I turned reality into a romantic comedy.

"So it's the two of us, not you alone at home."

Lin Mu felt a little confused, nodded blankly, and then subconsciously asked:

"But I only have nine dollars and fifty cents on me. When I went out to eat with my parents before, this amount of money was only enough to order one stir-fry dish."

"Eating out and cooking at home are two completely different things. Besides, you've clearly never been to a farmers' market before, have you?"

"No... I've never been there."

"Right? So after you go back to school tonight, just follow me obediently. I happen to have one yuan left this morning, ten yuan and fifty cents, which is definitely enough."

After making such a confident statement, Chen Junqian shoveled down two more mouthfuls of rice. There was no other way; it was almost noon, and the "Jackie Chan Adventures" show that their after-school program was supposed to show every noon was about to officially begin. He had watched this cartoon many times since he was an adult, let alone now that he was still a child. He was in a real hurry.

Watching Chen Junqian finish his meal in a few bites and then rush to the TV room to grab a seat near the front, Lin Mu mechanically kept biting on a piece of green vegetable in his mouth for a long time without swallowing. For the first time, he felt that his only classmate in the same after-school care center seemed to be a little different.

It's more like it's abnormal for kids their age to go to the market to buy groceries and then cook, so why does the other person act like it's perfectly normal, as if she's some kind of stupid person who can't do anything?

She just made a bracelet, folded a bottle of stars, and successfully embroidered a small cross-stitch piece a couple of days ago. Her parents both say she's the smartest girl in the world...

Watching the monkey charm on TV that could transform people into various animals at will, Lin Mu took a bite of his greens with a hint of resentment.

If she ever gets this in the future, she'll definitely turn the other person into a little white rabbit, making them eat all the vegetables she doesn't like while also pinching and squeezing their arrogant face.

----------------------------------

Although she thought this to herself, when school ended in the evening, Lin Mu obediently followed Chen Junqian, but still with that same blatant attempt to cover it up. Only after they left the school gate did she quicken her pace and run to his side.

"Where to? Where to?"

It's quite noticeable that leaving school has a significant positive effect on the mental state of elementary school students. Even Lin Mu, who lost money today, felt the air was much fresher after leaving the school.

"Tell me where you live first, and I'll think about where the nearest farmers market is."

"My home is in Green Gull Garden... Um, I'll take you there when we get there, you can tell me the exact building, unit, and apartment number."

"Green Gull Garden, let me think. It's quite close to the Dahai Farmers Market. Let's go there today. It's also not far from my home, and there's a bus stop nearby."

It's fortunate that the locations of the major farmers' markets in their small county town remained unchanged for many years. Even more than a decade ago, Chen Junqian still managed to lead Lin Mu smoothly towards their destination, albeit in a winding and circuitous manner.

There were an absurd number of vendors around the elementary school, especially around dismissal time. Lin Mu's gaze would linger on the pure white rice dumplings that needed to be dipped in sugar, and then on the sesame seed cakes with chili sauce not far away. He felt like he was about to take out his money and buy two at any moment.

"Stop looking. If you still had two hundred on you, you could spend it however you want, but the fact is you only have nine and a half yuan."

Bypassing various stalls shrouded in smoke, Chen Junqian led Lin Mu forward without stopping, and after about ten or twenty minutes they finally found the place.

"Ugh...why is there such a strong smell?"

"Because the poultry section is right inside the east gate here. Live chickens and ducks are kept together, which creates this kind of smell. Just go there."

Upon entering the market, the loud noise and strong smells were a shock to Lin Mu, who had never been to such a place before. She, who had been trying to keep her distance from Chen Junqian, quickly pressed her small body against him and cautiously peered at the scene she had never seen before.

Back when electronic scales weren't widely used, many vegetable vendors were still using traditional weights with their eyes half-closed. In fact, Chen Junqian himself had been taught similar knowledge by his grandparents when he was a child. As a seasoned vendor who had helped hawk his wares at the vegetable market since he was seven or eight years old, he was quite familiar with this kind of place. However, he and his grandparents usually went to the Dahua Farmers Market on the other side, and this was actually their first time visiting Dahai.

"Alright, give me the money."

"Here you go, nine yuan and fifty cents... it's all here."

Even at this point, Lin Mu still had some doubts. After all, for her, the purchasing power of nine yuan and fifty cents was only enough for two magazines, twenty packs of spicy strips, nine and a half grilled sausages, and seven or eight packs of instant noodles. Putting that money in the vegetable market... well, she simply didn't have any idea about it.

Do you want some water spinach?

"Don't eat."

Would you like some bok choy?

"Don't eat."

Do you want some amaranth?

"I won't eat it either."

"...You really are a picky eater."

Before buying groceries, Chen Junqian also asked Lin Mu about his preferences, but all three types of fresh leafy greens he suggested were rejected by Lin Mu.

“After all, when my parents are home, I have to force myself to eat these things. Now that they're not home, I'll definitely want to eat what I like. Isn't that what Chen Junqian is like?”

"It seems to be fine."

After thinking for a moment, Chen Junqian nodded again:

"How about I stir-fry some home-style tofu for you?"

"Mmm, I like tofu."

After receiving an affirmative answer, Chen Junqian immediately found a tofu stall, stood on tiptoe, and spoke to the stall owner:

"Hello, uncle, could you get me a piece of tofu? I'd like it firmer."

"Alright, little one, you've come to help your parents buy groceries, that's so thoughtful. Here, one dollar."

"Thank you, Uncle."

The tofu vendor put a fresh plastic bag over his hand, grabbed a piece of tofu placed on the white cloth on the cutting board, flipped it over, and lifted it up. The tofu then lay securely in the bag and was handed to Chen Junqian, who was then instructed to put one yuan into a coin box in front of the stall.

"...Such a big piece of tofu only costs one yuan?"

"if not?"

Compared to the grilled sausage that costs the same dollar but can be eaten in a few bites, the whole piece of tender white tofu was quite shocking to Lin Mu. He looked at it over and over again several times before nodding thoughtfully, as if he had figured something out.

After asking a lot of questions along the way and figuring out someone's taste, Chen Junqian went on to buy a tomato, a loofah, and half a fried dough stick at the breakfast shop. He had basically completed the preparation of three dishes. When he finally calculated the money, he found that he still had 6.2 yuan left in Lin Mu's hand.

It has to be said that this experience was somewhat like magic for Lin Mu. After all, being able to buy several bags of things for just over three yuan was beyond her previous understanding. This amount of money was only enough to buy a cup of instant noodles.

Since most employees hadn't left work yet at this time, it wasn't considered rush hour, so there were fewer people at the market than Chen Junqian had expected. In fact, quite a few vendors were only arriving late to set up their stalls.

"Okay, then we'll go to your house now."

"Hmm-hehe, now I'm officially a primary school student who's been to the market to buy groceries. If Chen Junqian is number one, then I'm the second-place student in our class, no, maybe even our whole school..."

Before Lin Mu could finish his grumbling, his gaze fell upon a girl not far away who calmly and deftly unfurled a cloth used for displaying vegetables and an elderly person, stacking the vegetables she was going to sell in piles before taking out a book from her backpack, sitting on a small stool, and using a larger chair as a desk to start doing her homework.

"Isn't that someone from the third class next door...?"

Following the direction Lin Mu pointed, Chen Junqian also saw the other person's familiar school uniform, but he didn't recognize the face. After all, he had almost forgotten his elementary school classmates, let alone those from the next class.

"It's Zhu Wenyun from Class 3, the 'Yun' from Wen Tingyun."

However, after Lin Mu said the name, Chen Junqian subconsciously repeated it twice.

He remembered the name.

If he remembers correctly, starting next year, their elementary school will set up a small bookcase shared by the whole grade, where each student can share their extracurricular books and then freely borrow books from other students.

And most of the books he borrowed at that time that interested him seemed to have this name written on their title pages.

Chapter 5: The system says this is called "rubbing against someone's tires".

Seeing that Chen Junqian suddenly seemed very interested and started looking in that direction, Lin Mu, who had just initiated the topic, suddenly reached out and grabbed his arm, turning her head away and saying:

“Let’s go, my home is still quite a distance from here. If we don’t go back now, Chen Junqian, it will be too late to get back, and your uncle and aunt will scold you.”

"And let me tell you, even if you know someone, don't take the initiative to talk to them in this situation. It's very embarrassing. Oh... she seems to have seen us."

Perhaps because their elementary school uniforms were too conspicuous in the market, Zhu Wenyun, who was not far away, happened to glance up and saw them, and nodded slightly to them.

"But she probably doesn't know us... I only found out her name because I overheard the homeroom teacher from the next class saying that she usually does well on her weekly journals and picture-writing assignments, but she always fails to finish her essays on Chinese exams. How come she came over here?"

Seeing that the other person had put down their homework and was walking towards her, Lin Mu carefully hid behind Chen Junqian again. She even used the tofu she had just bought, along with the plastic bag, to cover her eyes, adopting an ostrich-like attitude of "if I can't see you, it's the same as you can't see me".

"You're from Shishi Primary School too, right? Are you here to buy groceries with your parents? We have some really fresh bok choy and water spinach here, all grown by grandma herself in the field. Would you like to take a look? They're sweet and crunchy when stir-fried."

Rather than noticing that he and Lin Mu were wearing the same school uniform, Chen Junqian was more interested in the two bags of vegetables they were carrying. Seeing a little girl about his height earnestly promoting her vegetable stall, Chen Junqian felt a sense of kinship, since he had done something similar before.

But soon, he noticed the unnaturalness hidden beneath this formulaic rhetoric. The girl in front of him, with her long, flowing hair, was noticeably taller than Lin Mu, and had large, clear eyes. She was subtly avoiding his and Lin Mu's gaze, and her hands behind her back seemed to be nervously twisting a few fingers together. Chen Junqian even felt that if he said "no" at this moment, she would breathe a sigh of relief and run back.

However, this emotion seemed to come and go quickly, as if everything just now was his own illusion. The other person soon raised their head again, looked him straight in the eye, and continued speaking:

"You must be from Class 4 next door. I'm Zhu Wenjun from Class 3 of Grade 4. The vegetables at my house are really delicious and inexpensive. They're all grown without pesticides."

"Great, that's exactly what we were planning to do – buy some water spinach."

Although he returned the few dollars to Lin Mu, Chen Junqian still had a kickback he had saved from the complete guide to elementary school textbooks, so after thinking about it, he agreed and soon went to pick out some water spinach with the other party's help.

"That's one dollar and seventy cents in total. Here's your change: three cents."

Taking the two one-yuan coins Chen Junqian handed over, Zhu Wenyun carefully took out three more one-jiao coins from the plastic coin box. These coins felt different from the five-jiao and one-yuan coins; their edges were more distinct and their surface was more textured. She then handed them back to him with a smile and said:

"Welcome to visit again next time."

And so, Chen Junqian, who had bought more ingredients than expected, was pulled out of the market by Lin Mu.

"I've never heard anyone say that Zhu Wenyun had such a thing..."

"That's because you've never been here before. But I only found out today myself, since I used to go to the vegetable market on the other side of the city."

Chen Junqian was also a little surprised. After all, although he had never met her in his previous life, judging from the books he had borrowed, such as "Heidi", "Robinson Crusoe", "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" and "Dream of the Red Chamber", which she had placed on her bookshelf, he originally thought she would be a more literary student.

However, since Lin Mu didn't really know much about Zhu Wenjun, the student from the next class, and was only surprised that a classmate he usually met in the corridor would be at the vegetable market after school helping her grandmother sell vegetables, the two stopped talking about each other and continued walking towards Lin Mu's house.

"Actually, Weiwei mentioned to me last time that she's been practicing cooking, or rather, making cakes. But when I asked her, I found out she was actually practicing with store-bought modeling clay. How could that possibly be effective?"

Having left behind the unfamiliar environment and embarked on the familiar road home, Lin Mu's spirits were noticeably higher. She skipped and hopped ahead of Chen Junqian with an air of determination that seemed determined to break the tofu in her hand, occasionally turning back to talk to him.

"Weiwei? Xu Youwei from our class?"

"Yeah, she's the one sitting behind me. I thought she'd be the first friend to come over to my house, because I always wanted to invite her over so I could go to her house too. I'm telling you, I'm super curious about where she lives, because Weiwei always goes in a different direction when she leaves school. Sometimes I see her on this road, and once I saw her again when I went to the bookstore on the other side. Chen Junqian, isn't that really strange?"

Upon hearing Lin Mu mention Xu Youwei's name, Chen Junqian tried to recall her name, but as always, he couldn't remember her. He only remembered that she seemed to always represent the class in sports meets. After all, whether in elementary school, middle school, high school, or university, he had very few interactions with any girls, let alone any stories between them.

"Maybe it's because she's saving the world, or maybe she has some kind of secret base, like the Adventure Tigers."

"That makes sense. If that's the case, I'll definitely ask her to take me with her next time."

Chen Junqian was just joking, but Lin Mu seemed to take it seriously and began to analyze the other party's secret stronghold in earnest:

"The Adventure Tigers are an American book, and their secret base is inside a Chinese restaurant. So if Vivi is like them, her secret base should be in an American restaurant!"

But then, she looked deflated:

"But we don't have any stores like that here... neither KFC nor McDonald's."

As a small, third-tier county town, Chen Junqian knew very well that at this time, Guoning only had some small, off-the-beaten-path shops selling fried chicken and hamburgers. Not to mention KFC and McDonald's, which Lin Mu mentioned, even Dicos, which focuses more on the lower-tier market, would not officially open in the county town for another year, and KFC would not open for another three or four years.

As for McDonald's and Burger King, these two brands had not been established until Chen Junqian was officially reborn, and he himself only ate them for the first time after he went to university.