This morning Lu Ze had made beef shengjian — pan-fried buns — paired with steamed buns and milk. It was quite a spread.
Whoever invented shengjian was a genuine genius.
The process went like this: steam the buns with hot water, wait for the water to evaporate, and then the oil underneath would start frying the buns from below.
By the time the full process was done, the shengjian had both the crispy, fragrant bottom of a pan-fried item and the soft, fluffy texture of a steamed one.
One bun, two textures. Absolutely brilliant.
The shengjian and steamed buns were served, and Snorlax got straight to distributing utensils.
Once the utensils were laid out, Xiaohong lunged for a shengjian first thing.
She bit through the outer skin carefully, blew on the filling to cool it down, and then took a proper bite.
The moment it hit her mouth, the flavor of the beef and the onion exploded across her taste buds, and Xiaohong couldn't help but narrow her eyes in satisfaction.
"Hmph?"
Was it really that good?
Zoroark didn't buy it. She climbed up onto the table and prepared to grab one for herself.
"Hmph!"
But just as Zoroark was about to reach into the steamer basket, Lu Ze grabbed her by the scruff of her neck.
Zoroark, assuming Lu Ze was about to throw her out again, had already resignedly closed her eyes.
Instead, she felt her little butt touch something, and then she was steadied in place.
"Hmph?"
Zoroark's tightly shut eyes cracked open just slightly, and she happened to see Lu Ze clip a shengjian onto the plate in front of her with his chopsticks.
He even opened a small slit in the bun skin with the chopsticks, letting the hot steam from the filling escape.
Zoroark froze.
She felt something well up inside her chest — something strange and uncomfortable.
"Go on, eat. What are you waiting for?"
Lu Ze waved his chopsticks in front of Zoroark's face, a little puzzled.
"Everyone's eating. You climbed up there all alone — what if you knocked the steamer over? How would everyone else eat? Right? If you want something, just tell me and I'll get it for you, understand?"
Zoroark looked up at Lu Ze and nodded firmly.
Then she lifted the shengjian with both front paws and took a bite.
The moment the beef and onion flavor hit her mouth, a tear rolled down the corner of Zoroark's eye.
The tear startled Lu Ze.
Without thinking, he grabbed a napkin and wiped Zoroark's face, then clipped another shengjian onto her plate.
"Why are you crying? Go on, eat up. Stop crying."
Zoroark nodded, fighting back the tears, and then dug in properly.
Lu Ze watched Zoroark start eating, and only then did he pick up a shengjian for himself and take a bite.
"Hmm? It's good, sure, but is it really enough to make a Pokémon cry?"
Lu Ze was genuinely confused. He glanced over at Zoroark, who was stuffing her face.
"Well, kids who've never had good food — I suppose it makes sense."
Breakfast was over quickly.
During the meal, Zoroark decided eating like this wasn't comfortable — the position was awkward.
Standing on her hind legs with her front paws reaching for food to put in her mouth… not ideal.
So after eating a few, her brain finally came back online and she remembered what she actually was.
She transformed on the spot — into Lu Ze.
Then Lu Ze had to teach her how to use chopsticks.
She was doing fine at first… until Zoroark looked at the shengjian on the table and saw there were fewer and fewer left. She panicked.
She gave up on the chopsticks lesson entirely and, still wearing Lu Ze's face, just reached out and grabbed the buns with her hands.
Lu Ze watched the whole thing, completely愣住了.
Sure, when Zoroark had first transformed into him, there had been a strange sense of wrongness.
But after she grabbed the buns like that, the wrongness got so much worse.
And then — seeing his own face lying on the sofa with a full belly, legs crossed and relaxed — that wrongness peaked.
"Ummm, can you please not transform into me? It's weird…"
Lu Ze stared at himself on the sofa. Seeing his own face looking back at him like that — it was bizarre. Deeply unsettling.
Zoroark tilted her head.
I don't get it?
"Listen — whatever — just change into someone else's form, okay? Anyone else. Just not me."
"嘻嘻～"
The moment Lu Ze finished speaking, a mischievous grin spread across Zoroark's face. She transformed again — this time into Anghura.
"Oh come on, that's basically violation of portrait rights. Pick someone else, someone else."
Zoroark pouted. Does she have to keep changing?
But she did as she was told — transformed once more, and this time into Xiaohong's appearance.
Lu Ze could only sigh. She picked someone else to impersonate, sure — except Xiaohong was right there. The real Xiaohong was going to feel very weird about this.
Just as Lu Ze was about to tell Zoroark to change again, he saw Xiaohong throw herself at the Zoroark-impersonating Xiaohong.
And then the two Xiaohongs rolled around the sofa together in a tangled, laughing mess.
"…Well, okay then."
If the person being impersonated didn't mind, Lu Ze certainly wasn't going to make a fuss.
"Crobat, Snorlax — I'm off to class. You two hold down the fort."
"Eeeeen~"
"Baa~"
The two Pokémon nodded, and Lu Ze set off toward the teaching building with Mini Dragon.
Walking into the classroom with Mini Dragon in tow, Lu Ze didn't draw much attention.
Lu Ze brought Mini Dragon every day — it was common knowledge around school by now.
So when classmates caught a glimpse of the pink Mini Dragon, all they felt was envy gnawing at them in their hearts. That was it. Nothing else.
You get used to it.
"Did you hear? Those American exchange students challenged everyone in the top ten of the freshman rankings yesterday."
"Of course I heard about it — what kind of caveperson doesn't use the internet!"
Lu Ze: ???
Lu Ze listened to the two people behind him talking and felt completely lost. He opened his phone, logged into the school forum, and started reading through what had happened.
After going through the whole thread, Lu Ze finally understood yesterday's events.
First, the exchange students' challenge rules: they weren't bound by the ranking system, so they could issue direct challenges — except against first place.
The first exchange student challenged the seventh-ranked student and won.
Then the sixth-ranked Tang Yunqin was challenged, the fifth-ranked Zhang Xiaoqing was challenged, the fourth-ranked Lu Zhengjie was challenged — and the seventh-ranked student who had won his challenge turned around and challenged Sui Yan.
Out of all of these, the only ones who lost were the seventh-ranked student from the start — and one other: Zhang Xiaoqing was successfully challenged.
Everyone else — Tang Yunqin, Lu Zhengjie, Sui Yan — none of them fell.
As for the third-ranked Sikong Ling, nobody knew why, but he hadn't shown up yesterday at all.
Some said he'd been crushed so badly in the afternoon that his mentality broke and he went home to lick his wounds.
Others said he was afraid of losing and had fled like a coward.
The theories online were everywhere. Lu Ze didn't believe any of them, but the word "coward" definitely left a bad taste in his mouth.
He closed his phone and stopped reading. It was ruining his mood, and it was skewing his impression of people for no reason.
"The school should really set things up so first place is also included in these challenges."
(This chapter is complete.)
———
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