The two of them arrived at the cafeteria. Because they were late, there was no longer any line. Lu Mingfei asked Erii about her preferences and bought two portions of food.
Lu Mingfei found a corner table to sit down, and Erii sat directly opposite him. *A feast for the eyes,* Lu Mingfei sighed inwardly, but he quickly dismissed the thought. He could already feel a large number of hostile gazes fixed upon him. Lu Mingfei switched on his threat-detection radar, only to find the dial glowing entirely red. *Oh no, some unruly subjects are trying to do me in.*
Lu Mingfei raised his head to look at Erii. "Erii, let's discuss something."
Erii seemed oblivious to the gravity of the situation. Her eyes shone as she stared fixedly at the food on her plate.
"Go ahead."
"How about you move to another table? Let's not sit together." Lu Mingfei could already feel the strange looks coming from all around.
"Why? I think this place is quite nice."
"Because the people around us aren't looking at me very kindly."
"Is it because of me?" Erii looked at Lu Mingfei.
"So you do know." It seemed she was quite self-aware of her own charm.
Lu Mingfei felt a bit embarrassed. After all, Erii only knew him in this entire school, and now he was trying to chase her off to eat at another table. In truth, he knew this wasn't Erii's fault; pretty girls attracted attention wherever they went.
"No." Erii snatched her plate back and took a large bite.
"Why?" Lu Mingfei was baffled.
"I don't like sitting with strangers." Erii used her chopsticks to pick up a shred of potato from Lu Mingfei's plate and popped it into her mouth.
*Brothers, I really don't mean anything by this, she asked for this herself, I really have no choice,* Lu Mingfei thought, bracing himself against the murderous glares of his fellow males as he sat down to eat.
"I count as a stranger too, you know," Lu Mingfei muttered under his breath.
"Lu Mingfei doesn't count," Erii nodded thoughtfully.
"Come on, we only met yesterday," Lu Mingfei retorted.
"Yeah, we only met yesterday, but it feels like we've known each other for a long time." Erii blinked, flashing an innocent and carefree smile.
"Don't..." Lu Mingfei originally wanted to say "Don't act so cute," but on second thought, she was naturally cute; she didn't need to act at all.
"I'm not leaving." Erii smiled, her eyes curving into crescents.
"I want to eat that?" She pointed toward a small stall they had passed by while getting their food.
"Ice cream?" Since it was summer, the cafeteria also sold some cold drinks and popsicles for students to beat the heat.
"Mm, strawberry flavor." Erii nodded obediently.Lu Mingfei told himself in his heart that he must not be deceived by appearances; this woman was not as harmless as she looked on the surface. Because there were not many people in line, Lu Mingfei quickly returned with the ice cream. Erii looked at the two ice creams in his hand, her eyes sparkling.
"First, let's get this straight: the strawberry flavor is yours, and the other grape-flavored one is mine. No going back on your word."
Erii obediently nodded, yet did not reach out to take the ice cream Lu Mingfei was holding out to her.
"Eldest Miss, what is your bidding?" Lu Mingfei was somewhat at a loss; hostile gazes from the surroundings were locked onto their direction, and Lu Mingfei only wanted to get Erii to finish eating quickly and then take her away.
Erii pouted.
"What, you're a grown-up and you still need to be fed?"
Erii opened her mouth, her eyelids drooping slightly, waiting for Lu Mingfei to bring the ice cream over.
Lu Mingfei felt a bit impatient; the gazes cast from all around felt like needles pricking into his body. He figured "feeling pins and needles on one's back" must be this exact sensation.
Lu Mingfei brought the strawberry ice cream to Erii's lips. Erii took a lick, a look of satisfaction spreading across her face as she gently closed her eyes, her eyelashes trembling slightly, her little mouth parted slightly like a cherry dripping with water. Lu Mingfei was stunned into a daze; even with a demon dwelling in her heart, her visage remained that of an angel. While he was lost in Erii's peerless beauty, Erii launched a lightning-fast speed-attack magic on the grape-flavored ice cream. Lu Mingfei didn't even have time to activate a trap card.
"You..." Before Lu Mingfei could speak, Erii snatched the strawberry ice cream and handed it to him.
"What?"
"I tasted yours, so I'll let you taste a bite of mine." Erii turned her face away, looking somewhat shy.
"Oh, oh." Lu Mingfei took a huge bite, noticing at that moment that the rims of Erii's eyes were slightly red, even the tips of her ears were flushed pink, and her cheeks were so red they seemed ready to drip water.
"You're the one who told me to eat it, I didn't eat extra." Lu Mingfei found it hard to guess what Erii was thinking.
"Mhm." Erii obediently nodded. "The cafeteria has so many flavors of ice cream. If you want to taste them all, isn't this the fastest way?"
Looking at Erii's shy appearance, Lu Mingfei felt his heart take ten thousand points of critical damage. Something unclean seemed to have suddenly burrowed into his empty heart cavity.
Just then, a dark figure flashed by: "Yiya yiya, an indirect kiss! Got a great photo of it.""Su Xiaoqiang, stop talking nonsense." Hearing the Little Heavenly Queen put it that way, Lu Mingfei suddenly felt things were taking an awkward turn. Strictly speaking, they had just been feeding each other. Having momentarily let down his guard, he had actually let himself be fed. Seeing the expressions of the people around them, Lu Mingfei felt a vague sense of unease.
"Yes, yes, yes, I'm talking nonsense." Su Xiaoqiang narrowed her eyes, and Lu Mingfei instantly knew she was up to no good. "How about I post the picture on the forum and let our classmates review it?"
"I'm warning you, don't pull any stunts." Lu Mingfei eyed Su Xiaoqiang with suspicion.
"Get this straight: who should be afraid of whom right now?" Su Xiaoqiang flashed a playful smile. "Go buy your big sister an ice cream, and I'll let you off the hook."
"I won't go. Why on earth should I buy you anything?" Lu Mingfei launched a rebellion.
"Fine, double standards it is then." Su Xiaoqiang unceremoniously took a seat right next to Erii.
"Hi, I'm Su Xiaoqiang."
"Hi, I'm Erii." The two girls struck up a conversation on their own, leaving Lu Mingfei seemingly out of the picture.
"Who's that guy? Sitting and eating with two campus belles," passersby muttered, speculating about Lu Mingfei's identity. At that moment, he just wished he could find a crack in the ground to crawl into so he wouldn't draw so much attention.
"Why are you staring at the floor? Sad to see Erii get stolen away by me?" Su Xiaoqiang teased, looking at Lu Mingfei as he kept his head down, glaring intently at his own ice cream.
"As if." Lu Mingfei looked at the two girls, feeling a headache coming on.
"Erii, let me tell you about Lu Mingfei's dark history."
"Mm-hmm."
"Hey, I'm still right here. What are you two plotting so loudly for?" Lu Mingfei shot Su Xiaoqiang a warning glare. He knew plenty of her dark history too; when it came to mutual destruction, who was afraid of whom?
"Let me tell you, when he first came in during the first year of high school..." Su Xiaoqiang recounted to Erii how she and Lu Mingfei had first crossed paths, bursting into laughter as she described how Lu Mingfei used to hop around holding his foot.
Erii glanced at Lu Mingfei. "His mouth is just a bit clumsy."
"Right? Totally." Su Xiaoqiang grabbed Erii's hand, looking every bit like a best friend. "Back then, I actually thought he liked Chen Wenwen, but looking at it now, Chen Wenwen is completely not his type at all, is she?"
"Does he like President Chen?" Erii's eyelashes lowered, her gaze turning somewhat desolate.
Su Xiaoqiang wore a thoughtful look. "Whenever the Literature Club has any events, he's always the most enthusiastic."
Lu Mingfei thought back and realized it really was just as she said. No matter what event the Literature Club was holding, he always rushed to the front lines, probably just to get a little closer to Chen Wenwen. But unfortunately, Chen Wenwen was with Zhao Menghua now. At this thought, a pang shot through Lu Mingfei's heart. He raised his head and looked at Su Xiaoqiang with a trace of sympathy. Should he tell her? She must still be kept in the dark. Never mind—he and Su Xiaoqiang had old scores to settle anyway; he'd let someone else play the villain.
"That's right. Yesterday Mingming clearly promised to accompany me around the school, but in the end, he broke his promise because the Literature Club had business." Erii's small hands clenched slightly.
"Su Xiaoqiang, will you quit talking nonsense? Rumors take one second to start, but refuting them breaks your legs."
"Ooh, ooh, ooh, he's flustered, he's flustered." Su Xiaoqiang's mischievous expression made Lu Mingfei want to curse her out. "Still, judging by how things look now, he doesn't like literary maidens after all—anime schoolgirls are more his style."
"I told you to stop talking nonsense." Lu Mingfei's old face flushed red. He simply thought Erii was cute; as for any other ideas, he didn't have a single one. What kind of loser was he to be tangling with campus belles anyway?
Yet, when he really thought about it, his luck with campus belles was actually pretty remarkable. Barely had he started his first year of high school when he crossed paths with Su Xiaoqiang, then he was invited by Chen Wenwen to join the Literature Club, and now he had been entrusted by a teacher to look after Erii.
"Who was it feeding each other just now? You've stuffed me full of couple PDA." Su Xiaoqiang looked at the two of them with a beaming smile.
"It's not what you think." Lu Mingfei still intended to argue.
Yet Erii showed no intention of refuting it whatsoever, merely lowering her head with a blushing face to take tiny, delicate bites of her ice cream.
"What kind of way am I thinking? You were staring like you were in a trance."
Lu Mingfei stared blankly at Erii, while Su Xiaoqiang felt completely redundant.
After finishing their meal, Su Xiaoqiang dragged Erii away under the pretext that she needed a little sister to accompany her to the restroom.
"Tell me, you like Lu Mingfei, right?" Su Xiaoqiang shook Erii's arm, acting like they were the closest of friends.
"Is it that obvious?" Erii's face turned so red it made people want to lean in and give her a kiss.
"Pretty much, but I could tell." Su Xiaoqiang paused. "There's something in the way you look at him that's identical to the way I look at Zhao Menghua."
"You like Zhao Menghua?" Erii thought for a moment. That boy who had given up his seat for her must have been Zhao Menghua. Remembering what Lu Mingfei had said last night, she decided she'd better not tell her.
"Too bad Zhao Menghua likes Chen Wenwen." Su Xiaoqiang shook her head.
"So the two of us are sharing the same misery." Realizing that Lu Mingfei also liked Chen Wenwen, Erii felt a sense of disappointment.
"I'll help you chase Lu Mingfei," Su Xiaoqiang proposed.
"Why would Su Xiaoqiang want to help me?" Erii asked, somewhat puzzled.
"To defeat Chen Wenwen, of course." Su Xiaoqiang winked playfully. "Call me Xiaoqiang from now on."