Chapter 50 The Porcelain Kiln—Fish in the Stream, Visitors Arrive!

An hour later, Sui Yi finally finished washing her hands and sat down in the courtyard.

In front of the courtyard, the mountains were gently brushed in pale colors, the fields were lush and green, and the breeze carried a faint scent of the countryside.

“The air here is pretty good. It smells really fresh. The scenery’s nice too,” A-A said, feeling this trip had been worthwhile—though when he’d gotten on the bus, he’d thought he’d lost his mind.

“Hm?” Sui Yi glanced at him, her eyes bright and clear as if washed by water, then replied after a pause, “Right now the wind is coming from the south, so what you’re smelling is the pigsty…”

Where was that supposed field fragrance coming from?

A-A fell silent. Was she deliberately forcing him to go home?

At this moment, two rather good-looking people were sitting by the pigsty, gazing at the clouds drifting across the sky.

“Hey, Sui Yi, you’re back!” A sudden, delighted shout came from outside the yard’s fence. A boy of seventeen or eighteen stood there.

He had a square face, skin a little sun-kissed, dressed in a high school uniform, looking honest and simple.

His expression was full of surprise and happiness as he looked at Sui Yi.

There were four other teenagers with him, dressed more fashionably—not exactly trendy, but clearly different from the village kids. After all, they’d grown up running in the mud, and their bearing was distinct.

For instance, two of the girls now wore visible looks of distaste as they glanced at the pigsty and the low house, making no attempt to hide their feelings.

“Hey, Wang Pu, your place is really rural!” one girl exclaimed, pinching her nose and pointing at the pigsty in disbelief. “Is that a pigsty? I’ve never seen one before!”

Wang Pu looked a bit embarrassed, glancing back and forth between his classmates and Sui Yi. The two boys were more restrained, though their eyes flicked repeatedly toward Sui Yi.

“Zhang Yun, it’s not so bad. The air and the scenery here are great, much better than back in town…”

“Exactly! I even saw a little stream—the water’s so clear!”

The two boys spoke up as they pushed open the fence and walked in.

A-A raised an eyebrow, glancing at the two unwilling girls with a half-smile.

Never seen a pigsty? Judging by their clothes, their families were only moderately well-off. Their grandparents probably came from a village like this too. Who hadn’t seen a pigsty? How pretentious.

They were nothing like Sui Yi.

A-A instinctively looked at Sui Yi.

By now, Wang Pu and his classmates had come in.

“Sui Yi, you’re home today… Who’s this?” Wang Pu, like everyone else, had noticed A-A sitting beside Sui Yi, his long legs stretched out.

“I’m her friend…” A-A arched his thick black brows and swept his eyes over the group.

He was very handsome—more so than the three local boys. There was a roguish, world-wise air about him, and it was striking.

The three boys suddenly felt awkward. This was the difference between youth and maturity.

The two girls’ eyes lit up.

“Wang Pu, did you bring your classmates to visit?” Sui Yi, who was fairly familiar with him, asked casually.

Wang Pu nodded, greeted the old woman in the house, then quickly ran out of things to say—Sui Yi was always quiet and a bit aloof. The two boys clustered around Sui Yi, talking a lot, while the two girls drifted to A-A’s side.

Wang Pu felt even more deflated.

Wait—whose classmates were these, really?

“Hey, Sui Yi, do you go to Second High?”

“Yes.”

“We’re from Third High, in town. We’ve heard there’s a Yan Qingwu at your school, she’s supposed to be really pretty and her family’s rich. Is that true?”

“I don’t know.”

“And is it true your school’s vice principal was arrested?”

“…”

After that, she didn’t even respond with a “hmm,” just offered a faint, polite smile—making it clear she wasn’t interested in the conversation.

But Wang Pu seemed quite close to Sui Yi. After a moment’s thought, he said, “Sui Yi, lately the fish in Bowl River are really fat, and the water level’s gone down. Want to come catch fish with us?”

Though Bowl Kiln was known in Nanxun for its poverty, its local fame came more from its pottery and the Bowl River—a clear, unpolluted stream, full of plump fish, beloved by the locals. Every year in August and September, villagers would go fishing there.

Today, most of the men and children in the village were gone—most likely to catch fish.

Clearly, these town kids were here for the fishing too.

Sui Yi, who was never too enthusiastic about such things, glanced at A-A. “Are you coming?”

“I’ll go… Otherwise, you’ll just chase me home again,” A-A replied with a smile.

Fishing—he hadn’t done that in years. It sounded fun.

—Especially with her.

“Let’s go, then,” Sui Yi replied, seeing A-A seemed interested and thinking it might be necessary to show him around as a gesture of friendship.

Seven people, three girls. Naturally the boys carried the buckets. The group set off along the field path toward Bowl River.

Chatting as they walked, A-A learned the boys were named Zhang Yang and Han Gao, while the girls were Wen Ling and Zhao Yue.

High schoolers are always up for fun, and with no adults around, they were as boisterous as wild horses, chattering noisily.

Wang Pu did well in school and was an honest sort. His friends were similar, their words and actions laced with a bit of pride—especially after asking Sui Yi about her grades, which only made their pride more obvious.

Nanxun Town was an old cultural town, not a small place, and its young people carried themselves with a certain arrogance. If Sui Yi and A-A didn’t look so refined and well-dressed—hardly the “country bumpkins” they might have expected—these four wouldn’t have been so friendly.

But because of the house and Sui Yi’s grades, they still secretly labeled her as “poor” and their words were often a bit sharp.

Sui Yi didn’t seem to mind. After all, everyone has their own sense of superiority, unless they’re a saint with a heart for all the world.

A-A found it hard to watch, but seeing Sui Yi’s indifference, he let it go. He wasn’t used to arguing with children anyway.

The sky was high, the water blue, the wind bending the grass to reveal cattle and sheep—a landscape one might expect on the Mongolian steppe, but here, in Bowl Kiln, it was everywhere.

On the outskirts of Bowl River, the reeds grew taller than a person, the air filled with the scent of earth and plants—refreshing, freeing the spirit.

Moss and mushrooms clung to the big stones, the path narrowed, then suddenly opened onto a sandy riverbed, and from a distance, they could hear shouts and the splash of water.

“Hurry! There’s one over there!”

“It’s coming, it’s coming!”

“Fish! There’s a fish!”

The people of Nanxun mostly understood the local dialect, and A-A noticed Sui Yi’s accent was different from the others.

“Your accent isn’t like theirs,” A-A remarked as he carried the bucket down to the riverbed.

“I wasn’t originally from Nanxun,” Sui Yi replied, glancing over to see Wang Pu and the others already cheering by the creek.

Strange—wasn’t the old woman a native of Nanxun? Then why did Sui Yi say that?

A-A found it odd, but saw Sui Yi was already heading for the stream.

She really didn’t treat him like a guest!

The water in the creek varied in depth, but not enough to be dangerous. In the shallows, the water mirrored the sky, illuminating the smooth riverbed.

Several children had already stripped down, and the grown men bared their arms, using nets to block off the mouth of the creek. There was a splash, limbs flailed, and someone would scoop up a fat fish to hand to the waiting women.

It was a grand feast.

Not many people, but plenty of laughter.

Zhang Yang and the others couldn’t wait—they rolled up their sleeves and pant legs and waded into the creek.

“Aren’t you going?” A-A, caught up in the excitement, rolled up his own sleeves and pant legs and asked Sui Yi again.

“I’m not going. You go ahead. I’ll watch the bucket for you,” Sui Yi replied from her seat on a large stone.

Did a bucket even need watching?

She was so casual, even in her excuses.

A-A smirked and stepped into the creek.

The moment he entered the water, he caught a big fish!

His swift movement drew astonished looks.

“Hey, where’d this handsome young man come from? He’s good!”

“Wow, better than my dad!”

“He’s with Sui Yi, isn’t he?”

Everyone here knew Sui Yi and had greeted her earlier. They were curious about the boy she’d brought back.

“Sui Yi, bring the bucket over. I’ve got a fish for you.”

Sui Yi, who’d been checking her phone, hadn’t expected him to catch a fish so quickly. She smiled, put away her phone, and brought the bucket over.

“Here you go, the fish’s yours…” A-A grinned, handing over the fish.

Sui Yi moved to take it with the bucket—

But she didn’t notice the smile in A-A’s eyes. Suddenly, he grabbed her wrist and tugged hard!

“Ha, come on down!” he crowed, but the words had barely left his mouth when his expression changed—he hadn’t managed to pull Sui Yi in. Looking up, he met a pair of calm, amused eyes, clear as water. Her hand twisted, seized his wrist, and with a flick—

“You’re the one going in.”

Splash! A-A tumbled into the water, the fish in his hand flying into the air—

Thud—landing squarely in the bucket she was holding.

Water sprayed everywhere.

Everyone burst out laughing.

A-A stood up, drenched, and looked at Sui Yi in astonishment. “You’ve trained in this?”

Sui Yi glanced at him coolly. “No.”

No? The answer was just as nonchalant as ever.

A-A’s heart sank a little but he could only smile wryly.

Just as Sui Yi was about to return to the bank, suddenly—

A commotion erupted from the reeds across the river.

It was loud, a heated argument growing closer. Looking up, she saw a group of people approaching en masse.

“Who are they?”

“Looks like the village chief?”

“Why’s the chief here? Is he coming to fish with us? Wait, those people aren’t from our village…”

Their clothing was nothing like that of the villagers, who were earthy and plain. And those people were carrying all kinds of equipment—not farm tools, but more like…

Sui Yi’s eyes narrowed. Their attire reminded her of an archaeological team.

Was there really an archaeological team coming to Bowl Kiln?

(To be continued.)