Chapter 25: Returning the Favor in Kind

After leaving the bathhouse, she was pleasantly surprised to discover that her pink popularity score had inexplicably risen by more than ten points. Pondering it from every angle, she could only conclude it must have happened in the bathhouse. The more she thought about it, the more unnerving it seemed—did the aunties and older ladies admire her figure? Was that really a way to gain popularity? Li Jixiang found it both amusing and exasperating. She had never garnered popularity at school because of her looks, but in the women’s bathhouse, she managed it. Truly, it was a place of honest encounters.

To let her granddaughter skip school for a bath—perhaps only Grandma Li would do such a thing. Li Jixiang didn’t fully understand, but she enjoyed the process nonetheless.

The sun was bright; dressed in freshly changed clothes from inside out, she walked side by side with Grandma Li. Her steps light, she hummed her favorite English song. She guessed Anning must be working at the tofu shop now, and soon she’d need to find a way to call Anning out so she could carry out her plan for revenge.

Just as she approached the tofu shop, she heard Anchen’s excited voice and decided to slip away for now, planning to contact Anning later. She couldn’t let Anchen, that little chubby boy, latch onto her, or else he’d never let go.

Since the little chubby boy scored a hundred in his exam, his eyes sparkled with even more stars every time he saw her. He was almost her little fanboy now, but with her current status, she couldn’t afford to have fanboys—she needed major sources of popularity, the more the better. Only gaining, never losing popularity. The little chubby boy was far too emotional…

“Anchen’s mom, is there any tofu pudding today? I want to make tofu flower for Jixiang tonight.”

The more she hoped to avoid something, the more it happened. Li Jixiang wanted to sneak past unnoticed, but Grandma Li insisted on greeting those inside the tofu shop. Anchen’s mom replied that there was tofu pudding, but hadn’t yet ladled any from the big jar. Just then, Anchen burst out from the inner room like a bird freed from its cage.

“Jixiang, I got another hundred! You said you’d reward me last time if I scored a hundred!”

Anchen rushed forward, grabbing Li Jixiang’s hand, his rosy cheeks lifted, pink stars sparkling in his eyes as he looked at her.

“Candied hawthorn—”

The vendor’s cry from behind was perfectly timed, saving Li Jixiang from a tricky situation.

“Let me buy you some candied hawthorn as a reward,” she said, quickly slipping her hand free from Anchen’s chubby grasp, and hurriedly purchasing a stick to hand to him. Anchen licked it, his eyes now overflowing with pink stars. Li Jixiang gave Anning, standing in the doorway, a meaningful look, and Anning nodded in understanding. As her partner, he could effortlessly read her cues and act accordingly.

Anchen, licking the candied hawthorn, watched Li Jixiang walk away with longing eyes. Without his mother’s prompting, he returned to the little room and sat down to continue his homework.

“This child is becoming more and more self-motivated in his studies,” Anchen’s mom murmured to her husband, a relieved smile on her face. Anchen’s father, grinding the millstone, glanced at his son sitting upright at the small table, his own smile breaking out.

“Anning, help your father push the millstone for a bit. Haven’t you noticed his back is soaked?” Anchen’s mom turned to see her eldest son distracted at the door, slicing tofu, and couldn’t help but frown.

Anning put down his scraper, needing to use the restroom.

“Go quickly and come right back. Remember to wash your hands when you return,” Anchen’s mom called as Anning dashed toward the public restroom across the street.

Three taps sounded on the back window—Anning had arrived. Li Jixiang sat inside for a while before stepping out to tell Grandma Li, who was busy at the stove making wheat pancakes, that she was heading out. Grandma Li, pressing the dough onto the hot iron pan, turned to look, but Li Jixiang had already left.

The small grove—their old meeting place.

Anning sat in the crook of a tree, watching the entrance of the Xingqiu corner store. Seeing Li Jixiang approach, he gripped the branch, picking leaves one by one.

Seeing the scattered leaves on the ground, Li Jixiang frowned and looked up. Embarrassed, Anning slid down from the tree, rubbing his hands together.

Li Jixiang gazed silently at Anning, making him sweat in anxiety.

“I won’t pick leaves anymore,” he promised.

Good, as long as he understood—there was no need to spell it out; Anning surely grasped her logic. Li Jixiang relaxed her brow and asked Anning to go with her to Xinqiao Township to find someone.

“Her name is Lin Xiaozhen, or something Zhen. She’s about twenty years old, about my height, with a small black mole on her cheek.”

Li Jixiang described her as precisely as possible, and Anning nodded in agreement.

“We’re going with her to the county high school to accuse Zhao Kai of seducing and abandoning her.”

“Ah, is it true?” Anning asked.

“Of course it’s not true,” Li Jixiang answered sharply, her gaze cold. Anning dared not question her any further.