Pei Yuan utterly detested eating spicy food and disliked coriander just as much.
Every single dish Xie Wangzhou had ordered was spicy, with the sole exception of the braised pork knuckle.
Yet, among all types of meat, the pork knuckle was precisely what Pei Yuan could tolerate the least.
After finishing his order, Xie Wangzhou triumphantly attempted to hand the menu over to the waiter. “Serve the dishes, please.”
Pei Yuan reached out and grabbed the menu from Xie Wangzhou’s hand, leaving the two of them locked in a stalemate, their hands suspended mid-air.
“Is the esteemed Director Xie’s homecoming banquet going to forbid his employees from ordering food? What is this? Have you become a capitalist only to turn stingy instead?”
Provoked by Pei Yuan’s words, Xie Wangzhou released his grip, made a polite gesture of invitation, and forced a smile. “After you, Attorney Pei.”
Pei Yuan briefly flipped through the menu and stated, “Spun-sugar sweet potatoes, sweet and sour spare ribs, sweet lotus root stuffed with glutinous rice and sprinkled with sweet-scented osmanthus, and pine nut corn.”
All of these were sweet dishes.
Xie Wangzhou disliked sweet food and loathed corn more than anything else.
He glared at Pei Yuan, who simply shrugged and shot him a provocative, grinning look in return.
Lu Wensheng feigned ignorance of the undercurrents surging between the two men.
He had already mentally prepared himself for the two of them to clash. After all, experiencing such things once made it familiar by the second time; back in university, they had managed to attend two group dinners together.
The first occasion was the start of the semester, organized by Lu Wensheng. At that time, Pei Yuan and Xie Wangzhou had walked into the dormitory one right after the other without actually running into each other.
Ever since Xie Wangzhou had given Pei Yuan a resounding smack to the head right before high school graduation, their relationship had completely ruptured.
Once he finished submitting his college application choices, Xie Wangzhou had traveled alone on a trip, returning only just before the semester began.
As for Pei Yuan, as soon as he submitted his choices, his parents forced him to continue taking piano lessons, granting him permission to rest only right before the semester started.
Back then, the internet was not yet advanced, and neither of them knew what choices the other had submitted.
Xie Wangzhou was the last one to arrive. By the time he got there, Pei Yuan and Lu Wensheng had just finished tidying up and stepped outside.
Only one roommate was left in the dormitory.
“Hello, my name is Bai Fan.” The other person’s hair had been dyed bright red, giving him the appearance of a very high-spirited young man.
“Xie Wangzhou.”
Bai Fan looked Xie Wangzhou up and down before laughing. “I didn’t expect our dorm to have quite so many good-looking guys. The other two already look handsome enough, and now another handsome fellow shows up. Fortunately, I already have a partner; otherwise, if I went out with you guys in the future, I wouldn’t be able to find a partner at all, since nobody would even look at me.”
While unpacking his luggage, Xie Wangzhou laughed and replied, “With hair as dashing and handsome as yours, people couldn’t help but notice you even if they tried.”
The banter between the two instantly shortened the distance between them. Bai Fan glanced behind Xie Wangzhou as if nobody else was there and asked, “Did you come all by yourself?”
Logically speaking, on university registration day, parents worrying over their newly adult children would accompany them to register, showering them with countless instructions before leaving out of fear that their children could not take care of themselves. Bai Fan had just finished talking his own nagging parents into leaving.
Xie Wangzhou smiled faintly. “Yes, I came alone.”
“Impressive, impressive. You really are independent, Brother Xie.” Bai Fan sat in his chair, expressed his admiration to Xie Wangzhou, and continued speaking.
“As for the other person in our dorm, his parents came with him. Right before leaving, they didn’t forget to instruct him to study hard, make sure not to slack off in college, and never hang out with shady, disreputable people. Then, after saying that, they looked straight at me. I mean, so what if I dyed my hair? Do they have to guard against me like I am a thief?”
At the mention of this, Bai Fan was filled with resentment. Huaqing University was the pinnacle of higher education; everyone who managed to enter this institution was a favored child of heaven. Yet, they were judged by their appearance and branded as disreputable characters. Consequently, he held no favorable impression of that roommate either.
“However, that father looked rather familiar to me. It seemed he is a professor in the School of Life Sciences at our university.”
Xie Wangzhou paused in the middle of unpacking his things. If he remembered correctly, Pei Yuan’s father was a professor in the School of Life Sciences at this very university.
It couldn’t possibly be Pei Yuan, could it? Xie Wangzhou hesitated for a moment, but then reasoned that since they had reached university, surely they wouldn’t run into Pei Yuan, let alone end up as roommates. Otherwise, his luck would simply be too terrible.
Even so, he couldn’t help asking one more question: “What are the names of the other two guys in our dorm?”
“One is called Lu Wensheng, and the other is called…”
Before Bai Fan could finish his sentence, his phone rang. “Oh right, he’s here. Great, we’ll head over right now.”
After hanging up the phone, Bai Fan said to Xie Wangzhou, “Wensheng wants the two of us to go over. He said there’s a dorm gathering, he has already booked a restaurant, and dinner is on him.”
Interrupted by Bai Fan in this manner, Xie Wangzhou forgot what he had wanted to ask.
Bai Fan threw an arm around Xie Wangzhou’s shoulders, chatting with him about campus matters.
How to get a water card, where the teaching buildings were located, where the campus scenery was at its best, and so on.
Xie Wangzhou listened with keen interest. A gentle breeze blew past, dispersing much of the summer stifling heat. Small groups of students walked by together, and the campus was at its most lively and bustling, washing away even the loneliness he had felt while registering alone.
Xie Wangzhou took a deep breath of the air, beginning to look forward to a university life completely free of Pei Yuan.
And then,
And then, right there in the private dining room, he saw a smiling Pei Yuan.
Xie Wangzhou’s smile froze on his face.
Meanwhile, the smile on Pei Yuan’s face vanished the very second he laid eyes on him.
“Why are you here?”
“Why are you here?”
The two of them asked in unison.
Lu Wensheng was amused. “Oh? Well, well, looks like the two of you already know each other. That makes it even better.”
“Who knows him? We aren’t close at all.” Xie Wangzhou sat down in the position diagonally opposite Pei Yuan. “What was his name again? Pei the Dog, right?”
Pei Yuan let out a cold laugh. “You certainly seem fluent in naming members of your own species.”
Bai Fan and Lu Wensheng exchanged glances, unable to fully grasp the situation. With no other choice, Bai Fan forced himself to make introductions: “Let me introduce you. This is Pei Yuan, and this is Xie Wangzhou.”
“Such great names.” Lu Wensheng let out an awkward laugh, trying to smooth things over. “Your names even sound quite matched.”
“Matched? Who is matched with him?” The two of them spoke simultaneously once more. After finishing, they glared at each other for two seconds before instantly turning their heads away as if they had just looked at something filthy, terrified of disgusting themselves.
At that moment, Lu Wensheng thought they didn’t look like people who weren’t close; rather, they looked like a couple that had just broken up.
The dishes the two of them ordered afterward only served to further confirm Lu Wensheng’s suspicion.
Pei Yuan didn’t touch a single one of the spicy dishes ordered by Xie Wangzhou.
Xie Wangzhou pushed the sweet dishes ordered by Pei Yuan far away to the other side.
A clear boundary divided the four-person table. Xie Wangzhou and Pei Yuan occupied the furthest two ends, acting like generals guarding their respective fortresses. While defending the food right in front of them, they still did not forget to voice taunts at each other.
“A coward who can’t handle spice.”
“A fool who only deserves to eat bitterness.”
Xie Wangzhou put down his chopsticks, intending to strike first and open fire on Pei Yuan: “Hey Pei, are you secretly nursing a crush on me? Why else do you show up wherever I go?”
Pei Yuan launched a poised counterattack: “I am sorry to disappoint you, but this was simply the last major available among my choices. I never expected my luck to be so wretched as to run into you, top-three Xie.”
Xie Wangzhou’s fist tightened slightly. He had underperformed on the national college entrance examination, ranking only third in his whole school, whereas Pei Yuan had taken first place.
“Who are you trying to disgust? Just because you think you’re the top scorer?”
“I am the top scorer, originally and always.”
The gunpowder smell between the two grew increasingly dense. Fortunately, just as things were about to ignite, the realization that other people were present forced them to barely extinguish the flames.
Before leaving, Xie Wangzhou tossed a harsh parting warning at Pei Yuan: “Pei, you just wait.”
Following that, one of them took the east gate back to the campus, while the other took the west gate.
Treating everyone equally, Lu Wensheng and Bai Fan walked back to the campus through the north gate.
From then on, the two of them embarked on an intensely competitive, breakneck university life.
From seven in the morning to ten at night, rain or shine, the figures of the two could always be found in the library.
Thanks to the blessings of Pei and Xie, the overall academic performance of their entire dormitory remained consistently high throughout all four years of university, driven by the pair’s fierce competition.
After graduation, the four of them never gathered together again.
Fortunately, twenty-eight-year-old Pei Yuan and Xie Wangzhou no longer possessed the impulsive tempers of eighteen-year-olds.
This meal was eaten in absolute silence.
Only Lu Wensheng, after finishing the meal, called over the waiter and pre-ordered a few dishes to pick up that evening.
Xie Wangzhou chuckled teasingly. “Is your younger brother back again? He visits home even more frequently than you did when you were in university back then.”
“It’s not far from home anyway. At that time, my home was a bit of a distance from our school, otherwise I would have gone back every day too.” Lu Wensheng felt there was nothing wrong with it; in fact, he wished Lu Jinzhao would come back every single day.
“Who doesn’t know that Attorney Lu bought a house near the university specifically for his younger brother? It’s closer to the school, all right, but it’s much further away from our law firm.”
Lu Wensheng laughed and shoved Xie Wangzhou. “Hurry up and roll on home with you. I grant you permission to rest for the afternoon.”
“Forget it, I have a case on hand recently.” Xie Wangzhou waved his hand. “I’m going back to review the case files so I don’t miss any critical evidence.”
With that, he cast a mocking glance at Pei Yuan and strode away.
Pei Yuan turned back to ask Lu Wensheng, “Brother Sheng, is there a case for me?”
Lu Wensheng patted Fang Qi, signaling him to send the details to Pei Yuan.
“Yes, there is, yes, there is.” Fang Qi tapped his phone screen. “Attorney Pei, I have just sent it over to you.”
“Great, then I’ll head back to prepare the materials as well.”
“Are both of you always this full of drive?” Lu Wensheng touched his chin, a hint of a smile surfacing in the depths of his eyes. It seemed that recruiting Pei Yuan truly was a correct decision.
Watching his boss wear such a calculating expression, Fang Qi suddenly began to doubt the original motive behind hiring Pei Yuan.
Regardless of what Lu Wensheng’s initial motive was, using this afternoon as the starting point, Xie Wangzhou and Pei Yuan were once again about to kick off a breakneck, fiercely competitive professional career.
By the time Xie Wangzhou finished handling his case, it was already seven o’clock in the evening. Only after the busyness subsided did he feel a wave of cramping pain radiating from his stomach.
In truth, his stomach was in poor condition.
Having nobody to care for him during his childhood led to unhealthy eating habits, and during his first two years of starting a business, his meal schedules were irregular. Over time, all of this accumulated into chronic stomach trouble.
In the past two years, he could not afford to miss a single meal or eat anything too spicy; otherwise, his stomach would go on strike in protest.
Consequently, Xie Wangzhou usually kept his spicy food intake under control, only eating a little bit on rare occasions. Running into Pei Yuan and ending up with spicy dishes today was truly an accident.
As Xie Wangzhou stepped out of his office, he noticed that the light in Pei Yuan’s office was still on. He rubbed his stomach and sighed, “I can’t keep competing like this; you can roll on your own.”
Unlike what Xie Wangzhou had anticipated, Pei Yuan was not working overtime. He had suddenly remembered that he still hadn’t signed the rental contract.
He didn’t have many belongings, and once he signed, he could move right in. Now that his job was settled, there was no need to keep staying in a hotel.
With that thought in mind, Pei Yuan placed a call to the real estate agent: “Wang De, can I sign the contract today?”
“Of course you can, Brother Pei. I’ll call the landlord right now, you just head straight over there.”
After settling the details in a few words, Pei Yuan walked out of his office and happened to catch sight of Xie Wangzhou’s retreating figure, which looked somewhat hunched over.
Pei Yuan frowned, though he couldn’t be bothered to care.
Just as Xie Wangzhou got into his car, prepared to grab some dinner, he received a call from Wang De.
“Brother Xie, do you have time right now? Let’s get the contract signed today; that other tenant is moving in today.”
“All right.” Xie Wangzhou spun his steering wheel and diverted his car toward his old apartment building.
This residential complex was located within a prime school district, and the current residents were mostly children pursuing their education. At half-past seven, it was the liveliest hour of the day. Outside the complex, the evening lights were just beginning to turn on. Groups of three or five children played and chased each other as they walked toward home, while some parents brought their children walking outward. It seemed as though he alone was solitary and companionless.
Xie Wangzhou sighed. He was dressed a bit too thinly today, and the gentle breeze slipped right through his shirt, inducing waves of chilliness that made his already uncomfortable stomach ache even more.
He left the security door half-open, waiting for people to arrive, while he leaned against the sofa, cold sweat pouring down his forehead.
Xie Wangzhou tried to grope around for pain relief medication, but his hand came away empty. He calculated whether he should just forget about it for today and sign the contract tomorrow instead.
Fortunately, the sound of Wang De’s voice rang out the very next second: “Brother Xie, Brother Pei is here.”