Pond Village was neither particularly close to nor particularly far from downtown Spring City. Taking the national highway, it was just over an hour's drive.
The village's name had a simple origin.
There was a deep pool at the eastern end of the village, its water so clear it looked green. The elders said that pool had never dried up; even in years of severe drought, its surface never dropped an inch.
That was how the village got its name.
Here in Caiyun, unlike in the north, people did not settle in clans grouped by surname.
Pond Village had all sorts of surnames: Chengs, Zhaos, and Zhous had lived alongside one another for generations, and the whole village pitched in for weddings and funerals.
Cheng Che sat in the back seat of the BYD, his window halfway down.
Wind rushed inside, carrying a mingled scent of earth and fresh grass.
The road into the village had already been paved with asphalt, smooth and wide, with two neatly painted white lines.
Cheng Che remembered that when he had come back six months earlier, this road had still been gravel. The wheels crunched over it, and the jolting made his backside ache.
"So much has changed," he murmured, leaning against the window.
Quite a few new houses had gone up along the roadside.
They were detached two- and three-story houses, their outer walls tiled pale yellow or cream, with solar panels on the roofs and cars parked in their courtyards.
One household had even put in a little garden, filled with flowers Cheng Che could not name, blooming riotously in reds and pinks.
As they drove farther into the village, Cheng Jianguo kept greeting people.
"Uncle Cheng! You're back?"
"Oh, Jianguo! Brought your son home?"
"Cheng Che's gotten this tall already? He was still little the last time I saw him."
Whenever he ran into someone he knew, Cheng Jianguo stopped, offered them a cigarette, and chatted cheerfully for a bit.
Jiang Xue rolled her eyes in the passenger seat and muttered, "At this rate, we won't get home by dark."
Cheng Che grinned in the back seat.
After all that stopping and starting, they finally turned into his grandfather's courtyard.
The courtyard was large and swept spotless, with freshly split firewood piled in a corner.
His grandfather, Cheng Qingshan, was sitting on the threshold twisting straw rope. Spotting the car in the distance, he tossed the rope aside and stood up.
His grandmother, Zhou Lan, heard the noise too and hurried out of the kitchen, still wearing her apron.
"Grandpa! Grandma!" Cheng Che jumped out of the car and ran over.
Cheng Qingshan broke into a grin, revealing several repaired teeth, and clapped Cheng Che on the shoulder. "Good lad, look how tall you've grown!"
Grandma Zhou Lan held on to Cheng Che's hand, tilting her head up to examine him closely. After a long moment, her eyes curved with her smile:
"Oh my, how did my precious grandson get so handsome? Your complexion's clearer, and you've grown taller too. If I saw you outside, I wouldn't dare be sure it was you."
Jiang Xue happened to walk over just then. Hearing this, she smiled even more brightly:
"Mom, he hasn't just gotten handsome. His grades have shot up at a frightening rate too. He ranked thirtieth in the whole school on this month's exams. Even his teachers praised him."
"You told us over the phone." Cheng Qingshan tapped his pipe against the sole of his shoe and puffed out his chest. "What's so surprising about that? The roots of our Cheng family are right here for all to see. When I was young, I was a famously handsome lad in Pond Village too."
Zhou Lan shot him a look. "When you were young? You were as skinny as a monkey. Some handsome lad. Our grandson gets his looks from his mother."
Cheng Qingshan coughed twice at her retort and muttered:
"That was because I never had enough to eat. I'd have looked different if I'd filled out."
Cheng Che could not hold back his laughter.
His grandfather and his dad really had been cast from the same mold.
The family home was no longer the old tiled-roof house he remembered from childhood.
A few years earlier, it had been rebuilt into a little two-story concrete house, with white tiles on the outside and everything inside kept clean and tidy.
The furnishings were nothing special, but compared with before, it was truly the difference between heaven and earth.
Cheng Che stayed here for a month every year.
He carried his bag upstairs.
His room was at the far end of the hallway. It was not large, but it was very clean.
The bed had been freshly made, and the duvet cover still smelled of sunshine.
The window was halfway open, facing the bamboo grove behind the house. When the wind blew, the bamboo leaves rustled as though whispering secrets.
Cheng Che flopped onto the bed on his back. Listening to that sound, he relaxed completely.
He pulled out his phone and scrolled through it.
Guo Xin had sent him a whole pile of messages, all things like "Did you bring your homework back to your hometown?" "What are you having at the birthday banquet?" and "See if there are any of those big geese in the countryside and take a picture for me."
Cheng Che replied with a single "Get lost," then tossed his phone aside and closed his eyes, enjoying this brief stretch of peace.
Before long, Cheng Jianguo called from downstairs:
"Xiao Che! Let's go! We're eating at your aunt's!"
"Coming!"
Cheng Che rolled out of bed and thundered downstairs.
His aunt's house was not far, just a five- or six-minute walk away.
When they arrived, dusk had just fallen, and the courtyard lights were already on.
Before they even entered the courtyard, a girl in a school uniform shot out like a little cannonball, nearly crashing into Cheng Che's arms.
"Cheng Che!"
Cheng Che took a closer look. It was his younger cousin, Xu Qian.
She was in eighth grade and had shot up quite a bit, with a high ponytail and sparkling eyes.
"Miss me?" Cheng Che asked with a smile, ruffling her hair.
Xu Qian had no time for pleasantries. She grabbed his arm, mysteriously pulled out her phone, swiped a few times, and held it in front of him.
"Is this you?"
On the screen was a screenshot from the "Midsummer Reply" music video.
Cheng Che looked and nodded. "That's me."
Xu Qian let out a howl and bounced straight up:
"I knew it! I knew it was you! My classmates said he just looked like you, but I told them it wasn't just a resemblance! How could I not recognize my own cousin?"
Her shout left Cheng Che a little embarrassed. He glanced around. Fortunately, everyone was busy, and no one was paying attention to them.
Xu Qian leaned closer and lowered her voice, her tone instantly turning ingratiating:
"Cheng Che, I love Yan Ruanning. She's my goddess. Could you get her autograph for me?"
"I..."
Cheng Che had been about to say, "I don't know her that well," but when he met Xu Qian's frighteningly bright eyes, he swallowed the words.
"All right, I'll try," he said.
Xu Qian cheered, then caught hold of him again:
"Then take a picture with me first! I want to send it to my classmates. They'll never believe you're my cousin!"
Helpless, Cheng Che could only cooperate and take a photo with her.
In the photo, the courtyard's warm yellow light fell across Cheng Che from the side.
The boy's head was slightly lowered, a smile at the corners of his mouth, his whole figure wrapped in a layer of pure, gentle light.
The [Heartthrob of Ten Thousand] title continued working its magic.
Xu Qian stared at the photo for a while, then murmured, "My cousin's so handsome..."
Cheng Che did not quite catch it. "What?"
"Nothing!" Xu Qian put away her phone, her face red, and pulled him toward the house. "Come on, let's eat!"
His aunt Cheng Yulan and her husband Xu Chengjun were both at the dinner table.
There were plenty of dishes: cured pork, fish with pickled mustard greens, stir-fried dried bamboo shoots, and chicken soup filled the table.
"Cheng Che, eat more." Cheng Yulan placed food in his bowl. "We haven't seen you for six months, and you've grown so tall and look so much brighter. Your mom said you ranked thirtieth in the whole school? You're really bringing honor to our Cheng family."
"It wasn't the college entrance exam, just one monthly exam." Cheng Che smiled.
"That's still impressive," Xu Chengjun chimed in. "If your cousin's grades were even half as good as yours, your aunt and I would burn incense in thanks."
He had barely finished when Xu Qian suddenly put down her chopsticks and said earnestly, "From now on, I'm going to learn from Cheng Che."
Cheng Yulan and Xu Chengjun froze at the same time.
Xu Chengjun swallowed his mouthful of rice, surprised and delighted. "You... you've finally seen the light?"
Xu Qian nodded. "Yes! I want to get into a good school too!"
"Oh, my wonderful girl!"
Cheng Yulan's eyes reddened, and she reached to give Xu Qian more food.
Only Cheng Che kept his head down, silently shoveling rice into his mouth, the corner of his lips twitching despite himself.
Other people might not know, but how could he not?
When Xu Qian said she wanted to "learn from Cheng Che," textbooks were not what she meant at all.
She meant chasing stars.
After dinner, Xu Qian dragged Cheng Che into taking several more photos.
Back in her room, Xu Qian could not wait to post the photos on QQ.
Her class group chat instantly exploded.
"Holy shit! Xu Qian, who's that? He's so handsome!"
"No way, no way. Don't tell me that really is your cousin?"
"That angle, that lighting... even celebrity street snaps don't look this incredible."
"Xu Qian, is your cousin a celebrity?"
Vindicated at last, Xu Qian's fingers flew across the screen. "I told you ages ago! My cousin is the boy in 'Midsummer Reply'! You wouldn't believe me!"
"We believe you now! All I want to know is, does your cousin need a girlfriend?"
"I'm getting in line too!"
"Xu Qian, I'm your future cousin-in-law now. Put in a good word for me."
"Get lost! Why should it be you? I was here first!"
Reading those messages, Xu Qian laughed so hard her shoulders shook.
Just then, Cheng Che happened to pass by. Xu Qian thrust her phone toward him. "Cheng Che, my classmates say they want to be your girlfriend. They're even saying they'll be my cousin-in-law."
Cheng Che glanced at the screen.
"Go do your homework, kids," he said expressionlessly. "Still haven't cured that QQ Zone chuunibyou, have you?"
Xu Qian took back her phone and pulled a face. "Tch, my classmates are serious. Why don't you pick one now, so you don't get dazzled trying to choose one in ten thousand later?"
Cheng Che lightly tapped her head. "Your cousin has a university to get into. I don't have time."
He turned and left, inwardly grumbling, Why are kids these days each more precocious than the last?
Meanwhile, in Batang Village next to Pond Village.
Yan Ruanning had returned to her hometown with her parents.
Old Xu's real name was Xu Zhiqiang, and his hometown was Batang Village, next to Pond Village.
Yan Ruanning used "Yan" as her stage surname. Her real name was Xu Ruanning, and she occasionally came back for festivals and holidays.
She had just showered and was lying on the bed in her room in the old house, idly scrolling through WeChat.
The work group was discussing the figures since the music video's release. Everything was going up.
She scrolled farther down: a few promotional drafts, several schedules, and various screenshots Xiao Zhou had sent.
She suddenly sat up.
"Wait... do I not have Cheng Che on WeChat?"
She opened her contacts and checked through them. No.
She checked again. Still no.
Yan Ruanning sat stunned for a long while, feeling increasingly speechless the more she thought about it.
She had met Cheng Che through filming the music video, and afterward Xiao Zhou had handled their coordination. It had all been work-related.
Somehow, she had forgotten to add him from beginning to end.
Back then, Yan Ruanning really had treated Cheng Che as just an ordinary staff member.
After all, having entered the entertainment industry, how could she not have seen handsome men and beautiful women?
But Cheng Che during that last speech had completely changed her impression of him.
Although it seemed rather shallow, people's perceptions of one another did begin with looks before growing loyal to talent.
Besides, Yan Ruanning herself did not know why she suddenly wanted to add Cheng Che on WeChat.
"Honestly, unbelievable," she muttered.
After a moment's hesitation, she messaged Xiao Zhou:
"Send me Cheng Che's WeChat contact."
Xiao Zhou replied instantly: "Ruanning, you're finally adding him? I thought you weren't planning to bother with him anymore."
Yan Ruanning rolled her eyes and did not reply.
Xiao Zhou soon shared his contact card.
Yan Ruanning opened it and stared at it for a long time before tapping "Add friend."
An hour later, her phone had not made a sound.
Two hours later, her phone still had not made a sound.
Yan Ruanning lay in bed, staring at the "Request sent" screen, feeling inexplicably irritated.
She flipped her phone facedown, pulled the covers over herself, and muttered sulkily:
"It's not like I want to add him that much. What a poser."
Yan Ruanning was having a little fit of temper. If Xiao Zhou had seen her, she probably would have been dumbfounded. Where had that cool, aloof woman who always acted swiftly and decisively gone?
But everyone else had almost forgotten that Yan Ruanning was only a twenty-two-year-old girl.