On the first day of the Lunar New Year, Xinxiang Temple was packed with people, with the queue stretching from the temple entrance all the way to the corner of the road in front of it.
There were three lines of people. The monks at the temple gate stood outside, handing three sticks of incense to every worshipper entering, free of charge.
Liu Chen's family, who arrived by car at just past eight in the morning, dutifully joined the very end of the queue. As soon as they were at the tail end, Liu Fang was already on the phone.
“Hey, we just got in line. Yes, yes, hahahaha, Yuan Ying Jie, you saw my car? What a coincidence, let’s go burn incense together and then have lunch outside. It’s more enjoyable to eat with more people.”
After hanging up, Liu Fang smiled and explained to her aunt and grandmother standing in front of her, “That’s Chen Chen’s godmother. She’s bringing her two kids to burn incense too. She saw my car in the parking lot and called to ask where I was. She said we can have lunch together after burning incense. I said sure, eating with more people is more fun.”
“Oh, is it that sister we met when we bought the house?” Ren Yuan Ying’s aura was top-notch among the women she had met, so Liu Fen remembered her quite clearly.
Godmother?
Godmother is bringing two kids to burn incense? That would be Ren Yu and Ren Mo, wouldn’t it?
Thinking about the phone call he received just after midnight last night, and the hour-long casual conversation they had, and now meeting again today, Liu Chen was still a bit dazed. Was it that much of a coincidence?
…
In the parking lot, Ren Yuan Ying was taking her bag from the passenger seat and muttering,
“You say you’re not going to take over my chain of hot pot restaurants, so why are you accompanying me to burn incense? In your eyes, it’s all a waste of time.”
Ren Yu got out of the back seat without a word and stood by the car waiting.
Ren Mo obediently took the bag from his mother’s hand, not daring to make a sound, lest the two of them suddenly turn their attention to him.
Ren Yuan Ying said a few more words. Seeing that neither of her sons said anything, she felt it was pointless to talk to herself. With a stern face, she walked towards the end of the queue in her leather boots.
From a distance, Liu Fang at the end of the line raised her hand and waved at Ren Yuan Ying.
“Sister! We’re here!”
Upon seeing Chen Long behind Liu Fang, Ren Yuan Ying’s steps faltered for a moment, then, as if she hadn’t seen anything, she walked directly towards Liu Fang.
Reaching Liu Fang, Ren Yuan Ying glanced at Chen Long and asked Liu Fang,
“A Fang, who is this?”
Chen Long smiled at Ren Yuan Ying and introduced himself,
“Hello, my name is Chen Long. I am the Southwest Regional Sales General Manager for Meili Brand Ham Sausages, and I am currently pursuing Sister Liu.”
Liu Fang, who was about to introduce Chen Long more tactfully, choked on her saliva at his words and coughed incessantly.
“Cough, cough, cough, this is Yuan Ying Jie, Chen Chen’s godmother.”
Liu Fang barely managed to suppress her cough as she introduced them to each other. However, she missed the arch of Ren Yuan Ying’s eyebrows as she looked at Chen Long.
This scene was witnessed by Liu Chen.
What was going on? It seemed like his godmother knew Chen Long?
Before Liu Chen could figure it out, Liu Fang pushed him towards Ren Yu, saying, “Chen Chen, go play with your brothers in the back. We adults will chat.”
With Liu Fang’s push, Liu Chen, who was already lost in thought about the connection between his godmother and Chen Long, took two steps unprepared. His snow boots stepped on the heel of another person’s snow boots, while his upper body continued to lurch forward.
As a result, his sockless foot was pulled out of the snow boot.
His fair and tender little foot landed on the ground and was scraped by a small stone. Liu Chen quickly lifted his fair foot and stepped back into his snow boot. As he did so, the pain from the small scratch made Liu Chen’s smile turn into a grimace.
Liu Fang, whose view was blocked by Ren Yuan Ying, did not see this. Ren Yuan Ying's attention was also on Chen Long, and Ren Mo was playing with his phone. Only Ren Yu, who had been paying attention to Liu Chen, saw the scene.
He frowned slightly.
Seeing that Liu Chen didn't seem to care about the wound, he was silent for two seconds, then turned to Ren Mo, who was playing with his phone, and said,
“Got it, I’ll go buy water.”
Ren Mo, who was playing with his phone, looked up at his brother’s retreating back.
“Got what? What did you get?”
Across the road from the Xinxiang Temple queue, there was a small supermarket.
Ren Yu entered the supermarket and stood at the counter.
“Boss, do you have women’s socks?”
The proprietress heard this, raised her eyes, and happened to see Ren Yu’s face. Her sleepy expression immediately changed, and she smiled as she replied,
“Look! Go down this road, all the way to the end, at the bottom of the shelves. You’re a handsome young man. Do you have a girlfriend? My sister has a daughter…”
“Yes.”
“Ah? What?”
“I have a girlfriend.”
The proprietress’s introduction was interrupted by this sentence. As Ren Yu walked to the end of the shelf, she muttered,
“So what if you have a girlfriend? You’re so handsome, it’s normal to have one, right? Otherwise, what kind of pervert buys women’s socks for themselves? Young man, you don’t know how to seize opportunities. My niece’s family is wealthy…”
The ‘handsome guy’ Ren Yu walked to the end of the shelf, squatted down, and focused his gaze on the cotton socks piled together at the very bottom.
Perhaps they hadn’t been sold for a long time, and a thick layer of dust covered their packaging.
Ren Yu took out a pair from the bottom of the pile. They were plain white cotton socks, without any embellishments or lace, just a simple pair of white cotton socks.
Just like Liu Chen’s feeling in his heart, simple.
Ren Yu placed the packaging of the cotton socks on the counter, then took eight bottles of water and two soft drinks from the beverage shelf nearby. All the rest were mineral water.
“Handsome, that’s twenty-nine. Let me tell you, my niece’s family is very wealthy, they own a factory. Do you know that xx shoe factory? That’s their family’s!”
The proprietress wanted to make one last attempt, mainly because she felt that if such a handsome boy married her niece, she could at least catch a glimpse of him every two or three family gatherings.
Ren Yu took out a hundred-yuan bill and said,
“Boss, do you have scissors?”
The proprietress rolled her eyes, rummaged under the counter, and slapped a somewhat deformed pair of large scissors onto the cash register.
“Take it!”
She then placed the hundred-yuan bill on the table, ran it through the money detector, opened the cash register, and made change of seventy-one yuan.
She then grabbed a strawberry-flavored Chupa Chups lollipop.
“Here, give this to your girlfriend. Girls love this flavor the most.”
Ren Yu was cutting the white thread that tied the two pairs of socks together when he heard this. As if recalling something, the corners of his mouth curved up slightly.
“Is that so? Thank you, boss.”
Walking out of the small supermarket, Ren Yu carried two plastic bags containing mineral water and other drinks in his hand. In his down jacket pocket, he had a pack of band-aids and a pair of white cotton socks.
In the meantime, the queue had moved forward, and Liu Chen happened to be under the wall of Xinxiang Temple, bathed in the warm winter sun.
Ren Yu handed the bag of water to Ren Mo.
“Distribute them.”
Ren Mo, who was playing with his phone and had two large bags of drinks forcefully stuffed into his arms, opened his mouth to speak, but seeing his brother’s glare, he quietly closed it. Fine, he’ll distribute them. Why is he so fierce!
Boohoo, why is my brother so fierce!