"I'll have a sweet and sour pork, a stir-fried vegetable medley, and a three-fresh soup. That'll be all for now."
After finishing his order, Wang Hao handed the menu to the waiter standing nearby who had just finished writing it down.
"Brother Fan, how do you get along with all those step-siblings of yours?"
"I see all those family ethics dramas on TV, and they're always such a mess, throwing fits every single day," Wang Hao gossiped while washing his cutlery.
"You really have a wide range of hobbies, don't you?" Hu Fan shot a look at the man sitting opposite him that seemed to say, *How on earth do you even watch that kind of stuff?*
"Don't go slandering people. I was just worried about you! Talk about treating a heart of gold like a dog's lung," Wang Hao retorted, rolling his eyes speechless at his buddy.
"You just think too much. There are still plenty of normal people in this world, alright?"
"My family gets along just fine, no weird drama."
"Glad to hear it." Hearing his buddy's tone, Wang Hao realized he had overthought the whole thing. The worry in his heart vanished instantly, and he felt a whole lot more relaxed.
For the better part of the summer vacation, just because he'd caught a glimpse of a family ethics drama his mom was watching, he'd started thinking of Hu Fan, letting his imagination run wild and worrying himself sick.
Looking back now, it really was far-fetched.
Before long, the food was served. Breathing in that enticing aroma, their stomachs—which hadn't felt all that hungry just a moment ago—started rumbling loudly.
Instantly, the two of them stopped talking, picked up their chopsticks, and dug in.
You have to hand it to the chef, the cooking was genuinely top-notch. The sweet and sour pork was thin and crispy, delightfully sweet and tart, good enough to eat like little snacks.
"Mmm, delicious. It's a shame we didn't order this last time. We should come here more often from now on, though I wonder if the school lets us out at noon."
"What, you haven't even been to the cafeteria yet and you're already looking down on the school food? The food might actually be pretty good, you know."
"Ah, I bet it's just so-so. You get sick of it pretty fast if you eat it too much."
The appetites of two growing young men were no joke. Before long, the two dishes and one soup on the table were completely cleaned out.
Well-fed and satisfied, they strolled leisurely toward the bus stop.
As it happened, just as the two of them reached the sign, a route 320 bus pulled up right in front of them.
"I'm heading out. See you tomorrow!"
Wang Hao smoothly pulled his student ID card out of his backpack, waved at Hu Fan, and hopped onto the bus.
Watching the bus pull away, Hu Fan figured he might as well take the bus back—it was energy-efficient and eco-friendly—so he stayed right where he was and waited a bit longer.
And let's be honest, traffic in Beijing was truly brutal. Hu Fan spent nearly two hours on the bus before reaching his stop, and by the time he got off, his backside was completely numb.
It seemed that being eco-friendly wasn't something he needed to worry about; from now on, he'd just take a taxi. It wasn't like he couldn't afford the fare anyway.
Hu Fan stood in place for a moment to catch his breath before slowly walking into the residential compound. Feeling his shoulder bag slipping off his right shoulder, he reached up and hoisted the strap back into place.
"Bro, how come you're back so late?"
"Grabbed a bite outside."
Hu Fan pulled out his keys and shut the door behind him.
"Hey! You went out to eat something good and didn't take me?"
Thinking of the cup of instant noodles he'd had for lunch, Liu Xing grew extra indignant, and the look he gave his older brother turned sour.
"Hah, didn't old mom give you lunch money? What, didn't you eat well at noon, or did you blow it all on snacks early on?"
"Well... fine. But it's old mom's fault for giving me too little!"
Liu Xing pouted. Even though he felt a bit guilty, he still put up a stubborn front.
"Hah, wouldn't solve anything just buying fewer snacks."
Too lazy to argue with him, Hu Fan tossed his backpack casually onto the sofa, snapped a banana off the fruit bowl, and half-reclined on the couch to eat it at a leisurely pace.
Liu Xing refused to pursue that topic further; when it came to snacks, he couldn't go without even a single one.
"Bro, is your school big? What's it like? Is there a huge basketball court? Do they have a basketball team? Are you joining?"
He looked at his brother with curiosity while munching on a piece of pork jerky.
"Today's only the first day of school, I barely spent any time in the classroom, okay?"
"Oh come on, I'm just curious! I even want to go check out your school."
"What, isn't your own school enough for you to wreck?"
"Our school is tiny, I've already played everywhere there. Besides, none of them are any good at basketball. I want to play with Brother Hao."
Watching his younger brother's adolescent, arrogant swagger, Hu Fan couldn't help but feel a sudden urge to laugh.
"In your dreams. Your Brother Hao doesn't want to play with little kids."
"Alright, enough messing around, I'm going to my room."
Hu Fan ruffled his brother's somewhat prickly hair, grabbed his backpack, and walked toward his room.
Shuxiang Yayuan.
"Mom, I'm back."
Qiao Yingzi looked at her mother sitting on the sofa watching TV and greeted her with a hint of timidity.
"Yingzi, come here."
Song Qian picked up the remote control from the coffee table, turned off the TV, and stood up to take her daughter's schoolbag.
"Did you see the class sorting roster? Are you number one in your class?"
"N—no, second."
Unable to bear that fixed, intense stare, Qiao Yingzi couldn't help lowering her head. Hearing that inescapable question made her heart tremble with distress.
"I—I'll definitely do better next exam!"
Not wanting to see the look of disappointment in her mother's eyes, Qiao Yingzi hurriedly offered a guarantee that she would definitely take first place next time.
Although disappointed, seeing her daughter like this, Song Qian didn't know what else to say. She could only push the child even harder in her studies, demanding that she strive to go further.
"Alright, now that you know you've slipped, you need to work hard to catch up. Let's eat first, and after you finish, go back to your room to preview your lessons. Especially your mathematics—read more and practice more, understand?"
"Mm, I know, Mom."
Qiao Yingzi felt a wave of relief wash over her, followed immediately by a tight, suffocating sensation in her chest.
"Mom, I'm going to wash my hands."
"Go ahead."
Looking at the large bowl of chicken soup served before her, Qiao Yingzi felt a bit nauseous. But remembering how her mother had simmered it for hours, she didn't want to let all that effort go to waste, so she simply lowered her head and forced it down.
Because old hen soup was supposedly nourishing, Song Qian had been boiling chicken soup almost every single day lately. At first, Qiao Yingzi thought it tasted great, but she simply couldn't take it anymore after drinking it for half a month straight.
"Mom, please don't make chicken soup tomorrow. I've been drinking it continuously for so long now."
"Alright then, I'll make something else for you tomorrow."
Seeing the furrow in her daughter's brow, Song Qian swallowed the refusal that had been on the tip of her tongue. She figured that if the girl didn't like drinking it anymore, she could just switch to something else; there were plenty of other nutritious things out there.
"Here, finish this up and then you can go back to your room to study and preview."
Seeing that the rice bowl was empty, Song Qian picked up some greens with her chopsticks and put them into her daughter's bowl.
"Mom, I'm going in."
"Mm, remember to study seriously. There's a stack of matching exercise books I bought for you on the desk, make sure you write in them."
"Okay."
As soon as Qiao Yingzi opened her bedroom door, she saw a thick stack of exercise books neatly arranged on the desk by the window.
She closed the door behind her, walked over, and flipped through them one by one, discovering that every single subject was covered, and some even had more than one workbook.
Suddenly feeling utterly drained, she slumped into the chair beside the desk. She felt as though she was being crushed by a weight that made it hard to breathe.
"Yingzi, hurry up and read."
"Okay."
Hearing the urge from outside, Qiao Yingzi took a few deep breaths, unzipped her backpack, took out the newly issued textbooks for the day, and began to preview.