Chapter 203 Things have come to this, let’s eat first.

“Cheers!”

Two cans of beer clinked together, sending up tiny, delicate white bubbles.

It was almost midnight, and the all-night package had started early.

At the internet cafe.

Not many people were pulling an all-nighter tonight; only a few people occupied a row of machines. They politely kept a significant distance from each other to avoid being too loud with trash talk during games.

Yang Qiming took a sip of beer. The moment his taste buds met the alcohol, his eyes narrowed slightly. The alcohol went down, but he still couldn’t forget the humiliation in his heart.

Amidst the clattering of keyboards, he let out a long sigh and couldn’t help but say,

“Old friends change easily, yet they say old friends’ hearts are fickle.”

Huang Cailang carefully held the beer can, took a long sip, and chuckled, “Brother, just let it go.”

The game hadn’t even logged in yet, and Yang Qiming looked melancholic.

“You’re right, out with the old, in with the new.”

Huang Cailang was stunned. He told Brother Yang to let it go, but not *that* much.

This wasn’t letting go; this was building credit.

Never mind, as long as Brother Yang was happy.

Suddenly, the internet cafe door was pushed open, and a funny voice rang out.

“How much for an all-nighter? Does it come with coke?”

Yang Qiming stood up and saw Li Hua, who was alone. He watched him pull out his ID from his pocket and haggle with the manager over a cup of coke.

“Why is he here?”

“Should we say hello?” Huang Cailang asked hesitantly.

Five minutes later.

“Come on, let’s go, log in, log in.” Li Hua was overjoyed. He hadn’t brought much money for an all-nighter, and he ran into a classmate who was treating him.

Beer was a rare commodity, and it came with coke. My goodness, drinking this would surely send him to Hell.

He got a free meal again, brothers.

The three sat in a row; friendship between boys formed quickly.

Yang Qiming felt too stifled and just wanted someone to confide in. Coincidentally, Li Hua knew how to say auspicious things. It was truly like Cao Cao meeting a married woman, a match made in heaven.

“What bad luck, cousin Qiming.” Li Hua had heard this phrase from Jiang Nian and blurted it out, “If you ask me, just pretend she’s dead and be done with it.”

“The school is so big; if you don’t deliberately look for opportunities, you won’t see her. Don’t look so mournful; just pretend she was hit by a car and died happily.”

Li Hua was so good at talking that Yang Qiming suddenly felt enlightened.

“You’re right, brother.”

Huang Cailang gnawed on a chicken drumstick, echoing, “Yeah, yeah.”

“I think so too.”

On the other side.

In Xu Qianqian’s living room.

She rubbed her bulging belly, looked at Jiang Nian beside her, and after a moment of hesitation, asked,

“Do you feel like the portion was a bit big this time?”

“Maybe, I’ve never had this much before.” Jiang Nian held a skewer in one hand and a coke in the other, swallowing the meat skewer with difficulty. “Maybe the boss recently struck it rich.”

“May good people live peaceful lives.” Xu Qianqian was satisfied and leaned back on the sofa to rest.

The living room lights were off, and the light was dim.

The room was filled with the smell of barbecue. The projector quality was good, and the image projected onto the screen was clear. The screen flickered, casting light and shadow on their faces.

The movie playing was a new release, probably an adventure story.

Jiang Nian got up to clear away the barbecue leftovers, bagging them in a trash bag. After wrapping it layer by layer, he opened the door and placed it in the ventilated hallway outside the door.

When he came back, he turned around and froze.

In the living room, Xu Qianqian was wearing a blue sweater. She was sitting alone on the sofa, hugging her knees, staring intently at the screen, her eyes sparkling.

Not washing her hands, right? Still secretly eating grapes over there.

Do you think I’m blind?!

Jiang Nian was too lazy to scold her. He leaned back on the sofa, and the game started.

With a buzz, Xu Qianqian’s phone vibrated. She pulled out her phone, glanced at it, and her expression wasn’t good.

Why was she sending messages again?

Liu Ruoxin: “Qianqian, like my latest Moments post.”

Xu Qianqian sighed and replied with an OK.

The sender was her good friend from before the class split, but she had dropped out for some reason. She had only recently reconnected with her and would complain whenever she had nothing to do.

Xu Qianqian glanced at a certain person and suddenly spoke.

“Do you still remember Liu Ruoxin?”

“I remember, destroy human tyranny, the world belongs to the Trisolarans.” Jiang Nian didn’t even lift his head, answering subconsciously, while also selecting his hero in the game.

A teammate sent a message, “Any girls? If not, I’m feeding.”

Jiang Nian was furious. He thought, this damn game is already like this, and they’re still so picky. Not playing with this one, not playing with that one, always threatening to feed.

So he kindly advised, “【Press 1 to revive your mom】.”

“No, it’s Liu Ruoxin.” Xu Qianqian corrected him, “She was in my class before, the one whose family used to live in Chunyuan Community.”

“Oh, oh, didn’t she drop out last year?” Jiang Nian was playing the game, a bit distracted, “That dog stole my buff, how unfilial.”

Xu Qianqian was a bit speechless and continued.

“She had a baby.”

Hearing this, Jiang Nian’s fingers paused on the game, and he looked up at Xu Qianqian.

“Liu Ruoxin is the same age as us, right?” “Yes.”

Jiang Nian frowned, then after a moment of thought.

“So she dropped out last year not because she was sick, but because she was pregnant?”

“Possibly, the timing matches.” Xu Qianqian didn’t know what to say, “She messaged me a while ago, showing off her baby, and it felt…”

“Envious?” Jiang Nian asked.

“No, I just felt like I didn’t know what to say.” She shook her head, “I asked her when she got married, and she said she hadn’t yet, and was still negotiating the bride price.”

“Well, that’s it then. This year alone will cost at least five hundred thousand.” Jiang Nian said in a tone that suggested he was watching a show.

Xu Qianqian was silent for a while, looking at the movie screen and hesitating before asking,

“Jiang Nian, you say they become adults so quickly. Fresh out of school, then becoming adults, and having to take care of a baby, don’t they feel tired?”

“They messed up, I guess.” Jiang Nian had little empathy, saying dismissively, “If they had just gone to the convenience store before taking off their pants, it wouldn’t have come to this.”

The words were too crude, so Xu Qianqian didn’t listen, covering her ears and moving away from him.

With a buzz, Liu Ruoxin sent her another message.

“Qianqian, what are you doing?”

Previously, her replies would always be about doing homework. The other person would first say they were envious. Then they would say things like how much they missed going back to school, or if they could go back to the past.

Pure regretful empress, if she could go back to the past, she would casually destroy your paradise.

This made Xu Qianqian always unsure of what to say, so she could only dryly offer some polite remarks like’start working early, earn money early’ or ‘have a baby early, recover early’.

Because she couldn’t bear to say anything hurtful to Liu Ruoxin, she always carefully avoided touching on the other person’s sore spots, which in turn made Liu Ruoxin very fond of chatting with her.

When she was happy, she even invited Xu Qianqian to be her bridesmaid for the New Year.

She actually didn’t really want to go. They hadn’t seen each other in too long, and the other person had changed too much. They no longer had much in common, and she also didn’t really like other people’s children.

Although it might sound politically incorrect, she truly wasn’t that “baby-loving.”

Compared to raising a child in reality, she preferred to cyber-admire cute babies from Douyin bloggers across a screen.

And not be forced to appreciate other people’s ugly babies who cried all day long.

Oh, my baby looks so cute drinking milk. The color of his poop is so healthy, I must send it to my friends and have them praise my baby.

At first, she still felt a bit of moral guilt, wondering if she wasn’t kind enough.

After hearing Jiang Nian say that, she suddenly felt that the words were crude but the reasoning wasn’t. It wasn’t her mistake, so why should she cater to the other person’s emotions?

Thinking this, she decided to let go of her concerns and replied,

“Eating barbecue, watching a movie.”

The other person replied after half a minute, asking in surprise,

“Not doing homework?”

Xu Qianqian’s fingers flew, typing a quick reply.

“I finished it at school, just playing at home.”

The other person was typing. This time it took almost a minute, and then a flood of emotions came through.

“I really regret not studying hard back then; I barely worked this past year.”

Xu Qianqian didn’t finish reading and replied,

“If you don’t have time to go back to school to study recently, you can contact a teacher next spring. Ask about the method for independent enrollment; you might be able to get into a private college.”

The other person didn’t reply for a long time, clearly not expecting Xu Qianqian to reply so formally.

“Private schools are expensive, right? And they take a lot of time.”

“Then you can look into adult undergraduate degrees or correspondence courses.” Xu Qianqian didn’t want to expend emotional energy, answering whatever was asked, “These don’t require too much time.”

“But those can’t compare to your proper college degrees from the Gaokao; they don’t feel very useful.” Liu Ruoxin sent a few cold sweat emojis.

“And this isn’t good for my future career planning. After entering society, it feels hard to go back to school. Qianqian, what do you think I should do?”

Xu Qianqian mused that she should accept parting ways and the impermanence of things.

“Then let’s have some late-night snack first.”

This was a bad joke she stole from Jiang Nian: since things had come to this, let’s eat first. When something bad happens, first sit down and have a meal, then go to the dock for some fries.

Sure enough, when the bad joke was thrown out, the other person fell silent.

If the other person still didn’t repent, she would throw her phone to Jiang Nian. He had many bad jokes and was uncouth, often saying things that left people speechless.

After a while, Liu Ruoxin started again.

“Qianqian, look at my Dong’er.”

She didn’t want to reply. The other person insisted on showing off her baby in the middle of the night. So she threw her phone to Jiang Nian, instructing him to humorously reply and not mess around.

Jiang Nian was a bit taken aback; he was about to push the enemy’s crystal.

“Alright.”

An hour later, the movie was over without them realizing it.

Xu Qianqian was still unsatisfied. Her gaze moved from the screen, and she lowered her eyes for a moment. She couldn’t help but wonder if she had forgotten something, but what was it?

Oh, right, chatting.

She reached out her hand towards Jiang Nian and said,

“Give me my phone back.”

“Okay.” Jiang Nian handed her the phone.

Xu Qianqian switched to another movie to continue watching. She had said she would watch until 3 AM before sleeping. It was only 1 AM, so she could watch another one.

The moment she selected the movie, she opened her phone’s chat. Scrolling up the chat history, her vision instantly went dark.

“Winter Thought Fist, two fists to break through a bare home.”

She pulled Jiang Nian over, letting out a gasp.

“What did you send from my account?!”

Jiang Nian was confused and retorted,

“Weren’t you having a good time chatting?”