MTLY | Chapter 18
by _squishee◎”I want to hook up with you.”◎
Song Tinghuan took Jiang Yu to a snack shop not far from Qingde, the same one Chen Yuan had brought them to last time.
Her favorite was their pure shrimp wontons.
It was peak mealtime, and the place was almost full. Song Tinghuan found the last empty table in the corner and, with great generosity, shoved the menu in front of Jiang Yu. “Order whatever you want. My treat.”
Jiang Yu gave a low laugh. “You won’t even let me order a large portion, and you’re calling that generous.”
“…” Song Tinghuan paused, then awkwardly tried to cover for herself. “I just did the math on my allowance for this month. One big bowl isn’t impossible.”
Jiang Yu let out a fake little oh and said to the boss who had come over to take their order, “Two small wontons,”
Then, under Song Tinghuan’s wary gaze, he curved his lips and added lazily, “Both pure shrimp.”
Song Tinghuan: “…?”
She hurriedly looked down at the menu. One portion of pure shrimp cost twelve yuan extra, two portions would be a full twenty-four yuan!
“Boss-”
Meeting Jiang Yu’s smiling eyes, Song Tinghuan pressed her lips together and quickly corrected herself, “Just one pure shrimp order is fine.”
Across from her, the boy scalding their cups with hot water let out a soft laugh.
Song Tinghuan: “…”
During that time, Jiang Yu went out to take a phone call, and Song Tinghuan lowered her head to look at the barrage of messages from Guan Linlin on her phone.
Guan Linlin: 【Han Jingjing actually dropped out of the school belle competition!】
Guan Linlin: 【Did she and Jiang Yu break up?】
Then came several forum links. Just from the titles alone, she could already guess how dramatic and gossip-filled the comments section would be. Song Tinghuan didn’t click them. She was thinking about what happened after school earlier.
Her instincts told Song Tinghuan that Jiang Yu and Han Jingjing didn’t seem to be that kind of relationship, even though Han Jingjing had just been loudly denouncing Jiang Yu.
But she also had to admit that Jiang Yu treated Han Jingjing a little differently from other girls. How should she put it? It was like a kind of tolerance he didn’t have for other people, but it didn’t seem like liking either.
After all, no one would treat someone they liked that way.
Jiang Yu had already wiped down the table and brought over hot water to scald the cups. Suddenly, Song Tinghuan remembered what Guan Linlin had said last time, that Chen Yuan seemed pretty thoughtful.
Actually, Jiang Yu was thoughtful too.
She thought of the backpack he had bought her.
It was almost exactly the same as the one she’d brought from Lingcheng, and it even had a cute little keychain hanging from it.
“What are you thinking about?”
“Huh?”
“Am I just that good-looking?”
“?”
Jiang Yu didn’t care about the people around them at all. “You’ve been staring at me for three minutes. What, am I edible? Am I so pretty you don’t even need to eat?”
Song Tinghuan: “…”
This guy was really something else.
Noticing the looks people around them were throwing over, Song Tinghuan lowered her eyes. “Mm, you do look a lot like Iron Man.”
Jiang Yu: “?”
Seeing him freeze a little, Song Tinghuan took a sip of tea and said calmly, “Mm. A person is iron, and rice is steel.”
Jiang Yu: “…”
The gossiping diners around them: “…”
Song Tinghuan also thought it was a little cold. She seemed to see a bleak autumn scene of leaves being blown down by the wind in the air.
Forget it, change the topic.
“You and Han Jingjing, you two…”
Jiang Yu looked up, his gaze carrying a sense of strangling pressure.
“…” Song Tinghuan decided to shut up obediently.
Not long after, two steaming bowls of wontons were served. The broth was rich and fragrant. Song Tinghuan had been hungry for ages. She swallowed and then eyed the bowl of pure shrimp wontons in front of Jiang Yu with great longing.
She swallowed again, terribly unpromising, and silently thought to herself: next month, once she had money next month, she would order pure shrimp too!
Song Tinghuan was a bit picky, especially about seasonings in dishes. She didn’t eat scallions, ginger, garlic, or cilantro. She’d forgotten to tell the boss just now, so now she could only pick them out bit by bit.
At last, after she had picked until there wasn’t a single trace of green left on the soup, Song Tinghuan was about to start eating when, suddenly, the wontons in front of her were taken away.
She looked up. Jiang Yu had already pushed his own bowl over to her. He didn’t lift his head, but he still noticed her gaze and, while breaking apart his chopsticks, said infuriatingly, “Thank you.”
Song Tinghuan: “…!”
Just as she froze, Jiang Yu had already picked up a wonton that looked like a goldfish. Song Tinghuan’s movement to push the bowl away came to an abrupt stop.
Fine, don’t get angry. For the sake of his bad mood today, she’d let him off this once.
Song Tinghuan puffed out her cheeks and prepared to start picking out cilantro all over again, only to discover there was no cilantro or scallions in this bowl at all! She fished around again, and there still wasn’t any at the bottom.
In less than thirty seconds, Song Tinghuan had the illusion that the skies had cleared after a storm. She curved her eyes and looked at the boy eating quietly across from her. The whole shop was full of slurping sounds, and only he was eating in complete silence, with exquisite politeness, making a bowl of wontons feel like a French banquet.
“Jiang Yu.”
“Mm?”
“Do you know what you just missed?” Not expecting him to reply, Song Tinghuan continued on her own, “You missed one hundred million.”
Jiang Yu: “…”
A moment later, the little girl lifted her head again, her eyes sparkling. “Jiang Yu, let me tell you a story.”
“A man near the frontier had a skill. One day his horse ran off into the northern tribes for no reason.”
Jiang Yu: “…”
“You know this story, right?”
“No.”
“Don’t schools require you to memorize it? Se Weng Shi Ma[[1]].”
“Oh, bad grades. I forgot.”
“…”
Forget it, she really wasn’t good at setting the mood. She only made conversations colder and colder.
Song Tinghuan decided to eat her wontons quietly. Every so often, she’d look up at Jiang Yu. The moment their eyes met, that familiar feeling came back again, Jiang Yu looked at her like he was looking at an idiot, and the version kept getting updated and upgraded.
More and more people came into the little shop. Song Tinghuan turned toward the door and saw two girls in the Eight Middle School uniform walk in. They looked around once, then locked onto their table.
One of the fair and pretty girls walked over and looked at Jiang Yu. “Handsome, can we share a table?”
Jiang Yu didn’t answer. One silver-gray earbud was in his right ear today.
Probably because she’d been hanging around Jiang Yu for so long lately, and had seen so many girls trying to strike up conversations with him, Song Tinghuan could already guess his reaction.
When he was in a good mood, he’d hook a smile and reply, “Sorry, no.”
When he was in a bad mood, he’d just ignore them coldly.
And Jiang Yu was in a bad mood right now.
The girl clearly hadn’t expected such a cold reception. Sitting down felt wrong, but not sitting down felt even worse. Just as she was about to ask again, Song Tinghuan beat her to it. “Sorry, could you switch tables?”
Song Tinghuan thought her tone was gentle and tactful, but the girl’s face still changed abruptly. “Nobody asked you.”
Song Tinghuan: “…”
Well, then ask him. He was in a bad mood today.
Across from them, Jiang Yu pulled out his earbud and looked up.
He didn’t say anything, but the pressure in his gaze was obvious. The girl also seemed to realize her attitude might have been a little bad, and her voice softened as she looked at Jiang Yu with a hint of shyness. “Sorry, I…”
“No need.” Jiang Yu lifted his chin slightly and motioned for her to look at Song Tinghuan. “Apologize.”
Girl: “…”
After that little episode, Song Tinghuan no longer felt like finishing her wontons. She ate a couple of bites hastily before going to pay. But when she reached the cashier, she was told someone had already paid.
She turned her head and looked over. Jiang Yu was standing outside the shop, on the phone.
The boss was a middle-aged auntie who was very friendly. Looking at the especially adorable little girl in front of her, she smiled and said, “Little girl, have you been to our shop before?”
Song Tinghuan nodded. “I came here for lunch with classmates before.”
“I knew you looked familiar. Want to add the shop’s WeChat? You can pre-order and also get coupons.”
Song Tinghuan was about to say no, but the boss had already enthusiastically held up the shop QR code. “You don’t eat cilantro or scallions, right? You can just leave a note when you order in the future.”
“Ah?” Song Tinghuan was a little stunned as she obediently scanned it.
Perhaps seeing her confusion, the boss hooked her chin toward Jiang Yu standing outside the shop and smiled. “Your brother told us.”
Song Tinghuan: “…?”
After they left the shop, Song Tinghuan didn’t say a word for a long while. She only kept sneaking glances at Jiang Yu from time to time. An earbud hung from the other side of his face. He really liked wearing earbuds no matter where he went.
When no one was around, he wore both.
When there were people, he only wore one.
Finally, after who knew how many times, Jiang Yu stopped walking, pulled out the outer earbud, and looked at her with lowered brows.
Song Tinghuan puffed out her cheeks. “Thanks for earlier.”
Jiang Yu had thought the girl had something important to say, but it turned out she just wanted to thank him. He curled his lips slightly. “She was being mean to you, of course she should apologize to you.”
“Huh?” Realizing they weren’t talking about the same thing, Song Tinghuan hurriedly shook her head. “Not that, I mean…”
“Mm?”
Now Song Tinghuan finally understood why Jiang Yu had looked at her like she was an idiot just now. She had even recited *Se Weng Shi Ma* in front of him. Though she’d only been trying to liven the mood at the time, thinking about it now made it seem even more embarrassing.
“That bowl of wontons just now… thank you.”
Jiang Yu seemed to freeze for a moment too before he understood what she meant. He didn’t really care about it, but seeing Song Tinghuan’s bashful expression now, he couldn’t help wanting to tease her.
“Oh.” He responded as if he didn’t care, putting the outer earbud back on. “But you got three parts wrong when you recited it just now.”
Song Tinghuan: “?”
Jiang Yu had already strode off. With her short legs, Song Tinghuan hurriedly broke into a run to catch up. “How did you know I was picky… and don’t eat cilantro or scallions?”
Jiang Yu glanced sideways at her. “You know you’re picky too?”
Song Tinghuan: “Huh?”
“Song Tingting-” Jiang Yu paused and looked her over, his gaze landing on her height, which barely reached his shoulder. “Being picky makes you short.”
Song Tinghuan: “…”
Suddenly, Song Tinghuan felt that this version of Jiang Yu was a lot like a word Guan Linlin had recently taught her, doggy.
“Jiang Yu, you’re biting the hand that fed you.”
The handsome boy with sharp brows and eyes curved his lips, the backpack with the little bear keychain dangling from his hand. “Oh? You think you’ve done me a favor? Let’s hear it.”
Song Tinghuan folded her arms around her white-and-purple school uniform jacket. “I just helped you fend off your admirer.”
“Admirer? Where? I didn’t notice.”
“…” Song Tinghuan seriously helped him recall it. “Right there in the wonton shop just now, that girl in the Eight Middle School uniform.”
“Oh.” Jiang Yu nodded solemnly. “How do you know she was my admirer?”
“You didn’t see it?”
“No.”
“…” Song Tinghuan didn’t believe him. “It was written all over her face and eyes that I want to hook up with you.”
“Mm?” Jiang Yu turned to look at her. “What?”
Song Tinghuan: “I want to hook up with you.”
Author’s note:
Jiang Yu: She finally told the truth.
Song Tinghuan: ?
A little red packet~
On Wednesday, the book goes on sale, and updates will move to after 11 p.m. Then there’ll be two updates~