CH 21

“I… you…” Facing Lu Xu Nan’s ‘aggression’, Ning Yi resisted for a bit and said, “Sorry, I have my own reasons, but I don’t want to talk about it.”

Respecting other people’s privacy is a fundamental concept as a person, okay? Secrets are secrets precisely because there are reasons that can’t be said and don’t want to be voiced ah! Your desire for gossip is so strong, is your future career plan to be a paparazzi?

He even asked why… If I tell you the reason, I’m afraid you won’t be able to take it!

Lu Xu Nan’s eyes gradually darkened as he listened to Ning Yi’s thoughts.

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She was worried that he would lose face after knowing the reason, right? Needing a girl to be wronged and hide her true strength to set off his capability was indeed not something glorious.

But, do I deserve… to be protected like this?

Even if you keep staring at me, I still can’t say it ah. Won’t it be over for me if I say it!

“R, R’x tskdt vs vbl cyvbassx.” Lkdt Zk yhskele Nw Dw Lyd’p lulp, xyjkdt y bwaakle lpnyrl.

Fbl ayd swv vbl essa kd y rydkn yde ryvvle bla nblpv kd alzklq obld pbl qswde vbyv Nw Dw Lyd byed’v alzldvzlppzu nbyple yqvla bla vs ypj qsa vbl alypsd.

Rq pbl pyke vbkp osaze oyp ynvwyzzu y dshlz, dsv fwpv Nw Dw Lyd, dscseu lzpl oswze cl yczl vs ynnlrv kv, aktbv? Ysalshla, kq pbl alyzzu pyke vbyv, pbl oswze rascyczu cl ekalnvzu sczkvlayvle cu vbl rzsv shlazsae aktbv blal.

Ohld vbswtb pbl oyp ps ydtau ulpvlaeyu vbyv pbl oydvle vs tkhl wr, vbyv oyp fwpv kd vbl xsxldv. Mbl nsdvasz oyp qkdyzzu olyjldle yde pbl qkdyzzu pyo psxl bsrl, pbl nswze pvkzz rlaplhlal.

Gqvla yzz, obs jdlo oblvbla vblal oyp y plnsde nbydnl kd zkql?

Gde Nw Dw Lyd obs bye clld zlqv kd vbl nzyppassx, oyvnbkdt Lkdt Zk’p qktwal ekpyrrlyakdt yv vbl essa, oyp bsdlpvzu iwlpvksdkdt bkxplzq.

Mbspl zkvvzl vbkdtp kd vbl rypv bl nswze ktdsal, cwv vbkp blyhu ulv jkde kdvldvksd rzynle kd qasdv sq bkx dso – nswze bl pvkzz ekpaltyae kv zkjl clqsal? Rq bl alyzzu pvayktbv wr zyke kv yzz swv, vbld kv oswze byhl vs cl alpszhle.

Jwv bso lmynvzu vs pszhl kv? Lkdt Zkuk eked’v eyal pyu kv, oypd’v kv clnywpl pbl oyp yqayke sq bkp alflnvksd? Tla xkde oyp ps dyaaso, pbl oyp ydtau ldswtb vbyv pbl nakle yv fwpv vbl pktbv sq bkx vyzjkdt vs ydsvbla tkaz, kq bl alyzzu pyke kv, oswzed’v pbl nau vs elyvb?

Forget it, leave it for now. Even though he couldn’t respond to her intention, but to continue being like before and pretend he didn’t know the reason, it was still doable. Maybe after some time passes, she will think it through on her own.

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Lu Xu Nan silently made a decision.

Ning Yi dillydallied and endured until the second class almost began before returning to the classroom barely on time.

Lu Xu Nan quietly sat in his own seat. Seeing her come in, he only glanced at her and said, “Since you don’t want to say, then I won’t ask, nor will I tell anyone, but…”

He paused and said meaningfully, “No matter the reason, there’s no need to play around with your studies.”

Ning Yi’s nervous heart finally settled.

She nodded and seriously said, “Thank you.”

Lucky, lucky, if he keeps asking, I really won’t know what to do!

Hearing her words, Lu Xu Nan glanced at her again, pursing his lips and not saying anything.

Don’t know if it was her misperception, Ning Yi kept feeling like Dog Lu seemed a little different after she came back from the restroom.

She couldn’t resist glancing at him a few times. She finally found out what was wrong.

Dog Lu was actually paying attention to the lesson seriously! He was obviously still playing on his phone right under the teacher’s nose all through the last lesson! This was suddenly turning over a new leaf ah!

Lu Xu Nan already found out early on that Ning Yi was secretly looking at him. He had been the focus of everyone’s eyes, especially girls, since elementary school. He was already long used to being looked at. Generally, he could directly ignore them, or if he really didn’t have the patience, he would look back, but today, he didn’t do anything.

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Not only this, he even felt a little nervous from being looked at for the first time.

When Ning Yi glanced at him for the fifth time, Lu Xu Nan finally couldn’t take it anymore. He frowned out of habit as he looked back and saw Ning Yi’s shoulders slightly tremble as if she was scared by him.

Lu Xu Nan pursed his lips, relaxing his expression to not look so stern as much as possible. While the teacher had turned around to write on the board, he whispered, “What do you keep looking at me for?”

Ning Yi, for whom rainbow farts1 were quickly becoming a conditioned reflex, blinked her eyes and spoke without thinking, “Looking at your handsomeness!

Lu Xu Nan, stumped: “…”

Only after a few seconds did he touch his ears that were slightly hot and awkwardly said fiercely: “Listen to your lesson.”

Ning Yi twitched her lips, withdrawing her gaze.

Would be a wonder. Lu Xu Nan is an ugly!

Lu Xu Nan heard her thought, he couldn’t help turning his head and taking a look at her again.

Ning Yi currently had her chin resting on her left hand, the other hand holding a marker placed by her mouth as she lightly bit on it. Her eyes were on the blackboard, her delicate brows slightly knit like she was seriously thinking about the problem.

A smiling expression that even he didn’t know of slid across his eyes, he thought:

Little girl with a mouth that didn’t match her heart2!

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–

Time flew by, the afternoon passed very quickly.

The learning institute didn’t have a cafeteria, so they went out and took care of lunch themselves after class. Fortunately, the institute was situated in one of the several large commercial districts in Yucheng and there were many options nearby.

The bell for the end of class rang. The teacher was packing up teaching materials at the front. Lu Xu Nan turned around to look at Ning Yi and asked, “What to eat for lunch?”

Ning Yi closed her pencil case, glancing at him strangely.

Hey, Dog Lu really changed his character today! He even knows to ask for my opinion? Could it be because he suddenly found out that I’m actually a top student in hiding, so he admires me greatly?

Lu Xu Nan: “…If you don’t speak, then I’ll choose.”

“Hey! We’re already in the commercial district, why still order takeout ah? We can go out to eat ah!” Ning Yi hastily shouted, afterwards blinking as she confirmed, “Eat whatever I want?”

Lu Xu Nan put his phone away, indifferently saying, “I don’t have anything in particular I want to eat.”

Hearing this, Ning Yi’s eyes lit up. “Then let’s go eat hotpot! Chili hotpot!”

Lu Xu Nan frowned upon hearing this. Although he hadn’t paid any particular attention to Ning Yi before, she was his childhood friend of over ten years after all. Ning Yi’s digestive system wasn’t good, this he was still clear on.

“You want to get hospitalized again?” He asked very bluntly.

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Ning Yi immediately wilted.

That’s right, she couldn’t eat spicy foods.

But I really want to eat ah quq

Looking at her wilted, wishful, and pitiful appearance, Lu Xu Nan couldn’t help inwardly tsking.

But Ning Yi was only dispirited for a little bit, she immediately became lively again: “We can order a mandarin duck pot3 ah! You eat the spicy part, I eat the mild part! Also it’s not like I can’t eat any spicy food at all ah, I can still have a taste!”

I can also sniff the smell! As long as my thinking is good enough, imagination rich enough, even clear soup can be fragrant and spicy!

“Troublesome, smell from head to toe from eating hotpot.”

Lu Xu Nan said this, but he stood up and walked toward the exit. Halfway there, he discovered that Ning Yi hadn’t caught up and raised his eyebrow as he turned around, “Not eating?”

Upon hearing this, Ning Yi immediately threw down her pen, grabbed her phone, and caught up.

“Coming!”

Not far from the learning institute was a Hai Di Lao (Sichuan hotpot restaurant chain). They were lucky and just happened to grab the last table when they arrived.

When Ning Yi, who hadn’t had hotpot in a very long time, stepped into the restaurant, she felt like she was watching from just watching other people cooking food in the chili hotpot. Just smelling the hotpot smell in the air, she was already extraordinarily happy.

She followed the server into the restaurant, her eyes nearly growing on the bottom of other people’s boiling hotpot. She didn’t notice the little fatty that suddenly leapt out from the aisle beside her at all.

Despite the fact that the little kid’s height was only just above an adult’s knee, the body was rotund like a ball, rushing toward Ning Yi like a little cannonball.

The two people, one big and one small, collided with a bang. Ning Yi staggered from the collision, her body immediately swaying to the side.

She reached out in panic, waving her hands a few times in the empty air, unable to grab onto anything and unconsciously closed her eyes…

Lu Xu Nan walked behind her, he saw everything clearly and also reacted quickly.

Almost immediately, he reached out and took Ning Yi’s wrist, the other hand steadily supporting her lower back.

Ning Yi whose body was steadied opened her eyes and exhaled with lingering fear. She hadn’t recovered yet before she heard the brat that hit her begin to cry loudly with a “waa”.

It turns out he fell on his butt because of the reaction force.

The little kid’s mother ran over helter-skelter. She helped the child up while apologizing to them, “I’m really sorry, I took my eyes off of him for a moment.”

The person’s attitude was good and Ning Yi also wasn’t the type to be unreasonable. She waved her hand and said, “It’s alright, the child isn’t hurt, right?”

The child’s mother was a happy-go-lucky person. She patted the dust off the child’s back, smiling as she said, “A little fatty, durable when it comes to falling.”

Hearing her, Ning Yi also couldn’t help laughing. The child seemed to have been scared, continuously and incessantly crying. She wanted to take candy from the small purse she was carrying to coax him.

Only when her hand moved did she discover that her wrist was still held by Lu Xu Nan.

She twisted her wrist. The latter immediately let go like he’d been burned and took a step back.

Ning Yi glanced at him in surprise and thanked him in a small voice. She took out a handful of fruit candies from her bag and put it in front of the child, “Don’t cry, sister will give this to you to eat.”

Lu Xu Nan rubbed the pads of his fingers, inexplicably feeling a little uncomfortable. His irritable expression also sank.

The little fatty’s pair of teary eyes looked at the candies in Ning Yi’s hand. He swallowed his saliva, cautiously glancing behind her with tears in his eyes, sobbing, wanting to take them yet not daring to.

Ning Yi looked behind her.

My god, Lu Xu Nan stood behind her with a gloomy face as if someone owed him eight million dollars!

No wonder the little kid was scared to no end!

Ning Yi could only shift to the side a little, blocking the little kid’s line of sight. She reached out and grabbed his little hand, stuffing all the candies into his hand, and said, “Don’t be scared, eat~”

Only then did the little fatty turned tears into laughter, and under his mother’s teaching, said “sorry” and “thank you” to Ning Yi, grinning as he returned to his table.

Ning Yi glanced at the person beside her, asking in a small voice, “Nan gege, what’s with you? You scared the child.”

Lu Xu Nan himself couldn’t tell the reason why either. With a gloomy face, he mumbled “hungry” and passed her, walking toward their seat.

Ning Yi was used to his mood swings, she naturally didn’t take it to heart, happily catching up…

–

Watching Ning Yi whose hand hadn’t stopped since the hotpot started boiling, Lu Xu Nan drank water while being astonished–

She ate so much, how can she still be so skinny?

Ning Yi saw that he had set his chopsticks down, and said also in astonishment, “You’re done eating?”

Lu Xu Nan didn’t really like to eat hotpot to begin with, the flavor was too strong.

He nodded, saying, “About done.”

What the f*ck, a big man actually only eats just this little bit? Is really competent ah? This makes me look like I eat a lot, ai…

Lu Xu Nan whose competence was called into question had his temple twitch.

Contrarily, there was only hotpot in Ning Yi’s eyes, she didn’t notice his expression at all.

She impatiently watched the chili hotpot on Lu Xu Nan’s side. In it, there was still the piece of beef that he’d put in before but hadn’t eaten bobbing and rolling.

Instantly, she felt that the beef in the mouth that she’d just fished out from the mushroom hotpot wasn’t fragrant quq

Just look at it- it doesn’t look spicy, not many chilis either, and the smell isn’t even pungent!

I’ll just have a bite, no big deal~ I can do it, my stomach definitely can as well!

With her thinking fixed, Ning Yi tightened her chopsticks, reached out and snatched that piece of beef from the chili hotpot, stuffing it into her mouth at the speed of light.

My god! There’s actually such delicious beef in the world!!!

Ning Yi was almost teary with excitement.

I’ve already eaten one bite, can I still miss out on the second bite? Of course not!

Ning Yi rapidly moved her chopsticks.

How many people know the hard work of farmers behind each grain?4 Is it easy to raise such a big cow? How can people’s hard work raising it be wasted!

Ning Yi extended her chopsticks once more.

Only fine food and love cannot disappoint! At worst, it’s just eating some digestive medicine! Scared of the west and scared of the east, what would be the point in living!

Besides, as long as I eat fast enough, my brain and my stomach won’t catch on that I’m eating spicy food!

Listening to these crooked and unhealthy reasoning, Lu Xu Nan nearly laughed out loud in anger.

And Ning Yi who was already drooling was still not scared of death, wanting to try again.

Unfortunately, when her hand moved this time, someone had already used a strainer spoon to fish away the beef one step ahead of her, not leaving a single piece…

Getting a taste was already enough, she really wanted to eat digestive medicine!

Lu Xu Nan who had silently paid attention to Ning Yi’s actions from beginning to end dumped all the beef in the strainer spoon into his own bowl and said, “Take a look with your phone, how round has your face become? Keep eating and you’ll be as fat as a pig.”

Keep eating and you’ll be as fat as a pig.

As fat as a pig.

Pig.

Ning Yi gripped the chopsticks in her hand.

You’re a pig!!!

Baby fat, understand?! As expected, ivory doesn’t come from a dog’s mouth!!!

Lu Xu Nan’s hand paused. He slowly ate all the beef in front of her, while she watched.

Then he put down his chopsticks, raised his hand, and called the server, “Bill please.”

Sure enough, no matter what, he can’t like this little girl : )

Not rejecting her before she took the initiative to say it was already his last gentleness.

[1] 彩虹屁: rainbow fart; sucking up

[2] 口是心非: the mouth says yes while the heart says no

[3] 鸳鸯锅: yuanyang guo/mandarin duck pot; hotpot with a divider for spicy soup base on one side and mild on the other

[4] 谁知盘中餐，粒粒皆辛苦: How many people know the hard work of farmers behind each grain? ; a line from Tang dyansty poem ‘Pity the Farmers (悯农)’ by Li Shen (Baidu, Eng trans)