Fang Yusheng racked his brains but couldn’t come up with an answer.

  Tossing the two coins he had found as spare change, he walked out of the mall. Then, he looked up at the sky with a confused expression. At this moment, a bus drove past him. Fang Yusheng saw a group of students sitting on the bus and suddenly got an idea.

  He lowered his head and looked at the two coins in his palm. Then, he walked to the bus stop dozens of meters away and looked at the bus route map.?

  ?Fang Yusheng didn’t hesitate any more and got on the bus.

  Many students had taken the bus in the morning, and the bus also had elderly people who liked to visit the park to practice their swordsmanship. The bus was very crowded. Let alone the seats, even the carriage aisle was filled with people.

  When Fang Yusheng got onto the bus, the boys and girls inside it looked at him a few more times. A girl who was dozing off saw him and instantly became awake. She quietly took out her phone and secretly took photos of him.

  Fang Yusheng was tall. He reached out a little and grabbed the handle of the bus, standing steadily. As the bus was crowded, when the driver applied the brakes, people would always lean on him. Fang Yusheng had reason to suspect that the girls in front of him were taking advantage of him.

  Fang Yusheng quietly moved back and stood in the middle of a group of boys.

  He was 1.84 meters tall. As he stood among a group of 15- or 16-year-old middle school students, he towered over them.

  Finally, he made it to Third Middle School. All the students squeezed out of the bus. After they all got out, Fang Yusheng adjusted the corner of his shirt that had been messed up by the crowd, then walked out as well. He stood at the entrance of Third Middle School and looked around. A confused expression again appeared on his face.

  “This…”


  Third Middle School was enormous. It was impossible for Fang Yusheng to find any clues. He simply sat down on the stone block at the school gate.

  Hence, many students saw this scene.

  A man wearing a black windbreaker and a burgundy scarf was sitting on the stone block at the school gate. He had long brown hair. Although he was leaning forward and his long hair was a little messy, his handsomeness was unaffected.

  He sat there, his long left legs resting on the ground. His right leg was leaning on his left leg.

  The morning sun shone on him, casting a long shadow on the school gate that landed on the words “Third Middle School” in Binjiang City.

  The students and teachers passing by could not help but steal glances at this man who had exquisite facial features. Occasionally, the man would raise his head and look at them with his soul-stirring eyes. Regardless of whether one was male or female, married or unmarried, one’s heart would beat faster.

  On this day, all the students and teachers who had seen that man were especially energetic in their lessons.

  Fang Yusheng sat at the entrance of Third Middle School for nearly forty minutes. He finished the hot cocoa in his hand, and his fingers, which were holding the cup, started to feel cold. He still hadn’t found any new clues.

  He started to panic.

  At about 9 am, some food vendors drove their tricycles over to the school. They occupied the space at the entrance of Third Middle School and hurriedly started to burn their furnaces for business. Fang Yusheng took a closer look. These people were selling spicy hotpot, fried food, cotton candy, and sugar figurines.

  A limping old lady pushed a two-wheeled wooden cart. She placed the cart beside Fang Yusheng and took out dozens of sweet potatoes from a sack. After placing them in a small crack near the stove, she roasted them. Fang Yusheng looked at her for a few more seconds, his gaze lingering on her limp leg.

  At 10 am, a student ran out and bought a bowl of spicy mala soup. He slurped it up and went to buy fried food. Fang Yusheng realized that this old lady’s sweet potato business was the worst.

  The old lady kept shouting, “Sweet potatoes! Roasted sweet potatoes! Sweet sweet potatoes! Six yuan for one! Two for ten yuan!”


  Although the old lady didn’t sell the sweet potatoes at a high price and her attitude was warm, very few people bought her sweet potatoes.

  Fang Yusheng couldn’t help but ask her, “Auntie, why isn’t anyone buying your sweet potatoes?”


  The old lady narrowed her eyes at him. When she saw that it was a good-looking man, she chuckled and said with a worried expression, “They say that the children are afraid of making fools out of themselves after eating too many sweet potatoes…”


  Fang Yusheng was speechless.

  “Then how much do you sell in a day?”


  The old lady said, “At most fifty to sixty sticks.”


  Fang Yusheng asked again, “You’re so old, yet you still come out to sell sweet potatoes. Don’t you have to care about your children?”


  The old lady helplessly smiled and said, “I don’t have any children.”


  Fang Yusheng was surprised.

  Perhaps, the old lady was a lonely person. When she saw that Fang Yusheng was curious, she told him as she roasted the sweet potatoes, “When I was young, I had uterine tumors and had to get half of my uterus removed. Since it was removed, I can’t get pregnant.”


  She sighed and thought of something. Her ancient eyes had a touched yet a little guilty look. “My husband is a construction worker and isn’t well-read, but he treats me really well. Even though he knew that I wouldn’t be able to give birth to his child after having my uterus removed, he insisted that I undergo surgery.

  “The even rarer thing is that he has always been very good to me throughout my entire life.” The old lady stared at the sweet potato and revealed a gratified expression. “He has never let me down. Even though I’m useless and unable to give birth to his child.”


  A silence fell between them.

  For a woman, losing fertility was a fatal blow. However, this old lady was lucky that her husband loved her.

  Fang Yusheng looked at the old lady’s hands. There were age spots on her hands, but she was wearing an old platinum ring on her left hand. The design of the ring was simple. However, Fang Yusheng felt that this ring was more precious than the diamond rings and the gold rings he had seen before.

  “I’ve thought of divorcing him in the past and asking him to find someone else to give birth to his kids. But the old man gets angry the moment he hears about it.” The old lady tucked her white hair behind her ears and continued, “I told him to go to the orphanage to adopt a child, but he didn’t agree either. After all, that kid won’t be my biological child.”


  “No wonder.” Fang Yusheng was deeply moved.

  “Now the government has subsidies for the elderly, right? In situations like yours, there should be subsidies of a few thousand yuan a year, right?” Now that the days are getting better, the government’s support for the elderly has increased. Every year, the poor elderly receive about two to three thousand yuan.

  The money alone was not enough, but the elderly would usually save up for retirement in their youth. The pension and government subsidies could barely sustain their lives.

  When the old lady heard that, she bitterly smiled. “How is that enough? I have high blood pressure and have to take medicine every day. My husband’s health is getting worse and worse. Last year, he even had minor surgery. Now that he can’t work anymore, I have to come out and earn some extra money. Otherwise, when we go to the hospital one day, we won’t have any money.”


  Everyone had their own difficulties.

  Fang Yusheng had never experienced a tough life where he couldn’t even pay the medical bills. After hearing the old lady’s words, he felt rather bitter.

  “It’s pretty hard.”


  The old lady did not reply.

  In the morning, the old lady sold only 23 sweet potatoes. Fang Yusheng started to panic. He still could not find any further clues. He wanted to call Qiao Jiusheng to ask, but he held his breath and refused to admit defeat.

  At noon, the students finished school. The old lady suddenly said, “We have to sell 200 of them today to complete the mission.”


  Fang Yusheng was too anxious to listen to her.

  After a while, a few students came to buy sweet potatoes. Once they left, the old lady said, “We have to sell 200 sweet potatoes. It looks like we won’t be able to complete this mission.”


  Fang Yusheng glanced at the old lady, puzzled. ‘If you want to sell them, then sell them. Why do you keep telling me?”


  After about ten minutes, the old lady spoke again, “Selling 200 will be considered completing the mission…”


  Fang Yusheng couldn’t take it anymore. He said to the old lady, “You can only sell fifty to sixty a day at most. Two hundred is too big of a target for you. That’s impossible…” Fang Yusheng suddenly became hoarse.

  Fang Yusheng’s eyes flashed. He immediately stood up and walked to the old lady’s side. Amiably smiling, he said, “Auntie, let me help you sell it.”


  The old lady replied, “You’re a good lad.”


  Fang Yusheng put on his apron and charmingly smiled. Then, he shouted at the students.

  “Selling sweet potatoes!

  “The sweet potatoes dug out from our fields are green and clean. They’re sweet and big!

  “One for six yuan each, ten yuan for two!

  “Come, come, come! Buy sweet potatoes! Give them to your girlfriend, give them to your mother, or give them to your brother. After eating your sweet potatoes, they’ll love you!”


  Fang Yusheng’s odd way of bidding attracted the attention of many students.

  “Handsome guy, are you a celebrity? Are you recording a reality show?” A beautiful girl walked over and looked at Fang Yusheng with starry eyes.

  Fang Yusheng shook his head and sternly said, “I’m not putting on a show, nor am I a celebrity.” He was only Qiao Jiusheng’s celebrity.

  The girl was a little disappointed. She said, “I’ll buy one.”


  “Here.” Fang Yusheng gave her a sweet potato.

  The girl said again, “Handsome, can we scan the QR code to pay?”


  Fang Yusheng shook his head again. “Student, I forgot to bring my phone.”


  The girl was a little disappointed. In the end, she gave him six yuan and reluctantly left with the sweet potatoes.

  Everyone saw that the school belle had already found the handsome guy to buy sweet potatoes. If she wasn’t afraid of farting, what were the others afraid of?

  Soon, a large group of people came to buy sweet potatoes, and all the sweet potatoes that the old lady had roasted got snatched away. The old lady became busy adding sweet potatoes to the stove at the side. In the afternoon, Fang Yusheng helped her roast them as well. In the afternoon, during lessons, someone came to buy dozens of sweet potatoes.

  Fang Yusheng was busy all the way until three in the afternoon before he managed to sell over two hundred sweet potatoes.

  Wiping the sweat off his forehead, he said, “The mission is completed.” He handed the money in his pocket to the old lady. Fang Yusheng stared at her smiling face and asked, “Auntie, can you tell me now?”


  The old lady chuckled and said, “Originally, I wanted to tell you directly, but the pregnant beauty said that you have to take the initiative to help me sell sweet potatoes and complete the mission before I could tell you the clues.” The old lady counted the money as she told Fang Yusheng, “The clues are on the school’s cultural wall.”


  Fang Yusheng took off his apron and thanked her. He then took his identity card and registered with the security guards. Only then was he allowed to enter the campus. After asking a student, Fang Yusheng found the cultural wall and jogged over to it.

  The cultural wall was filled with poems and paintings by art students. Fang Yusheng looked at the wall and calmed down. He looked for clues.

  Most of the drawings were cute and didn’t look like they were hiding any secrets. Fang Yusheng walked to the front of the poems. These poems incomplete. They were classic sentences from art students and were written on the wall with a brush.

  The person who had written the poem had a good foundation in calligraphy and painting. The words they wrote were majestic and their strokes were powerful.

  The first line of the poem was – “The clear and shimmering water is good, the mountains are dark and the rain is strange.”


  The second verse was – “When we meet, we smile, but when we leave, we weep again.”


  The third line of the poem was – “Stopped our carriage in a maple tree forest, the frost-stained maple leaves were prettier than the flowers in February.”


  When Fang Yusheng saw the third line of the poem, he had a flash of inspiration. He suddenly thought of a place.

  After turning around, he ran out of Third Middle School campus. He hailed a taxi at the school gate and headed back to the mall. After finding his car there, Fang Yusheng drove out of the city. He drove for nearly two hours before he finally arrived at his destination at sunset.

  He parked the car, raised his head, and stared at the gate of the scenic area in front of him. On top of the gate hung a wide wooden board with two words engraved on it.

  This was where Fang Yusheng had first kissed Qiao Jiusheng and confessed to her.

  The winter months were the coldest. When the sun set in the evening, the air was filled with the coolness of the night. Driving was not allowed in the scenic area, so Fang Yusheng had to walk there. At this time, only a few tourists were in the scenic area. And even these people were walking out of the scenic area. Therefore, Fang Yusheng, who was striding inside, looked especially conspicuous.