You're dumping me, huh? Fine, then I'll just pick up the school beauty and make her my wif

The boy sat in a wicker chair by the window, staring intently at his phone.

The morning light shone through the gap in the gauze curtain behind him, outlining the profile of his face with a pale golden line.

Su Qinghe stared at his face in a daze for a while, then rubbed her eyes and yawned. "A-Che... what are you looking at?"

Hearing the noise, Jiang Che looked away from the screen and turned his head to look at the bed.

They saw that Su Qinghe was still wrapped in the blanket, with only her fluffy head and a pair of sleepy eyes showing.

"Waking up so early, aren't you going to sleep a little longer?"

"Hmm... I'm not going to sleep anymore." Su Qinghe yawned again, shook her head, and asked, "What time is it?"

It's almost eight o'clock.

"Oh? What time did you get up?"

"Around six o'clock."

Su Qinghe wrinkled her nose, wondering how this person could get up so early every day. Then she turned her gaze back to the phone in Jiang Che's hand. "What are you looking at? Let me see."

Jiang Che got up and walked to the bedside, turning his phone screen towards her.

Su Qinghe squinted and leaned closer to take a look.

The screen displays a travel guide, densely covered with various small icons and text notes.

The title reads: "A Complete Guide to the Arcade Streets of Xiamen's Old Town."

Su Qinghe became much more awake, then stretched out a hand from under the covers, took the phone, and began scrolling down from beginning to end.

Each marker on the map is followed by a short, detailed note.

"Middle section of Bo'ai Road - This coconut chicken restaurant is said to have a wait time of at least an hour, so you need to make a reservation in advance."

"Zhongshan Road Arcade - the most concentrated area of ​​Nanyang-style architecture, perfect for panoramic shots."

"Deshengsha Alley End - This alley has great lighting, perfect for taking photos, 3 pm is the best time."

"Shuixiangkou - Old Salt Lemonade, recommended by locals, order it with less ice."

The further down Su Qinghe looked, the slower her fingers moved across the screen.

It wasn't because there was too much content to read, but because she realized that Jiang Che had personally looked up and reorganized these annotations one by one.

And it definitely wasn't something I started doing after I got up this morning; it's impossible to finish so much work between six and eight o'clock.

Then there's only one possibility.

Last night, after she yawned on the balcony, the two went back to the room, and she fell asleep quickly.

After she fell asleep, Jiang Che got up again and spent an unknown amount of time looking up strategies on his phone.

Su Qinghe slowly shifted her gaze from her phone screen and looked up at Jiang Che standing by the bed.

The boy's expression was normal, no different from usual, as if it were just a small thing he did on a whim.

She mumbled something, her tone a mix of gratitude and concern: "What time did you go to sleep last night...?"

Jiang Che reached out and flicked her forehead. "Stop talking nonsense, get up, wash up, eat breakfast, and then we'll leave."

Su Qinghe covered her forehead and groaned, then rolled out of bed and ran into the bathroom.

……

Breakfast is provided at the guesthouse.

After Jiang Che and Su Qinghe finished packing, they met up with Bai Yuning at the restaurant. After eating coconut milk jelly and egg noodles, they got into the car and set off.

After driving along the coastal highway for more than ten minutes, the car entered the old town area.

Change can happen in an instant.

One second you're looking out the window at a stretch of coconut palms and a bright blue coastline, and the next you're greeted by rows and rows of arcade-style buildings with colonnades.

These arcade buildings are exactly the same as those seen on TV, yet they are also quite different.

No matter how high-definition the picture on TV is, it can't capture the texture that's been worn down layer by layer by wind and rain.

The plaster on the columns peeled off piece by piece, revealing bricks of varying shades underneath. The exterior walls were painted in various colors, with one building crammed next to another.

From a distance, it looks a bit like a watercolor paint box that someone spilled when we were kids, with the colors arranged in crooked, long strips.

After getting off the bus, Bai Yuning said she had had enough of being a third wheel, so she waved her hand and said she would go explore by herself first.

After saying goodbye to Bai Yuning, Su Qinghe dragged Jiang Che into the arcade corridor.

Various old shop signs and plaques hang between the pillars. There is a stall selling coconut jelly, and the proprietress is scooping white coconut milk into half a coconut shell with a spoon.

Next door was a tailor shop with an old-fashioned sewing machine at the entrance. An old woman wearing reading glasses was bending down and stepping on the pedal, the sewing machine's needles clicking loudly.

A few steps further on, there is a general store decorated with dried flowers and wooden wind chimes, and the bamboo curtain at the entrance sways in the wind.

Su Qinghe stopped in front of the grocery store.

Her gaze was drawn to a string of seashell wind chimes hanging next to the door frame.

The wind chime is small, consisting of seven or eight thin white seashells strung together with a fine thread. When the wind blows, they tinkle and clang together, producing a crisp and delicate sound.

She tiptoed to take the wind chime down and turned it over to look at the price tag on the back.

Then his eyebrows visibly furrowed. "This tiny one costs 168?"

What kind of shady shop is this? Selling handicrafts as gold?

Although Su Qinghe is now living with Jiang Che and no longer lacks money, she has not been blinded by it.

When buying things, she still considers whether the price matches the actual value, which shows that she is a thrifty and hardworking wife.

Su Qinghe quickly calculated in her mind that 168 yuan could buy more than a dozen cups of milk tea.

Why not use that money to buy some delicious food and drinks to show off to your stomach?

She turned the wind chime over in her hand again, touched the texture of the seashell, and took one last, reluctant look.

Then, gritting my teeth, I hung it back up.

Although she felt a little reluctant, she managed to convince herself to let go.

One hundred and sixty-eight yuan! This thing can't be eaten or drunk. It's just a few seashells strung on a string. There's not even a box. And they dare to sell it for one hundred and sixty-eight yuan?

Forget it, forget it, I won't buy it.

Thinking this, Su Qinghe turned around and ran to the dried flower stall next door, where she was quickly attracted by the things there.

Jiang Che is different.

He's used to being a pampered young master, so he doesn't care about the price of things that aren't too expensive.

One hundred and sixty-eight?

The cup of hand-drip coffee he drinks every morning costs more than that.

He could tell that Su Qinghe liked this, and he also knew that she had always been good at managing her household finances.

So after noticing that she put the things back, he didn't say anything. When Su Qinghe skipped over to the stall next door to look at dried flowers, he quietly came back and took the string of seashell wind chimes off the hook.

The shop owner glanced at him, smiled, and asked, "Did you buy this for your girlfriend?"

Jiang Che nodded slightly, took out his phone to scan the QR code, and then stuffed the wind chime into his coat pocket.

The jacket is a loose-fitting workwear style with deep pockets and small wind chimes, so it's completely invisible from the outside once it's tucked in.

When he casually walked back to Su Qinghe's side, the girl was holding a bunch of dried lavender flowers and sniffing them intently.

After sniffing it, she wrinkled her nose and handed the flower to Jiang Che: "Ah Che, smell this. Is this dried flower fake? It doesn't smell at all..."