"Yangshui Village? I've heard it's a picturesque and lovely place. Oh, right, my name is Ling Yifan. May I ask your name, classmate?" Ling Yifan asked with a faint smile.
Hao Sezhu blushed. "My name is Hao Sezhu. It's written like this!"
Fearing that saying it aloud might make Ling Yifan mistake it for 'Haosezhu', she hurriedly traced the characters in her palm with her finger.
Ling Yifan smiled and nodded. "Hehe, Hao Sezhu. Can I call you Zhuzhu from now on?"
"Yes, of course you can!" Hao Sezhu looked at the gentle and amiable handsome boy, whose speech was so polite unlike that Nanfeng Li, who always looked down on people.
Ling Yifan suddenly reached his hand out toward Hao Sezhu. "Don't move!"
Seeing that Hao Sezhu was about to step back, he hurriedly spoke.
"Y-Y-You... what are you doing?" Hao Sezhu froze in place, not daring to move. The handsome boy's hand had just touched her forehead. His hand wasn't as warm as the rest of him; it gave a very cool sensation, surprisingly chilly in this muggy weather.
"Your head is a bit warm. You must be suffering from heatstroke. Let me take you to the infirmary!" Ling Yifan withdrew his hand from her forehead and asked with a tender expression.
"No need, I'm from the countryside. I'm not so fragile as to get heatstroke!" Hao Sezhu often helped out with farm work in scorching weather. She wasn't so delicate; she could easily withstand this harsh sun.
"But you're a girl! Girls are naturally weaker, so don't feel embarrassed or worry about troubling me! I don't have many classes today and have plenty of free time!" Seeing that Hao Sezhu wanted to refuse, Ling Yifan quickly spoke up.
Seeing how earnestly Ling Yifan was trying to persuade her in order to help, Hao Sezhu had no choice but to agree. "Then thank you so much!"
"No need to be so polite. Right, Zhuzhu, are all the girls in Yangshui Village as pretty as you?" Ling Yifan fixed his gaze on Hao Sezhu and asked with a mild smile.
Hao Sezhu shook her head. "Although the girls in Yangshui Village aren't as pretty as the female students at Yafeng Academy, their hearts are much more beautiful than theirs!"
Hao Sezhu remembered how the female students at Yafeng Academy always spoke in strange, sarcastic tones—some were overly coy and affected, others coyly hypocritical. They simply weren't as frank and straightforward as the girls back home. She remembered her primary school classmate Xiaoli. Although Xiaoli spoke with a loud voice, she didn't have a malicious bone in her body. She spoke her mind wherever her thoughts took her; what a straightforward person she was, unlike these all-show-and-no-substance big-city girls who said one thing and did another.