Zhang Mingyang and the others went straight into the restaurant and found a private booth to sit down.
Chu Yang casually took the menu, flipped through it for a few moments, and then looked at the others. "I'm going to the restroom. Just order whatever you like."
Meanwhile.
Lin Qingxue, Li Qian, and the others also arrived at the restaurant and immediately found a table in a corner.
After calling the owner over to bring the menu, Lin Qingxue looked at her friends. "You guys just go ahead and order. I think I just saw someone I know, I'm going to go find him."
Li Qian's eyes lit up. "Who could that be? It wouldn't happen to be a handsome guy, would it?"
Lin Qingxue rolled her eyes. "Oh, hush. Go ahead and look at the menu."
With that, she stood up and swept her gaze around the barbecue restaurant.
Finding only unfamiliar faces everywhere she looked, her expression immediately turned a little disappointed.
However, she took a deep breath, walked over, and quickly pushed open the doors to the private booths in the restaurant one by one.
Finding still no sign of that familiar face, she walked out of the booths looking dejected, muttering apologies over and over, "Sorry, I went into the wrong room. Wrong room."
Finally, Lin Qingxue pushed open the door to the booth where Zhang Mingyang and his friends were sitting.
"Senior Lin?" Seeing Lin Qingxue walk in, Zhang Mingyang and the others widened their eyes in surprise.
"Hello there, hello." Lin Qingxue smiled awkwardly at the three of them, then looked at the four sets of tableware laid out on the table and asked curiously, "You guys... is there someone else joining you?"
Zhu Pengfei quickly answered, "Our third brother went to the restroom."
"Oh!" Lin Qingxue nodded, looking at them apologetically. "I'm sorry, I thought I saw someone I knew earlier and walked into the wrong room."
With that, she quickly backed out of the booth.
The moment she turned around, however, she caught sight of a young man in a white short-sleeved shirt walking past.
At that instant.
Lin Qingxue's heartbeat suddenly accelerated significantly.
Taking a deep breath, she slowly walked up behind the young man and quickly tapped him on the shoulder.
The young man in front spun around quickly.
Seeing that it was Lin Qingxue, his eyes lit up instantly. "Classmate Lin, is there something you need?"
Lin Qingxue's expression froze instantly. "I'm so sorry, classmate, I mistook you for someone else."
"My apologies, truly sorry about that." Lin Qingxue apologized repeatedly before finally returning to Li Qian and the others in low spirits.
Li Qian hurriedly asked, "What's going on with you? You went out for a spin and came back looking like you'd lost your soul."
"It's nothing." Lin Qingxue forced a smile as she raised her head, then looked at the iced beer sitting on the table. "This is our first time hanging out together to eat barbecue this semester. Let's have a couple of drinks first—I'll drain my glass first as a toast!"
She quickly popped open a bottle of beer with an opener.
Pouring herself a full glass of beer.
Lin Qingxue tilted her head back and gulped down the entire glass of beer in one go.
Meanwhile.
Chu Yang slowly walked out of the restroom, bypassing the main dining area, and pushed open the door straight back into their private booth.
On the table in the booth.
Glasses had already been filled to the brim with iced beer.
Seeing Chu Yang enter, Zhu Pengfei and the two others immediately smiled. "Third brother, you took forever in the restroom! Everyone's been waiting for you. Come, come, to celebrate all of us gathering here from all corners of the country, let's bottoms up together!"
Chu Yang didn't hesitate. After sitting down, he immediately picked up the beer glass in front of him and smiled at the three of them. "To our meeting!"
......
Half an hour later.
After three rounds of drinks and plenty of food.
Zhang Mingyang's face was flushed at this point. Holding up his glass, he smiled at the others, "Brothers, Senior Lin Qingxue is also eating here in this restaurant. What do you say, should we all go out and toast her? After all, she's going to be our assistant counselor during military training."
Chu Yang's expression faltered. "Did Lin Qingxue come over earlier?"
Wang Lei immediately chimed in, "You were in the restroom at the time. Senior Lin must have gone into the wrong room and popped into our booth for a second. I saw her and her roommates still drinking outside when I went out to use the restroom just now."
Zhu Pengfei nodded in agreement. "Right, right, I saw her too. I have to say, Senior Lin really lives up to her reputation as Peking University's number one campus belle—even the way she drinks is fiercely hardcore!"
"Drinking?" Chu Yang frowned slightly. The Lin Qingxue he knew before had never touched a single drop of alcohol.
"Screech!"
Accompanied by the sound of a chair scraping across the floor, Chu Yang instantly stood up from his seat.
Zhu Pengfei and the others looked up at him in surprise. "Third brother, where are you going?"
A trace of worry flashed in Chu Yang's eyes, and he smiled as he looked at Zhu Pengfei and the others. "I'm stepping out for a bit. You guys keep drinking."
With that, Chu Yang pushed open the door of the private booth and walked out into the main dining hall.
Casting his gaze around.
He quickly spotted Lin Qingxue, who was continuously drinking.
......
At the dining table.
Li Qian and her other two roommates looked at Lin Qingxue with worry. "Qingxue, stop drinking now. Look at you, are you drunk?"
Ever since Lin Qingxue had walked around the barbecue restaurant earlier.
They had felt that something wasn't quite right with her.
She kept acting like she had lost her soul.
And she had been drinking glass after glass.
At first, they thought she was just in a bad mood, so they had kept her company with a few drinks.
They hadn't expected this girl to drink so fiercely!
"I'm fine, I'll just finish this last glass and then I'll stop." Lin Qingxue's vision was already starting to blur, and the hand holding her glass trembled slightly as her face burned with a deep flush.
At that moment.
A face that she had been dreaming of day and night suddenly appeared before her eyes.
Though it looked a bit blurry.
Lin Qingxue was certain.
It was Chu Yang!
"Stop drinking!" Chu Yang snatched the glass right out of her hand and gulped down the contents in a single breath.
Li Qian looked at Chu Yang in surprise. "Junior!"
"Hello, Senior." Chu Yang greeted Li Qian, then looked at Lin Qingxue with a heartache-filled gaze and asked the group, "How much has she had to drink?"
Li Qian pointed to the four or five empty beer bottles placed on the floor. "All of those were drunk by our campus belle here, and now... she's had way too much."
Lin Qingxue suddenly raised her head.
Two streams of tears instantly welled up in her slightly red-rimmed eyes:
"I am not drunk!"
"Chu Yang, is that you, Chu Yang?"
"You finally showed up!"
Right after that, she threw her arms tightly around Chu Yang, who was standing beside her, and sobbed against him, "I promise you, I will never argue with you again. Please don't suddenly disappear on me anymore, okay?"
Chu Yang's expression grew complex.
He reached out and gently patted Lin Qingxue's trembling shoulders, then looked at Li Qian. "Senior, which dorm building is yours? Let me help you guys get her back to the dorm first."
"Alright, alright!" Li Qian was stunned for a second, then said excitedly, "We honestly couldn't manage to drag her back anyway, so we'll have to trouble you, Junior."
"It's no trouble." Chu Yang shook his head.
He reached out, wrapped an arm around Lin Qingxue's slender waist.
And scooped her up into his arms in a bridal style.
Then, with steady strides.
He slowly carried her away from the barbecue restaurant.