Kids from the countryside didn't understand the inexplicable thoughts of city kids like them; they only knew to worry and be afraid. Chen Chao said 'I'm fine' many times, but Miao Jiayan still couldn't feel at ease and eventually sat down next to Chen Chao. The two of them sat together on the steps by the well, one with a bruised face, the other full of worry and sorrow.

“Isn't this the end of me,” Miao Jiayan muttered to himself.

Chen Chao didn't hear clearly and asked, “What?”

Miao Jiayan then repeated, “I said I'm done for.”

“What's done for?” Chen Chao asked again.

“Before Grandma Chen left, she asked me to help look after you, and now you're... your face is…” Miao Jiayan turned his head to look at Chen Chao again, the sorrow in his eyes overflowing. “Your face is ruined.”

Chen Chao subconsciously touched his eye socket again. It didn't hurt anymore, but it felt hot and swollen. Chen Chao said, “It’s fine, let it be ruined.”

Miao Jiayan glanced at him, his expression a little surprised.

He was indeed a bit surprised. Grandma Chen's grandson, who had come back from the city, was very delicate, a picky eater who also had a big temper. Miao Jiayan had just thought he was going to fly into a rage.

It really wasn't worth getting angry over. Although Chen Chao was usually fussy, most of it was irritation from not being used to the environment. A little bump like this wasn't worth getting angry about; he didn't even take it to heart.

None of the things Miao Jiayan worried about came to pass. Chen Chao didn't get angry, and Grandma Chen didn't blame him either. When Grandma Chen came back and saw it, she simply asked a question and even joked with Miao Jiayan, “Is this little big brother a bit clumsy?”

Miao Jiayan quickly shook his head.

Grandma Chen cupped her grandson's head in both hands, took a look, then let go and said with a laugh, “It’s fine, the skin isn’t even broken. Tomorrow he’ll turn into a one-eyed panda.”

Grandma Chen was spot on. Early the next morning, Chen Chao's eye socket and eyelid were highly swollen and had turned black and blue, looking both comical and a little pitiful.

It's normal for boys to get bumps and bruises. When Chen Chao's dad was a child, he often came home with a bloody nose and a swollen face, whether from fighting or falling while climbing over walls, and Grandma Chen eventually couldn't even be bothered to ask. Of course, a son was different from a grandson. Her heart still ached when her grandson got hurt, so she applied a bit of anti-inflammatory ointment for him.

Because of this bump, Miao Jiayan often came over to check on Chen Chao. As soon as he arrived, he would stare directly at Chen Chao’s face, making Chen Chao feel uncomfortable all over.

“Does it still hurt?” Miao Jiayan asked for the umpteenth time.

Chen Chao was silent for a moment, then said, “It doesn’t hurt.”

Although Chen Chao said so, his face looked truly frightening. Miao Jiayan felt he was largely responsible for him getting hurt like this. In Chen Chao's mind, however, this had nothing to do with Miao Jiayan at all; he had simply bumped himself by not paying attention. The little girl from next door showing her concern and asking after him every day with a worried expression was something he really couldn't accept.

It was too mushy, practically the death of a chuunibyou-aged teenager.

After the two were silent for a while, each lost in their own thoughts, Chen Chao said, “I’m fine now. Don’t ask again.”

Miao Jiayan didn't say anything, just looked at Chen Chao's eye socket with his brows slightly furrowed.

Chen Guangda had called Chen Chao's cell phone several times, but Chen Chao didn't usually use it, just leaving it in his schoolbag, so it had already run out of battery. Chen Guangda then called the house landline, and Grandpa Chen answered.

Grandpa Chen shouted to Chen Chao from downstairs: "Grandson, your dad's on the phone—"

Chen Chao heard him and shouted from the top of the stairs: "What does he want?"

Grandpa Chen shouted again: "Your dad misses you—"

Chen Chao yelled back, "I'm not taking it, tell him to stop thinking about it!"

Grandpa Chen crisply relayed: "Stop missing him. He's not taking the call."

Chen Guangda asked on the phone, a little uncertainly: "Is he mad at me?"

"I don't know," Grandpa Chen said. "We don't usually bring you up."

"..." Chen Guangda was silent on the phone for a moment, and could only hang up.

By the time Chen Chao's face had completely recovered, it was already August. The weather grew hotter by the day, almost steaming Chen Chao cooked.

In the past, he always spent his summers at home with the air conditioner set to a constant 23 degrees. He'd never suffered like this.

Grandpa Chen had also looked into whether he could install an air conditioner for his grandson, but he was told that the wiring in their kind of old house couldn't handle the high power of an AC unit and would be a safety hazard. Besides, they didn't know how long his grandson would be staying, and Chen Guangda hadn't given a clear word. If Chen Guangda came to pick him up right after it was installed, the air conditioner would be useless, as the elderly couple wouldn't use it. In the end, Grandpa Chen set up two electric fans in his grandson's room: a standing fan aimed at Chen Chao's bed from afar, and a small desk fan placed on a corner of the desk, set to oscillate away from the pillow. A window screen was also nailed up so the window could be left open all night.

Although their hometown wasn't directly on the coast, it was only about twenty kilometers from the sea, so the air was very humid. At night, the air blown by the fans was just hot wind, and it also made his whole body feel very dry. This feeling of being simultaneously dry and damp made Chen Chao sit cross-legged on his bed in the middle of the night on several occasions, reminiscing about the constant 23 degrees of his past, feeling like he was in a dream.

Chen Chao's back broke out in large patches of heat rash. As far as he could remember, he'd rarely ever gotten it before.

The itch from the heat rash was piercingly intense. Compared to it, the itch from a mosquito bite was nothing.

Grandma got him a tin of prickly heat powder and patted it onto her grandson's back every morning and evening. But it was no use; Chen Chao had to take several cold showers a day, and it all just washed off.

One day, Miao Jiayan came over to deliver something while Chen Chao was shirtless, having prickly heat powder patted onto his back by his grandma. The moment Miao Jiayan entered, he smelled the powder's unique scent, sniffed, and asked, “You got heat rash?”

Miao Jiayan walked softly, so neither Chen Chao nor his grandma had noticed him. Now, suddenly hearing his voice, Chen Chao grabbed his shirt and hastily pulled it on before even turning around.

“That's right, he can't stand the heat,” Grandma Chen said to Miao Jiayan, turning her head.

Only after he had put his shirt on did Chen Chao turn around. He saw Miao Jiayan staring at him unabashedly, blinking his eyes, and for a moment, he was at a loss for words.

For some reason, Miao Jiayan found the sight of Chen Chao getting prickly heat powder patted on him very amusing, but he was sensible enough not to actually laugh. He just said, “I used this when I was little too. It gets better quickly if you don’t sweat.”

Chen Chao was all out of temper. He went out to sit in the small shaded pergola in the yard.

The day Chen Chao next received a call from his dad, it was, for a change, raining a little. Chen Chao felt very comfortable, and his mood was pleasant as a result. When the phone rang, he glanced at the caller ID and answered.

“Who are you looking for?”

Chen Guangda heard his son pick up and chuckled, "Looking for you."

Chen Chao: "Don't know you. Hanging up."

Chen Guangda said with a laugh, "Don't hang up, Dad was just thinking of you."

Chen Chao had already been reduced to a state where a little rain could make him happy; what kind of response could he muster for his dad's "missing him"? Not directly getting on a bus to his maternal grandmother's house to enjoy the AC was already the deepest love a son could show his father.

"How are you doing, son?" Chen Guangda actually managed to ask this over the phone.

"Pretty good," Chen Chao answered calmly. "Still alive."

Chen Guangda asked, "Are you getting used to it there?"

Chen Chao stood there for two seconds, not even sure how to reply.