WAYCAV Chapter 32

Raine: I am so sorry this is late. I have an eye infection and couldn’t open my eyes for the past two weeks. I couldn’t get my eyes checked because of the heavy storm. On top of that, I broke my phone because I dropped it while trying to go down the stairs blind. Anyways, I can barely open my eyes now and I have a cold, but here’s an update.

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The competition results came out, and surprisingly, their district produced two first-place national awards, won by the teams led by Su Zhiyan and Shen Nianjing

“Ahhhh…” Wen Bei stared at the results screen with trembling eyes, practically drooling over the first-place prize money.

“This is what top students are like,” he said blankly, looking at Su Zhiyan with undisguised envy.

“You do this every year, aren’t you tired?” Su Zhiyan took back his phone and chuckled.

Every time he won prize money from competitions, Wen Bei would have this same awestruck reaction before inevitably demanding a celebratory meal. Not that Su Zhiyan minded, he was happy to go out and eat together. After all, anyone would get tired of eating in the campus cafeteria and the same restaurants that never changed their menu all year.

“So are you going to treat us to dinner?” Sure enough, Wen Bei asked again.

Su Zhiyan put down his phone. “What do you want to eat?”

Wen Bei thought seriously. “It’s getting cold, so hot pot would be perfect, but we always have hot pot and it feels boring.”

“What’s the point of being creative with food? As long as it tastes good.”

Wen Bei scratched his chin and glanced at Su Zhiyan with a sly look.

Seeing him like this, Su Zhiyan instinctively leaned back. “What?”

“This time… you and Shen Nianjing both got first place, right?” Wen Bei said, dragging his chair closer and nodding at Su Zhiyan’s phone. “Shouldn’t you discuss with him about going out for a celebration dinner together?”

Su Zhiyan paused.

Shen Nianjing had just sent him a congratulatory message about getting first place, and he had replied, but he hadn’t thought about going out for a celebration dinner at all.

They often ate together now, sometimes bringing Wen Bei along, so eating together didn’t seem to have much to do with the competition.

“It’s just a meal, the three of us can go out together.” he said.

Wen Bei couldn’t help but roll his eyes, looking like he wanted to say something but held back. “Su Zhiyan, do you really not understand what I mean?” He asked pointedly.

Su Zhiyan looked at him. “What do you mean?”

“I mean…just…” Wen Bei struggled, as if the words burned his mouth.

“Oh!” Su Zhiyan suddenly understood. “You mean we should invite everyone from our teams to come out for a celebration dinner together, right? After all, it’s an achievement, so celebrating together is necessary.”

He picked up his phone and started typing, asking everyone about their schedules one by one.

Wen Bei stood there stunned, watching him click into Shen Nianjing’s chat to ask about a good time for the dinner, then long-pressed the message to forward it to everyone else.

Wen Bei said, “…”

“Su Zhiyan.” His tone had the zen-like quality of someone who had been struck by lightning and seen through the world. “You’re hopeless.”

Su Zhiyan said, “?”

–

Su Zhiyan pushed open the private room door to find Shen Nianjing and others already there.

He saw Shen Nianjing look over at him, then quickly lowered his head three seconds later.

“?” What’s wrong with him?

“Hello everyone!” Some of the team members were meeting Wen Bei for the first time. He greeted them enthusiastically, and everyone became familiar with each other in no time.

Su Zhiyan habitually sat next to Shen Nianjing and noticed that his utensils still had a layer of crystal-clear water droplets on them. He looked at Shen Nianjing with some surprise.

“I rinsed them with hot water for you.” Shen Nianjing explained quickly.

“Oh, thanks.” Su Zhiyan smiled and picked up the teapot to pour himself some tea.

On the way here, Wen Bei had been chattering nonstop, and his throat was practically smoking.

“Wait—” Seeing that he was about to drink, Shen Nianjing tried to stop him, but it was too late. Su Zhiyan had already been scalded by the hot water and his whole body shuddered. His hand shook and the tea spilled out, splashing all over himself.

“!” He quickly sat back, getting away from the heat source.

Shen Nianjing grabbed the teacup and put it on the table, then quickly pulled out some tissues to help wipe the water off his jacket.

A pair of hands busily worked on his body, but in the end, all the water had already soaked into his jacket.

Shen Nianjing said, “…”

Su Zhiyan simply took off his jacket since it wasn’t cold in the private room anyway.

Shen Nianjing stood awkwardly beside him, watching him take off his jacket to reveal a fluffy gray sweater.

Su Zhiyan was already very fair-skinned, and the gray turtleneck sweater made his skin look even more pale and cool. The gentle, obedient impression his looks usually gave was replaced by a cold feeling that was more like his actual personality.

Su Zhiyan glanced at him. “Thanks, hiss—”

The spot on his tongue that got burned still hurt a little.

He bit his tongue tip lightly, trying to reduce the tingling sensation.

“What’s wrong?” A few people noticed the commotion on their side. “Did you spill hot water?”

“It was too hot, couldn’t drink it at all.” Su Zhiyan said with a muffled voice.

His tongue tip, moist and tender red, appeared and disappeared between his lips and teeth.

Shen Nianjing paused slightly and looked away.

“I ordered some cold drinks and ice.” He clicked the tablet menu to place an order. “They’ll be here soon.”

“Mm-hmm.” Su Zhiyan nodded, then asked, “You guys already ordered food, right?”

Shen Nianjing said yes, then handed the tablet to him.

Su Zhiyan looked it over briefly. All his favorite dishes were there.

“Need to add anything else?” Shen Nianjing asked in a low voice.

His voice was a bit hoarse.

“No, let’s order. I’m starving to death.” Su Zhiyan casually put the tablet back, wishing all the dishes would arrive right now.

The ice and cold drinks were delivered first. He reached for a piece of ice and put it in his mouth.

The ice really worked to cool things down. His tongue tip stopped hurting soon, but… damn, this was way too cold.

Su Zhiyan moved the ice around in his mouth, trying to reduce some of the freezing pain.

Shen Nianjing sat upright beside him, looking straight ahead.

However, while he could control his vision, he couldn’t control his hearing, which was even amplified by his nervous state.

The crisp sound of ice hitting teeth and the swallowing sounds as the ice quickly melted into water were all so clear in his ears.

Shen Nianjing’s fingers curled unconsciously.

“Mm…” Su Zhiyan let out a small sigh. After the ice melted, the temperature in his mouth felt comfortable.

Shen Nianjing’s chest rose and fell, his ears burning as he tried hard not to pay attention to what was happening beside him.

The hot pot base and dishes were quickly brought out. Shen Nianjing finally felt relieved and focused completely on putting food in the pot, watching the timing to make sure they cooked properly, then picking out Su Zhiyan’s favorite things and putting them in his bowl.

“Huh?” Su Zhiyan had just gotten up to grab a drink, and when he sat back down, he saw his bowl was full of freshly cooked meat.

He looked at Shen Nianjing, who was busy with the serving chopsticks.

What was he doing, not eating and just serving everyone else?

What a model youth of the new era, always remembering the party member’s mission to serve the people.

“Hurry up and eat. You don’t need to serve me.” He grabbed Shen Nianjing’s wrist to stop him from adding more food to his bowl.

Shen Nianjing froze.

Why not? He always served Su Zhiyan.

Shen Nianjing looked over to see Su Zhiyan blowing on the hot soup in his spoon, then sipping it with satisfaction.

Su Zhiyan’s fingers were long, making even holding a soup spoon look elegant. Each sip he took was pleasing to watch.

Shen Nianjing couldn’t help but stare.

“What’s wrong?” Su Zhiyan felt his gaze, put down the spoon and turned to ask.

“No, nothing.” Shen Nianjing stammered. “Are you sure you don’t want me to serve you?”

Su Zhiyan frowned. What was wrong with this guy, so eager to be a model worker?

“No need.” he said.

“Oh.” Shen Nianjing sounded disappointed and couldn’t help but overthink things.

Su Zhiyan had ladled his own soup. Why wouldn’t he just tell him what he wanted to eat or drink? He could do everything for him.

Now he wouldn’t even let him serve food… did Su Zhiyan already find him annoying?

Shen Nianjing looked up at Qin Qi, who was happily eating nearby. Ever since that guy mentioned once that Su Zhiyan was probably chasing him, he never brought it up again.

Why? Shen Nianjing couldn’t help wondering. Did it look to outsiders like Su Zhiyan didn’t like him anymore?

“Tangtang, do you want some watermelon?”

Zhou Zhou brought over a fruit plate and placed it between him and Su Zhiyan, then picked up a fork and offered him a piece of watermelon.

“Yes.” Su Zhiyan liked eating fruit while having meals. It was a bad habit that could hurt his stomach, but both he and Zhou Zhou maintained this “bad habit.”

Out-of-season watermelon usually wasn’t local, but it was just as sweet as the local watermelon from July and August.

Su Zhiyan ate two pieces in a row and felt satisfied.

“I want some too.” A somewhat cold voice came from beside him.

Su Zhiyan looked over to see Shen Nianjing with a rather gloomy expression.

“…” He silently used the fork to pick up a piece of melon for him.

Shen Nianjing looked down at the bright red watermelon, then ate it directly from Su Zhiyan’s fork with a loud crunch, making the fresh, juicy fruit sound like frozen chunks.

Su Zhiyan thought, “???”

He held the fork awkwardly, unsure whether to keep holding it or put it down.

He pushed the fruit plate directly in front of Shen Nianjing and placed the fork on top. “Eat it yourself!”

“Oh.” He hugged the plate.

Su Zhiyan looked away, feeling confused.

When Shen Nianjing bit down on the watermelon just now, there was a moment when it felt like he was feeding him.

Weird.

Su Zhiyan thought he should be used to such nonsense by now. With weirdos like them, who knew what issues they’d have on any given day.

Shen Nianjing sulked while hugging the fruit plate and eating for a while. He noticed that Su Zhiyan remained completely indifferent, focused on eating, occasionally chatting with Zhou Zhou, and hadn’t even glanced his way once, let alone talked to him!

Shen Nianjing put down his fork, suddenly feeling very discouraged.

Did Su Zhiyan really ever like him?

These thoughts of his were planted by Qin Qi’s joking words, but what Qin Qi said might not be true.

Shen Nianjing silently watched Su Zhiyan chatting and smiling with others, feeling somewhat dejected.

Su Zhiyan didn’t seem like someone who would easily fall for another person.

Thinking this, Shen Nianjing felt a sourness in his heart and tried to control himself from thinking further.

“Hey, this one’s ready!”

A piece of crispy pork suddenly appeared on his plate.

Shen Nianjing was stunned and looked at Su Zhiyan, who had just pulled back his chopsticks.

Su Zhiyan took a sip of his drink. Seeing that Shen Nianjing wasn’t moving, he turned to look and was immediately startled.

Shen Nianjing’s eyes were red-rimmed, and he was pouting at him.

Su Zhiyan thought, “?”

Although he knew this guy had episodes every day, today’s was really beyond his understanding.

There wasn’t even any alcohol on the table.

“What’s wrong with you?” He blinked, completely confused.

“Nothing.”

Shen Nianjing’s chest rose and fell. He took several deep breaths, grabbed the crispy pork and ate it in one bite.

It was tender and chewy, with aromatic fragrance.

Shen Nianjing declared this was the best crispy pork he’d ever eaten!

Su Zhiyan remembered what he liked to eat and even served him food!

Su Zhiyan liked him!!!

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