The two people came back suddenly and hadn’t even packed their luggage yet. Chu Ye asked them to go to the dormitory to pack their things first, and then he went out to sell fish balls for a while.

In the evening, Mu Jiajun cooked and Chu Ye helped. Plates of delicious dishes were served on the table, which immediately aroused praise.

“Wow! I didn’t expect my brother-in-law is such a good cook!” Pan’er clapped her hands and exclaimed, and Xiaoya also widened her eyes.

Mu Jiajun smiled softly, and moved his gaze to Chu Ye, very affectionately, “Sometimes it is a very happy thing to make delicious food for the person you love.”

Chu Ye looked back, feeling a warm current flowing through her heart. Mu Jiajun took her hand and asked everyone to sit down and eat. Pan’er and Xiaoya were both smiling, with ambiguous eyes moving between them. Chu Ye felt embarrassed and annoyed, and gave each of them a slap on the head, letting them both concentrate on eating.

After the food on the table was cleared away, Mu Jiajun took the initiative to roll up his sleeves and took on the job of washing the dishes. The three people were left with nothing to do. Finally, Chu Ye thought about it, ran to the storage room, moved out chairs and fishing rods, and placed them in a row beside the fish pond.

There was a bright lamp under the eaves of the house, and the light fell on the four people in turn, casting a shadow.

Pan’er chattered about the interesting things that happened at home during the Chinese New Year, such as Uncle Wang next door quarreling with his wife again, or a childhood playmate whom he hadn’t seen for a long time now looking very different, or his little niece bought a new red dress this year, which made her look like a red firecracker, etc.

She talked nonstop, and the three of them listened with great interest, sometimes laughing until tears came out of their eyes, sometimes sighing. In between, Xiaoya actively shared the various things she encountered when she returned home. As they talked, the topic somehow fell on Mu Jiajun.

“It’s your turn, brother-in-law. Tell me how you got to know Sister Chu?” Pan’er asked curiously, and Xiaoya nodded repeatedly.

The light shone on the side of Mu Jiajun’s face. He turned his head slightly, and his whole face fell into the darkness. Chu Ye felt the gaze of the person next to her, which was full of tenderness even in the darkness. She nodded gently, and Mu Jiajun over there seemed to open up.

“Come to think of it, it was Xiaoye who saved my life from the flood. If it weren’t for her, I might have died at that time.” Mu Jiajun spoke with a powerful punch, which scared Pan’er and Xiaoya.

“What! Your acquaintance is too thrilling, isn’t it?” Pan’er screamed immediately.

“What is going on?” Xiaoya was also eager to know.

“The story begins with the leak in the house I lived in…” Mu Jiajun supported his hands behind his head, his tone full of nostalgia.

As he spoke, Chu Ye’s eyes became leisurely, and her thoughts were brought back to the time when she had just woken up from rebirth and wanted desperately to change her fate.

That evening, the four of them sat together and talked a lot. Looking back on the past, they felt that no hardship was insurmountable. Although the road was bumpy, they were indeed moving in a better direction step by step.

It was unclear who ended the conversation, but I knew that when they woke up the next day, all four of them had dark circles under their eyes.

After washing up, Mu Jiajun rubbed Chu Ye’s cheek with some heartache. He suggested that Chu Ye take a rest while he rode his bike to sell fish balls, but Chu Ye refused.

Pan’er and Xiaoya also clamored to accompany the two to sell things, but they only had one tricycle. The two of them quickly came up with an idea. While Chu Ye and Mu Jiajun were out, they ran to a nearby village and rented a tricycle after much negotiation. In the afternoon, the two tricycles loaded with fish balls drove off in different directions.

After a few days, the New Year was finally coming to an end and most of the fish balls had been sold. Although the money earned from selling fish balls was not as much as that from selling fish, due to the cold wave, other people sold their fish at low prices because of the death of large quantities of fish. Chu Ye did the opposite and became the winner.

Chu Ye used the money he earned to buy a large number of sea bass fry and put them back into the fish pond. At that time, a cold wave hit, and although the fish pond suffered heavy casualties, it was not completely wiped out. The remaining big fish and crabs could still support the stall to continue operating.

So on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the last day of the new year, the stall that had been closed for half a month welcomed customers again, but this time in addition to fish, there were also fish balls.

Chu Ye and others’ behavior of walking around the streets shouting and selling fish balls during the Chinese New Year attracted many customers. Because of this, when their stall was set up, people’s enthusiasm was no different from that before the New Year, and Pan’er and Xiaoya quickly got involved in the busy business.

Chu Ye was accompanying Mu Jiajun at the airport at this time. The broadcast was urging passengers to hurry up and board the plane. Mu Jiajun hugged the person in his arms tightly, as if he wanted to hold the person into his bones and blood.

“Wait for me. Come here to pick me up in half a month. Do you hear me?” Mu Jiajun’s tone was rarely domineering. Chu Ye was held in his arms, nodding in agreement like a chicken pecking at rice.

“If you run away secretly again like before, I will…” He thought for a long time but couldn’t come up with anything. Chu Ye raised half of his face from his arms, curious about what threatening words he was going to say.

But Mu Jiajun thought for a long time and still couldn’t think of any vicious words. Finally, he pinched her cheek angrily and said, “Anyway, you can’t leave without any news. Do you hear me?”

He was really scared. The last time Chu Ye ran here alone, he spent two whole years looking for her before they could meet again. If possible, he really wanted to tie Chu Ye to his belt and take her abroad together.

But he couldn’t. He had asked for leave to come back this time, and now it was time for him to leave.

Chu Ye buried her head in his chest again, her palms falling on his back. She knew what Mu Jiajun was worried about. She was too cowardly at the time and didn’t have the courage to face everything, so she left without saying goodbye. All this became a shadow for Mu Jiajun, so she patted him gently to comfort him, “I won’t leave. I’ll wait for you here. I’ll come back here to pick you up in half a month.”

“You can’t lie to me.” Mu Jiajun hugged her and his voice fell into her ears, tickling her slightly.

“No, I will definitely come to pick you up.” Chu Ye said firmly.

The broadcast was urging them to leave again. Mu Jiajun opened his arms, put his hands around the person’s cheeks, and finally gave her a light kiss on the lips, which was as fleeting as a feather. He then strode into the security checkpoint.

This was the first time Chu Ye watched someone leave completely. Although the last time was also at the airport, Mu Jiajun was smiling and kept turning back to greet her and his family.

But this time, Mu Jiajun never looked back.

Chu Ye stood there for a long time, until she could no longer see anything, then she turned around and left.

Time passed quickly, and after three days, the fish balls were completely sold out. Chu Ye counted the money he had earned during this period and found that it was only slightly lower than the total turnover in the first half of the year. In the face of natural disasters such as cold waves, it was considered profitable to have such a result. In addition, there were customers coming to the stall every day to buy fish balls, but they left embarrassedly after learning that the fish balls were sold out. Some customers did not give up and came here for several days in a row, saying that their children liked to eat the fish balls here and had been making trouble for meals for several days.

Chu Ye took their thoughts into account and remembered that Mu Jiajun had told her before that the fish ball business could be sustained for a long time and in the long run, it would be a more profitable business than selling fish.

So Chu Ye recruited six more workers from the neighboring village, and they worked in groups of two to continue making fish balls at the fish pond.

Two days later, an unexpected person came. It was noon. Chu Ye and Pan’er Xiaoya had finished their meal and were about to take a break when a beautiful figure appeared at the mouth of the fish pond in a hurry. Chu Ye was at the door of the house at that time. She looked up and was so shocked that she couldn’t speak when she saw the person coming. However, the person rushed over with bared teeth and twisted her ear.

“You stupid girl, you left without saying goodbye, causing me to live in fear for two whole years, and now you’re running out here to live a carefree life, right?” Qiao Mingzhu was so angry when she talked about this.

“Ouch, it hurts,” Chu Ye felt the pain and could only beg for mercy, “It is indeed my fault. I shouldn’t have written to you so late.”

“How dare you mention this? If you hadn’t written to me, I wouldn’t have known you came here!” Qiao Mingzhu withdrew his hand angrily, his face full of anger. Chu Ye could only smile apologetically.

Pan’er and Xiaoya heard the noise and rushed out of the dormitory. When they saw this scene, they didn’t dare to step forward for a while.

Chu Ye lowered his head and coaxed Mingzhu into the house first, and then asked Pan’er and Xiaoya to go back and rest first.

“What a good you! Not only do you only write me one letter in two years, you also have other good friends behind my back?” Mingzhu was so angry that her teeth were about to break. She had been so worried whenever she thought of Chu Ye for the past two years, but this guy was almost forgetting about her!
Of course Chu Ye had to stroke Miss Qiao’s fur. After she calmed Mingzhu down with a few nice words, she began to tell her about her mental journey over the past two years. “…But I was wrong about this matter. I should have contacted you earlier.”

“It’s good that you know, hum!” Mingzhu accepted her apology proudly. After a while, she said coldly, “…Then am I still your good friend?”

“Of course! We will always be good friends.” Chu Ye said firmly.

“Hmph!” Mingzhu snorted coldly in response.

Mingzhu came here during the New Year holiday. She had been teaching at school before and had not been able to leave. It was not until the winter vacation that she had finished dealing with all her affairs that she was able to take the time to come and visit Chu Ye.

Taking this opportunity, Chu Ye also learned about what had happened to Mingzhu in the past two years. She got engaged to Zhao Huaiyuan on October 1 last year and was scheduled to get married on May 1 this year. “By then, you have to come even if it rains knives from the sky. Do you hear me?” Qiao Mingzhu said viciously before getting in the car.

She came and left quickly, and had to go back quickly after staying here for only two days. She said that she became a class teacher last year, and suddenly she had a lot of things to do, so she had to go back to look after the students.

At this moment, Chu Ye sent her to the station and filled two bags with fish balls for her. He originally wanted to fill more, but Mingzhu thought it would not look good in her hands and refused to take any more.

Mingzhu was reluctant to leave, and Chu Ye’s eyes were red. When she heard her say this, she nodded quickly.

“And you have to write to me more often, you hear me?”

Chu Ye nodded again.

The final farewell was wrapped in a deep hug, and Mingzhu boarded the train back home.

Another week passed, and Chu Ye arrived at the airport early as promised. The airport was crowded with people, and countless people were parting and reuniting here.

People around Chu Ye came and went. After waiting for an unknown amount of time, a tall and thin figure finally walked out from the exit. The man was carrying two large suitcases, one on the left and one on the right. He looked around as soon as he came out. When he saw Chu Ye, his eyes suddenly lit up, and then he strode over. As soon as he put down the suitcases, he hugged Chu Ye in his arms.

The two hearts finally beat together without any hindrance. Mu Jiajun leaned his head against her ear and said with joy, “I am returning home after completing my studies. You have no reason to drive me away.”

“I never chased you away, don’t talk nonsense.” Chu Ye lied with his eyes open, but he could never admit it.

She heard Mu Jiajun’s chuckle, which made her heart itch. Then she heard, “My tutor said he wanted to recommend me to the school to work there, but I refused.”

He paused for a moment and continued, “I said, my love has been waiting for a long time, I can’t let her wait any longer.”

Chu Ye’s brain seemed to be hit by something in an instant. Before she could react, the warmth in the embrace had already disappeared. She watched Mu Jiajun take something out of his chest pocket, then kneel on one knee, looking at her with burning eyes.

Chu Ye looked over almost subconsciously. In a blue velvet box was a small and exquisite silver ring. The shape was simple and quaint, and a metallic luster flashed under the light.

The moment Mu Jiajun knelt down, someone exclaimed, and then more and more people gathered around, their faces full of smiles, looking forward to the next moment.

Mu Jiajun was obviously very nervous. Chu Ye saw his Adam’s apple rolling quickly, but his pair of gray-blue eyes were full of tenderness. He spoke, and his voice was firmer than ever before.

He said, “Ms. Chuye, will you marry me?”

I don’t know who started the applause, and the sound was getting louder and louder. Chu Ye was in the crowd, but she couldn’t hear much. She could only see the people in front of her. She opened her mouth, and it was obviously a definite answer, but she was still very nervous at this moment. She covered her chest, afraid that her heart would jump out.

She said, “I do.”

(End of this chapter)