You're my wife, don't doubt it!

It was pasted, not carved, because the large characters were raised. Yu Luying stepped forward and touched the characters on the stone wall with her hand: "This is your county high school."

“County junior high school,” Xiao Yao took a picture of Yu Luying with his phone, “going to county junior high school means you’re halfway to county high school, and going to county high school means you’re halfway to university—of course, first you’ll be halfway to prison.”

“If it’s just a university that’s not a top-tier one,” Yu Luying said, “even if your grades are average, it shouldn’t be too difficult, right? As long as you put in a little effort and don’t just laze around like you…”

"Hey, it's my turn again, isn't it?" Xiao Yao sighed. "What are you doing, herding sheep? That's just herding you—this is Sujiang, hell mode, don't be like the dog who doesn't eat meat porridge."

Along the wide, flat sidewalk paved with stone slabs around the gate, Xiao Yao vividly described to Yu Luying the county high school life he had heard about.

The town is under a completely closed, militarized management system. Despite being only three square kilometers in size, everyone is forced to live on campus and is not allowed to go out on weekdays.

We had evening self-study sessions until 10 p.m. every day. We didn't have weekends off. We only got a half-day off every two weeks, usually on Sunday afternoon, which was like prisoners being allowed to go out for a walk.

As for what time to get up every day, the big exams on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Wednesdays, the small exams every day, and the dating and hiding from the authorities like a guerrilla force, that goes without saying.

“Early capitalist sweatshops were nothing special,” Xiao Yao said with some optimism. “Now that I think about it, maybe my parents’ divorce was a good thing.”

"...You're just bragging," Yu Luying said skeptically, "How could I possibly treat my students like that?"

“I’m bragging,” Xiao Yao laughed, “Ask Xu Ruiyi and the others yourself tonight, they’re studying at the county high school—what do you mean by ‘low human rights advantage’?”

"Even a petty thug can get into the county high school?" Yu Luying said with a sneer.

“It’s impossible to get in through the exam,” Xiao Yao said. “The tuition fee is 10,000 yuan for every point you miss on the high school entrance exam. It’s a fixed price, and we’re fair to everyone.”

Yu Luying: "...No wonder Teacher Song would act this way."

As they spoke, Xiao Yao, without looking to the side and with an air of matter-of-fact, opened the side gate of the school and led Yu Luying inside.

"Hey, hey, what are you doing?" Old Li from the gatehouse chased after them.

Chapter 215 First Kiss

2023-05-30

*This chapter is also known as "A First Kiss Flavored Like a Sesame Cake"

From Shixiao Primary School to Xinmiao Middle School, and then from Xinmiao to the county junior high school, Xiao Yao finally managed to get into a place, but Old Man Li at the gatehouse refused to let him in no matter what. Xiao Yao explained that he was a recent graduate, but it was no use.

Seeing that Xiao Yao was getting agitated again, Yu Luying was worried that he would follow the local residents' tough and fierce nature and do something outrageous like beating an old man. So she apologized to Old Man Li and dragged Xiao Yao away.

Xiao Yao had hoped to revisit the place and share with Yu Luying the place where he had once lived and fought, but he was turned away on his own turf for an entire afternoon. This left Xiao Yao feeling frustrated, indignant, and full of frustration.

It's also embarrassing.

If Yu Luying and Xiao Yao were to travel to another city and Yu Luying wanted to take Xiao Yao to the local church for a prayer, but were arrogantly turned away by the doorman, she would probably experience the same unpleasantness.

“That makes sense.” Xiao Yao deliberately pronounced “岂” in the fourth tone.

Yu Luying wanted to go back to the Party School to change her clothes, but she had spent the whole afternoon running around in the scorching sun, feeling resentful. However, she gently comforted Xiao Yao, saying, "Oh, you just wanted to show me the place where you used to study and live."

"Yes," Xiao Yao said sullenly.

“I can see it from the outside,” Yu Luying said. “It doesn’t matter whether we go in or not. The most important thing is that I walked this route with you, the route you used to walk every day, didn’t I?”

Xiao Yao certainly didn't think that "lingering at the door" and "not going in" were the same thing. He was about to retort casually when he suddenly had a flash of inspiration and his emotional intelligence kicked in. He realized that Yu Luying was just trying to make him happy, so he changed his words and said, "Little Apple - thank you, you are really good to me."

As he said this, he stopped and turned around, turning Yu Luying 90 degrees to face him, and took her hands in his: "I'll have to ask you to walk with me on the road ahead."

After saying this, he leaned forward and hugged the girl, secretly regretting his words and wondering why he had brought up such a sensitive topic as "later".

Fortunately, Yu Luying simply gave a soft "hmm".

Xiao Yao hugged her even tighter.

“If you wish,” Yu Luying added softly.

It was about 4:30 pm, and the sunlight on the street was not as scorching as before.

Seeing that it was almost time, Xiao Yao decided to take Yu Luying to carry out the last item on the itinerary that Dong Ru had booked—to eat sesame seed cakes.

"Where can't you get sesame seed cakes?" Yu Luying asked curiously as she sat in the rickshaw.

“You really can’t find our Dongru sesame seed cakes anywhere else,” Xiao Yao proudly introduced.

"It's so delicious?" Yu Luying's interest was slightly piqued.

Before even getting off the bus, I could see a large crowd gathered there from afar, creating a lively scene, with wisps of white smoke drifting out of the shop.

"Business is so good!" Yu Luying said, her voice tinged with a hint of glee.

This mentality is similar to how young girls later on liked to visit online celebrity hotspots.

They got off the bus, paid, and joined the line "over there".

Although there is no habit of queuing, people generally wait in order of arrival.

The sesame seed cake maker was a lean man who looked to be in his forties. He had a thin face, was not tall, and wore a white apron. He was vigorously kneading the snow-white dough with a rolling pin.

Beside him were piles of shredded radish, plastic bags of shrimp roe, sesame seeds, and various oils and other seasonings.

"It smells so good!" the girl said happily, craning her neck to look into the dark charcoal stove, where the flames were burning brightly.

The inner wall of the charcoal stove was covered with white sesame cakes, dripping oil, which sizzled as it touched the flames.

"Ah!" The embers at the bottom of the stove suddenly shot up high, startling the girl so much that she turned pale and instinctively took a step back.

"Be careful!" Xiao Yao said quickly.

A small tuft of hair at the ends of Yu Luying's hair was already slightly burnt. A low chuckle rang out around her, and two middle-aged men said something to her in Dongru dialect. She couldn't understand them, so she could only give them a shy, embarrassed, awkward, yet polite smile, and then take a step back.

"Are there this many people here every day?" To ease the awkwardness, Yu Luying hid behind Xiao Yao and asked him in a low voice.

"That's about right, there aren't that many people," Xiao Yao replied.

"Is this the only one?" Yu Luying asked Xiao Yao.

“I know of two or three,” Xiao Yao replied. “In total, there are probably three to five in the whole town…”

"Is it really that popular?"

“I don’t know—anyway, here,” Xiao Yao recalled, “there’s one wave during breakfast time, another wave in the afternoon, but it seems like they’re not open during the day or at night.”

"Oh...that's quite stylish?" Yu Luying said.

“Anyway, these are all old shops that have been around for over ten years,” Xiao Yao explained. “The people of Dongru have developed this habit, and many of them come to buy sesame cakes around 4 a.m. every day…”

As they were talking, it was finally Xiao Yao's turn.

The lean man making the pancakes looked at Xiao Yao and asked impatiently in his local dialect, "How many do you want? Regular or extra?"

"Let's process it," Xiao Yao replied instinctively, "Is the price the same as before?"

"The regular one is 70 cents, the processed one is 1 yuan, and the deluxe one is 1.2 yuan."

“The deluxe version,” Xiao Yao said without hesitation.

Yu Luying didn't quite understand Dongru dialect, but she could roughly make out the numbers, and blurted out, "So cheap?"

“Hmm,” Xiao Yao whispered to Yu Luying, “The price didn’t go up at all during the year I was gone.”

"How many do you want?" the man asked, but received no answer. He noticed the two middle school-aged boys whispering amongst themselves. When he asked a second time, his tone was a bit fierce: "Hey, how many do you want?"

"Five, five, shall we?" Xiao Yao quickly asked, "Is that enough, Little Apple?"

"Oh? Not so many, right? Can we finish them all?" Yu Luying tugged at Xiao Yao's hand: "I'll just eat one to taste it, I can't eat too many."

"Stop fussing, just five is fine, there are others waiting." Xiao Yao made the decision: "Five!"

After placing the order, he pulled Yu Luying away.

"What's wrong? We can't finish five of them," Yu Luying said softly.

"Sigh, if it really doesn't work, I'll just eat four. How can I not finish them?" Xiao Yao said nonchalantly.

"You can really eat!" Yu Luying complained casually. "If you eat until you're stuffed, won't I be stuffed too?"

"Ugh, you're so annoying, why are you being so fussy?" Xiao Yao said impatiently, "Five cakes are such a good omen—five cakes and two fish."

“Okay, we’ll have two more fish tonight. Five cakes and two fish will fill you up,” Yu Luying said with a smile.

"Aren't you worried about eating too much now?" Xiao Yao teased her. "Oh dear, I'm suddenly starting to look forward to it."

"What are you expecting?"

"Damn it, I haven't had Dongru's sesame seed cakes for a year." Xiao Yao slapped his thigh.

"Is it really that delicious?" Yu Luying asked dismissively.

“It really is,” Xiao Yao said. “You’ll know once you eat it. Once you eat it, you’ll find that all those sesame seed cakes you’ve eaten in Shanghai, or this sesame seed cake, or that sesame seed cake, or Huang X sesame seed cake—I’m not targeting anyone in particular—are all garbage.”

Yu Luying: "Isn't it just the nostalgia for my hometown? If it were really that delicious, how could people be trapped in this remote corner of the world and unable to get out?"

Xiao Yao was a little unhappy when he heard this. Yu Luying keenly noticed this and immediately apologized, saying, "Oh dear, look at you. Since we started living together, my emotional intelligence has been dragged down by you."

"?" Xiao Yao laughed and said, "Is this what you call self-reflection?"

"Okay, it's my fault..." Yu Luying hugged Xiao Yao's arm and leaned on his shoulder.

Strange looks came from the side.

Xiao Yao gently nudged her and whispered, "People are all looking at us."

"Why are you looking at us?" Yu Luying asked, puzzled.

"Well, it's nothing really," Xiao Yao explained in a low voice, "It's just that this place isn't like Shanghai. Even if high school students here are dating, they tend to be more low-key when they're out and about, you know?"