Those Sweet Times

Chapter 10 Part 1

The pictures that Chuyan sent was her in a Li Bai costume eating

creamy custard buns…...Xiang Nuan felt that the world was too

exciting for her to bear.

Besides, the pictures were in such poor quality…...Those pictures

should be flushed down the toilet.

She tried very hard not showing her shock and acted as calmly as

possible so she wouldn’t be found out. She didn’t know where Chuyan

was, but she was sure that he wasn’t far from her.

Be calm, be calm. He doesn’t know that’s me. She thought to herself.

Shen Zemu noticed Xiang Nuan was acting strangely; her eyes were

darting left and right, her movement was slow and sluggish as if she

was s.p.a.cing out. He was about to ask what was wrong, but she began

acting as if nothing had happened.  She picked up the bun on the table

and seemed ready to put it back into her mouth.

It seemed to him that she was acting as if everything was normal.

Shen Zemu frowned and clamped onto the bun in her hand with

his chopsticks.

Xiang Nuan looked up at him.

“It’s unsanitary.” As he spoke, he dropped the bun to the side of the

table and placed a new one into her bowl.

“Oh.”

Shen Zemu could see that she was agitated.

“What’s wrong with you?” He asked.

“Not-not-not-not-nothing…...Xuezhang, let’s hurry up so we can

leave here.”

Xiang Nuan glanced at those atrocious pictures again. Judging from

the angle of the picture, Chuyan should be to the right of her. She

sneaked a peek in that direction. There were three tables over there.

The customers at two of the tables had just left, the waiter was cleaning

up. On the third table, there was a chubby man eating teppanyaki by

himself. He looked very down to earth, it didn’t fit what Chuyan would

look like as Xiang Nuan imagined.

It seemed that Chuyan had left already.

Xiang Nuan silently breathed out a sigh of relief and turned off her

cell phone.

In the afternoon, Xiang Nuan wasn’t her old self at all.  She was either

s.p.a.cing out or lost in thought. Fortunately, she was acting as a mascot

anyway, there wasn’t anything she could mess up. When a pa.s.serby

wanted to take a picture with her, she would oblige without a fuss.

Seeing that she wasn’t offended or resistant to these activities, Shen Zemu

also breathed a sigh of relief.

There were many good restaurants near the main campus and Shen Zemu

was planning to treat Xiang Nuan to dinner. Yet, she insisted on going back

right afterwards. They took a taxi back to Yuanchi campus. When they arrived,

Shen Zemu received a phone call from Yao Jiamu.

Yao Jiamu: “Shen Zemu, are you with Xiang Nuan? I’m thinking of buying

her dinner, the lotion she recommended last time is so good!”

Shen Zemu looked at the person sitting next to him. She seemed to be

acting normal again and searching for a good restaurant with her cell phone

now. While searching, she said, “How about we go eat snakehead fish?”

From his angle, he could only see the bun on top of her head bobbing

slightly as she spoke and moved. It was somewhat comical.

Shen Zemu told Xiang Nuan, “Yao Jiamu wants to have dinner with you.”

Xiang Nuan was startled. “Ah? Then she can come over.”

It was actually impossible for any girl to accept another girl to come and

mess up her original plans. But, Xiang Nuan couldn’t come up with an

excuse to refuse.

So be it then.

A dinner for two turned into a dinner for three, which completely changed

the atmosphere at the dinner table. Xiang Nuan was uneasy about the

entire thing while Yao Jiamu was very talkative, but Xiang Nuan didn’t

want to talk to her.

Xiang Nuan felt that Yao Jiamu wasn’t there to have dinner with her. Rather,

Yao Jiamu was monitoring Shen Zemu. Xiang Nuan hoped that she was the

only one who was thinking too hard about it.

After dinner, they walked back to campus. Xiang Nuan wasn’t in the same

dorm as Yao Jiamu, so the two walked her back to her dorm first.

After Xiang Nuan left, Yao Jiamu jokingly asked Shen Zemu, “Does she

dislike me?”

Shen Zemu didn’t look at her. He had one of his hand in his pocket and

the other holding the poster. He flatly replied, “There’s no reason that

she has to like you.”

Yao Jiamu was taken back.