“Dragging around a casted leg, and you can still say that.” He Siheng couldn’t understand his logic. He slung Tan Jing’s arm over his shoulder again. “I just asked Zhou Yu—the class banquet’s too late now. Let’s just eat at home.”
Tan Jing: “We can’t make the class celebration, but we can have our own two-person celebration.”
He Siheng’s eyes lit up, as if reminded. “Yeah!”
He Siheng called a cab at the hospital entrance, destination straight to Old Zhang’s Noodle Shop.
The simplest was often the best. Back in the day, whenever he and Tan Jing wanted to celebrate something, they’d come here for noodles—not the old trio, but the deluxe full combo.
Past mealtime, the shop wasn’t crowded, and Old Zhang was free. Seeing them enter, he bustled over. “Little He, Little Tan! Oh no, what’s up with Little Tan’s leg?”
“Sprained it running,” He Siheng said, helping Tan Jing to a seat while ordering. “Old Zhang, deluxe full combo for each of us.”
“Got it!”
He Siheng settled Tan Jing at the table, tossed the X-ray bag on a nearby chair, and without sitting said, “I’ll be right back,” before heading to the milk tea shop across the street.
Soon, he returned with a cup of milk tea and set it in front of Tan Jing.
Tan Jing looked puzzled. “Why’d you buy this?”
He Siheng sat across from him. “Don’t you love drinking it?”
Tan Jing paused for a few seconds, wondering if there was a flaw in his fake limp performance that prompted He Siheng to deliberately buy him a cup of the notoriously awful milk tea to murder him with it.
The next second, He Siheng added, “Zhang Xunyue told me today that you used to come here often in junior high to drink milk tea.”
Though He Siheng couldn’t understand why Tan Jing’s tastes had become so bizarre, he still respected his strange habit and bought a cup of milk tea for this limping hero.
Tan Jing was silent for a few seconds before saying, “The milk tea here is really bad.”
He Siheng blinked, baffled. “Then why did you keep patronizing it in junior high? Out of charity?”
Tan Jing sighed, his tone laced with deep exasperation. “You’re such a blockhead.”
Caught off guard by the sudden insult, He Siheng instinctively wanted to snap back. But as he looked up, he met those pitch-black, beautiful eyes carrying a faint hint of amusement.
“I came for you.”
“For… me?”
For a moment, He Siheng thought he’d misheard. He mostly didn’t dare believe it.
Back then, he did drop by the noodle shop now and then for a bowl of noodles, usually after school on Fridays—sometimes alone, sometimes with Lu Xinshu. But it wasn’t frequent or on any schedule; it was purely mood-dependent.
“Because I wanted to see you,” Tan Jing said. “You didn’t want to see me, so I had to sit in the shop across the street.”
He Siheng was still in disbelief. “To see me, so you’d stake out here every week?”
“Stake out?” Tan Jing tilted his head. “That sounds a bit perverted.”
“…” He Siheng sneered coldly. “Perverted suits you perfectly, doesn’t it?”
Tan Jing drawled lazily, “I didn’t use binoculars, so it should be fine, right?”
Seeing him bring up the old incident again, He Siheng’s face soured with displeasure. “How many times are you going to mention that?”
Tan Jing backed off, raising his hands in surrender. “My bad, my bad. I’ll mention it less from now on.”
“Not less—never again,” He Siheng stressed. “Not even once.”
Just as he finished speaking, the boss came over with their freshly cooked noodles. “Here are your noodles—full deluxe beef noodle set! Celebrating something good again today?”
He Siheng shot back without mercy, “Celebrating him becoming half-crippled.”
Tan Jing chuckled. “Celebrating our relay race taking first place.”
“Impressive!” the boss exclaimed, grabbing two cans of soda from the beverage cooler. “Soda on the house!”
Tan Jing thanked him and handed over the milk tea. “Then we’ll treat you to some milk tea.”
He Siheng’s mouth twitched. Talk about repaying kindness with enmity.
The boss glanced at the shop name on the milk tea bag. “From the place across the street, huh? Sure thing! I was just telling the helper earlier that I’d grab a cup before closing tonight. Their milk tea is really good—I’ve been drinking it for years and never get tired of it.”
He Siheng fell silent.
It seemed he’d found the reason why the milk tea shop across the street stayed in business.
The hospital check-up had taken up quite a bit of time. By the time they finished eating and left the noodle shop, night had fallen. The evening breeze was slightly cool, and the street’s neon lights flickered.
He Siheng hailed a taxi and rode with Tan Jing all the way home.
The advantage—or disadvantage—of their houses being next door became apparent then. After getting out, He Siheng had planned to head to his own place while Tan Jing went to his. But when he glanced back and saw Tan Jing slowly hobbling into the yard on crutches, he stopped in his tracks.
Watching the other’s clumsiness made He Siheng’s brows furrow tighter and tighter until he couldn’t hold back anymore. He walked over and supported him. “Tch, can you even manage?”
Tan Jing unburdened himself by leaning on He Siheng’s shoulder, shifting half his weight onto him as he casually retorted, “Want to find out? You can try it yourself.”
He Siheng: “…”
He hadn’t expected Tan Jing to twist his words like that—and so shamelessly. Stunned for a few seconds, He Siheng finally reacted, his ears turning red as he bristled. “Damn it! Who wants to know about that side of you?!”
After helping Tan Jing into the house—and enduring his shameless demand to be escorted all the way to the bedroom—He Siheng was slightly out of breath from the effort, but he had no intention of lingering a moment longer.
“Alright, I’m out.”
He tossed out the words, braced one hand on the windowsill, and habitually vaulted out the window.
Tan Jing watched him, amused, and reminded him, “My parents aren’t back yet. You could’ve used the front door.”
He Siheng, who had already jumped out, bristled again. “You couldn’t have said that earlier?!”
Full of resentment, He Siheng returned home. As he changed shoes at the entrance, he vaguely heard voices from the living room. When he walked over, the conversation became clearer—it was his parents discussing Tan Wan’s engagement.
Seeing him enter, Shu Qiu quickly shot He Yunlang a look to shut up, then turned to He Siheng. “Heng Heng’s back! Did you have fun at the sports festival?”
He Siheng figured there was no need to make them stop on his account. He’d known about Tan Wan’s engagement for a while and didn’t feel much about it anymore. Explaining that would just make him seem like he was pretending to be tough, so he went along with their kindness and skipped the topic.
He hummed in response. “Our class took first in the relay and overall points.”
Hearing they’d come in first, He Yunlang clapped enthusiastically. “That’s my son! Talented in both studies and sports—a born winner! I’ll double your allowance this month, Dad promises!”
