Gu Qiumian walked in from outside. Du Kang froze when he saw her, wanting to say something, but Ruoping had already quickly turned her head back around. The temperature around them seemed to drop, and he opened his mouth, then simply decided to act like he hadn't seen anything and continued drinking his milk.
Gu Qiumian was the same as always—looking down on everyone. Though the young miss herself had a cold expression, her underlings were extremely arrogant.
Du Kang's reaction fell into that male student's eyes and was probably taken as backing down. The other guy even provocatively raised his eyebrows at Du Kang, as if to say, "See that? Isn't our boss way more impressive? What's the big deal about going up to speak under the flag stand?"
It made Du Kang's teeth itch with irritation.
He wanted to rush over and shout, "Are you blind, kid? Take a closer look at who the four of us are! We're your boss's own classmates!"
Never mind that classmates weren't showing face, but the other side had gotten something else wrong too—
The one sitting across from me is the real deal. She's the young miss's actual deskmate, who once went toe-to-toe with Gu Qiumian herself without backing down, even managed to piss her off. When is it your turn to provoke us, punk?
It's like flooding the Dragon King's temple... no wait, you should look at the Buddha's face even if not the monk's... that doesn't seem right either.
In any case, there was no way to explain this. Explaining would make them look like they were riding on coattails. If only Miss Gu would see them and take the initiative to say hello—better yet, smile warmly—that would be the perfect script for playing the pig to eat the tiger. Wouldn't that slap that male student right in the face?
However, Gu Qiumian neither greeted them nor smiled. Instead, she acted like she hadn't seen the four of them at all. She didn't say anything, just stood behind a bunch of lackeys with her arms crossed, watching them busily order food.
"Spare ribs or braised pork?"
"Both, of course. Don't forget the sweet and sour pork tenderloin—Qiumian loves that..."
"Should we get cold dishes?"
"It's so cold out, better not..."
"Two fish—one steamed, one braised?"
"How about ordering one big fish prepared four ways? We can't finish two..."
As they went on like this, one expensive dish after another was rattled off, making the contrast between the two tables even more obvious.
The four of them had only dared come here to celebrate after scrimping and saving, while on Gu Qiumian's side, they were basically treating the restaurant like a cafeteria.
But Du Kang soon felt better. A girl emerged from the crowd and smacked that male student on the head, whispering a few words to him.
She seemed to carry quite a bit of authority in this group. The male student clicked his tongue in annoyance but stopped talking.
Du Kang cheerfully poured himself another cup of Nutri-Express and downed it in one gulp. Qingyi asked him strangely:
"What's gotten into you?"
"Nothing. A junior schoolmate just recognized me and helped me save face."
Du Kang said calmly.
"You can get drunk on Nutri-Express?" Though Ruoping wasn't looking behind her, she didn't believe him at all.
"Who's making it up? If you don't believe me, I'll point her out to you!"
Qingyi and Ruoping couldn't be bothered with him, but Zhang Shutong was quite interested. He turned around to see which girl was Du Kang's admirer, and following Du Kang's finger, he discovered someone who looked familiar. After thinking about it, he realized it was the girl who had been biting her lip next to Gu Qiumian this morning.
"She's really his fan?" Ruoping actually wanted to look too, but felt that turning around would weaken her position against Gu Qiumian.
"Absolutely certain."
Zhang Shutong confirmed it with a sentence, though inwardly he thought, "I'm not so sure about that."
The other three pretended not to see Gu Qiumian's group, but he had no such concerns. He was just puzzled about why Gu Qiumian was still in the mood to eat out. Could she be gathering her underlings to help search for someone?
But after watching for a while, he couldn't figure it out. Miss Gu was at the very back of the crowd, and he could only see her profile. Zhang Shutong thought this was very much in line with Pokémon battle rules—you couldn't have the trainer standing in front, after all.
That girl biting her lip did seem quite like Gu Qiumian's lieutenant, or rather, secretary. She was lecturing someone—still that same male student:
"Don't cause trouble. Everyone at that table is Qiumian's classmate. Show some awareness."
The male student rubbed his nose:
"Sister Gu didn't say anything either, so they're probably not close. Besides, no one in her class is close to her anyway, so it doesn't matter..."
"Never mind whether they're close or not. I'm telling you, you see that male student sitting on the outside? Actually..." The little secretary hesitated for a moment, but in the end didn't say it out loud. "Forget it, just remember not to cause trouble."
"Oh, I remember now. Isn't that guy the one you told me about before... the deskmate who had a crush on Sister Gu? Hey, you know what, he's not as ugly as you said he was."
"That's not the same person. They just switched. I saw him this morning."
After she said this, for some reason, that male student suddenly got fired up.
Originally, he and Du Kang were in a kind of competitive spirit typical of adolescent boys. This was perfectly normal—sometimes you go to the bathroom and someone stands too close, and you'd find them annoying. But now that male student was like he'd been injected with adrenaline, saying disdainfully:
"Then I should definitely help her save face. Everyone in her class is so damn clueless, they're just asking to be taught a lesson."
"Enough. You think I don't know what you're thinking? 'Help her save face'—I think you want to be your Sister Gu's deskmate. Acting like roosters, every single one of you. Don't forget what happened with Zhao Yang. If you still want to hang around here, you'd better hide those little thoughts of yours."
"Alright, alright, I know, I know."
"You'd better know."
After saying this, the girl called for everyone to sit down instead of crowding in the main hall.
The others seemed used to following the little secretary's arrangements. While taking off their coats, they obediently headed toward the private room.
But then the proprietress apologetically blocked their path, a stiff smile on her face, saying she'd just remembered the private room had already been reserved. She was really sorry—how about putting together a table for them in the main hall?
"Are you kidding me? I've almost finished ordering and now you tell me there's no private room? You messing with us?"
It was that same male student again, asking in an exaggerated tone.
Immediately people around him started complaining along with him. The main hall became noisy with chatter. But the little secretary only watched Gu Qiumian's expression. Seeing the young woman say casually, "It's fine," she pressed her hand down to the crowd around her and told the proprietress that a shared table was acceptable, just make their dishes quickly.
The fish restaurant finally quieted down.
Then a few male students ran out to buy drinks, asking Gu Qiumian what she wanted. Gu Qiumian answered yogurt. Those male students said they'd definitely complete the mission. Just as they were about to run off, the little secretary pulled them back to give them a thorough briefing.
Zhang Shutong observed the peculiar ecosystem of this little clique. He remembered that previously it had been Gu Qiumian who arranged these things. Though she didn't say much either—just a tilt of her chin—today she was in a bad mood, so the "secretary" took over.
Qingyi suddenly lowered his voice:
"Shutong, let me make a bet with you. Something's about to happen."
"What?"
"Haven't you noticed? The Nutri-Express we're drinking is the last four bottles."
He pressed his hands under his chin, speaking mysteriously:
"Gu Qiumian just said she wanted yogurt, right? Based on my experience, when those guys come back, they'll definitely say they couldn't buy yogurt. But Gu Qiumian will insist on having yogurt, so people at their table will start looking for yogurt, and finally they'll see the Nutri-Express on our table, and then..."
"Hold on—where exactly does 'based on your experience' come from?"
"Novels."
"...Are her underlings also supposed to say something like 'Hand over the Nutri-Express if you know what's good for you'?"
"Of course! But we definitely won't agree, and then Gu Qiumian suddenly stands up, and—ouch..."
Qingyi clutched his head. Ruoping had given him a knuckle rap.
"Can you boys stop being so childish?"
Ruoping was truly exasperated.
But then she saw the three boys very cooperatively hide the Nutri-Express by the table legs. The young woman was shocked:
"You're serious about this?"
Zhang Shutong just laughed. He simply thought it was fun.
Qingyi and Du Kang also thought it was fun. Otherwise what would they talk about? But the yogurt didn't fulfill their wishes—it was actually bought.
Before long, those male students came running back into the shop carrying large bottles of beverages—big bottles of cola, orange juice, mango juice... The three of them boredly brought the Nutri-Express back up.
The layout of the fish restaurant's main hall was roughly like this:
Zhang Shutong and his three close friends sat in a corner at a small table. Gu Qiumian and her lackeys had pushed together four square tables, with her occupying one side alone.
Zhang Shutong's group had ordered four dishes; Gu Qiumian's group had ordered over a dozen.
Their cups only had half a cup of milk left, which they had to save, otherwise they'd have nothing when the dishes came. Over there, male students were going around the table pouring drinks, with colorful glass cups covering the table. Only when they reached Gu Qiumian did they not get a chance to fawn over her—
In front of Miss Gu sat a one-liter carton of yogurt, the paper box so tall it almost covered half her face. How domineering!
Gu Qiumian poured the yogurt into her glass herself, took a light sip, then had the person next to her distribute the rest, saying she couldn't drink it all by herself and this was enough. She had the air of "though there are three thousand ripples of weak water, I take only one ladle to drink."
Zhang Shutong thought she really should be happier than she was now. Unlimited yogurt, food and drink in abundance, close friends surrounding her, underlings in droves, a rich father, and good looks herself... Thinking about it this way, it seemed he'd never really seen her smile, except when she was alone making faces at the glass—when she drew herself too ugly, she'd make herself laugh.
Zhang Shutong withdrew his gaze, only to find Du Kang and Qingyi winking at him:
"How about when the food comes, we pull Shutong along to toast her? We'll say he doesn't understand things, and we want to thank the young miss for her patronage?"
"What are you three plotting behind my back?" Ruoping asked suspiciously.
"Of course it's a man's..."
Apologize to men everywhere!
Zhang Shutong really couldn't take it anymore and kicked Qingyi under the table.
Fortunately, the first dish arrived at that moment—the braised spare ribs he'd ordered. This kind of meat dish was usually stewed in advance. When a customer wanted it, they just needed to heat it in the pot, sprinkle some cilantro, and bring it to the table.
He quickly called everyone to eat the spare ribs. Never mind how extravagant Gu Qiumian's side was—for them, pooling together their saved allowances and each ordering one dish they liked was its own special kind of happiness.
When money was tight, eat something simple; when flush, have a good meal. In the future, this would be called going Dutch. It sounded a bit calculating, but in reality, people who could pool money to eat together were either complete strangers or extremely close friends. It was the acquaintances in between who would worry about saving face, economic circumstances, the depth of friendship... and then have someone pay for everyone, which was far less pure than this.
Zhang Shutong quite liked this casual feeling.
Dishes came one after another, still with that familiar taste. He'd thought it was the filter of memory, but after tasting a few bites, he discovered the flavor really was excellent.
He hadn't paid attention to whether this restaurant would still be around eight years later... But so what if it was? It's not like he could actually go back and eat there.
At that moment, however, a small incident suddenly occurred—
When the proprietress brought up the last dish, shredded blackfish, that male student who'd initially locked horns with Du Kang suddenly pointed his finger and shouted:
"Hey, don't just serve them! They only ordered a few dishes, and we've been sitting here with so many people for how long?"