Right after getting dumped, He suddenly learned that his best buddy was the legendary cold-as-ice school beauty. - Chapter 48

After tying the apron around Ji Qingqian, Lu Yibei stood up.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Sauces,” he replied, pointing to the condiment station a few steps away. “Want to come?”

Ji Qingqian had never really been to Haidilao before, nor had she eaten hotpot much.

Everything she did now was by watching Lu Yibei.

He walked to the condiment station, and she followed.

Lu Yibei crouched slightly to grab a small sauce bowl. Ji Qingqian mirrored him, picking up her own.

He began adding beef sauce, oyster sauce, cilantro, sesame oil…

She followed suit.

“…Hmm? You’re not following the steps anymore?”

Lu Yibei noticed that Ji Qingqian had started improvising.

First, she scooped a spoonful of mushroom sauce, sniffed it delicately near her nose, then dumped it all in.

Next came a spoon of peanut sauce—sniffed, then in it went.

After repeating this improvisation seven or eight times, she finally looked satisfied.

“This will taste amazing,” Ji Qingqian said, lifting her fair chin proudly.

“…Oh. You’re not adding scallions?” Lu Yibei asked, noticing her bowl had cilantro but no scallions.

“I can eat them, just don’t like them,” she replied.

“Kids who eat scallions are smarter.…” Lu Yibei started.

“…Terrible pun,” Ji Qingqian scoffed. “And you didn’t add any either. So are you also an idiot?”

By the time they returned to their seats, the beef spicy broth was already boiling.

Lu Yibei slid the thin slices of beef into the bubbling pot.

Ji Qingqian tied her hair into a ponytail and kept her eyes on the rising bubbles.

“When can we eat?” she asked.

“Wait for my command. When I say ‘eat,’ you eat,” Lu Yibei said.

“Got it.” Ji Qingqian nodded. “Sniper rifle’s set. Ready to fire at any second.”

Before the first bite, a small interruption occurred.

Because they had ordered the tomato broth, the staff came over with a bowl of beef bits, asking if they wanted to drink the soup.

Haidilao’s tomato broth was famous for its delicious soup.

The service was famously over-the-top attentive—practically hovering at your side.

Usually, Lu Yibei would just let the staff handle it.

But this time, he had Ji Qingqian with him… and she became a little “Ji Qingqian-baby” around strangers.

“I can manage, thank you,” Lu Yibei said politely.

“Sure.”

The restaurant was busy, so the staff didn’t press the matter.

She glanced at Ji Qingqian and then at Lu Yibei, thinking to herself: a sweet little couple, inseparable. Even their seating arrangement was side by side. No wonder they didn’t want interruptions.

She thought, this girl is really beautiful… and the guy isn’t bad either. A proper handsome couple.

Do only handsome guys and beautiful girls get love? When will ordinary people like me ever have a sweet romance?

Lu Yibei had no idea his simple words had just depressed a perfectly nice server…

He was busy ladling tomato soup for a nearly famished Ji Qingqian.

“Blow it to cool,” Lu Yibei said.

Ji Qingqian held the small bowl with delicate hands, lips puckered, blowing gently.

With her ponytail, her swan-like neck looked even longer. A small mark on her pale skin—the mole he had touched before—was faintly visible.

The memory of that night…

He quickly refocused. Eating, not daydreaming. He scolded himself for having strange thoughts during a meal.

The beef cooked quickly and was ready to be scooped out.

“Here?” Lu Yibei gestured toward her bowl, looking slightly perplexed at the “mosaic-like” mixture of sauces she’d created.

“Yeah. Can I eat?” Ji Qingqian asked, leaving the doneness of the meat to him.

He nodded. She bit in—and her usually composed face twisted slightly.

“Terrible. Is this really cooked? You lied to me, Abei.”

Lu Yibei pointed to her mosaic bowl, then dipped a piece into his secret sauce and handed it to her.

Ji Qingqian hesitated, then used her chopsticks to taste it.

This time, no grimace—her eyes even brightened.

Lu Yibei took her sauce bowl to his side and pushed his bowl toward her.

“You know why I didn’t add scallions?”

Wasn’t it obvious? He’d made it for her to enjoy.

Perhaps his sauce was just too extraordinary, so that even Ji Qingqian felt it was almost divine.

She blushed slightly:

“Okay, I admit… you really are better at sauces.”

“You’re just weak,” he teased.

“But I still have a complaint—you should’ve warned me while I was mixing!”

“Would you have listened?”

Ji Qingqian: …

“You’re so stubborn,” Lu Yibei said.

“You’re right,” she admitted, scrunching her nose lightly. Embarrassed, but happy.

After knowing him this long, Abei truly understood her.

Perhaps the long afternoon of military training had made her really hungry.

Eating, Ji Qingqian swayed her shoulders slightly, a faint, serene smile on her lips—a picture of happiness.

Lu Yibei recalled the school beauty contest evaluations of her: “Tall, cold, icy…”

But… where was the cold? He thought to himself. She was adorable.

And she could eat.

He added the beef tripe, then the shrimp dumplings.

Surprisingly, Ji Qingqian’s eating pace matched his cooking pace almost perfectly.

She could eat so much, yet her waist remained tiny…

All the nutrition had gone exactly where it should.

Lost in these naughty thoughts, Lu Yibei was suddenly snapped back by Ji Qingqian’s wide eyes.

“What’s… wrong?”

He tensed slightly. Legs already glanced at, chest sneaks would be caught…

“Ah——” Ji Qingqian elongated the sound, like the first syllable in a phonics lesson.

Some human reflexes were funny.

Seeing someone say “Ah,” you couldn’t help but echo it.

Lu Yibei: “—Ah.”

Ji Qingqian quickly picked a shrimp dumpling from the sauce bowl and, with incredible speed, fed it into Lu Yibei’s open mouth.

Lu Yibei: …

She said lightly, “You eat too. Don’t just feed me.”

“…Oh, oh,” he replied.

“You’ve had enough, why are you still staring at me?” Ji Qingqian asked.

He looked away.

Technically, he wasn’t staring at her—just at the chopsticks in her delicate fingers, which she had just used to feed him.

Though they had once shared a bottle of water by accident, this time there was no bottle cap to act as a buffer…

He sneaked a glance at Ji Qingqian.

She hadn’t noticed and even pressed the chopsticks together, emphasizing the action.

“Dummy, eat already,” she urged.

Fine. As long as no one talked about it, no one would feel awkward… let’s just pretend nothing happened, Lu Yibei thought.

Ji Qingqian, of course, knew exactly what had happened.

Last time, her panic was because it was sudden, unexpected.

But today? This was part of her plan.

And she didn’t mind at all being this close to Yibei.