Chapter 21 They still ate their late-night snack in the end…

For their late-night snack, they ended up having barbecue, with about ten people.

At first, everyone was a little reserved, with the boys at one table and the girls at another. But soon they started chatting more. When the owner came over to serve the food, he casually suggested that they just put their tables together. The activity became even more lively, and someone got excited and suggested "having a few drinks," which Lin Sinian dismissed as a joke.

Fang Minzhou ate quietly the whole time. Ouyang Qian and Sun Tong sat next to her. Ouyang Qian kept making witty remarks, while Sun Tong was more taciturn than Fang Minzhou.

Both Ouyang Qian and Lin Sinian possess a maturity beyond their years. Although their temperaments are quite different, their ease in dealing with people and situations is a skill that Fang Min and Zhou Man admire and respect.

Lin Sinian has the demeanor of a refined gentleman, gentle and refined, but there is an inevitable sense of distance and an overly idealized imagination; Ouyang Qian is naturally lively and generous, but Fang Minzhou has now unexpectedly learned that she also has unconventional thoughts.

One of the instructors jokingly remarked that Professor Zhan, seemingly "indifferent to politics," actually had a keen eye and had long ago selected two key figures. Thinking about it carefully, if they were truly generals, how could they only be outwardly obedient?

The group of people had different tastes and preferences, so they ordered a variety of dishes, mostly mild and medium spicy. Sun Tong didn't seem to be able to handle spicy food, so she only ate a plate of skewers brushed with the secret sauce. After finishing one round, everyone started asking for more food. Sun Tong didn't join in, and Fang Min was hesitating whether to speak up for her when Lin Sinian had already asked the owner to bring a few more skewers of the signature sauce flavor.

Fang Minzhou seemed to sense something, while Lin Sinian, as if it were just a casual remark, noticed Fang Minzhou's gaze and instead asked her, "Do you have any points to make?"

"Oh..." Fang Minzhou was already half full and was thinking about getting another skewer of grilled shrimp. Before she could speak, Wang Kan, who was diagonally opposite her, waved his hand and said, "Boss, five more skewers of shrimp!"

"..." Fang Minzhou said to Lin Sinian, "No need."

She looked at Wang Kan again at this moment, and Wang Kan was supporting her face with her left hand, her face turned to the other side.

Everyone's face was flushed red. Lin Sinian turned to ask Sun Tong, who coldly replied, "I'm already full, so there's no need to order any more soy sauce flavored dishes."

Fang Min was taken aback, and Lin Sinian was also slightly surprised, but then smiled and said, "It's okay, I'll eat."

Ouyang Qian nudged Fang Minzhou, who exchanged a glance with her and shook her head slightly.

Sun Tong must have really eaten her fill. Not long after she put down her chopsticks, she put her school uniform jacket back on, stood up, and said in her normal voice, "I'm leaving now," leaving everyone at the table dumbfounded.

"I'll go see it off." Lin Sinian reacted the fastest, grabbing his coat and chasing after him.

The shop door opened and closed repeatedly, letting in a gust of cold wind, which was quickly swallowed up by the warmth filling the room.

"You...you're leaving already?"

"She'll probably have to go back to studying," the female sports committee member said sarcastically.

Her words immediately reminded everyone of the unpleasantness between her and Sun Tong at the sports meet.

Someone chuckled softly, "Really?"

"Why don't you go take a look?"

"I'm not going, you go."

Fang Minzhou touched the cup silently.

Sun Tong was difficult to get along with, not because she was stupid, but because she chose to be this way, as if she were going against the whole world. Fang Minzhou even had the feeling that she was deliberately trying to stir up trouble, but she didn't know why.

“Sun Tong had something to do and left early, it’s okay,” Ouyang Qian said. “Anyway, the class monitor is treating, so let’s drink until we drop.”

Like a conductor, she stirred up the atmosphere again with a flick of her finger. Zheng Yanhang shouted, "We won't leave until we're drunk! But we still need wine, Lord Ouyang!"

"Who's the adult? We're still in character."

"Cinderella, Cinderella!" someone shouted.

Unable to refuse, Yin Mengran had no choice but to take a sip of the beverage.

The student playing the fairy then said, "Dear Prince, Miss Cinderella, please tell this fairy what your New Year's wishes are?"

Yin Mengran covered her face shyly and waved her hands repeatedly.

"My New Year's wish is..." Wang Kan smiled disdainfully, "to become number one in the class."

If no one cooperates, shout, "Quick, someone go and call Sun Tong back!"

"Fang, you academic genius, your deskmate is rebelling!"

Fang Minzhou found that she seemed to have gotten used to Wang Kan's antics and mischief. She just laughed along. Suddenly, someone remarked, "Actually, Sun Tong's script is really quite good."

The lively atmosphere that had been carefully cultivated seemed to quiet down abruptly. After someone expressed their agreement, everyone started talking about the fun things that happened during rehearsals, and those happy moments were genuine.

Now the mission is accomplished.

Wang Kan sat down and saw Fang Minzhou looking at him. He subconsciously raised his eyebrows, then realized that she would probably scold him for being frivolous in her mind again, but Fang Minzhou didn't seem to have that intention.

Wang Kan had an idea and picked up the Coke on the table to gesture to her.

Fang Minzhou raised his glass to him.

The small plastic cup was filled with just two gurgling sounds, and the bubbles covered the inside of the cup, rushing upwards.

Zheng Yanhang, sitting next to him, quietly gave him another thumbs-up under the table, while Wu Cheng, standing beside him, just smiled and remained silent.

Wang Kan: "..."

Then he moved the corner of his mouth.

Lin Sinian returned sooner than everyone expected. When asked if Sun Tong had already gone home or what, Lin Sinian paused slightly and said, "I saw her off to her car."

"Why do you need to worry about this?" someone complained.

Fang Minzhou glanced at Lin Sinian.

After finishing their meal, the gathering ended. It was cold and waiting for the bus was painful. Some classmates who were going home along the way shared a taxi. Fang Minzhou's bus stop was nearby, but no one was going in the same direction as her. For safety reasons, Lin Sinian said, "I'll wait for the bus with you."

Fang Minzhou waved his hand, while Ouyang Qian took over the task: "Fang Minzhou and I will do it; someone will come to pick me up."

Lin Sinian was still a little worried, after all, Fang Minzhou and Ouyang Qian were two girls. At this moment, Wang Kan said to him, "Class monitor, you can go now. Don't worry, I'll wait for the bus here too."

“Okay, thank you for your help,” Lin Sinian said.

Wang Kan grinned: "No trouble at all."

"Don't you live in the new town area?" someone asked.

"I'm going to my relative's house today."

"Oh, I see."

So Ouyang Qian stood between Fang Minzhou and Wang Kan.

She didn't neglect Wang Kan. After chatting with Fang Minzhou for a while, she would also greet Wang Kan. Not long after, a dilapidated gray van stopped in front of them.

Ouyang Qian's voice lit up: "My aunt is here."

Fang Minzhou dared not show her surprise.

"Well... I'll go now?"

"Okay." Fang Minzhou said this, but in her heart, she was filled with questions and exclamation marks: Is this Ouyang Qian's aunt's car?

She was inexperienced; in her mind, people who drove these kinds of cars were usually middle-aged men, though that did seem to fit the image of a boss who had worked in the wholesale market…

High school student Ouyang Qian rolled down the car window, waved with a bright smile, and said, "I'm off, bye-bye, send me a text message when you get home."

"Okay, bye-bye."

Fang Minzhou saw the profile of the young woman in the driver's seat.

After the car drove away, Wang Kan took a step closer to Fang Minzhou and asked, "Is this Aunt Ouyang Qian?"

"……Um."

"It seems pretty cool."

"……Um."

Wang Kan looked at her, seemingly wanting to say something but holding back.

Now only the two of them remained. Fang Minzhou forced herself not to hide to the side as she usually did, but she put on the hood of her school uniform jacket to physically block out external noise. Finally, the bus arrived, and she boarded directly, swiped her card, and sat down in a single seat in the front carriage. She was startled to see Wang Kan also board, and at the same time, the doors closed.

Fang Minzhou: "..."

When Wang Kan said he was going to a relative's house, she was already half-believing him, but she didn't want to presume to know why she was doubting him. But now... which relative's house was Wang Kan going to?

There were empty seats at the back of the carriage, but Wang Kan grabbed the handrail near her seat.

There were other students from the same school on the bus. Fang Minzhou once again thought Wang Kan had gone mad, incredibly audacious. She couldn't bear to imagine what he was up to. Compared to his relaxed posture as the bus swayed slightly with the bumps, Fang Minzhou stared stiffly out the window.

The windows fogged up, blurring the fleeting city nightscape and the figures inside the carriage, as well as whether or not their gazes would meet.

Wang Kan didn't speak to her, but Fang Minzhou was still worried that others would misunderstand, just like she was worried that others would smell the lingering smell of barbecue on both of them.

She actually hates feelings like "shyness".

She vividly remembers a speech contest she participated in during junior high school. Initially, she didn't sign up, but her teacher earnestly encouraged her to participate. The teacher said she knew she was quiet and introverted, but when it was time to go on stage, she still needed to know how to express herself. Fang Minzhou felt that what the teacher said made sense.

As the audience waited in silence, she tried her best to maintain a smile and finally spoke, but her voice was soft and trembling. Her face grew redder and redder, and she eventually forgot her lines. She gave a haphazard end with thanks and left the stage in a disheveled state.

The thing she feared most happened to someone else. Just watching it made Fang Minzhou feel like she had died along with them. As a result, her memory of how she went on stage, what she said, and how she got off stage was all confused, as if her soul had left her body.

Neither she nor that girl won an award in the end, while all the students who did win were usually proactive and positive. When asked, they said they were nervous, but they explained how they overcame their nervousness when they stood on the stage.

From then on, whenever feelings of shyness, fear, nervousness, or embarrassment arose, Fang Minzhou would forcefully suppress them, like playing whack-a-mole—he had to be ruthless, accurate, and determined to overcome them.

So when Wang Kan got out of the car and followed her for a while, Fang Minzhou turned around abruptly at a deserted street corner and shouted angrily, "What are you doing!"

"You scared me to death..." Wang Kan trembled at her shout, then scratched his head, walked past the shade of the trees, and into the yellow light of the street lamps, his gaze darting around, making Fang Minzhou's heart pound faster and faster. The anger and resentment she had painstakingly built up along the way had turned into thorns, but she hadn't even popped a single balloon.

She might have hit the mole, but she encountered a silly mole that wouldn't run away, covering its head and staring at her with its black eyes.

Her rules of the game were broken.

Ignoring Fang Minzhou's unfriendly gaze, Wang Kan turned her backpack to the front, unzipped the second compartment, and took out a book for Fang Minzhou.

Fang Minzhou: "..."

Wang Kan twirled the book in her hand. "It's for you."

Fang Minzhou: "..."

She looked at him like he was mentally ill again. Wang Kan gave up and shoved the book into her hands: "This is a New Year's gift for you... The latest masterpiece by the Nobel Prize-winning author, a top-selling new book. Don't tell me you've already bought it?"

Fang Minzhou had no choice but to say, "No..."

But is he really sick?

His backpack was unusually bulging, and he unzipped the first layer and took out a small bear doll.

The doll, which should perhaps be called a big bear, was forcibly stuffed into the schoolbag and is now slowly expanding back to its original shape in the cold air, like fermenting bread.

"...This is also a New Year's gift?"

"uh-huh."

"You've already delivered it."

"Who says you can only give one New Year's gift?"

"New Year's gift" is a perfectly legitimate term, and Fang Minzhou had no reason to refuse, but, "you..."

Why are you giving it to me?

"I'll give it to you if I want... Consider it a thank you for tutoring me during my final exams." After saying that, Wang Kan pointed to the sky and exclaimed in surprise, "Wow, it's snowing!"

Fang Minzhou was not distracted. "I didn't prepare a gift for you."

“You don’t need to deliver it,” Wang Kan said, then added with a grin, “But you can if you want to.”

Fang Minzhou remained expressionless. "...What do you like?"

"Anything is fine, I'm not picky."

Fang Minzhou was silent for a moment, then said, "Okay, I understand. It's snowing, you should go home quickly."

“Okay.” After Wang Kan finished speaking, he saw Fang Minzhou suddenly smile.

He hadn't even smiled when he gave her the gift, so his sudden smile made Wang Kan uneasy. "What are you laughing at?"

Normally, Fang Minzhou wouldn't have said anything, but at this moment, she tried poking at the cellophane, "Didn't you say you were staying at your relative's house?"

"I... I mean, I'm staying at my relative's house."

"Oh." The cellophane was actually elastic. Fang Minzhou hugged the book and the doll to her chest, thinking about how to tell her parents later, while politely saying to Wang Kan, "Thank you for the...gift. Let me think about what to give you in return."

"Whatever, I'll just send whatever comes to mind."

"Well... goodbye."

Goodbye, see you next year.

Fang Minzhou walked away without looking back. For the first time, Wang Kan realized he was indeed tongue-tied. He called out to her, "Hey!"

Fang Minzhou turned around.

The snow fell heavily in the blink of an eye, falling gently in the dead of night, everything was still. She saw Wang Kan looking awkward, perhaps with the shyness she herself avoided most. He asked her, "The song I sang later...did you understand it?"