Chapter Twenty-Three
On Saturday afternoon, Cheng Xiangbei, carrying a backpack, waited for the bus at the school gate with Lu Nan.
Yu Mufeng had already arrived, and upon seeing Cheng Xiangbei, he immediately beamed. "Xiangbei, you're here."
Lu Nan frowned. He was clearly Yu Mufeng's roommate, so why was Yu Mufeng only greeting the tiger and not him? He tugged at Cheng Xiangbei's sleeve, and Cheng Xiangbei gently took his hand.
Less than five minutes later, the van arrived. Long Jiu Mo jumped out and laughed, "Everyone's here? Get in!"
Cheng Xiangbei let Lu Nan go first, but Lu Nan jokingly pushed him. The gesture was perfect; she landed right on his butt. Cheng Xiangbei laughed heartily, and was about to say, "Nan Nan, where are you touching?" when one of his feet was already on the car.
There were two people in the car, Meng Tianze and Chu Lian. Cheng Xiangbei's smile instantly froze.
After a moment, he awkwardly smiled and said, "Hello!"
Meng Tianze smiled and nodded. "Long time no see."
Chu Lian hesitated, but ultimately chose to remain silent.
"Xiang Bei, what are you doing? Hurry up and come inside!" Seeing that Cheng Xiang Bei was blocking the doorway and hadn't moved, Long Jiu Mo couldn't help but urge him.
"Oh, I'm leaving now." Cheng Xiangbei got into the car and sat down silently.
Lu Nan followed behind and casually sat down in the seat facing north. Yu Mufeng looked at Lu Nan, his face full of resentment.
Even after the car started moving, the atmosphere remained somewhat awkward. Long Jiu Mo looked around and smiled, "I haven't introduced you yet! The handsome guy and beautiful girl in the back are my friends, Meng Tian Ze and Chu Lian, from the same school as you."
Cheng Xiangbei smirked and said, "We know each other."
"Huh? Really?" Long Jiu Mo asked in surprise.
“Yes!” Yu Mufeng interjected. “We all ate together.”
“Yes, Lu Nan and I often meet at the library,” Meng Tianze said meaningfully.
Cheng Xiangbei's brow twitched, and he secretly pinched Lu Nan's hand. Lu Nan rolled her eyes at him and whispered in his ear, "Don't listen to his nonsense!"
Cheng Xiangbei chuckled.
Upon arriving at their destination, they arranged a return time and place with the driver, and then the group of people carried their bags into a farmhouse at the foot of the mountain.
As soon as they entered, the landlady greeted them, first asking who Long Jiu Mo was. After confirming Long Jiu Mo's identity, she couldn't stop apologizing. It turned out that all the rooms here were double rooms, and Long Jiu Mo had booked four rooms in total—more than enough for six people. Unfortunately, the staff didn't know the rooms were already booked and had served two more groups of guests, leaving only two of the four reserved rooms available.
What to do? It's getting late, and it's peak tourist season; without a room, there's no room available. Chu Lian is a girl, so a room definitely needs to be reserved for her. But what about the others? Five grown men crammed into one room? Are you kidding me?!
Long Jiu Mo's face darkened. This kind of embarrassing blunder was really hard to swallow.
Meng Tianze patted him on the shoulder and asked, "Madam, are there any larger rooms available?"
"Yes, yes," the landlady nodded hurriedly. "There's another large room, and the hygiene is excellent, but I'm afraid you won't be used to it."
"It's okay, there will always be inconveniences when you're out and about."
The landlady smiled gratefully at him and led them to a room on the first floor. When the door opened, everyone was stunned. The room was quite clean, the sheets and blankets spotless, but the problem was… it was a huge shared sleeping area. What's a shared sleeping area? Uh, it's a super-sized bed that stretches from one end of the room to the other.
Lu Nan was delighted when he saw the large communal sleeping platform! He'd only ever seen it when visiting other people's homes as a child, but he'd never actually slept on it himself. Seeing this rare sight in the countryside, he cheered and jumped onto it! "I want to sleep here, and nobody can take it from me!"
Cheng Xiangbei smiled at him, and Meng Tianze's eyes were also full of doting. Yu Mufeng and Long Jiumo were completely unconvinced. How could they sleep in such a bed?! However, Lu Nan wanted to sleep in a shared room, and Cheng Xiangbei would definitely follow. Meng Tianze also followed without objection. Yu Mufeng rolled his eyes, unwilling to miss the opportunity to sleep in the same bed as Cheng Xiangbei... Seeing this, Long Jiumo felt that sleeping in the same room was too pretentious, so he also joined the army of sharing a bed.
Seeing that things had been resolved smoothly, the proprietress smiled and said she would give them two mountain vegetables that evening, and that breakfast the next day would be free. Long Jiu Mo's lips twitched; he thought to himself that it wasn't about the money at all.
Dinner was a mountain-themed set meal provided by the restaurant.
As expected, the proprietress gave us two extra dishes; the fresh mountain produce served in a large, rough porcelain bowl made our mouths water.
Lu Nan ate with great relish, devouring everything from mushrooms and pheasant to bamboo shoots. Cheng Xiangbei was happy with his meal, constantly piling food onto his plate. Chu Lian, watching from across the table, turned extremely pale.
"Here, Xiaolian, these are your favorite bamboo shoots." Meng Tianze served his cousin some food.
Chu Lian forced a smile and said, "Thank you."
Meng Tianze ruffled her hair.
Lu Nan's heart skipped a beat upon hearing this. He wasn't unaware of Chu Lian's feelings for Tiger. They were now eating at the same table, and he had initially intended to ignore it, but this woman kept giving Tiger a resentful look! How dare she! Doesn't she know who Tiger belongs to? Daring to covet someone who's already taken—it's simply outrageous!
He grabbed his chopsticks and swept the remaining half-plate of stir-fried bamboo shoots into his own bowl. Yu Mufeng looked at his barbaric behavior with a hint of disdain in his eyes. "Lu Nan, can you even finish this?" There should be food for everyone to share. He always ignores others and only cares about eating to his heart's content; it's rather ill-mannered.
Ignoring Yu Mufeng's provocation, Lu Nan picked up a bamboo shoot with her chopsticks and put it into Cheng Xiangbei's bowl. "Tiger, eat!"
Cheng Xiangbei obediently picked up the bowl, and Nan Nan's jealous look was so cute! I really want to hug her and kiss her...hehe!
"If you like it, we can order another plate," Meng Tianze said with a double meaning. He was ostensibly speaking to Chu Lian, but something about his words felt off.
"No, even if you like something, you have to eat it in moderation," Chu Lian said coldly. "I'm full, you can continue eating."
After saying that, she got up and left. Seeing that she had barely touched her food, everyone shook their heads, thinking that girls these days eat too little.
After the meal, everyone moved to the large communal sleeping area.
Lu Nan acted quickly, choosing a spot against the wall. "Tiger, you sleep next to me!"
Cheng Xiangbei grinned and agreed, then picked up his backpack from the bunk and placed it where the two of them were. "Nannan, do you want to sleep?"
"No! Why sleep so early?" Lu Nan climbed onto the bed and sat cross-legged.
“Yes! It’s still early!” Meng Tianze interjected, moving his backpack to the middle. “I’ll sleep here.”
Yu Mufeng was a step too slow and watched helplessly as Meng Tianze took the seat next to Cheng Xiangbei's. He sat on the edge of the bed, feeling frustrated, and wanted to switch seats with Meng Tianze several times, but couldn't find a suitable reason.
Looking at the various expressions on everyone's faces, Long Jiu Mo chuckled inwardly and sat down against another wall. "Hey brothers, this isn't going to work, how about we have some fun?"
"What kind of entertainment?" Lu Nan asked, sticking her head out.
"Hmm, playing mahjong?"
"Won't."
"I can!" Yu Mufeng raised his hand.
“I can do that too,” Meng Tianze said with a smile.
"Xiang Bei, what about you?" There was one player missing, and everyone looked at Cheng Xiang Bei.
So-so.
"Alright, I'll go borrow a card from the landlady." Long Jiu Mo went out.
Lu Nan grabbed Cheng Xiangbei's ear in surprise. "Tiger, how do you know how to play mahjong?!"
"Hey, hey, stop it..." Cheng Xiangbei winced in pain, grimacing as he said, "I learned it from Zhou Mu when I was in high school."
"I knew he was no good!" Lu Nan let go of him and scolded, "You should stay away from him from now on!"
"Actually, Zhou Muren is not bad." It's just a game of mahjong, lol.
"Have you forgotten that your dad said family members aren't allowed to play mahjong?!"
"I haven't forgotten!" Cheng Xiangbei chuckled dryly. He had only learned it out of curiosity and hadn't played it since.
The two of them were whispering amongst themselves, talking about people and things that no one else could understand. Yu and Meng watched them, feeling rather uncomfortable. Although they were sitting on the same bed and very close, the atmosphere between the two of them was completely separate, making it impossible for anyone to intrude.
As the card game began, Yu Mufeng played rather absentmindedly.
Cheng Xiangbei was the player to his right, so he had no other thoughts in mind but to pass cards to Cheng Xiangbei. However, whether Cheng Xiangbei did it on purpose or genuinely didn't know any better, he missed out on many good cards.
After four rounds, Meng Tianze and Long Jiumo each won twice. Lu Nan lay behind Cheng Xiangbei, looking at the cards with a fog of confusion. Moreover, he didn't understand and gave random instructions, breaking up Cheng Xiangbei's perfectly good hand into pieces.
"Lu Nan, thank you!" Having finally received the cards he'd been waiting for, Meng Tianze laughed, "A straight!"
"Hey! How could you do this?!" Lu Nan exclaimed urgently, "We're not issuing this one anymore, take it back!"
"Lu Nan, you can't back out of a card game." Long Jiu Mo chuckled mischievously. Cheng Xiang Bei's score was still at the bottom. He estimated that after playing cards all night, Cheng would have to pay for the entire mountain climbing trip.
"It's not fun!" Lu Nan pouted.
"Alright, alright, I'll let you win this time." To please him, Meng Tianze picked up the cards and was about to return them to Cheng Xiangbei.
"He's just being childish, don't take it to heart." Cheng Xiangbei calmly pushed the cards back. "Come on, next round."
Lu Nan lightly scratched Cheng Xiangbei's back. "You're the kid! You're twenty and still acting like a kid!" Feeling the ticklish pressure on his back, Cheng Xiangbei's lips curled into a smile. "This time, I won!"
Long Jiu Mo glanced up. "That's not necessarily true."
The group played cards noisily, but Lu Nan grew increasingly bored after watching for a while and decided to go outside for some fresh air.
Stepping outside, one finds a courtyard surrounded by rooms on all four sides. Looking up, the sky is filled with starlight. The air is filled with the scent of grass and trees, so refreshing. "So beautiful!" Lu Nan exclaimed, looking up at the stars. She felt that the starlight in the mountains was just like the stars she had seen by the stream in her hometown when she was a child—exceptionally bright and pure.
Speaking of the little river in his hometown, it holds memories shared with Tiger. He remembers getting bitten by mosquitoes every summer night while stargazing. Wanting to see the stars but afraid of being bitten, what to do? Silly Tiger would take a small palm-leaf fan and wave it around to swat away the mosquitoes, always escaping unscathed while Tiger ended up with a bunch of bites. Thinking of the funny time he tried to apply Tiger's cooling balm, only to be stung and howl in pain, Lu Nan couldn't help but laugh out loud.
"What's so funny about looking at the stars?" A cold female voice came from behind Lu Nan. Startled, Lu Nan turned around and saw Chu Lian.
Chu Lian stood under the persimmon tree, her expression obscured. Lu Nan shrugged and replied, "Because the stars are beautiful."
"Don't you think you've taken over Cheng Xiangbei?" Chu Lian stepped out from under the tree and glared at him resentfully.
I don't think so.
"He'll get a girlfriend sooner or later! Male friendships and romantic love are completely incomparable!"
"So?" Hey, what we have is love, okay? Idiot!
"Those who know what's good for them will make way." Chu Lian raised her chin.
Lu Nan was momentarily speechless. In order to successfully complete his studies, he couldn't openly declare his ownership of Cheng Xiangbei. But he also couldn't encourage the other party to take all the wrong paths! Just as he was wondering how to answer, he heard footsteps approaching.
"Nannan, you've been out for so long without wearing an extra layer." Cheng Xiangbei, holding a thick coat, quickly draped it over Lu Nan's shoulders as soon as he saw him. "Aren't you cold?" He held Lu Nan's slightly cool hands and rubbed them. "You just recovered from a cold and you've been wandering around outside. It's very cold in the mountains at night. Come on, let's go inside!"
"Okay." Lu Nan nodded obediently, and the two turned to leave.
"Cheng Xiangbei!" Chu Lian exclaimed in shock and anger.
"Huh?" Cheng Xiangbei turned his head in confusion. "Classmate Chu? What are you doing here?"
So, I've been invisible all this time? Chu Lian was both embarrassed and annoyed, and stomped her foot and ran away.
Lu Nan looked at Cheng Xiangbei with admiration. "Tiger, brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!"
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