Chapter 22

The first time Song Wenzhou met Mu Chi’s grandmother was on the second day of the winter break, when Mu Chi forcibly took him to visit.

Song Wenzhou received a call early in the morning from Mu Chi inviting him to his house. Surprised that Mu Chi was awake so early during the break, he sleepily asked, “Can I go in a couple of days?”

He had just returned home from school the day before and didn’t feel like going out.

“But we’re leaving for the UK tomorrow afternoon,” Mu Chi’s voice sounded helpless.

Song Wenzhou didn’t expect their schedule to be so rushed and hesitated. “Then, should I wait until you guys come back?”

“That’ll be a long time from now. I want to go today…” Mu Chi paused, quickly changing his words, “No, my grandmother wants to see you today.”

“Why?” Song Wenzhou, still not fully awake, didn’t notice the oddness in Mu Chi’s words. “Your grandmother has never met me.”

Without hesitation, Mu Chi replied, “Because I mention you to her all the time, so she’s really interested in you. She thinks you’re much better-behaved than me.”

Song Wenzhou yawned. “Is that so? Then thank your grandmother for me.”

“You can thank her in person when you come to my house today,” Mu Chi urged.

“I’ll go later, I’m really tired right now…” Song Wenzhou unconsciously added a tone of complaining.

“You can come to my house and keep sleeping,” Mu Chi said, suddenly stuttering a little.

Song Wenzhou pulled the blanket over his head, thinking, “Is Mu Chi’s brain okay? Who sleeps peacefully in their own bed and then moves to someone else’s house to continue sleeping?”

“Can I come pick you up?” Mu Chi asked on the phone.

Song Wenzhou closed his eyes and muttered, “You’re so damn annoying.”

Mu Chi didn’t get angry at all. Instead, he laughed a few times happily and said, “I’m about to leave now, I’ll be at your place in twenty minutes.”

Song Wenzhou hung up the phone without hesitation, irritated, and punched the bed in frustration.

He couldn’t understand how someone could be so shameless in the world.

Annoyed as he was, a few minutes later, Song Wenzhou reluctantly got out of bed, pulling the covers off and changing clothes while washing up.

Ren Suyi and Song Chenglang had already gone to work. They assumed Song Wenzhou, just starting his break, might sleep in a bit longer, so they hadn’t left him breakfast.

Who knew Mu Chi would always do the unexpected, even inviting someone over so early in the morning.

When the doorbell rang, it didn’t feel like twenty minutes had passed.

Song Wenzhou had just opened the door when a snowball hit his forehead. He couldn’t dodge in time and reflexively shut his eyes, allowing the snowball to explode and melt on his forehead while he heard Mu Chi laughing loudly, “Hahaha!”

Song Wenzhou: “…”

Is hitting your desk mate a crime?

After laughing, Mu Chi reached out to wipe the remaining water on Song Wenzhou’s forehead, happily asking, “Surprised?”

“Surprised, but not happy,” Song Wenzhou brushed his hand away.

“No, no, no,” Mu Chi tried to hold back his laughter, “You were surprised, and I was happy.”

Song Wenzhou couldn’t help but laugh, grinning as he glanced at Mu Chi before turning around and heading inside.

Mu Chi followed behind him, chattering away. “Do you know, Wenzhou, it’s snowing outside?”

Song Wenzhou replied with a soft “Hmm.”

He had snowballs hitting his face, so how could he not know it was snowing?

“It’s the first snow of the year,” Mu Chi said. “It’s nice, we caught it on the last day.”

“What?” Song Wenzhou didn’t quite understand what he meant.

“Nothing,” Mu Chi tilted his head to look at him, “I just wanted to wake you up to see the snow. You’re not mad at me for waking you up, are you?”

Mu Chi had also been woken up by his grandmother. When he saw the outside covered in white, his first reaction was to share it with Song Wenzhou. Just telling him it was snowing wasn’t enough, he had to take him to see it personally.

Song Wenzhou shook his head and asked, “Do you want to sit for a while or leave now?”

“Leave now!” Mu Chi said excitedly, “I told Grandma, she’s waiting for us to come back for breakfast.”

Song Wenzhou then got ready to change his shoes and go out.

“No, you’re dressed too thinly, you need to put on a thicker coat,” Mu Chi emphasized, wanting to express the severity of the cold. “It’s really cold outside.”

Song Wenzhou knew that if he didn’t change, Mu Chi would keep nagging him, and he didn’t feel like talking right now. He was too lazy to argue, so he obediently went back to his room to change. Behind him, Mu Chi shouted loudly to remind him not to forget to put on a scarf.

Before leaving, Mu Chi supervised as Song Wenzhou wrapped the scarf around his neck twice. When he lowered his head, his lower face was covered, and Mu Chi checked to make sure no wind could get in. Only when he was satisfied did he nod in approval.

Song Wenzhou wasn’t used to wearing a scarf, and with it wrapped tightly around his neck, it made him feel like he couldn’t breathe properly. The sensation was even stronger when he was standing in the enclosed elevator.

He wanted to pull it off, but Mu Chi, sensing his intent, stopped him.

“It’s really cold outside,” Mu Chi said seriously. “Trust me.”

Song Wenzhou had no choice but to give in.

When they came out of the elevator and looked through the glass doors, Song Wenzhou finally realized that the snow from last night had been quite heavy, and a solid layer had already accumulated outside.

He lived on a high floor, and since he hadn’t opened the curtains after waking up naturally, he didn’t get a chance to look outside. Hearing Mu Chi talk about it, he thought it was just light snow.

When they stepped outside, the cold wind blew, and Song Wenzhou quickly huddled his neck in.

Mu Chi turned and looked at him with a satisfied expression, as if to say: “See? I wasn’t lying, was I?”

Song Wenzhou ignored him and walked straight ahead. After a few steps, Mu Chi grabbed his arm.

“Wait,” Mu Chi pointed to another direction. “My car’s over there.”

“?!” Song Wenzhou, hands in his pockets, asked in confusion, “You drive?”

If he remembered correctly, Mu Chi had only gotten his license on his seventeenth birthday, and he was still a minor.

Mu Chi raised an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything, just motioned for Song Wenzhou to follow him.

After turning a corner, Mu Chi stopped by a row of bushes, where a human-carrying bicycle was parked.

Song Wenzhou: “…”

Riding a bicycle in the snow, that’s so like Mu Chi.

Putting aside whether it’s cold or not, isn’t he afraid the road will be too slippery and he’ll fall face-first into the snow?

While thinking, Mu Chi had already swung his long legs over the bicycle and enthusiastically called out, “Come on, Zhouzhou, hop on, I’ll give you a ride.”

Song Wenzhou frowned slightly and asked politely, “Won’t it be a bit cold?”

“It’s fine,” Mu Chi said generously. “I’ll block the wind for you in the front. Don’t worry, my build can totally shield you from the wind and rain.”

Song Wenzhou forced a smile and replied, “It feels like I’m taking advantage of you.”

Mu Chi clicked his tongue and said, “Take advantage as much as you want, no need to be polite, come on, hop on.”

Song Wenzhou imagined the scene where both he and Mu Chi fell off the bike on the busy road and sighed, shaking his head. “I get dizzy on bikes, how about we take the bus instead?”

“You’re teasing me, right? Who gets dizzy on bikes?” Mu Chi didn’t believe him.

Song Wenzhou nodded firmly. “I do.”

In any case, he wasn’t going to ride the bike. He would rather walk to Mu Chi’s house alone than risk falling with him.

A few minutes later.

“Ready to go,” Mu Chi grumbled and turned to Song Wenzhou in the backseat of the bike. “You don’t believe in your older brother’s biking skills? Wait until I show you what drifting on ice looks like.”

Song Wenzhou’s face was full of resistance, but under Mu Chi’s “domineering presence,” he could only pray that Mu Chi was just joking.

Mu Chi saw he was scared and smiled with satisfaction. “I was kidding. I’ll get you home safe and sound, and if you’re scared, just hold on to my waist.”

“My hands are cold,” Song Wenzhou mumbled.

Mu Chi looked at his pale fingers and sighed, “I forgot to make you wear gloves earlier.”

He was about to take off his own gloves to give to Song Wenzhou.

Song Wenzhou quickly stopped him. “You’re the one in front, it’s colder for you.”

Mu Chi didn’t insist. He opened the pocket of his coat and said, “Then put your hands in my coat pocket, it’ll be warm and you can hold onto me.”

Worried that Mu Chi wouldn’t listen and would insist on giving him his gloves, Song Wenzhou obediently slipped his hands into Mu Chi’s pocket, lightly resting his hands on Mu Chi’s waist.

“Let’s go,” Song Wenzhou urged.

“Don’t rush,” Mu Chi seriously told him. “It’s cold and the road is slippery, we need to drive safely.”

Drive my ass!

Song Wenzhou grumbled in his heart. It was clearly Mu Chi who didn’t listen to him and insisted on riding the bike on a snowy day, yet he still had the nerve to lecture him.

Mu Chi seemed to know what he was thinking. As he made a turn on the bike, he laughed and said, “Got it? If you drive in the future, always pay attention to safety. I don’t have to, I’m really good at it.”

As the bike moved forward, the cold wind blew more fiercely on Song Wenzhou’s face. He tried to move closer to Mu Chi’s back, his mouth covered by the scarf, and muffled, said, “Stop talking.”

The road was occasionally bumpy, and Song Wenzhou’s body pressed even closer to Mu Chi. Fortunately, Mu Chi wasn’t wearing a down jacket today but a soft cotton coat, so even when his face touched it, it didn’t feel cold.

Although Mu Chi seemed unreliable, he was actually riding carefully along the way. He steadily carried Song Wenzhou, and nothing happened like the embarrassing scene Song Wenzhou had imagined.

“We’ve arrived.” Mu Chi stopped the bike next to a fence, kicked the ground with his feet, and, after Song Wenzhou got off, swung his legs off the seat and started walking, pushing the bike while directing Song Wenzhou to open the nearby wooden gate.

The wooden gate was only waist-high and didn’t serve any security purpose. Even the surrounding fence seemed to be just for decorative purposes.

Entering through the wooden gate led into a spacious yard, with gardens and vegetable patches of varying sizes separated on either side.

It was the middle of winter, and the flowers in the garden only had some withered branches and leaves, which were covered in snow that had fallen through the night.

On the other hand, the vegetable patch still had a number of cold-resistant plants, such as red-rooted spinach, young celery seedlings, and radishes with half their heads sticking out… All of them were thriving under the blanket of snow.

Song Wenzhou looked on carefully, and this scene made him reminisce about his childhood.

His grandparents loved peace and quiet. After retiring, they moved back to the county town, where they also had a yard. The layout was different from Mu Chi’s family, but it also had a lively atmosphere.

“This…” Song Wenzhou looked around like an old lady entering the Grand View Garden, dazzled by the sights.

Mu Chi saw the silly look on his face and almost grinned to the back of his head. Proudly, he said, “My house is fun, right? You were hesitating before coming.”

Song Wenzhou pointed to the vegetable patch and turned to ask, “What will happen to these vegetables when you go abroad?”

“What will happen?” Mu Chi said casually. “They’ll stay here, we can’t take them with us.”

“Aren’t they going to die?” Song Wenzhou asked.

“Shouldn’t,” Mu Chi replied, uncertain. “…I think?”

“Your grandma worked so hard to grow them,” Song Wenzhou said, feeling sorry. “It would be such a waste if they die.”

Mu Chi looked at him with amusement and said, “Then when you’re free, come by and pick some to take home and eat.”

Song Wenzhou thought this wasn’t a bad idea, nodded, and said, “I’ll buy them. I’ll send you the money when I pick them.”

Mu Chi clicked his tongue twice and said, “Anyone can pick these vegetables, but you’re my desk mate, why talk about money?”

Song Wenzhou looked at the fence, which was low enough for someone to easily jump over, and believed Mu Chi’s words.

“Hey, do you know that there’s a tradition during the Lantern Festival called ‘stealing vegetables’?” Mu Chi shrugged. “Every year when we’re not home, the people around here come on Lantern Festival night and steal all these vegetables, not leaving a single one.”

Song Wenzhou widened his eyes.

Mu Chi, holding back the urge to pat his head, winked and said, “If you want to eat them, pick them early, or if you’re free on Lantern Festival night, you can come over and join the fun.”

It sounded pretty interesting, and Song Wenzhou was a bit tempted, but he remained reserved and said, “Isn’t that a little inappropriate?”

“What’s wrong with it?” Mu Chi encouraged. “Just remember to video call me, I want to watch too.”

Song Wenzhou: “…”

Video calling the owner of the vegetables while stealing from his garden? It felt a little strange.