Shen Yuan looked at the two of them. "Three combos?"
"Let's just get the three-person combo. It's cheaper."
At that, Shen Yuan shot Li Zhi a wary look.
Li Zhi immediately frowned. "What?"
"You're sending me your third of the money later."
As soon as Shen Yuan spoke, Li Zhi rolled her eyes at him.
The girl tapped on the table. "I know, I know. It's not like I'm going to skip out on paying you twenty or thirty."
Once Li Zhi finished speaking, Shen Yuan placed the order on his phone.
After placing the order, Shen Yuan held out his hand to Li Zhi. "Pay up."
Li Zhi gave him a sweet smile. "Be a good boy. Mommy will treat you to some ice cream later."
Shen Yuan had known Li Zhi would pull something like this. He immediately pointed at the picture of a sundae on the table. "Nope, I want this one."
Shen Yuan knew perfectly well that Li Zhi loved ice cream.
She would almost certainly be unable to resist the temptation of ice cream, especially since Shen Yuan had just forked over 50 yuan for their meal.
The girl stared at the picture of the sundae on the table and muttered a curse, "Why did they have to stick a stupid sundae ad on the table!"
But despite her cursing, her hand was very honest and placed the order anyway.
SLURP SLURP.
"Can you please be quiet!"
Li Zhi frowned at Shen Yuan.
'This dumbass kid has a spoon and won't even use it, insisting on licking the thing like crazy.'
"Nope. Ice cream doesn't taste right if you don't slurp it."
As he spoke, Shen Yuan held up the ice cream and demonstrated his "attack speed" right in front of Li Zhi.
SLURP SLURP SLURP SLURP...
The level of the sundae dropped at a speed visible to the naked eye.
'Gotta admit, he was licking it really fast.'
Li Zhi couldn't help but tsk. "It's a real shame you don't cosplay as a frog."
"So you see me as a prince, right?"
"No, a toad."
Shen Yuan put down his sundae and said ominously, "You just wait. Tonight, I'll crawl into your shoe, and when you go to put it on in the morning, I'll open my mouth and give you a surprise toad attack."
Shen Yuan had actually experienced a toad crawling into his shoe back in his hometown as a child.
He couldn't get his shoe on one morning, only to find a toad lying inside.
It dealt a minor blow to Shen Yuan's young psyche, but a devastating blow to the toad's physical body.
This tactic was clearly devastatingly effective against a pretty girl.
Hearing Shen Yuan's description, Li Zhi shuddered and cursed, her face flushing red, "You're such a pervert!"
Shen Yuan immediately put on a satisfied expression.
'Being called a pervert by a blushing pretty girl... it's the highest form of praise.'
'Of course, it couldn't be the kind of pretty girl with a potty mouth.'
'It had to be a pretty girl who was genuinely disgusted by perverted behavior and would scold you for it.'
'That kind of scolding is what makes it so satisfying.'
Seeing the look of pure enjoyment on Shen Yuan's face, Li Zhi was left speechless.
As for He Zhiyu, who was sitting to the side, she was already blushing and completely flustered.
'Even if you're childhood friends, you should at least have some sort of filter!'
'Is that really a topic you can discuss in public?!'
"Okay, okay, let's eat. The burgers are getting cold."
Shen Yuan glanced at He Zhiyu trying to smooth things over. 'Look how scared the poor girl is.'
'It's the middle of summer, how cold could they possibly get?'
"Let him starve, for all I care."
The words had barely left Li Zhi's lips when she saw Shen Yuan take a bite that devoured a quarter of his hamburger, leaving her momentarily stunned.
"Your mouth is huge."
Shen Yuan rapidly chewed the food in his mouth, then, quick as a flash, snatched the chicken wing from in front of Li Zhi.
"Hey! That's mine!" Seeing this, Li Zhi lunged to get her chicken wing back, but it was too late.
Shen Yuan popped the entire chicken wing into his mouth and began sucking the meat off it at high speed.
Li Zhi could only watch as the chicken wing vanished into Shen Yuan's mouth. When he spit it out a moment later, only two bare bones remained.
'A girl with a small mouth could never pull off a skill like that.'
Li Zhi was thoroughly amazed. She quickly picked up another chicken wing from the plate, handed it to Shen Yuan, and said excitedly, "Do it again!"
At her words, Shen Yuan immediately popped the chicken wing into his mouth.
But just as Shen Yuan was devouring the wing, Li Zhi reached out and patted his head. "Such a good boy. I'll treat you to some ice cream later."
'Dammit, she got me.'
'Whatever. I ate the only two chicken wings and I'm getting ice cream out of it. I still came out on top.'
'Wait a minute.'
With the chicken wing still in his mouth, Shen Yuan demanded, "Did you just touch my hair with your chicken-wing hand?"
"Nope."
Li Zhi pulled her hand back and tried to grab a napkin from the table.
But Shen Yuan was a step faster and grabbed her hand.
"Look at these paws! Covered in grease! And you still say you didn't!"
"I'm going to go tell Aunt Zhang you touched me."
Shen Yuan instantly let go.
'Summoning his mom was a move he really couldn't counter.'
'Their two families lived right across the hall from each other. The second Li Zhi tattled, his ears would be in for it.'
"So childish!"
Li Zhi lifted her chin. "Hmph!"
「After lunch, the three of them headed to school.」
Just as they reached the school gate, Shen Yuan saw a familiar figure.
Tong Churou was walking with a well-built guy, a milk tea in her hand and a calm expression on her face.
But when she saw Shen Yuan, her eyes lit up. She immediately waved at him and called out cheerfully, "Hi, Shen Yuan!"
'Shen Yuan knew exactly what she was up to.'
'She was just trying to pressure the guy next to her, implying she had other guys she was on even better terms with.'
'Shen Yuan had fallen for that trick of hers once before.'
'As for why he'd ignored his perfectly good childhood friend for her... he was probably just young and couldn't resist temptation.'
'Long legs in black stockings, who wouldn't love that?'
'Of course Shen Yuan loved it, especially when the girl with the long legs in black stockings was the one approaching him.'
'As for why he wasn't into it anymore, the reason was actually quite simple.'
'During the last month of his sophomore year, while out with Tong Churou and a few others, Shen Yuan had accidentally overheard why she'd gotten close to him.'
"If he wasn't good at English, do you think I'd even bother with him? He can't even score a 550. What's the point if he just ends up in some garbage major?"
'Fucking hell. She got close to him for fucking studying. For fucking *English*!'
'She ignored his handsome looks and instead chose his least noteworthy trait: his English.'
'Shen Yuan felt like all his devotion had been thrown to the dogs.'
'Shen Yuan's English was actually pretty good. Back in freshman year, when the average student's vocabulary was limited to "fuck," "oh, yes," and "come on, baby," he could already hold his own in flame wars on foreign websites.'
'As for how, it was probably just a natural talent.'
'Shen Yuan could strike up a conversation with anyone. A few sentences here and there, and before you knew it, he'd be chatting away.'
'Thinking back on it now, he remembered teaching Tong Churou English. He'd thought he was so damn cool, speaking with such fluency.'
'In the end, his own English skills had fucked him over.'
'Shen Yuan felt deeply insulted.'
'So he started studying like a madman and, after the final exams, successfully ascended to the honors class. He had escaped the Lower Realm of the regular classes and thought he had escaped Tong Churou as well.'
'But as it turned out, Tong Churou had ascended too.'
'The thought that Tong Churou might have only gotten the chance to ascend to the honors class because of the English tutoring he'd given her... made Shen Yuan sick to his stomach.'
So now, with Tong Churou greeting him, Shen Yuan's good mood instantly vanished.
Shen Yuan's response was just as direct.
"Pah!"
"What a jinx."