At mealtimes, the Chen Family Diner outside campus was packed with students who’d come out to eat.

“…I genuinely have never met anyone that self-absorbed in my entire life! Like he’d be worth taking advantage of.” Over lunch, Lin Tao couldn’t help venting to Meng Xin about her run-in with the boy in the exam hall.

Meng Xin dissolved into laughter the moment she heard the full story. The hand holding her chopsticks was shaking harder than the cafeteria auntie’s. “No way — he actually said that? This guy must have the most unshakeable sense of self-importance I’ve ever encountered.”

Lin Tao tucked a small bite of rice into her mouth, pressing her lips together while she chewed. When her mouth was empty, she replied, “Self-importance? That’s not confidence — that’s just having no shame.”

Meng Xin was still laughing at Lin Tao’s indignant expression. “Honestly though, I’m really curious what this guy looks like.”

“He’s got two eyes and a mouth. What else is there to know?”

Meng Xin blinked. “Wait — no nose?”

Lin Tao: “…”

They chatted aimlessly for a while. By the time they were done, Lin Tao had more or less stopped stewing over being accused of deliberately bumping into him. Meng Xin finished eating first and went up to pay.

“Want me to grab you a cola?” she called back.

“Just water’s fine.” Lin Tao loved carbonated drinks, but had been suffering from a toothache lately. Under her mother’s very firm — and very persistent — instructions, she’d reluctantly cut back.

Meng Xin went to get the water, and Lin Tao stayed at the table to finish eating. A group of boys came into the restaurant and leaned against the counter to chat with the owner. “Uncle Chen — any tables left?”

“Of course, of course — this one’s about to free up,” the owner said, pocketing Meng Xin’s money. He reached into the cooler and handed her two bottles of mineral water, then turned back to the newcomers. “How’d the exam go today?”

“Uncle, you’re asking us how it went.” Xu Yichuan helped himself to an ice cream bar from the cooler. “We got grilled alive.”

Uncle Chen chuckled. “Where’s Jiang Yan today? Didn’t he come with you?”

“He went to the supermarket next door to grab some stuff. He’ll be along in a bit.”

“Off to buy cigarettes again, I’d bet.” Uncle Chen gave them a knowing look. “I’ve told you lot — you’re still kids. What are you doing smoking at your age?”

“Nah, he’s buying candy.” Xu Yichuan grinned and, with Hu Hanghang’s help, smoothly steered the conversation elsewhere.

Meng Xin returned to the table. Lin Tao had already finished eating. She took the water, had a sip, and said, “How much was it? I’ll send you the money on Alipay later.”

“Don’t bother — just treat me tomorrow. All that back-and-forth transferring is more trouble than it’s worth.”

Lin Tao nodded, dabbed her mouth with a paper napkin, gathered her things, and stood up. “Let’s go. I want to get back and rest for a bit.”

“Yeah.”

The two of them had just pushed back their chairs when Uncle Chen came over with a cloth. “All done? Come again next time!”

Meng Xin smiled and said they would.

Uncle Chen turned back to wave the boys crowding around his counter toward the newly vacated table. “Come on then, sit yourselves down.”

“Coming!”

The boys were loud. Lin Tao instinctively glanced over — and happened to catch sight of Jiang Yan returning from the supermarket next door, tossing whatever he’d bought to one of the others.

Her mind moved quickly. She pulled Meng Xin back toward their just-vacated seats and sat back down. “Sorry about that, Uncle — I wasn’t quite finished after all. Give us a minute.”

Uncle Chen blinked, caught off guard. “Oh — of course, of course…”

By then, Jiang Yan, Xu Yichuan, and the other two — Song Yuan and Hu Hanghang — had already made their way to the table and were now standing right beside it.

All four boys had heard what Lin Tao said.

The four of them lined up along one side of the table and fixed their gazes on the two girls.

Lin Tao remained completely unfazed. She unhurriedly unscrewed the cap of her mineral water, poured a little into a disposable plastic cup, and raised it to her lips for a small sip.

“Lin Tao…” Meng Xin tugged at her sleeve, her voice on the verge of panic. This was Jiang Yan. The Jiang Yan of No. 10 High…

“It’s fine. I just realized I hadn’t eaten enough, and I want to order a bit more.” Lin Tao said it so naturally that she actually picked up the menu and placed another order.

Once she’d put in the order, she glanced up at Jiang Yan, standing just beside her, and said with an air of casual indifference, “Excuse me — could you move a little? Thank you.”

Jiang Yan didn’t move.

The three boys standing with him sucked in sharp breaths and began exchanging glances.

Xu Yichuan: Who is this girl?

Hu Hanghang: Since when does Jiang Yan know someone this pretty?

Song Yuan: How the hell should I know?

As one, the three of them turned looks on Jiang Yan that communicated, in no uncertain terms: You’ve been secretly charming a girl without telling us, and Are you even human, and Give me her contact details right now and I might consider forgiving you.

Jiang Yan ignored all three of them. His gaze slid from the menu in Lin Tao’s hand, traveling slowly up to her face. Their eyes met somewhere in between.

They held each other’s gaze for a good ten-odd seconds.

The corner of his mouth slowly curved upward. He let out a short laugh, then reached over and plucked the menu right out of her hand. He bent toward the table, picked up a pencil lying there, and quickly ticked off several more dishes.

“Works out well — I haven’t eaten yet either. We’ll share.”

Lin Tao: “…”

Everyone at the table: “…”

Having made his additions to the order, Jiang Yan turned to the three boys beside him, as though asking a perfectly reasonable question. “You lot eating too?”

All three: “Yes!”

Chairs scraped against the floor as all four boys dragged seats over and planted themselves at the table.

Xu Yichuan grinned and launched cheerfully into host mode. “Come on now, come on — all people under heaven are family. After sharing a meal, we’re basically siblings.”

Lin Tao couldn’t help rolling her eyes.

Watching the situation spiral in an increasingly bizarre direction, Meng Xin’s leg began bouncing under the table. She leaned toward Lin Tao’s ear, her voice hovering on the edge of tears. “Do you have any idea who’s sitting next to you right now…”

Lin Tao raised an eyebrow. “Who?”

Meng Xin’s leg bounced faster. “Jiang Yan — the head of Class Eighteen. The one the rumors say single-handedly took on half a class of guys from No. 9 High next door and walked away without a scratch.”

Lin Tao took in this information, then let out a perfectly executed gasp of staged horror. “Is it too late for us to leave?”

Meng Xin looked like she might cry. “What do you think?”

Lin Tao bit back a laugh. Before she could respond —

Xu Yichuan, who had been listening to their hushed exchange with great interest, cleared his throat and raised his hand. “Pardon the interruption.”

Both girls looked over.

He sat up straight, pointed at Jiang Yan, and said, “About that rumor — the one where he single-handedly took on half a class of guys from No. 9 High? I need to make a correction.”

Lin Tao and Meng Xin waited.

“It wasn’t half a class—” Xu Yichuan began.

Oh, Meng Xin thought, her shoulders relaxing slightly. So the rumors really were exaggerated. Of course he didn’t actually take on half a class.

“—He’s not that weak.” Hu Hanghang picked up where Xu Yichuan left off. “The total count was a full class’s worth of boys.”

“…”

Meng Xin: I choose death.

Having processed this, Lin Tao turned and looked at Jiang Yan sitting beside her. Their eyes met again in the air between them — this time holding for over twenty seconds.

Jiang Yan was the first to look away. Two seconds later, he raised his eyes again. His mood appeared to have improved somewhat, because he actually smiled a little. “It’s all just rumors. No one should take them too seriously.”

Lin Tao let out a barely audible scoff. She didn’t buy the humility for a second.

Sure enough, in the very next breath, Jiang Yan’s voice came again: “That said, feel free to believe every word — because this particular rumor happens to be completely true.”

“…”

Lin Tao truly marveled — the sheer thickness of this person’s skin was something to behold. It had to be reinforced with steel-grade concrete. How else could it possibly be this impenetrable.

The three boys beside him, clearly accustomed to Jiang Yan’s antics, showed almost no reaction when he said it.

Lin Tao had mentally pelted his face with countless invisible projectiles by now.

And so, through some bewildering chain of circumstances, they all ended up sitting down together. A few minutes later, Uncle Chen came over to clear the rest of the dishes from before.

By that point, Lin Tao had run out of energy for the whole situation. She tugged Meng Xin to her feet. “We won’t keep you from your meal. We’ll head off.”

Xu Yichuan was the first to object. It was rare for Jiang Yan to let a girl share a table with them — he couldn’t miss this. “Don’t go yet! You’re already sitting here. Just have a meal with us.”

The other two, thoroughly enjoying themselves, joined in: “Come on, stay.”

Lin Tao stretched her lips into a thin excuse of a smile. “Really, it’s alright. We’ve already eaten.”

At that, Jiang Yan — who had said nothing until now — looked up at Lin Tao. He tilted his head slightly, as though considering something. “Didn’t you just say you hadn’t finished eating?”

Lin Tao kept her smile firmly in place. “I’m full now.”

“Oh.” Jiang Yan let his eyelids drift back down, looking completely at ease, and then said something that stopped the table cold: “So what you’re saying is, just looking at someone as good-looking as me was enough to fill you up.”

“…?”

Lin Tao went still for three full seconds. When the implication finally landed, she dropped even the semblance of a smile and looked at him with an expression wiped entirely blank.

“Has no one ever told you, in all your years of being alive, that you have absolutely no — ” Lin Tao’s better judgment cut in a fraction too late. She managed to stop herself before the last two words came out, but now she sat frozen, staring at Jiang Yan, unable to move.

Meng Xin and the three boys had all gone quiet.

Honestly, in all of Jiang Yan’s years of being alive, no one had ever said anything of the sort to his face. He had, after all, a face that made it difficult for most people to find fault with him.

Silence settled over the table for about half a minute.

Then Jiang Yan stood up.

The moment he rose to his feet, Lin Tao’s legs trembled involuntarily. She thought wildly — this person isn’t going to silence her right here, in this restaurant, is he?

She swallowed quietly and watched him.

Three seconds passed. Then Jiang Yan suddenly lifted his hand — angled straight toward the top of Lin Tao’s head.

The mood at the table shifted.

He’s finally lost his patience. Lin Tao thought, with grim certainty, that today was going to be the end of her.

They say that in the moments before death, the mind conjures the face of whoever you’d most want to see. Lin Tao closed her eyes and reached into her memory —

What surfaced was the image of that morning’s exam supervisor. Blackie.

“…”

Right. So much for that particular piece of wisdom.

In those few suspended seconds, Jiang Yan’s hand came toward her. Before she could dodge, he pulled it back — then extended it again, then pulled it back again, as though gauging something.

After a few of these back-and-forth gestures, Lin Tao thought she might have figured out what he was doing.

She didn’t need to ask. Jiang Yan confirmed it himself. He looked at his hand, drew a comparison in the space between the two of them, and asked, with complete seriousness: “How are you this short? Are you even one hundred and sixty centimeters?”

“…”

You’re the one who’s not one hundred and sixty centimeters. Your whole family isn’t one hundred and sixty centimeters!

Author’s Note: — Has Jiang Yan been getting on everyone’s nerves today? —

He has.

Hahahaha the more insufferable Jiang Yan is now, the more he’s going to suffer when he’s chasing after her later.

A moment of silence for his future self.

Red envelopes in this chapter too!!