Sold immediately after wearing it? I took my family and fled the famine.

Since returning from the Pei residence that day, Jiang Xing has rarely gone to the Pei family.

At first, Pei Jingshi didn't think anything of it. For the first few days, he continued to come to Maocao Village every few days. Sometimes he came to deliver messages for several officials from the Ministry of Revenue, sometimes he came to pick up the potato growth records that Jiang Xing had prepared for the officials, and sometimes he simply came to check on Xiao Niu's homework.

But after coming twice, he noticed something was wrong.

Jiang Xing always happened to be busy when he arrived.

At first, Pei Jingshi thought it was a coincidence, but after it happened several times, he understood.

She was avoiding him.

Pei Jingshi sat in the main room for the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, flipped through a couple of pages of the account books on the table, but finally couldn't sit still any longer and got up to leave.

He knew why Jiang Xing was avoiding him; Pei Jingshi understood, but he couldn't say anything.

He was the one who blurted things out, tearing down the barrier between them. Her avoiding him was the most dignified response she could give. If he were to press the matter further, it would truly become harassment.

Half a month passed in the blink of an eye.

For the next two weeks, Jiang Xing continued to busy herself with her work. Several officials from the Ministry of Revenue came every few days, and Minister Chen even rented a house in the village to live in. He followed Tian Gouzi's father to the fields every day and studied more diligently than anyone else.

Jiang Xing's days were full and he seemed completely unaffected by that incident.

But Pei Jingshi felt as if something was slowly grinding away at his heart, day after day, making him feel suffocated.

That evening, Pei Jingshi came to Maocao Village again. He came to pick up the potato growth records that several officials were going to take to town the next day. Actually, the records could have been picked up by a minor official from the yamen, but he still came himself.

When we arrived at the courtyard gate, before we even went inside, we could hear people talking inside.

It was a man's voice, clear and slightly lazy, with a slight upward inflection at the end of his words, as if he were always laughing.

"Miss Jiang, that's not very kind of you. I rushed back from the border, and I haven't even been home or had a sip of water. You won't even pour me a cup of tea? I've been riding so fast all the way that my bones are about to fall apart."

Pei Jingshi stopped in his tracks.

He recognized the voice. Ling Yuehan.

"If coming uninvited is a valid reason, then there's no such thing as an uninvited guest in this world." Jiang Xing's voice came from the courtyard, her tone carrying a familiarity that even she herself might not have realized: "You've come at the right time. I just dried some chrysanthemum tea a few days ago; I'll brew you a pot to help you relax."

"Miss Jiang still cares about me the most," Ling Yuehan said with a frank smile.

Pei Jingshi stood outside the courtyard gate, gripping the reins, but did not go in immediately.

He heard Ling Yuehan sit down and let out a long sigh of relief. Jiang Xing seemed to have sat down as well. The two of them were talking across a table, their tone as casual as if they had known each other for many years.

"Why did you suddenly come?" Jiang Xing asked. "Isn't the border not completely stable yet?"

"It's all settled now. We had a big fight a few days ago, and that kid Chu Yu led his men and drove the other side back. Now the two sides are negotiating, so they don't need me anymore." Ling Yuehan said casually, but the pride in her words was undeniable: "Besides, I couldn't have not come. You deserve a lot of credit."

"What?"

"Your shipment of grain was truly a lifesaver. It not only solved our immediate crisis, but the thing you sent was really novel; I've never seen anything like it before."

"And Ah Yu, I heard from Old Gu that you were the one who delivered the supplies. That face of yours, tsk, I can't learn from you, but it just looks so irritating." Ling Yuehan said, then laughed first, "And your penicillin, before, it was good if three out of ten wounded soldiers survived, now it's eight out of ten. Miss Jiang, do you know how many people you've saved?"

The courtyard was quiet for a moment.

Sure enough, after a while, Jiang Xing's voice came out, softer than before: "It was Old Wang and Old Gu who saved people, what does it have to do with me?"

"you say."

"How did you make your self-heating rice?"

Jiang Xing seemed taken aback for a moment: "Self-heating rice?"

"Yes. Weren't there a few boxes of those things mixed in with your batch of rations? When I first saw them, I thought they were just ordinary dry rations, but when I opened them, there was a small package inside. If you pulled the string, the food would heat up by itself."

"I tried a pack in the tent, it was piping hot, just like it came out of the pot. That brat Chu Yu snatched two packs from me, but I didn't even bother to argue with him." Ling Yuehan got more and more excited as she spoke: "Miss Jiang, if we could make more of this stuff, the soldiers on the border wouldn't have to eat frozen rations like rocks in the winter."

"Do you know that the ones you sent, after the next few battles, made so many wounded soldiers able to have a hot meal, and their morale was completely different?"

Jiang Xing listened and suddenly chuckled. The chuckle was short, but Pei Jingshi could tell that she was genuinely amused.

"That thing isn't difficult to make, it just takes a lot of time. I'll get you some tools and write down the recipe for you. You can take it to the border and have someone make it according to the instructions."

"No." Ling Yuehan refused decisively: "I didn't come all this way just to get a prescription. I wanted to discuss with you whether this product could be mass-produced. I didn't quite understand your Jiangxiansheng Supermarket when I left last time; you have to show me around properly this time."

"I heard they've opened in both the town and the county? I went to the border, and everything felt new and exciting when I came back."

Jiang Xing smiled again, but didn't respond to his words.

Pei Jingshi stood outside the courtyard gate, his grip on the reins tightening and loosening repeatedly.

He could have gone in at that moment, pushed open the door, and greeted them, but his feet seemed rooted to the spot, and he couldn't move an inch.

He listened to the two people talking in the courtyard; one was casual, the other indifferent, a stark contrast to their politeness towards him.

Jiang Xing was relaxed when he spoke to Ling Yuehan.

It turns out that the word "friend" has different meanings.

He had been "friends" with Jiang Xing for so long, but there had never been a moment when he could sit down so casually like Ling Yuehan, drink the chrysanthemum tea she brewed, and chat with her, laughing and joking about whatever came to mind.

He stood outside the courtyard gate, the wind blowing and rustling the leaves of the old tree inside the courtyard wall. He suddenly felt a chill in the wind.

Just as I was hesitating whether to go in, the courtyard gate was suddenly pushed open from the inside.

Jiang Xing stood inside the door, holding a basin of water, presumably intending to splash it outside. When she saw Pei Jingshi, she paused for a moment.

"Lord Pei?" Her tone was no different from what it had been for the past two weeks—polite, attentive, yet distant.

Pei Jingshi responded and waved the empty booklet in his hand: "Come and get tomorrow's records."

"It's on the table in the main room, I'll go get it." Jiang Xing placed the basin by the door, turned around and went inside. She didn't invite him in to sit down.

Pei Jingshi stood at the courtyard gate, his gaze passing over her back, and saw Ling Yuehan sitting in the courtyard.

Ling Yuehan was sitting on a stone bench with his legs crossed, holding a teacup in his hand, looking relaxed and carefree. When he saw Pei Jingshi standing outside the door, he didn't get up, but just nodded his chin in this direction as a greeting.

"Ah Jing," he called out, a cryptic smile playing on his lips, "You've come to the Southwest too?"

Pei Jingshi nodded at him: "When did you return from the border? Why didn't you send someone to inform me? Did you just arrive?"

Pei Jingshi walked to the stone bench and sat down. Ling Yuehan still had a playful smile on her face: "Of course, that brat Ayu kept me waiting for so long, otherwise I would have been back long ago."

Jiang Xing came out of the main room at this moment, holding the record book in his hand, and handed it to Pei Jingshi at the door.

"Lord Pei, please check if anything is missing."

Pei Jingshi took it, flipped through a couple of pages, and knew he should leave, but suddenly he didn't want to leave like this. He looked down at the booklet, feeling something churning inside him, making his chest feel tight.

He wasn't a tactless person; he knew Jiang Xing was avoiding him, and he also knew that his words that day had put her in a difficult position.

But when he saw Ling Yuehan sitting in her courtyard drinking tea, and saw her smiling at Ling Yuehan, he realized that he couldn't do it.

He closed the booklet and looked up at Jiang Xing.

"Miss Jiang," he began, his voice lower than usual, "I have something I want to say to you."

Jiang Xing looked at him, his brows twitching almost imperceptibly.

Inside the courtyard, Ling Yuehan, holding a teacup, glanced at the two of them, then suddenly smiled, stood up, and stretched. "Alright, alright, I'm going in to see Xiao Niu. That kid said he missed me when I left last time. I want to see if he's made any progress."

He carried the teacup inside, leaving the courtyard gate to the two of them.

Jiang Xing stood inside the door, while Pei Jingshi stood outside. Dusk descended from the hills behind the village, casting long shadows of the two men.

"Lord Pei, please speak."

Pei Jingshi looked at her. She still had that indifferent expression, her eyes calmly looking at him as if looking at an old story that had long been over. He suddenly felt his throat tighten.

He spoke, his voice slightly hoarse: "But I've been thinking these past few days, is it because of my intrusion that you felt uncomfortable?"

Jiang Xing frowned.

"Lord Pei," she said, "I don't think so, but since we are men and women, we naturally need to avoid suspicion."

"Of course, I just hope you don't have to hide from me." His voice was soft, and his tone was pleading.

Jiang Xing remained silent for a moment, then finally lowered his eyes.

"Yes, I will, Lord Pei. It's getting dark, and the road is difficult to travel." She said, "Keep the notebook safe; Lord Chen will need it tomorrow."

Pei Jingshi looked down at the booklet in his hand, stood for a while, and finally turned around and mounted his horse.

As dusk fell, wisps of smoke rose from the chimneys of Maocao Village. Jiang Xing stood at the kitchen door, listening to the fading sound of horses' hooves outside the courtyard, before slowly walking to the water vat, scooping up a ladle of water, and immersing his hands in it, his fingertips tingling from the cold.

Inside the main room, Ling Yuehan was sitting at Xiao Niu's desk, flipping through his homework. Hearing her enter, he asked without looking up, "Has he left?"

"I'm gone."

Ling Yuehan hummed in agreement, turned a page, and suddenly said, "Did that kid, A-Jing, say something to you?"

Jiang Xing did not answer.

Ling Yuehan didn't press further. She simply closed the booklet, leaned back in her chair, and said as if talking to herself, "I told you before, he carries too much weight on his heart, thinks too much, and lives a tiring life."

"What do you want to eat tonight?" she asked.

Ling Yuehan immediately perked up: "Do you still have that braised pork you made last time? I've been eating dry rations at the border for half a year, and my mouth is practically tasteless."

Jiang Xing chuckled: "Yes. Just wait."