Seeing this, Zhao Yu held back a smile and was just about to stand up to grab a few plastic bags to pack the food when a tall figure suddenly stopped at their table.
Zhao Yu looked up, her eyes widening slightly.
Ning Songyi?
What is he doing here?
On the other side, Ye Heng walked over carrying a tray.
"Brother Yi, where did you run off to? You vanished the second we moved."
As Ye Heng spoke, his peripheral vision caught sight of Zhao Yu and Ning Songyun sitting at the table.
"Well, well, if it isn't the little Ning girl, and Comrade Zhao, too. Coming for lunch?"
Ye Heng used his free hand to give Ning Songyi a covert nudge in the ribs, teasing, "No wonder you ran off like a bat out of hell."
"What else would we be doing here if not to eat?"
Ning Songyun glared at Ye Heng, then her eyes darted around, and her expression instantly shifted from disdain to extreme servility.
"Brother, you haven't ordered yet, right? Why don't you join us?"
At a single glance, Ye Heng could tell that they had ordered way too much food and couldn't possibly finish it all.
"Hey, little girl, if you can't finish your food, just admit it. Why are you trying to make your big brother clean up your leftovers?"
"Nobody asked you to eat it."
Ning Songyun retorted, "Besides, we’ve only been eating from one side, the other side hasn't even been touched. Don't you know wasting food is shameful?"
"I say one thing, and you've got a whole stack waiting for me... Hey, Brother Yi, why are you sitting down?"
Before Ye Heng could even finish, he watched Ning Songyi pull out a chair and sit down right beside Zhao Yu.
"You can go find a spot somewhere else to eat your own food."
Ning Songyun blinked triumphantly at Ye Heng.
"I'm not going anywhere." Ye Heng set his tray down on the table and sat straight down beside Ning Songyun.
Zhao Yu cast a quiet glance at Ning Songyi, who was sitting upright beside her, and reached out to pour him a glass of water.
"If you mind, you really don't have to force yourself..."
Before Zhao Yu could finish, she saw Ning Songyi reach over to take the bowl of rice from Ye Heng's tray, pull a pair of chopsticks from the holder, and quietly begin to eat.
Zhao Yu blinked, then went back to picking at her food at a leisurely pace.
When they were almost finished, Zhao Yu stood up. "You guys go ahead and eat, I'm going to the restroom."
Seeing Zhao Yu get up, Ning Songyi put down his chopsticks and followed her toward the counter.
"Excuse me, I'd like to pay."
Just as Zhao Yu pulled out her wallet, a large hand intercepted her.
"Let me."
Ning Songyi produced the cash and food coupons and handed them to the cashier before Zhao Yu could even react.
"I can't let you do that. Let me give you the coupons."
On the way back, Zhao Yu fished the money and coupons out of her own pocket.
"No need." Ning Songyi shook his head, then asked with some hesitation, "Do you... not remember me?"
Hearing this, Zhao Yu looked at him in utter bewilderment, her gaze turning serious as she scrutinized him.
Suddenly.
A blurry face became sharper and clearer in her mind.
"You're... Stone Brother!"
Ning Songyi's deeply furrowed brows instantly relaxed, and his voice took on an inexplicable gentleness. "It's me."
"Stone Brother, didn't your family move away to Beijing? What are you doing here?"
Realizing that the person in front of her was the childhood companion who had always protected her, Zhao Yu's tone grew much more relaxed.
"My parents were transferred here. I only found out about it when I arrived in Beijing with my grandfather."
Ning Songyi leaned a bit closer to Zhao Yu and asked in a low voice, "Did you not read the letters I sent you?"
"Letters?"
Zhao Yu was momentarily stunned, then realization dawned on her. "After you left, my mother passed away. Even though my father had already divorced her, he still came and took me away right after her funeral, so..."
Ning Songyi nodded in understanding. Realizing that the aunt who had been so good to him was gone, his mood plummeted. "My condolences."
"It's all in the past now, and I'm doing really well." Zhao Yu's tone was breezy, and she didn't look like she was just putting on a brave face.
"Really well? Then... what about Lu Jing?"
Now that he had revealed his identity and learned why she had never received his reply, Ning Songyi's personality seemed to revert a little to the days when he loved to tease Zhao Yu.
As he spoke, not only was there amusement in his eyes, but his tone carried a distinct trace of teasing and banter.
"Stone Brother!" Zhao Yu felt a mix of embarrassment and anger. "If you're going to tease me, I'm never talking to you again!"
Watching Zhao Yu throw a little tantrum, Ning Songyi bit the corner of his lip to hold back a smile, instinctively wanting to reach out and pat her head just like he used to when they were kids.
As a result...
"What do you think you're doing?!"
Lu Jing stormed over in a fury and violently slapped away Ning Songyi's hand, which was just about to land on Zhao Yu's head.
"What do *you* think you're doing?!"
Zhao Yu forcefully shoved Lu Jing away and turned to see Ning Songyi clutching his wrist with a frown.
Noticing her looking over, he quickly forced his hand down, acting as if nothing was wrong, and gave her a reassuring smile. "I'm fine."
Hearing the commotion, Ye Heng and Ning Songyun, who had walked over, both hissed in shock at the same time.
Ning Songyun: Is this really my expressionless older brother, the one whose very presence could stop crying babies in the neighborhood courtyard?
Ye Heng: Is this really my Brother Yi, the guy who could endure having two broken ribs and still train with a completely poker face?
Unaware of the shock the other two were experiencing, Zhao Yu looked at Ning Songyi with worry, noticing how he was unconsciously biting his lip against the pain.
Lu Jing's gaze darted back and forth between the two of them, a mixture of sudden realization and deep sorrow washing over his face.
"Brother Lu, you guys know each other?" Wang Lin, the fellow soldier who had come with Lu Jing, walked up.
"Zhao Yu, my fiancée." Lu Jing's expression was laced with desolation.
Lu Jing glanced at Zhao Yu, then quickly looked away, as if he had just witnessed something utterly disgraceful.
"Zhao Yu, why did you suddenly want to break off our engagement? It's not just because of Lin Shu, is it? It's because of *him*, isn't it?"
Wang Lin looked at the three of them in confusion, his gaze finally fixing on Ning Songyi.
"Isn't this Chief Lu's grandson? What is he doing with your fiancée?"
Making a leap in logic, Wang Lin looked at Zhao Yu with overt contempt.
"You've got to be kidding me." Zhao Yu was so angry at his words and his look that she laughed.
"You're the one who insists on taking care of the wife of a fallen comrade who died saving you, and yet you still want to drag me down into the mud with you? When your plan fails, you turn around and shift the blame—where do you get the nerve?"
"I owe it to them. Since you were with me, why wouldn't you share that burden?"
"She's not blind."
Ning Songyi spoke up abruptly, a single sentence completely deflating whatever else Lu Jing was about to say.
Having grown up together, Zhao Yu was long used to Ning Songyi's lethal, choking style of speaking.
In fact, this exact remark completely wiped away any awkwardness from their nearly ten years apart.
"No matter what, you can't just dump our Brother Lu just because you found yourself a wealthier, more powerful man in Ning Songyi!"
Wang Lin pressed on, stubbornly enduring Ning Songyi's "death glare."
"Right, right, right. I'm petty, I'm mercenary, and I'm unfaithful."
Zhao Yu immediately launched into a round of sarcasm: "Since you're so high and mighty, when Lu Jing eventually comes to borrow money from you or beg you for a favor to repay his life-saving debt, you'd better make sure you help him without holding anything back, you hear?"
"What... what debt of gratitude?"