

"I won't turn it on. This broken air conditioner consumes too much electricity. We still need to save money to buy a house."

"Last time it was buying a car, and now it's buying a house?"

Chen Jianwen was surprised by the two men's ambition, and then suddenly became wary. "Could it be that they want to buy a second-hand house?"

This kid has a criminal record; he might be eyeing my house this time.

"Why buy a second-hand house? We plan to use it as our wedding home, so we definitely need a new house. It's that Lishui Mingju over there. Their building was just completed last year. I asked about it the other day, and there are still quite a few units left."

The properties in Yangcheng are not as sought-after as those in big cities, and speculators will not focus their attention here. There will definitely be plenty left to buy next year, and Chen Shuo is quite confident about this.

Moreover, housing prices in smaller places don't rise much. Right now, a square meter in Lishui Mingju costs over 9,000 yuan. Next year, it will be at most 10,000 yuan.

"That's good." Chen Jianwen was relieved. If this kid dared to stare at their house, he would definitely whip him with a belt. After all, the two of them hadn't even done *that* yet, it was simply outrageous.

A quick glance at the coffee table

Ok?

Five years of middle school entrance exams and three years of mock exams.

Then I pulled out another book, oh, fun math learning.

What is all this about?

"Whose are these?" Chen Jianwen sensed that something was amiss.

"Qiqi's."

"She's a teacher?"

“Teacher, this is what she uses for studying. Didn’t I tell you last year that she’s an orphan, without parents, and has never been to school. She’s illiterate. I’m just giving her some extra lessons so she can complete her nine years of compulsory education.”

"..."

Chen Jianwen thought about it carefully and realized that the guy had mentioned it last Mid-Autumn Festival, but he hadn't believed him at all and thought the kid was just fooling him.

"Wait, that's not right. She didn't have much formal education, yet she can be an engineer? Last time you said she was an engineer working with high temperatures, organic matter, and ecological technologies."