"But I'm a restless sleeper..." Wen Yun said awkwardly.
"It's okay, I don't mind." Ruan Yu smiled. "It's just one night anyway, we can always go home and catch up on sleep tomorrow."
Since she had already said so much, Wen Yun naturally couldn't refuse anymore. She said goodbye to Grandpa Ruan and followed Ruan Yu and Grandma Ruan to the wooden staircase in the house, heading up to the second floor.
Most of the houses in Anxialing Village are two or three stories high and are built by the families themselves. The Ruan family is no exception. Although each room is not very big, it is decorated in a warm and cozy style.
Ruan Yu's room wasn't very big, just big enough to fit a bed, a desk, a wardrobe, and a bookshelf. Light blue curtains with small white floral patterns were drawn up on both sides of the window. On the desk was a blue and white porcelain vase filled with dried flowers such as sunflowers, forget-me-nots, and golden chrysanthemums, which had a faint fragrance when you got close.
Grandma Ruan opened the wardrobe, took out two thin quilts and placed them on the bed, then asked Wen Yun, "Which color does Yunyun like?"
Wen Yun glanced at it and almost blurted out, "Light blue, I guess."
Unlike the original owner who liked pink and purple, she has always preferred cool colors like blue, green, and cyan since childhood, whether it's clothes or personal items.
Grandma Ruan took out the matching pillow and was about to make the bed when Ruan Yu quickly pressed the quilt down, saying, "Grandma, let me do it. You can rest."
"Okay, okay, Grandma will listen to you." Grandma Ruan replied, sighed softly, and made sure to put down the mosquito net curtain before leaving.
"Why did you suddenly decide to sleep with me?" Wen Yun asked curiously as she pulled the pillow aside.
Didn't you used to be reluctant to even shower with her?
“Grandma said that Aunt’s room is uninviting.” Ruan Yu unfolded the quilt and skillfully made it up. “Besides, Aunt doesn’t like others touching her things. Although that room has been there for many years, it has never been allowed to be lived in by anyone other than Aunt.”
"If that's the case, why would Grandma have thought of making room for me to live here?" Wen Yun asked, puzzled.
“Wen Yun is the daughter of the wealthy Wen family. My aunt’s room is bigger than mine, and the furnishings are more complicated. Grandma thinks that Wen Yun, given her status, should be more used to living there,” Ruan Yu explained.
“I’m not that particular about these things.” As Wen Yun spoke, her gaze unconsciously drifted towards the bed. “But this bed of yours… seems a bit cramped for two people.”
It seems to be only slightly bigger than the bed she slept in when she lived in her university dormitory in her previous life.
Wen Yun didn't think she had said anything strange, but the girl who had been making the bed suddenly stopped and then asked in a low voice, "Is it crowded?"
"Uh, it's okay, squeezing in for one night won't be a problem!" Wen Yun quickly said, "I don't mind at all!"
Upon hearing this, Ruan Yu breathed a sigh of relief and casually brushed the hair from the side of her face to cover her increasingly hot ear tips.
She felt she was being really strange lately, how could she connect a single word to this person...
Are you out of your mind...?
Wen Yun was completely unaware of the girl's thoughts. Ruan Yu was in charge of making the bed, so she placed two pillows, one gray and one blue, side by side, looked at the bed edges that were suspended on both sides, and began to think about whether to put a chair with a backrest on her side.
She didn't inherit the original owner's good sleeping habits. If the bed wasn't big enough, or if there weren't any railings like in a dormitory, she would sleep in a mess, and it was common for her to wake up under the bed the next day.
That's why, in her past life, when she went on business trips, she would rather spend more money to sleep in a double room than share a room with several female colleagues.
After hearing Wen Yun's concerns, Ruan Yu thought for a moment, then went outside to fetch a long bench to fill the gap between the bed and the wardrobe. She then turned the chair next to the desk around and moved it to the head of the bed.
"Okay, that way you don't have to worry about falling or pushing me off," she said, half-jokingly and half-seriously.
After making the bed, it was almost eleven o'clock. Ruan Yu asked Grandma Ruan for a small vegetable basket and took Wen Yun to the vegetable field in front of the house to pick cucumbers and scallions.
The big dog that was with the flowers couldn't stand being alone, so it followed them out and ran around happily on the country path, shaking its head.
Wen Yun quickly picked a bunch of scallions, and when she turned around, she saw that there were already two cucumbers in the small vegetable basket. Ruan Yu's voice came from afar, calling the spotted dog and telling it to go home.
Wen Yun was puzzled. When Ruan Yu brought the dog over to get the vegetable basket, she couldn't help but ask, "I heard that the dogs in the village are all free-range. It just runs around in the fields. Why are you in such a hurry to call it home?"
"You have no idea how mischievous and clever they are. Now that someone is watching them, they obediently walk along the side paths. But as soon as people leave, they start stepping on scallions and biting vegetables!" Ruan Yu patted the dog's head twice and ordered it to go. The spotted dog then happily ran home.
Wen Yun then noticed that Ruan Yu had picked another small handful of mint. "Is she going to make mint water?"
“Make a mint salad,” Ruan Yu said. “If you want to drink mint water, you can save some.”
"Where did you pick the mint?" Wen Yun looked around curiously. "I thought you just went to call the dog."
So Ruan Yu took her to see a patch of mint growing in the field.
Wen Yun likes mint, especially when it's steeped in water and cooled down, the cool and refreshing taste is particularly good. After getting Ruan Yu's permission, she picked more. She used some to make mint salad at noon today, and planned to take the rest back to the Wen family home to dry and make tea.
When they returned home, the kitchen was already filled with the aroma of food.
The village meals are all cooked on large stoves. Grandma Ruan was busy tending the fire and cooking all by herself, so when Ruan Yu came back, she went to help her control the fire at the stove.
Wen Yun rolled up her sleeves and went to the side to wash the cucumbers and the mint she was going to use for the salad.
Lunch consisted of a few dishes: scrambled eggs with tomatoes, vegetarian chicken with fermented bean paste, stir-fried long beans with preserved mustard greens, twice-cooked pork, plus smashed cucumber and mint salad—all home-style dishes.
Grandpa Ruan opened three cans of coconut juice. Each of the three guests, including Sister Luo, received one can, while Grandma Ruan and she shared a bottle of the calcium supplement milk that Wen Yun had given them, as a way of telling them that they really liked the gift.
It was hot in the afternoon, so Wen Yun and Ruan Yu did their homework together in the room. Each of them occupied one side of the desk, with a few mint leaves soaking in a transparent cup next to them, their green color refreshing and inviting.
With the elective exams just around the corner, their holiday homework is only getting more and more plentiful.
Wen Yun finally finished the reading comprehension section of the English exam. She took a piece of scratch paper and started outlining her essay. When she looked up, she saw that Ruan Yu had already taken out her essay book and was writing line after line quickly without pausing. She couldn't help but ask, "Have you decided what major you want to study in the future?"
If you can write essays so quickly, you'll generally have an advantage when studying humanities subjects in the future.
Ruan Yu didn't reply to her immediately. After writing a paragraph, she thought about it seriously, but shook her head and said in confusion, "Actually, I'm not quite sure which majors are suitable for me."
In her past life, she only cared about improving her grades to gain the approval of her family and teachers, but never thought about her future.
As the college entrance examination approached, Langying organized lectures on choosing a major, but she had never really delved into that area. Wen Yun and Wen Lu in her family both chose finance-related majors without hesitation, and as a member of the Wen family, she naturally set her sights on finance as well.
Unfortunately, she failed her college entrance exam and committed suicide soon after, never receiving the admission results that most high school students had been hoping for.
Wen Yun thought for a moment and said, "Art majors generally require taking the art exam, but it's quite difficult to switch to art exams in the senior year of high school. Plus, you don't know what you want to do in the future, so I suggest you choose this path carefully. Science and engineering majors have good prospects, meaning they are easy to find jobs after graduation. However, our elective subjects are only biology, so the range of choices is actually quite narrow. If you are a Chinese major, then you are a jack-of-all-trades. Other majors, such as English, Japanese, and history, are said to have poor job prospects. The best job option is probably to take the civil service exam and become a teacher."
Ruan Yu was a little confused, but she still took out her phone and wrote down what she said in her notes app.
“There’s no need to memorize it. Choosing a major mainly depends on your interests and future plans,” Wen Yun said. “If you like literature and want to study it in depth, then choose Chinese literature and take the postgraduate entrance exam after graduation to try to go further. If you want to start working sooner, then choose a major with the best employment prospects. It mainly depends on your own ideas.”
At this point, she remembered what Lin Qiqi had said before, paused, and added, "Of course, you can also choose finance if you want. Your aunt is in business, so you can talk to her before filling out your college application. If she's willing to mentor you, then you can choose finance and work with her from now on."
Ruan Yu chuckled: "The way you're talking makes it sound like my aunt is some kind of big sister."
The two burst into laughter, and after they had laughed enough, they each got back to their homework.
After all, that future is still a long way off.
-
As evening falls, the afterglow of the setting sun paints the entire sky red, turning the azure blue into a dreamy purple.
Wen Yun held her phone and kept taking pictures of the sky, capturing the distant mountains and fields. After taking the pictures, she checked her album, added a little dehazing filter, and posted nine pictures to her WeChat Moments.
Cloud: [A dreamlike sunset in the countryside.]
Less than half a minute after the post was published, WeChat notified me that it had "liked your post."
Looking at the ID that had liked the post, Wen Yun thought for a moment and asked the girl sitting next to her, "Do you want to post something too?"
"Send what?" Ruan Yu looked up and asked her, puzzled.
"It's just photos," Wen Yun explained. "To leave yourself with some beautiful memories of life, so the internet can remember them for you. When you see the photos later, you'll remember what happened back then."
In her previous life, Ruan Yuguang had a very difficult life, but in this life, everything starts anew, and she can also have her own beautiful memories.
Ruan Yu also thought it made sense. After thinking about it for a while, she called over two big dogs and had them squat on either side of Wen Yun.
"...What's going on?" Wen Yun was completely confused. She casually patted the two dog heads and unconsciously raised the corners of her lips.
Just then, the shutter clicked, and after the girl moved her phone away, she was met with the other person's bright yet sly smile.
Wen Yun seemed to understand her intention, and was both amused and exasperated, "It's not enough to just take pictures of me and the dog, is it?"
After saying that, before Ruan Yu could speak, she pulled Ruan Yu to sit down next to her, and magically took out a selfie stick from her handbag. She skillfully connected Ruan Yu's phone to the selfie stick and adjusted the button to extend it further.
"Come on, say 'rua' to the camera with me!"
Ruan Yu obediently did as she was told, and with a "click," the two people and two dogs were frozen in the screen.
The dog wagged its tail so hard that only a blur remained, and the person laughed heartily.
A note from the author:
The second update is here!
I thought I could write about them falling asleep together, but I overestimated myself. _(:з」∠)_
Chapter 33
After dinner, the driver, Sister Luo, offered to leave and go to the town at the foot of the mountain to find a room to stay in, and then come back up the next morning.
"Send the bill to me on WeChat after you book the room, and I'll reimburse you," Wen Yun said as she saw her off.
Sister Luo smiled at her, didn't refuse, opened the car door, got in, fastened her seatbelt, and turned to tease, "Little bosses, have fun!"
As the luxury car disappeared from sight, Wen Yun stretched, relieving the soreness in her arms and neck from doing homework, and asked Ruan Yu, "Where are we going to see the stars tonight?"
Today is the end of the lunar month, and the moon is only a thin crescent, not shining very brightly, but it's a good time to stargaze.
“There’s a temple on the mountain, and a large platform in front of the temple,” Ruan Yu said. “When my grandfather was still healthy, he would often go there in the morning to practice Tai Chi. It’s a very open space there, and it’s also a good place to see the stars. There’s also a road that leads directly to our house.”
Wen Yun keenly noticed that she said "our house" instead of "my house." Although she didn't know if it was intentional or unintentional, this small change made her feel a little happier. "Okay, let's go there then. Do you want to bring two small stools?"
“No need, there are stone benches and tables there.” Ruan Yu shook her head. “If you need a wooden stool, I can borrow one from the monks in the temple. I often go to the temple with my grandmother to worship the Bodhisattva, and they all recognize me.”
“That’s good. Let’s go home and put on some mosquito repellent before we head out.” Wen Yun said, taking her wrist and leading her towards home.
At night, people brought out stools and chairs to sit and chat in the threshing ground and in front of each house. Wen Yun did this on purpose to show these people that Ruan Yu was not neglected after being brought home; on the contrary, she was being well taken care of by the fake heiress with whom she had swapped identities.
"You memorized the route?" Ruan Yu asked curiously.
“There are only a few roads, they’re easy to remember,” Wen Yun said with a smile. “The routes are much simpler than those at our school.”
They walked for a while when Wen Yun suddenly felt a warmth in her palm. Looking down, she saw the girl turn her hand over and shake hers.
Oh wow, it seems the protagonist has also understood her intention.
So they walked home hand in hand, ignoring the astonished or envious glances and comments of others.
After arriving home, before Ruan Yu could even ask her grandmother for mosquito repellent, Wen Yun pulled her back to the bedroom and took out a pre-prepared bottle of extra-strength mentholatum from her bag. "Use this. It has no side effects and works exceptionally well."
As she spoke, she opened the mentholatum, and the aroma of peppermint and camphor wafted out, almost making her sneeze.
Ruan Yu took it and applied a little to her fingertips, then spread it on the skin in areas prone to biting. The cool sensation stimulated her nerves, followed by a warming feeling that soothed her anxiety.
The allergic reaction she experienced on the day of the birthday celebration left her with some psychological trauma. There were many trees on the mountain, and it was nighttime, so she was still afraid that she might suddenly have an allergic reaction and cause trouble for the person.
Wen Yun also applied some, and after she finished, she put the cooling balm into her pocket and silently stored it in her system space.