Chapter 43

Miao Jiayan hadn't originally planned to come back. Last night during a video call, Grandma Miao had asked if he was returning, and he had said he probably couldn't recently, as he had too much to do. His return today was a spur-of-the-moment decision.

"How long are you staying this time, Brother Chao?" The three of them exited one flower shed and entered the next. Miao Jiayan walked beside Chen Chao and asked him.

"A week, I guess," Chen Chao replied.

Zhang Kai walked ahead, turning back from time to time to ask Miao Jiayan some questions. When he wasn't asking, Miao Jiayan would chat leisurely with Chen Chao.

Once outside, Miao Jiayan put his hat back on. Chen Chao looked at him, and Miao Jiayan explained, "Afraid of getting a tan."

Chen Chao nodded. Miao Jiayan said with a smile, "You've gotten so much darker, Brother Chao."

Chen Chao hadn't thought he was that dark, but this time everyone who saw him said he was. Chen Chao raised his arm to look at it and laughed, "I think it's fine."

"No... not really." Miao Jiayan's eyes curved into crescents. "You never got this dark before, even when you tanned in the summer."

Chen Chao said, "Maybe the sun is stronger over there."

Miao Jiayan said in a low voice, "Just now, from a distance, I almost didn't recognize you."

Chen Chao raised an eyebrow, "That exaggerated?"

Miao Jiayan nodded with a smile and said, "Mhm."

Zhang Kai listened to them chat, occasionally glancing back. The two of them were like very close friends who hadn't seen each other in a long time.

"Jiayan, what's your major?" Zhang Kai asked.

Miao Jiayan replied, "It's in the agricultural sciences."

Zhang Kai's expression was one of surprise. He let out an exclamation and said, "I thought you were an arts student, something like music, fine arts, or performance."

"No," Miao Jiayan said with a small laugh, "I'm a farmer."

"I can't tell you study that," Xiao Kai felt the major didn't seem to match him at all, couldn't associate the two. "Your disposition isn't very... agricultural."

As he walked, Miao Jiayan crouched down to prop up a piece of fallen greenhouse tarp on the side. Chen Chao said, "That's because you've only been watching him for a short time."

"Mhm," Miao Jiayan finished, stood up, and dusted the dirt off his hands. He said to Xiao Kai, "Brother Chao always says I'm rustic."

"You, rustic?" Xiao Kai said. "Don't be ridiculous."

Chen Chao just smiled and didn't say anything.

Xiao Kai took many photos, planning to come back for location scouting during the official shoot. As the group headed back, Xiao Kai glanced back at Miao Jiayan and said to Chen Chao, "Brother Chao, I have an immature idea..."

Chen Chao cut him off, "If it's immature, then don't think about it."

Xiao Kai still tried to press on, "Let me ask!"

Miao Jiayan blinked, looking at them. Xiao Kai asked, "Jiayan, can I interview you?"

"Me?" Miao Jiayan stared at him, stunned.

"I want to do a feature project on you." Xiao Kai had actually been thinking about this for a while on the way back; listening to him talk with Chen Chao, he was already mulling over project titles in his head.

Before Miao Jiayan could speak, Chen Chao said, "No."

"Brother Chao!" Xiao Kai practically wanted to shove him away with his elbow. "I wasn't talking to you!"

Although Chen Chao's face was expressionless, his attitude was clearly non-negotiable. "Doesn't matter who you ask, the answer is no."

So, Miao Jiayan obediently followed up, "Then no."

He said this with a smile, as if half-joking, and for a moment Xiao Kai couldn't figure out if he was genuinely refusing.

With so many young men suddenly arriving at the house, Grandpa Chen and Grandma Chen were busy in the kitchen, and Grandma Miao also came over to help. Miao Jiayan, having returned with Chen Chao, first went back to his own house for a bit to talk with his grandfather, then came back over carrying a basin of fruit.

The other classmates, besides Xiao Kai, hadn't met him before and were clearly a bit bewildered.

Miao Jiayan placed the fruit on the stone table in the middle of the courtyard, greeted them, and said, "Welcome, glad you could come."

The boys quickly greeted him back. Miao Jiayan said, "Try some fruit. Homegrown is sweeter than store-bought."

Chen Chao came out of the house and heard one of the boys say, "You look really familiar..."

Miao Jiayan didn't say anything. The boy himself seemed unable to believe it, saying, "I think I've seen your live streams."

"Huh?" Xiao Kai asked, "What live streams?"

"A blogger my girlfriend likes," the boy said, feeling more certain the more he looked at Miao Jiayan. "I forgot his name, let me ask."

As he spoke, he lowered his head to send a WeChat message to his girlfriend. Miao Jiayan stood still and said, "It might be me."

"It really is you?!" The boy was a bit excited. "My wife is a super fan of yours!"

The boy called her "wife" so naturally. Miao Jiayan originally wanted to say "thank your wife," but felt it would be weird, so in the end he could only say, "Thank your girlfriend..."

"She's in class, she has no idea what she's missing." The boy felt sorry for his girlfriend. "Isn't she going to cry over this?"

Miao Jiayan didn't know whether to laugh or cry and quickly said, "She won't, I'll be here all evening."

Miao Jiayan had to leave early the next morning. He didn't know when his work would be finished; it was possible he wouldn't be back before Chen Chao left.

So, just as he'd said, he had indeed come back this time to see Brother Chao.

Excluding Chen Chao, there were seven boys staying over. The spare rooms in the house could fit four, so the remaining three had to set up tents outside. Miao Jiayan told Chen Chao they could stay at his house, but the boys declined, feeling it was more relaxing to sleep in tents outside.

The boy's girlfriend had just finished tutoring a child and saw the WeChat message. As expected, she was on the verge of tears.

Miao Jiayan hadn't left yet and was talking with Chen Chao. The boy came over with a video call open, but didn't point the camera at him right away. He first asked, "Is it okay to video call?"

"Okay," Miao Jiayan said with a nod.

The boy then unplugged his earphones, stood next to Miao Jiayan, and let the camera capture him.

"Ahhh, Yanyan! Is it really you!" On the screen was a very cute girl with short hair and a round face, shouting in excitement.

"Hello, hello." Miao Jiayan sat up very straight, his shoulders tense, and waved at the phone.

"Oh my godddd, am I dreaming! Am I still asleep!" The girl was so excited she didn't know what to do, covering her face as she looked at Miao Jiayan. "Why am I seeing my wife on my husband's phone!"

The girl was still walking, on her way back to her place from her tutoring job. She was so excited that she would walk a few steps and then stop. Miao Jiayan reminded her in a gentle voice, "Be careful, watch the road."

"Okay, okay." The girl said to him, "Yanyan, we all love you, keep up the good work!"

Miao Jiayan said with a smile, "Okay."

Miao Jiayan spoke to the girl in a very serious manner. Although his responses were passive, he was earnest about it. Chen Chao turned his head to look at him. In the outdoor environment, one had to focus to hear the video call clearly, so Miao Jiayan didn't notice Chen Chao's gaze.

The boy walked away with his phone, plugging his earphones back in to continue chatting with his girlfriend.

Miao Jiayan let out a breath, looked at Chen Chao with a bit of helplessness, and gave him a small smile.

Chen Chao asked him, "Nervous?"

"Not exactly nervous..." Miao Jiayan relaxed a little, his shoulders no longer so tense. "Just not used to it."

"Still not used to it?" Chen Chao pressed on a mosquito bite on the back of his hand.

"I'm always afraid of saying the wrong thing," Miao Jiayan said after thinking for a moment.

"So what if you say the wrong thing," Chen Chao asked. "What happens if you say the wrong thing?"

Miao Jiayan replied, "If I say the wrong thing, people will scold me."

"They scold you, and then what?" Chen Chao tilted his head, raising an eyebrow as he asked.

Miao Jiayan thought hard for a long time but couldn't think of anything. He shook his head and said, "There is no 'and then'."

The bite on the back of Chen Chao's hand had been pressed by him into a grid of three horizontal and three vertical lines. He glanced down at it and said, "So what are you afraid of?"

Miao Jiayan finally smiled, his double chin faintly visible. The small night lights in the courtyard were reflected in his eyes as he looked at Chen Chao and said, "Okay, Brother Chao."

In the courtyard, a few of the boys were squeezed into the largest tent, playing cards and drinking beer.

Miao Jiayan asked Chen Chao, "Brother Chao, after you graduate, will you stay there? Or go somewhere else?"

Chen Chao had always been someone with a plan. He always knew what he was going to do. Miao Jiayan knew he must have a plan.

"Continue studying," Chen Chao said.

"A postgraduate recommendation?" Miao Jiayan asked.

Chen Chao didn't speak.

"Are you going abroad?" Miao Jiayan blinked and asked him.

Chen Chao said, "Maybe."

"Will you come back then?"

"I will," Chen Chao said with certainty.

"Then you'll be studying for a long time," Miao Jiayan said with a smile. "I'm not going to study anymore after I graduate."

Chen Chao smiled too and said to him, "You don't need to. Are you really going to delve into agricultural research?"

Chen Chao was like a person from a dream.

He was always in a place just out of reach, yet not very far away. He could always be trusted, always full of strength.

When Miao Jiayan talked with him, he didn't need to sit up straight, didn't need to worry if his hair was messy, or if his smile looked good.

That night, it seemed they didn't say much, but a glance at the time showed it was already ten-thirty.

They had rarely been in contact these past few years and hadn't seen each other, yet upon meeting, they could miraculously talk endlessly, and nothing they said felt abrupt.

Under the night light, mosquitoes and small insects circled round and round. Occasionally, they would bump into the lampshade, making a soft "pat" sound.

"I'm going, Brother Chao," Miao Jiayan said.

"Mhm," Chen Chao said. "I'm going to bed too."

"I don't know if I can make it back before you leave. I'll try to finish the shoot as quickly as possible," Miao Jiayan told him.

"It's fine," Chen Chao's exposed arms had several mosquito bites. He casually scratched his arms and said, "Go handle your business. I'm only staying a few days before I head back anyway."

Miao Jiayan nodded. "If you don't have enough space here, just let your friends stay at my place. I have spare rooms."

"They like it this way. I don't care," Chen Chao said.

Miao Jiayan lowered his voice and secretly said to Chen Chao, "Why aren't you properly hosting your friends?"

"Too much trouble," Chen Chao also said in a low voice.

Afterward, Miao Jiayan went back, and Chen Chao also went upstairs.

Outside, the group of boys was still making noise in the tent, but they knew to keep their voices down so as not to disturb the elders in the house.

The two of them turned on their lights at almost the same time, and the two small, facing windows lit up one after the other. Miao Jiayan lifted the curtain and waved his arm in this direction. Chen Chao lifted his chin, signaling for him to go and do whatever he needed to do.

Not long after, both sides turned off their lights one after another, leaving only the small light from the boys' tent downstairs.