The call was hung up, and Li Peifeng felt like he was going to hang up too.
"Death, like a shadow!"
"In today's era of overall prosperity, how the hell can I starve to death here at the foot of the Imperial City of Dong's Capital?!"
Unwilling to accept this fate, he picked up his phone with trembling hands and dialed Xu Manning again...
Luckily, it was answered.
"The Cantonese fast-food restaurant at the school's south gate, I'll wait for you."
Li Peifeng ignored the silence on the other end, repeated the location, and then hesitantly added: "If you really don't want to come, you can just order me delivery... I'm really about to starve to death."
Humble Xiaoli, begging online.
"Let you starve to death!"
Xu Manning sneered twice and hung up the phone again. But after a dozen seconds, she replied to Li Peifeng on WeChat:
"(smile) Wait at the restaurant."
Then wait it is! Am I afraid of you?
Seeing this reply, Li Peifeng's suspended heart finally settled down, and he exhaled a long breath.
According to his understanding of Xu Manning, she's very likely to come; she was just a little annoyed at the mention of treating him.
But seeing him now so down and out, Xu Manning might jump three feet in excitement, rush over without taking a sip of water, and upon meeting him, transform all resentment and anger into a poisonous dagger, smirking while gripping it tightly, delivering a sharp blow to 'the one wanting to reconcile,' to that passionate and 'loving' heart, and then kick him aside like a stray dog...
"However, this king of the sea has been fishing for ten years now; my heart is as cold as my hook, you can't hurt me!"
"To be honest, our breakup was simply because we weren't suitable for each other, yet you harbor such resentment—indeed, still immature."
Li Peifeng began preparing to go out.
No matter how you look at it, this counts as a date, and he'll be relying on her to shop, buy, and spend thirty thousand...
So, Li Peifeng dressed up a bit, brushed his teeth, washed his face, shaved his beard, styled his hair, then slipped into a stylish black trench coat and put on military boots. With his fullest spirit, he faced the mirror, checking if anything needed tidying.
"Except for being a little pale, perfect!"
Looking at himself in the mirror, Li Peifeng smiled contentedly.
"If she doesn't come, then find someone else to treat me."
"With this face, this build, I could shout casually on the street, and thirty-eight women would be willing to take care of my three meals a day."
"No choice, looking this handsome! Starving to death? Impossible!!"
Just as he was about to push the door open and head out, Li Peifeng hesitated for a moment, turned back into the room, rummaged through and found a piece of 8K-sized paper which seemed to have something drawn on it.
"Almost forgot this."
He carefully looked at it for a few seconds, then rolled the paper up, put it into a long cylindrical plastic tube, and only then did he leave the house.
...
Li Peifeng's handsomeness is the kind that's undoubtedly handsome, clearly handsome, the kind that makes girls frequently glance sideways when he walks down the street.
His height of 1.93 meters gives Li Peifeng the capital to stand out among average handsome guys; the inverted triangular body shape from exercise represents an exceptional attraction to the opposite sex.
Of course, most importantly, it's Li Peifeng's sharp, chiseled face, sword eyebrows, and starry eyes—features that write the word "handsome" all over, enough to make ordinary women passing by feel a significant impact...
"Handsome guy, you're here again? Alone?"
"No, there's someone else."
The waitress at the Cantonese fast-food restaurant greeted him warmly, and Li Peifeng responded feebly, then followed her guidance to a seat by the window and took off his mask.
This restaurant is located near Beihua University's south gate, less than eight hundred meters from Li Peifeng's rental house, yet it took him nearly ten minutes, double his usual time, as he walked with starry eyes from hunger.
The reason for choosing this restaurant is simple: it's close, and it serves porridge! Various kinds of porridge, with ample ingredients and well-cooked rice, quickly served during meal times.
If he chose other food, Li Peifeng feared his hungry stomach wouldn't digest it well, causing food stagnation.
"The only downside is the restaurant's atmosphere isn't very suitable for a date."
Li Peifeng looked around; the restaurant was bustling, with twenty tables showing an occupancy rate of eighty percent. The surrounding noise was deafening, with many female diners subconsciously watching him and whispering...
"Wow, look! A handsome guy!"
"Oh my, so handsome!"
"He's so tall, must be 1.90 meters at least?"
"Oh wow~ suddenly I understand what those novel protagonists look like."
"Hmph! Male beauty misleading the state, disrupting government orders! What's there to see?!"
As a handsome guy, receiving such treatment is quite normal, but Li Peifeng felt no sense of complacency—in fact, he felt tortured.
Only because of the aroma of food wafting from the porridge shop.
"Miscalculation; I shouldn't have come in so early, should've waited at the door!"
"If she doesn't come, I'll have no choice but to randomly find a girl in the restaurant and scrounge a meal; asking someone else out? I can wait; my stomach can't!"
Li Peifeng discreetly wiped his drool, struggled to put on his mask, then closed his eyes and rested, attempting to shut off his senses to minimize the external stimulation he felt.
...
An hour later, a cement-grey Audi A7 stopped at the store entrance, and a girl in a white down jacket stepped out from the driver's seat, attracting the attention of a few diners and passersby.
Because it was just the golden October and not even a shadow of winter could be seen, the streets were filled with people wearing long sleeves and short sleeves, yet this girl was dressed in a long down jacket as if she had entered winter early. Coupled with her striking appearance, she inevitably drew a few extra glances.
The girl was tall, and the long down jacket went beyond her knees, but you could still see her light pink hoodie and a pair of loose-knit pants, as well as her graceful figure that was hard to conceal.
The hood of the down jacket was worn over her head, the fluffy white edge covering part of her face, revealing only her exquisite jawline, adding a trace of mystery.
"How many of you?" the waiter approached as usual.
"Two... over there."
After entering the restaurant, she took off her hood, revealing a delicate face with smooth skin, bright teeth, slender eyebrows, a high nose bridge, and eyes as clear as the moon. Her slightly elongated, single-lidded eyes exuded a sense of aloofness and coolness. Her long, black hair, sleek and shiny, cascaded down her shoulders, contrasting sharply with the fluffy white edges.
As soon as Xu Manning entered, she saw Li Peifeng.
"Sss~ slurp~"
At this moment, Li, sitting alone at a table by the window, was drinking a small bowl of seafood porridge, with a focused and moved expression, looking completely satisfied...
"Are you full? Seems like I don't need to treat you anymore."
Xu Manning sat opposite Li Peifeng, her tone indifferent, clearly annoyed by his behavior of letting someone treat him but eating ahead of time.
"I thought you weren't coming, and I was a bit hungry... let's order some food."
Li Peifeng knew he was at a loss, feeling a bit awkward.
Just now, realizing it had been almost fifty minutes and Xu Manning hadn't come, he couldn't resist his crazy hunger and struck up a conversation with the two girls at the next table, who had been sneaking glances at him. Using the lines "Is this porridge tasty?" "It seems quite fragrant." "I have low blood sugar..." he successfully got a bowl of porridge.
[Zheng Ling gifted food (converted to 5 yuan), 49,980 yuan remaining to unlock the lottery, host please continue to work hard.]
Initially, the distance to the lottery was fifty thousand, but yesterday, when Li Peifeng went to the hospital, a nurse gave him some bread and milk, accounting for fifteen yuan. Now, with the five yuan from the porridge, it's still like a drop in the bucket.
"Didn't you order any dishes?"
Xu Manning glanced at the table, seeing no dishes, just a mysterious cylinder, and couldn't help but wonder, "Then where did you get this porridge? Don't tell me..."
She glanced at the two girls at the next table, who were still watching and whispering, quite surprised, "Did you ask them for it?"
"A friend gave it to me. Why are you wearing a down jacket? It's not that cold yet, is it?"
Li Peifeng hadn't stopped drinking porridge. He hurriedly swallowed a mouthful and tried to change the topic by mentioning the weather.
However, Xu Manning wasn't buying it. She glanced back and forth between him and the two girls at the next table, vaguely understanding what had happened, her expression turning from cloudy to overcast, accompanied by rolling thunder...
"You have a lot of female friends as usual. I don't think having this meal is necessary. Mr. Social Butterfly, you don't lack someone to pay the bill. I have other things to do. Goodbye."
After sarcastically finishing, Xu Manning put on her hood and acted as if she was about to leave.
Truly, a crisis sparked by a bowl of porridge!
"I thought you weren't coming, and I was really starving. I haven't eaten in three days, so I asked for a bowl of porridge from them to stave off my hunger..."
Li Peifeng stood up to stop her but still held the porridge in hand.
"Do you know how busy I am? Do you know how far my company is from here? Do you know I got fined for a traffic violation on the way? I don't feel like talking to you! Don't contact me again!"
Xu Manning glared at him with disdain and turned to leave.
Oh, this is so terrible~
The freeloading has been discovered~
Li Peifeng decisively reached out his other hand to grab her, promptly remedying, "My bad, I'll treat you to this meal, please sit down first."
Li Peifeng understood that what Xu Manning said was true. As the only daughter in a family-run business, she started helping manage the business after graduating from college, working and studying part-time, very busy every day.
Therefore, Li Peifeng was even more unwilling to let her leave like that. If she left, their relationship would deteriorate again, and whether they could meet up next time would be unknown. How could he complete the assessment task then?!
"Not necessary!"
Xu Manning seemed genuinely angry, dragging him as she walked out.
Fearing to provoke her further, Li Peifeng dared not pull back too hard. He quickly finished the porridge, put down the bowl, grabbed the cylinder, and followed her out of the shop.
Xu Manning said coldly, "I'm very disappointed. I even believed a bit in your words about getting to know each other again. Now looking at this..."
After drinking a bowl of porridge given by the girls at the next table, Li Peifeng might not have had much to eat, but for someone on the brink of starvation, it was very timely and effective.
Now he only felt a warm, cozy sensation in his stomach, raging gastric acid breaking down the limited food, and the blood glucose levels rapidly rising, allowing his wit to regain the upper hand...
Therefore, Li Peifeng interrupted her comments, sincerely saying, "You were at least half an hour late
and in that time, I called you, and you didn't pick it up. I really thought you weren't coming, and I understand you're very angry. But can you at least understand a guy who's been starving for three days?"
"Starving for three days? You're fooling who?"
"Besides, even if you're that hungry, couldn't you just order some dishes for yourself?"
Xu Manning scoffed, "Begging strangers for porridge, are you truly hungry, or are you just like before, driven by vanity, flaunting your looks to charm every flower, feeling smug over their adoration and admiration, while forgetting you're a pathetic soul, hollow inside, abandoned and forgotten by the world?"
Stop scolding, stop scolding, keep going and everyone's going to be a fool.
Li Peifeng suddenly remembered a major reason for their breakup: He resented Xu Manning's poisonous tongue, her pettiness, her unforgiving demeanor, and tendency to argue over trifles. Meanwhile, she was disgusted with his high level of attention from the opposite sex, repeatedly asking him to delete female friends from his WeChat, which he refused, causing them to drift further apart.
Now, Li Peifeng really regretted it, deeply regretted it.
Looks like Xu Manning doesn't want to treat me for a meal, then why didn't I ask those two girls for two more bowls of porridge earlier?
Was that just a simple seafood porridge? That was literally my lifeline!!