Along the way, Jiang Yumo kept taking selfies with Duan Ye’s phone.
She took many photos, but only four or five of them satisfied her, and she mercilessly deleted the others. Duan Ye took the phone and glanced at the album. Even though he tried to suppress his smile, Jiang Yumo still saw it and asked him, “Aren’t they good-looking?”
Duan Ye cleared his throat and replied, “They’re good-looking.”
He just didn’t expect that she had even changed his screensaver.
Both of them were satisfied. Jiang Yumo was happy that she had destroyed all the unflattering photos in his phone, but the only downside was the photo sticker on the back of his phone…
After getting off the car, they waited at the intersection for a few minutes until Yan Qing and the others arrived.
They were at the intersection of a pedestrian street. They saw a sight that was rare in Ningcheng, where the whole street was crowded with people. The six of them quickly merged into the crowd. This pedestrian street was the liveliest area in the new city district of the provincial capital, with various shops on both sides of the street that were dazzling.
Yan Qing was the one who led the shopping spree.
She knew many brand-name stores like the back of her hand. Holding Sun Mengting on her left hand and Jiang Yumo on her right hand, she paid no attention to the three boys behind them and headed straight into a large store that occupied two floors with a dreamy pink and purple decoration. They went in, while Duan Ye and the others stopped at the entrance.
Should they go in or not?
But all the products the store sells are for girls. Wouldn’t it be strange for them to go in?
Zhao Zheng let out a wail, “They didn’t even treat us as bodyguards, obviously they treat us as air!”
Guo Shichao also sighed, “So, should we go in?”
Zhao Zheng gritted his teeth, “Let’s go in. At least there’s air conditioning inside.”
Duan Ye had already stepped onto the stairs ahead of them.
Zhao Zheng muttered under his breath, “As expected of Brother Duan, he didn’t hesitate at all.”
Guo Shichao glanced at him, “He’s going to pay for Sister Mo’s bill.”
“…” Zhao Zheng understood immediately, “I am very fortunate that I don’t have a girlfriend.”
“You think you can have one if you want to?” Guo Shichao replied, but then added a fair statement, “I am worried about Brother Duan’s situation.”
“What situation?” Zhao Zheng asked.
Guo Shichao stroked his chin, “What if someone beats him to it, or if Sister Mo falls for someone else…”
Zhao Zheng exclaimed, “How is that possible! Who dares to steal someone from Brother Duan? That’s like asking for death!”
“If there’s really someone who doesn’t fear death,” Guo Shichao shook his head, “I’m not worried about anything else. I just feel that it’s hard to imagine Brother Duan Ge liking anyone other than Sister Mo. It’s the unimaginable that makes me worried and scared, you know?”
“You know it best, you’re the one who understands the most, but I haven’t seen you with a girlfriend either.”
Guo Shichao : “F*ck you…”
The three of them entered the store, finally heaving a sigh of relief. It turned out that there were not only the three of them, but also young male students and middle-aged big-bellied men in the store. The men all found their own places to sit, some on the sofa, and others simply sat on the stairs from the first floor to the second floor.
As for Jiang Yumo and her friends, they were like returning to their happy hometown, already having a great time.
Each of them carried a small basket and tossed whatever they liked inside.
Duan Ye occasionally walked around the store to find Jiang Yumao, mainly to confirm whether she showed any signs of being ready to leave. This way, he could also keep track of the time and pay for her purchases.
Guo Shichao and Zhao Zheng sat on the stairs, bored and playing games on their phone : Tetris and Snake.
“Now I realize how scary girls are,” Zhao Zheng looked at the time, lowered his voice and didn’t want Duan Ye to hear, “The scariest thing is them. Honestly, I’d rather go back to class than accompany them shopping. I feel like my body and my spirit are both under tremendous attack and torture.”
Guo Shichao suggested, “Why don’t you go remind them that we’re going to eat?”
“You wish!” But the idea was tempting, and Zhao Zheng rubbed his hands together, glanced at Duan Ye standing by the wall, and said loudly, “Brother Duan, let’s play rock-paper-scissors. The loser goes and tells them to leave.”
Duan Ye raised an eyebrow and looked at them. “I have something else to do. I’m not participating.”
“?”
Zhao Zheng complained, but didn’t move his mouth, not wanting Duan Ye to see his lips. He mumbled, “Coward.”
Duan ge was afraid of Sister Mo.
“Then we’ll do it. We can’t keep going like this. They can stay here all day without eating,” said Guo Shichao.
“Okay, let’s go. Rock-paper-scissors—”
Zhao Zheng lost, but he insisted, “Best of three.”
Guo Shichao kicked him. “One round, winner takes all.”
Under the watchful eyes of Duan Ye and Guo Shichao, Zhao Zheng nervously approached the three girls trying on sun hats in a certain area. He put on a flattering smile, tugged at Yan Qing’s sleeve, and said, “Sisters, Ancestors, Ma’ams, didn’t you say you were treating us to KFC? We’re starving to death here.”
“Didn’t you say you didn’t want eat?” Yan Qing squinted at him.
“I eat, I eat everything,” Zhao Zheng said pitifully to Jiang Yumo, “Sister Mo, Brother Duan is also hungry. We waited for you at the bus station for so long today, without drinking a drop of water or eating a grain of rice.”
Jiang Yumo hesitated and looked at Yan Qing and Sun Mengting. “Shall we go eat first?”
Sun Mengting shrugged. “I’m fine with that.”
Yan Qing didn’t have any objections either.
Zhao Zheng was about to kowtow. “Sister Mo, may you have a long and healthy life. You and Brother Duan will be together forever and have many children.”
Jiang Yumo blushed with embarrassment. “What nonsense!”
At the staircase, Duan Ye saw the three of them following Zhao Zheng and breathed a sigh of relief. He hurried forward to take her basket. “Let me.”
Jiang Yumo knew what he meant but didn’t let go of the basket. “No, only part of it is mine. The rest belongs to the others, and… it’s girls’ stuff.”
Duan Ye could only retract his hand and restrain himself from looking at what was in her basket.
Fortunately, there weren’t many people in line at the checkout, and they soon came out carrying their shopping bags.
They had originally planned to go to KFC, but it was completely full and there were no seats available, so they had to find a restaurant that didn’t require lining up.
Duan Ye casually asked, “Do you still want to go shopping after we finish eating?”
Guo Shichao and Zhao Zheng looked nervously at the three girls at the table.
It seemed that if the girls nodded, they would have to perform suicide on the spot.
Jiang Yumo thought for a moment. “I want to go to the Xinhua Bookstore. Do you want to come with me?”
The last sentence was addressed to her two good friends.
Yan Qing shook her head. “I don’t want to go. I’ve had enough of bookstores.”
Sun Mengting was a bit hesitant. She wanted to accompany Jiang Yumo to the bookstore, but she also wanted to continue shopping for small accessories.
Duan Ye washed a cup and chopsticks for Jiang Yumo and then asked in a negotiating tone, “Or maybe I can accompany you to the bookstore?”
He glanced at the other two guys, “Let the four of them go shopping.”
Yan Qing’s eyes lit up, “That works! We’ll do our thing, and you guys can go on a date!”
Jiang Yumo corrected her, “We’re going to the bookstore to buy books.”
Sun Mengting also thought this arrangement was great, “I don’t have any objections.”
Zhao Zheng said, “I do, I also want to go to the bookstore!”
Duan Ye glanced at him, pretending not to hear what he said, “Alright then, it’s settled.”
Zhao Zheng : “?” D*mn it, when was it settled?
Guo Shichao : “…”
D*mn it, Brother Duan, you value love over friendship, you traitor!
After lunch, with Zhao Zheng’s resentful gaze, Duan Ye left the restaurant with Jiang Yumo, and headed to the nearby Xinhua Bookstore. The Xinhua Bookstore in the provincial capital was very large, and Jiang Yumo took almost twenty minutes to find all the reference books she needed on Ning Zhiyu’s book list.
“Whose books are these?”
“Ning Zhiyu’s,” Jiang Yumo held the books and looked at him sideways, “Don’t tell me you forgot again?”
What kind of memory is that?
Duan Ye naturally took the books from her hands. “I remembered.”
Jiang Yumo laughed and, as they left the bookstore, caught sight of a real estate agency across the street. “Hey, is that a real estate agency?”
Duan Ye followed her gaze. “It should be.”
“Let’s go take a look.” Jiang Yumo was interested.
She suddenly remembered that in the original work she dreamed of, it seemed that house prices skyrocketed. Many people were almost sacrificing their lives to buy a house. She had never had a concept of a house, but she remembered that in that dream that made her very sad and hurt, Seventh Aunt and Eighth Aunt in the room also mentioned that Duan Ye couldn’t afford to buy a house because his conditions were not good… So, was a house really important in the future?
The two of them arrived at the entrance of the agency, and the transparent door was covered with A4-sized advertisements, introducing how many square meters the houses in which community had, how many bedrooms and living rooms, and how much money they cost.
For Jiang Yumo, the largest sum she had ever encountered was the red envelope money she received during Chinese New Year.
Given by her parents and relatives, it would add up to several thousand yuan.
Before she entered high school, all this red envelope money had to be handed over to her mother, who said she had opened an account for her to save it.
Although she had never seen the account or card where her New Year’s money was stored…
After starting high school, she learned to stand up for herself, and her mother reluctantly agreed that she could keep the extra money she received from her New Year’s money after deducting what her mother gave away.
Jiang Yumo pointed to an advertisement on the door and asked Duan Ye, “Do you think a 60-square-meter house for 280,000 yuan is expensive?”
Duan Ye knew more about money than she did. “Not cheap,” he said.
The unit price was almost 5,000 yuan.
The average salary in the provincial capital was only about 2,000 or 3,000 yuan.
It would take two months of work, without eating or drinking, to buy one square meter, and this location was not considered very good.
Jiang Yumo thoughtfully remembered that in the past year, a TV drama was broadcasted on the satellite channel. The story was based on the protagonist’s sister wanting to buy a house, and it talked about how difficult it was for the younger generation to survive outside and how much pressure they faced as house prices began to soar. This trend of soaring house prices is currently only happening in big cities and has not yet affected the provincial capital where they are.
The real estate agency was almost empty, and the girl in a small suit handed Jiang Yumo a promotional leaflet when she saw them, “If you’re interested, you can take a look and show it to your parents when you go back. It’s best to buy a house early!”
With nothing to do, the real estate agent girl sighed again, “I have a classmate who sells houses in Shenshi, and it’s really hot there. Maybe the prices here will rise in a couple of years.”
Jiang Yumo took the leaflet and thought of Ning Zhiyu’s words about wanting to work hard to earn money to buy a house. She softly asked, “Can you give me another one?”
The real estate agent smiled, “Of course, that’s what leaflets are for.”
Jiang Yumo carefully folded the brochure and put it in her messenger bag.
Duan Ye found it strange. He knew her well and she rarely showed interest in things that didn’t concern her. He asked in a low voice, “Do Uncle and Aunt want to buy a house?”
Jiang Yumo shook her head, “No…Do you think my idea is ridiculous?” She paused for a moment and asked, “Do you think a house is a necessity for two people to get married?”
Thinking of the words of her Seventh Aunt and Eighth Aunt in the dream, she was also puzzled.
At seventeen, she never thought about getting married.
She always felt that it was still many, many years away from her.
But they also spoke ill of Duan Ye, in her dream she was sad, and now she was a little angry and a little confused.
When it comes to marriage, isn’t it enough for two people to like each other?
On the zebra crossing, Duan Ye stood beside her, looking down at her.
In fact, he had never thought about this question. It was beyond the scope of what he could consider at his age.
“What do you think?” Duan Ye asked her.
Jiang Yumo was at a loss. “I don’t know. Maybe some people think it’s very important… but now I feel that if you really like someone and want to get married, whether or not you have a house doesn’t seem important.” As if she had come up with a brilliant idea, her eyes lit up. “Actually, you can rent a house, right? Renting a house is also good. You can rent wherever you want, it’s so interesting!”
Duan Ye stared at her, her high ponytail, her bewildered expression, and the determined look in her eyes when she spoke those words. He didn’t know how long he had been staring until she became embarrassed, her fair face turning red. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
Duan Ye held his phone with her sticker on it and his voice gradually became low. “Nothing. Wait for me here.”
Jiang Yumo: “?”
But Duan Ye had already turned around and ran towards the real estate agency.
He had long legs and quickly arrived.
The agent sister was tidying up her desk. When she saw someone come in, she raised her head and recognized him as the silent boy who had just followed the pretty girl.
“Oh, it’s you. What’s up?”
Duan Ye pointed to a stack of leaflets on the table, his eyes full of determination beyond his age, and his voice was low. “Can you give me one?”
Little by little, Momo is steering Duan ge into becoming a “decent” marriage prospect, can’t wait to them finally tying the knot ☺️☺️
I BET THE AUTHOR IS SINGLE AND LIKES TO AVENGES PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
Ahhhhhhhhhh
OH TO HAVE SOMEONE TO THINK OF YOU SO MUCH LIKE THIS
(It’s becoming increasingly obvious that I AM SO ENVIOUS AAAAAA)