In that moment, Xu Zhi learned from him what it meant to be natural.
The barbecue restaurant was buzzing with noise. Xu Zhi’s ears were filled with the clinking of beer bottles, mixed with the boastful chatter of friends and family that reeked more than foot odor, as well as the flattering voices of subordinates talking about “one set in the city, one set in the suburbs.”
Chen Luzhou stood there, completely at odds with the detached world around him. His smile was like dew-covered pine needles in a morning forest – fresh as spring water, yet carrying a brilliant sharpness.
Xu Zhi recalled a line of dialogue:
“Cowardice imprisons the soul, hope can set you free.”
Although his sharp-edged flamboyance was undeniable, he was indeed a person who filled others with hope.
But he was also not easily fooled.
Xu Zhi quietly put away her phone and took the candy, deliberately avoiding the part he had touched. “… You art students waste a lot of paper. That whole pack was used up by just the two of you.”
Chen Luzhou chuckled, not denying it. His gaze pointed back, “Still want to eat?”
Xu Zhi unwrapped the candy and popped it into her mouth, shaking her head.
So, he shamelessly pointed at the counter, “Then you pay the bill.”
Although it was agreed that Xu Zhi would treat them, the cashier who didn’t know the context couldn’t help but roll her eyes at his brazen tone of eating for free.
Chen Luzhou turned and left after speaking. Xu Zhi watched him walk back and carelessly toss the pack of paper on the table. She couldn’t hear clearly what he said, only vaguely catching him teasingly saying to Zhu Yangqi, “Save some, bro. If it doesn’t work out, let your dad switch to planting trees.” Then he picked up his jacket that he had taken off placed it on the chair at some point and walked out.
She had heard that Zhu Yangqi had repeated a year, so he should be older than the rest of them. Calling him “bro” wasn’t wrong, but why did it sound so sarcastic?
Zhu Yangqi exploded, “Damn, look at what’s in front of you! People might think you’re up to something indecent here!”
“…”
Xu Zhi paid and walked out, just as her phone popped up with a WeChat message from Old Xu.
Guangji is a good doctor: Your grandmother says she wants you to bring back a roasted field mouse when you come back tonight.
Gardenia doesn’t want to bloom: ??
Gardenia doesn’t want to bloom: Are you using question marks because you also think this thing is hard to catch?
Guangji is a good doctor: Oh, it’s roasted sweet potato. Have you had dinner? Around what time will you be back?
Gardenia doesn’t want to bloom: Cai Cai is still having a late-night snack, don’t know what time.
Guangji is a good doctor: Then forget it, I’ll just lock the door. You can sleep at Cai Cai’s tonight. I’ll have the sweet potato flash-delivered to your grandmother.
Gardenia doesn’t want to bloom: … No, Dad, it’s not certain if Cai Cai can go home tonight.
Xu Zhi sent a photo of Cai Cai dyeing her hair in the afternoon.
After a while, Old Xu replied: Will be high.
Xu Guangji habitually used the Wubi input method, often resulting in a flood of typos. Xu Zhi knew her dad all too well: Yeah, isn’t Cai Cai good at this?
Guangji is a good doctor: I mean Director Cai’s blood pressure will be high!!
Gardenia doesn’t want to bloom: … Cai Cai says she supports you becoming the director!
**
Qingyi City was a port city. In recent years, the provincial government has made bold moves, and the urban area has already been thoroughly modernized with towering buildings. The commercial districts were even more tightly packed than the Olympic rings. Yifeng Lane was in the city center, and back then, the east and west ports had fought tooth and nail for this piece of land, even resulting in casualties.
In the end, neither side benefited. Yifeng Lane retained its original appearance, and this alley with the most primitive features of the 80s/90s stood alone amidst the bustling commercial streets, instead becoming a popular spot for internet celebrities to check-in. As a result, even the nearby barbecue restaurants were thriving. Otherwise, how could it be so lively at this hour in the past?
Outside the barbecue restaurant, there was still a long queue. The waiting line was like a set of dominoes, one push and they all fell. As soon as Xu Zhi went out, she saw Chen Luzhou idly crossing his arms, leaning against the rotating wooden horse waiting chair outside the door, bullying a child.
He looked down at the little kid who barely reached his thigh, provocatively saying, “Let’s play rock-paper-scissors. If you win, I’ll give you the seat.”
The child refused to leave, insisting on sitting, “No, I’ve already lost to you five times. You’re cheating.”
He smiled, “Such a sore loser, huh? Calling others cheaters when you lose.”
“Then how come you win every single time?”
“Because you’re stupid.”
The child was on the verge of a breakdown. Xu Zhi was afraid his next words would be “Do you believe I’ll call Ultraman to deal with you?” At times like these, Xu Zhi always felt helpless, because every time she was confronted by kids like this, she wanted to say there’s no such thing as Ultraman in this world. But Old Xu said they needed to protect children’s innocence. Ultraman was the ultimate weapon, a tool even more effective than police uncles.
Sure enough, “Big brother, are you afraid of Ultraman?”
“Terrified,” Chen Luzhou said.
“Then do you believe I’ll call Ultraman to deal with you? Mebius, the darling of the Ultraman world.”
“Is that so? Isn’t the darling usually the weakest one?”
“…” The child was about to cry, “Shameless, big brother, how old are you? Still fighting with us for chairs.”
“No matter how old I am, I get tired standing too,” Chen Luzhou said shamelessly. “If you don’t mind, I can call you big brother too.”
What kind of monster is this? The child wailed loudly, finally unable to bear it anymore, and angrily turned to run away.
…
Xu Zhi walked over to remind him, “I think he’s gone to get his parents.”
Chen Luzhou leaned against the wooden horse chair, his gaze lightly falling on her for two seconds. Perhaps there was no emotion, but Xu Zhi always felt that there was an invisible fuse in those eyes, concealing a mysterious and enormous power.
He lazily replied, “Oh—”
Xu Zhi took out her phone and opened the recording function—
Chen Luzhou watched her lowering her head and fiddling with her phone intently: “What are you doing?”
“Recording,” Xu Zhi said as she started the recording function, “What if we encounter an unreasonable parent? I’ll help you submit this to the police uncle for appeal later.”
Chen Luzhou lowered his head and smiled, not moving, slowly turning his head away. His gaze fell on the intermittent musical fountain not far away. He lazily put his hands in his pockets, “It’s only our first meeting, why are you helping me so much?”
You’re not thinking purely, are you?
Xu Zhi looked at him blankly, “I thought we were friends after introducing ourselves.”
Chen Luzhou: “Then you must have too many friends.”
Xu Zhi thought seriously: “Not really.”
As soon as she finished speaking, an urgent, grateful voice sounded nearby, “Thank you so much. I don’t know why this restaurant is so crowded today. My father has mobility issues and doesn’t dare to go to the bathroom. Sorry for the trouble, thanks for saving our seats.”
Chen Luzhou slowly straightened up from the chair and said slowly to the father and daughter, “No problem.”
In her daze, Xu Zhi turned her head to see that the parent had indeed brought the child over, looking ready to argue. Seeing this scene, they instead turned to scold their child harshly: “That uncle’s legs are like that and you still fight with him for a seat! Have you no shame! What more do you want to eat? Go home and do your homework!”
…
The twilight deepened, and neon lights and billboards hung chaotically between buildings. The road was congested with traffic, horns blaring, and behind them, the sound of toasting in the barbecue restaurant grew increasingly lively.
The two stood at the entrance, waiting for Cai Yingying and Zhu Yangqi to finish up inside.
“Why haven’t they finished eating yet?”
Xu Zhi held her phone, for some reason feeling a bit guilty, tapping her palm intermittently.
Chen Luzhou tilted his head as if looking at the stars, his Adam’s apple unusually prominent, like a cube of ice pushing out a right angle, sharp and cold. After a while, he lowered his head and asked with a smile, “What’s wrong, afraid of being checked on?”
Xu Zhi felt as if the stars in the sky had suddenly run into his eyes, how could they be so bright?
“No,” she didn’t immediately react to who he meant by being checked on, thinking it was her family urging her to go home. Looking at him, she said, “My grandmother wants to eat roasted sweet potatoes, and I don’t know where to buy them at this hour.”
Chen Luzhou lit up his phone screen and checked the time.
It was quite late.
In recent years, Qingyi City has been evaluating itself as a civilized city. Under the day and night supervision and eviction by urban management, roadside stalls had indeed gradually decreased. Although this was the peak time for late-night snacks, for a business like roasted sweet potatoes that barely breaks even, in a city like Qingyi that had developed rapidly in just a few years and produced quite a few nouveau riche through demolition and relocation, indeed few people were willing to do it.
“Your family’s old lady stays up quite late, huh?” he teased half-believingly.
“Mm, if she can’t eat it, she’ll throw a tantrum. I’m not joking.”
“So fierce—” Chen Luzhou drawled, leaning his back against the telephone pole behind him, lowering his eyes to look at her thoughtfully, “I do have a solution.”
When Zhu Yangqi received the call, he was voraciously sucking the marrow from the last bone. “What? Where did you two go? Roasting what field mouse? That thing is hard to catch. Oh, okay, I’ll finish eating and send her back, then come find you.”
Cai Yingying just came to her senses, speaking in a daze: “Where did those two go?”
“Said they went to catch field mice?” Zhu Yangqi hung up the phone, well, he still didn’t hear clearly after listening for so long, “I don’t know, anyway, my task is to finish the remaining bones and then send you back.”
“Oh—” Cai Yingying narrowed her eyes, looking at Zhu Yangqi with clear insight, asking bluntly: “Does your friend want to pursue my friend?”
Zhu Yangqi had just inserted the straw into the bone and froze instantly, “What? You mean Chen Luzhou?”
“Yeah, otherwise why did they go catch field mice alone? Catching field mice is so ambiguous.”
“What’s ambiguous about catching field mice? It’s not like they’re going to watch a movie.” Zhu Yangqi was puzzled in his typical straightforward manner.
Cai Yingying asserted confidently, with a look of “I understand you stinky men all too well” on her face, “Anyway, it’s very ambiguous. Your friend wants to pursue my friend. Don’t say it was my friend who initiated it, she would never initiate.”
“Your friend is more proactive, okay,” Zhu Yangqi sneered, “I think you’re overthinking. My friend would never do such an inhumane thing—”
Later, thinking about it, Chen Luzhou had indeed done quite a few inhumane things. Zhu Yangqi was stunned for a moment, followed by an inexplicable anger rising in his heart. He didn’t know if it was due to being looked down upon for his character and moral bottom line, or something else. He solemnly took off his gloves, threw them on the table with a sense of loyalty, and looked at Cai Yingying, saying word by word: “Anyway, he just wouldn’t. If you say he’d go hook up for one-night stands or be a gigolo or something, I can’t guarantee that. But he would never steal someone else’s girlfriend!”
Cai Yingying: “…”
**
Chen Luzhou had moved in not long ago, and the kitchen was cold and empty, never having been used. He vaguely remembered that the auntie who came to clean a couple of days ago had given him a bag of sweet potatoes to thank him for helping her son with math papers, but he didn’t know where he put them.
Xu Zhi watched him meticulously search everywhere, even lifting the toilet lid to look around. She suddenly became a bit hesitant, wondering if she should still give these to her grandmother if they were found.
Chen Luzhou came out of the bathroom and saw Xu Zhi following him closely. He moved aside to create some distance, then nonchalantly walked past her, lowering his head to give her a speechless glance, “Why are you following me? Do you think I’ll secretly eat them in the bathroom?” After speaking, he pointed his clean, smooth chin towards the sofa, “Go sit there. I’ll bring them to you when I find them.”
Xu Zhi responded with an “Oh” and obediently turned to walk toward the living room. Xu Zhi marveled inwardly at the miraculous fate. She deliberately sat in the position where the lady had sat in the afternoon, curiously looking around.
The house was clean and tidy, unlike that of a typical high school senior. Not a single book could be seen, but in the corner, there were several neatly arranged drones with engraved names, a basketball covered in flamboyant signatures, and a half-finished painting board that didn’t seem to show much artistic talent. There were also the models he mentioned – he had many models. The one Zhu Yangqi had disassembled should be a small mortise and tenon structure building, and next to it was a human sculpture that looked a bit like the David commonly used in art studios. However, that face looked somewhat familiar. Xu Zhi looked for a long time before realizing it should be himself. He was narcissistic, making sculptures of himself and carving his name everywhere, not even sparing his iPad.
Looking around, there should be an auntie regularly helping him clean. Except for the pile of “pole members” that Zhu Yangqi had just disassembled and hadn’t had time to clean up, everywhere else was spotless.
After a few minutes, Chen Luzhou found them and asked her, “Do you know how to roast them?”
“Do you have a microwave?”
“You want to roast them here?”
“Is that not okay?” She was genuinely sincere, looking at him with clean and straightforward eyes, “I don’t have a microwave at home.”
Her family didn’t have a microwave. Old Xu didn’t like using one, only buying a steamer.
Of course, Chen Luzhou couldn’t understand how a household these days wouldn’t have a microwave.
Chen Luzhou couldn’t persuade her, so he could only persuade himself: Chen Luzhou, don’t be inhuman, she has a boyfriend.
Zhu Yangqi was right, looking pure is also an advantage. Even such an ulterior motive sentence, coming from her mouth, sounded like she just wanted to roast two sweet potatoes.
Xu Zhi washed the sweet potatoes clean, put them in the microwave, set the time for fifteen minutes, and pressed the start button. The microwave began to work with a humming sound in the quiet night.
Usually, this high school senior building wasn’t so quiet. Arguments with parents, roommates, and girlfriends, plus the heart-wrenching cries of children – whenever Chen Luzhou wanted to quietly do his homework, these incomprehensible human joys and sorrows were always particularly abundant. But today, it was exceptionally quiet, as if everyone had died, making those long fifteen minutes particularly awkward.
This was a small two-bedroom apartment. The kitchen passageway was only wide enough for one person, narrow yet empty. There were no pots and pans on the countertop, but plenty of clean instant noodle boxes, which he kept for the old man collecting cardboard at the entrance.
They leaned against the kitchen door frame on either side, like two door gods, watching the red light inside the microwave. The scene was eerie as if they were waiting for some life-saving medicine.
Chen Luzhou felt he should be sensible and walk away to avoid suspicion, but he was also afraid she might blow up the kitchen. So he asked, “Do you usually cook?”
“I guess, but not very often,” Xu Zhi reciprocated, “How about you?”
I’m not trying to make small talk with you.
But he still answered, leaning against the door frame, his tone lazy, “Just cook some instant noodles when watching movies.”
Xu Zhi: “So what kind of movies do you like?”
She didn’t know how to chat. This conversation was already dry enough, and Chen Luzhou didn’t want to continue. However, what was more awkward was that just two minutes after putting the sweet potatoes in, the nearly defunct light in the living room completely gave up. The kitchen originally had no light; it had burned out earlier and he was too lazy to spend time fixing it since he didn’t use it anyway.
So in an instant, the entire room plunged into a chaotic darkness.
Xu Zhi instinctively looked at the microwave first. The “humming” engine sound was still stubbornly running, and the microwave still emitted a hazy orange-red glow while heating, so it wasn’t a power outage.
The entire kitchen was lit only by that dim glow. Because the microwave was still turning obliviously, that hazy light hazily illuminated the two of them, suddenly making the atmosphere comparable to a candlelit dinner, permeating with a silent yet awkward romance.
Chen Luzhou didn’t know whether to say he watches all kinds of movies or to apologize on behalf of that oblivious microwave: sorry, the atmosphere has become a bit romantic.
“Can I add you on WeChat?”
In the dim light, Xu Zhi looked at him and suddenly asked.
See, Chen Luzhou, you’ve caused trouble.
Chen Luzhou looked down at her, his eyes becoming completely cold. He originally wanted to say, don’t you have a boyfriend? Is it appropriate to ask this? But he was afraid she might then throw out a line like “Can’t I add opposite-sex friends on WeChat if I have a boyfriend?”
“My phone is out of battery,” he said after hesitating for a while.
Thinking he had found a perfect excuse, but the next second, he forgot that WeChat Moments sends notifications on the hour. His phone made a “ding dong” sound in his pocket. Because the screen was pressed against his pocket, in the pitch-black room, the white light from the screen instantly illuminated Xu Zhi’s bewildered face.
“…”
Xu Zhi let out an “oh” and slowly said to him: “I’m not asking to add you on WeChat. Didn’t you say you’d get me a seat? I’m a bit tired of standing. Can you bring me a chair?”
Chen Luzhou: “…”