66/Hot Pot Restaurant
No one present could have imagined that Shen Yu would become so outrageous one day. They were speechless for a moment and could only give him a thumbs up.
"Awesome, Brother Chen."
"Having a girlfriend is nothing special!"
...
The audience could clearly see the somewhat chaotic scene. Su Wangqiu and Yu Yu, who were there for the first time, asked Chen Mian with some confusion, "Is this some kind of magical ritual performed by their team?"
Chen Mian: "Ah..."
"Maybe, I guess so."
Deng Momo didn't notice any of this. She was texting her boyfriend with her head down, saying that she had arrived. She put her bag down next to her to make room for her boyfriend who was rushing over from the dormitory. She looked up at her roommates' discussion with some confusion, and then immediately saw the boy surrounded by a crowd in the center of the court looking in her direction.
Her gaze fell directly on Chen Mian, who was standing next to her.
She was about to tell Chen Mian that her crush was watching her when the referee blew the whistle. Everyone on the field took their positions, and those who had been lazily chatting and laughing with their teammates suddenly became serious.
Chen Mian had seen Shen Yu play basketball during high school. In their physical education classes, the atmosphere was always tense, both on and off the court. There was always a group of girls around who might not be very good at basketball. They didn't understand the professional terms and simply cheered and jumped for joy with each move the player made on the court.
He has always been the center of attention, the focus of everyone's gaze. The number 61 player who made the whole stadium scream last time performed steadily as usual. Chen Mian knows nothing about basketball, but he can feel that the difference between this time and last time is that Shen Yu seems to be more stylish.
Chen Mian stared at him intently.
Su Wangqiu, who was beside Yu Yu, whispered that there were a few other players on the field who were also quite good. Suddenly, she paused, as if she had realized something. She counted on her fingers and then asked Chen Mian, "Your birthday is June 1st, right, Mianmian?"
Chen Mian nodded halfway before suddenly stopping; she had finally realized what was happening.
Su Wangqiu clapped his hands in admiration, "If it weren't for an accident, he's really quite capable."
Chen Mian didn't reply, but what she was thinking was that Shen Yu was always very good at it.
Whether it was walking up to her again and again, or telling her that it was okay to hesitate and he could wait for her, he saw through the longing behind her cautiousness.
There will never be another person in the world who understands her as well as Shen Yu, nor will there ever be another person who knows how to seduce her as well as Shen Yu.
Invite her to watch the basketball game, to see him shining brightly on the court, surrounded by cheers and applause. Then, look at her from the center of his gaze, smile at her, tilt his head back, and let his chest rise and fall as if to proudly reveal the number to her, letting all the air act as his voice to tell her: "Chen Mian's birthday is the best number."
She was still somewhat dazed when Shen Yu walked towards her.
Deng Momo's boyfriend, Zhang Cheng, who rushed over and sat down after bypassing the crowd, thought Shen Yu had come to see him. He was about to stand up to greet him when Deng Momo pulled him back down to sit.
Zhang Cheng thought Deng Momo had something to tell her, so he said, "Wait a minute, he needs to talk to me."
Deng Momo was utterly humiliated. Her voice was practically squeezed out through clenched teeth as she said to him, "What the hell are you looking for? Are your eyes just for decoration?"
Zhang Cheng: "Hey, just say what you want to say, personal attacks are yours—" Before he could finish saying "something's not right," he saw Shen Yu brush past him and head straight for Deng Momo's side, finally stopping in front of Deng Momo's roommate.
He didn't get too close, but kept some distance. Sweat was still rolling down his forehead. He didn't care at all about the stares from those around him. He acted very naturally, as if he already knew her boyfriend's identity card. He smiled gently at her roommates sitting next to him, introduced himself as Shen Yu, and expressed his gratitude for their usual care of Chen Mian, just like Zhang Cheng had done before. Finally, he invited them to dinner.
Throughout the entire process, Chen Mian's gaze remained fixed on his jersey. By the time she realized what was happening, her roommate was already happily nodding and saying "okay."
Shen Yu looked at her again, "I'm going to change my clothes."
Chen Mian nodded.
They didn't say anything, but there was an aura between them that others couldn't connect with.
Zhang Cheng then realized that the girlfriend Shen Yu was rumored to be was actually his girlfriend's roommate.
But then, somewhat puzzled, he asked Deng Momo in a low voice, "Why didn't they talk to each other at all last time we came?"
There was no communication whatsoever, not even eye contact. The word "unfamiliar" is an understatement; they were complete strangers.
Deng Momo found him annoying, "Shut up, you straight man! You don't understand matters of the heart, do you even know what romance is?"
Zhang Cheng: ...This kind of interest is quite eye-opening.
*
The group that ended up eating inexplicably grew to more than a dozen people.
The guys on the Shenyu team are used to joking around shamelessly and rely on teasing each other for fun. Now that they've finally met Shenyu's rumored girlfriend, how could they just leave after the game? They all shout that they're treating Shenyu to a meal, that he's going to his wedding, and some even take out their phones to say they'll invite You Huai too.
It was as noisy as a vegetable market.
Socially awkward Yu Yu grabbed Su Wangqiu and cried for help, "There are so many people! I really want to go back to the dorm!"
Su Wangqiu pressed her down, "No, just pretend that everyone in the mock trial is an audience."
Yu Yu took a deep breath and looked at Chen Mian's back as she walked ahead, and couldn't help but sigh, "How does Mianmian manage to block other people's gazes? That's amazing."
In the basketball court, when Shen Yu spoke to her, the surrounding gazes almost pierced through her, but she reacted normally. Now, walking on the school road to the school gate, she occasionally encountered men and women walking on the road, all of whom gave her scrutinizing looks, and some even took photos with their phones. If it were her, she would have been at a loss for what to do with her hands and feet.
But Chen Mian was different. She didn't even glance at those people. The tall boy next to her was wearing a hoodie of the same color as hers. Their hands, hanging at their sides, touched lightly from time to time as they walked. Then the boy seemed to say something with a smile, which made her angry and quickened her pace to leave. The boy lazily called her name, but she didn't respond. So he chuckled and stepped forward to grab her wrist, and then their fingers intertwined.
A group of boys around them, who were reviewing the game, were making a non-stop, raucous noise, as if they had reverted to their ancestral ways.
"Help! Where's the animal protection association? Someone's killing a dog here!"
"Zhang Cheng, if you don't show off this lovey-dovey stuff, I'll beat you up on the basketball court next time!"
Feeling unwittingly dragged into this, Zhang Cheng immediately grabbed Deng Momo's hand and said, "I'll hold your hand!"
Deng Momo blushed and slapped Zhang Cheng's arm, "What are you doing!"
The noise and commotion easily attracted everyone's attention.
Yu Yu had always been immersed in books and didn't have any grand fantasies about love. In fact, influenced by her parents, she always felt that a slow and steady, ordinary love was the best kind of love. But at this moment, she couldn't help but sigh, "It's so good."
Like the undisputed protagonists in a youth film, all the cameras focus on their figures.
Instead of going to a fancy restaurant, the gathering was held at a nearby hot pot restaurant with the largest private room.
Only after sitting down did Shen Yu release Chen Mian's hand; his palms were damp.
Deng Momo sat with her boyfriend Zhang Cheng, while Yu Yu sat next to Su Wangqiu. Next to them was a teammate from the Chenyu team, who was the most outgoing and couldn't stand being silent. He kept pulling Yu Yu around, asking her about her school and then about her high school. The conversation kept rambling on and on, and Yu Yu's face turned red. She tried to pull Su Wangqiu for help, but Su Wangqiu ignored her and was engrossed in chatting with her boyfriend on her phone.
This scene did not exist in Chen Mian's envisioned university life. She originally thought she would just spend her four years of university in a peaceful and uneventful way, surrounded by books. This lively scene seemed to be an accidental encounter with another Chen Mian's life in a parallel universe, a kind of almost unreal liveliness.
The steam from the hot pot wafted around, and the order slips were passed around, covered with countless checkmarks on both sides.
The pen was then passed back to Chen Yu, who glanced at it several times before finally handing it to Chen Mian and asking her if there was anything else she wanted to eat.
A waft of steam drifted in from outside the slightly ajar private room door. Someone raised their glass and said, "Let's have a drink!" The sound of glass clinking together followed.
All the sounds reached Chen Mian's ears. Finally, her earlobe felt warm. The person who was talking to her pinched it in annoyance and tapped her water glass with chopsticks in their other hand.
"Chen Mian, snap out of it! What are you thinking about so intently?"
Then Chen Mian realized where this unreality came from.
It's as if she accidentally entered the lives of Chen Yin or Qiao Zhiwan, becoming an ordinary girl who goes out with friends and discusses the people she likes. She's no different from any other happy person. Her worries are limited to the coursework that requires her to stay up all night to finish and the advanced mathematics problems that she can't solve no matter what.
As if she had completely broken away from her previous life, she was no longer Chen Mian who had experienced domestic violence and her mother killing her father, but simply Chen Mian who was no different from any other girl.
"There's nothing I want to eat." She handed the menu back to Chen Yu.
Shen Yu didn't want anything added; he'd never been a fan of hot pot, so he simply handed the paper to the waiter.
The two of them interacted naturally, which made their teammates watching from the sidelines feel quite uncomfortable. Who had ever seen Shen Yu like this before, showing off his affection and fawning over her in front of everyone? It immediately made single people feel uncomfortable.
Some people exclaimed, "Who would have thought that A-Yu actually has a girlfriend? I dare say that when he said he sometimes didn't really believe anyone in the audience, but who knew that he would give us such a sweet surprise today? Who can handle this?"
"Don't tell me, really don't tell me, I always thought Shen Yu was the kind of person who was sexually apathetic and needed the girl to initiate the kiss, even when dating. Who the hell would have thought he was so passionate?"
"I've discovered that no matter who it is, if they really meet someone they like, they can turn into a dog on the spot and wag their tail until it breaks."
The private room was brightly lit. Three pots were brought out one by one by the waiter, and the fire was lit. The pots were bubbling and the red hot pot base was melting into the soup. The spiciness instantly filled the entire private room. Dishes for hot pot were placed on the round table, and there was no place to put the air-conditioned beer, so it had to be placed on the floor.
Someone took a bottle opener and pried open the beer. With a soft pop, white foam bubbled out.
Chen Mian lowered her head and watched as the little dog, whose tail was supposedly broken from wagging, playfully pinched her index finger.
Noticing her gaze, he raised his beautiful almond-shaped eyes and smiled at her, asking her in a affected tone, using the same teasing words someone else had just used, "Would you like to ask me for a kiss, Chen Mian?"
Chen Mian: "..."
She was silent for a moment, then finally couldn't help but gently correct him, "Chen Yu, we didn't talk."
Shen Yu nodded, with a rather indifferent attitude.
"Isn't a baby that hasn't been born a baby? Isn't a flower that's about to bloom a flower? Isn't the moon that's about to appear a moon? So, how can the relationship you're going to have with me not be a relationship?"
Chen Mian: ?
Having listened to the whole thing, Su Wangqiu couldn't help but send a message to her boyfriend in Shanghai.
—My roommate's boyfriend, really...
there:?
Su Wangqiu: So sexy.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
