Food protection
Mina tapped the small fork in her hand lightly on the dessert. The brown crystal had a soft texture and was slightly concave in the chewy texture, with yellow liquid flowing out from the crack.
She took a sip and narrowed her eyes slightly.
"Dessert, what do you think I'm talking about?"
Jiang pursed his lips gently, "It's delicious."
Mina smiled. "This restaurant is new, and the chef was hired from somewhere else at a high salary. From what you said, it seems his cooking skills are worth his price."
"How do you know so much?" the girl next to her asked curiously.
Mina put down her knife and fork, took a sip of red wine, and said casually, "My uncle opened a new restaurant because my aunt's office recently moved. He was worried that her food would not suit her appetite."
"But it just so happens that this place is close to our school. If you can't eat in the cafeteria, you can come here to eat. Remember to mention my name for a free meal."
"That's great, Yuxue. Let's not be polite with Mina. We're tired of eating at other places anyway, so this restaurant is perfect for an emergency."
Yu Xue raised her glass and said, "Okay, let's go together."
She turned around and joked, "Jiang Qing, you have the best relationship with Mina, so you should help and support her more."
Jiang Qing lowered his head, concentrating on eating the dessert, and said "hmm" calmly.
Yu Xue's smile deepened. "During the time when Mina was away, Mu Shi and Jiang Qing became close. I felt a little lonely all by myself."
She looked at the girl opposite, whose expression turned ugly as she spoke, and said innocently, "Mu Shi, why are you looking at me? Or do you think I said something wrong?"
Yu Mushi's face was gloomy, and she looked like a storm was about to come. Seeing Mina looking over, she forced a smile and replied, "Of course not."
"See, I told you." Yu Xue suddenly seemed to remember something and said, "Oh, by the way, there's a boy who's been coming to see Jiang Qing these past few days. He's a stranger and doesn't seem to be from our school."
She turned to Jiang Qing and blinked slightly. "I see that you are always in a bad mood when you see him. If you encounter any trouble, even if we can't help, you can ask Mina to help you solve it while she is back at school."
Jiang Qing clenched the knife and fork in his hand and met Yu Xue's playful gaze.
"Don't be embarrassed, Mina is very happy to help." Yu Xue said with a smile.
The cup on the table accidentally spilled, making quite a noise. Yu Mushi frowned and took out some paper to wipe her wet sleeves. "Don't worry about me, just continue."
Seeing that it was nothing serious, Mina and Yu Xue withdrew their gaze.
Mina continued her interrupted conversation, "Yu Xue is right. I'm happy to help."
The sound coming from the side of the table didn't make Jiang Qing glance in Yu Mushi's direction. After hearing Mina's question, she was silent for a while and then lowered her eyes.
Seeing this, Mina smiled and said, "Since you don't want to talk about it, I won't ask any more questions."
"I see you like desserts," she casually called the waiter and instructed, "Bring all the specialty desserts in your store."
The waiter was extremely surprised when he heard this: "Are you sure you mean all of them? We have over thirty kinds of desserts in our shop, not counting those with different tastes, including cakes, puddings, ice cream, baked goods, and glutinous rice products. If we serve all of them..."
He said awkwardly, "I'm afraid some of you won't be able to finish your meal. How about this? Today's featured dishes in our restaurant are raspberry mousse cake, cheese pudding, and mint citrus tart..."
"You don't need to worry about whether I can finish it or not," Yu Mushi said as she cleaned the sticky touch that seeped into her skin. She was already annoyed, and now listening to the waiter's buzzing voice, she said irritably, "Just do it if I tell you to. Why all the nonsense?"
The waiter smiled and stopped in time to introduce, "Okay, sir, do you need some wet wipes?"
Yu Mushi looked up, threw a ball of tissue at him, and said unhappily, "Go quickly."
The waiter turned back to the kitchen, and Mina handed a glass of ice water to Yu Mushi. "What's so mad about you? Drink something iced to cool down."
Yu Mushi put down the tissue and held the ice water in both hands, her palms instantly becoming wet.
"That waiter just now had no sense at all. He even took his time bringing out the dessert." Yu Mushi took the wet wipes handed to her by the waiter who came back almost at a trot, wiped the stickiness from her fingertips, and glared at him fiercely, "He doesn't care about the customers at all."
The waiter lowered his head even lower. Mina waved her hand to indicate that it was okay. "The waiter is just following the normal procedures. Don't make things difficult for him."
Yu Mushi took a big gulp of ice water unhappily. The ice cubes froze the root of her tongue stiff and her facial features twisted into a ball.
Mina leaned back in her chair and smiled at the girl's expression.
Her misty blue hair draped over her shoulders. She fiddled with her phone with her fingertips, magnifying the picture on the screen. "Xiaoyan has been making quite a fuss lately, skipping classes and handing out flyers. She's quite childish at heart."
Yu Xue naturally knew what Mina was talking about. "Isn't it? He used to look stupid, but he's been causing a lot of trouble lately."
"I heard there's a new troublemaker transfer student in their class. She's always hanging out with him and causing trouble. I don't know what's wrong with her."
The new manicure is a bit long, and Yu Xue is thinking about asking a manicurist to come to her house in the evening to trim it, as it will affect the appearance.
Mina said casually, "Why did you and I hear a different version of the news? It said that a girl named Jiang Qing in their class was the leader..."
The knife and fork made a harsh sound as they slid across the white porcelain plate.
Mina was interrupted and forced to stop talking and look over.
Jiang Qing, who was suddenly the focus of the three people at the table, had a pale complexion and trembling eyelashes.
Mina paused, "Why, you know him?"
Yu Xue looked away boredly, fiddling with her nails. "Jiang Qing, Jiang Qing, the two names sound very similar. It's quite a coincidence."
Mina stood up and placed the brand new cutlery next to her in front of Jiang Qing, replacing the knife and fork that had slipped and become dirty.
Jiang Qing thanked him: "Thank you, I was distracted."
Yu Mushi rolled her eyes subtly, opened her phone, and started to complain about someone's tea art in the small group.
"You're welcome." Mina smiled, took her hand back, and sat back down.
"I just saw Jiang Qing on the way back to school. She's quite lovely. No wonder Xiaoyan was so happy playing with her," she said, looking through the photos on her phone, clicking and enlarging each one. "She was smiling quite happily."
Yu Xue paused for a moment, then asked uncertainly, "Are you interested again?"
Jiang Qing suddenly raised his head and looked straight at Mina.
Mina didn't care about the scorching gazes. She was already used to the feeling of being watched. She casually replied, "A little bit."
Jiang Qing's body suddenly tensed up. Yu Xue glanced at her out of the corner of her eye and spoke in a lazy tone.
"Every little bit has its benefits. It seems the tea party won't have one more member."
Yu Mushi looked disgusted and said, "Don't be such a pessimist. You can't just add people to a tea party casually."
As she spoke, she glanced critically at the dumbfounded Jiang Qing, hinting at disdain, "What a level!"
Jiang Qing lowered his head, quietly ate the dessert, and breathed a sigh of relief imperceptibly.
"I wouldn't dare. If I invite you over the day before, I'm afraid Xiaoyan will come knocking on my door the next day," Mina said teasingly before she finished her words. "Look, the food protectors are here."
Ye Meiyan dialed a familiar number, and there was a beep on the other end of the phone, but no one answered.
She raised her eyes calmly and looked at the little heads gathered together in the restaurant to watch the surveillance.
Song Shuang glanced at her secretly and nudged Jiang Qing with his arm. "What's the relationship between Mina and Meiyan you mentioned? How come she was so anxious to make a phone call after hearing what you said, and didn't even check the surveillance camera?"
Jiang Qing stared intently at the surveillance camera, tracking her own shadow. "It should be a friend, although it doesn't look like one to me."
Song Shuang: "?? What do you mean not very similar? Aren't you curious about what they were whispering about?"
"I'm not curious," Jiang Qing said casually. "Lin Nanyan, look at me. The other day when I walked out of the classroom, I was wearing clothes with shallow pockets. Yes, that's it."
Lin Nanyan clicked stop. A yellow figure stood out in the blurry image on the surveillance camera.
"Luckily, I wore bright-colored clothes that day," she patted Lin Nanyan and pointed at the screen. "Look carefully, isn't this little piece of white a recorder?"
Seeing this, Song Shuang quickly came over and said, "It's hard to tell. The image quality is too blurry. It looks like toilet paper."
Lin Nanyan: "It's a recorder."
Song Shuang: "?? How did you figure that out?"
Jiang Qing nodded, "That's right."
Lin Nanyan: "From the classroom, through the corridor, the square, through the gymnasium gate, and finally to the restroom. Although there are gaps in the surveillance footage and occasional side-viewing, it can be seen that the recorder was most likely lost in the restroom."
"Look, after you came out of the bathroom, although it was partially obstructed, judging by the way you bent over to tie your shoelaces, if the recorder was still in your pocket, it would have fallen out at this angle."
Jiang Qing seemed to be thinking: "But no, the ground is empty."
Song Shuang glanced at the two people who were busy analyzing the situation. "...It's the same as if I didn't say anything. They still can't find it. There are so many people coming in and out of the bathroom. Who knows, someone or the cleaner might have picked it up."
Jiang Qing: "Don't be so depressed, at least we have ruled out other places."
Song Shuang was speechless: "What's the difference? I still have to point and hand out flyers."
Jiang Qing thought about it, then replied seriously: "No."
Song Shuang: ...
"Eat, eat, I'm starving. The teacher has been arresting us for so long, and there's only... "
Jiang Qing covered her mouth in time and warned her, "Swallow those disgusting words. You can still eat your meal."
Song Shuang blinked, indicating that he understood.
Jiang Qing then let go and picked up a piece of vegetables with chopsticks and put it into her mouth.
Suddenly, a large piece of chicken appeared on the plate in front of her. She looked over along the direction of her chopsticks and saw Lin Nanyan with his eyes lowered, patiently picking out pieces of meat from the minced meat on his plate and putting them into Jiang Qing's plate.
Noticing the girl looking at him, Lin Nanyan didn't look up, concentrating on the movements of his hands, and said, "The chopsticks are clean, I haven't used them yet."
"Oh." Jiang Qing responded dryly, then turned to look at Ye Meiyan who was on the phone.
What kind of person is Mina?
What is her relationship with Meiyan?
Jiang Qing bit her chopsticks and thought for a long time with her small brain before giving up. Forget it, why think so much.
Ye Meiyan listened silently to the beeping sound on her phone which was almost coming to an end. She did not hang up or redial.
Mina will definitely answer the phone at the last second before the end.
"Xiao Yan——"
A familiar voice with a subtle smile rang in my ears.
Sure enough, she is still the same, without changing at all.
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