Xia Jinshu looked at Song Yunshen in surprise, then turned back to look at the old man at the stall she often frequented when buying groceries, and was a little taken aback.
At this moment, Song Yunshen had already led her to the stall and said with a helpless expression, "Grandpa, you're too idle. Didn't Uncle tell you to come here less often?"
"Staying at the fishpond with nothing to do is so boring." Grandpa Zhao Lisong adjusted the angle of the fan next to him, letting it blow a breeze on his grandson and Xia Jinshu. "What are you two doing here?"
As he spoke, Grandpa secretly winked at Song Yunshen, his face full of anticipation.
Song Yunshen rolled his eyes speechlessly, unable to bear the old man's gaze, and quickly explained, "This is my tutor, don't get the wrong idea, okay?"
"A private tutor?" Grandpa was surprised for a moment, then looked at Xia Jinshu, " Xiao Shu, I remember you were still in high school. How did you become a teacher?"
"I specifically asked her to come and help me," Song Yunshen said. " Xia Jinshu's English grades are very good, so I asked her to come to my house to tutor me."
"Then you have to pay them wages; they can't work for free."
"Of course," Song Yunshen nodded and said, "They even provide dinner, that's why I came to buy groceries."
"You and your dad can cook?" Grandpa looked incredulous. "Don't make that young girl sick from eating it."
"Ahem— Grandpa Zhao, it's my turn to cook," Xia Jinshu whispered a reminder from the side.
"Oh, no wonder." Zhao Lisong suddenly realized, pointing at Song Yunshen his finger and teasing, "You're quite the lucky guy!"
"You still haven't told me, how do you know Xia Jinshu?" Song Yunshen pressed down on his grandfather's finger and asked curiously.
" Xiao Shu comes to buy groceries often," Zhao Lisong said. "I think she's a pretty well-behaved girl, so I often give her a discount."
"I see—" Song Yunshen nodded in understanding.
At this moment, Zhao Lisong greeted Xia Jinshu, saying, " Xiao Shu, take whatever you want. Since you're cooking for this brat, I don't need to pay."
"I wasn't planning on paying anyway," Song Yunshen interjected from the side.
Zhao Lisong chuckled, then chatted with Song Yunshen, asking about the recent situation of Zhao Zeheng's family, and also asked Song Yunshen to remind his uncle to take Yingying to play at the fishpond more often.
Xia Jinshu was picking out the vegetables she needed, eavesdropping on their conversation as she did so.
After Xia Jinshu finished selecting her vegetables, she told Song Yunshen Song Yunshen, who then announced his departure, "We're leaving now. You should also pack up your stall early. Don't always come here to sell vegetables; you could at least find someone to play mahjong with."
"Your grandma's strict, how could she possibly have time to play mahjong every day?" Zhao Lisong rolled his eyes. "Besides, selling vegetables is also..."
Isn't that interesting? The people here are really interesting.
"Alright, alright, let's go."
"Go ahead, go ahead," Zhao Lisong waved his hand. "Have your uncle bring you to the fishpond in a couple of days! And bring back some chicken and goose eggs while you're at it! There are so many fresh eggs from the fishpond that we can't eat them all!"
"Understood!"
After leaving my grandfather's stall, I had almost finished collecting the vegetables I wanted.
Song Yunshen followed Xia Jinshu toward the entrance of the vegetable market, when she curiously turned her head and asked, "Why is your grandfather selling vegetables at the market?"
Xia Jinshu asked the question tactfully, but what she really wanted to ask was, "Your family is so rich, why does the old lady still need to sell vegetables?"
"The old folks can't stay idle," Song Yunshen said helplessly. "My maternal grandparents used to live in Tangning Village, but their house was demolished and they moved to government-provided resettlement housing."
"But my maternal grandfather played mahjong every day, staying up very late, and even had to be hospitalized once. My maternal grandmother, on the other hand, would get restless if she didn't work for a day, and even went to work as a sanitation worker on the main street."
"Later, my uncle couldn't stand them like that anymore, so he simply leased a small fishpond to the north, built a small house on it, and they moved in there."
"Now I raise chickens, ducks, and fish every day, and grow vegetables in the field next to the fishpond. When I'm bored, I pick some vegetables to sell. It's better than..."
It used to be much more reassuring.
"But I really didn't expect them to like coming here to sell vegetables so much." Song Yunshen looked speechless as he recalled this. "He said he often gives you discounts?"
" Grandpa Zhao is a very nice person, but—" Xia Jinshu's expression was strange, "Actually, in the beginning, his vegetables were the most expensive because he always said that his vegetables were freshly picked from the field, so they had to be more expensive than others."
"But it was definitely fresh, so I often tried to bargain with him. He couldn't argue with me, so he gave me a discount."
"The next time he saw me, he didn't bother to haggle and just sold it to me cheaply."
Song Yunshen:
That old man is really something, he can't even out-bargain with a young girl?
That's really embarrassing for him.
The two walked out of the market together, Song Yunshen went to the electric scooter and handed her the helmet.
Xia Jinshu put her helmet back on, sat down behind Song Yunshen, and gently held the hem of his clothes with both hands.
"Hold on tight, let's go!"
As Song Yunshen rode his electric bike toward Tangning New Residence, he chatted idly with Xia Jinshu on the back seat, feeling rather bored.
While waiting at a red light at an intersection, Song Yunshen pointed to a building in the distance and said to Xia Jinshu, "My dad works over there."
"Oh." Xia Jinshu squinted and looked over. "What... what... building?"
" Jingwei Zhongyao Building." Song Yunshen turned to Xia Jinshu with a puzzled look. "Can't you see it clearly?"
"I'm slightly nearsighted," Xia Jinshu said a little embarrassed.
"Then why don't you get a pair of glasses?"
"It won't have much of an impact, just a tiny bit."
"Is that so?" Song Yunshen turned his head, not asking any further questions, but only glancing at Xia Jinshu's eyes through the rearview mirror of the electric scooter.
A few minutes later, the two returned to Tangning New Residence.
Song Yunshen parked his electric car at the charging station downstairs and plugged in the charging cable.
He then carried two bags of groceries and led Xia Jinshu upstairs.
While riding the elevator, Song Yunshen said, "Then let's meet at the entrance of the community around 3 o'clock from now on? I'll take you to buy groceries on my electric scooter."
"Wouldn't that be too much trouble?" Xia Jinshu asked hesitantly, "It'll take up a bit of your time."
"What delay is there? I didn't have anything planned for this afternoon anyway," Song Yunshen said, shaking his head.
Being able to drive Xia Jinshu to buy groceries was quite an enjoyable experience.
Although she didn't lean against him while sitting in the back seat, and her hands weren't on his waist, she was just holding the hem of his shirt.
Even so, it is still a rare experience.
"Then I'll do as you say," Xia Jinshu said. "But if you ever find it troublesome, just tell me. I can go grocery shopping by myself."
"Don't worry, I won't stand on ceremony with you," Song Yunshen said. "If anything happens, I'll let you know in advance. Even if you need to go grocery shopping yourself, you can take my electric scooter."
"Okay, sure." Xia Jinshu was quite interested in this, since she used to walk there, which took more than half an hour each way.
Having an electric car is quite convenient.
Song Yunshen doesn't usually ride an electric bike, mainly for exercise, and he also feels more involved in the experience of standing up and pedaling while riding a bicycle.
The elevator arrived at the 18th floor.
Song Yunshen walked to the door, unlocked it with facial recognition, then opened the shoe cabinet, took out a pair of new beige slippers for Xia Jinshu, and placed them beside her feet. "You'll wear these from now on."
"What's this?" Xia Jinshu looked down at the slippers and blinked.
"They're newly bought," Song Yunshen said. "You'll be coming every day during summer vacation, so it's better to have the same pair of slippers."
"Oh, okay." Xia Jinshu nodded, put on the slippers that were the same color as the ones she wore at home, and it felt quite strange.
Is it a coincidence?
Wearing these slippers, Xia Jinshu almost thought she had gone home.
However, this kind of thing is certainly not as simple as a coincidence.
If Song Yunshen had to carefully observe the colors of Xia Yunuo and Xia Kening's clothes and personal items to find out what colors they liked, Xia Jinshu's preferences would be much simpler.
After all, it was mentioned in the first few entries when I first got the Future Diary.
Xia Yunuo, on the other hand, determined it by factors such as the color of the backpack.
Xia Kening —besides the color of her phone case, even her underwear is orange-yellow, so the answer is obvious.
This wasn't him peeping. When you swap souls, you have to get dressed after showering, right? If he didn't look, it wouldn't be accurate.
And I only glanced at it.
"Give this to me." Xia Jinshu walked in through the door in her new slippers, took the plastic bag from Song Yunshen, and turned to walk towards the kitchen. "I'll prepare the ingredients first, so it'll be easier to cook later."
"Okay, thank you for your help." Song Yunshen followed Xia Jinshu into the kitchen, watching with curiosity as she skillfully prepared the ingredients.
The main tasks are washing, chopping, and preparing vegetables, as well as marinating meat to infuse it with flavor.
Xia Jinshu noticed Song Yunshen observing her from the side, and immediately felt a little uncomfortable.
At home, her two younger sisters usually help her out, so it feels a bit strange to be watched by a boy today.
"Why don't you go to the study and review first?" Xia Jinshu put down the kitchen knife she was holding, turned to Song Yunshen and said, "I'm going to check your memorization later."
"Don't you need my help?"
"It's okay, you go study. I can manage on my own, I'll get it done quickly."
"Alright." Song Yunshen nodded, glanced at Xia Jinshu who had put on the apron, and couldn't help but look at her a few more times before turning away.
I left the kitchen, went to the study, sat down, and began to study diligently.
Half an hour later.
It was nearly 4 PM.
Xia Jinshu finished preparing the dishes and nodded in satisfaction as she looked at the ingredients on the plates.
She then washed her hands, took off her apron, hung it on the wall, turned and left the kitchen, heading towards the study door.
By this time, Song Yunshen had already memorized the vocabulary he was given yesterday several times and was so bored that he was chatting on Douyin).
[ Xia Kening ]: (Forwarding video)
[ Song Yunshen ]: Can you please stop sending me abstract videos? If you're so capable, make one yourself and show it to me.
[ Xia Kening ]: I'm already being kind by forwarding this to you! Don't push your luck!
[ Song Yunshen ]: Then next time we switch, I'll use your body to pat you.
[ Xia Kening ]: No way! If you want to take pictures, I'll use your body to take pictures too! And they'll be even more abstract than yours!
[ Song Yunshen ]: Are you sure you can capture my abstraction? My persistence? My depth of understanding?
[ Xia Kening ]: Ugh! Shut up! Can you please stop bringing this up?! It's always like this!
[ Song Yunshen ]: As long as it works, that's fine.
As they were talking, Song Yunshen heard Xia Jinshu's footsteps and immediately sent another message.
[ Song Yunshen ]: My tutor is here. Talk to you later.
After saying that, he put away his phone and continued memorizing vocabulary in a serious manner.
Xia Jinshu didn't notice either, after all, she wasn't a professional teacher, and her ability to observe students' small movements needed improvement.
"Are you ready?" Xia Jinshu sat down in a chair, took out her lesson plan, and turned to Song Yunshen, saying, "Can we begin?"
"I'm ready." Song Yunshen sat up straight and said seriously, " Teacher Xia, you can start the spot check at any time!"