The white rose I picked up cried and said she liked me.

Night falls, and a gentle breeze caresses the streets.

The group waved goodbye at the school gate. Jiang Xun and the other three returned to their school dormitory, while Xu Nian turned around and walked alone towards the snack street.

Right in the center of the snack street, a charming three-story villa is brightly lit, with warm yellow light spreading across the open space in front of it.

Xu Xi stood alone at the door, her slender little feet slightly tiptoeing, her small hands outstretched, holding a rag, trying hard to wipe away the thin layer of dust accumulated on the top of the door frame.

"Heave-ho! Heave-ho!"

She encouraged herself quietly, jumping up and down again and again, but her height was limited. No matter how hard she tried, her fingers were always just a short distance from the door frame, and she couldn't even touch the edge. Her twin ponytails bounced with her movements, making her look clumsy yet cute.

Xu Nian stepped forward, bent down slightly, reached out and steadily supported her waist, gently lifted her up, and let her sit steadily on his shoulders.

With her view suddenly elevated, Xu Xi easily raised her hand and wiped the dust off the door frame clean.

After wiping herself down, she lightly leaped and landed steadily on the ground. Turning around, she looked at Xu Nian with a smile on her face: "Brother, you're back?"

After wiping the dust off the door frame, the girl jumped off the man's shoulder and landed steadily on the ground.

"Mmm," Xu Nian responded softly, wiping the dust from her face. "Have you had dinner?"

"Not yet. I can eat after I've cleaned up."

Xu Nian chuckled: "It's already eight o'clock. By the time you finish cleaning, it won't be dinner, it'll be midnight snack."

"Huh? It's so late?" Xu Xi frowned slightly, quickly took out her phone to check the time, and exclaimed in surprise, "Oh no, I was planning to order takeout after I finished cleaning up."

"At this time, most of the takeout shops on the street are closed." Xu Nian sighed helplessly. This girl has severe mysophobia and has extremely high requirements for the hygiene of her living environment. She doesn't trust the cleaning ladies outside.

Even if she hires someone to clean, she will always do the cleaning herself in the end. This time, she did all the cleaning herself from afternoon to night, completely engrossed in the task and forgetting all about the time.

He picked up the leftover food and waved it in front of Xu Xi: "Perfect timing. The restaurant we ate at was pretty good, very delicious. We ordered too much, so I packed some leftovers to take home. Do you want me to heat them up for you so we can have dinner?"

"Okay, okay!" Xu Xi clapped her hands, showing no disgust at the leftovers. Instead, her big eyes lit up when she heard the words "delicious".

After all, she had also come from a time of hardship where she couldn't afford three meals a day. Her values ​​were similar to Xu Nian's; she cherished food deeply and knew that every meal was hard-earned and that wasting it was shameful.

Even leftovers are precious as long as they can fill your stomach.

Xu Nian went into the kitchen, plated the dishes from the takeout box one by one, heated them in the microwave, rinsed the rice and cooked a pot of white rice.

In no time at all, the steaming hot food was served on the table.

Xu Xi hummed a cheerful tune and jogged to the dining table. After picking up her chopsticks and tasting a few bites of the dishes on the table, she immediately showed a delighted expression: "Wow, brother, it's really delicious!"

She asked in surprise, "Which restaurant did you eat at?"

Xu Nian recalled for a moment: "It seems to be called Time Villa."

"Time Villa?" Xu Xi paused in her chewing, stunned for half a second, then suddenly realized and couldn't help but laugh, "Isn't that Yao Yao's restaurant?"

"Ah, Wen Yao opened it?" Xu Nian's lips twitched, her face full of surprise.

"Yes," Xu Xi nodded and explained.

"After my business stabilized, Yao Yao asked me for some start-up capital. She wanted to try starting her own business, so she opened this Time Villa."

"Later she found that running a restaurant was too hard, and the money she earned in a year was not even a fraction of what I made in my business, so she simply hired a manager to help her run the store and obediently came back to me as the vice president."

Xu Nian was instantly dumbfounded. It turned out that the restaurant where he and Jiang Xun had dinner together was practically part of his own business.

At this point, Xu Xi took out her bag, rummaged through it for a while, and found a finely crafted gold card, which she handed to Xu Nian: "Here, this is the VIP gold card for this restaurant. Yao Yao gave it to me before. From now on, when you have meals with your classmates, you can just use this card."

Xu Nian examined the gilded lettering on the card for a while, then carefully put it away.

A night passes in the blink of an eye.

The next morning, as soon as it was light, the two got up early.

Today is the first day of military training at Yuncheng University, and we have to assemble early this morning.

The two quickly dressed, washed up, ate a simple breakfast, and then headed to the school playground together, each joining their respective class's military training formation.

Jiang Xun and the other three had already changed into their matching camouflage military training uniforms and stood in the ranks for a long time.

Su Zhe was appointed as the temporary class monitor by his counselor because he scored the highest score in the college entrance examination, 660 points.

However, he had no management experience and was at a loss. He relied on Jiang Xun's assistance throughout the process to barely maintain order in the formation and count the number of people present.

On the side of the line, Xiao Chen and Luo Chen slumped down, their eyes swollen with dark circles, looking tired and listless. They stood slumped over, barely able to lift their eyelids.

Xu Nian noticed their unusual behavior and asked with concern, "What's wrong with you two? Didn't you sleep well last night?"

Jiang Xun walked slowly to their side and couldn't help but tease them, "The two of them were locked in a gaming session until dawn last night, and in the anime section, they stayed up all night watching the latest episodes. Su Zhe and I woke up, but they're still awake."

Looking at their tired expressions, Xu Nian couldn't help but chuckle and said, "If you guys stay up so late, how are you going to manage with today's military training? Are you sure you can pull through?"

"Hey, what's the big deal?" Xiao Chen yawned and waved his hand dismissively, pretending to be relaxed. "Military training is just a formality, a mere formality. We can't even touch a gun, what kind of military training is that?"

"The instructors want to complete the mission, and we want to get through the military training without making things difficult for each other. I'll just pretend to have heatstroke later and have Luo Chen help me to the infirmary. We can take a nap there and slack off perfectly."

Xu Nian's lips twitched: "There's such a thing?"

"Of course." Xiao Chen chuckled. "Uncle Xu, do you want to come along? Let's go to the infirmary together for a nap."