TMISIU- chapter 27

“Lan er gege, good evening.”

This was his careful thought, and it sounded closer than the Zhan ge that Jiang Cheng shouted.

Lan Zhan looked at Wei Ying’s eyes, his eyes flickered before he quickly turned his face to look out of the window and let out a cold hum.

Wei Ying was a little disappointed by Lan Zhan’s reaction. His eyes fell unconsciously on Lan Zhan’s Adam’s apple and saw it roll up and down.

Although Lan Zhan looked indifferent, he was still excited. He began to pester Lan Zhan about his painting lesson in the afternoon, saying how he worshipped a master by planting vegetables, how good Zhou Wanghan was, he was still far from being good, and so on.

Lan Zhan didn’t say a word most of the time, just occasionally responded with a few words.

But Wei Ying still enjoyed this, like a primary school student returning home from school, chatting about interesting things that happened in the school.

When he finally stopped, Lan Zhan looked at him and asked, “Finished reporting?”

Wei Ying froze and saw that the corners of Lan Zhan’s mouth lifted slightly, and under his eyes was a bright smile.

He immediately understood that he was being laughed at.

He tried to light two clusters of fire in his eyes and glared at Lan Zhan and said, “I’m not speaking anymore.”

Lan Zhan ignored the unintimidating anger in Wei Ying’s eyes, unscrewed a bottle of mineral water and handed it to him while saying lightly:

“If you haven’t finished speaking, you can tell me later at dinner.”

Wei Ying blankly accepted the water and drank a few mouthfuls, his brain stuck: “What dinner?”

At this time the car stopped just in time, he looked out the window and suddenly realized that he was not sent to Gusu High School at all, but to an underground parking lot that he didn’t know where.

Wei Ying was puzzled and asked Lan Zhan, “Where is this?”

Lan Zhan took the water bottle from his hand, closed the lid, and said, “Last time you invited me to dinner,I couldn’t come. I said that I will invite you next time.”

After speaking, he pushed the door and got out of the car.

Wei Ying was in a daze. He once again recalled the Sunday night spent at the hospital, as if a glass of wine mixed with all the unspeakable emotions, there were sour and bitter, but also very lightly sweet, like the sweetness after a bit of bitterness, indescribable.

He did not expect Lan Zhan’s words on the phone at that time to be true, and he really wanted to treat him to a meal.

The door to the side of the car was opened.

Lan Zhan stood outside the car, bent down slightly and asked him, “Don’t want to eat?”

Wei Ying recovered, jumped out of the car and shook his head, “Of course I want to eat.”

Seeing Song Zichen still in the car, he asked, “Uncle Zichen doesn’t eat with us?”

Song Zichen was taken aback, and noticed Lan Zhan’s gaze looking at him, so he hurriedly said politely: “No, no, no, I’ll go home to eat.”

Wei Ying followed Lan Zhan out of the parking lot, only to find that this is a very large crab cuisine restaurant.

The independent green wall courtyard was full of bamboo shadows and was very quiet and peaceful.

It was very expensive at the first glance.

Wei Ying followed Lan Zhan and said after a moment of hesitation: “Actually, the restaurant where I planned to treat you last time cost less than 100 yuan per person.”

He found that every time he wanted to give something for Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan would end up giving back more.

At that time he did not know that Lan Zhan had done more than this for him.

Lan Zhan handed a card of some kind to the waiter who came to lead the way and asked, “So?”

Wei Ying whispered: “If you feel that you have lost, it’s not too late to regret it.”

Lan Zhan led Wei Ying towards the private room and asked, “Then it’s a loss now, how can you compensate for it?”

Wei Ying thought for a while and joked: “I can go sell arts, sell a few paintings to the boss to cover the meal money, if not enough, I will have to sell my body.”

Lan Zhan lifted the corner of his mouth and smiled. He casually whispered in a low voice: “Then you might as well sell it to me.”

Wei Ying was stunned, not knowing whether Lan Zhan was talking about selling his paintings or selling his body. He felt that his heartbeat was suddenly irregular, so he hurriedly shut his mouth to stop joking around.

The waiter was followed in silence to a quiet private room with candles burning in the corner candlesticks, and a small bridge with flowing water outside the bamboo window.

It was the first time Wei Ying came to such a place to eat, his hands and feet were a little nervous.

After sitting down, Lan Zhan handed him the menu and said, “Order whatever you want.”

Wei Ying nodded nervously and opened the menu to take a look at the pictures and names of the dishes without remembering to read them, he was scared to death by the prices at the back.

Even if you sell yourself, this was not worth the money, okay!

Lan Zhan’s eyes fell on his face, and he understood his thoughts: “Don’t worry, you won’t be sold.”

Wei Ying lowered his head in embarrassment.

Pushing the menu to Lan Zhan’s side, he said, “I can’t order it. You order, okay.”

He felt that it was painful to order any dish, and he kept memorizing “crimson gates reek with meat and ale” in his mind.

Lan Zhan didn’t say anything, but directly told the waiter a list of dishes, obviously familiar with it.

October was a good time to eat crabs. Wei Ying had never eaten it, but it did not prevent him from coveting it for a long time.

However, when the crab was served, he was dumbfounded again.

Wei Ying raised his head to look at Lan Zhan and blinked, his tone was frank and innocent: “I can’t do it.”

The waiter on the side was ready to walk over to provide crab peeling service, but Lan Zhan glanced faintly, and then his eyes went down extremely well.

Wei Ying saw Lan Zhan wash his hands and opened the whole set of crab peeling tools on the side.

There were sticks, tweezers, small hammers… it was very professional at first sight.

He used his white and slender fingers with a tool to cut off the crab legs one by one, knocked open the crab shell, and slowly removed the crab stomach, crab heart and other unwanted parts, then used a long-handled spoon to scrape off the cream of the crab.

Wei Ying first stared at the movements of Lan Zhan’s hand intently, only to feel that he was worthy of playing the piano, even the crabs were so beautifully peeled.

But then his attention was drawn to the shiny crab roe on the metal spoon, and he couldn’t help but swallow his saliva.

Wei Ying shifted his gaze from the crab to Lan Zhan’s face, fluttered his eyelashes up and down a few times, gave a wow, and complimented: “You are amazing!”

His eyes were shining, and there was an undisguised “I want to eat” in his eyes.

Lan Zhan was not complimented. He handed the long-handled spoon containing the crab roe to the other side, placed it directly in front of Wei Ying and said, “Try it.”

At that moment Wei Ying wanted to directly grab the spoon that Lan Zhan handed over and eat the crab roe, but he was afraid that Lan Zhan would mind.

At last, he reached out and took the spoon from Lan Zhan, smiling and saying “thank you” before eating the crab roe into his mouth.

Lan Zhan retracted his hand and curled his fingers on the table.

Wei Ying tasted the taste on the tip of his tongue before swallowing it, squinting his eyes in satisfaction and exclaiming, “It’s delicious!”

Then he saw Lan Zhan start peeling a second crab.

Wei Ying then followed Lan Zhan’s example and peeled the crab.

When he was halfway through, Lan Zhan had already put the scraped off crab paste on a plate and handed it to him, then started picking the crab leg meat again, not eating any at all.

He was stunned and asked: “Aren’t you going to eat it?”

Lan Zhan said flatly: “I’m allergic to crabs.”

Why invited him to eat crabs here if he was allergic?

Wei Ying lowered his gaze, lowered his head and ate the crab paste that Lan Zhan had made for him, and the heart inside his chest was getting more and more agitated and restless.

The feeling was indescribable. Startled and ambiguous, love had already taken root and plucked, there was a problem, but it was like burying the seeds of a winter, never daring to break through the ground.

Perhaps he could try to see.

After Wei Ying talked about a few things about school, he naturally talked about another thing: “A few days ago, a girl in another class asked me to send you a love letter. I refused for you. You won’t blame me, hmm?”

Lan Zhan paused when peeling the crab, and said indifferently: “Don’t blame you, I wouldn’t have accepted it.”

Wei Ying firmly held the chopsticks, his palms were a little sweaty, and he calmly said the next sentence: “I think so too, and then she asked me if you have someone you like, I said there should be none, Lan Zhan doesn’t seem like he has someone he likes.”

He lowered his head and ate some of the crab legs that Lan Zhan had picked for him, and the fresh and sweet taste filled his tongue.

Lan Zhan was silent for a while, then suddenly whispered: “Not necessarily.”

At that moment Wei Ying heard the sound of a machine turning softly in his brain, like the hands of a clock pointing to a new node, but he didn’t know what the next second meant.

He bit the tip of his tongue, the slight pain concealed the sweetness of the crab legs, and asked, as if unintentionally: “What does ‘not necessarily’ mean?? You don’t really have someone you like, right?”

Then he raised the corner of his mouth and smiled, asking with a hint of gossip Nei Huaisang: “It’s not a girl from our class, is it?”

He regretted it after asking.

His heart seemed to be pinched by a hand, neither light nor heavy, neither up nor down, neither left nor right.

Even Lan Zhan’s action of peeling crabs on his hands made him feel frightened, so he had to bow his head to eat.

Lan Zhan once again stopped the movement of his hands, lifted his eyes to look at Wei Ying who was lowering his head and poking the crab leg meat with chopsticks one by one, and said, “That’s not what I meant.”

Then, what did it mean?

Wei Ying said “Oh”, and stopped poking his chopsticks.

He picked up a crab leg, dipped it in a vinegar dish and ate it in his mouth, letting the sour taste fill the entire mouth, and his sour eyes were also blurred.

It was just a false alarm, but his chest still couldn’t stop getting sour.

The atmosphere was subtly quiet for a few seconds, with only the sound of crab shells being pried open with a click, unobtrusively revealing the softest place under the light.

Wei Ying was ready to say something else to change the subject, but suddenly he heard Lan Zhan ask, “What about you?”

His heart tightened and for some reason he instantly understood what Lan Zhan was asking.

He smiled and said, “Didn’t you say I can’t fall in love early? Grandpa Zhou also said that to me today, so of course I won’t have any ideas.”

Lan Zhan put the crab leg meat on a plate and said flatly, “So you had an idea?”

Wei Ying was silent for a few seconds, then replied with Lan Zhan’s original sentence: “I didn’t mean that.”

Since you didn’t tell me, then I wouldn’t tell you either.

He was a little wronged.

Lan Zhan put down the crab peeling tool in his hand, his gaze slightly sunken as he looked at Wei Ying across the table, his voice lowered: “Wen Qing?”

Wei Ying was taken aback and looked at Lan Zhan blankly with his eyes wide open, and his two eyelashes trembled.

However, his expression seemed to make Lan Zhan’s eyes darker, and he didn’t even pass the peeled crab legs to him.

Wei Ying reacted suddenly, shook his head like a rattle, couldn’t say anything: “How is it possible?! Wen Qing only likes to study, okay?”

Lan Zhan’s face still doesn’t look good and his voice becomes a little deeper: “You seem to know her very well.”

Wei Ying squinted his eyes, remembering Lan Zhan’s usual hostility towards Wen Qing, he couldn’t help but say:

“Lan Zhan, are you a little nervous now that midterm exam is approaching? In fact, you don’t need to be nervous, you must be better than Wen Qing in the exam. Sit firmly in the first place, I believe you!”

However, his encouragement seemed to have no effect. Lan Zhan still didn’t give him the crab legs.

He pulled the corners of his mouth and smiled, before he said coldly, “Isn’t it you who should be nervous?”

The tone was extremely sarcastic.

Wei Ying was discouraged, his shoulders shrunk, and he complained discontentedly:

“Why are you talking about mid-term exams during dinner? I’m so nervous that I’m not in the mood to eat crabs anymore.”

It was the wicked who complained first.

Lan Zhan furrowed his brows deeper.

Picking up the dish of crab legs and buckling it in front of Wei Ying with a slight force, he commanded, “You must eat it for me.”

The subtle atmosphere instantly ran clean.