Seeing Su Qing return, Cheng Beilin quickly put on a nonchalant expression and smiled. "Perfect timing! I was just thinking about those dumplings."
Seeing Cheng Beilin pretend that nothing was wrong, Su Qing played along as if she hadn’t noticed a thing. She smiled and said, "The state-run restaurant was selling pork and scallion dumplings today. I bought a lot, so Doctor Du can have so with us."
As she spoke, Su Qing placed five aluminum lunch boxes on the table. She had bought four pounds of dumplings, which fit perfectly into the five containers.
"He’s not getting any," Cheng Beilin huffed.
Du Chaoran looked embarrassed and quickly said, "No, it’s fine. I’ll just go to the cafeteria. You two go ahead."
With that, Du Chaoran turned to leave.
Seeing this, Su Qing quickly grabbed two of the lunch boxes and pressed them into Du Chaoran’s hands. "Doctor Du, I brought a portion for you. The dumplings won’t taste as good when they’re cold, so don’t stand on ceremony. Besides, you treated the injury on my face and gave a prescription for the scar."
After hearing what Su Qing said, Cheng Beilin didn’t insist on not giving Du Chaoran the dumplings, but she turned her head away.
Du Chaoran looked like he wanted to say sothing else, but Su Qing just smiled. "It’s fine, Doctor Du. Don’t worry about it."
Du Chaoran could only smile back. "In that case, I won’t refuse. Thank you. I’ll bring the lunch boxes back to you in a bit."
He nodded at Su Qing, glanced at Cheng Beilin one more ti, and then turned and left the break room.
"Let’s eat first." Su Qing closed the break room door, placed a box of dumplings in front of Cheng Beilin, and said, "Weren’t you the one who kept craving dumplings from the state-run restaurant? How co you’re not so eager now that I’ve brought them back?"
Cheng Beilin sniffled. Her eyes and the tip of her nose were red from crying earlier. She looked at Su Qing and pursed her lips. "Aren’t you going to ask ? It’s obvious you noticed."
Su Qing handed a pair of chopsticks to Cheng Beilin. "Everyone has their own secrets. If you want to talk, I’ll listen. But if you don’t, I’m not going to pry."
"How can you be so not curious?" Cheng Beilin pouted. "If it were , I’d definitely keep asking. The curiosity would kill otherwise."
"It’s not that bad. I’m just not that nosy." Su Qing smiled, ate a dumpling, and raised an eyebrow. "Wow, these dumplings are really good."
"Really?" Hearing that, Cheng Beilin quickly ate a dumpling herself and was imdiately captivated by the taste. She wasn’t one to wallow in self-pity, and with good food in front of her, she instantly tossed her troubles to the back of her mind. She nodded eagerly. "Delicious! So delicious! I have to co back and eat these more often. They’re just too good."
Su Qing smiled. "If you like them, then eat up."
"Mhm."
The two of them happily ate their dumplings. They didn’t finish everything, and one box was left over. Su Qing packed it away, planning to pan-fry the leftovers for dinner that night.
Seeing Su Qing bustling about, Cheng Beilin felt a little embarrassed. "I feel so bad."
"Don’t be. You’re injured, after all." Su Qing smiled and sat on the edge of the bed. A strand of green mist, invisible to the naked eye, quietly coiled around Cheng Beilin’s ankle.
Cheng Beilin vaguely felt the pain in her ankle lessen slightly, but she didn’t pay it much mind, assuming it was because of the ointnt. After eating the dumplings, her resentnt toward Du Chaoran flared up again. "It’s all Du Chaoran’s fault. If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t have gotten hurt. Why did he have to show up again?!"
Su Qing raised her eyebrows slightly at her words.
Cheng Beilin looked at Su Qing and pouted. "You probably figured it out already, didn’t you? Du Chaoran and I knew each other before. He used to be in Xiangcheng, too. We actually t because I sprained my ankle."
"Oh!" Su Qing had expected Cheng Beilin to talk about her past, but she never imagined that her first eting with Du Chaoran also involved a sprained ankle.
Su Qing glanced at Cheng Beilin’s ankle. Tsk tsk. ’That poor, unlucky ankle.’
"I was out shopping, and a shootout broke out on the street. I panicked and accidentally sprained my ankle. He helped and led away to hide from those crazed thugs," Cheng Beilin said, pursing her lips. "And that’s how we t. We slowly got to know each other, and then... we fell for each other. But he’s not from Xiangcheng, and he wasn’t part of my social circle."
"So, your family disapproved?" Su Qing asked.
"Mhm," Cheng Beilin said. "I was only fifteen at the ti, just at that age when you start dreaming about love. Plus, he was the one who saved on the street. And you’ve seen him—he’s very good-looking. So, I just dived headfirst into it."
At this point, Cheng Beilin sighed and continued, "Even though my family disapproved, thinking our backgrounds were too different, I still really liked him. He knew how my family felt and tried to break up with a few tis, but I refused. Then... he just suddenly disappeared. He didn’t leave a single word for . I went crazy, searching for him all over Xiangcheng, but I couldn’t find him anywhere. I was furious. I thought he was a coward. If we really liked each other, why wasn’t he willing to fight for us?"
"And then?" Su Qing asked.
"Then... then I just decided he was dead to ," Cheng Beilin said angrily. "I went abroad to study and pretended I had never t him, that our encounter never happened. For all these years, I’ve considered him dead. But today, he just had to show up in front of again."
As she spoke, Cheng Beilin couldn’t stop the tears from flowing.
Su Qing sighed softly and took out a handkerchief to give to Cheng Beilin. Ever since she’d t her, aside from a minor conflict the first ti, Cheng Beilin had always seed cheerful, simple, and carefree. This was the first ti she had ever seen her cry.
’Over a man!’
Su Qing didn’t quite understand. She had never experienced a love that was deeply etched into her soul. In her past life, before the apocalypse, she had a boyfriend in college. But there was nothing unforgettable about it. It was a casual relationship—strolling down the street, eating together, watching movies, holding hands at most. Before they even graduated, they just quietly drifted apart.
Then, not long after, the apocalypse arrived. During those eight years of surviving the end of the world, she had neither the ti nor the energy for a relationship. Survival and killing zombies were practically her entire world. Her only goal back then was to stay alive, to fight to live another day.
And now that she was in this world, she didn’t seem to have any desire to pursue love. Having been forged in the crucible of the apocalypse, her current goals were to make money, make more money, and work hard to make even more money, so she could properly enjoy this newfound era of peace and prosperity.
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