Miao Jiayan quickly said, "Let's take them! We can eat on the way. If he doesn't eat, I will."

"I've already packed them. I packed yours separately. Put them in your schoolbags and eat them when you get to the classroom, okay?" Grandma Chen came over with two bags of pancakes and handed them over.

Chen Chao had already started walking. Miao Jiayan was still behind, talking to Grandma Chen about the pancakes, when Chen Chao urged from a distance, "Hurry up!"

"Coming!" Miao Jiayan followed, carrying the two bags of pancakes and Chen Chao's schoolbag.

Chen Chao normally didn't eat on the way, but Miao Jiayan was eating so heartily beside him, a bite of pancake followed by a sip of soy milk. The sweet aroma of the pancakes seemed especially soft on the winter morning.

Miao Jiayan tore off a corner and held it to his lips. "Have a taste?"

Chen Chao instinctively leaned his head back to avoid it. Miao Jiayan said, "There's no one around. No one's looking at you."

Maybe those words had an effect, or maybe it was because Miao Jiayan was eating with such relish, but in any case, Chen Chao ended up eating that piece of pancake.

In the two and a half years he'd been here, this was the first time Miao Jiayan had seen him eat while walking outside. Miao Jiayan smiled and asked him, "It's delicious, isn't it?"

As he spoke, he also offered the soy milk.

Since the first step had already been taken, the rest didn't matter. Chen Chao ducked his head slightly, bit down on the straw, and took a sip.

But this was the most Chen Chao could accept. He wouldn't hold it himself; Miao Jiayan had to offer it to him, as if this was somehow more sophisticated than holding a pancake and gnawing on it himself. Miao Jiayan was more than happy to accommodate his Brother Chao's city-boy airs. After taking a bite himself, he would remember to tear off a piece and pass it over. By the time they finished walking down the country road, both of them were full.

With Chen Chao taking him to and from school every day, from early morning to late at night, Miao Jiayan's days became peaceful and slow.

Gradually, they both almost forgot about that incident. The little episode was never mentioned again.

Until one day after school, they heard the sound of a motorcycle on that road again. Before Miao Jiayan could react, Chen Chao had yanked him into the space between himself and Ding Wentao.

Only then did Miao Jiayan react, clutching Chen Chao's arm.

"It's okay," Chen Chao said.

It turned out to be just someone passing by this time. The person riding the motorcycle was an auntie who had just returned from her parents' home.

After the motorcycle passed, Chen Chao ruffled Miao Jiayan's hair and said, "After I leave, you should take the school bus."

Miao Jiayan didn't say anything. Instead, it was Ding Wentao who asked, "Go where? Brother Chao, where are you going!"

"To school," Chen Chao said.

"You're leaving?" Ding Wentao looked very dejected. "You're not going to high school here?"

"No," Chen Chao put his hands back in his pockets and said, "I have to leave for high school."

Ding Wentao's reaction to Chen Chao leaving was much stronger than Miao Jiayan's.

He clamored every day, begging Chen Chao not to leave, saying that he would have no friends left if Chen Chao left.

Worn down by his pestering, Chen Chao said helplessly, "I haven't left yet."

"But it's soon!" Ding Wentao said with a displeased look. "What am I supposed to do after you leave! What will I do every day! Who will eat lunch with me!"

Chen Chao said, "It's not like I do much with you here anyway."

"It's not the same!" Ding Wentao, sitting at the desk behind Chen Chao, said while shaking the desk, "If you leave, I'll have no friends!"

"Aren't your friends everywhere?" Chen Chao casually retorted.

"Then have you ever seen me eat with them?" Ding Wentao tapped the desk with his finger. "Isn't it always the two of us eating together?"

Chen Chao didn't say anything more at first; he couldn't soothe the school bully's dejection. But after a few seconds, he turned his head back and called out, "Xiao Tao."

"What?"

"When I'm gone, can you help me keep an eye on him?" Chen Chao asked.

"Keep an eye on what?" Ding Wentao asked with a long face.

Chen Chao said, "My little brother. You don't have to do anything, just walk with him."

"Is he your little wife? No way." Ding Wentao shook his head decisively. "After you leave, I'm not walking with him. What would other people think of me? Besides, I'd feel weird walking with him."

It was unclear whether Ding Wentao was genuinely unwilling or just saying it out of pique because Chen Chao was leaving. In any case, he didn't agree.

Chen Chao asked him, "We've been walking together for so long, and you still think there's something wrong with him?"

Ding Wentao said, "I think he's pretty normal, but what I think is useless. Other people still think he's a per—"

Before he could finish the sound of the word, Ding Wentao promptly shut his mouth.

But because of that unfinished word, Chen Chao was reminded of that night when Miao Jiayan lay on his floor, saying sullenly, "He thinks I'm one of his kind."

In this small town, it seemed Miao Jiayan could never shed the label of "pervert," even though he had done nothing wrong, all just because he had long hair and occasionally wore skirts in the summer.

The road surface was dirty after it had snowed. Once the snow melted, there would be muddy water on the ground.

Miao Jiayan, wearing his little white shoes, walked very carefully. Chen Chao walked carelessly, splashing mud from the soles of his shoes all over his own pants.

Even though Miao Jiayan was already walking two steps away from him, his pant cuffs still got splattered.

He looked at the mud splashed on his pants, said nothing, and just took another step away.

Chen Chao didn't know what he was thinking and even asked, "What are you doing?"

Miao Jiayan didn't say "You splashed mud on me," only, "The ground is too dirty. If you walk too close, you'll get splashed."

"I'm already covered in mud," Chen Chao said. "A little more won't make a difference."

Miao Jiayan took it as Chen Chao telling him to come back, so he shuffled back over and even said, "It's okay, I'll wash them for you."

Chen Chao watched Miao Jiayan walk step by step in front of him, his shoes still perfectly clean. Miao Jiayan was actually really sensible and obedient, much more so than other people's "normal" kids.

Chen Chao suddenly reached out, pressed down on his head, and ruffled his hair.

Miao Jiayan tilted his head up to look at him. Seeing that Chen Chao didn't seem to want to talk, he quietly turned back and continued walking.