The restaurant Yu Bei was at was called "Taste Here Home Cooking," tucked into a corner with a blue storefront and yellow lettering, made into a three-dimensional lightbox sign that made it especially eye-catching.
On one side of the second-floor concrete railing, plastic pots were lined up, planted with scallions, garlic, and leafy greens she couldn't name. Someone in the family must have just watered them, as several trails of water meandered down the side.
Yu Bei stood right behind the railing. He was so tall that if his sense of balance were any worse, he might have put on a live performance of falling objects from a great height.
Chen Qingning thought this with a hint of mischief, then shooed away those gleefully wicked images.
It was noon, and the small restaurant was fairly full, with only one table empty. The aroma of fresh, savory food filled the air.
The moment Chen Qingning walked in, she drew the attention of most of the diners. They lingered for a couple of seconds, then returned to their dishes.
The woman who came out of the kitchen carrying dishes also noticed her.
Chen Qingning recognized her as the one who had made contact with Yu Bei.
Now that her thick coat was off, she looked like a bean sprout—thin and slender. She tied her apron in a knot at her lower back and greeted Chen Qingning with practiced ease: "What would you like to eat, miss? The menu's on the wall."
Chen Qingning glanced at the menu. "I'm looking for Teacher Yu."
"Oh…" The woman seemed caught off guard. She turned to glance at the stairwell diagonally across, then frantically looked for her phone. "He went upstairs. I'll call him."
Chen Qingning also looked toward the stairs. "I know. I'll go up and find him myself."
With that, she made to charge through with her bags big and small, but the woman grabbed her arm, speaking urgently: "Miss, wait a moment."
Chen Qingning didn't understand.
Her arms were about to be cut off by the bag straps, and the orange juice drinks hooked between her fingers were like a thousand tiny cuts. She just wanted to be free of it all as quickly as possible.
"Sister Chen."
Suddenly a voice dropped from behind her, as if slicing through the oily haze of the room.
The woman in front of her looked up, and Chen Qingning turned around. It was Yu Bei, coming to her rescue. "She's my colleague," he said.
The woman's eyes showed surprise, and she withdrew her hand, explaining: "She didn't make it clear and was about to go up. I was worried…"
Yu Bei nodded, his tone gentle: "I know."
From the kitchen came a shout—a man's voice, calling the woman's name, urging her that the food was ready.
The woman responded, her eyes darting between the two of them. Only after receiving Yu Bei's firm confirmation did she turn back to the kitchen.
Chen Qingning immediately handed half her bags over.
Yu Bei's thick brows lifted slightly. He didn't take them.
"Help me carry them!" She nearly wailed.
Only then did Yu Bei take them.
Someone came in from outside, and Yu Bei caught them in his peripheral vision. He steered Chen Qingning half a step into the corner by the cash register, so she wouldn't be standing there fully loaded, blocking people's business.
He asked: "What are you doing here?"
Chen Qingning struck a pose like the Thousand-Hand Guanyin: "Can't you see? Shopping."
Yu Bei asked again: "Alone?"
Chen Qingning put on a smile: "I'm alone now."
Yu Bei saw through her in one glance: "Qu Xiao brought you here?"
Chen Qingning pouted, deflated: "Yeah. She's doing home tutoring, and you're doing home tutoring too. Don't either of you have weekend lives?"
Yu Bei didn't join in her complaining: "What time does she finish?"
Chen Qingning: "Who?"
"Teacher Qu."
"She said we'd meet at twelve."
"Have you eaten?"
"Not yet," Chen Qingning tilted her head to look at him. "Are you trying to invite me to lunch?" She gave the surroundings a picky once-over. "I don't mind eating somewhere a little shabby."
Yu Bei slipped one hand into his pants pocket, wearing a half-smile: "Call Qu Xiao over. Let's have lunch here."
Chen Qingning's eyes immediately blazed with indignation, her hand nearly pointing at him: "Are you secretly in love with Qu Xiao?"
Yu Bei's expression turned baffled.
"Are you?" Chen Qingning pressed on. "Using me as your wingman."
Yu Bei had nothing to say. He happened to be tutoring a child at this restaurant, and when he ran into Chen Qingning by chance, he thought he'd help them both get lunch sorted.
He rarely played the good Samaritan, and this was how it got misread into a full-blown romance novel.
He gave up explaining: "Go find her, then."
Chen Qingning refused to let it go: "You already stopped me, so you have to take responsibility for a stray wandering the streets." She mimicked the words he had once used to scold her, in a sarcastic tone: "Because right now, I'm responsible for you."
As she spoke, she even recreated the "yo yo yo" meme expression perfectly.
Yu Bei genuinely wanted to push her incorrigible face aside. He curled his fingers and gestured toward the wall behind the cash register: "What do you want to eat?"
Chen Qingning was momentarily stunned: "Aren't you teaching?"
Yu Bei said: "Class is after lunch."
Chen Qingning let out a "pfft": "So you came here to freeload."
It wasn't until they actually sat down that Chen Qingning realized Yu Bei wasn't here to eat for free—he was a guest of honor.
That deliberately empty small table was reserved by the owner specifically for Yu Bei.
The woman who shared Chen Qingning's surname came over to wipe the table. A customer who wanted to share the table grumbled in dissatisfaction, and the woman smiled apologetically, saying Yu Bei was a distant relative of the family who rarely came by.
"Is he really your relative?" After she left, Chen Qingning pulled out her own tissue and carefully wiped the half-damp tabletop. "Are you a local?"
Yu Bei didn't answer the latter question. He kept his eyes lowered, focused on rinsing the bowls and chopsticks with hot water: "No."
Another set of white porcelain tableware was pushed over from across the table, nudging his aside, accompanied by a faint, thread-like female voice: "So the boss lady was lying?"
Yu Bei raised an eyebrow but didn't deny it.
"Help me scald these too, won't you?" Chen Qingning's gaze shifted sideways as she rubbed her frost-reddened "slender jade fingers" together. "The kettle's in your hands."
Yu Bei pulled her bowls and plates closer.
Wispy white steam rose between the two of them, vanishing in an instant. Yu Bei stuck all four chopsticks into the same cup of water, waited a moment, then separated out a pair for Chen Qingning. Finally, he bent down and used his foot to hook the trash bin out from under the table.
Chen Qingning's shopping spree had been a triumph—her spoils lined the bench, and she hadn't spared the space under the table either.
She'd set them down carelessly, one of the bags pressed right against the trash bin, whether out of oversight or indifference.
Yu Bei pulled them apart before pouring out the dishwater.
Chen Qingning found it odd and leaned back to check under the table. "What are you doing?"
Yu Bei sat up straight. "Nothing."
Chen Qingning held up Qu Xiao's reply. "Xiao'er says she's not coming over."
Yu Bei took a sip of water from his cup. "Then how are you getting back?"
Chen Qingning used a chopstick as a microphone and hummed soulfully: "'Companionship is the longest confession of love…'"
"…" Yu Bei glanced at his phone and said decisively, "Finish eating and we'll leave. I'll call you a car."
Chen Qingning protested with righteous indignation: "Are you even my supervising teacher anymore? How could you abandon your one and only most beloved intern?"
Yu Bei said, "You're not the only one I've supervised."
Chen Qingning immediately took it out of context: "So you're not denying I'm the most beloved."
"…"
Sister Chen brought over a local specialty dish and urged the two young people to eat. The fish on the plate was coated in a rich, dark sauce and smelled utterly bizarre. Chen Qingning frowned. "What is this?"
Sister Chen introduced it: "Stinky mandarin fish."
Chen Qingning was wary. "Smells awful but tastes good?"
Sister Chen's answer was less than definitive: "Something like that. You two teachers, eat up."
Chen Qingning didn't dare touch her chopsticks, put off by the smell, her double chin practically crumpling. When she looked up, she saw Yu Bei watching her. He let out a soft laugh and picked up a piece of the fish himself.
The tip of his chopsticks skirted around the belly.
Chen Qingning clenched her fist over her nose while her other hand remained on guard. "Is it good?"
Yu Bei said, "Better than West Lake vinegar fish."
Chen Qingning was half-convinced.
By the time she came back with her rice, the girl was already picking out the fish bones, eventually swallowing a few shreds of meat like they were medicine, smacking her lips. "Not bad, I guess. Better than your cafeteria."
Yu Bei didn't chime in.
Seeing that he'd only brought back one bowl of rice, Chen Qingning feigned annoyance. "Why didn't you bring me rice?"
Yu Bei replied, "I didn't know how much you'd eat."
Chen Qingning said, "If it's too much, I'll scoop some to you. Then you won't have to go get more—kills two birds with one stone."
Yu Bei tilted his bowl toward her and offered seriously: "How about this—I'll share some of mine with you, and you won't have to go through the trouble of getting your own."
Chen Qingning was left speechless, squeezing out a "You—fine" through her teeth before grabbing her bowl and going to fend for herself.
Having failed to boss him around, Chen Qingning felt thoroughly out of sorts and started nitpicking, deliberately picking a fight: "You've made it so I can't even have my fruit tea."
Yu Bei's bowl had been empty for a while, still waiting for her to finish her slow chewing. At her words, he glanced sideways at the drink bag next to the condiment jar. "Isn't that it?"
"That's for Xiao'er," Chen Qingning said, puffing herself up. "Out of concern for you, I didn't even take mine."
Yu Bei turned off his phone and set it back on the table. "Stalking is stalking—no need to dress it up so elegantly."
"I—stalking?" Chen Qingning pointed at herself. "Just now, who was in front and who was behind? Who made me turn around?"
Yu Bei said nothing in response. He got up, walked to the drink cooler by the door, grabbed a bottle of tea, and set it in the middle of the table, jerking his chin to indicate she should drink.
Chen Qingning squinted at the drink name on the green-and-white bottle and deliberately found fault: "This is jasmine green tea, not fruit tea."
Yu Bei took it back, unscrewed the cap, and drank it himself.
Chen Qingning was seething. "How can you be like this?"
Yu Bei said, "You didn't want it. Waste not, right?"
By the time she'd picked through all the food and barely filled her stomach, Yu Bei had already finished the entire bottle.
Chen Qingning was in awe. "Were you a water buffalo in your past life?"
Yu Bei didn't reply. He tossed the empty bottle and kept the white round cap, taking it to the back kitchen.
Chen Qingning straightened her back to watch his movements.
A moment later, the man returned to the table, pulled out a tissue, meticulously wiped the water stains off the bottle cap, and tucked it into his pants pocket.
Chen Qingning said in disbelief: "I've seen people collect empty bottles, but I've never seen anyone collect bottle caps."
Yu Bei said casually: "It says 'one more bottle' on it."
Chen Qingning was stunned. "Really? That lucky?"
Yu Bei: "Fake."
Chen Qingning choked.
The man didn't sit back down, only asked: "I have class soon. What's your plan? Figured it out?"
Chen Qingning answered without hesitation, in a syrupy, coquettish tone: "Of course, wherever Teacher Yu is, I'll be. I want to be your beautiful little accessory all day long."
Yu Bei unlocked his phone. "Should I call a car?"
Chen Qingning turned to look at the door. "Can you even get a car here? Didn't Qu Xiao say you can't?"
Yu Bei explained: "You can't get one at the school. But in the county town, you can."
Chen Qingning furrowed her brow, pondered for a moment, then insisted on staying: "As your personally acknowledged most beloved student, of course I must remain by my esteemed teacher's side."
Yu Bei: "No need."
"Yes, there is."
"I just want to see what it's like to have lessons delivered to my door, is that not allowed?" Chen Qingning feigned pitifulness: "Xiao'er won't take me along, and you're chasing me off too. I came to Baihe all alone, supposedly to train and learn, but in the end, no one is willing to have me around."
Yu Bei seemed lost in thought, staring without blinking; meanwhile, Chen Qingning's eyelids were nearly twitching out of control, firing off a rapid volley of flirtatious glances.
"Come on, follow me up," Yu Bei no longer refused, but also gave a timely warning: "The students upstairs are different from those at the school. Stay out of trouble and don't cause any incidents."