People in the countryside went to bed early and woke up early. The grandparents were up every day after five, so Chen Chao could always eat breakfast at home before going to school.

Miao Jiayan was different. If he had to wash his hair in the morning, he wouldn't have time for breakfast, and his grandma would pack something for him to eat at school. Usually, though, Miao Jiayan would finish it on the way, polishing it off cleanly before he was even halfway there.

Chen Chao walked to one side, hands in his pockets, while Miao Jiayan ate a red bean bun as he walked. He held the bun in one hand, the bag it came in looped around his wrist.

“Want some? It’s pretty good,” Miao Jiayan asked.

“No.” Chen Chao didn’t even glance over. He would never eat while walking. Ever since he was a child, Jiang Li never allowed him to eat outside. If he absolutely had to, he had to find a place to sit down, finish his food, and then carry on.

“Just a taste?” Miao Jiayan tore off a piece and offered it to him.

Chen Chao leaned his head back. “Not tasting it. Take it away.”

Miao Jiayan wasn't bothered. Fine if he didn't want any.

Ding Wentao ran up from behind. “Wait up, Brother Chao!”

Chen Chao didn't stop walking, but he glanced back.

Ding Wentao caught up to them, panting, and asked, “What are you guys eating?”

Miao Jiayan looked at him and was about to offer the bag on his wrist, but Chen Chao put out a hand to stop him. “Eat your own.”

“I’m not eating, I already ate at home.” Ding Wentao was clearly not interested in the red bean bun. He said to Chen Chao, “Let me copy your homework later, I haven’t done mine yet.”

Chen Chao laughed, teasing him, “Aren’t you something? You’re actually turning in homework now?”

“Well, Sha Sha is collecting the homework, so I have to support her work, right? If she can’t even get it from me, how is she supposed to collect it from the others?” Ding Wentao was moved by his own words.

Ever since starting the third year of junior high, the vice class monitor—a girl whom Ding Wentao was currently pursuing—had been collecting the homework every morning. Ding Wentao had recently changed his tastes; he no longer liked the soft and gentle types and had started to like girls with a bit of a temper, the formidable ones.

Chen Chao had zero interest in these adolescent heart-to-hearts. If he had that kind of spare time, he would rather do a couple of practice problems.

Miao Jiayan never inserted himself into their conversations. He ate quietly off to the side, and once he was done, he would just walk silently next to Chen Chao.

Quite a few outgoing girls would ask Ding Wentao about Chen Chao, hoping he would play matchmaker for them. Some even asked him to help deliver love tokens.

Ding Wentao often teased Chen Chao about this, but he knew where to draw the line and would usually turn them down directly on Chen Chao’s behalf.

“Yesterday, the English representative from Class Five was asking me indirectly what your type is,” Ding Wentao nudged Chen Chao with his elbow, grinning suggestively. “She’s a real beauty.”

Chen Chao said, “Don’t you have anything better to do?”

“I told her to give up, that you all don’t stand a chance,” Ding Wentao said, throwing his head back and laughing exaggeratedly. “Haha, I said that our Brother Chao already has a wifey.”

At first, Chen Chao just faintly raised an eyebrow, but then he chuckled. Miao Jiayan was walking obediently at his side when Chen Chao slung an arm over his shoulders, pulling him close with a smile. “Mhm.”

Miao Jiayan had been spacing out and didn't know what they were talking about. He looked up at Chen Chao in a daze and asked, “What?”

Chen Chao’s hand, which was wrapped around his neck, gave his ear a little tug.

“What were you talking about?” Miao Jiayan asked.

“He was saying you’re his wifey,” Ding Wentao enlightened him, looking at the two of them with disdain for their mushiness. “I really have to hand it to you two.”

Miao Jiayan was already used to his teasing and didn’t think anything of it. Being held by Chen Chao like this while they walked was actually messing up his hair, but Miao Jiayan didn’t say a word.

“Are you jealous?” Chen Chao asked Ding Wentao. “If you’re jealous, go find one yourself.”

Ding Wentao blurted out subconsciously, “But there's no way I'll find one.”

The sentence itself was perfectly normal, but combined with Ding Wentao’s tone, it took on a different undertone. Miao Jiayan didn’t react, but Chen Chao shot Ding Wentao a look. Ding Wentao also sensed he had said the wrong thing and mimed zipping his lips.

Miao Jiayan lowered his gaze. Chen Chao glanced at him, then lifted his elbow to frame Miao Jiayan's face and said, “You can't find one even if you're jealous, right, wifey?”

Miao Jiayan, feeling a bit dizzy from being called ‘wifey,’ nodded in agreement. “Mmm… right.”

There were few boundaries when boys joked around with each other. In this regard, Chen Chao was a bit like his dad—casual and easygoing. To Chen Chao, other than his hairstyle, there was nothing special about Miao Jiayan. They had been playing together for two years now, and he was the person Chen Chao knew best in this small country town, besides his grandparents.

To a certain extent, Miao Jiayan’s existence had made Chen Chao’s two years in the countryside much more interesting, and also much softer. Chen Chao complained about this and that every day, but never about Miao Jiayan. He had grown accustomed to seeing him as a considerate younger brother who knew how to take care of others.

When Chen Chao called him ‘wifey,’ it was partly in the spirit of teasing a kid; the rest was the familiar intimacy between two boys with no one else around. For a junior high boy in the throes of his edgy phase, his shout of ‘wifey’ was both silly and completely unreserved.

From then on, Chen Chao would occasionally call out ‘wifey,’ and Miao Jiayan had no objections whatsoever, always answering immediately no matter what he was called.

Once, Chen Chao was on a ladder helping Grandma Chen put things on the roof to dry. Miao Jiayan came out with a basin of water to splash in the courtyard, and Chen Chao, seeing him from the ladder, called out to him.

Miao Jiayan followed the sound of the voice and saw him. Noticing he was on a ladder, he quickly said, “Be careful, Brother Chao.”

Grandma Chen heard Chen Chao’s shout and said with a smile, “What are you shouting nonsense for?”

Chen Chao said, “Just for fun.”

Grandma Chen handed him some vegetables, and steadying the ladder, she whispered, “Don’t joke with Miao'er like that.”

Chen Chao asked, “Why not?”

“If Grandma Miao hears, she might get upset,” Grandma Chen said, patting Chen Chao. “She’ll think you’re mocking him, treating Miao'er like a girl.”

Chen Chao paid it no mind and didn't take it to heart. “That’s ridiculous.”

Grandma Chen was indeed worrying too much. When Grandma Miao heard about it, she actually chuckled for a long time, saying how funny it was when children were fooling around, being so shamelessly goofy.

In the eyes of those close to them, they were still just children. But children in the second and third years of junior high had, in fact, grown up a lot compared to before.

Miao Jiayan used to be a child, the ‘little pervert’ everyone talked about. Now that he was in his second year of junior high, he was different from his elementary school self in every sense of the word.

This unusualness of his, the sense of gender confusion it created in others, did more than just get him mistaken for a girl and hit on from time to time—it also attracted other things. In a small, backward town, Miao Jiayan had no peers, and other groups not accepted by the masses similarly had no one of their kind.

And Miao Jiayan's unusualness manifested on the outside. The boys in junior high were already developing, making him a conspicuous target in any crowd.