The taste of the milk candy suddenly burst in his mouth, an indescribable flavor that was far better than the sugary wrappers he had licked before!

He was afraid to lick too hard, worried that the taste would vanish too quickly, so he ate it very carefully.

Not receiving a response from Cen Huai’an, Chu Xia didn’t mind and led him toward a street vendor location not far from the department store.

There, a vendor was selling clothes with very fashionable designs.

Chu Xia was selecting clothes when she heard a soft, slightly hoarse voice beside her say, “Sweet.”

The voice was small and childish.

Chu Xia looked down at Cen Huai’an in surprise, realizing that he was answering her previous question.

She felt a bit amused, thinking that his reaction time was a bit slow.

However, Chu Xia didn’t say much.

She held up a piece of clothing and asked, “Do you like this one?”

Cen Huai’an responded with a simple “mm,” showing little emotion.

Chu Xia decided not to ask him further and made the decision herself.

Cen Huai’an carefully finished the candy, savoring its taste, which he thought was the best thing he had ever eaten.

He glanced at the cloth bag on Chu Xia’s shoulder, which held more candy, and licked his lips, longing for another piece.

But he just glanced at it and continued to focus on the shoes in his arms, not reacting to Chu Xia’s comparisons of clothes to his body.

The clothes from this vendor were of good quality, not the kind of low-quality items often found at street stalls.

The vendor was a young man wearing a straw hat, squatting in the shade of a tree.

The clothes were hung on hangers, and there were more laid out on the ground.

His service attitude was much better than that of the department store salespeople.

Chu Xia noticed that the vendor kept showing a bright smile with his big white teeth.

No matter how customers asked questions, tried on clothes, or bargained, his smile never faded.

He spoke kindly, praising the clothes and making buyers happy, resulting in several pieces of clothing being sold quickly.

Noticing Chu Xia selecting several pieces of clothing, the vendor came over and asked, “Miss, have you found anything you like? Rest assured, all the clothes I have are carefully selected from Yangcheng. None of them are subpar.”

Indeed, Chu Xia judged clothes by style first and quality second.

She touched several items, and the fabric of each one felt good.

So, she quickly picked two outfits each for herself and Cen Huai’an.

She chose a white long dress with a small V-neck for herself.

The neckline wasn’t just a simple V-cut but featured overlapping collars with a slight ruffle.

The skirt was pleated, and the hem swayed gently in the wind, looking casual yet elegant. It seemed timeless, even in the future.

Chu Xia immediately liked the dress at first glance.

The other outfit was a relaxed-fit sky-blue and white striped shirt paired with a pair of classic jeans (not bell-bottomed but the traditional style).

For Cen Huai’an, she picked a simple outfit: a navy blue and white striped T-shirt with a sailor collar, a red T-shirt with a round neck, and two different colored knee-length shorts.

Chuxia haggled with the vendor.

Since she was buying a lot and using the bargaining skills she learned in her previous life, the total cost for the clothes came to just over thirty yuan.

The main reason was that the skirt she bought for herself was a bit more expensive, while the children’s clothes were the cheapest.

The vendor packed the clothes in a paper bag.

Then Chuxia remembered that she and Cen Huaian also needed to buy some undergarments.

The street vendors weren’t bold enough to sell those, so she returned to the department store to purchase them.

Seeing that it was getting late, Chuxia detoured to the market and bought three pieces of Chinese yam, a small free-range chicken from a farmer on the outskirts, as well as a kilogram of flour, millet, and rice.

That was already almost too much for her to carry, so she didn’t buy anything else, deciding to return the next morning when the vegetables would be fresher.

Cen Huaian had become numb to Chuxia buying things, but on the way back, his eyes never left the chicken.

The weight of the items made it exhausting for Chuxia.

After getting off the bus, she and Cen Huaian had to walk and rest intermittently, taking twice as long to get home as it had taken to leave.

The first thing Chuxia did upon returning was sit down in a chair to rest—she was utterly exhausted.

This body was truly too weak; she even felt a bit of a headache.

“It’s so hot and I’m so thirsty. An’an, could you pour me a glass of water?” Chuxia fanned herself as she looked at Cen Huaian.

But as soon as she spoke, Chuxia regretted it.

Just by looking at Cen Huaian, she could tell he wasn’t going to help her—he probably still resented her.

So she quickly added, “Never mind, I’ll get it myself in a bit.”

To her surprise, Cen Huaian stood up, ran to the kitchen, grabbed a bowl, and struggled to lift the thermos from under the table, pouring a bowl of water and carefully placing it in front of Chuxia.

“Here you go.”

His face still bore that cold and resistant expression, and his tone was far from friendly.

Before Chuxia could say anything, he ran back into the room, not coming out again.

However, Chuxia noticed out of the corner of her eye that the tips of his ears were slightly red, which made her smile.

She took a sip of the water and then called out loudly in the direction of the room, “Thank you, An’an! The water is so sweet!”

In the room, Cen Huaian covered his head with a pillow, thinking his mother’s laughter was incredibly annoying.

He wasn’t forgiving her—no, he was just doing it because of that candy she gave him earlier.

She was so weak that if he didn’t pour the water, she might not have been able to drink any by evening.

But he didn’t realize that the gloom on his face and the spiky, defensive demeanor had softened a bit.

Chuxia was indeed very thirsty, and after drinking a bowl of water, she finally felt better.

The house wasn’t big, only about 20 square meters, with two rooms partitioned off.

The outer room served as a living room, filled with various things, while the inner room was where she and Cen Huaian slept.

Her headache persisted, and Chuxia couldn’t take it anymore.

She got up, went into the room, and saw Cen Huaian lying on the bed.

She reached out and patted his back, startling him so much that he jumped up, his spiky demeanor immediately returning.

Seeing it was Chuxia, he didn’t relax completely, but his body wasn’t as tense.

At that moment, Chuxia didn’t have the energy to comfort him.

She just said, “I’m going to take a nap,” and lay down on the bed.

When she woke up, the first thing she saw were a pair of large, wolf-like eyes staring at her, startling her so much that her heart skipped a beat.

Covering her chest, she remembered that she was now in the world of the book.

Rubbing her head, she slowly sat up and realized that the room was already quite dark.

The curtains in the inner room were drawn, and the lights were off, which was why she got spooked by Cen Huaian’s big eyes.

“Didn’t you go out to play?”

Cen Huaian didn’t say anything. He just stood up and walked out of the room.

He would never admit that he’d stayed in the room all afternoon, occasionally putting his hand under his mother’s nose to check if she was still breathing.

Chuxia didn’t know it, but her face had been ghostly pale while she was sleeping, her lips drained of all color, which was particularly frightening.

Even though Cen Huaian said nothing, Chuxia’s face showed a smile, knowing he had probably watched over her all afternoon.

Originally, Chuxia had planned to cook yam and Poria chicken soup, but there wasn’t enough time now, so she had to settle for something simpler.

Because she and Cen Huaian had been eating irregularly for a long time, their stomachs were weak, so she cooked some yam, red date, and millet porridge and made some scallion pancakes.

While making the pancakes, she realized she had forgotten to buy eggs, so she planned to ask her neighbor, Sister Li, if she could buy a few from her.

To her surprise, Sister Li was too generous and insisted that she take the two eggs for free.

In return, after making the pancakes, Chuxia sent two over to Sister Li’s house.

“Chuxia, you’re too polite! These pancakes smell so good! I could smell them from inside my house, and now we’re in for a treat!” Sister Li said enthusiastically.