Chapter 21: Candied Chestnuts

She wondered if her boring work scenes were being seen by the viewers.

The comment she made earlier was actually a test, to see if she could learn something she wanted to know through the barrage.

She looked at the comments and was pleasantly surprised to find that someone was responding.

[Isn’t promoting the idea of getting something for nothing a bit inappropriate?]

[What’s wrong with wanting to pick up money? Who hasn’t fantasized about finding money at some point?]

[I don’t know where you can find money, but Xilan, you have some hidden treasures at home!]

Song Xilan froze. Hidden treasures at home? What treasures?

Her family was fairly average, and they were among the first to have a television in their neighborhood. Back in the 1960s, they bought a black-and-white Panda TV. She was less than ten years old then and asked her dad if there were any family heirlooms she was supposed to inherit.

Her dad laughed and gave her a broken stone, telling her it was a family heirloom. She naïvely kept it for years, only to find out later that her dad had been joking.

Her parents came from poor farming backgrounds, so there was no way they had any inherited treasures. Even when their financial situation improved, most of their earnings were spent on food and raising her, with no extra money for gold or valuables.

The valuable things in her home could be counted on one hand: the TV, a radio, a sewing machine, a bicycle, and a watch. There was nothing else of value. If anyone said her family had treasures, she’d be the first to not believe it.

But those people didn’t know she could see the comments, and there was no reason for them to lie to her. So what could these treasures be?

Unfortunately, the comments suddenly stopped, probably because her boring inventory counting at work wasn’t interesting enough for viewers, so this part of the plot was skipped.

Song Xilan sighed, straightened her emotions, and got back to work.

Soon, it was time to get off work. The inventory wasn’t finished, but there was no overtime, no such rule.

The boss said, “We’ll continue tomorrow,” and everyone quickly packed up, ready to leave.

Song Xilan glanced toward the door but didn’t see Jiang Chengxiao, feeling a little disappointed.

Didn’t they agree on five o’clock? He hadn’t kept his word.

The work at the store was relatively easy. Most of the people working here were family members of the factory’s cadres, who all lived in the factory dormitories.

Juanzi, holding Song Xilan’s arm, said she would go home with her. But Song Xilan made up an excuse that she needed to buy something, and refused.

After waiting for a while outside the closed store, Song Xilan still didn’t see Jiang Chengxiao. Just as she was about to get angry, she suddenly heard a cheerful voice, “I won again! All of these are mine now!”

Song Xilan followed the sound and realized why she hadn’t seen him earlier—he was playing with the kids!

She saw him squatting on the ground with several runny-nosed little kids, unbothered by the dirt, sweeping a pile of cigarette butts towards himself.

One of the kids suddenly burst into tears, kicking his legs on the ground: “No, no, I’m not playing anymore! Give me back my cigarette butts!”

Jiang Chengxiao said, “A bet is a bet. I won, so of course, they’re mine!”

Song Xilan walked over and scolded, “Why are you bullying these little kids?”

Jiang Chengxiao looked up and flashed a bright smile. “Just having some fun, kid. I won’t tease you anymore. I’ll give everything back to you. Go ahead and get your own!”

The kids happily crowded together. “This one is mine, this one is mine!”

“No, this one’s mine. The other one is yours.”

It looked like a fight was about to break out over the unfair distribution.

Though they were just cigarette butts, to the kids, depending on the brand and how old the butts were, they considered them to be of different values, and they could distinguish them very clearly!

To avoid a fight, Jiang Chengxiao stepped in again. “Alright, alright, no fighting. Let me distribute them.”

He gathered the cigarette butts together and handed them out one by one: “This one is yours, this one is yours, yours is the big peony, his is the small one, these two foreign ones, yours is newer, his is the old one. Everything’s correct, right?”

The child who got his good cigarette butts looked at him in admiration. “That’s right! How do you remember everything so clearly?”

The child who had hoped to swap his worse cigarette butts for someone else’s good ones was left silent and disgruntled.

Song Xilan couldn’t help but laugh. After she entered middle school, she stopped playing such games. And here he was, a grown man, playing with kids so seriously.

Jiang Chengxiao stood up, brushing the dust from the hem of his coat. “Are you off work now?”

“I’ve been waiting for you. I thought you weren’t coming!” Song Xilan didn’t realize that her voice had a slight pout to it, soft and tender.

Jiang Chengxiao felt a pleasant tingling in his heart and smiled. “There’s a difference between men and women. I was afraid that if I kept looking for you, it might have a bad influence on you, so I didn’t come.”

Song Xilan thought about the cold words she’d said at lunch and felt a little guilty. “There’s no rule saying men and women can’t be friends. What bad influence? Besides, we’re doing something serious. Anyway, forget about that. Let me tell you about Jiang Jingru’s situation!”

“You want to talk about it standing here?”

Song Xilan thought for a moment. “There’s a little park over there. At this time, there shouldn’t be too many people around. Let’s walk over there and talk.”

It was that time of day when everyone was rushing home to cook, so the park wasn’t crowded. This was the first time Song Xilan had walked through a park alone with a young man, and she felt somewhat nervous. But she tried to act casual, pretending like she wasn’t bothered, so much so that she ended up walking in sync with him without realizing it.

Jiang Chengxiao noticed a vendor selling candied chestnuts by the side of the road. He went over and bought a bag, handing it to Song Xilan. “Take this, warm your hands.”

Holding something in her hands felt comforting and warm, making her walk a little more naturally.

As they walked, Jiang Chengxiao casually took a candied chestnut from the bag in her hands, peeling it and saying, “Let me first tell you about my comrade’s situation!”

As he said this, he handed her the peeled chestnut. His actions were so natural that Song Xilan almost didn’t think about it. She accepted it and ate it. The chestnut was soft and warm, filling her mouth with a sweet, pleasant taste.

“Two years ago, my old man threw me to the Xisha Islands on the sea border to serve in the army,” Jiang Chengxiao said.