8、
That day, Anning followed behind Xu Moting, carefully walking about one foot behind him. Actually they had only walked less than ten meters when he turned slightly and said to her, “If you want to look at my back, I don’t mind, but I’d prefer you walk beside me.” Anning thought, so there really were people whose smiles could shine brilliantly.
In the end, someone hesitantly walked to his side. Xu Moting slowed his pace. When he slightly raised his hand, Anning’s heart skipped a beat involuntarily… then he slipped his left hand into his pocket. Mm… forgive her for having impure thoughts, she’d thought he was going to hold her hand… Someone lowered her head in extreme shame.
After walking a while, Anning felt uncomfortable again. She was used to walking on people’s right side… But if she circled over now, wouldn’t that look stupid?
“……”
He tilted his head toward her. “What?”
Did his perception really need to be this sharp? “My name is Li Anning.” It seemed she still hadn’t told him her name.
“I know.”
He knew? Fine, maybe her name had already entered the blacklist.
Anning: “Um, I was just casually asking, but when you go out to eat with other girls…”
Xu Moting: “I don’t go out to eat with girls.”
“Eh? But last time I saw you…” That wasn’t what she wanted to ask, right? What she wanted to ask was: when you go out eating with other girls, which side do you usually walk on? Then she could subtly imply that she liked walking on the right…
“Xu Chengyu is my cousin.” He paused, then smiled faintly. “So you don’t need to worry.”
I’m not worried ah… Anning thought despairingly. It’s over, the misunderstanding has gotten huge.
“What do you want to eat?”
“Vegetable noodles.” Only after saying it did she realize it sounded a bit shabby, but she really did want noodles.
He smiled again, seemingly arriving at a conclusion. “You’re easy to raise.”
That counted as praise, right?
There weren’t many people in the noodle shop, but as soon as Anning entered she ran into someone she knew. Jiang Xu saw her and came over to greet her. “What a coincidence, you came here to eat too?”
Anning: “Mm… I came to eat noodles.”
“……”
At that moment Jiang Xu also saw Xu Moting standing behind her and couldn’t help freezing. There was obvious surprise on his face. Finally he turned to Anning and said, “Then I won’t disturb your meal. I still have friends inside. See you.” As he walked away, he added, “Say hello to Weiwei for me.”
Anning: “Okay.”
Xu Moting: “Find a seat. I’ll go order.”
The moment Anning sat down, a text from her cousin came in: Ah… what a soul-stirring day…
Cousin: All 9 drawings got redone. Let the computer crashes come even more violently!!
Anning: Xunzi said one should be broad-minded.
Cousin: They’re already E-cup, how much broader do they need to be?! Say something comforting.
Anning: ……Broad.
Cousin: ……
Moting came over and handed her a drink. While waiting for the noodles, Anning listened to the conversation at the next table. Not eavesdropping, because they were talking pretty loudly.
Girl F: “Yesterday I downloaded a new game and realized a lot of the weapons in it are specially for hitting faces.”
Girl G: “You can hit people but not their faces ah!”
Girl F: “My boyfriend’s weapon is a pure gold disc… throwing type.”
Girl G: “Pretty powerful, right?”
Girl F: “That depends on whether he throws one or a whole pile.”
Girl G: “A whole pile of pure gold? Your boyfriend really is rich. By the way, discs should be recyclable, right?”
A companion beside them who hadn’t been able to join the conversation burst out laughing. “Recycle? You mean after throwing it out, whether it hits or not, he runs to pick it back up, throws it again, picks it up again…”
Girl F shrugged. “Anyway he’s rich. Doesn’t matter if he can’t pick them back up.”
Anning silently turned her head, just in time to meet Xu Moting’s eyes. He seemed to have heard too, so he smiled lightly. “What?”
Since they were sitting too close to the next table, Anning could only lean closer and whisper, “Mm… according to Jin Yong logic, people who use strange weapons are never the protagonists.”
He seemed to pause for a moment. It was unclear whether it was because of her words or because of how close she’d leaned.
Meanwhile, what Anning was thinking about was Yang Guo’s Dark Iron Heavy Sword. The sword weighed two hundred and forty jin and could suppress thousands of troops by force. Actually, that was pretty bizarre too, wasn’t it?
While classmate Anning was lowering her head eating noodles, someone walked over and called out, “Xu Moting? You’re at school today?!”
Moting had already stood up. “Came over to hand in some documents. You?”
“Student council stuff to deal with. A bunch of upperclassmen students who can’t do anything right.” The other person glanced at Anning sitting opposite Xu Moting a few extra times, though he didn’t say much. “Oh right, I’ve been meaning to ask you. There’s an ‘Image Ambassador’ competition at school recently. Could you spare some time to be a preliminary judge?”
Anning unconsciously perked up her ears because Qiangwei had signed up for the event.
Xu Moting: “I might not have time.”
Eh? Anning looked up at him. Agree ah… then she could use the back door a little… uh, no… using connections required a pretty good relationship… should she give him a gift or something?
At that moment Xu Moting lightly smiled and asked her again, “What?”
Was this person actually a god? “How about… you be a judge?”
Anning firmly ignored the gaze and meaningful smile the stranger shot over. Anyway… mm, the person involved had probably already misunderstood.
Then the person involved smiled and replied to the stranger, “Okay.”
Anning pondered. Could she also misunderstand a little and think he liked her?