There is a commercial street about 200 meters away from the gates of Heijiang No. 3 High School.
I really like the Dawn Stationery Store located inside it.
In my memory, the Dawn brand actually did not start out making stationery at all.
It was a toy store.
As for how I know this… it is because the owner of Dawn Stationery Store came from the same small town where I lived when I was a child.
The rabbit plush toy that my mom bought for me back then was a product from that original Dawn Toy Store.
After making toys in the town for a few years, the owner probably felt that there was no future in the toy business, so he switched fields to stationery.
He never expected that he would quickly explode in popularity due to various ingenious creative ideas and excellent quality, eventually opening many branch stores across Heijiang City.
And this Dawn Stationery Store inside the pedestrian street near Heijiang No. 3 High School is one of those branches of Dawn Toys.
Although its main business here is stationery, it also retains many features of the old Dawn Toys by selling some small novelties.
For example, cute plush keychains that can be hung on backpacks, as well as Capybara squeeze toys and angry little turtles used for stress relief during class.
After passing the entrance exam and entering Heijiang Third High School, I would often come to this store by myself after school to buy things.
A lot of the stationery here follows a cute style and has a bit of an anime flavor to it.
I personally believe these stationery items can provide a certain amount of emotional value and play a role in relieving stress during my studies.
“Wow! I really like this store too!”
Bringing Tang Xiaolu to the entrance of Dawn Stationery, the young girl beside me could not help but speak up the moment she glanced at the store sign.
“The things here are super cute! Plus they are very durable, they have no downsides other than being a bit expensive!”
“The founder of this store and I are from the same hometown.”
As I spoke, I held Tang Xiaolu’s hand and pushed open the store door, then turned around.
“Um… is it okay if I do this?”
“Eh?”
Tang Xiaolu did not quite react in time.
“What do you mean by ‘this’?”
“Just this feeling…”
I gestured with the small hand that was currently holding Tang Xiaolu’s.
“It’s my first time being someone’s girlfriend, so I don’t really know what exactly I’m supposed to do, just… like this, being more proactive and walking in front, is that okay?”
“It’s totally okay, absolutely no problem!”
Tang Xiaolu looked at me with an expression that seemed like she was watching an adorable kitten acting cute.
“Xiaoyao, how can you be this cute! To even ask me if it’s okay… you don’t need to mind me, just be yourself.”
“Oh.”
I nodded, leading Tang Xiaolu straight toward a notebook shelf located near the back of the stationery store, tilting my head up to observe the diaries on the very top layer of the shelf.
“What can I help you two with?”
At this time, the young female clerk in the stationery store also noticed us and immediately walked over from the service desk.
“Little sister, you are so cute.”
Probably seeing that I, standing next to Tang Xiaolu, could not even reach the top layer of the shelf, the clerk covered her mouth and let out a chuckle.
“Are you a middle school student?”
“I…”
I puffed out my cheeks.
“I am a high school student.”
After turning into a girl, my current height is roughly 145 centimeters.
Even if you looked across the entirety of Heijiang No. 3 High School, this height is still absurdly short, being a few centimeters shorter than the class loli-loving loli, Mu Linxi.
Add to that the fact that I look very young, with a round face that still carries lingering baby fat and very lively eyelashes, my overall facial structure is full of childishness, so it is no wonder the clerk mistook me for a middle schooler.
Although it is a bit frustrating, there is nothing I can do about it, since my family’s financial conditions were like that since I was a child.
In my memory, every single morning when I woke up, my dad would cook a huge pot of corn porridge, pairing it with some salted radishes or pickled vegetables, and occasionally a single boiled egg, which served as both my breakfast and lunch.
Dinner would be slightly better, with occasional store-bought cooked foods like roast duck, shredded chicken, or salt-baked chicken.
Originally, my mom and dad were not considered tall, and my nutrition did not keep up, so after entering high school, it makes sense that I grew up short.
I, anyway… do not care.
I do not care one bit, yeah.
“Eh? A high school student? I’m so sorry, because you really are so tiny, just like those kids from the middle school next door, I thought you came over from there…”
Hearing that I am actually a high school student, the clerk was a bit surprised, but her excellent professional training still allowed her to quickly recover her usual customer-service expression, stepping up to my side.
“What are you two looking to buy?”
“I want the kind of diary that can be locked, a bigger one.”
I pointed my finger toward the few diaries above my head.
“Is that blue one okay?”
Before I got to know Tang Xiaolu, because I frequently came here to buy stationery, I am still very familiar with the layout of this store.
The shelves in front of us are the notebook section, which mainly displays high-end, exceptionally expensive notebooks.
As for the reason why those few diaries were placed on the very top layer of the shelf, I believe the main reason is that they belong to the style that comes with a lock, and they are expensive.
——In this era, if the Chinese teacher does not require it, who even writes a diary!
Even if a Chinese teacher really requires the students in the class to write a diary, the vast majority of people will only buy a very ordinary diary or simply use a regular notebook to write it, since it has to be turned in for the teacher to look at, no one would specifically go and buy the kind of diary that comes with a lock.
“The blue one? Please wait a moment.”
The clerk stood on her tiptoes, helping me take down that blue diary from the top of the shelf.
This seems to be a collaboration diary for the anime Is the Order a Rabbit?, and the diary cover features a healing pattern of the cute anime lolis, Chino Kafuu and Cocoa Hoto, hugging each other.
At the same time, the price is also marked on this diary: 52 yuan.
“I want this.”
Taking the diary from the clerk’s hands, I gave Tang Xiaolu a pitiful look.
“Is it okay?”
“It’s okay, it’s just a diary, and it’s not expensive, so I definitely have no objection.”
Tang Xiaolu was a bit curious.
“Xiaoyao, are you planning to start writing a diary starting today?”
I shook my head.
“We will write it together.”
“Huh?”
Tang Xiaolu was stunned.
“We will write it together… what does that mean?”
“It’s…”
I handed the diary over to Tang Xiaolu, pointing at the two keys inside the packaging bag.
“After returning to school, we will each take one key, and then write a diary on it together, I will write today’s diary, Lulu will write tomorrow’s diary, and then it will be my turn again the day after tomorrow.”
“Writing a diary together?”
Tang Xiaolu seemed to be a bit confused.
“But if that’s the case… Xiaoyao, after you write your diary and hand the notebook to me, won’t your diary be, like, seen by me?”
“You can look at it, tomorrow’s Lulu can look at the diary I wrote today, and when it’s my turn to write the day after tomorrow, I can also see Lulu’s diary, that way we can use this diary to understand each other more and become better friends, right?”
I held her hand the way Tang Xiaolu did last night in the neighboring residential complex, stroking the delicate and soft skin of that slender hand.
“Usually, if we have any troubles, we can also write them into the diary, because knowing that the next day there will be someone who loves us listening to these troubles, I think after writing them down, a large half of those troubles should be able to clear away…”
“Lulu, this is the gift I want.”