Outside Lin Ruoruo’s front home, two middle-aged women in their early forties were gently knocking on her door. Moments later, the door swung open.
"Hello there, dear."
Liu Sufang looked at the two women standing at the doorstep with a puzzled expression. "Who are you?"
One of the taller middle-aged women, Chen Lan, smiled and said, "We live right across the hall. We just moved in today and thought we'd come to say hello and get to know our neighbors. After all, a distant relative isn't as good as a close neighbor, don't you agree?"
Only then did Liu Sufang notice that the door opposite hers was also ajar, which made her guard drop slightly. "Oh, hello."
Chen Lan held out a bag of local specialty produce toward Liu Sufang. "Dear, we grew all of this ourselves. Please take some and try it."
A faint smile forced its way onto Liu Sufang's pale face as she politely declined, "No, thank you, sister. W... we already have so much food at home it's going to waste."
The other middle-aged woman chimed in, "We're going to be neighbors from now on, so please just take it. We don't have any relatives in the city, and who knows, we might need your help down the road."
Liu Sufang kept a faint smile on her face, but she was physically weak and her stamina was flagging from the back-and-forth, so she finally accepted with a helpless sigh. "Alright, well, thank you both, sisters.Chen Lan and Chen Min both waved their hands dismissively. Chen Lan said, "No need to be so polite. You go ahead and get back to your chores, we're heading back inside too."
...
Inside the classroom of Senior Three, Class 27.
Having just returned from the extended break, most of the students in the class had bought bottled water or soft drinks from the small shop near the teaching building.
As soon as morning exercises ended, Lin Ruoruo had walked back to the classroom alone with her head down, sitting quietly at her desk to do her homework as she always did.
Because she had to go home and cook every day after school, and help her mother do the laundry at night, she practically had no time left to study once she got home.
"Lin Ruoruo, would you like some water?"
Hearing the voice, Lin Ruoruo lifted her head slightly and looked to the side to see Xu Lai smiling as he handed her a bottle of water.
Stunned for a moment, Lin Ruoruo said softly, "N... no thank you, Xu Lai, I'm not thirsty."
As she spoke, she couldn't help swallowing hard. Having just finished the exercises, her mouth was feeling somewhat dry.
"Just take it. I bought the wrong flavor—I don't like green tea, and if you don't drink it, I'm just going to throw it away anyway," Xu Lai said, placing the bottle of green tea directly onto Lin Ruoruo's desk.
Lin Ruoruo bit her lip and reached out with her right hand to pick up the green tea on the desk.
*It's warm?*
Lin Ruoruo felt a pang of confusion. The drinks at the school shop were either ice-cold or room temperature; how could there be a warm drink?
"X... Xu Lai, why is this warm?"
Xu Lai wore a reminiscent expression for a second before answering casually, "Oh, I put it next to the dispenser when I was filling my cup just now, and I guess it got warmed up by the steam."
"Oh, th... thank you, Xu Lai," Lin Ruoruo said, carefully unscrewing the cap and taking a sip of the green tea.
She hadn't bought a beverage to drink in years.
It tasted just like the green tea from back then.
*Green tea? He didn't even recognize me, so it must be a coincidence, right?*
Lin Ruoruo thought to herself.
This was her favorite drink when she was little, and she used to bring it for Xu Lai all the time.
Afterward, Lin Ruoruo put the green tea into her desk drawer. Lying inside the drawer was already a yellowed plastic bottle.
Only the plastic bottle was completely empty.
Every day before coming to school, Lin Ruoruo would bring a plastic bottle filled with boiled water that she had left to cool at home, because the school's hot water station didn't have warm water, and her flimsy plastic bottle couldn't handle the high temperature of boiling water at all.
Lin Ruoruo stared blankly at the green tea bottle and the yellowed plastic bottle in her desk drawer, then slowly lowered her head.
Xu Lai took in everything. Every movement the girl made before him was filled with such caution; she was so deeply insecure.
Xu Lai spent the next two classes alternating between watching Lin Ruoruo and listening to the lecture.
Right around the final class, he heard a rumbling sound coming from his deskmate Lin Ruoruo's stomach.
Yet looking at her expression, there was hardly any change.
She was already used to going hungry during the final class of the morning.
But Xu Lai could not remain calm. In his past life, Lin Ruoruo had died of stomach cancer.
He absolutely could not let history repeat itself in this lifetime.
Looking at Lin Ruoruo, whose face was half-hidden behind two locks of hair, Xu Lai found his breathing growing slightly hurried.
Sensing a burning gaze fixed on her, Lin Ruoruo's face flushed slightly as she said, "X... Xu Lai, c... can you please stop looking at me like that?"
Xu Lai snapped back to reality and steadied his emotions. Seeing an illustration drawn on Lin Ruoruo's textbook, he smiled and said, "I was just looking at that drawing on your book. It's really good."
After a brief pause, he asked, "Did you draw it yourself?"
Lin Ruoruo nodded softly without speaking.
"It's really good. I didn't know you could draw," Xu Lai said with a soft chuckle. Of course he knew Lin Ruoruo could draw; he just wanted to give himself another topic of conversation so he could talk to her a bit more.
"I... it was taught to me by my middle school teacher," Lin Ruoruo whispered.
......
The bell rang for the end of class.
"Goodbye, Lin Ruoruo." Xu Lai slowly stood up and bid her farewell.
"G... goodbye," Lin Ruoruo replied in a stuttering whisper.
Xu Lai turned back with a smile and strode out of the classroom.
Lin Ruoruo tidied her desk. Since she didn't need to bring anything home for lunch, she stood up and left the classroom as well.
On her way out of the school, Lin Ruoruo kept her head down, walking right along the very edge of the main road.
Behind her, Xu Lai watched the girl walking with her head down, keeping a careful distance. Their relationship hadn't reached the point where he could walk her home from school yet, so he could only follow silently behind her.
Once they reached the school gates, very few students headed into the small alleys, making it too obvious if Xu Lai kept following her directly.
Just then, a sturdy girl over 180 centimeters tall was already waiting by the school gates. After nodding in acknowledgment to Xu Lai, she followed Lin Ruoruo into the alley.
The moment Lin Ruoruo reached her front door, she heard voices coming from inside. Upon stepping in, she discovered someone was keeping her mother company in conversation, and what's more...
"And it smells so good in here, what is that scent?" Originally just a fleeting thought in her mind, the moment she caught the mouth-watering aroma wafting toward her, Lin Ruoruo spoke the words aloud.
The conversation between the three was interrupted by Lin Ruoruo's voice. Liu Sufang softly introduced her to the Chen sisters: "Sisters Chen, this is my daughter, Lin Ruoruo. You can just call her Ruoruo."
Then she introduced the Chen sisters to Lin Ruoruo: "Ruoruo, these two are both Auntie Chen—our new neighbors from across the hall."
Hearing this, Lin Ruoruo offered a polite greeting, "Hello, Aunties."
Then she turned to Liu Sufang and said, "Mom, I'm going to go start cooking."
With that, Lin Ruoruo headed toward the kitchen, preparing to take some vegetables down from the makeshift shelf formed by a few wooden planks nailed together to wash them.
Chen Lan quickly hurried after her. "Ruoruo, you don't need to cook lunch today."
Lin Ruoruo looked confused, only to hear Chen Lan continue, "Your mother already ate at our place, and she saved some food for you. It's right on the table."
A flicker of suspicion arose in Lin Ruoruo's heart. *How can they be this enthusiastic when we've only just met?*
It really didn't make much sense.
"Auntie, it's just my mom and me at home, and we don't have anything here."
Chen Lan was taken aback for a moment by Lin Ruoruo's sudden remark, but after a quick thought, she dawned on the truth and smiled. "Ruoruo, Auntie isn't a bad person, don't worry."
As she spoke, Chen Lan hurried back across the hall to fetch her ID card and rental agreement, brought them back, and handed them to Lin Ruoruo.
"It's just that we just came to the city to look for work and have no relatives or friends here. After all, a distant relative isn't as good as a close neighbor, so please don't find it strange."
Lin Ruoruo looked at the other woman's ID card and saw that the landlord's handwriting on the rental agreement matched the handwriting on her own contract when she had signed it.
"I... I'm sorry, Auntie, I..."
Chen Lan smiled. "It's nothing. Go on and eat."
Looking at Chen Lan's smiling face, Lin Ruoruo still felt a sense of unreality.
*Why do all these good things keep happening back-to-back ever since Xu Lai showed up?*
*Is it really just a coincidence?*
She had no answer in her heart.