Gu Qiumian walked in from outside. Du Kang was stunned when he saw her. He was about to say something, but Ruoping had already quickly turned her head back. The temperature around them seemed to drop. He opened his mouth, then simply pretended he hadn't seen anything and continued to drink his milk.
Gu Qiumian was still the same, looking down on everyone. The rich girl's expression was very cold, but her followers were extremely arrogant.
Du Kang's reaction, in the eyes of that boy, was probably seen as him backing down. The boy even provocatively raised his eyebrows at Du Kang, as if to say, "See? My leader is even more awesome. What's the point of showing off after just a small speech at the flag-raising ceremony?"
This made Du Kang's teeth itch.
He wanted to rush up and shout, "Are you blind, kid? Take a good look at who the four of us are! We're your leader's classmates!"
Even if being classmates didn't grant them any respect, the other party was also completely wrong about one thing—
The person sitting opposite me is the real deal. He's the rich girl's deskmate. He even went head-to-head with Gu Qiumian herself and didn't lose. He even made her angry. When is it your turn to provoke him here?
It's like... "a flood washes away the Dragon King Temple"... No, that's not right. "Don't look at the monk's face, but look at the Buddha's"... That doesn't seem right either.
In short, there was no way to explain this. If they did, it would look like they were trying to climb the social ladder. If the rich girl, Gu, were to greet them on her own accord, preferably with a friendly smile, it would be the perfect script for playing dumb to catch a tiger, which would definitely put that boy in his place.
However, Gu Qiumian neither greeted them nor smiled. On the contrary, she seemed to not even see them. She also didn't say a word, just stood behind a bunch of her followers with her arms crossed, watching them busy themselves ordering food.
"Pork ribs or braised pork?"
"Both, of course. And don't forget the sweet and sour pork, Qiumian's favorite..."
"Do you want a cold dish?"
"It's so cold today, don't..."
"Two fish, one steamed and one braised?"
"Let's just get one big fish cooked four ways. We can't eat two..."
As they spoke, a series of main dishes were ordered, highlighting the gap between the two groups.
They had to save up to celebrate and come here. For Gu Qiumian's group, they treated the restaurant like their own cafeteria.
But soon, Du Kang felt relieved. He saw a girl walk out of the crowd and pat the boy on the head, whispering a few words to him.
She seemed to have a certain authority among this group. The boy grumbled and didn't say anything more.
Du Kang then felt refreshed and poured himself another glass of Nutrition Express, chugging it down in one go. Qingyi asked him strangely:
"What's wrong with you?"
"Nothing, a girl from a lower grade just recognized me and helped me out."
Du Kang said calmly.
"You can get drunk on Nutrition Express?" Although Ruoping didn't look behind her, she didn't believe him at all.
"Who's messing around? If you don't believe me, I'll point her out for you to see!"
Qingyi and Ruoping were too lazy to bother with him, but Zhang Shutong was very interested and turned his head to see who Du Kang's fan girl was. He followed Du Kang's finger and found that the person looked familiar. After thinking about it, it was the girl who was biting her lip next to Gu Qiumian this morning.
"Is she really his fan?" Ruoping actually wanted to see, but she felt that if she turned her head, she would lose her composure in front of Gu Qiumian.
"As solid as a rock."
Zhang Shutong affirmed, but in his mind, he thought, "I'm not so sure."
The other three pretended not to see Gu Qiumian's group, but he had no such reservations. He was just wondering why Gu Qiumian was in the mood to come out to eat. Could it be that she was gathering her followers to help her find someone?
But after watching for a while, he couldn't see any clues. The rich girl, Gu, was at the back of the crowd, and he could only see her side profile. Zhang Shutong felt that this was very in line with the rules of Pokémon battles, where the trainer can't stand in the front.
That girl who was biting her lip seemed a lot like Gu Qiumian's deputy, or secretary, who was lecturing someone, still that same boy:
"Don't cause any trouble. That table is full of Qiumian's classmates. Have some sense."
The boy rubbed his nose:
"Sister Gu didn't say anything either. It must be the kind of relationship where they're not close. Besides, she's not close with anyone in her class anyway, so it doesn't matter..."
"It doesn't matter if they're close or not. Let me tell you, do you see that boy sitting on the outside? Actually..." The little secretary hesitated for a moment but in the end didn't say it. "Forget it, just remember not to cause trouble.
"Oh, I remember now. He's not that guy you used to tell me about... the deskmate who had a crush on Sister Gu? Hey, you're right, he doesn't look as ugly as you said?"
"It's not the same person. They just switched. I saw him this morning."
After she said that, for some reason, that boy suddenly got pumped up.
Originally, he and Du Kang were in a fight of ego, which is very normal for teenage boys. Sometimes, you'll be annoyed if someone stands too close to you in the bathroom. But now, that boy was as if he was on steroids. He said disdainfully:
"Then I have even more reason to help her out. Everyone in her class is so clueless. They need to be taught a lesson."
"Alright, I know what you're thinking. 'Helping her out.' I think you just want to be your Sister Gu's deskmate. You're all acting like roosters. Don't forget what happened to Zhao Yang. If you still want to hang out here, you better hide that kind of thinking."
"Fine, fine, I know, I know."
"You'd better know."
After saying that, the girl gestured for everyone to sit down. Why were they all squeezed together in the lobby?
The people around seemed to be used to the little secretary's arrangements. They took off their coats and obediently walked towards the private room.
At this moment, the owner's wife apologized and stood in front of them, her smile a little stiff. She said, "I forgot that the private room has already been booked. I'm so sorry. How about I set up a table for you in the lobby?"
"Are you kidding me? I've almost finished ordering, and you're telling me the private room is gone? Are you playing with me?"
It was that same boy who asked back with an exaggerated tone.
People next to him immediately started complaining. The lobby was noisy, but the little secretary only looked at Gu Qiumian's face. When she saw the girl say "okay" indifferently, she waved her hand to the people around her and told the owner's wife that setting up a table was fine, just make their dishes quickly.
The fish house finally quieted down.
He also saw a few boys run out to buy drinks and ask Gu Qiumian what she wanted to drink. Gu Qiumian replied with yogurt. The boys said they would get it, but they were pulled back by the little secretary and told what to do.
Zhang Shutong watched the strange ecosystem in this small circle. He remembered that Gu Qiumian used to arrange these things herself, although she didn't say much, just a lift of her chin. But she was in a bad mood today, so the "secretary" had to take over.
Qingyi suddenly lowered his voice:
"Shutong, I'll bet you something is about to happen."
"What?"
"Did you notice that our Nutrition Express are the last four bottles?"
He held his chin with both hands and said mysteriously:
"Didn't Gu Qiumian say she wanted yogurt? According to my experience, those people will come back and say they couldn't buy any yogurt, but Gu Qiumian will insist on drinking yogurt, so the people at their table will start looking for yogurt, and they'll see the Nutrition Express on our table, and then..."
"Hold on, where did you get this 'according to your experience' from?"
"From novels."
"...Will her followers also say to us to hand over the Nutrition Express if we know what's good for us?"
"Of course, but we'll definitely not be willing. At this moment, Gu Qiumian will suddenly stand up, hiss..."
Qingyi held his head. It turned out he had been hit on the head by Ruoping.
"Can you boys stop being so childish?"
Ruoping was truly speechless.
But after she said that, she saw the three boys tacitly hide the Nutrition Express bottles by the table legs. The girl was shocked:
"You're actually doing this?"
Zhang Shutong just laughed. He simply found it fun.
Qingyi and Du Kang also thought it was fun. What else were they going to talk about? But the yogurt didn't go as the few of them had hoped, as it was actually bought and brought back—
A moment later, those boys ran back into the store with large bottles of drinks. There were large barrels of Coke, fruit orange juice, mango juice... The three of them uninterestingly took out the Nutrition Express again.
The layout of the fish house's main hall was roughly like this:
Zhang Shutong and his three friends sat in a corner at a small table. Gu Qiumian and her followers had four square tables pushed together, and she occupied one side alone.
Zhang Shutong's group ordered four dishes; Gu Qiumian's group ordered more than ten.
Their cups only had half a cup of milk left, and they had to save it, otherwise, they wouldn't have any left when the dishes came. Over there, boys were pouring drinks around the table. There were colorful glasses all over the table, but only at Gu Qiumian's seat was there no chance for anyone to show off—
In front of the rich girl, Gu, was a one-liter carton of yogurt. The paper carton was so tall it almost covered half her face, which was extremely dominating.
Gu Qiumian poured the yogurt into her cup herself, took a small sip, and then told the people next to her to share the rest, saying that she couldn't drink it all by herself. There was an air of "I will only take a single scoop from the many rivers."
Zhang Shutong felt that she should be a little happier than she was now. She had enough yogurt, enough food and drinks, good friends around her, a group of followers, a rich dad, and a pretty face... Thinking about it, he really hadn't seen her smile much, except for when she was making funny faces at the glass. When the face she made was too ugly, she would be amused by herself.
Zhang Shutong withdrew his gaze but found Du Kang and Qingyi winking at him:
"How about we pull Shutong over and make a toast later, and say that he was being ignorant and thank the rich girl for her guidance?"
"What are you three talking about behind my back?" Ruoping asked suspiciously.
"Of course, it's a man's..."
"Apologize to men now!"
Zhang Shutong couldn't stand it anymore and kicked Qingyi under the table.
Fortunately, the first dish, the braised pork ribs that he ordered, came up at this moment. This kind of meat dish was usually stewed in advance. When a customer ordered it, it only needed to be heated in a pot and sprinkled with some cilantro before being served.
He quickly told the others to eat the ribs and not to care about how extravagant Gu Qiumian's side was. For them, putting together their pocket money to order one dish each that they liked was a kind of special happiness.
If they were short on cash, they would eat something a little worse. If they had more money, they would eat something good. In the future, this would be called "going Dutch," which sounded a bit calculating, but in reality, people who would share the bill like this were either not close at all or very close. People who were in the middle would be bothered by things like saving face, financial conditions, and friendship... and then someone would pay for everyone, which was far from being as simple as this.
Zhang Shutong quite liked this casual feeling.
The dishes came one after another. It was the same familiar taste. He had thought it was just the filter of his memory, but after a few bites, he realized the taste was actually very good.
He didn't pay attention to whether this restaurant would still be there eight years later... But even if it was, there was no way he could actually go back and eat there again.
At this moment, a small incident suddenly occurred—
It turned out that when the owner's wife brought up the last dish of stir-fried fish with pickled vegetables, the boy who had clashed with Du Kang at the beginning suddenly pointed his finger and shouted:
"Don't just take care of them! They only ordered a few dishes. We've been sitting here for so long!"