The little rich girl normally didn’t eat spicy food. It made her break out, and for a refined girl like her, that was absolutely unacceptable.

But when Chen Dao asked how she kept her skin so hydrated, she answered very bluntly.

“No idea.”

Because her tutors and her mom handled all that for her.

What she never expected, though, was that the spicy strips would leave her lips burning, even stinging a little.

That whole pack Chen Dao had eaten was about the same for him. He was just being stubborn, saying it wasn’t spicy with red lips.

Uncle Liu quietly recorded all of this in his mental notes, covering his face as he snickered.

The two of them, lips all red, bought another pack. This time Gu Lian paid for it. She’d thought that if she bought it herself, she’d get to eat more, but Chen Dao still snatched half of it.

Of course, Chen Dao had his reasons.

Uncle Liu was right there watching. What if Gu Lian ate too much, went home, and got scolded for it?

Uncle Liu would probably get blamed too.

So it definitely wasn’t because mooching free food felt great that he fought her for it.

Definitely not.

He remembered a college roommate from back then. Big guy, tall and broad. His catchphrase was, “C’mon, let me have a bite too.”

The guy loved freeloading snacks, using other people’s tissues, and even asking for their clothes and body wash.

And the truth was, he wasn’t poor at all. His clothes and shoes all cost well into the triple digits, yet he still loved doing that.

Chen Dao figured maybe he’d been influenced by that too.

After that, the two of them started wandering from stall to stall, hunting for all kinds of weird and novel little things.

Later, after they’d finally made a rough full round of the place, the two fully armed troublemakers, along with the forcibly fully armed Uncle Liu, stood back at the entrance where they’d started.

Gu Lian wore a blue plastic hat you could drink water from, a pair of spiral glasses straight out of a comic, a bamboo-copter in her left hand, and a sticky blue toy hand in her right. A tin frog was tucked in her pocket, and a fifty-centimeter toy gun hung at her waist.

Chen Dao’s gear was a little less flashy, but technically it was Gu Lian’s too. On his head was a solar-powered fan hat. In his left hand was a yo-yo. In his right was a giant family combo pack of snacks.

Uncle Liu had also been dragged into this farce. Gu Lian’s trench coat was still in his hands, but he was also wearing a fake mustache glasses set, had bought a toy race car, and even carried a pack of water beads.

In short, the moment the three of them stood by the entrance, they drew no idea how many stares. Especially from passing kids. A few had already started throwing themselves onto the ground and begging their parents.

The three of them slowly made their way to the car. After stuffing everything into the trunk, they didn’t leave right away, but headed over to the seawall instead.

This time, Uncle Liu only watched from a distance by the roadside, while figuring out how exactly he was supposed to explain all this to Master and Madam.

As for Gu Lian, Chen Dao pulled her up to the roadside pavilion.

On one side of Seaside Road were apartment buildings and vendors. On the other was a seawall built along the coast. The road only reached about two-thirds of the seawall’s height, and several pavilions had been built above it.

But the wind was usually strong, so no one ever stopped there to rest.

Which, in turn, gave Chen Dao and Gu Lian a chance to be alone together.

After playing around for over an hour, Gu Lian no longer avoided Chen Dao like she had at the start. Instead, she started flicking the sticky toy hand onto his backpack.

But she didn’t dare use much force.

She could only fool around when Chen Dao had his back to her. The second he looked like he might turn around, she’d immediately pull it back and pretend nothing had happened.

“Oh, right. This is for you. It’s almost used up. Sorry...”

Chen Dao knew what Gu Lian had been worrying about these past few days.

Since she still didn’t really understand what a friend was, she was probably worried she’d turn into Chen Dao’s personal ATM. That was why she’d been deliberately keeping her distance.

He understood very clearly what borrowing money meant to a girl whose mind was still immature and whose upbringing was strict.

Gu Lian stared blankly at the pen Chen Dao held out, the one with only a third of its ink left, then lifted her cool, distant eyes to look at him.

“Don’t get the wrong idea. I’ll pay the money back.”

Chen Dao explained while watching her expression.

If he were a little more shameless and asked his parents for help, he could always get it.

But that would make Dad Chen and Mom Hong start worrying. They’d wonder if their kid had gotten into trouble and needed money to settle it.

And he didn’t want too many people finding out about Xia Jiuli’s situation either. One more person knowing meant one more share of responsibility. It also meant endless questions, and maybe even people pitying Xia Jiuli.

Being looked at with sympathy was exactly what neither Chen Dao nor Xia Jiuli wanted.

In his previous life, he’d always been careful. Whenever he was with Xia Jiuli, he was tense and restrained. He worried about bringing up things he shouldn’t. It was the same when she was with her friends.

He didn’t dare get too casual. Didn’t dare ask too much.

And in the end, Xia Jiuli simply stopped going.

But if he told the current Gu Lian all this, it would sound like a made-up lie.

No different from those cliché excuses like, “the tea girl’s grandpa died,” or “the deadbeat borrower’s parents died.” The kind of thing that sounded fake the moment you heard it.

Especially when it came to Xia Jiuli, someone from Xiangzhou, showing up in Xinchi.

Eight hundred kilometers. A car accident. Rebirth.

Who’d believe that? Who wouldn’t?

Might as well believe me when I say I’m Qin Shi Huang. Send me fifty and witness my power.

“I have a friend. We ran into some things that weren’t exactly pleasant. Some time ago, she—”

Smack!

The sticky toy hand hit the pen in Chen Dao’s hand with perfect accuracy. Then it yanked back. It didn’t stick very well, spun in the air, and was caught by Gu Lian’s free hand.

Then the little rich girl pattered all the way to the Bentley parked by the roadside. She said a few words to Uncle Liu. Chen Dao figured it didn’t really matter if she just left like that, so he planned to leave too.

His Gu Lian-branded BBK learning machine was gone before it ever reached his hands, and he was still one thousand and one in debt. His reputation at school was already trashed, and it was unlikely anyone would be willing to tutor him.

So for now, he’d more or less prepared himself for his final exam score to drop by two hundred points.

But just as he turned to leave, hurried footsteps came from behind him again. He paused on the stairs leading down from the pavilion and saw Gu Lian running back, clutching the pen.

“For you.”

She opened her palm, and the pen appeared in front of Chen Dao once more.

It was still the same pen, but the refill inside had been replaced with a brand-new one.

And the old refill, the one with a third of its ink left, had been wrapped in the packaging paper and handed to him too.

When Gu Lian saw Chen Dao staring blankly at the pen and refill, she stepped forward, then stuffed both into his school uniform pocket and said softly,

“It’s okay if you don’t want to tell me. But when you come back, bring me some local specialties. Spicy strips are fine too.”

The moment she finished speaking, she was just like when she’d rushed out of the classroom before. Carrying a faint trail of fragrance with her, she scampered back to Uncle Liu’s side and dove into the back seat with a flying leap.

Uncle Liu stood by the front passenger seat and waved goodbye to Chen Dao before leaving with her.

Chen Dao watched the car drive away, then reached out and touched the pen in his pocket.

Sticky.