Winter Time Rendering

Just then, Gu Qiuyan walked in. Du Kang froze, about to say something, but Ruoping had already whipped her head around. The temperature in the air seemed to plummet. Du Kang opened his mouth, then closed it, deciding to pretend he hadn’t seen a thing. He went back to sipping his drink.

Gu Qiuyan was her usual self, haughty and aloof. The young miss’s expression was icy, but her followers were brazenly arrogant.

In that boy’s eyes, Du Kang’s reaction was probably seen as him backing down. The other guy even shot Du Kang a provocative eyebrow raise, as if to say, ’See that? My boss is way more impressive. What’s so great about giving one little speech at the flagpole? Nothing to be smug about.’

It really got under Du Kang’s skin.

He wanted to rush up and shout, ’Are you blind, kid? Take a good look at who we are! We’re your boss’s classmates!’

It was one thing not to show any respect to a classmate, but the guy had made an even bigger miscalculation—

’The person sitting across from me is the truly formidable one. She’s the young miss’s actual deskmate, someone who went head-to-head with Gu Qiuyan herself back in the day and held her own, even managing to get her riled up. When did it become your turn to be provocative, kid?’

’This was a classic case of a flood washing over the Dragon King’s temple... no, that’s not right. ’If not for the monk’s sake, then for the Buddha’s’... that doesn’t seem right either.’

’Anyway, there was no way to bring it up. If they did, it would look like they were just trying to curry favor. If the young miss had seen them and said hello, that would have been great. Even better if she’d given a friendly smile. It would’ve been the perfect script for playing dumb to get the upper hand. Wouldn’t that have been a huge slap in the face for that guy?’

However, Gu Qiuyan neither said hello nor smiled. Instead, she acted as if she hadn’t even seen them. She didn’t say a word, just stood behind a crowd of her followers with her arms crossed, watching them sort out the food order.

"Should we get the spareribs or the braised pork belly?"

"Both, obviously. And don’t forget the sweet and sour pork tenderloin, that’s Qiamian’s favorite..."

"Should we get any cold appetizers?"

"It’s so cold, maybe not..."

"Two fish? One steamed and one braised in soy sauce?"

"Let’s just get one big fish cooked four ways. We can’t finish two..."

As they talked, one heavy dish after another was rattled off to the server, highlighting the stark contrast between the two groups.

His group had only dared to come here for a rare celebration. For Gu Qiuyan’s crowd, however, this restaurant was practically their school cafeteria.

But Du Kang soon felt a sense of satisfaction. A girl emerged from the crowd, smacked the boy on the head, and whispered a few words in his ear.

She seemed to carry a fair bit of authority within the group. The boy tsked in annoyance but said no more.

Feeling refreshed and invigorated, Du Kang poured himself another glass of Nutri-Express and downed it in one gulp. Qingyi asked, puzzled,

"What’s gotten into you?"

"Nothing. An underclassman just recognized me and helped me vent a little," Du Kang said calmly.

"Are you getting drunk on Nutri-Express?" Although Ruoping didn’t look behind her, she clearly didn’t believe him.

"Who’s bragging? If you don’t believe me, I’ll point her out to you!"

Qingyi and Ruoping couldn’t be bothered with him, but Zhang Shutong turned around, intrigued. He wanted to see who this fangirl of Du Kang’s was. Following Du Kang’s finger, he found the girl looked a bit familiar. After a moment’s thought, he realized it was the girl from this morning who had been biting her lip next to Gu Qiuyan.

"Is she really his fan?" Ruoping actually wanted to look too, but she felt that turning around would make her seem weak in front of Gu Qiuyan.

"It’s a sure thing," Zhang Shutong confirmed, though he thought to himself, ’I’m not so sure about that.’

The other three were all pretending not to see Gu Qiuyan’s group, but he had no such qualms. He just found it strange that Gu Qiuyan was even in the mood to eat out. ’Is she gathering her minions to help look for someone?’

But after watching for a while, he couldn’t figure anything out. The young miss was at the very back of the crowd, and he could only see her profile. ’This fits the rules of a Pokémon battle perfectly,’ Zhang Shutong thought. ’You can’t have the trainer standing in the front.’

The lip-biting girl was acting a lot like Gu Qiuyan’s second-in-command, or perhaps her secretary. She was currently lecturing someone—the same boy from before:

"Don’t cause trouble. Everyone at that table is a classmate of Qiamian’s. Read the room a little."

The boy rubbed his nose.

"Sister Gu didn’t say anything, did she? They must not be close. Besides, she’s not close with anyone in her class, so who cares..."

"What do you care if they’re close or not? Let me tell you, did you see that boy sitting on the outside? Actually..." The little secretary hesitated, ultimately deciding against saying more. "Forget it. Just remember not to cause any trouble."

"Oh, I remember now! He’s not that deskmate you told me about before... the one with a secret crush on Sister Gu? Hey, you know, he’s not as ugly as you said."

"It’s not the same person. She just got a new one. I saw him this morning."

For some reason, her words seemed to galvanize the boy.

Before, his beef with Du Kang had been a typical teenage pissing contest—the kind of perfectly normal thing where you might get annoyed at someone for standing too close to you in the bathroom. But now, the boy was suddenly fired up, as if he’d gotten a shot of adrenaline. He said disdainfully,

"Then I have even more reason to help her vent. Everyone in her class is so dense. They’re just asking to be taught a lesson."

"That’s enough. You think I don’t know what you’re really after? ’Help her vent’? I think you just want to be Sister Gu’s deskmate. All of you, puffing your chests out like a bunch of roosters. Don’t forget what happened to Zhao Yang. If you want to keep hanging out with us, you’d better hide those ideas of yours."

"Alright, alright, I get it, I get it."

"You’d better."

After saying this, the girl herded the others to sit down, telling them there was no reason to crowd around in the main dining area.

The people around them seemed used to taking orders from the "little secretary." They started taking off their coats and obediently headed toward a private room.

Just then, the proprietress apologetically blocked their path. Her smile was a bit stiff as she explained, "I just remembered that the private room has already been booked. I’m so sorry. How about I combine some tables for you in the main hall?"

"Are you kidding me? I’ve practically finished ordering, and now you’re telling me the private room is gone? Are you messing with us?"

It was the same boy from before, asking with exaggerated disbelief.

People around him immediately started complaining, and the main hall grew noisy. But the little secretary only watched Gu Qiuyan’s expression. Seeing the girl say a nonchalant "That’s fine," she gestured for silence and told the proprietress, "Combining tables is fine, but just make sure our food comes out quickly."

The fish restaurant finally quieted down.

Then, a few boys ran out to buy drinks. They asked Gu Qiuyan what she wanted, and she said a yogurt drink. The boys promised to complete their mission. They were about to run off again when the little secretary pulled them back to give them more instructions.

Zhang Shutong observed the curious ecosystem of this little circle. He remembered that Gu Qiuyan used to be the one arranging these things. She didn’t say much, just a lift of her chin, but since she was in a bad mood today, her "secretary" had taken over.

Qingyi suddenly lowered his voice.

"Shutong, I’ll bet you something’s about to happen."

"What?"

"Have you noticed that these are the last four bottles of Nutri-Express?"

He propped his chin on his hands and said mysteriously, "Didn’t Gu Qiuyan just say she wanted a yogurt drink? Based on my experience, those guys are going to come back and say they couldn’t find any. But Gu Qiuyan will insist on having one, so the people at her table will start looking for one, and finally, they’ll see the Nutri-Express on our table, and then..."

"Let me interrupt. Where exactly does this ’based on my experience’ come from?"

"Novels, of course."

"...And then her lackeys will say something like, ’If you know what’s good for you, hand over the Nutri-Express’?"

"Of course. But we’ll definitely refuse. And that’s when Gu Qiuyan will suddenly stand up, and—"

Qingyi clutched his head. Ruoping had just given him a light chop.

"Can you guys stop being so childish?"

Ruoping was truly speechless.

But as soon as she said it, she saw the three boys, in perfect sync, hide their bottles of Nutri-Express by the table leg. The girl was stunned.

"Are you for real?"

Zhang Shutong just laughed. He simply thought it was funny.

Qingyi and Du Kang also thought it was fun—what else were they going to talk about? It was just that the yogurt drink didn’t quite go according to their plan. It was actually brought back—

A moment later, the boys ran back into the restaurant carrying large bottles of drinks: a huge bottle of Coke, orange juice with pulp, mango juice... The three friends unenthusiastically put their bottles of Nutri-Express back on the table.

The layout of the fish restaurant’s main hall was something like this:

Zhang Shutong and his three best friends were sitting at a small table in the corner. Gu Qiuyan and her minions had pushed four square tables together, and she occupied one entire side by herself.

Zhang Shutong’s group had ordered four dishes; Gu Qiuyan’s party had ordered over a dozen.

Their glasses only had half a cup of their drinks left, and they had to sip it sparingly, or it would be gone before the food arrived. Over there, however, boys were circling the table pouring drinks, a rainbow of colorful glasses spread across the surface. Only when it came to Gu Qiuyan did they not get a chance to fawn over her—

In front of the young miss sat a one-liter carton of yogurt drink, the box so tall it almost hid half her face. It was an incredibly domineering sight.

Gu Qiuyan poured the yogurt drink into her own glass, took a delicate sip, and then had the people next to her pass the rest down, saying she couldn’t drink it all herself and that this little bit was enough. It had the air of someone with a vast ocean before them, who chooses to take only a single scoop.

’Zhang Shutong felt she really ought to be happier than she was. An endless supply of yogurt drinks, all the food and wine she could want, surrounded by close friends, a legion of followers, a rich dad, and her own good looks... Thinking about it, he realized he’d almost never seen her smile. The only exception was when she was alone, drawing funny faces on a pane of glass, and would make herself laugh because her drawings were so bad.’

Zhang Shutong pulled his gaze back, only to find Du Kang and Qingyi waggling their eyebrows at him.

"How about later we drag Shutong over to propose a toast? We’ll say he’s just an ignorant kid and thank the young miss for taking him under her wing?"

"What are you three whispering about behind my back?" Ruoping asked suspiciously.

"Just man’s..."

’Apologize to men everywhere!’

Zhang Shutong couldn’t take it anymore and kicked Qingyi under the table.

Fortunately, the first dish arrived just then. It was the braised spareribs he had ordered. This kind of meat dish was usually stewed in advance; when a customer ordered it, it just needed to be reheated in a wok and sprinkled with some cilantro before being served.

He quickly urged the others to eat the spareribs. No matter how extravagantly Gu Qiuyan’s group was dining, for them, pooling their saved-up allowances so each person could order a favorite dish was its own special kind of happiness.

When money was tight, they ate more simply; when they had more to spare, they’d have a nice meal. In the future, this would be called "going Dutch." It might sound like they were pinching pennies, but in reality, the only people who could pool money for a meal like this were either complete strangers or extremely close friends. It was the acquaintances, the ones who were neither here nor there, who had to worry about face, financial status, and the state of their relationship... leading to one person footing the bill for everyone, which was far from being this simple and pure.

Zhang Shutong quite liked this casual feeling.

The dishes arrived one after another, and the taste was just as he remembered. He had thought it was just nostalgia adding a filter to his memory, but after a few bites, he realized the food was genuinely good.

’He hadn’t paid attention to whether this restaurant was still around eight years later... but even if it was, it’s not like he could ever really go back and eat there again.’

But just then, a small incident occurred—

As the proprietress was bringing over their last dish, shredded catfish, the boy who had initially clashed with Du Kang suddenly pointed a finger and shouted,

"Hey, don’t just serve them! They only ordered a few dishes. There are so many of us, and we’ve been sitting here forever!"