By the time Qiao Muyu finished his shower and stepped out, the sunset had faded to a final, pale yellow streak. Before long, twilight deepened. An autumn breeze rustled outside, and the temperature had dropped significantly since the daytime; the night wind carried a slight chill.
Qiao Muyu put on a light jacket and headed out, leisurely pedaling his bicycle toward the agreed-upon dinner spot.
Hu Jun’s parents ran a small restaurant in Nanjian City. While the establishment wasn’t large, it had a solid reputation for both its food and service. Whenever Class 1 had a gathering, they usually held it here for convenience, and this time was no exception.
As Qiao Muyu was parking his bike at the entrance, Du Jingfei arrived right behind him, and the two walked toward the private room together. Pushing the door open, they found several classmates already seated, chatting over snacks of fried peanuts.
“You’re here?” Hu Jun looked up and waved with the air of a host. “Find a seat anywhere, don’t be shy.”
As he spoke, he reached for an empty cup to pour some barley tea. Seeing this, Du Jingfei reflexively took it and gulped down a large mouthful. “So sensible! How did you know I was thirsty?”
Hu Jun: “Get lost. That was for the Class Monitor, not you.”
Ignoring their bickering, Qiao Muyu sat down in an empty seat near the door. Du Jingfei followed suit, draping his jacket over the back of the adjacent chair to claim the spot before heading to the restroom.
A moment later, Qiao Muyu heard the door open behind him. He looked back instinctively and saw Lu Zhen appearing in the doorway. He looked like he had just showered; he was dressed in clean, sharp casual clothes, and his freshly dried black hair was soft and fluffy, slightly veiling his eyes. As he approached, Qiao Muyu could smell a faint scent of shampoo.
Before Qiao Muyu could greet him, Lu Zhen reached out and pulled back the empty chair next to him without a word.
“Wait, that’s—”
Qiao Muyu was about to say that was Du Jingfei’s seat, but Lu Zhen had already sat down. He tilted his head toward him: “What?”
Feeling awkward about chasing him away, Qiao Muyu swallowed his words: “…Nothing.”
Two minutes later, Du Jingfei returned from the bathroom only to find a whole human being occupying his claimed seat. He walked over and patted Lu Zhen’s shoulder, reminding him politely: “Sorry, Brother Lu, this is my spot.”
Lu Zhen showed no intention of moving. He slightly tilted his chin toward the opposite side of the table: “Aren’t there empty seats over there?”
Du Jingfei choked, his face practically screaming: Yeah, I know there are empty seats over there! So why did you have to take mine?!
Before he could argue his case, Hu Jun walked in carrying two portable alcohol stoves. Seeing Du Jingfei blocking the path for the food, he immediately barked: “Du Jingfei! What are you standing there for? Find a seat and sit down, don’t get in my way!”
“Oh.” Du Jingfei could only shuffle away sheepishly.
Seeing Lu Zhen calmly continuing to occupy his seat—while his best friend Qiao Muyu was busy whispering to Xu Rongcan on his other side, completely oblivious—Du Jingfei looked at the back of Qiao’s head and sighed.
Fine, whatever. It’s just a seat. Considering Lu Zhen won a lot of glory for Class 1 these past two days, I won’t hold it against him. He sat down reluctantly in an empty chair across the table.
Meanwhile, Qiao Muyu was listening intently to Xu Rongcan’s gossip from the sports meet. He was enjoying the stories so much that he reached toward the small plate of hawthorn flakes in front of him, only to find it empty.
He felt a bit embarrassed; he hadn’t realized he’d eaten the whole thing. He was truly hungry; having been busy all afternoon without eating, the aroma of food wafting through the restaurant made his stomach growl.
The main courses hadn’t arrived yet. The table only held a few bottles of soda and standard pre-meal snacks like peanuts and hawthorn flakes, but most had been finished by the other students. The only thing left was a dish of dried plum slices, but it was on the far side of the rotating glass tray, out of reach.
Qiao Muyu loved sweet and sour snacks and tended to overindulge when they were around. He glanced at the dish a few times but felt too shy to spin the table.
Forget it, just endure it. The food is coming soon.
Just as he thought this, a hand with distinct knuckles pressed down on the glass lazy Susan, spinning it gently until the dish of plum slices stopped steadily in front of Qiao Muyu.
Lu Zhen moved the dish closer to him and said, “Eat.”
Qiao Muyu blinked. “Huh?”
Lu Zhen: “Weren’t you staring at it the whole time?”
Qiao Muyu: “…”
How embarrassing! He saw right through me! His ears turned red. Giving up on his dignity, he grabbed a handful of plum slices, stuffed them into his mouth, and mumbled: “Fank yew.”
A soft chuckle sounded in his ear: “You’re welkum.”
Qiao Muyu turned his face away, refusing to look at him.
Just then, Hu Jun walked in with the last student for dinner. Seeing everyone was present, Du Jingfei started clattering his chopsticks against his bowl. “Sports Rep! Where’s the food? I’m starving!”
“Yeah, me too!” The others chimed in.
“Soon, soon! It’s Friday night, the place is packed. Stay calm, I’ll go check again!” Hu Jun vanished again.
“If I knew it would take this long, I would’ve brought a deck of cards,” Du Jingfei sighed.
“Forget cards. Since we’re all together, why don’t we play Truth or Dare?” Xu Rongcan suggested.
Huang Zhensen raised his hand enthusiastically. “Sure, I’m down.”
Beside him, Du Jingfei patted his shoulder and warned him solemnly: “Bro, take my advice: never play this game with this woman. Her dares are always insanely weird. You can’t afford the loss.”
Huang Zhensen looked into Du Jingfei’s sincere eyes and seemingly saw countless traumatic memories. He sheepishly lowered his hand. “…Maybe a different game then.”
Qiao Muyu, having also suffered in the past, was afraid Xu Rongcan would take the opportunity to make unreasonable demands. He quickly chimed in: “How about ‘I Have, You Haven’t’? Just as a pre-meal activity. No penalties for losing.”
“Is there a prize for the winner?”
“The winner doesn’t have to chip in for the bill today. How’s that?”
“Deal!”
Everyone agreed. The prize didn’t matter much; they just wanted to pass the time.
As everyone got ready, Lu Zhen lightly tapped Qiao Muyu’s arm and whispered: “How do you play this?”
Qiao Muyu was surprised. “You’ve never played?”
Lu Zhen: “No.”
“It’s simple.” Qiao Muyu turned halfway to face him. “Little Lu, please hold out your hand.”
Lu Zhen obediently held out his palm.
“See? Our five fingers represent five lives. We go in a circle, and each person says something they’ve done. If the others haven’t done it, they fold down a finger.”
As Qiao Muyu explained, he took Lu Zhen’s index finger and gently pressed it toward his palm. At the slight chill and tingle from the touch, Lu Zhen lowered his gaze and gave a quiet, “Mhm.”
“If you have done it, you don’t fold a finger. Once all five fingers are down, you’re out. The last one standing wins.” Qiao Muyu looked up at him. “Understand, Little Lu?”
Lu Zhen rubbed his fingertip, where the warmth of the other’s touch seemed to linger. “Yeah, I understand.”
In this game, getting the upper hand early is key. To be fair, they spun a water bottle to decide who would start. The bottle pointed to Huang Zhensen.
Under everyone’s gaze, he cleared his throat and dropped a bomb right away: “I’ve been in a relationship!”
“…Dammit!” The whole table grumbled as they each folded a finger. No one was spared.
“I couldn’t tell! You’re a dark horse,” someone remarked.
Du Jingfei took the chance to snitch: “Monitor, I’m reporting him for dating!”
Huang Zhensen realized he had just outed himself and hurried to explain: “No, no! That’s in the past. We broke up long ago. I have no such worldly desires now!”
The table erupted in laughter. Perhaps influenced by Huang’s scandalous start, the next two people followed the theme. One said, “I’ve held hands with the opposite sex,” and the other said, “I’ve written a love letter.”
Qiao Muyu’s experience in this field was a total blank. In a blink, he was down three lives. Frustrated, he checked the others and was relieved to find Lu Zhen, sitting next to him, had also “died” three times. He felt much better.
He met Lu Zhen’s gaze, intending to offer a “we’re in the same boat” look, but he saw no frustration on Lu Zhen’s face. Instead, there was a faint, unreadable smile in his eyes.
Qiao Muyu was confused. “What are you laughing at?”
Lu Zhen glanced at Qiao’s remaining two fingers. “Nothing.”
Qiao Muyu didn’t understand how he could still be smiling. He was about to be eliminated and had zero sense of crisis. Although it was just a game, Qiao Muyu—a chronic high-achiever—had a life motto: If you play, you play to win. Plus, not paying for dinner was a nice incentive.
Fortunately, the next two students mentioned school-related experiences that Qiao Muyu had also been through, allowing him to keep his last two fingers.
Finally, it was Lu Zhen’s turn. He seemed to have prepared his answer, saying calmly: “I have ranked first in the entire grade in high school.”
“…”
After half a second of silence, the table erupted in wails. Qiao Muyu, the only survivor of this indiscriminate attack, sighed in relief and gave Lu Zhen a mental thumbs-up.
“Aaaargh! Brother Lu, you’re biased!” Xu Rongcan, down to her last life, screamed in frustration. “You clearly know only the Monitor has ever ranked first!”
“Whatever, I accept my defeat,” Du Jingfei sighed. “Next! Xiao Yu, it’s your turn.”
Qiao Muyu, caught off guard, followed the trend weakly: “I… have ranked second in the grade?”
The table erupted in boos. “Hey, Monitor! That’s cheating! I could say I ranked 66th—such a lucky number, has anyone else done that?”
“Fine, I’ll change it.” Qiao Muyu gave up on his shortcut and thought for a moment. “How about… I’ve spoken as a student representative at the opening ceremony.”
This time, everyone lost their strength to resist and “died” out.
Looking around, only Qiao Muyu and Lu Zhen were left standing, and each had only one life left. As they reached the climax, the atmosphere grew strangely tense. According to the order, it was Lu Zhen’s turn again.
Qiao Muyu felt it was terrible to have the opponent hold all the power. Even worse, his opponent was a wealthy young master who had seen the world; his life experiences were surely richer than his own. Qiao Muyu could already think of seven or eight things Lu Zhen could say to finish him off.
He accepted his fate and prepared for defeat.
However, the next second, he heard Lu Zhen say calmly: “I have gotten a perfect score on a math test.”
Qiao Muyu’s pinky finger, which had been halfway folded, jerked back up. He blinked slowly, doubting his ears.
That’s… it?
Sensing the hesitation on his face, Lu Zhen added, “And you?”
Qiao Muyu’s back straightened instantly. He stubbornly kept his pinky up and raised an eyebrow. “I’ve done that too. Many times.”
“Oh.” Lu Zhen calmly folded his last finger. “Then you win.”
Everyone: “…”
“Rigged! This is absolutely rigged!” Xu Rongcan screamed again.
“Rigged? It’s a total giveaway! I can think of a dozen ways he could’ve finished Xiao Yu,” Du Jingfei lamented. “I’ve moved schools, I’ve won three championships at a sports meet, I have a chauffeur drive me in a luxury car… and you tell me you got a perfect score in math? I did that in first grade!”
Lu Zhen remained unfazed. “I didn’t think of those things just now,” he said lightly.
The group fell silent. Liar.
Before Qiao Muyu could give a victory speech, Hu Jun walked in with two plates of hot food. “Move, move! Food’s here!”
Everyone’s attention was instantly diverted. They pounced on the food like starving ghosts, and the game was forgotten.
In the scramble, Qiao Muyu managed to snag a perfect-looking pork rib. After a moment’s hesitation, he placed it in Lu Zhen’s bowl and whispered, “Thanks for letting me win just now.”
Lu Zhen: “It’s fine. I’m not short on cash for this meal.”
Qiao Muyu, whose heart had been full of gratitude a second ago, suddenly wanted to take the rib back. “…”
Dammit, he’s showing off again.