Chapter 89 — This One's on Me
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
"That's true enough," Kang Xiaobo nodded in agreement at Wei Zhao's words. Tang Yun's beauty was the kind that, once seen, was not easily forgotten; otherwise so many boys would never have been left dazed and smitten by a single glance at her.
"Never mind all that. Let's eat—I'm starving." Wei Zhao unceremoniously grabbed a dried tofu roll and stuffed it into his mouth. "Not bad. Pretty tasty."
"Heh heh, of course it is. You should know whose mother grilled these," Kang Xiaobo said, grinning with great satisfaction at the praise.
"..." Wei Zhao glanced at Kang Xiaobo and honestly did not know what to say. "You make it sound like she's your mother."
"Cough, cough..." Kang Xiaobo cleared his throat awkwardly. "Eat up, eat up. Here, Boss, I'll drink to you." With that, he lifted his beer.
Wei Zhao smiled and raised his bottle too, clinking it against Kang Xiaobo's.
Before long the rest of what Kang Xiaobo had ordered arrived one dish after another, but Tang Yun seemed bent on making trouble—either slamming the skewers down hard on the table, or deliberately bumping into Wei Zhao.
This little beauty was rather interesting, wasn't she? Watching the puffed-up, sulking Tang Yun, Wei Zhao found it a little funny. She wanted to drive him away.
There was still a big lecture that evening, so neither Wei Zhao nor Kang Xiaobo drank much—just the one bottle each in hand. Once they had wiped out the food on the table, Kang Xiaobo rose to settle the bill. "Auntie, how much do we owe?"
"Ah, Yun'er, go work it out," Tang's mother said, since she still had several other tables' orders on her grill, and sent Tang Yun off to do the reckoning.
"Eighty yuan," Tang Yun said, coming over to Wei Zhao's table and shooting him a covert glare. Fleece you blind, she thought. See how you like putting on that act.
"Huh?" Kang Xiaobo was startled. What he and Wei Zhao had ordered could not have come to more than forty yuan at most—how could it be eighty? But seeing how certain Tang Yun looked, he could not bring himself to argue with the girl of his heart; he could only dig a hundred-yuan bill out of his pocket and hold it out to her.
"Wait a moment," Wei Zhao said, stopping Kang Xiaobo. "I think that's been miscalculated. I was just adding it up: twenty lamb skewers is twenty yuan, two lamb chops is eight, two chicken necks is four, two tofu rolls is two, two beers is four—thirty-eight yuan altogether, isn't that right?"
"This..." Tang Yun had not expected Wei Zhao to actually go through the bill with her, and her face flushed at once; she felt thoroughly uncomfortable. She was not a greedy sort—she had only said eighty because she was irritated by how refined and polite Wei Zhao had been before, and had kept wanting to find fault with him and expose him for what he was. Yet after several deliberate provocations he had shown no reaction whatsoever, which only made her angrier. Fine, she thought, if you love putting on that act so much, then keep acting. I'll just charge you a little extra and get some of my anger out along the way.
And so, no sooner had the little beauty Tang quoted the figure of eighty yuan than she was called out by Brother Lin, the great human shield.
"Yun'er, what's the matter with you? How can you just make up prices like that?" Tang's mother was busy with the grilling, but Tang Yun had gone to settle the bill close enough that she could hear every word of the exchange with Wei Zhao. Seeing that her daughter had actually quoted a customer a random figure, she grew angry and scolded her with a stern face.
Tang Yun had already been stewing over Wei Zhao, and now that her mother was scolding her too, she could not keep her composure. She pressed her lips together in grievance, lifted her head, and stared at Wei Zhao with eyes that fairly spat fire, as though she wished she could burn him alive to vent her spite. "Keep your money. Get lost. Consider it my treat—I don't want to see you again."