Chapter 14 part 1
#Mutual Jealousy.#
Bad news: They had exposed their tracks right in front of the person they were stalking! Good news: The person being stalked didn’t realize she was being stalked by two suspicious characters at all.
Feng Lin Huijuan stood behind the counter, wrapped tight in her uniform, revealing only a pair of eyes that looked slightly weary—eyes that didn’t belong to her age.
“What a coincidence,” she said. “You guys came here to drink milk tea.”
“What a coincidence,” Yuan Man replied dryly. “You are making milk tea here.”
Xu Jingyou asked, “How come you’re working here?”
“I turned sixteen, and this shop happened to be hiring part-timers, so I came to apply.” Feng Lin Huijuan explained simply in two sentences, then looked at the tall boy of the same grade outside the counter. “I noticed you two the moment you and Xuezhang walked in.”
“Ah?” Yuan Man scratched the back of his head, surprised. “We were very conspicuous?”
Feng Lin Huijuan: “Not ‘very’, but ‘extremely’.”
After all, two boys wearing masks walking into a milk tea shop holding hands—tall, handsome, acting intimate—anyone would take a second look.
Feng Lin Huijuan was in the same grade as Xu Jingyou and had a competitive relationship academically; their photos always appeared successively on the Honor Roll, so she naturally paid attention to Xu Jingyou. She wanted to surpass Xu Jingyou more than once, but every time her grades advanced a step, Xu Jingyou would leave her a large stride behind.
She heard gossip from classmates a few days ago saying Xu Jingyou was inseparable from a Grade 2 xuezhang recently. She thought it was a rumor; after all, with Xu Jingyou’s aloof appearance, who could stand being friends with that kind of person?
Who knew she would unveil the answer herself today.
It was Yuan Man, that famous influential figure in Grade 2.
He had so many friends, not limited to students inside and outside the school; even the cafeteria aunties and security uncles would greet him. Once, a teacher mentioned in class: “There’s a senior in your Grade 2 who was kicked out of class to stand as punishment, ended up meeting an Education Bureau leader coming for inspection, and chatted with him for half an hour…” The expression was helpless, but the tone held no criticism.
Yuan Man was a person whose words were dense and frequent, yet didn’t make people feel he was glib; he called everyone brother, yet didn’t make people feel he was insincere or forming cliques.
In short, he was such a magical magnet of a guy.
Thinking of this, Feng Lin Huijuan took another deep look at Xu Jingyou. Sure enough, Xu Jingyou’s gaze was glued to Yuan Man. Even though half his face was covered by a mask, the focus in those eyes couldn’t be faked.
And Yuan Man? He didn’t notice Xu Jingyou’s gaze at all—or rather, he was long used to Xu Jingyou staring at him anytime, anywhere. Being stared at by Xu Jingyou for a while wouldn’t make him lose any meat anyway. At this moment, he was chewing on the milk tea straw in distress, biting it into a flat shape, as flat as his currently greatly battered soul.
Sigh, who would have thought his first stalking operation would fail.
Since there were still many customers waiting to order behind them, and Feng Lin Huijuan wasn’t familiar with them, she was called back to work by her colleague after a brief chat.
“She works so hard…” Yuan Man genuinely admired her. “Working on weekends, yet still maintaining top three in the grade. I see dark circles under her eyes from exhaustion.”
At this age, 99%, no, 99.9% of high school students were acting spoiled asking their parents for allowance, but Feng Lin Huijuan had stepped into society early, squeezing out spare time to work desperately.
He looked at Xu Jingyou again and asked, “The person selling teppanyaki just now must be her dad, right?” He pointed obscurely at his knee and whispered, “Have you heard about her family situation before?”
Xu Jingyou was silent for a while, then nodded. “I know a little, but didn’t expect it to be this difficult.”
He wasn’t in the same class as her. If not for the scholarship matter before, Xu Jingyou indeed wouldn’t have paid attention to this taciturn third-place student.
Yuan Man’s features scrunched up. He had complained the milk tea was too sweet just now, but now he felt his mouth was bitter.
Originally, he only came to investigate if Feng Lin Huijuan was his secret admirer, but now he wanted to take out his wallet and buy a hundred portions of teppanyaki at her dad’s stall.
“Buy teppanyaki?” Xu Jingyou was curious. “I thought you would give her money directly, like giving her a tip when we leave.”
“Milk tea shops don’t have tips,” Yuan Man tutted. “Besides, giving money directly feels like charity. Clearly, she and her family are working so hard; we have to be worthy of her efforts.”
Action follows thought. Yuan Man puffed his cheeks and sucked his cup of milk tea dry in a few big gulps, standing up. “Let’s go! Let’s go back and buy teppanyaki!”
Seeing Xu Jingyou still hadn’t finished the cup in front of him, he tried to “overstep his authority” to finish it for him.
However, Xu Jingyou protected that cup of milk tea firmly. “This is mine. Drinking slow doesn’t mean I won’t drink it.”
“Tch, what yours and mine.” Yuan Man thought, How come I never noticed Xu Jingyou was so protective of his food before? “Clearly I drank from that cup too.”
“But now it’s mine.” Xu Jingyou stared at the small bite mark left by Yuan Man on the straw, thinking, Since it reached my mouth, there is absolutely no reason for it to be snatched away.
In the end, the two rode back to the No. 1 Middle School Snack Street with a cup of milk tea.
Luckily, Feng Lin Huijuan’s dad hadn’t closed up yet, and the original owner of the bicycle hadn’t left.
Seeing Xu Jingyou riding back with Yuan Man, the bike owner shouted angrily, “You two bandits, stealing my bike and you still have the face to come back!”
Xu Jingyou raised an eyebrow. “Then we leave?”
Bike owner: “…”
Yuan Man hurriedly spoke sweet words. “Sorry bro, it was an emergency so we borrowed your bike. How about this, I’ll treat you to teppanyaki as an apology!”
Boys at this age were growing; they got hungry two hours after a meal, but unfortunately had little pocket money. Hearing Yuan Man was so generous, the bike owner immediately threw the grudge to the back of his mind. “You serious?”
Yuan Man: “Would I fake it?” He pointed to Papa Feng Lin’s stall. “Here, even if you want to buy out the stall, no problem!”
Papa Feng Lin was overjoyed. He was just worrying about the leftover prepared ingredients today, not expecting three high school boys reincarnated from starving wolves to arrive and actually buy all his ingredients!
Among these three high school boys, the most conspicuous one was tall and handsome, didn’t eat much, and kept drinking milk tea slowly; the boy next to him looked likeable, had a dimple on his left cheek when he smiled, eating and chatting with animated gestures, truly a happy nut; as for the remaining one, just an ordinary high school boy.
He swung the iron spatula until sparks almost flew. The three boys sat on small folding stools nearby, patiently waiting for the food. Because his legs were inconvenient, the boy with the dimple actively ran over to serve dishes, speaking very sweetly, praising his fresh ingredients and excellent skills.
After finishing the teppanyaki, they actively helped him fold up the small table and stack the stools one by one, moving them onto the tricycle.
Papa Feng Lin rode the modified tricycle away. The three boys looked at each other; this sudden meal gathering was about to disperse.
Although it was just the duration of a meal, the bike owner was already close enough to share a pair of pants with Yuan Man! At the moment of parting, he reluctantly took out his phone and said to Yuan Man, “Yuan Man, you’re really interesting. Why did I only meet you now? Let’s add each other on WeChat. I’ll go to Normal U Attached High to find you for ball games next time!”
Xu Jingyou looked on coldly, interrupting him: “Yuan Man is in Grade 2, he doesn’t have that much time for ball games.”
Yuan Man wasn’t happy, grumbling, “You are so annoying, why do you keep controlling me? No matter how busy I am, I can squeeze out time for ball games!” He asked the other boy, “You said you used to be Xu Jingyou’s deskmate. Was he like this in junior high too? Only caring about studying, cold-faced and ignoring everyone?”
The boy said, “Junior high? His personality in junior high was about the same as now, didn’t like talking, didn’t make friends. But his appearance was vastly different from now, he was especially…”
Before the word “fat” could come out, in a flash of lightning, a popsicle was suddenly stuffed into his mouth.
Boy: “Mmph mmph mmph?”
Where did the popsicle come from?
Xu Jingyou smiled without smiling. “Didn’t you keep saying it was hot? Treating you to a popsicle, no need to be polite.”
The boy struggled to pull the popsicle from his mouth. “But…”
Xu Jingyou stuffed the popsicle back in, pushing him toward the bicycle. “Thank you for lending us the bike. Delayed you for so long, you should go home too. Don’t let your family worry.”
The boy confusedly straddled the bicycle. He wanted to say something more, but Xu Jingyou pushed his rear seat, and the boy was pushed away riding.
Xu Jingyou silently let out a sigh of relief. Just as he turned around, he saw Yuan Man staring at him with a playful expression, excitement dancing all over his face.
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