Yege arrived at the open-air food stall as the sky was growing dark.
"Yezi, over here, over here!" Wang Jie waved at Yege, who spotted him almost immediately.
"Yezi, what do you want to eat?" Wang Jie handed the menu over to Yege.
"Anything is fine." Yege pushed the menu back.
"Alright then, I'll just order whatever." Wang Jie jotted down a few substantial dishes and ordered two drinks.
"Class Monitor, spill it. Why did you suddenly ask me out to dinner today? What's going on?" Yege asked straight to the point.
"Yezi, at next week's class reunion, I'm planning to confess my feelings to Yan Cici," Wang Jie said seriously, his face carrying that trace of bashfulness unique to youth.
"Go ahead and confess if you want, why drag me into it?"
"Of course I have to talk to you."
Wang Jie scratched the back of his head, looking somewhat embarrassed.
"You're Yan Cici's childhood friend, and everyone knows you like Yan Cici. Since we're friends and classmates, I could never do something as underhanded as trying to undermine you behind your back. So I'm planning to talk to you about this, and compete with you fair and square. Let's get this straight first: no matter who succeeds or fails in the end, we're still brothers and three years of classmates—we can't just become strangers after this."
"I don't think there's much need for that," Yege said with a smile.
"What do you mean?" Wang Jie was momentarily stunned.
"Last night, I confessed to Yan Cici."
"And then? Holy shit, Cici didn't actually say yes to you, did she?" Wang Jie's heart instantly turned to ash.
"She didn't." Yege shook his head. "Cici turned me down, saying she only sees me as an older brother. I don't plan to keep pursuing her either, so if you want to confess, go right ahead—the two of us aren't in any competitive relationship."
"No way, Yezi, you gave up? I heard from Chen Ji that you've liked Yan Cici ever since kindergarten!" Wang Jie found it hard to believe.
"I gave up." Yege smiled, his expression very calm without a hint of sadness. Wang Jie felt that Yege didn't seem to be putting up a front at all, but genuinely didn't want to persist anymore.
"Since it's like this, I won't ask any more questions. That makes things easy then. If I end up with Cici in the future, you've got to give us your blessing," Wang Jie raised his wine glass.
"Get Yan Cici to say yes to you first. Her standards are very high, you know."
"Are you kidding? I'm no worse-looking than you, my estimated college entrance exam score is the same as yours, and I'm richer than you—just two centimeters shorter, that's all. The advantage is mine!" Wang Jie looked extremely confident.
At this, Yege only smiled and said nothing more.
Because back in his first lifetime, Yege had already realized that Yan Cici's standards were far higher than he had ever imagined.
All he could do was wish this kid good luck.
The dishes were served one after another, and Wang Jie stopped talking to Yege about Yan Cici. Instead, the two of them chatted about which university majors were good and which universities to attend.
Since Wang Jie and Yege had similar grades, going to the same university would allow them to look out for each other, and they could travel back home together during winter and summer breaks.
Yege mentioned that he would be heading to Yuhang University. As for his major, it would be the same as in his first life: Computer Science.
After all, he was already familiar with the coursework, and he knew the content of every exam ahead of time, which would save him plenty of time to start a business.
The two chatted until eight o'clock in the evening. Wang Jie couldn't hold his liquor yet insisted on acting like a grown-up and drinking straight from the bottle, so in the end, it was Yege who carried Wang Jie home.
Yege took the bus home. Two stops before his destination, he spotted a braised food shop—the kind of viral braised food brand from his past life, though it hadn't blown up in popularity yet.
Yege got off the bus, bought some braised snacks, and made his way back through the small alleys.
Although the public security in 2009 wasn't all that great and the alleys were rather gloomy, as a six-foot-tall grown man, Yege wasn't afraid in the least.
......
In the back kitchen of a KEC restaurant.
A young woman wearing a red and black staff uniform was frying chicken wings, her peach-blossom eyes completely focused.
"Xiaomu, go ahead and get off work, it's time," the female restaurant manager walked up and said to the young woman.
The young woman named Su Mu nodded and made a hand gesture that meant "thank you."
"Don't mention it. Here, take this, it's still warm. You haven't eaten dinner yet, have you?"
The manager handed several packaged hamburgers and roasted wings to Su Mu.
Su Mu hurriedly waved her hands in refusal.
"It's fine, it's fine. The raw materials for these are almost past their expiration date anyway, and they were going to be written off as waste. Besides, this is a foreign company making so much money off us Chinese people, what's wrong with us taking a little advantage? Just take it, I can still make the call on something this small."
The manager kept trying to hang the bag on Su Mu's hand.
Yet Su Mu kept waving her hands, stubbornly refusing to accept it.
"You young girl..." The manager sighed.
"Forget it, how about this then? Just pay me the cost price. These things were going to be thrown away anyway—I'll give you a thirty percent discount on the cost price and deduct it from your wages this month, alright? There, settled. If you refuse again, I'm really going to get mad. Hurry back now, and be careful on the road."
The manager turned and left, not giving Su Mu a single reason to refuse.
Holding the bag in her hands, Su Mu could only silently keep the manager's kindness in her heart, vowing to return the favor later.
"Did Su Mu head back?" In the break room, the female store owner asked the manager.
"She went back," the manager nodded.
"Sigh, what a good kid," the store manager sighed.
"Yeah, what a good kid..." Watching the direction in which Su Mu had left, the female manager felt deeply moved as well.
Su Mu walked on her way home, trying as much as possible to stick to the crowded main roads where it was safer.
However, since Su Mu lived in an old, rundown alleyway, she inevitably had to take some shortcuts.
Whenever this happened, Su Mu would wear a large oversized hoodie to conceal herself, keeping her head down as she walked briskly forward.
"Hahaha, Brother Wang, thanks for helping me teach that punk a lesson today."
"Don't mention it, don't mention it. Damn it, how dare he try to snatch a chick from my brother? If we don't beat him up, who do we beat? But that chick of yours isn't bad though, how about..."
"Hehehe, wait till I get her drunk one of these days, and then the two of us..."
"Hahaha..."
Right in the alleyway that Su Mu had to take to get home, two delinquent youths with dyed hair and tattoos, reeking of alcohol, sat chatting drunkenly.
Su Mu retreated out of the alley, wanting to wait for them to leave before walking through.
Yet after waiting for half an hour, when Su Mu walked back to the alley, they were still there, and seemed even drunker than before.
If she didn't get back soon, her younger sister would start worrying.
Swallowing hard, Su Mu pulled her hood down even tighter to conceal herself and walked briskly forward.
Yet just as Su Mu walked past, one of the yellow-haired youths happened to raise his head and take a look.
One look was all it took for the yellow-haired youth to perk up completely!
Su Mu brushed past the two of them.
The yellow-haired youth bumped his shoulder against his boss's and jerked his chin toward Su Mu.