Chapter 125 Dinner or Date?

High school seniors got a six-hour break on Sunday afternoon!

As soon as school was out at noon, Li Hua and Ma Guojun agreed to head straight for the internet cafe.

At the last minute, he asked Jiang Nian a question.

“Are you coming?”

Jiang Nian could tell his two sons really wanted to play games with their dad, but they didn’t understand his painstaking effort to find them a stepmother. He was willing to debase himself just to have dinner with Ningzhi.

“I’m a noob.”

“Get lost! Bad luck!”

“Come on, let’s go, don’t mind him.”

Huang… no, Yao Beibei came over, greeted Zhang Ningzhi, and then left. She always slept on Saturday afternoons, waking up only at five.

Old Liu came over with a bag of phones, and the boarding students swarmed him.

Most people handed in old feature phones or backup phones, the kind that would sputter to life with a dazzling white flash, finally displaying a watercolor G3.

And surprisingly, it looked pretty good.

Chen Yunyun had just retrieved her own phone and was helping her group leader. Seeing the battered, button-missing candy bar phone, she couldn’t help but react.

“Group leader, don’t be too ridiculous.”

“What’s wrong? Am I discriminated against for being poor?” Lin Dong, having spent more time with Jiang Nian recently, had absorbed a bit of his essence. “Even Old Liu didn’t say anything.”

Chen Yunyun’s little yellow beans were sweating. What kind of people was she surrounded by?

She let out a soft huff and picked up her Huawei slider phone. Her slender thumb gently pushed it up, revealing the keys underneath with extreme smoothness.

She wasn’t like Lin Dong, not the type to be deceitful. Using a phone even a grandmother would despise to make up the numbers was too disrespectful to the teacher.

Her slider phone was genuinely usable and looked good.

Sun Zhicheng had stayed in his seat after school, his heart a mix of bitterness and sorrow. He had sacrificed so much to go out with Chen Yunyun.

The gym where Sun Jianguo had bought a membership was smashed by a group of people a few days ago and was still awaiting resolution.

He went home yesterday and pestered his dad for a full hour, giving him massages and cutting fruit. At half past one in the morning, he was still softly knocking, “Dad, are you asleep?”

Sun Jianguo couldn’t take it anymore. “Not asleep, just dreaming of chatting with your great-grandma. Alright, Zhicheng, just say what you need.”

After much hesitation, Sun Zhicheng stated his small request. Sun Jianguo, being straightforward, called his friend that night and got a few internal passes.

At his seat.

Sun Zhicheng’s face was impassive, but in his mind, he had already completed a Korean drama plot for himself. He was simply too devoted, gentle to his very core.

After the last lesson, he felt he had matured mentally.

One should be a bit more carefree. If you like a flower, you don’t necessarily have to pick it. If you love someone, you should give her freedom, walk alongside her, and look at the long term.

Sun Zhicheng had originally prepared himself to endure Jiang Nian and Chen Yunyun’s playful banter, but he didn’t expect Jiang Nian to leave directly. It seemed he really wasn’t going.

Good, one less competitor.

Just as he was thinking, Wang Yuhe walked over like a large white goose. She first scanned his small arms and legs, then tilted her head and asked.

“Sun Zhicheng, are you going too?”

“Hm? What’s wrong?” He heard doubt in Wang Yuhe’s tone.

“Oh, oh, nothing much. You really should exercise, you’re a bit like…” Wang Yuhe paused mid-sentence, frantically thinking, then remembered a word Jiang Nian had used.

“Little Nanliang.”

Sun Zhicheng looked bewildered. Little Nanliang?

What the heck!

He still needed to train? What a joke! No matter what, he was stronger than girls!

He made a flexing motion, but the explosive, bulging image of a bullfrog in his mind didn’t appear; there were only the pale, slender arms of a Nanliang.

He was defeated. Zhennan people, besides the bride price, even their genes were concentrated.

Isn’t it normal to be a bit thin?

Huh, why am I also making bride price jokes?

It’s all Jiang Nian’s fault!

Jiang Nian had indeed corrupted the atmosphere of Class 3. Before, they would call classmates ‘idiots’. Now, they had an additional affectionate term: ‘380,000-yuan Guinan’.

Old Liu had even tried to stop it once.

“Classmates, what you’re making isn’t a joke, it’s your future lives.”

The fate of Zhennan people: mineral water flows to Shenzhen, Hong Kong, and people follow it south.

The main theme is ‘home in my heart, but the phone won’t connect when there’s trouble’. Rather than being single for life, building up one’s hometown, it’s better to build up a brother province.

Go to Fujian, go to Hunan, go to Anhui, or with a loyal tune, pack up your bedding and line up with your buckets.

Principal, please give the order!

Go south! Guangdong!

At the school gate, Jiang Nian stood under a tree, waiting for Zhang Ningzhi.

The young girl was shy and embarrassed to walk directly with him. Before school ended, she had handed him a note, asking Jiang Nian to wait for her at the school gate.

Jiang Nian was a little speechless about this.

It was just dinner, not a date.

He had been waiting for ten minutes. If she didn’t come soon, he would truly faint from hunger. Even when he was at his most noobish, waiting for the King of Glory season update wasn’t this painful.

Fortunately, Zhang Ningzhi appeared stealthily, emerging from the school gate.

“Let’s go.”

“Huh? Are we really walking there?” Jiang Nian asked. “Should I borrow an electric bike? Although it might be a bit crowded for two people, I can endure hardship.”

Zhang Ningzhi’s face immediately flushed. “Let’s take the bus, there’s a stop over there.”

“Hm? Aren’t we going to Dongshun?” Jiang Nian noticed a blind spot.

Dongshun wasn’t too far from the school; you could stagger there on foot. The price was a bit luxurious for students, but for two people, thirty-five yuan was the absolute most.

“No, it’s another place.”

“Huh?”

“Because I felt it wasn’t… appropriate to treat you to dinner at Dongshun, so I took the liberty of changing the location,” Zhang Ningzhi glanced at him, explaining softly.

The afternoon street was dappled with sunlight. They walked side by side, a small distance between them.

“Is it to avoid classmates?” he asked.

“No, no!” Seeing his misunderstanding, Zhang Ningzhi quickly waved her hands. “It’s not what you think. It’s because there are many teachers at Dongshun on weekends.”

What was so scary about teachers? Did Zhennan Middle School still crack down on early romance?

“It’s just classmates having dinner, there shouldn’t be anything wrong, right?” Jiang Nian was curious. “You’re acting like a young couple in an early relationship, always meeting up at Zhenbei Grand Market.”

So cautious, clearly inexperienced. Had she heard of ‘dark under the lamp’? Many young couples would just date in the back row of the classroom, covering themselves with clothes and starting. It was pure open conspiracy. If you looked, you were a pervert; if you didn’t, it was part of their thrill-seeking.

“No, no, it’s not,” Zhang Ningzhi waved her hand, then said something befitting her identity, “I found a tastier restaurant, it has seafood.”

Gulp, Jiang Nian ungracefully swallowed a mouthful of saliva.

He had nearly 200,000 in his card, yet hearing’seafood’ still made his mouth water uncontrollably. In the mountainous gully of Zhennan, seafood was incredibly rare.

“Is there seafood in Zhennan?” Jiang Nian completely abandoned his dignity, almost blurting out, “Please take care of me.” He continued, “What kind of seafood? It must be expensive, right?”

“It’s alright, my dad has a consumption card, so we don’t actually have to pay much,” Zhang Ningzhi, fearing that the starving Jiang Nian would be too polite, deliberately brought up the consumption card.

“Actually, it’s a bit far, in the city center.”

“Hm? That far?” Jiang Nian was stunned.

“It’s about an hour’s drive, which is a bit far,” Zhang Ningzhi pursed her lips.

She actually wanted to take a taxi; forty minutes on the bus, swaying all the way, was too uncomfortable. It wasn’t about saving money, but she didn’t want Jiang Nian to feel pressured about the meal.

It was like riding a tricycle to buy a Rolex, a kind of beauty in saving where one should and spending where one should.

“Let’s take a taxi, I’ll pay,” Jiang Nian offered, swiping his phone. “A taxi will get us there in twenty minutes, but there aren’t many ride-sharing cars in Zhennan.”

“Mm.” Zhang Ningzhi nodded, already starting to feel anxious.

A bad start.

She had planned this dinner for a long time, including choosing the restaurant. An affordable place like Dongshun wasn’t impossible, but there were too many people.

It wouldn’t fully show her sincerity, and it was the first time she was treating a boy to dinner.

Thinking back later, eating small dishes at Dongshun…

No!

Zhang Ningzhi stood blankly by the roadside, filled with regret. She had forgotten to consider the mode of transport. If only she had known, she would have asked her dad to pretend to be a relative and drop them off. Jiang Nian wouldn’t recognize him anyway.

It was just dinner.

Jiang Nian looked at the ride-hailing app on his phone, a white circle indicating it was summoning a driver. After three minutes of spinning, a driver finally accepted the order.

“Phew, we have a car,” Jiang Nian waved at Zhang Ningzhi.

“Okay.” Zhang Ningzhi smiled brightly again.

To be honest, Jiang Nian thought she had some sweet girl traits.

But for now, the attributes weren’t obvious. He estimated that pigtails, a small skirt, white stockings, and black thin-rimmed metal glasses could maximize her attributes.

During the wait for the car, Zhang Ningzhi, who didn’t know what to talk about outside of school, finally pulled out her English 3500-word vocabulary book from her bag after a long silence.

Jiang Nian glanced at her, then pulled out a physics test paper and a Baoke gel pen from his pocket.

Everyone around him was a study freak.

Beep!

A ride-hailing car, a white BYD more suitable for Chinese children, pulled up to the roadside.

Jiang Nian and Zhang Ningzhi sat together in the back, reporting their phone’s last four digits. It seemed like a trick of the light, but he saw the driver smile, as if saying,

Another young couple.

Jiang Nian didn’t care, too lazy to explain. When he pulled out his test paper to write in the car…

The driver uncle clearly didn’t give him a chance and started chatting.

“You’re students from the county high school, right? Third year of high school?”

“How did you know?” Jiang Nian was startled.

“Hahaha, all you county high school students taking the college entrance exam have a certain spirit about you,” the driver was especially happy. “You two look like the type who study very well.”

“Just average, around six hundred points,” Jiang Nian averaged himself out.

As he said this, he glanced sideways at Zhang Ningzhi, who had been quiet since getting in the car. He vaguely saw her lips purse, and he immediately became anxious.

Ningzhi, are you also looking down on people who score five hundred points?!

Alright, alright, he’d jump out of the car.

“Oh, that high?” The driver was clearly knowledgeable. “My family also has someone taking the college entrance exam, struggles to get four hundred points, I keep telling him to study.”

“It’s alright, grades aren’t that important,” Jiang Nian said a polite phrase that all high school students would say.

“That’s right, if you’re not good at studying, there’s nothing you can do,” the driver said as he drove. “In Zhennan, if you’re not good at studying, you can only go work in other places.”

“All the good local jobs are taken, and all the places where you can make money already have people. The bride price is also terrifyingly expensive, increasing by tens of thousands every year.”

“It’s not that bad, Zhennan is actually quite good,” Jiang Nian, for once, said something good about his hometown. It was better to be cautious with his words in front of outsiders.

Adults were incredibly hypocritical; whatever they said, you should just listen casually. There were too many hidden meanings.

For example: “Let me speak from the heart” equals “I’m about to deceive you, you idiot.” “To be fair” equals “I’m about to play favorites.”

Hypocritical or tsundere.

If the other person keeps cussing, you can’t actually follow along and cuss with them. It might seem like you’re agreeing with him, but he’ll get angry soon. It’s a political correctness unique to Zhennan people.

“You’re local students, right? The county town locals are a bit better, not so expensive. Find a rich girlfriend, and you might not have to pay a single penny.”

After saying that, the driver burst into laughter.

That one sentence made the back row awkward. Zhang Ningzhi leaned back, head down. Jiang Nian simply stopped talking. He’d just pull out his test paper, this was just too much.

It was like a grandma burrowing into a quilt; it made him so awkward.

With a bang, Jiang Nian closed the car door.

The surrounding crowd was bustling. The two stood on the roadside outside the city center commercial district, the atmosphere still a bit awkward.

“Uh… how do we get there? Should we use navigation?”

“Oh, oh.” Zhang Ningzhi fumbled with her phone, her earlobes slightly red, her blush visible to the naked eye.

No, this made it even more awkward.

“That driver really has a loose tongue. People from Zhongdeng just love to babble,” Jiang Nian first blamed the driver, then labeled him as a ‘babbler’.

Although what he said was true, Zhennan people were very particular about matching social status. Brahmins formed strong alliances, while poor folks exploited each other, fearing their descendants would do well.

However, Jiang Nian still had to critically deny it. Because he usually made too many bride price Hell jokes, he didn’t want Zhang Ningzhi to think he had ulterior motives.

Zhang Ningzhi glanced at Jiang Nian a few times, then averted her gaze, stammering,

“Yes, yes.”

Jiang Nian felt even more numb at her reaction. Forget it, let it be destroyed.

Anyway, he was usually this abstract, so he didn’t care.

“Let’s go in, it’s on the fourth floor,” Zhang Ningzhi pursed her lips, walking stiffly.

On the escalator, Jiang Nian simply stopped talking. He just stared at Zhang Ningzhi beside him, occasionally looking at passersby, then shifting his gaze back to her.

Zhang Ningzhi naturally noticed the change in Jiang Nian’s attitude and also became nervous. She wanted to say something, but… her ability to find topics seemed very weak.

She felt like she wasn’t at school, like an idiot.

“Jiang Nian.”

“Hm?”

“That driver actually said… he wasn’t entirely wrong,” she said hesitantly.

Jiang Nian was curious, “That driver talked a lot along the way—international situations, past memories, and even gossip about leaders. Uh… which part are you referring to?”

“Just… just the bride price part.” Just as the escalator reached the fourth floor, Zhang Ningzhi felt her face burning thin as paper, and she whispered,

“When my cousin got married, she didn’t take any, and even gave a house and car in the provincial capital.”

Jiang Nian listened as he walked, touching his face. He thought of all the sad things that had happened in the past eighteen years, and only then did he manage to suppress the corners of his mouth from turning up.