Chapter 46 (1/2)

He Nuo obediently turned into a masked man during his breaks. Shi Yan didn’t come to find him very often. Half his face was covered while they cycled on the road, so he would have to pull his scarf down if he wanted to speak; he could easily choke on the wind if he did that, so Shi Yan always made He Nuo hide behind him and asked him not to talk. If he wanted to say something, he should wait until they were in a place where there was no wind.

New Year’s was approaching, which meant that their semester was drawing to a close. Even though they were being crushed by the immense workload of their third year, the students still treasured this last group activity of their high school life (faints, when I wrote about the group activity I suddenly remembered that He Nuo had partic.i.p.ated in this year’s Autumn sports festival as well. Because there were only a few boys in the liberal arts cla.s.s, no one could escape the responsibility of taking on at least two sports, this happened in October not long after he had reconciled with Shi Yan. I forgot to write about it, so I’ll just have to add this in in an extra.) So in addition to the New Year’s party that was held at school in the afternoon, some students had also organised some late night entertainment outside of school — one of the student’s parents had offered their company’s huge conference room and their house’s unused one-storey courtyard to host it.

Most of Shi Yan’s gang had been invited to the party, so Shi Yan told He Nuo to apply for leave from his family to go out to play for awhile and return home a bit later that night. This wasn’t difficult; after He Nuo told his parents where he was going and who he was going with, they agreed to let him return home late. They had their usual cla.s.ses in the morning, then in the afternoon a few students didn’t go home as they began to decorate their cla.s.srooms. Shi Yan wasn’t in charge of anything this year because he didn’t have the time. He had to leave almost immediately after school ended everyday to send He Nuo back home.

When he reached the school’s bike shed in the morning, Shi Yan took out a paper bag from his backpack, “Take this to your cla.s.s.”

He Nuo waved his hand and pointed at his backpack as a signal to tell Shi Yan that he had already brought some.

“I know you’d bring some.” Shi Yan smiled, “If you didn’t it’s not like you’d eat the food others bring. I brought this for you, eat more later and don’t just give it all to other people.”

He Nuo only untied his huge scarf after he had reached the second floor. He waved the lunchbox and asked, “What tasty food is in this?”

“Squid with crispy rice crust1, I specially got the company to make it. Keep it warm near the heater, or else it’d taste a little fishy when you eat it.”

He Nuo interacted more often with the students in his current cla.s.s than in his previous one, and were more familiar with his cla.s.smates here. So he happily observed his cla.s.s gathering this time and would listen in to the conversations of others. Once in awhile, he’d chat with Yu Yao and a few of his other cla.s.smates. Shi Yan once represented his cla.s.s to pay the liberal arts cla.s.s a New Year’s call, and had sat by He Nuo’s side for awhile. He quietly asked He Nuo if he liked the dish he brought. To tell the truth, it really did taste quite good, but when He Nuo saw that the others liked to eat it too and were even fighting over it, he only took some with his chopsticks once and never tried to take anymore after that.

After their cla.s.s’s gathering ended, Shi Yan brought He Nuo to a restaurant. When they went in, they didn’t see anyone else so He Nuo asked out of curiosity, “Aren’t we eating with them?”

“We’ll go look for them later, we won’t get to eat if we have dinner with them. They’re preparing a barbeque, and there might not even be enough meat for all those wolves. We’ll eat here first before going over.” As he spoke, he had already pa.s.sed an Apollo over to He Nuo.

This was their first time eating together. Shi Yan didn’t know what He Nuo liked to eat, so he gave him the menu first. He Nuo’s eyes were only filled with the menu’s prices, and he didn’t know how to order in the first place. Shi Yan casually asked, “What do you like to eat? I’ll recommend a few dishes to you ba.”

“I’m not picky, I’ll eat anything.”

Shi Yan turned around to order a few dishes. He Nuo anxiously called out, “Are we ordering takeout for them?”

“We’re not.”

“Then one dish is enough, why are you ordering so many?”

Shi Yan smiled and said, “Do you think I eat as little as you?” before he continued listing his orders to the waiter.

After the waiter left, He Nuo asked, “It should be quite expensive to eat here ba?”

“All you think about is money! Money! Money! It’s not like I’ll detain you here to make you wash the dishes.”

“But we don’t need to eat at a restaurant right? You can go home to have dinner, I’ll wait for you at their place first.”

“This is the company’s restaurant, it’s specifically responsible for entertaining guests. I had already informed them that we would be coming here for dinner, so you don’t need to worry so much.”

The dishes came one after the other. There were five dishes and one soup: stewed cod, braised pork ribs, barbequed prawns, sauteed kidneys, stir-fried broccoli and duck soup. Shi Yan specially ordered these dishes for He Nuo; he didn’t like to eat fish and prawns himself, but these two dishes were apparently the signature dishes here so he had hoped that He Nuo could get to try them. He had heard that it wasn’t good for people with bad kidneys to eat chicken, and as the old saying goes — eat whatever you lack — so Shi Yan had specially ordered kidneys as well. Duck soup was usually consumed to improve one’s Qi and blood during winter, and Shi Yan has always felt that He Nuo had a fundamentally deficient const.i.tution.