"And you're the damn chief of the Beggar Gang?"
...
The two of them traded insults for a good while. It wasn's until the other students started leaving the classroom that they realized it was time for dinner.
"I paid for two months of the cannon-kukri in CF. It's going to expire if I don't use it," Qiu Mengze said. He still wanted to go to the internet cafe to play games.
At home, there was no excuse to stay up all night gaming, but it was different at school.
The moment the teachers left, the world was their oyster. The doggy door in the corner of the school wasn't just a doggy door; it was a passageway to the Biochemical Pyramid.
"If you go, I'll tell the head teacher. You'd better think about it," Xue Rui threatened.
Qiu Mengze had a serious gaming addiction, though Xue Rui wasn't entirely blameless for it...
"You can't sell me out like that!" Qiu Mengze said indignantly. But he didn't take it too seriously; Xue Rui was always joking around.
"Lin Ruoxi." Xue Rui stood up and called out her name. He tossed a meal card he'd found in his drawer over to her, then headed out of the classroom on his own, a grin on his face. "Go get my dinner."
Lin Ruoxi silently picked up the meal card from the floor and walked behind Xue Rui with her head down.
Xue Rui glanced back. Just as he'd expected, Lin Ruoxi didn't know how to refuse.
"It's not right to bully her like this. I think she looks so pitiful," Qiu Mengze whispered.
"If she wants to run errands, then let her. How is it bullying if I give her a little something for her trouble?" Xue Rui turned back, smiled at Lin Ruoxi, and said, "Tell me, am I bullying you?"
'I wonder what kind of environment a girl like this grew up in to completely lose the ability to fight back,' Xue Rui thought. 'But she still has such strong pride. I don't have many ideas, so for now, I'll just use this method to make sure she gets a full meal.'
Lin Ruoxi kept her head down, her lips pressed tightly together.
'Bullying? Xue Rui hadn't hit her, though he had thrown away her steamed bun...'
She was very afraid of Xue Rui, but she always felt he was different from other people.
The way Xue Rui looked at her was different. There was no pity or disgust, but instead a kind of helplessness, and even a faint, barely perceptible trace of hatred.
Lin Ruoxi bit her lower lip, thinking, 'Maybe... I really did offend Xue Rui somehow without realizing it. As long as I just run errands for him, it should be fine, right...?'
"You're a real closed book. Can't even get a single word out of you." Xue Rui was getting annoyed. He raised his hand, intending to give Lin Ruoxi a light tap on the head.
But just as he raised his hand, Lin Ruoxi suddenly crouched on the ground in terror, wrapping her arms around her head. Her knuckles turned white from how tightly she was gripping.
'What the hell has this girl been through! Would a normal person react like this?' Xue Rui's thoughts were in a mess.
His expression darkened. He snapped, "Get up! If anyone sees this, they'll think I actually did something to you."
Just then, Qiu Mengze, who had no idea what was going on, suddenly stepped forward and declared righteously, "Xue Rui, you've gone too far!"
He subconsciously wanted to play the hero in front of a girl, especially since there was no danger this time. He was determined to show off.
"What the hell does this have to do with you?!" Xue Rui was so angry he laughed. Taking advantage of his bigger build, he forcefully pushed Qiu Mengze all the way to the cafeteria entrance.
"My image! My image! If a girl who doesn't know me saw that, she'd think I'm your lackey!" Qiu Mengze looked furious, feeling that the image he had cultivated for years had just collapsed.
"So what do you want to do about it?" Xue Rui looked completely unconcerned. 'What image? Qiu Mengze was just a pervert who loitered by the men's restroom. If his image collapsed, so be it.'
The two of them often horsed around like this, so Qiu Mengze was only mad for a few minutes. He then put on a smile again. He could never stay mad at his childhood friend, Xue Rui. He said casually, "Just come to the internet cafe with me today. And give me one of the packs of Chunghwa you've got under your pillow."
"You can have the cigarettes, but forget about the internet cafe."
Xue Rui found a random seat in the cafeteria. Since the long tables and benches were all welded together, he couldn't get comfortable no matter how he sat. Unable to adjust the chair, he just propped his feet up on the support bar, slouched like a king, and watched Lin Ruoxi obediently waiting in line for food.
Qiu Mengze walked to the back of the line and said to Lin Ruoxi, "Don't wait. Come cut in line with me. I know someone up front."
Lin Ruoxi shook her head, but in her peripheral vision, she saw Xue Rui waving at her from a distance, signaling for her to go to the front. She hesitated for a long time before walking over and standing in front of Qiu Mengze.
This was the first time she had ever cut in line. She hurriedly lowered her head, terrified that someone would scold her.
Nothing she'd imagined happened, even when she reached the serving window. She instantly let out a sigh of relief.
"I... I'd like the scrambled eggs with tomato, a braised chicken leg... and an order of pork dumplings."
The cafeteria was noisy, filled with the roar of various machines from the kitchen. The cafeteria lady serving the food didn't hear Lin Ruoxi's mumbling at all. She shouted, "Student, what did you say?!"
"She wants two vegetable dishes, two meat dishes, and an order of whatever dumplings you have!" Qiu Mengze shouted.
The cafeteria lady took the tray. Her ladle shook and shook, and a full scoop of food ended up as only a third of what it was.
But when she looked up and happened to glimpse Lin Ruoxi's unusually thin wrists, she was suddenly struck by a pang of conscience. She then scooped up several more generous spoonfuls, piling the tray high. "Child, eat more. Look how skinny you are."
Qiu Mengze watched, dumbfounded. He had never seen such a large portion of food before. When it was his turn, he said with a grin, "Auntie, I'm a growing boy too. Give me some extra, please."
The cafeteria lady pretended not to hear him. The hand holding the large ladle seemed to have developed Parkinson's again, shaking and shaking...
"Here," Lin Ruoxi said in a small voice. She carefully pushed the plate in front of Xue Rui, having also gotten him a bowl of seaweed soup and set out his chopsticks.
Lin Ruoxi sat quietly to the side, waiting. She had eaten a lot for lunch and her stomach still felt a bit bloated.
"This isn't what I ordered."
Xue Rui remembered the order he'd wanted: braised chicken leg, scrambled eggs with tomato, a side of greens, and Di San Xian. But now, aside from the scrambled eggs with tomato, nothing on the plate was what he wanted. However, the portion size was astonishingly large, almost overflowing from the plate.
Lin Ruoxi said weakly, "I... I'm sorry."
She felt so useless. She couldn't even state the names of the dishes clearly.
When she ate by herself, she would only buy one dish at most, simply pointing at something from the "cheap" section. Even if the cafeteria lady got it wrong, she wouldn't say anything and would just eat it silently.
A slight smile touched the corners of Xue Rui's mouth. 'Her ordering the wrong food is perfect. It gives me an excuse to make her eat.'
He said, "People have to pay for their own mistakes. The scrambled eggs with tomato are mine. As for the rest, you can either eat it or throw it all away."
"I... I'll pay you back."
"Do you think I need your money? Don't waste food. And while you're at it, pick out the tomato skins." Xue Rui pointed at the plate and commanded. The more he looked at it, the more he lost his appetite. The cafeteria's scrambled eggs with tomato were always made with unpeeled tomatoes.
"Okay..." Lin Ruoxi didn't dare to argue with Xue Rui. She carefully used her chopsticks to pick out the curled strips of tomato skin.
Xue Rui skillfully picked up a dumpling, poked his chopsticks into the middle, and scooped out the filling. Then he dipped the dumpling wrapper in some Old Chen vinegar and popped it into his mouth, chewing heartily.
Lin Ruoxi had been watching Xue Rui eat. She thought he was only going to eat the dumpling filling, but to her surprise, he only ate the wrapper.
She felt an inexplicable pang of pity. Such perfectly good meat filling was being wasted.
Qiu Mengze noticed Lin Ruoxi had suddenly frozen. He naturally knew what she was thinking, because everyone who had ever eaten dumplings with Xue Rui had been baffled. He explained to Lin Ruoxi, "Xue Rui's been like this since he was a kid. He eats dumplings but not the filling."
"Scoop out all the filling. I'll eat the wrappers, you eat the filling," Xue Rui ordered.
"Oh... okay..." Lin Ruoxi became even more curious about Xue Rui. As she separated the filling from the wrappers, she would occasionally peek at him from behind her bangs. It was the first time she had ever seen someone who only ate the dumpling wrappers.
"Hurry up and eat. When you're done, you can return the tray."
"I..." Lin Ruoxi wanted to tell Xue Rui that she couldn't eat anymore, but his attitude was so forceful that she didn't dare to say it.
In the end, seeing that Lin Ruoxi's stomach had truly reached its limit, Xue Rui pulled the plate away and went to throw out the leftovers himself.