What a fine evening it was: the moonlight gentle, the breeze cool, and the barbecue fragrant and delicious.

From the moment He Youyuan became convinced that Li Kuiyi liked him, the corners of his mouth had not once come back down.

This scowling pineapple — in her day-to-day life, how superior and imperious and contemptuous of everything she was! And yet here she was, bowing and scraping before him — or rather, at his feet — not that he was wearing a skirt, he was wearing uniform trousers.

He tried hard to push down the corners of his mouth, but it was no use: dopamine had completely taken over his brain. Afraid the two girls beside him would notice he was smiling, he made a show of acting casual, raising his hand and pressing his fist to his nose to cover it slightly.

Li Kuiyi and Fang Zhixiao watched him with baffled expressions: this guy is surprisingly elegant when he’s eating skewers.

Forget him — eating was the most important thing.

Fang Zhixiao scooped up a spoonful of grilled brain and popped it into her mouth, feeling an immediate out-of-body experience of bliss. She let out a satisfied “mmm” and nodded continuously. “So good, so good — incredibly smooth and tender. It’d be even more perfect if it were just a bit more numbing and spicy.”

Li Kuiyi stood up, picked up the foil tray holding the grilled brain, and said, “I’ll go ask the proprietor to add more chili for you.”

“Yes please, mwah.” Fang Zhixiao blew two kisses in Li Kuiyi’s direction across the air.

He Youyuan: “…”

Was that normal? If Zhang Chuang did that to him, he would be so revolted he’d never be able to eat again for the rest of his life.

When Li Kuiyi came back, He Youyuan glanced her over without betraying any expression, then suddenly tossed the lamb skewer in his hand onto his small plate and declared in a picky tone, “Not enough cumin. It can’t even cover up the gamey smell of the lamb.”

“Oh, you like cumin?” Li Kuiyi looked up at him. “You can take whatever skewers you want to eat over to the grill and ask the proprietor to put more on for you.”

He Youyuan: “…”

She went and helped Fang Zhixiao without a second thought — what was this double standard?

“Not going.” He sulked.

Fine, don’t then.

This person was just very good at making unreasonable demands, wasn’t he? Li Kuiyi thought of military training, when Zhou Fanghua had accidentally spilled a bowl of plain noodle soup on him and he had said he’d been scalded, and she had suggested he go rinse it off, and he had also said he wouldn’t go.

Completely bizarre.

She lowered her gaze and focused on the skewers in front of her. Anyway, once this evening was over, she and he were quits, and they could each go their own separate ways.

You’re putting on quite a terrible performance, scowling pineapple — you haven’t got a shred of competitive spirit! He Youyuan thought furiously.

Do you know how people normally go about pursuing me? They bring me food, they bring me drinks, they write love letters, they give me gifts on every holiday and occasion, they send me good morning and good night texts every single day, they proactively offer me their homework to copy, they like and comment on my every single status update, and the moment there’s a holiday they ask me out to do something… hah! Look how capable you are — you can’t even spare me a single glance, can you?

You think you can win by going your own unconventional route? I’m telling you — not a chance. I will never be your boyfriend in this lifetime.

Really.

Don’t come crying when you can’t have what you want.

Tears won’t help — I never take pity on anyone.

He Youyuan bit viciously into a large meat skewer, turned his head away in a huff, and resolved never to pay the scowling pineapple any more attention — he was going to let her experience the bitterness of losing something before she had ever gotten it.

The customers at the adjacent table would occasionally glance over. No wonder: a half-grown, good-looking boy in a school uniform, sitting beside two half-grown girls also in school uniforms — it was all too easy to project some teenage drama of love and heartache onto the scene, especially when the expression on the boy’s face wasn’t exactly pleasant.

When He Youyuan caught the curious looks from the others, he glared fiercely back: what are you looking at — the three of us are as clean as a test tube with water stains that don’t gather into drops or run in streams. There’s nothing going on here at all.

The two girls, however, were completely oblivious, still thoroughly absorbed in the pleasures of their taste buds.

Fang Zhixiao’s mouth was burning bright red from the grilled brain. She downed a big gulp of soda, then picked up a grilled chicken wing and asked, “Will Su Jianlin be coming back for the National Holiday?”

For some reason, ever since she had started playing matchmaker for Li Kuiyi and He Youyuan, she had been thinking with sudden heartache of her own hopeless love life.

“Probably not — it doesn’t seem like he’s ever come back during short holidays like this.”

“I see.”

Seeing her instantly deflate, Li Kuiyi quickly tried to cheer her up. “You can use the holiday to chat with him — even if you can’t see him, keeping in touch helps, and it’s always right to take the initiative.”

“Right!” Fang Zhixiao stripped a chicken wing off its skewer like someone making a solemn resolution. “I’ll listen to you. I’ll make my move tonight!”

He Youyuan turned his head back in disbelief: well, well — so your vocabulary does contain the word ‘initiative’ after all!

Rather than offering commentary on everyone else’s love lives, you’d do better to rescue your own!

A bystander sees most of the game; the player sees the least, as they say!

Should he… offer a few pointers… to her?

Ha, scowling pineapple — you really are something, aren’t you? That brain of yours is smart enough to rank first in the entire city, and yet when it comes to pursuing me, you’re going to need me to teach you.

So He Youyuan, as if he had heard something funny, let out a derisive huff, and then, feigning nonchalance, inserted himself into their conversation. “You don’t actually think being proactive means…”

But barely a few words into his sentence, he was suddenly cut off by a sharp shout from somewhere nearby: “He Youyuan! You, you, you — it’s you again, you little—!”

Not only the three of them, but everyone at the surrounding tables was startled. Heads turned this way and that, and they all looked over in unison.

Oh no. It was Chen Guoming.

When Chen Guoming saw that the girl sitting across from He Youyuan was none other than Li Kuiyi, he was even more astonished, and his hand — extended and pointing at them — began to tremble. “You, you — how are you here too?”

He closed the distance in two or three rapid strides, clasped his hands behind his back, and instantly emanated an aura of stern authority. “What is going on here?”

In an instant the surroundings went silent as a grave: even the customers who had graduated many years ago didn’t dare speak, and only the bellows fan in front of the grill continued to roar with blissful ignorance.

The three main parties rose dutifully from their stools.

Damn it all — what is this even? He Youyuan couldn’t help but twitch at the corner of his mouth. Isn’t once enough of a misunderstanding? Now he has to misunderstand him a second time?

If he got publicly criticized once more, wouldn’t he end up being First Middle School’s top scoundrel? Not only had he allegedly switched romantic partners, but supposedly was now dating two girls at once?

“There’s nothing going on, really nothing.” He Youyuan raised three fingers in a solemn oath. “If I’m lying, may I never get a girlfriend for the rest of my life.”

Chen Guoming kept his face rigid and unmoved: what kind of deterrent power did a pledge like that even have?

Fang Zhixiao nodded vigorously beside him, bobbing like a pestle pounding grain. “Really, teacher — we’re just having a completely ordinary meal together, we haven’t done anything that violates school rules or discipline.”

Chen Guoming still said nothing, his sharp eyes like a hawk’s, sweeping back and forth across their faces.

“The thing is, Teacher Chen.” Li Kuiyi was the last to speak, calm and direct. “Recently the school has been holding a bulletin board competition to celebrate the National Holiday, hasn’t it? Our class finished painting our board today, but one of our classmates suddenly suggested that a portion of the design would look even better done in gouache — the colors would be more vivid, and the design would look more three-dimensional and layered. But none of us had gouache paint on hand at the time, so we thought we’d try to borrow some from another class. As it happened, I have a friend in Class 12, and she said their class used gouache to paint their bulletin board, so we went to borrow some. The person who lent us the paint was He Youyuan. To show our gratitude, we invited him out for a meal here.”

As she said this, she pointed to the rinse bucket beside the small square table and continued, “You see — the tools are right there. He Youyuan was kind enough to help us, and it was done with good intentions. None of us would want him to be misunderstood because of it…”

As she said all of this, she looked straight up at Chen Guoming, her voice steady with just a slight note of urgency — as if she were genuinely speaking up on He Youyuan’s behalf from the bottom of her heart.

Chen Guoming believed her.

Chen Guoming had always felt that children with outstanding academic results had very pure eyes, because they channeled all their energy single-mindedly into their studies. As he listened to Li Kuiyi’s explanation, what he saw was precisely that kind of clean and uncomplicated gaze.

He nodded and said, “The school doesn’t actually distrust you. Look — you’ve explained it clearly like this, and there’s really no misunderstanding. How good is that.”

His tone softened somewhat. “All right, I won’t pursue this matter further this time. But you should also remember the lesson here — boys and girls should have as little to do with each other as possible. Any sensible person understands the principle of avoiding suspicious situations, don’t they? Don’t let this happen again — finish eating and all go home.”

Whatever one thought of the reasoning coming from Chen Guoming’s mouth, in a situation like this the only right answer was to keep nodding. When you find yourself under someone else’s roof, you have no choice but to bow your head.

Before Chen Guoming left, he clapped a hand on He Youyuan’s head. “You, kid — keep an eye on yourself in your day-to-day life!”

He Youyuan: “…”

Chen Guoming strolled off down the barbecue street and gradually disappeared from view. With his departure, the noise around the stalls slowly returned.

“Unbelievable. Can’t believe that after all these years since graduating, I’m still afraid of the discipline master.”

“Ha! Sounds like you got into plenty of trouble during your school days.”

“That’s right — back in the day, your boy here was the most rebellious kid in the whole school. Nothing in heaven or earth was beyond me…”

He Youyuan turned and looked at Li Kuiyi. She was sitting calmly back in her seat, took a sip of her Bingbing soda, then pulled out her phone from her bag, tapped open her social media account, and seemed to be sending a message to someone.

He suddenly no longer wanted to teach her how to pursue him.

Just look at her — lying to the year-level director without so much as a flutter of her eyelashes. If he were her boyfriend, wouldn’t she have him spinning circles around her finger?

Whoever wanted to be that poor wretch could go right ahead — it was nothing to do with him.