Heart-shaped shrimp peeling

Ding Xuefei and Yu Songlin went out together, and the same nanny van that picked them up yesterday was there.

Yu Songlin said the place for lunch was nearby, and sure enough, they arrived in just a few minutes; it was an izakaya (Japanese pub).

To Ding Xuefei's surprise, he thought that someone from the "upper class" like Yu Songlin wouldn't go to such a cheap-looking little shop.

The seats were crowded, but they thoughtfully left some space. Yu Songlin and Ding Xuefei sat in the middle, but there was a river between them.

Ding Xuefei glanced at the menu and found that it was indeed not expensive—she almost suspected that Yu Songlin was doing it on purpose.

Pshaw, who do you think you are?

He glanced at Yu Songlin, who looked slightly puzzled.

Ding Xuefei ignored him and said with a smile, "I'll pay today. Everyone worked so hard yesterday. Order whatever you want. Once we've eaten together, we're friends!"

The others initially tried to refuse, but seeing that Yu Songlin didn't say anything, they laughed and said, "Thank you, boss."

Xiao Bai arrived shortly after and sat down next to Ding Xuefei. Although they didn't know each other before, Ding Xuefei and Xiao Bai were both very outgoing and quickly struck up a conversation with Yu Songlin's team.

The dishes were served one after another, and the atmosphere at the table was relaxed.

Yu Songlin's team is mostly composed of young people. They chatted enthusiastically with Xiao Bai, sharing their experiences in Kyoto and interesting stories from the industry. They were surprised to find that although the two teams did not know each other before, they had a lot in common, and they felt like they had known each other for a long time.

As for Yu Songlin himself, he didn't talk much during the meal, occasionally cracking jokes, but his eyes didn't fall on Ding Xuefei.

Ding Xuefei noticed that almost everything served was his favorite food—but he hadn't ordered it, and he was momentarily distracted.

"boss!"

"Huh?" Suddenly being called out, Ding Xuefei didn't react for a moment, and the gloomy look on her face instantly turned into a cute blank look.

Xiao Bai approached with a wine glass in hand: "Brother Fei, let's toast them."

Ding Xuefei nodded: "Okay, you start."

"...Well, speaking of yesterday, I really have to thank everyone. Wow, you guys have no idea how panicked we were yesterday!"

Wanwan covered her mouth and laughed, "You can tell that!"

Ding Xuefei shook her head helplessly as she watched Xiao Bai act silly in front of the girl.

When Xiao Bai got excited, he stood up and raised a glass.

Although Ding Xuefei felt a little embarrassed, she still cooperated with him.

Throughout the meal, Ding Xuefei remained cautious in his words and actions, as he was thinking about something else—the system.

He is trying to find patterns in the system in order to avoid social death.

So far, the system has given him three tasks. First of all, all three tasks are related to acting cute and are related to Yu Songlin.

Then, the first time it was triggered, it said that "hypocrisy" was detected; the second time it only detected "target person"; and the third time it detected "critical situation".

Now that the atmosphere is so good, he hasn't spoken rudely to Yu Songlin, and they've met before, the probability of triggering the mission should be lower. He decided to be nicer to Yu Songlin and see if he could fool the system...

Ding Xuefei placed a piece of fried steak on Yu Songlin's plate: "Um, thanks for yesterday."

Before Yu Songlin could speak, Wanwan, who was talking nearby, suddenly said, "Brother Yu doesn't eat fried food!"

"Really? I didn't know..." Ding Xuefei smiled awkwardly. He rarely wanted to flatter someone, but how did he end up doing something wrong again?

Does Yu Songlin not eat fried food? I never noticed before!

"I only recently decided to eat less of it. It's okay to eat a little bit occasionally." Yu Songlin seemed to know what he was thinking, smiled gently at him, picked up the fried food and ate it in a very refined manner.

Ding Xuefei gave up. He had already exhausted all his dignity by picking up food once, so he decided to just focus on himself from now on.

His gaze fell on the large prawns in the middle of the table. Perhaps because they were difficult to peel, no one wanted to get their hands dirty, so quite a lot was left over.

That's great, it's practically tailor-made for him when he doesn't want to talk.

He took one.

[Ding-dong~ Harmonious dining atmosphere detected! Task: To express your gratitude for Mr. Yu Songlin's timely rescue, please peel shrimp for him and say in a coquettish tone, "I really can't do without you, I don't know how to repay you~"]

Ding Xuefei almost threw the shrimp in her hand at Yu Songlin's face.

"System, did I ask you for a favor? Look, didn't I just say thank you? Didn't I already put food on his plate? Why am I still getting tasks for you?!"

[Hmm, seeing how proactive Master is makes Xiaotian so happy! I'm totally shipping them! But Xiaotian thinks Master was a bit perfunctory earlier; he could have been even more enthusiastic!]

A perfunctory attitude? Please! This is already the best attitude he's ever shown Yu Songlin!

Ding Xuefei was speechless. He only cared about one thing: "Will I be punished if I don't finish?"

【Hmm, it's okay if you don't finish, it just hurts a little~ about the same as last time~】

Okay, if you don't finish, you'll be sent to the emergency room.

Ding Xuefei pressed her temple in despair.

"What's wrong? Didn't you get enough rest?" Yu Songlin noticed Ding Xuefei's movements and turned to ask.

I definitely didn't get enough rest, so who's to blame?

Ding Xuefei turned his head to speak, but realized that the distance was a bit too close. He stepped back a little, and when he spoke again, his voice sounded a bit unnatural: "I'm fine."

Yu Songlin nodded and didn't say anything more.

Ding Xuefei continued her conversation with the system: "Those two sentences you said were a bit too much... Can we make a deal? I'll rephrase them, okay?"

The system hesitated for a while: 【Ah... well, alright, seeing how troubled you are, I'll pretend I didn't see anything this time :P】

Ding Xuefei sighed and peeled shrimp with a sour face.

His hands were beautiful, with slender, long fingers, rounded nails, and pink knuckles. However, he wasn't very skilled and often failed to peel a whole shrimp shell. He would then carefully continue peeling, his face showing a focused determination that said, "I won't give up until I finish," and his head was almost buried in the shrimp.

Yu Songlin glanced at him from the side, and a slight smile involuntarily curved the corners of his mouth.

Xiao Bai, who was watching from the side, couldn't stand it anymore: "Brother, do you have a grudge against these shrimp?... Can you even eat them after peeling them? Or should I peel them for you?"

"Why can't I eat it?" Ding Xuefei glared at Xiao Bai, who immediately fell silent.

Ding Xuefei's mouth moved faster than her brain. Looking at the piece of shrimp meat in her hand, she realized it didn't look very appealing; it was peeled so badly that it was uneven and pitted. She wondered if it would affect the taste...

Since it wasn't him eating it anyway, Ding Xuefei felt relieved.

Taking advantage of the fact that no one was paying attention, Ding Xuefei tossed the "weathered" shrimp meat into Yu Songlin's bowl, and then pretended that nothing had happened.

Although he had tried his best to pretend, and Yu Songlin cooperated by not asking any questions, he could feel Yu Songlin's gaze, and his right cheek felt slightly hot from being looked at.

Ding Xuefei's voice was a little tight, her eyes fixed on the plate in front of her: "Um, I didn't mean anything by it, it's just... thank you. If it weren't for your timely help last night, Xiao Bai and I would have been scared to death by the stalker. I really don't know how else to thank you."

Was he clear enough? It seems he's only making things worse. And the way he peeled it so blatantly is practically poison to Yu Songlin's obsessive-compulsive disorder…

Ding Xuefei rubbed her forehead, buried her head in her food, and decided to pretend she hadn't heard anything Yu Songlin said.

"The shrimp is delicious."

Ding Xuefei looked at Yu Songlin as if he were an alien.

Yu Songlin picked up the shrimp meat with his chopsticks and ate it in small bites, his eating manner still elegant, revealing a hint of subtle pleasure.

Seeing Yu Songlin's cheerful demeanor made Ding Xuefei unhappy.

He didn't want to explain, but now he had no choice but to, otherwise Yu Songlin would think he was being overly solicitous!

"Um, don't get me wrong, I didn't mean anything by it, it's just that there's so much shrimp left, it's such a waste..."

Yu Songlin noticed his embarrassment and smiled even more, his smiling eyes practically saying, "Stop making excuses."

Ding Xuefei had no way to argue her case, so she gave up the struggle.

After that, Ding Xuefei didn't say anything more to Yu Songlin, and just chatted and interacted with other people as usual. Yu Songlin also unusually didn't make trouble.

Near the end, Ding Xuefei went out to pay the bill, and Xiao Bai brought in two large bags, which were gifts for Yu Songlin's team, one of the latest Bluetooth earphones for each person.

Ding Xuefei stood up and smiled, "I was in a hurry, so I only prepared this as a token of my appreciation."

Wanwan and her other assistants repeatedly said things like "You're welcome" and "Boss is so generous," and also said they would support Ding Xuefei's endorsements in the future.

Ding Xuefei sat down next to Yu Songlin and noticed that Yu Songlin was staring at the box and didn't seem very happy.

He glanced at it; there wasn't a single Chinese character on the box. "What are you looking at?"

Yu Songlin seemed to be suddenly appeased by these words, and his gaze towards Ding Xuefei regained its warmth, which startled Ding Xuefei.

"Would you be angry if I said I wanted to refuse to accept it?"

Ding Xuefei gave him a look that said, "Are you crazy?": "Give it back to me."

"I was just kidding." Yu Songlin quickly hid the box behind his back, refusing to return it.

After all that laughter and joking, the atmosphere became much more relaxed. Yu Songlin suddenly nudged Ding Xuefei's shoulder lightly.

"Don't you think we're doing pretty well this way?"

Ding Xuefei became alert and silently stepped back: "What do you mean?"

"Be friends." Yu Songlin seemed to have been waiting for him to ask this, chuckling as he coaxed, "Actually, it's not necessary, is it? We're not enemies, it's just..."

"Shut up!" Ding Xuefei couldn't control her voice, which drew puzzled looks from several staff members at the table, and Yu Songlin's expression also turned unpleasant.

But there was nothing he could do; he was genuinely angry when Yu Songlin said those things.

The memories of the time after the breakup had almost been sealed away by Ding Xuefei. Even though five years had passed, the memory still caused him heartache whenever he thought of it.

Having had that experience is enough to overshadow all the happiness from previous relationships.

As a result, Ding Xuefei can't give Yu Songlin a pleasant look whenever they meet.

"Yu Songlin, don't get me wrong. I'm treating you to this meal not to curry favor, but to thank you for your help last night."

"You're talking about being friends? Don't even think about it. How many exes have you ever seen who can still be friends after breaking up?"