A Melancholy Dinner

Whenever Nan Changgeng looked into Yu Mao’s eyes, she was reminded of transparent things.

Crystal balls, pure water, clear glass candy.

Her love was so clean, so pure, and so lacking in the complexities that belonged to human beings that it was effortless to take in.

Too perfect. A gift delivered to her doorstep without cost always made her feel a little uneasy in secret.

She did not know what price had been marked on this gift in the dark; in fact, she did not even know Yu Mao all that well. But since it was already in her hands, she had no intention of letting go.

Before she lost control, she had always lived with absolute command over her own life; the forcefulness and coldness hidden beneath that gentleness were not easy to notice, but they had always been there.

Seeing that she had fallen silent for quite some time, everyone assumed she was merely being shy and modest, and they cheerfully steered the topic elsewhere.

After the conversation had gone around the table once, when it came to Yu Mao, Lin Baiyu suddenly asked the question everyone had been curious about for ages:

“Why do you like Sister Nan? Fans usually have some moment that hooked them. What was yours?”

Yu Mao turned her head for two seconds, then answered calmly, “It wasn’t that I liked her first; she summoned me.”

“?”

“……”

“I don’t get it.” Lin Baiyu said it outright.

Nan Changgeng frowned, resting her elbow on her knee and propping her chin on her hand, lost in thought.

They all knew they definitely weren’t going to get an answer, so they quickly dropped the matter.

Deng Cheng said, “My impression of Yu Mao has been pretty consistent. At first I thought she was a ruthless person who did things her own way; now I think she’s a ruthless person living in another world.”

Flying Flower said in unison, “Ruthless how?”

“Isn’t it ruthless enough to be that focused on liking one person and not even look at anyone else?” Deng Cheng rubbed the top of her head. “Anyway, I can’t do it. There are so many good-looking people in the world; I look at one and fall for one.”

“That’s kind of true.” Wei Zhiyu glanced at Nan Changgeng and covered her mouth with a soft laugh. “But if you can possess a snow peak, it’s like possessing a whole spring where cloud-light shines on snow and melts it into streams.”

Everyone froze for a moment.

Nan Changgeng silently lifted the hand that had been supporting her chin, lowered her head, and covered half her face.

“Pfft—” Lin Baiyu, once she reacted, burst out laughing and pointed at her. “Hey, you! Usually you keep such a low profile, and now you’ve got the guts to tease our Teacher Nan? Careful Yu Mao bags you up and throws you away!”

“?” Yu Mao blinked slowly, her expression unchanged.

Nan Changgeng brushed her hair back to hide her embarrassment and looked at Yu Mao sideways, only to find her still looking blank and dazed. Her thoughts paused slightly.

“She won’t. She can’t even see us.” Wei Zhiyu smiled, revealing a trace of knowing mischief.

Lin Baiyu clapped her hands. “Ha, perfect description!”

Yu Mao lowered her head and thought about cloud-light shining on snow and melting into streams.

Just what kind of Nan Changgeng would that be?

Her thoughts were boxed in once again and could not cross over.

Nan Changgeng stared at her for a long while, frowning, and felt that she looked like a machine that had lost power, stuck in a stationary state.

A strange thought suddenly arose in her mind: this “love-delivery device” that had been handed to her seemed to have been in a semi-broken state the whole time.

And she did indeed have many worries about Yu Mao’s physical health; she decided that the first step was to “charge” her. Literally charge her.

By the time the activity ended, it was just in time for dinner. Ignoring Yu Mao’s explanation that “my dinner is in the dorm,” she grabbed the collar of her clothes and headed straight for the cafeteria.

The height difference between them was truly stark; visually, it was highly impactful, a little like a bullying scene.

On the way, Yuan Li passed them. She paused, scratched her hair, and said, “Why do I feel like Sister Nan’s attitude toward Yu Mao is getting more and more casual? It wasn’t like this before.”

“Before, it was like dealing with a stray cat; you had to coax it gently. Now it’s like a house cat; rub it whenever you want, shut the door and squeeze it to death, and you don’t have to worry it’ll run away, hehe…”

As Qi Qi imagined it, a smile rose to her face. “I really miss my cat. It’s been so many days without me bullying it; it must be lonely.”

Xu Yang passed by with a melancholy expression, caught a bit of the conversation, and spat out two words: “Pervert.”

She left them with a gloomy back view in an instant.

“……”

Qi Qi said, “Xu Yang’s getting more and more weird lately.”

Yuan Li nodded hard. “Yeah.”

Bai Manwen also happened to pass by and smiled. “She nearly got eliminated in the first round, so she’s in a bad mood. Cut her some slack.”

“…I nearly got eliminated in the first round too.” Qi Qi immediately turned gloomy as well; she gave Bai Manwen a resentful look and followed after Xu Yang like a wandering soul.

That left the two of them looking at each other.

Inside the cafeteria, Yu Mao positioned herself as a dining companion, shortened to a meal buddy; she took a small plate of fruit slices and sat across from Nan Changgeng.

“You need to eat something normal.”

Nan Changgeng also got a chicken breast salad and slid it in front of Yu Mao. “Try it. I picked something lighter on purpose. Eat a little.”

Yu Mao blinked and stared straight at the salad, holding her fork without moving.

“I can’t…”

“Why can’t you? You don’t like it? Or does it make you uncomfortable to eat it?” Nan Changgeng tried to understand.

“I don’t know.” Yu Mao looked dazed.

Nan Changgeng couldn’t understand it.

“You agreed to my request in the bet; I’m cashing it in here.”

She picked up a bit of chicken breast with her chopsticks and held it to Yu Mao’s lips. “Open up.”

Yu Mao’s eyes widened, like a machine that had jammed.

Nan Changgeng felt a little anxious. She stood up and moved to the seat beside her; after hesitating for a second, she simply reached out, pinched Yu Mao’s face open, and stuffed the meat in.

She had already prepared herself for Yu Mao to resist, or even spit it out. Unexpectedly, none of that happened.

And nothing else happened either.

The chicken breast stayed in her mouth. She didn’t chew or swallow; she just stared at Nan Changgeng foolishly, as if she couldn’t feel the foreign object in her mouth at all.

The cafeteria was warm with the smell of people and hot dishes; Nan Changgeng, however, suddenly felt a chill in her heart, as if she had fallen into a winter well.

Silently, she let go, her throat working once as she forced down the blockage in her chest, and tried again to guide her. “Did you taste it? How is it?”

“I didn’t, Changgeng…”

Yu Mao began to feel unsettled too. She always sensed shifts in atmosphere immediately. She should have understood where the oddness came from, but her thoughts were blocked again.

Nan Changgeng was even more alarmed than she was; this time she went cold from head to toe.

Yu Mao was speaking normally, as if there were nothing in her mouth at all; there was no unconscious swallowing from the food blocking her throat, and not even any extra saliva was being produced.

Nonexistent food.

That piece of chicken breast did not exist in Yu Mao’s consciousness. Nan Changgeng finally understood, and it truly felt terrifying.

She thought that if Yu Mao had a display screen installed on her body, then at this very moment it would probably be filled with the words: program execution error.

Why was this happening? Why had it become this severe… What exactly had happened in the past that she had forgotten?

An intense urge to investigate suddenly and uncontrollably rose in Nan Changgeng. Once the program ended, she had to look into Yu Mao’s past.

But for the moment…

She sighed helplessly, gestured for the girl to open her mouth again, and took the piece of meat back out.

“Forget it. Finish your fruit first.”

She would think of another way…

For many contestants, this was a melancholy dinner.

Not only them; many viewers who were eating dinner at the same time as the contestants also found themselves unable to eat much.

[What the hell am I doing eating with them? Great, now I don’t even feel like eating!]

[When modern netizens are in a bad mood, they even curse themselves]

[This is really too horrifying; she can’t even swallow normal food!]

[Not just that, she can’t even taste it. How severe does her mental condition have to be? At this stage, shouldn’t her consciousness already be completely confused?]

[I’m kind of curious how she managed to live safely to this age. No matter how you think about it, she couldn’t have survived on formula alone.]

[Thank goodness Teacher Nan has finally started paying attention to the cat’s eating habits. I believe in her! If there’s anyone in this world who can make the cat eat normally, it can only be Nan Changgeng!]

In a corner no one had yet noticed, a comment quietly appeared under Nan Changgeng’s blog.

[@Diligent Gardener: Try mashing the food up and mixing it into prepared formula. She’ll eat it]

And Nan Changgeng, still in an environment cut off from the outside world, naturally knew nothing about this.

That night was another activity day, and as usual they drew lots; unexpectedly, she drew together with Yu Mao.

No one knew whether the production team had tampered with things behind the scenes. But they had just run into that incident at dinner; it was obvious they had some little plans in mind.

The activity venue was actually the cafeteria kitchen; this time it wasn’t a sports or game event, but a chance for the contestants to show off their cooking skills, five people in all.

“Cooking this late at night? I’m not even hungry. It’s uncomfortable trying to sleep when you’re full.” Lin Baiyu felt unlucky to have landed in such an activity.

She would rather take part in a physical game, run back and forth for a few hundred meters, then take a hot shower and sleep. That would feel much better.

“You can just make a small amount of dessert and get by.” Chen Xia said with a cool face, speaking openly in front of the cameras.

“Dessert this late? I’m afraid I’ll wake up tomorrow and gain three pounds.”

Though Yirui An said that, she was already starting to look for low-gluten flour.

“The sweetness of the dessert the cafeteria provides is too low. I’m going to add sugar myself.”

Chen Xia frowned. “That low? I think it’s pretty sweet. It’s almost cloying.”

“She has a typical Western tongue.” Lin Baiyu said with a grin, then looked toward Nan Changgeng, who was silently and seriously searching for ingredients. “What about you, Sister Nan? Do you prefer Western or Eastern flavors?”

“I like lighter sweetness, and I also can’t really eat food that’s too oily or too salty.” Nan Changgeng answered casually, scooping up a bowl of flour and planning to make chicken wraps.

“Oh, a Lingnan tongue.” Lin Baiyu yawned, grabbed Chen Xia’s arm, and looked at her with blinking eyes as her voice softened. “Help me make mine too. I don’t want to work.”

Chen Xia: “……”

“Please!” She kept shaking Chen Xia’s arm, her eyes wet and puppy-like.

This was her usual coquetry tactic. With her arm buried in that softness and rubbing there, half of Chen Xia’s body went numb. Before the heat at her ears could spread to her face, she grit her teeth and agreed.

“Xiaxia is the best, mua!” Lin Baiyu let go in one second flat, threw her a perfunctory kiss, and dragged a chair over to sit nearby.

Nan Changgeng glanced at Chen Xia, who was frozen in place and stiffly scratching her head; she couldn’t help but smile a little.

Then she looked over again and saw Yu Mao, standing woodenly to the side. The smile in her eyes faded at once, slowly giving way to a layer of worry.