What kind of a trap-laden banquet was this?

He Youyuan narrowed his eyes ever so slightly, his inner alarm bells clanging loudly. What if he went to eat with her, and just as the server brought the dishes over, they suddenly flipped the tray aside to reveal a dagger hidden beneath, and she grabbed his sleeve with her left hand while plunging the dagger into him with her right hand —

Ah, no, that was the story of Jing Ke’s attempt on the King of Qin. He had mixed up his historical references.

But regardless of whether she was Xiang Yu or Jing Ke, one thing was certain: the scowling pineapple was absolutely a weasel paying New Year’s greetings to the chickens — her motives were far from kind. Even if, taking ten thousand steps back, she really was only sincerely wanting to treat him to a meal — so what? He was not that kind of easy person.

“Not going.” He shot a cool, sidelong glance at her.

Li Kuiyi had anticipated his refusal. She dropped her gaze for a moment, then looked up directly and met his eyes, saying earnestly, “I know you’re still bothered about what happened the other evening. Actually, the reason I want to treat you to a meal is to apologize about that…”

He Youyuan’s head began to buzz before she had even finished speaking.

What did she mean, she knew he was still bothered about what had happened the other evening? Who did she think she was — the roundworm living in his stomach?

— Even though he genuinely was still bothered about that.

I can be bothered, but you’re not allowed to know that I’m bothered.

“You’re overthinking it. I’m not bothered,” he said, shifting his gaze away from her.

“If you’re not bothered, then why refuse?” Li Kuiyi was puzzled. “If you accept my apology, this whole thing is settled, isn’t it?”

This person — when it came to people she had no interest in, she never bothered with any roundabout maneuvers. If she were asking Fang Zhixiao out to dinner and Fang Zhixiao refused, she would sulk and overthink. But since the person she was dealing with was He Youyuan, she only wanted to resolve the problem as quickly as possible.

He Youyuan couldn’t help but draw in a sharp breath: how could there be a person like this in the world — trying to force an apology on someone like a hard-sell transaction.

But this happened to be a good opportunity to clear things up with her.

“It has nothing to do with you. I just happened to have a bit too much internal heat those few days.”

Li Kuiyi was stunned for three seconds. Not knowing whether he was speaking the truth or making it up, she tested the waters: “You’re sure?”

“Sure.” He Youyuan declared it with absolute certainty.

Uh, so that meant this whole matter was resolved?

Li Kuiyi nodded with a thoughtful air and murmured to herself, “All right, then. Since it has nothing to do with me, I won’t need to apologize to you.”

And immediately she “turned her face without any recognition,” saying, “Then you head home — we’re going shopping. Goodbye.”

Clean, decisive, not dragging it out in the slightest.

He Youyuan: “…”

She was genuinely, truly going to be the death of him.

In his previous life, what kind of terrible things had he done to deserve being made to cross paths with this variety of demon in his current one?

He could only watch, helplessly, as Li Kuiyi took Fang Zhixiao by the arm and turned to walk away right before him.

He Youyuan was so furious he let out a laugh, gave a light, unhurried scoff, then lazily extended his arm and grabbed her bag strap, using just enough force to yank her back toward him.

She stared at him, eyes widening slightly in startled confusion.

“Even though my running too hot wasn’t your fault, you were still the fuse that made my nose bleed.” A sly glint flashed in his dark, coal-black pupils. He raised an eyebrow and shamelessly put on his most unreasonable face. “I want to eat barbecue. Let’s go.”

Right near the east gate of First Middle School there was an entire street of barbecue stalls. Perhaps because tomorrow was the start of the National Holiday, tonight was the most relaxed of evenings, and even though it was not yet seven o’clock, every seat in front of the stalls was already occupied — mostly middle-aged men jawing away and bragging about everything under the sun, with a few students in First Middle School uniforms tucked in among them like little quails. The bellows fans in front of the grills roared and rumbled, mingling with the clinking and clanking of beer bottles, and at the entrance, the fat proprietor of one shop was still in his old man’s sleeveless undershirt with the hem rolled up over his belly, wiping away a hasty swipe of sweat amidst the smoke and fire, shouting at the top of his voice: “Which table ordered the extra-spicy?”

He Youyuan, without ceremony, picked out a small square table and sat down boldly, snatched up the menu, gave it a once-over, and tossed it straight to the two girls. “You two order first.”

Li Kuiyi sat across from him and pushed the menu right back, trying to reclaim the initiative. “I’m the one treating you. You order first.”

He Youyuan slouched lazily in his seat, not moving a muscle. “Etiquette of the land — guests follow the host’s lead.”

“Hey, are you two being ridiculous?” Fang Zhixiao snatched the menu away. “Stop arguing. I’ll order.”

Potato slices, enoki mushrooms, grilled gluten, grilled rice cakes, lamb skewers — the kinds of things everyone could eat she ticked off directly, and only when she came across items with more distinctive flavors did she ask for the other two’s opinions.

“Is anyone eating grilled brain?”

“No.”

“No.”

“Then I’ll just get one for myself.”

“Oysters are fine for everyone, right?”

“Sure.”

“Sure.”

“All right, let’s get a few more.”

“Is anyone eating lamb testicles, lamb tail, or lamb kidneys?”

“No.”

“…No.”

“Oh, I’m not either. They look rather revolting.”

“Mild spice okay? Li Kuiyi can’t handle much heat.”

“Whatever.”

Once she had finished ordering, Fang Zhixiao handed the menu to He Youyuan. “See if there’s anything you want to add.”

He didn’t even look at it and said directly, “That’s fine.”

The menu made its way to Li Kuiyi’s hands, and she studied it carefully, finding that everything that needed to be ordered had been ordered, so she turned her head and waved to call the server over.

The seating was outdoors, swallowed up in the dark and heavy night, with no proper lighting — only a few bare bulbs dangling from a randomly strung wire the proprietor had thrown up. The bulbs had been smoked by the fire for so long that their surfaces were coated in a greasy film, making them look somewhat worn, and the light they gave off was a dim, wavering glow that just barely illuminated a small square of the world.

And yet even in such crude surroundings, the interplay of light and shadow could still trace something beautiful.

Her face was partly lit and partly shadowed. She tilted her head back slightly, her expression — unusually — soft, her lips parting and closing as she spoke briskly to the server before her, and the light poured down from above, following the line of her jaw, her neck, and flowing quietly into the collar of her school uniform.

He Youyuan was momentarily dazed. He thought of the figures he had painted in the studio — those outstretched poses, those fluid lines of muscle. He suddenly found himself noticing that the sternocleidomastoid muscle of her neck was very beautiful: long, well-defined, full of youthful vitality.

“Drinks and beverages are over there — help yourself!” The server, who didn’t look very old, took their menus and waved casually toward the drinks cabinet beside them.

“Great, thank you.” Li Kuiyi turned her head around. “What do you two want to drink? I’ll go get them.”

He Youyuan snapped back to his senses abruptly, and his ears turned quietly half-crimson.

What on earth was that! What business did he have studying someone else’s sternocleidomastoid, out of nowhere! And what was more — he actually found it beautiful?

It must be because he had been drawing too many human body studies lately. Yes. That was it. That was definitely it.

Seeing an inexplicable look of awkwardness flash across his face, Li Kuiyi could not help but knit her brows. “You’re not thinking of having a drink, are you?”

He Youyuan: “…”

He hugged his arms crossly. “Minors can’t drink. You don’t know that?”

Look at you, who would have thought you were such a law-abiding citizen.

Li Kuiyi knew that minors weren’t supposed to drink, but growing up, she had seen underage drinking happen fairly often around her. People didn’t seem to be very conscious of it — not even adults. She remembered that during the New Year holidays, the uncles and older relatives who came to pay their respects would even invite Su Jianlin to drink along with them, and Su Jianlin wasn’t very old at the time either, but he would always decline straight away.

So she was a little surprised. “You’ve never drunk alcohol?”

“…Have you?”

“No.”

“…I have.”

Then what were you acting all self-righteous about just now?!

The first and only time He Youyuan had ever drunk was at a junior high school graduation gathering three months ago. Amid the egging-on of a group of classmates, he had drunk two cans of beer, and then… had gotten drunk.

Absolutely mortifying. He did not wish to revisit the memory.

Fang Zhixiao sat to the side watching the two of them spar back and forth, let out a long sigh, sensibly stood up, and went to the drinks cabinet to fetch three bottles of Bingbing soda.

Li Kuiyi took her bottle of soda, looked around, and said, “Should we go borrow a bottle opener from the next table?”

“Too much trouble.” He Youyuan picked up his soda bottle and gave it a casual knock against the edge of the table — with a pop, the cap came flying off.

He used the same method to open the other two girls’ bottles, and looked at their completely dumbfounded expressions with great satisfaction in his heart: well, how about that — pretty cool, right?

Li Kuiyi and Fang Zhixiao both fell into thoughtful contemplation: he’s so practiced at this — surely he didn’t learn it from all that drinking, did he?

There were a lot of people, and the food was slow to come. The three of them chatted without any particular aim, with Fang Zhixiao doing most of the work steering the conversation. “Did you start studying painting when you were little?”

“Yeah.”

“Wow, what a coincidence, me too —” Fang Zhixiao’s mouth was faster than her brain. She had been about to say she had also studied art for two years, but in a split second, she suddenly remembered that her current role was that of matchmaker, so she urgently changed course mid-sentence — “I… our Li Kuiyi is also very good at drawing. She used to get praised by the teacher all the time in art class.”

Li Kuiyi: “…”

Fang Zhixiao, don’t go opening your mouth and making things up on my behalf!

He Youyuan: “…”

He had never seen such a clumsy attempt at small talk.

But what could Fang Zhixiao do — this was her first time playing Cupid. She thought for a moment and pressed on: “I suppose art requires a real natural talent, doesn’t it? You’re such a good painter — could you be a Libra?”

And he had never seen such a dated attempt at small talk, either.

He Youyuan’s fingers tapped against the table in an idle, wandering rhythm as he countered, “Does that have something to do with star signs?”

“Of course it does — isn’t it said that Libras tend to produce artists?”

“Oh. Well, I’m not one.”

“…So you’re…?”

“Pisces.”

“Oh!” Fang Zhixiao slapped her thigh as if to say, “I should have known all along.” “Pisces is also very suited to the arts — a born romantic! Our Li Kuiyi is a Leo — I’ll have you know, Leo and Pisces…”

Compatible? Are they… compatible?

The words stuck in Fang Zhixiao’s throat: this was a problem — they didn’t seem very compatible at all! Leo’s match was supposed to be Libra!

She let out a couple of dry, hollow laughs. “Star signs, ha — that kind of thing… probably isn’t very accurate, is it?”

Li Kuiyi: “…”

He Youyuan: “…”

He Youyuan took a sip of his soda and thought to himself — so this really was a trap-laden feast after all, and wasn’t “the dancer performs for the real target’s benefit” playing out right before his eyes?

The scowling pineapple… surely she didn’t have feelings for him?

He Youyuan had received no small number of girls’ advances and confessions since he was young, and considered himself fairly perceptive in that regard. It was precisely because he was confident in his ability to see through people’s hidden feelings for him that he had never been so presumptuous as to assume Li Kuiyi liked him — he had genuinely never caught a glimpse of either shyness or burning ardor in her eyes.

But now he was suddenly unsure. If the scowling pineapple did not like him, what was Fang Zhixiao doing all this matchmaking for?

He picked up the bottle of Bingbing soda again, and as he tipped his head back to drink, his line of sight traced along the glass bottle all the way to the girl sitting across from him. She was scowling at Fang Zhixiao with a fierce expression, looking as though she were blaming her for letting slip some secret of hers.

Glug. Glug. Bubbles burst joyfully in his mouth one after another.

Admit it, scowling pineapple — you just —

Like me.