Chapter 29: A Pleasant Date with My Childhood Sweetheart

Jiang Nian certainly wasn't going to do his homework; life is short, and one should seize the pleasure of the moment.

Across the hall in the Xu household, inside Xu Qianqian's room, the two were occupied—one playing on a phone at the desk, the other lying on the bed doing the same. They operated on the principle of doing their own thing, maintaining a tacit, silent agreement that had become a tradition. After all, it was always uncomfortable to do anything under the watchful eyes of their elders. Once a phone was pulled out, parents would start shaking their heads. If someone were to utter, "Play, play, play, all you know how to do is stare at your phone all day," the conversation would inevitably shift from daily trifles to how phones were ruining lives.

"Are there any good movies playing lately?" Xu Qianqian suddenly asked.

"Why?"

"There's a discount on couple tickets. You're just sitting around doing nothing anyway."

Jiang Nian felt a chill, his pride slightly wounded. *Wait a second,* he thought, *your dear friend here is tall and handsome, and in your eyes, I’m just some tool for a movie discount?*

"What if I have a girlfriend?"

"You?"

Damn. That single word dealt tons of damage. The last time Jiang Nian heard something so shocking was... well, let's not go there.

"Is that even human language?" Jiang Nian sighed. "I don't have a partner. Women have ruined me. As soon as I lie in bed, I start thinking of women—Shanghai Granny’s milk tea, Nayuki’s Tea..."

"So, are you going or not?" Xu Qianqian was speechless. She thought to herself that if this guy’s personality weren't so abstract, he might have actually found a girlfriend by now. But as things stood, his condition seemed to be worsening. He used to just be a troublemaker; now he was being bizarre. The kid probably had a fever of the lungs.

Jiang Nian wasn't actually that keen on seeing a movie, and he was hesitating. After all, pretending to be a couple wasn't as fun as one might imagine, especially with Xu Qianqian’s cold face throughout the whole thing.

*Ding!* [Your first battle in weight loss at age thirty-eight has been a success. Half a month ago, you had a pleasant conversation with your long-lost childhood sweetheart. Time to officially start a date invitation. Task: Complete a pleasant date with Xu Qianqian. Reward: 30,000 RMB.]

Looking at the notification on the system panel, Jiang Nian felt weird. It felt like a life simulation game—his eighteen-year-old self simulating his thirty-eight-year-old self. To be precise, it was simulating a version of himself from another timeline, achieving a comeback at the age of thirty-eight. At the very least, as the system started, the current Jiang Nian knew his destiny in advance. Aside from anything else, compromise on marriage was impossible—he wouldn't marry a toxic woman. Or even more extreme: marriage? Who gets married once they have money? Just collect the rewards and be a heartbreaker.

Seeing he hadn't replied for a long time, Xu Qianqian’s mouth pouted, and she turned away.

"Forget it if you're not going."

"Huh? Who said I wasn't going?" Jiang Nian suddenly acted coy, his tone flirtatious. "Tell me, do you think this counts as a date between us?"

If this were in the past, Xu Qianqian would have kicked him and told him to stop being a brat.

"A... a date my foot!" Xu Qianqian stood up abruptly, her face slightly flushed. "Are you going or not? If not, I'll find someone else."

"Fine, same old rules: you buy the snacks, I buy the tickets." Jiang Nian dropped his cheeky demeanor. "I’ll sneak out the electric scooter keys; wait for me at the bottom of the stairs."

As he turned to leave, he was suddenly called back.

"Hey, I'll buy both the snacks and the tickets," Xu Qianqian said suddenly. "You can treat me next time... when you have money. My dad just gave me my allowance."

"Why do you assume I’m broke?" he turned back.

"My dad said you gave all the money you earned to Aunt Li for her emergency, so you’re probably out of cash," she said slowly, eyes lowered. "He told me to help you out occasionally so you wouldn't starve to death."

In truth, her father, Director Xu, hadn't said anything about helping him out. He knew the two had always had a rocky relationship, but the lie wouldn't be exposed anyway.

"Alright, you pay then," said Jiang Nian, who was sitting on seventeen thousand yuan. Being a kept man had nothing to do with how much money one actually had.

He returned home. The three adults were still in the living room, talking about work and life. Occasionally, there were sighs about "five or six years" passing, and the atmosphere was quite somber. Ever since Xu Qianqian’s mother passed away, Old Xu hadn't really been able to move on.

Jiang Nian tiptoed home. Passing through the living room, he happened to see Old Xu take off his rimless glasses. He looked over, his eyes still slightly squinted.

"Little Nian is back?" A forced smile appeared on his face—a smile painfully twisted out of grief, his features stiff.

"Yeah, I’m just grabbing the electric scooter keys to take Xu Qianqian out to see some classmates." He wisely used Xu Qianqian as his shield. Sure enough, whatever Li Hongmei was about to say was swallowed back down.

"The keys are on the table in our room. Don't stay out too late."

"Okay."

Jiang Nian took the keys. As he walked through the living room with his head down, he caught snippets of hushed conversation. He couldn't bear to listen, so he quickened his pace. He couldn't grasp the depth of Uncle Xu’s mood, just feeling a sense of pity. Perhaps because of the "Memory Bread," a line popped into his head for no reason:

"There is a loquat tree in the courtyard, planted by my wife the year she passed away; it is now standing tall, its canopy like a parasol."

He shook his head, casting the messy thoughts aside. By the time he reached the stairwell, he had shaken off the emotion. He waited for a while, but Xu Qianqian hadn't come down yet.

*Oh my god, even the transformation sequence of a magical girl isn't this slow.*

After quite some time, Xu Qianqian came down, having specifically changed into a light green dress. The young girl in front of him had her hair tied in a simple ponytail, soft and fine. Her face didn't seem fully grown yet; like all girls from the south, her cheeks were fair and delicate. Her chin was slightly pointed, her brows like distant mountains, and her chest was noticeably full. She looked pure and fair, yet her figure was exceptionally well-developed.

Xu Qianqian felt a bit guilty. She didn't even know why she had subconsciously changed into a dress. It was just a movie; Jiang Nian wasn't anyone special. But she had done it anyway, feeling both nervous and apprehensive.

"Why did it take so long?" he asked, scanning her for a long moment.

"Oh, I accidentally got my clothes wet while washing my face, so I changed," Xu Qianqian gave a random reason, sounding slightly forced. She could have just said she changed her clothes.

"Does it take that long to change? Did it take a lot of time to put in those shoe lifts?"

Xu Qianqian’s sense of anticipation was instantly shattered by the mention of shoe lifts. She gritted her teeth and squeezed out a smile. "You're so young, if you aren't going to use your eyes, you might as well use them to stir-fry some vegetables."

"I never imagined you had such intense tastes, Xu Qianqian."

"..."

There were only two cinemas in Zhennan County, one in the north and one in the south, both attached to shopping malls. The two rode their bike to the one in the south, arriving with twenty minutes to spare. Xu Qianqian went to the snack shop outside the mall, while Jiang Nian was in charge of parking. Since it was the National Day holiday, there were plenty of people, and the ticket checkers didn't check bags, so many people brought their own snacks.

They met at the manual ticket booth; couple tickets had to be bought on-site. Halfway through the line, Xu Qianqian’s expression suddenly turned horrified, and she tugged at Jiang Nian’s sleeve.

"What now?" Jiang Nian was busy playing on his phone.

Xu Qianqian’s voice trembled, "Look in front of us—the couple is about to kiss."