Sparrow

The Qingming holiday arrived as scheduled, and the Dream Grain team also entered their vacation period.

On Saturday morning, Lu Zhou woke up early and packed his luggage, ready to go home.

As he descended the stairs, he noticed that the convenience store was open, so Lu Zhou walked in and greeted, "Good morning. The store is open again."

Yè Qīngchén replied, "Good morning, senior."

"I've always been curious. You only open the store during the holidays when you're not attending classes. Aren't you afraid of running at a loss?"

"I recently took over from my mom and I'm looking for someone to help manage it. Are you going out, senior?"

"Yeah, it's Qingming. I'm going home to prevent my parents from nagging."

"Where is your home, senior?" Yè Qīngchén asked unconsciously.

"My home is in Binhai. What's up? Do you want to travel during the holiday? You're welcome to come anytime. I'll treat you to the most authentic roasted duck, and we can also visit a small island by the sea."

"Um..."

"Haha, I was just saying. Okay, I need to catch my ride. We'll talk later. Goodbye."

"Yeah, goodbye."

After Lu Zhou left the store, Yè Qīngchén murmured, "So it really was you."

...

Despite waking up early, Lu Zhou was still squeezed like a pancake on the subway.

When he first boarded the train, there were still available seats, so he comfortably sat down and took out his phone to browse through some documents, contemplating his work after the holiday.

Just as the train doors were about to close, a young girl carrying a baby boarded the train.

Lu Zhou caught sight of the mother and quickly stood up, saying, "You can sit here with the baby."

As Lu Zhou spoke, two enthusiastic young people also reflexively stood up, prepared to offer their seats.

Unexpectedly, the girl's face turned slightly embarrassed, and as Lu Zhou glanced at her again, he realized she was quite young. Upon closer inspection, he noticed that the baby she was carrying was actually a delicate doll.

"Oh... It's fine. Ladies first. I'll arrive soon."

The surrounding passengers noticed and burst into laughter.

In the end, under the gaze of the young girl, Lu Zhou stood until he reached the final destination.

"This is quite awkward," Lu Zhou thought to himself.

After finally following the crowd out of the subway station, he joined the long queue for ticket purchase and security check. After a lengthy wait, Lu Zhou's scheduled departure finally arrived.

As he settled into his seat on the train, Lu Zhou was contemplating the future layout of the banana market when he unintentionally caught sight of the same girl from the subway.

He saw the girl holding the doll in one hand and her ticket in the other. Every few steps, she would glance up to check the seat numbers. Eventually, she realized that Lu Zhou was sitting next to her, and both of them couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed.

"Hello," Lu Zhou forced a greeting with a brave face.

"Hello."

"I'm sorry about earlier. I feel bad for making you the subject of ridicule."

"It's okay. In fact, I feel more sorry for not letting you sit the whole way."

Lu Zhou didn't mind at all and praised the doll in the girl's hand, saying, "No need. The doll in your hand is incredibly exquisite, almost indistinguishable from a real baby. The clothes are also beautiful."

The girl smiled, revealing freckles on her small face, and proudly said, "That's right. This is my little treasure. I made every piece of clothing for her by hand. This little red dress, I..."

She displayed the doll's clothing decorations, took out new clothes from her backpack, explaining and glancing at Lu Zhou.

"...I seem to have praised something I shouldn't have," Lu Zhou thought helplessly.

Suddenly, the girl stopped her "showing off the doll" behavior.

"Hey, I think I've seen you before... Oh, oh, handsome guy, I remember now."

"Hmm?"

"Didn't you lie down under the Yixian Design Building one day and later rode a bicycle to pick up Fairy Ye?"

Lu Zhou thought for a moment, "Fairy Ye? Ye Qingchen?"

It turns out the girl had witnessed the scene when Lu Zhou resigned and encountered Ye Qingchen at Yixian.

The girl kept scrutinizing Lu Zhou as if observing a rare animal, and made a few comments, "Hmm, not bad, not bad. Tall figure, decent-looking, slightly handsome. Just about worthy of our little fairy. Hello, I'm Sun Qiaoqi, a professional like your little fairy. Are you also a student at Yixian?"

"...Lu Zhou, majoring in Computer Science, '08."

"Oh, I see. No wonder Fairy Ye has never had any contact with other boys. Turns out she's already taken."

Lu Zhou was speechless, "You're thinking too much. We're just neighbors."

After hearing that, Sun Qiaoqi stared into his eyes for a moment and said cunningly, "Hmm, seems like you're not lying? But I also don't feel surprised. Ye Qingchen usually keeps to herself, even with girls."

"To be honest, when we started freshman year, I had some contact with her for a while. We happened to be assigned to the same professional, so I went to class alone. And she happened to sit next to me. At first, being unfamiliar with each other, I thought of finding a best friend, someone to attend classes together and go out when there were no classes, so I wouldn't feel so lonely."

"So after class, we went to eat together, talking about this and that. I mentioned that I'm from Binhai, and she said her dad is from Binhai too. I was particularly happy, thinking it's not easy to meet someone from the same place in the same major."

"But later on, I felt that we didn't really get along well. Um, it's not that I dislike her. I've always been talkative since I was a child, my mom says I've been chattering like a sparrow since I was little. Dealing with someone as introverted as Fairy Ye was quite a headache, communication was difficult. But according to her roommate, she usually stays alone in the library until closing time and rarely interacts with her roommates. Even when she reads, she's quite peculiar. The term 'Fairy Ye' describes both her appearance and personality."

...

Sun Qiaoqi finally took a break and took a sip of water. Lu Zhou helplessly said, "I think I didn't ask so much..."

Sun Qiaoqi wasn't surprised by his reaction, but instead looked cunningly at Lu Zhou, "But you were listening with great interest, weren't you? Chatting is boring without gossip and bragging."

"Well, fine. We still have over an hour until we reach Binhai, and there's nothing to do on the way. Let me satisfy your curiosity and tell you a story from my childhood."

"?"

"When I was in kindergarten, my parents were particularly busy. One day, my grandfather came to take care of me at home. He loved playing chess, and after dinner, he always went downstairs to find someone to play with. He didn't feel comfortable leaving me alone at home, so he always took me along. I couldn't understand chess and was especially bored, but he wouldn't let me wander around, so I kept bragging in his ear."

"But eventually, he couldn't take it anymore because he kept losing. So he bought me an extremely ugly mynah bird. Every day, my grandpa played chess while I chatted with the mynah bird. After playing with it for about half a year, I taught it to say two sentences: 'Grandpa' and 'You lost.' Haha, it drove my grandpa crazy."

...

Lu Zhou and Sun Qiaoqi chatted casually, with the girl mostly sharing her amusing stories, and occasionally Lu Zhou shared a bit about himself.

"This girl is naturally incompatible with Ye Qingchen," this thought emerged in Lu Zhou mind.

"And Ye Qingchen is also from Binhai?"