No matter how much Chen Chao disliked clinginess, seeing Miao Jiayan sitting there so obediently and quietly, confiding in him with a touch of helplessness and reliance, made Chen Chao’s heart soften a little.

He sat up, looked at Miao Jiayan, and asked, “Why don’t you want to cut your hair?”

Miao Jiayan took his hands away from his eyes, clenching them loosely on his lap, and answered in a low voice, “I just don’t want to.”

Chen Chao’s voice sounded calm, not fierce at all. “Why?”

Miao Jiayan was silent at first, then slowly said, “I don’t know… I’m very scared of cutting my hair.”

“What are you afraid of?” Chen Chao asked again.

“I’m afraid of having short hair,” Miao Jiayan seemed unsure how to explain, his gaze fixed on Chen Chao’s face. Every time the fan turned toward him, it would lift his hair a little. “I’ve always been like this, I… I should be like this.”

“What about when you grow up? Still like this?” Chen Chao reached out and adjusted the angle of the fan on the table.

“I don’t know,” Miao Jiayan shook his head, “…I’ve never thought about it.”

When Chen Chao still thought Miao Jiayan was a girl, he had barely even spoken to him, and sitting together alone like this was even more impossible. However, after finding out he was a little boy, that awkwardness disappeared. Now, looking at Miao Jiayan, he could treat him like a younger brother.

Chen Chao asked him, “Why don’t you try cutting it once?”

Miao Jiayan immediately shook his head and said, “No.”

Chen Chao had nothing else he could say, nor anything to persuade him with.

After a while, Miao Jiayan said, “You should go to sleep.”

Chen Chao hummed in agreement and sat for a few more minutes. Miao Jiayan was well-behaved and didn’t wipe his eyes again.

Chen Chao fell asleep first. It was a restless night; sleeping on the floor, despite the mattress, was still uncomfortable and hard, though thankfully it was quite cool. Miao Jiayan fell asleep at some unknown time; he was still asleep when Chen Chao got up in the morning.

His sleeping posture looked quite proper. He was lying straight, covered with a blanket, his hands by his sides.

Chen Chao stood up and directly rolled up the mattress and pillow from the floor, placing them at the foot of the bed. Miao Jiayan was sleeping soundly, his eyelids still puffy and closed.

By the time Chen Chao came out after washing up, Miao Jiayan was already sitting up. His hair was a mess, and he was stroking the side that had been cut short.

When he saw Chen Chao, he greeted him, calling him “Brother.”

Chen Chao didn’t correct him. He was just a little boy; let him call him whatever he wanted.

Miao Jian was so angry with the old and young in the family that he was left speechless. He got up in the morning and left.

Miao Jiayan wasn’t crying anymore. The half-long, half-short hair was truly ugly, so his grandmother cut the remaining long half. Later, Grandpa Miao took him to the barbershop in town to have it trimmed. His originally shoulder-length hair became a medium-short, choppy style that covered his ears.

Although it wasn’t as good-looking as before, after a few days of getting used to it, it started to look quite pleasant.

From that night on, Miao Jiayan started calling Chen Chao “Brother” again. Before, he wouldn’t come looking for Chen Chao unless he needed something, but now he would occasionally wander over quietly to stay with him.

Chen Chao didn’t shoo him away. In any case, Miao Jiayan wasn’t very talkative and wasn’t annoying.

Chen Guangda, busy with who knows what outside, had left Chen Chao here and hadn’t come back the entire summer.

Chen Chao didn’t really care where he went, but in mid-August, he still made a phone call to his dad.

Chen Guangda had probably been incredibly busy during this time; his voice sounded quite exhausted over the phone.

Chen Chao first chatted with him for a bit. Chen Guangda said, “Do you miss your dad? Dad will come back for a visit in a few days, definitely.”

Chen Chao said, “It doesn’t matter if you come back or not, but it’s August, Dad.”

Chen Guangda was completely clueless, even saying, “Ah, the heatwave is almost over.”

Chen Chao said with some resignation, “I have to go to school.”

The day before yesterday, Chen Chao’s mom, Jiang Li, had called and asked about this. She asked when Chen Chao was coming back, whether he was going directly to the main campus for middle school or if his dad had enrolled him in another school.

Chen Chao said he didn’t know.

Jiang Li told him to hurry back to her place and not to stay at his grandmother’s any longer.

Chen Guangda seemed to have just remembered this matter and couldn’t help but let out a “Damn…”

The father had truly forgotten about it. He’d thought about it at the beginning, but then he got busy and really forgot. His business had failed completely, and he was in seven-figure debt. The sheer number of issues had weighed him down, making even this usually carefree person appear much more world-weary.

Chen Guangda said repeatedly over the phone, “Dad will be back as soon as possible, as soon as possible! Dad really forgot!”

While Chen Chao was on the phone, Miao Jiayan sat cross-legged beside him, helping Grandma Chen shell peas while listening to Chen Chao talk.

The small, round peas were shelled a few at a time and placed in a small metal basin. Then, the transparent membrane of the pea pods was peeled off, and the remaining soft pea pods were saved to be stir-fried with shredded pork in sauce.

A pea shot out and landed on the eight-immortals table. Chen Chao glanced at it, picked it up with the hand not holding the phone, and casually tossed it into the small metal basin on Miao Jiayan’s lap.

“You’re not going to be done with your business anytime soon, are you?” Chen Chao asked his dad. “Can you come back after my school starts?”

It was unclear what his dad said on the phone, but Chen Chao replied, “I called her.”

“I’m not going.”

Miao Jiayan could clearly sense that Chen Chao was unhappy.

Chen Chao was silent for a long time, just frowning. Then he asked, “Is it because you don’t have time, or do you just not want me anymore?”

After the call ended, Chen Chao wore a sour expression. Miao Jiayan, beside him, didn’t dare to speak and quietly shelled the peas.

When almost the entire bag of peas was shelled, Miao Jiayan asked in a small voice, “Are you leaving?”

Chen Chao glanced at him but didn’t answer.

Miao Jiayan looked down at the peas in his hand and scratched his chin with the back of his hand.

Of course, Chen Chao didn’t leave.

Usually, rural kids would be sent to the city at all costs, fighting tooth and nail to get into good schools. But in Chen Chao’s case, a perfectly fine city kid ended up in a town’s middle school.

A middle school in a small place naturally couldn’t compare to the school Chen Chao used to attend, whether in terms of teachers or classmates.

For a long time after starting at the new school, Chen Chao had no common ground with the students around him. Among the dozens of students in his class, he was the one who spoke the least and always came and went alone.

Because of the school issue, Jiang Li had even made a special trip over.

Jiang Li had rarely returned to Grandma Chen’s house over the years. This time, she brought many things for Grandpa and Grandma Chen, but there was a bit of awkwardness between them. Although Jiang Li still called them “Dad” and “Mom,” she and Chen Guangda were, after all, divorced.

She had come that time to take Chen Chao away, wanting to bring him to his maternal grandmother’s house to attend school there.

In the end, Chen Chao didn’t go with his mom.

Jiang Li was very angry when she left, saying Chen Chao was just like his dad, clueless about what he was doing.

The school was in town, about a half-hour walk from home. There was a school bus, but Chen Chao didn’t take it. The bus was filled with a group of rural kids singing tacky internet songs, loudly chatting about topics he couldn’t stand listening to, with a few swear words thrown in from time to time.

On the first day of school, Chen Chao sat on the bus, looking out at the endless cotton fields, wondering what kind of life he was living, his heart as still as water.

After that day, Chen Chao never took the bus again. He walked to and from school every day. The sun hadn’t set yet when school let out, and not long after the semester began, Chen Chao was already two shades tanner.

Miao Jiayan’s hair hadn’t grown long yet, so he couldn’t tie it into a small ponytail, and he no longer needed to wear a small hair tie on his wrist.

Only when washing his face, when his hair got in the way, would he tie up his bangs into a small tuft on top of his head.

Because Chen Chao came home from school late, the Chen Family’s dinner time was later than before. Miao Jiayan had already eaten and came over with a basin to deliver some corn. Chen Chao had just gotten back and had gone to the kitchen to wash his face; he hadn’t dried it, and water was still dripping from his face.

Miao Jiayan hadn’t seen him for a few days and was quite surprised. “You’ve gotten so much tanner.”

Chen Chao glanced at him, saw the small tuft on his head, and was amused to the point of laughing.

Chen Chao rolled up the sleeve of his T-shirt and wiped his face with it, then pinched Miao Jiayan’s tuft between his index and middle fingers and gave it a gentle tug.

Miao Jiayan tilted his head along with the force of the pull.

“You look like a little Taoist priest,” Chen Chao said with a laugh.

He didn’t laugh often; he wore a sour face much more. Miao Jiayan also raised a hand to touch the top of his head and explained in a low voice, “It’s hard to wash my face if I don’t tie it up.”

Chen Chao tugged it a couple more times. Miao Jiayan didn’t get angry and generously let him.

If the rural kids at school could all be like Miao Jiayan, Chen Chao’s school life wouldn’t be so miserable.

The school wasn’t strict; many of the rules from his old school no longer applied. There was no mandatory daily uniform, nor were there restrictions on eating snacks in the classroom. Chen Chao couldn’t stand the smell of people eating in the classroom; whenever someone around him ate, he would get annoyed.