Long fingers gripped the phone, knuckles tense and protruding.
Jiang Wen glanced at Feng Ning, seeming ready to explode.
Her face showed slight embarrassment as she pretended to be distracted, looking elsewhere.
Others finally couldn’t help but burst out laughing – boys their age could imagine all sorts of things from just one look. Xi Gaoyuan laughed until his cheeks hurt, and after finishing said: “Feng Ning, what do you ‘like’? Like Jiang Wen kneeling?”
The straightforward guys didn’t understand what formal kneeling and SM meant, so Zhao Binlin specially went to search Baidu. After reading a long explanation, he still didn’t quite understand the appeal. He was puzzled, “Why kneel? Did Jiang Wen offend you? Why do you keep thinking about humiliating classmates?”
“What humiliation?” Xi Gaoyuan cackled: “You’re such a country bumpkin, can you be any more clueless?”
Shuang Yao’s expression became a bit awkward. She lowered her head to take a sip of water, using her eyes to plead with Feng Ning: Don’t expose me!!!!!
Zhao Weichen asked the server who was serving dishes: “Do you have yellow soup here?”
“Sorry sir, we don’t.”
After the server left, Shuang Yao asked: “What do you want yellow soup for?”
“Want to pour a bowl each for you and Sister Ning.”
After a slight pause, Shuang Yao asked: “What do you mean?”
Zhao Weichen sighed: “It’s an internet meme about sobering up.”
Xi Gaoyuan suddenly realized: “So that chat record was from you two?”
“We…” Shuang Yao’s face turned bright red, vaguely explaining to Jiang Wen, “Classmate Jiang, don’t misunderstand, we were just joking around privately, didn’t mean anything by it, please don’t take it to heart.”
“Who are you calling a dog?” Feng Ning smacked the back of Zhao Weichen’s head, “Is that how you talk to your idol?!”
He painfully shrunk his neck.
“And you.” Feng Ning pointed her finger, criticizing Shuang Yao from across the space: “Don’t say such improper things anymore in the future.”
Shuang Yao: “……”
She casually took her phone back from Jiang Wen, then righteously declared: “What are you doing all day, instead of focusing on studying, why keep having dirty thoughts about classmates! Ah! Really speechless.”
Shamelessness knows no bounds.
Feng Ning demonstrated by example — as long as I’m not embarrassed, others will be the embarrassed ones.
“Do you have any bottom line at all?” Shuang Yao couldn’t hold back anymore, slamming her teacup on the table and raising her voice to counter: “I’m always the one taking the blame, why don’t you think about yourself, haven’t you had dirty thoughts about others?!”
“Why are you so fierce?” Feng Ning was righteously indignant, “Okay, let’s not talk about this anymore. It’s over, it’s over. Are we still playing or not?”
“Let’s stop playing, the food is here, let’s start eating.”
This Hunan restaurant was a genuine internet-famous spot, at least living up to its hype. Feng Ning was starving and eating happily when Jiang Wen suddenly threw a piece of paper at her. With a half-eaten chicken leg in her mouth, she continued using her chopsticks: “What?”
Jiang Wen stared at her oily mouth in disgust and said with disdain: “Can you wipe your mouth?”
She complained: “Why are you so fussy even when eating?”
“Your appearance is affecting my appetite.”
Feng Ning grabbed the paper and carelessly wiped her mouth, “Then don’t look at me and it’ll be fine!”
The speaker meant nothing by it, but the listener took it to heart. Jiang Wen immediately became unhappy and lowered his voice, putting on a fierce front to hide his hurt: “Who’s looking at you?”
Feng Ning gave him a light glance: “Okay, okay, you weren’t looking at me, I was looking at you, happy now?”
Zhao Binlin noticed them whispering and tapped his bowl with chopsticks, smiling mischievously: “Let’s all chat together, you two don’t go off on your own, secretly whispering.”
Then came another round of teasing.
Zhao Weichen didn’t understand the situation and secretly asked Shuang Yao: “Does Sister Ning have something going on with the handsome guy next to her?”
“How would I know?”
Zhao Weichen had some observational skills and felt this person seemed quite close to Feng Ning. He guessed: “Does Sister Ning have a secret crush on someone?”
Shuang Yao smiled without answering.
In others’ eyes, Feng Ning must be the one pursuing Jiang Wen – this was the most reasonable assumption based on looks and family background.
Who could imagine that the widely admired Jiang Wen had been directly and indirectly rejected by Feng Ning several times? If they knew, they’d probably all be shocked.
Jiang Wen was embarrassed at first, but after being tormented by Feng Ning many times and getting his heart broken repeatedly, he seemed to adopt an attitude of having nothing left to lose.
It wasn’t that he couldn’t humble himself before her, it was just that he was too used to being proud. He wasn’t used to it yet, wasn’t skilled at it yet, didn’t know how to please others yet. In the long future ahead, Jiang Wen would gradually realize that the balance of emotions can never stay perfectly level – one side is always high above while the other crawls on the ground.
As he became more and more humble, he eventually got used to being humble.
Halfway through the meal, Zhao Weichen’s face was flushed red from drinking with them. When he drank too much he became excited and particularly talkative, “Is Sister Ning this domineering at school too?”
“Of course.” Xi Gaoyuan counted off Feng Ning’s various achievements since the start of school, “Sometimes I wonder if she’s actually a guy in disguise, she’s too fierce.”
Someone had forwarded the video of Li Qifei being kicked into the fountain pool by Feng Ning, and he was simply amazed. Thinking of this, Xi Gaoyuan asked: “Feng Ning, have you learned Taekwondo? Your fighting ability is too strong.”
“No,” Feng Ning looked up, “but I learned martial arts.”
“Damn.” Zhao Binlin looked worriedly at Jiang Wen, “Then won’t you abuse your future husband?”
Jiang Wen: “……”
“Well, that’s really possible, Sister Ning has had violent tendencies since childhood.”
Zhao Weichen was the most qualified to speak about this, “She and Shuang Yao, both of them, were tyrants since young, they could eat a lot, were strong, and liked to gang up to bully people.”
Meng Taoyu picked up his words: “How did they bully you?”
Zhao Weichen would get red-faced whenever this topic came up: “Back in elementary school, you know that famous fried food stand at our school gate? They found out about it and asked me to bring back a portion. That day after school, I specially bought two big bags of fried skewers and chicken strips.”
“Since I was young then, I couldn’t resist the temptation and accidentally ate up all the chicken strips on my way home. When I got back, Shuang Yao and Sister Ning were jumping rope at the alley entrance, and when they came over and found the empty chicken strip bag, they pinned me down and beat me up without a word, even bringing Shuang Yao’s mom over.”
Shuang Yao teased him, “You have the nerve to bring this up, you sat on the ground crying so loudly, who would care about you?”
“You really can’t imagine how hard they hit.” Zhao Weichen was still resentful, “For a long time after that, I would get scared whenever I saw others eating chicken strips, they beat that trauma into me.”
Hearing this, everyone started laughing, except for Jiang Wen who remained detached.
Zhao Binlin nudged him, “Are you jealous?”
“Jealous of what?” Jiang Wen shifted his gaze, looking sideways.
Zhao Binlin mocked him: “Jealous that they grew up together, of course.”
Jiang Wen’s expression was cold, and after a moment he answered: “You’re sick.”
Xi Gaoyuan drank and played finger-guessing games with people. What was meant to be a casual meal lasted nearly two hours, full of lively atmosphere. Jiang Wen wasn’t good with alcohol, his tolerance was really average, but they forced him to drink quite a bit.
Meng Taoyu got a call from home urging her to return, so she left first.
Zhao Weichen and Zhao Binlin agreed to go to the bathroom to smoke and relieve themselves, and Xi Gaoyuan received a phone call and also got up: “Ah, my girlfriend is here, I’ll go pick her up.”
The alcohol was rising, and Jiang Wen sat in his seat not wanting to move.
At the messy table, Shuang Yao and Feng Ning chatted quietly, she gestured vaguely at Jiang Wen, “Is he okay?”
Feng Ning also turned to look at him, “Should be fine.”
Jiang Wen’s handsome face was expressionless, his eyes red, staring at the cup in front of him without saying a word.
After playing all day, they were indeed a bit tired. Shuang Yao suddenly remembered something: “I need to buy some things at Watsons, want to come with me?”
Feng Ning rested her chin on one hand, “You go ahead, I’m too lazy to move after eating.”
“Alright then, help me watch my bag.”
After Shuang Yao left, only the two of them remained. Only separated by a curtain, the outside was bustling with noise.
Feng Ning looked down and calmly asked: “How long are you going to hold my hand?”
Under the bright light, Jiang Wen’s right hand hung at his side, holding her wrist at an angle where others couldn’t see. Hearing her words, he still didn’t move.
After waiting a while and seeing Jiang Wen still had no response, Feng Ning found it amusing: “Why do you like to act silly when you drink? Want me to help you sober up?”
Jiang Wen’s lips moved, and he spoke: “Sober up? Last time you slapped me.”
“You remember?”
He repeated gloomily: “You slapped me.”
She coaxed: “Mm, I slapped you.”
He continued: “Hit very hard.”
Feng Ning almost laughed out loud, “If I didn’t hit hard, how would you sober up?”
“I want to hit back.”
Feng Ning paused, Jiang Wen was probably eighty percent drunk, otherwise he wouldn’t say such things. She nodded and humored him, “Such a strong desire for revenge, then hit me back.” She leaned to the side and deliberately brought her face closer, “Hit me if you dare.”
Jiang Wen really dared. He finally released his grip on her hand, raised his hand slightly, making a gesture to slap her.
Feng Ning wasn’t scared at all. When his hand was about to reach her face, the speed suddenly slowed. Just as she was about to mock Jiang Wen, he suddenly changed his movement, using one hand to pinch her cheeks and squeeze them together.
They stared at each other for dozens of seconds, Feng Ning squinting her eyes, neither dodging nor avoiding, watching him, letting him act crazy.
Because of this action, the distance between them became very close.
One pretended to be drunk, one pretended to be sober.
It seemed like all ambiguity caused by alcohol was forgivable, was okay.
Jiang Wen stared at her intently. While leaning in, he glanced down distractedly, her lips were pursed, reddened by the chili. He suddenly stopped, his eyelashes trembling.
Finally, as if making some decision, just as he leaned forward slightly, suddenly, a pair of hands covered his eyes.
Jiang Wen’s movement stopped immediately.
Feng Ning shook her head, easily breaking free from his grip, and moved back a bit.
Jiang Wen had no strength left anyway, his hand falling limply, leaning crookedly against the seat back.
He obediently let her turn his world dark.
“You’re drunk,” her voice was very calm.
“Mm.”
They had parted unhappily just days ago, and neither had forgotten. Feng Ning never went back on her decisions, so regardless of whether he was really drunk or not, she went straight to the point: “I gave you two choices, now you’re getting handsy with me, have you made up your mind?”
The hands covering his eyes were pulled down.
When Jiang Wen was angry, his eyes were dark and captivating, “The one who falls in love first deserves it, is that it?”
He was deeply drunk, saying such a girlish line. Feng Ning thought self-mockingly, looks like I can’t escape acting out a painful youth idol drama.
She played along with his performance: “Yes, you deserve it.”
The male lead of the idol drama was indeed very drunk, numbing himself with alcohol. Completely abandoning his dignity, he asked the female lead with slurred speech: “Then what should I do? Tell me.”
The female lead responded unromantically: “Deal with it.”
The female lead tilted her head and continued: “I’ll tell you a method that will never get rejected.”
“Mm, what?”
“Never confess.”
Knowing she was joking, Jiang Wen still felt sad. He stubbornly asked: “Is being with me really that difficult?”
Feng Ning smiled and said: “Being liked by you is my honor.”
“I’ve secretly felt proud of it, but we’re not suitable. At least for now, we two are not suitable.”
It wasn’t that she felt inferior, but realistically speaking, the gap between them was too large in many aspects.
Cinderella’s fairy tale exists on paper, but reality is always messy.
His gaze fixed on Feng Ning’s face, but Jiang Wen seemed to no longer understand what she was saying. His eyelids felt like they weighed a thousand pounds, and he finally collapsed drunk onto her.
Feng Ning’s hand paused in mid-air, but in the end, she didn’t push him away. After a long while, she gently patted Jiang Wen’s back.
His head rested on her shoulder, his lips almost touching her neck. He breathed out long, hot breaths that quickly bounced back, making his head increasingly foggy.
They maintained this position, motionless, neither speaking.
After Jiang Wen fell asleep, Feng Ning said softly, “Let’s just be friends. Starting too early means ending early too.”
Someone lifted the curtain and came in. She looked up to see Xi Gaoyuan and his girlfriend.
Seeing their position leaning together, Lin Ruyou was a bit stunned. Xi Gaoyuan asked: “He drank too much again?”
Feng Ning made a sound of agreement, gently straightened Jiang Wen’s body, letting him lie on the table. She stood up and took Shuang Yao’s bag: “I’m leaving, take good care of him.”
Xi Gaoyuan looked at Jiang Wen and sat down nearby. Footsteps came and went, people entering and leaving.
After who knows how long, Jiang Wen opened his eyes, which were already red.
The restaurant was nearly closing, and the mall downstairs was playing lazy love songs.
If we can only have this ending, I’d rather you had never appeared.
He slowly typed out a line of text on his phone.
-Okay, let’s be friends.
Author’s Note:
- Internet meme: Yellow soup in your mouth, this thing sobers up dogs best
- The lyrics are my own creation
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