The vehicle cruised down the coastal highway, framed outside the windows by the dazzling azure of the sea merging with the sky.
Completely absorbed in the ocean views, Xia Yuan remained entirely oblivious to the subtle interaction that had just transpired between the three of them.
As a flock of seagulls flew past outside, she suddenly shook Jiang Tong’s arm in excitement, pointing toward them and calling out, “Sister Jiang Tong, look! Such huge seagulls!”
“Mm, very pretty. Should we buy some french fries on the way back to feed them?” Jiang Tong had long since heard tales of the notorious reputation of these french fry bandits.
Xia Yuan nodded eagerly: “Yay!”
Following their line of sight out the window, Su Leli watched as the seagulls rode the sea breeze, keeping pace alongside the minibus.
“Teaming up with the three of you is practically the most relaxing thing ever.” Sinking the upper half of her body back into the seat cushion, Su Leli let out a slow breath. “Looks like our chemistry is genuinely a perfect match. Even today’s ocean view feels a lot more beautiful than before.”
Initially gazing lazily out the window herself, Xie Weiyi shifted her posture leisurely at those words. Cupping her face, she leaned out right in front of the window and dropped a line: “Mainly because the people are pretty.”
With that, she fluttered her excessively gorgeous, glass-colored orbs a few times, her full red lips curving into a mischievous arc.
Coincidentally, the vehicle rounded a corner as a beam of sunlight filtered right through the window, landing squarely upon her and making her skin look even more porcelain-white.
“Look, even the sunshine plays favorites with me.” Xie Weiyi shot an exaggerated wink over at Su Leli.
Amused by her “using beauty as a weapon” routine, Su Leli burst into laughter and gave her shoulder a light, playful shove: “Yes, yes, yes—you’re the prettiest, Aine is the absolute prettiest in the entire world, happy now? Hurry up and sit back down, stop blocking my view of the seagulls.”
Up in the front row, Xia Yuan covertly turned her head, only to be hit square in the chest by this sudden “visual critical strike.” Her eyes widened in an instant, and she exaggeratedly raised a hand to pinch the bridge of her own nose: “Oh god, Goddess—you’re so pretty I’m running out of air.”
Chuckle-snorting at their antics, Jiang Tong joined the hype squad and nodded cooperatively.
For a moment, the cabin filled with lighthearted laughter and playful banter, turning even the boundless blue sea and sky outside into mere backdrop scenery.
Another dozen minutes later, they finally arrived at the town’s market.
Bustling with crowds and overflowing with vibrant energy, the market offered an endless variety of goods while overlapping cries from vendors echoed from the stalls, brimming with the raw warmth of everyday life.
“Let’s split up our tasks,” Su Leli naturally assumed the organizer’s role as the oldest among the four. “Xia Yuan and I will head over there to buy vegetables and fruit, while Aine and Jiang Tong check out the seafood and meat sections. We’ll rendezvous at the spice stall at the end. How does that sound?”
With no objections, Xia Yuan nodded readily: “Sounds great!”
The two accompanying cameramen efficiently split up as well, with one trailing each group.
Before Jiang Tong and Xie Weiyi could even respond, Su Leli grabbed Xia Yuan and spun around briskly, vanishing straight into the crowd.
In the blink of an eye, only the two of them—Jiang Tong and Xie Weiyi—were left standing side by side at the noisy entrance of the market, blinking at one another.
“Let’s go,” Xie Weiyi took the initiative, her voice still carrying a lazy, just-woken-up somnolence. “Shall we grab shrimp first? I remember…”
Wait… “Er—I figured you liked eating them pretty well.” Words nearly slipping past her lips, Xie Weiyi hastily changed course, casting a guilty sideways glance toward the camera.
[Hhhhhh Xie Weiyi’s emergency pivot is killing me!]
[Why won’t they just admit they knew each other beforehand? Fooling us viewers is fine, but don’t go fooling yourselves too (doge head)]
[Probably a script, acting for us to watch—after all, even if they kissed in private, we’d never know.]
[Well now I wanna see a kiss…]
[+1]
In front of the seafood stall, the two automatically divided labor just as Su Leli had planned: Xie Weiyi pushed the small cart, while Jiang Tong slipped a plastic bag over her hand and took charge of careful selection.
Jiang Tong picked items with absolute thoroughness, sniffing to verify the freshness of the sea prawns and pressing gently on fish gills to check whether they were newly caught.
Standing half a step behind her, Xie Weiyi rested her chin on her hand, watching her focused expression as the corners of her mouth curled upward on their own accord.
Her gaze landed softly on Jiang Tong’s slender nape and the ponytail that swayed gently with her movements, carrying a tenderness so deep she hadn’t even noticed it herself.
It wasn’t until Jiang Tong selected a bag of fresh prawns and turned to ask her, “Are these enough?”—
—that Xie Weiyi snapped back to reality. Blinking her eyelashes rapidly, she averted her gaze, cleared her throat, and said, “Let’s grab a few more. Judging by Xia Yuan’s appetite, she eats like a bottomless pit, and don’t even get me started on Su Leli—whatever she touches, nothing’s left over.”
[Hhhhhh truly real friends, daring to roast them like this.]
[Such strong wife-and-wife energy! It completely feels like a newlywed couple going grocery shopping together after moving in!]
Catching the affectionate roast directed at her friend, Jiang Tong curved her lips without a word, simply lowering her head to pick out a few more as instructed.
After paying, Xie Weiyi naturally lifted the heavy bag of prawns, dropped it into the small cart, and followed up even more naturally: “Meat section next? Let’s grab some pork belly and chicken wings—essential barbecue items.”
With that, Xie Weiyi pushed the cart toward the direction of the meat market.
“Aren’t we getting any scallops?” Jiang Tong stopped her lightly, pointing toward the scallops displayed at the adjacent stall.
She remembered that Xie Weiyi loved vermicelli-topped scallops.
Following the direction of her finger, Xie Weiyi paused for a second before breaking into a bright, happy grin: “Then go pick some out, I’m gonna go buy a bundle of vermicelli. That shop we just passed seemed to have a sign hanging up selling vermicelli.”
“Alright.” Jiang Tong took over the cart from her hands and instructed, “Be safe, hurry back.”
Taking a few steps forward, Jiang Tong reached the scallop stall: “Boss, how much for the scallops?”
The vendor was just pulling a boiled egg out of an electric cooker, smiling as he wiped his hands: “The big ones are eight yuan a jin. Beauty, if you buy a larger quantity, I’ll charge you fifteen yuan for two jin.”
Jiang Tong’s gaze lingered on that boiled egg, instantly recalling the faint bluish-dark circles under Xie Weiyi’s eyes.
Pondering for two seconds, she asked, “Do you sell your boiled eggs?”
The vendor blinked in surprise: “Huh? Oh, I just boiled these casually for breakfast… These aren’t worth anything. If you want one, I’ll give it to you for free—I’ve got plenty boiled.”
When Xie Weiyi returned, she saw Jiang Tong receiving a bag of scallops in one hand and a boiled egg in the other directly from the vendor.
Pointing at the boiled egg, Xie Weiyi asked, “Are you hungry?”
Shaking her head, Jiang Tong naturally passed the warm egg right into her palm, her fingertips brushing lightly across Xie Weiyi’s skin: “For you.”
Noticing her blank expression, Jiang Tong glanced at her dark circles: “Shell it and use it as a warm compress for your eyes.”
The moment those words left her lips, Xie Weiyi was reeled in so thoroughly her mood soared straight to the clouds. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t suppress the corners of her mouth, and a pink flush rapidly climbed up the tips of her ears.
Opening her mouth to say something, she found her linguistic system experiencing a slight glitch. Spotting the bags dangling from her own hands, she grabbed onto them like a drowning sailor, eagerly pulling out a few boxes of french fries and thrusting them toward Jiang Tong like a court official presenting contributions.
“Here, for you,” Xie Weiyi offered.
Jiang Tong shook her head: “I’m not hungry, won’t eat right now.”
“I don’t mean for you to eat them—didn’t you say you wanted to feed the seagulls with french fries? Of course, I didn’t mean you aren’t allowed to eat them! You’re way more important than seagulls; if you want to eat them, eat them, if you want to feed the seagulls, feed the seagulls. Oh god… what am I even saying…”
The more she rambled, the more chaotic she became, until she was practically speaking in tongues. Closing her eyes in mortification, the blush on her ears threatened to spread across her entire face.
Suppressing a smile with a nod, Jiang Tong feared that if she let Xie Weiyi keep explaining things would only get worse. Reaching out to take the boxes of french fries, she teased, “I’ll thank you on behalf of the seagulls.”
[Ahhhhhh the “press-their-heads-together” shipping faction has entered the chat! You two better kiss during this season!]
[555 too sweet it’s killing me, Jiang-Xie forever 99]
[Bai Yu and Anna, I’m sorry, I lost my way. After getting lured into their livestream channel I couldn’t figure out how to exit no matter what, so I was forced to stay and keep watching…]
[You call that not wanting to go back.]
[Damn, why didn’t you say so earlier!]
Over on Su Leli and Xia Yuan’s side, the atmosphere was equally fantastic. Both possessed outgoing personalities, keeping a constant stream of banter flowing along the way.
When bargaining with stall owners, neither held back, coordinating seamlessly back-and-forth to score plenty of dropped change and complimentary green vegetables.
Rendezvousing at the spice section, the four traded mutual compliments after inspecting each other’s fully loaded shopping carts.
By noon, they had completed all their procurement tasks.
With lunchtime arriving, the four ate a meal at a nearby small diner before climbing back onto the return minibus laden with bags.
Retaining the exact same seating order from the morning trip, just as they were about to depart, Xie Weiyi walked up to the driver’s seat and chatted with the driver for a moment before watching the driver flash an approving “OK” hand sign with a smile.
When passing by the beach frequented by seagulls, the driver pulled over into a parking spot, killed the engine, and turned around to announce: “Four teachers, be careful when you go feed the seagulls! This flock of birds is quite fierce!”
“Yay! Sister Jiang Tong, let’s go feed the seagulls!” Xia Yuan bounded up in excitement.
Smiling, Jiang Tong accepted, then pulled a box of french fries from the bag purchased by Xie Weiyi and handed it to her.
“Was that what you were chatting with the driver about just now?” Su Leli asked with a smile.
Haughtily lifting her chin, Xie Weiyi hummed: “Mhn-hun~”
Right then, hugging the box of french fries, Xia Yuan let out a series of “Whoas!” before exclaiming, “Sister Jiang Tong, you’re so considerate! You remembered to buy french fries! I totally forgot about it and was kicking myself the moment we got in the car!”
Turning her head toward Xie Weiyi, Jiang Tong stated, “Aine bought them.”
Looking over, Xia Yuan gasped: “Whoa, Sister Aine bought them?”
Dropping her former formal address of “Senior Xie,” Jiang Tong followed the other guests’ lead and switched to calling Xie Weiyi by her English name.
Such a subtle shift signaled that their relationship had eased up—no, make that progressed by leaps and bounds.
Fighting on the absolute front lines of shipping fandoms, Su Leli cast an ambiguous gaze that swept back and forth between the two of them before finally throwing a few “Whoas!” right at Xie Weiyi as well.
Equally caught off guard by this sudden pleasant surprise, Xie Weiyi stared unblinkingly at Jiang Tong, echoing with a “Whoa” of her own.
Then, looking rather sheepish, Xie Weiyi rose to her feet, tossed her hair back over her shoulder, and urged: “Nobody else gets to ‘whoa’ anymore. Let’s hurry up and go back and forth quickly.”