"Uncle, you’re back in the village too? Is your load heavy? Let me carry it for you!" Ji Desheng, looking at the carrying basket Chiang Songhai had on his back, immediately reached out to take it.
Chiang Songhai promptly declined.
"No need, no need, Desheng, what are you up to?"
What a joke, Ji Desheng might look sixteen or seventeen, but he wasn’t particularly strong-looking.
Chiang Songhai felt that for a boy to be raised this way was somewhat on the weaker side.
His carrying basket was indeed quite heavy, probably even heavier than what Little could handle.
Ji Desheng wasn’t the type cut out for hard labor. Once Chiang Songhai declined his offer, he did not insist. However, when he heard his uncle asking about his plans, Ji Desheng felt a bit embarrassed to reveal them.
Seeing his evasive behavior, Chiang Songhai liked it even less.
"Desheng, if you’ve got something to do, go on with it. Little and I are going to visit her Uncle Canyuan’s house. We won’t hold you up."
As they were about to leave, Ji Desheng couldn’t help calling out to Chiang Xiao, summoning his courage to ask, "Chiang Xiao, did you really get engaged?"
Why, after all this time, was he still asking about this?
Chiang Xiao nodded her head, "Yes, I’m engaged."
"But do you really know that man?" Ji Desheng said anxiously: "You’re still young, you certainly don’t know what liking someone means! If you wait until you’ve spent another half-term at the town middle school, the teachers will tell you that our main task right now is to study! Can’t you think about this matter later?"
If studying was their principal task at present, then what was he doing right now? Trying to persuade a ’strayed’ girl caught early in love?
Ji Desheng was never that altruistic.
In her previous life, Chiang Xiao didn’t like Ji Desheng, and in this life, she didn’t like him either.
So, she didn’t bother to continue the conversation.
"This is my own business. Grandpa, let’s go."
As she spoke, she tried to walk past Ji Desheng. But he was truly desperate, immediately trying to pull her arm, saying frantically, "Chiang Xiao! If you really want to get engaged, why wouldn’t you choose me? We’re from the same village, and we’ve grown up together since we were little..."
What did he mean by growing up together? By that logic, wouldn’t there be many children from the village around the same age who could be considered her childhood sweethearts?
In the past, Ji Desheng liked her—that she knew, otherwise Ding Dani wouldn’t have been jealous enough to push her into Nameless Creek. However, in her previous life, at her age, she really was a late bloomer when it came to understanding these feelings. Ding Dani had already acknowledged her liking for Ji Desheng, while Chiang Xiao was still not quite clear on what liking someone meant.
Now that she truly wasn’t just thirteen years old, naturally she had zero interest in Ji Desheng, who seemed to her nothing more than a youth.
"Ji Desheng, what’s the point of saying all this?" Chiang Xiao frowned and glowered, "Okay, we’re leaving. Go do whatever you have to do!"
Saying this, she didn’t give Ji Desheng a chance to speak further and quickly walked towards Xu Canyuan’s house.
Chiang Songhai glanced at Ji Desheng and sighed inwardly, saying to him, "Desheng, our Little is indeed engaged, and my future grandson-in-law is quite a good man. We all like him. Their affair is settled, and that’s final."
Having said this, he too quickly followed Chiang Xiao, carrying his load.
Ji Desheng’s face turned red, his eyes slightly teary as he watched their retreating figures, and it was a long while before he dejectedly headed towards Secretary Yao’s house.