The sky outside the street slowly darkened, and night shrouded Zhennan County.
The couple turned into a lively pottery soup restaurant, steam billowing at the entrance.
Inside, the lights were bright, with a dozen tables and chairs, and many people dining in.
"What would you like to eat?" The proprietress looked up at the young couple in front of her, "We’re having a promotion: spend over thirty and get a free snack."
In local pottery soup restaurants, what they sell and whether it’s tasty all depends on the owner’s skill. So shops’ soups taste like dishwater, while others are incredibly flavorful.
This shop has been open for ten years, with walls stained black. The inside was, however, very clean, and you could see the structure of the kitchen through the glass from afar.
This shop sells stir-fried dishes and pottery soup, as well as noodles.
Jiang Nian glanced at the nu posted on the wall, turned around, and quietly asked Zhang Ningzhi’s opinion.
"What do you want to eat?"
Zhang Ningzhi glanced at the nu on the wall, slightly hesitant.
"Anything’s fine."
Jiang Nian glanced at her, rather helplessly.
"Then I’ll ask the proprietress if they have a ’Zhizhi’ dish."
Hearing this, Zhang Ningzhi gently pushed him.
"Why are you so annoying!"
"It’s hereditary, my mom’s like this too." Jiang Nian shalessly put the bla on Li Hongi, portraying the loving mother and rebellious son dynamic where Li Hongi is his biggest critic.
"But she’s only like this with ; she prefers little girls."
Hearing this, Zhang Ningzhi sighed in relief, thinking Jiang Nian’s mom might be hard to get along with, but upon reflection, perhaps it’s the opposite.
After all, whoever can tolerate Jiang Nian must have a great temper.
What if she had a son like Jiang Nian?
Sss— scary thought.
The proprietress held her paper and pen, smiling at the couple’s banter.
They seed like big custors, one order worth two.
Indeed, the couple ordered two of the more expensive stir-fried dishes and two soups, adding up to over sixty with the boy paying.
The rice was free, and they got a cucumber salad and a small plate of peanuts as freebies.
After sitting down, Jiang Nian asked,
"Have you eaten here before?"
Zhang Ningzhi shook her head, slowly saying,
"Either I eat at ho or have shredded cucumber noodles at the school gate, or..."
Jiang Nian froze, recalling last Sunday’s break. He had bought Lu Qingrong braised at rolls and milk tea at the school gate and couldn’t help but laugh.
"Your mom doesn’t let you eat out?"
"Not really, it’s just that we rarely eat out." Zhang Ningzhi admitted honestly, "It’s because the school break is short, and going ho is convenient."
"Oh, I see." Jiang Nian understood.
First, you need a house close to school, and soone at ho to cook. Plus, if the als are better than what you can buy outside, naturally you won’t eat out.
Jiang Nian’s ho is quite close, but he has to cook for himself when he gets ho. His parents both work to save so money for his dowry.
A family of three... no, five people if you include the Xu Qianqian next door. Both families take afternoon naps outside, and during weekdays, the house is mostly empty.
The noise in the restaurant was loud, and the two chatted quietly at a corner table.
Zhang Ningzhi looked at the beautiful street scene outside, the passing traffic, and students walking by, suddenly starting to talk softly about her family.
"My parents argued the other day because of..."
The stir-fried dishes and pottery soup were served. Jiang Nian listened attentively while breaking apart disposable chopsticks and handing them to her.
He also rinsed the spoon with hot tea, wiped it clean with paper, then poured more hot tea to rinse it again, and finally put it in her bowl.
"Eat first, it’ll get cold."
"Oh."
Zhang Ningzhi lowered her head to drink soup, perhaps afraid of gaining weight; she rarely picked at dishes and only ate a little rice.
Maybe thinking Jiang Nian was a good listener, after a while she started talking again, sharing so things about her parents, and her own worries.
"Sigh, I don’t know what to do in the future."
The issues between Zhizhi’s parents were rely "conflicts" and didn’t affect the family’s stability.
From Jiang Nian’s perspective, except for life-and-death matters, nothing really counts as a big deal. So he didn’t offer much insight, just gave a generic suggestion.
"Go to college." Jiang Nian put down his chopsticks, looked at her, "We’ll talk about future problems later; once in college, you’ll have freedom."
"Okay." Zhang Ningzhi felt relieved after voicing her worries, dissipating most of her anxiety.
As they walked out of the store, lights were everywhere outside. With their stomachs taken care of, only one task remained.
That was to pick up a package at the delivery shop beside the school gate.
So the two started walking back.
In her heart, Zhang Ningzhi regarded this al as a date, so she tried to say more during their ti at the soup shop, striving to make everything go "perfectly."
Now, her initial nervousness gradually dissipated.
The night breeze brushed past, and she suddenly smiled.
Suddenly, as they passed a boutique, Jiang Nian stopped.
"Let’s go in and take a look."
"Huh?"
Zhang Ningzhi followed him inside obediently. She hadn’t even looked around when a hairband was held up to her. Not given to her, just compared against her hair.
He seed to be gauging the effect before handing it over.
"Do you like this color?"
Zhang Ningzhi took a glance and nodded.
"Uh-huh."
At her response, Jiang Nian carried the hairband in hand, did one round to buy two of them. Then he asked the shopkeeper for the price, scanned to pay, and handed it to her.
"It’s a gift for you, suits you well."
"Thank you." Zhang Ningzhi kept her smile from widening, deliberately remained reserved, and unilaterally declared the date concluded with perfection.
Emotions tangled ina bit of sourness, surging from her chest upwards.
If no one was around, she might have covered her eyes with her hands to stop the rising mist of tears.
At the mont, she could only seize the opportunity of turning to blink. Gently covering the recently stirred emotions, as if nothing happened.
.....
"Thanks, Zhizhi." Yao Beibei received a friendship cushion gift from Zhang Ningzhi.
"Yeah, yeah."
Group six.
Huang Fang didn’t expect Zhang Ningzhi to gift sothing including her, and she felt sowhat flattered.
"Thank you."
Ma Guojun also expressed his gratitude. He never bought a cushion, occasionally borrowed Li Hua’s useless ten-dollar cushion, and now received an even better one.
"Damn, the miss really knows how to pick good stuff. That cushion of Li Hua’s is absolute junk, not at all practical."
Li Hua was initially overjoyed, but got splattered suddenly with that comnt, expressing displeasure.
"What are you talking about?"
"Telling the truth."
"Give it a rest, you two-faced dog who despises poverty and idolizes wealth."
"Save the speeches. Where’s today’s drink?" Ma Guojun extended his chubby hand.
"Why would I buy drinks for our group have anything to do with an outsider like you?" Li Hua blushed slightly, pointed a finger ready to rant.
Ma Guojun answered, "Jiang Nian said I could have his share."
Li Hua: "... Go to hell."
In the group, only Wu Jungu and Zeng You didn’t receive a cushion, but it was never intended as an in-group perk, so neither minded.
Wu Jungu had a cushion himself but rarely used it. Zeng You claid his butt was the best cushion, comfortable wherever he sat.
It can only be said that Emperor Zeng You was above all.
Evening study session.
Jiang Nian grabbed a mop and went outside the classroom to mop the floor, considering asking Lao Liu about taking leave to practice driving tomorrow noon.
While contemplating, soone sneaked past in the back of the classroom, leaving footprints on the cleaned corridor.
Wang Yuhe boldly stepped on it multiple tis before showing a middle finger to Jiang Nian and darting back inside the classroom.
Jiang Nian was dumbstruck, wondering about the person’s intention.
Why step on the floor just mopped?
Suddenly, a voice drifted by.
"Mopping?"
Hearing this, Jiang Nian looked up and saw Yu Zhiyi smiling at him. Likely just arriving, she walked gracefully over the freshly mopped floor.
"Heh, sorry about that."
"You f***ing!"
Jiang Nian rolled up his sleeves to continue mopping and later rested in the corridor. He was just about to play on his phone when he turned around.
Damn, it’s trampled again.
Qianbao glanced between the floor and Jiang Nian holding the mop.
"You’ve done a good job mopping."
Finished saying that, she pretended nothing happened and walked inside the classroom, made a round, then exited through the back door. Her footsteps tapped across the corridor.
Finally, she patted Jiang Nian’s shoulder, giving an encouraging gesture.
"Keep it up."
Jiang Nian: "..."
After Qianbao left class three, she looked at the schedule for tomorrow.
She realized she had two back-to-back classes in class three in the morning, and one in class two in the afternoon, aning she had two hours of free ti in the morning.
After so thought, she contacted her driving school coach.
"Can I practice driving at ten tomorrow morning?"
It took a couple of minutes, but eventually, a response ca.
"There’s a VIP learner scheduled too, let ask them."
"Never mind then." Qianbao didn’t bother further.
After a while, the driving school coach, Tian Yongsheng, replied.
"They said it’s fine, he’ll just familiarize himself with the car and won’t take up ti. He’s rushing for lunch, so it’s fine to practice together."
Qianbao looked at the ssage and thought for a mont before replying.
"Alright then."
During evening self-study, Tao Ran collected corrected integrated science test papers.
Underneath.
Zeng You, as usual, did his own thing, curling up in a corner reading a novel.
Wu Jungu reminded him, "The math howork is due soon."
Zeng You didn’t lift his head, "I’ll copy it later."
Jiang Nian overheard this, thinking damn, soone was taking it easy in their senior year. Reflecting on this, as he turned around, he saw the horoom teacher at the back door, making his heart almost stop.
"Damn it!"
Li Hua was quietly digging into his desk, upon hearing this, he quickly made three fake moves in one second.
"Damn!"
Lao Liu had a clear target, directly locking his gaze on Zeng You at the wall side. With a serious expression, without blinking, he walked straight to the second-to-last row.
"Hand it over!"
Zeng You looked up bemusedly, eting Lao Liu’s eyes.
"What?"
"Phone!" Lao Liu didn’t want to waste words, "Cut the talk, step out."
Zeng You complied, getting up reluctantly.
"Teacher, I really don’t have it..."
"Cut the crap!" Lao Liu ordered sternly.
After bringing Zeng You out, he conducted a pat-down, searching sleeves to every pocket, yet found no phone. He searched the seat inside out, found nothing but a fifty-cent gag comic, and took the comic away.
After Lao Liu left, group six was dumbfounded.
"Zeng You, where’s your phone?"
"I don’t have it, who brought a phone?" Zeng You returned to his seat, pointing at Jiang Nian, "I hate accusations the most, don’t beco that."
Saying so, he pulled the phone out from his pants.
Jiang Nian: "You..."
"Thirty years east of the river, thirty west, never look down on a youth in poverty." Li Hua began to chant, "Emperor’s unmatched majesty, those hailing my true na reach Eternal Life."
"Shit, Zeng You, you’re truly invincible."
Wu Jungu hesitated for a mont before asking,
"Aren’t you going to wipe it?"
Zeng You gave a devilish smile, continuing to use it.
"I’m not bothered."
Soon, the three evening self-study sessions ended.
Jiang Nian stretched his neck, each ti finishing howork just aligned with the third self-study, leaving him no extra ti for anything else.
However, he had built so foundations by now, so the pressure wasn’t too great.
The sole discomfort might be when... the class president’s seat got pushed to the first row of the second large group under the podium, stretching beyond ten thousand miles.
Unlike the past two weeks, where they were front and rear row neighbors, occasionally able to chat.
....
Li Qingrong had just finished a practice paper, habitually looked up.
Seeing the multidia podium in front of her, she blanked for a mont.
When she realized last Sunday at noon during whole class desk-moving session, she found out she was being relocated to the first row, feeling slightly unaccustod.
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