Dinner? Let’s Eat

The dishes were served quickly. Neither of them ordered much—just two dishes and a soup, keeping to the principle of not wasting food.

Meals were the easiest time to start a conversation. Favorite dishes, dislikes, where you were from, hometowns—one topic could lead to another endlessly, as if there were far too much to talk about.

“Where are you from again?” Xi Zhen poured the tea and handed it over. The cup was white, and the heat spilled over the rim.

“Huicheng.” Li Xingqing answered honestly, taking the tea Xi Zhen handed her; their fingertips brushed.

“A girl from the south, huh.” Xi Zhen nodded, her gaze lingering on Li Xingqing’s face for a moment. “No wonder you look so gentle.”

Li Xingqing, standing at a clean 175 centimeters and nearly 180 once she put on shoes, had rarely been praised for being “gentle.”

People usually described her as cold, quiet, or hard to deal with.

Hearing Xi Zhen’s assessment so suddenly, Li Xingqing even tried to connect those two words to herself.

Mm. Didn’t seem right. It felt more like she was talking about someone else.

“Where is Sister Zhen from?” Li Xingqing asked.

“If you mean where I’ve lived the longest, I can’t really say for sure.” Xi Zhen laughed it off, her tone light and casual, clearly not wanting to talk about her hometown.

Li Xingqing caught that immediately and quickly changed the subject.

“Does Sister know how long our crew will be filming?” Li Xingqing changed how she addressed her. It had to be said—she really was good at finding things to talk about.

Crew matters; work matters. So far, it was the most suitable topic for the two of them. It didn’t cross any lines, wasn’t flirty, and wouldn’t make anyone uncomfortable.

Xi Zhen clearly thought so too. After considering it, she gave a rough estimate. “At most a month, probably.”

“That tight?”

A month sounded long. But Li Xingqing was a screenwriter, and she knew better than anyone how complicated this script was. Looking at it that way, a month did seem pretty rushed.

“A little, but there’s nothing we can do.” Xi Zhen sighed and picked up another bite of food. “Anyway, we can only take it step by step. Maybe we won’t even have a full month.” Her tone was easygoing, as if she were talking about something completely harmless.

Li Xingqing nodded but didn’t say anything. She had thought Xi Zhen knew the rough schedule because Bai Mo, as the male lead, basically had to run through the entire script, so as his assistant, Xi Zhen would naturally need to know the timing.

But now, Xi Zhen didn’t seem very certain either. Could there be some other problem with this crew?

Though the small town the production had chosen was remote, the locals were very hospitable.

The restaurant Xi Zhen had picked tasted good, the prices were reasonable, and the portions were generous. After finishing the meal, Li Xingqing felt a little too full and planned to take a walk to help digest; she could also get a feel for the area nearby.

Xi Zhen paid the bill. When she heard Li Xingqing’s idea, she had originally planned to go along too, but right then she got a phone call.

She walked to the entrance to answer it, lowering her voice. Li Xingqing couldn’t make out what she was saying; she could only see Xi Zhen’s back. Not long after, Xi Zhen came back in.

“For the next meal, let me treat,” Li Xingqing said after looking at Xi Zhen. In the end, she still said it.

After all, the two of them were eating together; it wouldn’t be right to let Xi Zhen pay for everything alone.

But bringing up splitting the bill right then would be even more impolite, so she had to phrase it differently.

“Sure.” Xi Zhen agreed very readily, seeming unsurprised that Li Xingqing would say that. “Then next time let our Teacher Xingqing pick a place and treat me to a meal.”

She accepted it generously, and Li Xingqing finally relaxed. What she feared most was people being too polite with her. It wasn’t that politeness itself was wrong; she just instinctively disliked it. It felt like something people came up with when they were still apart but had to keep up an adult veneer of courtesy.

“Okay, next time I’ll choose the place.” Li Xingqing smiled as she gathered her things and got ready to leave. “Does Sister Zhen want to take a walk? I don’t think it’s raining outside.”

“It should be possible, but unfortunately I’ve got something to deal with.” Xi Zhen expressed her regret, then turned to reassure her. “This town has pretty good scenery; it’s worth wandering around.” As she spoke, her phone rang again. It wouldn’t be polite not to answer, and Xi Zhen’s eyes showed apology.

Li Xingqing didn’t think she was being brushed off. She signaled that she didn’t mind and told her to take the call. After Xi Zhen left, Li Xingqing stood there and looked at the menu hanging above the checkout counter.

They were all local dishes. People in D City tended to eat spicier food, which wasn’t really suitable for Li Xingqing.

Today Xi Zhen had chosen mostly lighter dishes to take care of her.

Li Xingqing stared at the menu, and something suddenly flashed through her mind.

If Xi Zhen was very familiar with a little local restaurant like this, that meant she liked this kind of food.

So she actually liked spicy food, did she?

As if she had discovered some huge secret, Li Xingqing traced the words on the menu little by little with her eyes.

Xi Zhen finished the call quickly, but unfortunately the expression on her face was no longer as friendly as before.

“Did something happen?” Li Xingqing asked.

“Nothing major, just a bit urgent. I might have to go first...”

“It’s fine, I can walk around on my own. Sister Zhen should go handle things.” Li Xingqing hurriedly waved her hands.

“You... can you find your way back by yourself? I’ve sent you the address on WeChat. If you really can’t find it, then call me. Right, I’ll send you the number too.”

“Okay, Sister, go take care of your business.”

Xi Zhen left in a hurry; she must have really run into something urgent.

Li Xingqing didn’t have a convenient way to ask about other people’s affairs. After seeing Xi Zhen off, she walked alone into the little alley they had passed through earlier.

The sky was getting dark; the moon should have been up by now. Instead, it was hidden behind countless dark clouds, leaving the roads dim.

Fortunately, many of the alleys had lights strung up in them; they were probably installed by residents for convenience, and now they happened to make Li Xingqing’s walk easier.

The lights along each house were different. Some were harsh white, some soft orange.

It was summer, and it had just rained, so there were puddles on the ground.

The light shone on them, and the water’s surface reflected it, faintly gleaming.

Li Xingqing’s night vision was pretty good, and she had no intention of taking out her phone right then. She moved through the alleys guided by the residents’ lights and the reflections on the ground, carefully avoiding the puddles.

This town really wasn’t big, and it was very close to the filming location.

For some reason, there were even shared e-bikes in town.

Maybe the businesses had taken the nearby shooting location into account and put them there specifically for the crew’s convenience.

At first Li Xingqing had been wandering aimlessly, listening to music through her earbuds, stopping and starting as she went. Suddenly, the notification that her earbud battery had died sounded in her ear. She picked up her phone to check, only to realize it was already past nine.

It was late. Time to go back.

She straightened up and looked around; good, she didn’t recognize any of it at all.

That was the bad thing about wandering wherever you wanted—it was very easy to get lost.

Li Xingqing sighed and took out her phone to look through the navigation Xi Zhen had sent her.

But when she opened the chat window, the first thing she saw was Xi Zhen’s profile picture.

The picture was simple. Against a dark background, the only bright shape looked like a bird with its wings spread.

Li Xingqing clicked into the enlarged image and took a closer look. It really was a bird, except one of its wings looked broken.

Why had Xi Zhen chosen this photo for her avatar?

The endless curiosity one person felt toward another seemed to mean something else. Just like that, without Li Xingqing realizing it at all, her mind had already started to subconsciously dwell on everything about Xi Zhen that seemed unrelated to her.

Admittedly, Xi Zhen was a mysterious person.

Beyond her striking presence and appearance, the more one looked into her unusual behavior, the more baffling it became. Like that cigarette lit in the middle of the night; like the amused, interested look she had given Li Xingqing when they first met at the station.

Actually, Li Xingqing had recognized Xi Zhen long ago.

Back then at the station, when she was helping that little kid, she had realized someone nearby was looking at her.

That gaze had an element of scrutiny, but it wasn’t offensive. Li Xingqing had other things to do at the time, so she didn’t pay it much mind. In the end, when the child was successfully handed off, she had just been about to look back toward that gaze when she saw the other person was already leaving.

A person had thousands upon thousands of chance encounters in a lifetime; Li Xingqing hadn’t thought much of it.

But when her eyes met that mass of black curls like seaweed, her sixth sense told her something had quietly taken root in her life, waiting to be slowly uncovered later.

When she saw Xi Zhen at the hotel that night, she hadn’t recognized her.

She only truly realized it was the same person on the night she happened to run into Xi Zhen smoking.

By then, she had just finished a call from Yin Yi, and her mind felt like it had been stirred into a tangled mess. When she turned around, she saw Xi Zhen with her hair tied in a low bun.

She was about to lower her cap brim and pretend she hadn’t run into her when Xi Zhen suddenly called her name.

“Li Xingqing.” That gravelly voice rang out. Li Xingqing turned around and happened to see Xi Zhen’s hair blown tousled by the wind. Her originally curly hair had been tied up, but a few strands were still lifted by the breeze and fell loosely against her ears and shoulders.

Li Xingqing suddenly recognized her, realizing this was the person she had met at the high-speed rail station.

But before her brain could react, the other person was already walking over.

So she had no choice but to get up and hide the sudden realization inside herself, pretending nothing had happened.

The wind that night was strong, but not cold.

It was a lot like the feeling Xi Zhen gave her; a gale had swept through, yet everything remained safe and sound.

Li Xingqing looked at that meaningless avatar and finally took a screenshot, then went back and reopened the navigation.

Because of the route, the phone started vibrating, guiding her back to the little courtyard she had searched for a long time without finding.

No wonder she hadn’t been able to find her way back earlier.

Not only were the paths winding here, but more importantly, the lights by the courtyard seemed to be broken, or maybe they just hadn’t been installed yet. In any case, it was pitch-black.

Using her flashlight, Li Xingqing finally found the place thanks to the elm money tree planted beside the courtyard.

She climbed the stairs to the second floor; everything was still the same as when she had left.

Xi Zhen must not have come back, because the upstairs was quiet too; Bai Mo didn’t seem to be back either.

Looking at the layout of the second floor, Li Xingqing roughly guessed that this three-story courtyard probably only housed five or six people.

Next to her was Xi Zhen; it wasn’t hard to guess that Zheng Yuyu and his assistant were also staying upstairs. As for the room at the very innermost end of the second floor, she didn’t know who it belonged to.

By then, the sky was completely dark, and many houses around them had their lights on.

Li Xingqing stood by the window and looked outside.

There were two windows in her room; one faced the balcony, the other faced the road outside. The furnishings inside were simple: a wooden bed in the middle and a two-door wardrobe against the wall.

Below the south-facing window sat a wooden desk. It wasn’t some very new minimalist style, but rather something that looked a little old. Fortunately, it was fairly clean. Li Xingqing wiped it twice and placed her computer on top.

Author’s Note:

Xi Zhen: Please do not disturb during date time

Li Xingqing: I’m fine, Sister, just go handle your business; you don’t need to worry about me. (green tea tone)