Chapter 144 - 89: Is There No Law?

Chapter 144: Chapter 89: Is There No Law?

And he wasn’t just making that up.

He’d caught glimpses of the ones Jiang Wanyi and the Fang Sisters wore, and they all had little bows on them.

"Here, this is for you."

Song Jianye opened her hand, revealing a small pink bow, and offered it to Chen Yuan.

"Hm? Where’d you get this?"

"I pulled it off my panties. You brought me out to play today, so this is for you."

"I... this... uh... I’ll take it."

When they reached the small patch of woods, Song Jianye looked at Chen Yuan.

"There don’t seem to be any dandelions here. How are we supposed to dig for them?"

"There are some, but the seeds have all blown away, so they’re hard to spot."

Chen Yuan took out his phone and opened a picture he had downloaded beforehand.

"This is what dandelions look like. I’ll send you the picture. Just dig up anything that looks like this."

"Mm-hm."

Full of enthusiasm, Song Jianye started searching, comparing the plants to the picture. But she was easily distracted. The moment she spotted a little squirrel in the distance, she grabbed her small shovel and ran off to chase it.

Chen Yuan didn’t stop her. Her upbringing and experiences really made her seem like a four-year-old child at times.

After she finished chasing the squirrel, she came back to continue digging.

She squatted there with her bottom stuck out adorably, revealing a sliver of her pale waist and the pink edge of her underwear.

The bow she gave him matched the color of her panties.

"Chen Yuan."

"I want some water."

"Here."

"I want a little cake, too."

"There’s strawberry and mango. Which one do you want?"

"Mango."

Chen Yuan handed her the small mango cake.

"I want some cantaloupe, too."

"Here you go." Chen Yuan speared a piece with a small fork.

"Mmm, yummy!"

Before she even finished, she walked away, still chewing the cantaloupe.

She grabbed her small shovel and continued digging. Her fair, tender fingers were covered in mud, but she squatted there, enjoying herself immensely.

’She’ll probably sleep well tonight.’

After more than two hours of digging, their results were quite fruitful.

Or rather, Song Jianye’s were—she’d dug so many little holes it looked like the aftermath of a gopher war.

"Are you tired?"

"A little."

’That’s good. Otherwise, this whole trip would’ve been for nothing.’

He found one, washed it clean with the water they’d brought, and held it to Song Jianye’s lips.

"Try it. See if you can stand the taste."

"Okay, I’ll try."

She opened her pink lips, her teeth white, and tentatively bit off a tiny piece, then chewed.

She frowned and pursed her lips.

"Ptooey, ptooey, ptooey! It’s not very good."

"You probably can’t handle the taste. It’s really popular back home. We dug so much, I bet we could sell it all for a conservative estimate of 50 yuan."

"You can sell this for money?"

"Of course."

Chen Yuan took a bite and chewed. His expression changed instantly.

’What the hell is this?’

’The taste is wrong.’

"Ptooey, ptooey, ptooey!" Chen Yuan spit it out too.

"Don’t you love to eat this?"

"My mistake. I think we dug up the wrong thing."

"But we followed the picture exactly."

Chen Yuan was also quite puzzled. The wild greens they’d dug looked identical to the picture. Logically, they shouldn’t have been wrong.

"I’ll video call my mom and have her verify it."

Taking out his phone, Chen Yuan started a video call with Comrade Li.

The background was his own home. Today was Saturday, and both she and Lao Chen were off for the weekend, so the old couple were both home.

"Mom, I need to ask you something."

The conversation between mother and son had none of the usual fancy lead-ins. For people who are close, the best way to start a chat is to get straight to the point.

If it were close buddies, and one started a chat by trying to set the mood, the other would think he had a terminal illness.

"Are you out of money again?"

"No."

Chen Yuan flipped the camera. "I dug up some dandelions, but I tried one and the taste is off. I think I got the wrong ones."

Seeing what Chen Yuan had dug up, Comrade Li started laughing.

"Those aren’t dandelions, they’re sow thistles. They do look a lot alike, but they’re not the same. They’re extremely bitter, aren’t they?"

"Yeah."

"You dug up the wrong thing."

"Can you take a look at the others for me? See which ones are dandelions."

He lined up the wild greens he’d dug and panned the camera over them.

Song Jianye sat beside him, sneaking a peek at Chen Yuan on the video call.

’Why isn’t Chen Yuan introducing me to his auntie?’

’In his heart, am I the kind of friend he’s ashamed to introduce?’

’*Sigh*...’

’It’s good enough that we can hang out together. I shouldn’t overthink it.’

Chen Yuan’s attention was focused on the video call, so he didn’t notice Song Jianye’s subtle shift in mood.

"Pick up the last one and let me see."

Chen Yuan did as he was told.

"Only that one is. The rest are all wrong."

"Damn, all that work for nothing..."

Out of the corner of his eye, Chen Yuan saw Song Jianye beside him, looking a bit down and not very cheerful.

’She’s someone who values the experience, so she wouldn’t be upset just because they dug up the wrong plants.’

’For her to be making a face like that now, there could only be one reason...’

"You’ve never dug these before, so it’s normal to get it wrong. Still, why on earth did you suddenly decide to go digging for dandelions?"

Comrade Li was quite surprised that her son would actually go out and dig for things like this.

"The weather’s nice today, so I brought a good friend of mine to the botanical garden to hang out."

Chen Yuan nudged Song Jianye with his elbow and, at the same time, aimed the camera at her.

"Come on, get in the shot."

Song Jianye froze for a second, but she quickly recovered and gave a small, shy wave.

"Hello, Auntie. My name is Song Jianye. I’m one of Chen Yuan’s classmates."

Comrade Li shot up from the sofa as if she’d been electrocuted.

"Hello, hello! Are you out having fun with my son?"

"Mhm, we came to dig for wild vegetables together. We even saw a little squirrel."

"Well, you two have fun for a while longer. Make sure my son takes you out to eat when you head back."

You could practically see Comrade Li’s nervousness. It felt like she was meeting her daughter-in-law for the first time; it all happened so suddenly that she didn’t even know how to string her words together.