The group of people at the dining table were quiet. Ruan Qingmu met Qin Yuan’s cold gaze and didn’t evade it, his smile becoming even more mischievous.
He moved closer and deeply looked into that pair of dark eyes. “Am I right?”
Right at that moment, Fang Li’s shy voice interrupted him. “That, I’ve gotten the food. See if they’re to your taste?”
He was carrying two plates alone, and there was sweat on the tip of his nose. He carefully placed one of the plates in front of Ruan Qingmu, legs feeling a little soft.
Ruan Qingmu finally withdrew the mischievous gaze and smiled at Fang Li.
“You’ve worked hard.”
Fang Li awkwardly waved his hand. “No problem, let’s eat quickly.”
Ruan Qingmu picked up the chopsticks, looked down at his plate, and his face slightly went rigid.
There were only a few hundred grams of pathetic white rice and two portions of vegetable dishes on the side. One was a thousand fried bean sprouts, and the other was cold cucumber.
Fang Li carefully watched him. “Two, two yuan and eight cents. I’ve done it according to what you said…..”
Just now, Ruan Qingmu had told him not to exceed three yuan, and he didn’t dare to add any money without permission. But it wasn’t easy trying to buy a portion of decent food for a boy using three yuan.
One chicken drumstick already cost three yuan!
Qin Yuan slightly glanced at Ruan Qingmu’s plate, not saying anything, but Fu Songhua didn’t have any conscience and couldn’t help blurt out when he saw this arrangement.
“Are you crazy? Learning to lose weight like a girl?”
Ruan Qingmu looked up at him and lowered his thin eyelids. “Are you an idiot? Can’t you see that I’m poor?”
Fu Songhua, “…..”
He had never seen someone speak of poverty so fucking boldly and confidently.
Although he disliked Ruan Qingmu, his upbringing was good after all. He wasn’t that unkind and evil. Seeing Ruan Qingmu like this, he felt embarrassed instead.
Just let it be. This fucker was crippled, and his family circumstances weren’t very good. Wouldn’t he be a bit ungenerous if he still fought with this person?
Fang Li hesitated for a while and picked up two pieces of red braised pork, carefully placing them on Ruan Qingmu’s plate. “That…..I, I can’t eat them all. I’ve taken too many.”
Ruan Qingmu looked at him. “You only have a few pieces too.”
Fang Li was a little sweaty. “I really can’t eat it anymore. It’s too greasy…..”
Ruan Qingmu didn’t continue to argue anymore. “Oh, okay. I’ll treat you back next month.”
He had carelessly collected clues just now and spent almost three hundred yuan at once. He had used up less than half of his living expenses for this month, and he was thinking about this matter on the way here.
– He hadn’t calculated the money to buy new teaching materials.
He had miscalculated. He lived in extravagance in his previous life and spent gold ingots like water. Who would have thought that now he needed to budget his living expenses for one or two months within two or three hundred yuan?
On the other side, Fu Songhua silently looked at those two people, and his eyelids twitched a few times.
He had learned a lot. Was there such a miserably poor student in the school?
One portion of red braised pork only cost four or five yuan, but it still needed such kind of modesty between a friendly elder brother and a respectful brother5. It was simply too miserable to look at them.
As soon as he raised his eyes, Qin Yuan strangely looked at him from the side.
Fu Songhua didn’t understand what he meant and asked with his eyes. “?”
Qin Yuan indifferently said, “Didn’t you say that you’re not full yet?”
Fu Songhua: ?
Did he say that??
Qin Yuan frowned and glanced at him once again. The look in his eyes was calm. “You said it. If you still don’t go take the food, it will be gone.”
Fu Songhua and he looked at each other for a few seconds, and he suddenly had a realization. He took his meal card and jumped up. “Right, right, ah. The canteen was such rubbish. The amount of the dishes has kept on getting smaller. I’m hungry again!”
He stood in front of the window for a few popular dishes. After thinking for a long time in frustration, he bought two pieces of chicken drumsticks and five pieces of pork meatballs. He put them on a clean plate and carried them back.
“Here, here, a meeting is also a kind of fate. Whoever sees it also has a share, one for each person.” He didn’t discriminate and reluctantly put a piece of pork meatball on Ruan Qingmu and Fang Li’s plate. He then turned to his two partners. “I admit defeat. It was partly my fault. I’ll treat you both to a chicken drumstick.”
The boy on the other side, “??”
Was there something like this?
Qin Yuan lightly blocked his hand. “I’m full.”
The boy on the other side tried to take it, but he saw Qin Yuan staring at him fixedly as soon as he raised his eyes. There was a “No, you’re not hungry” written all over his face. All of a sudden, he was blessed to his heart6 too. “I’m also quite full. I couldn’t even eat a single shredded potato anymore.”
Fu Songhua pretended to be angry. “Fuck! I bought it for both of you, but both of you said that you were already full?”
Qin Yuan stood up, “I’m going. You can slowly eat it.”
Fu Songhua oddly called out to him. “Hey, hey, wait for me!”
He swallowed a pork meatball in two or three bites and didn’t even look at Ruan Qingmu as he pushed the remaining food at Fang Li. “Please, please do me a favor. Don’t waste the food. It is clean and hasn’t been touched yet!”
……
Bai Jing and several boys from Class 9 nearby sneakily approached them and stared at the plate with wide eyes.
Two pieces of big fat chicken drumsticks and four pieces of shiny big pork meatballs.
Bai Jing stretched his head and hesitatingly asked, “What’s the situation?”
Fang Li stuttered a little, “Don’t, don’t know…..That Fu Songhua insisted on treating us.”
Huang Ya firmly stared at the chicken drumstick and suddenly slapped his head. “Say, did they also see the betting post, so they put in a laxative here?”
Ruan Qingmu looked down at the meat dishes in front, the few big boys nearby, and slightly smiled.
Amidst the whispering and prying gazes, he leisurely raised his voice and shouted at a certain person’s figure in the distance with a smile. “Come back early in the evening. I’ll wait for you, to sleep together.”
……
The author has something to say:
Fu Songhua: I ate a big meatball more for dinner, feeling a little like I’m bursting.
Qin Yuan: Was it more bursting than eating two portions of breakfast like me?
Footnote:
5 The elder brother is friendly to the younger brother, and the younger brother is respectful to the elder brother. Describe the mutual love and respect between brothers.
6 Blessing to the heart: describes people who are flexible in thinking and act appropriately when they encounter the right time.