After that, Chen Luzhou didn’t reply, nor did he accept the money. Xu Zhi placed her phone on the table and stared at it for a while, but there was still no response.
The street was bustling with people, with customers crowding every stall. The air was thick with various intense aromas all mingling together – stinky tofu, river snail rice noodles… The whole street smelled like a giant wok of stir-fried vegetables, greasy and oily. Even conversations seemed to be splattered with oil. It made one want to bring out a massive range hood and give it a powerful suction.
Xu Zhi had no appetite.
Feng Jin and Cai Yingying ordered two bowls of hot and sour noodles, but after slurping a couple of mouthfuls, they stopped eating. Feng Jin, not giving up, excitedly went to get a bowl of butter tea to go. After taking a sip, he immediately spat it out. “Damn, if I hadn’t tried butter tea in Tibet before, I would’ve thought this was how awful it’s supposed to taste. No wonder when I went to Tibet last time, the tour guide complained to me. He said many tourists who had tried fake butter tea elsewhere thought Tibetan butter tea was this bad, so they refused to drink it when they arrived. Only after tasting the real thing did they realize that many street food versions are frauds. Real butter tea has a sweet aftertaste. What is this crap? I thought I was drinking my dad’s Da Hong Pao tea.”
“Really?” Cai Yingying couldn’t taste the difference. She just felt it was saltier than regular tea, bitter on the tongue, and made her thirstier the more she drank. She took another small sip from Feng Jin’s bowl. “Hey, is Tibet fun to visit?”
Feng Jin found Cai Yingying’s personality a bit carefree. Seeing that she didn’t mind, he felt more at ease. He had seen all sorts of situations before. Once, while traveling, he even shared a tent with a female fellow traveler. It was out of necessity – he had merely borrowed her tent for a night, or he might have frozen to death on the mountain.
“Of course it is. What about you? Do you like traveling?” Feng Jin asked in return.
Cai Yingying smiled, “I do! Who wouldn’t like traveling? But my dad doesn’t let me go too far. So for as long as I can remember, Xu Zhi and I have rarely left the province. We’ve only been to a few countries occasionally when accompanying my dad on business trips.”
Dean Cai was busy with work. In earlier years, he traveled all over the world. In recent years, he couldn’t get away from work and didn’t feel comfortable letting Cai Yingying travel alone. So during summer and winter breaks, he would send Cai Yingying to tutoring classes or leave her at Fu Yuqing’s mountain villa to escape the heat.
The same was true for Xu Zhi. She had hardly left S Province since childhood. For Cai Yingying, it was passive; for her, it was active – traveling was too expensive.
Feng Jin got excited talking about this topic. He put down his bowl, suddenly inspired, unable to hold back his words. “I have a friend, and I’m not making this up. He’s a friend of my good buddy. He’s also into photography. I’ll introduce him to you guys next time. He’s pretty amazing. His photos were being used by magazines when he was just a freshman in high school. One set even made it to National Geographic. Plus, after a trip to Tibet, the city TV station used his raw footage of Hoh Xil for broadcast.”
Cai Yingying thought it sounded impressive, but she had only one thought, “Is he handsome?”
Feng Jin wanted to say, that if you’re asking about that, you’re asking the right person. If you say he’s not handsome, then there aren’t many who are. He’s been the school heartthrob since he was young. The girls who like him are like grapes on a vine – they come in bunches.
“Handsome? Of course, he’s handsome,” Feng Jin still kept some mystery.
Cai Yingying was half-believing, half-doubting. She lowered her head and took another sip of butter tea. She was quick to warm up to people, and by now she was completely open with Feng Jin. “Well, I guess the ‘handsome’ in your guys’ eyes and the ‘handsome’ in our girls’ eyes might not be the same thing.”
Feng Jin misunderstood, “I get it, you girls like those little idols.”
“We like little idols too, but recently a handsome guy corrected my aesthetic standards. Well, not corrected, more like raised the bar,” Cai Yingying gazed at the long street. By now, it was completely dark, and there were more people on the street. Mosquitoes and flies were also more numerous, buzzing around their ears. Cai Yingying waved them away with her hand and sighed, “Now everyone I look at seems a bit like an oddball. It’s scary, scary. If this goes on, it’ll be hard for me to find a boyfriend.”
Just as she finished speaking, Xu Zhi’s phone on the table rang. It was the instigator of the ‘oddball’ situation.
Chen Luzhou: Are you in Lin City?
Xu Zhi: Yes.
Chen Luzhou: At the food street?
Seeing this message, Xu Zhi instinctively looked around. Although it was crowded, Xu Zhi could tell at a glance that he wasn’t there. He would be easy to spot – the tallest and fairest one in the crowd.
Xu Zhi: How do you know?
Chen Luzhou: Cai Yingying’s Moments.
Xu Zhi: Oh.
Chen Luzhou: Should I come to find you?
Chen Luzhou: Let’s talk face to face.
This was unexpected for Xu Zhi. She thought Chen Luzhou would at most reply with a couple of messages on WeChat.
Xu Zhi: It’s very crowded here, and the environment isn’t good. It’s a bit noisy.
Chen Luzhou: Then you pick the place.
Xu Zhi immediately searched for nearby cafes on Dianping. In the reviews, she saw a complaint that everything was good except the lighting was too dim – “I could hardly see his face.” Just listening to Chen Luzhou talk without seeing his face might make her want to hit him. She had to be cautious; he could be quite annoying sometimes.
Xu Zhi figured Chen Luzhou probably hadn’t had dinner. After browsing Dianping for a while, she finally chose a restaurant, a famous small dish eatery in Lin City. The main reason was that the lighting was extremely bright. In Lin City, there was no need to queue for meals. Even at popular restaurants, when Xu Zhi arrived, tables had just filled up. She only had to wait for one table to be free before it was her turn, much more convenient than in Qingyi.
This area was the city center, the most prosperous part of Lin City. The terrain was open, with tall buildings rising from the ground, standing under the clouds. On the road, cars were bumper to bumper, their lights flashing in the night like an endless dragon stretching into the unknown distance. The Grand Canal ran north to south, its gentle flow passing under the long bridge, next to the flood control dam.
The city’s layout was unfamiliar. Xu Zhi couldn’t even find many of the convenience stores she was used to. She was wedged in the bustling crowd, surrounded by people speaking the local dialect she was most unfamiliar with.
Xu Zhi had never traveled far alone since childhood. Every time, either Old Xu or Old Cai would accompany her. She and Cai Yingying were rarely apart. This was the first time she had ventured alone to an unfamiliar city, an unfamiliar environment, to meet someone who was half a stranger and a man at that.
After all, she was still just an eighteen or nineteen-year-old girl. Even though Xu Zhi was bold and had learned to ignore emotions in recent years, it was still her first time. Her heart felt like it held a little rabbit, starting to jump around actively. A feeling of nervousness, like blood flowing backward, slowly spread from the bottom of her heart.
So, when Chen Luzhou’s tall and handsome figure appeared on the opposite side of the road, Xu Zhi felt an unprecedented sense of belonging in this unfamiliar city where she was a stranger and couldn’t even find a bus stop.
The small dish restaurant was by the roadside, next to the busiest intersection in all of Lin City. Chen Luzhou was still in his simple all-black outfit. With his good figure, he stood out no matter what he wore. Being stared at was common for him. He still had a black baseball cap on his head as he stood at the zebra crossing waiting for the traffic light.
“…”
“…”
As soon as they sat down, they maintained an awkward silence for quite a while. Xu Zhi lowered her head, pretending to look at the menu. Chen Luzhou had already spoken several sentences with the waiter, asking where the bathroom was and if there was a machine to borrow a power bank. His phone seemed to always be out of battery when he went out. Perhaps it was because they hadn’t seen each other for a long time and weren’t particularly familiar. But Xu Zhi had sent him a 250 yuan red envelope at the beginning to ask him to chat, so she probably felt awkward too. Anyway, he didn’t take the initiative to say a word to Xu Zhi.
After he returned from the bathroom, it was Xu Zhi who first broke the strange situation, “Want to drink?”
Chen Luzhou stopped pretending. He lazily leaned back in his chair, one hand casually resting on the back of the adjacent chair, reaching out to ask for the drink menu in her hand. “I thought you could hold out longer. If I don’t speak, you won’t speak?”
Xu Zhi handed him the drink menu: “Then why didn’t you speak?”
He took the drink menu and scanned it leisurely, his words dripping with sarcasm, “Isn’t this a paid chat? If the client doesn’t speak, what should I say?”
“You haven’t even accepted the 250 yuan.”
“Are you insulting me?” Chen Luzhou glanced at her sideways.
Xu Zhi smiled triumphantly, “Wasn’t that how you insulted me back then?”
Chen Luzhou also curled his lip slightly, nodding absent-mindedly as he looked at the menu, “Alright, you hold grudges. Do you have to get even for everything? You don’t believe it was 250 that night?”
Just like when they first added each other on WeChat, she always managed to get back at him at the right moment for any casual remark.
“Never mind that, anyway, tonight it’s 250,” Xu Zhi didn’t want to dwell on the topic of 250 yuan. “How long are you staying here?”
“Want some draft beer?” he asked.
Xu Zhi nodded.
Chen Luzhou handed the menu back to her, letting her order the rest herself. He took a sip of the water the waiter had just poured before answering her previous question, “Two or three days. What about you? How long are you planning to play?”
“I’m not here to play,” Xu Zhi looked at him.
Chen Luzhou remembered, “Oh, exploring restaurants?”
“I think I might not be able to earn this money.”
Chen Luzhou guessed why she had found him, most likely for this matter. He still maintained his previous posture, his hand casually resting on the chair next to him. Without her even narrating the course of events, he said, “There’s no such thing as being able to earn or not earn. It just depends on whether you want to earn it or not. It’s not that difficult. If you don’t want to earn it, go home. If you want to earn it, go home and write the article.”
“What about you? I heard from Zhu Yangqi that you took on a job here.”
Chen Luzhou gave an affirmative hum. The waiter brought an appetizer, which he pushed in front of Xu Zhi, gesturing for her to eat first. He tilted his chin slightly, “Interested?”
Xu Zhi was genuinely bored to death. While pulling out two pairs of chopsticks from the container, and handing one pair to him, she thought for a moment and said, “Can I come and see?”
No, you can’t, Chen Luzhou thought to himself. If you come to watch, I’ll easily get distracted.
He lowered his eyelids with a cold expression, taking the chopsticks. Pretending to be considerate, he picked up a piece of jellyfish and put it in his mouth. The sour, swollen feeling went all the way to his stomach before he said, “Do you have time?”
Yes, plenty of time.
Xu Zhi nodded very sincerely.
The restaurant was on the ground floor, and their table was right by the window, allowing them to see the hustle and bustle outside. The flood control dam was lit up, and the bridge was also brilliantly illuminated. Xu Zhi didn’t know that this street was Lin City’s most romantic Xianyu Road, with a cherry blossom forest right next to it. Because this cherry blossom forest had driven the city’s economic lifeline in recent years, the government had focused on developing this street, even making the trash cans heart-shaped. It had been trending on social media, attracting many out-of-town tourists. So at this moment, couples holding hands and strolling along the main road were everywhere.
Chen Luzhou knew this, so when he casually looked out and saw a couple using a selfie stick to take photos while kissing in front of the heart-shaped trash can, he didn’t think much of it.
Probably because the photo didn’t turn out well, the girl was unsatisfied and pulled her boyfriend in for another kiss. After about four or five kisses, the girl was finally content and left with her boyfriend.
Chen Luzhou was left with only one thought: they weren’t afraid of being seen.
“Chen Luzhou?”
“Hm?”
Chen Luzhou responded reflexively while slowly turning his head back.
Xu Zhi was very direct, though for some reason she sounded like an impatient client, “Is watching other people kiss that interesting? I’m talking to you, didn’t you hear?”
Chen Luzhou: “…”
Listen to that tone, doesn’t it sound like, ‘I paid you to chat with me, and you’re getting distracted here?’
After they finished eating, Chen Luzhou had barely eaten anything. He had eaten dinner before coming, a work meal. He still had to go back to continue shooting later. For the past few days, he had been shooting until two or three in the morning almost every day. So he just took this dinner break to meet her. He had already been urged several times on WeChat, but he hadn’t looked at it.
“You want to come tomorrow?” Chen Luzhou asked.
Xu Zhi asked the waiter for two takeout boxes, planning to take the leftover chicken leg and pork knuckle back for Cai Yingying. Poor thing, she probably hadn’t eaten anything good all day. “If it’s not convenient for you, forget it. I just wanted to see what kind of job you took on.”
Chen Luzhou looked at her and smiled, finishing the rest of his drink in one gulp, “Alright then, I’ll pick you up tomorrow morning. Remember to wear pants.”
Xu Zhi was shocked: “… Do I need you to remind me of that? When have you ever seen me not wearing pants?”
Chen Luzhou stood up, preparing to go pay the bill. He flicked her forehead with his index finger, exasperated, “… I meant, don’t wear a skirt.”
Xu Zhi suddenly remembered something and put down the chopsticks she was using to pack the food, “Ah, Chen Luzhou!”
“What is it?” He walked back.
Xu Zhi looked up at him, her eyes saying “What now?”, but her expression was helpless, “Yingying doesn’t eat green onions. I just mixed them all in. Can you ask the waiter if they have any cilantro to cover the taste? She can’t eat green onions alone, but she can eat them with cilantro.”
“Mm.”
In the end, when they were leaving, Chen Luzhou still had the owner make another portion of pork knuckle to take away. “If you get hungry, heat it and eat it yourself. I had the waiter repack Cai Yingying’s portion.”
Xu Zhi seemed to be a bit unsatisfied, after all, she hadn’t eaten all day. She asked belatedly, “Did I eat a lot just now?”
Chen Luzhou looked down at her, his face smiling, pointing at a small yellow dog wolfing down food nearby, “About the same as it, I guess.”
Xu Zhi: “…”
The two stood at the entrance waiting for their takeout. Chen Luzhou noticed Xu Zhi’s earlier eating habits and guessed that she probably hadn’t eaten much all day. The food at the food street was likely not very good; a few photographers from his team had gone there yesterday and spent the whole evening complaining about it, ordering a pile of grilled skewers around two or three in the morning.
But Xu Zhi was a bit troubled. “Should I ask the boss to stir-fry some rice noodles for us?”
Leaning against the glass door of the shop, Chen Luzhou was focused on replying to his team’s WeChat messages. He looked up lazily at her and teased, “Off to the coal mines? It’s only been a few days, and your appetite has grown!”
Xu Zhi quickly replied, “No, it’s just that the three of us came—there’s another photographer, a guy, and he probably hasn’t eaten much either.”
“…”
Chen Luzhou let out a cold “oh,” still not finished with his WeChat messages. He tucked his phone back into his pocket.