Chapter 374: Pre-season

Bai Liu took a moment of silence to change the subject, "Is it okay if I bring someone over for fondue?"

Lu Yizhan over there was stunned and soon sighed helplessly: "...... You've really caught me as a sheep to pull the wool over my eyes. ..."

"Buy some more fruit." Lu Yizhan's voice had a Buming smile in it, "The oranges in the supermarket downstairs are on sale today, so buy two catties."

After hanging up the phone, Bai Liu sent a message to the group asking if they wanted to have dinner together tonight, which was quickly answered.

[music]: Wow, once in a hundred years, White Pickle is actually treating himself.

[Muke]: Do you need help locating them? I know some private restaurants that taste okay.

[Tang Erda]: Do you want to drink? I'll bring some wine @ Bai Liu.

Bai Liu: I'm not treating you, I'm taking you to my friend's house for dinner and hot pot, and I'm going to buy food later.

[Bai Liu]: @ Tang Erda, bring it on.

As soon as Bai Liu replied, the group was buzzing with excitement.

[music]: Damn it, it's a dilly-dally! Bai Liu, you're so cheeky!

[Bai Liu]: So you're not eating?

[music]: No way! I'll have it! I want shrimp sliders! Maw! Brains! Duck intestines! Sliced lung!

[Muke]: I'll bring some common ingredients for the hotpot, anyone with seafood allergies?

[Tang Erda]: wine cabinet photo.jpg@ Bai Liu, do you have a wine you like?

Bai Liu looked down at the messages that people kept swiping down, and paused for a moment with her fingers on the cracked screen of her phone before she continued typing.

[Bai Liu]: Do you eat oranges?

[music]? Eat, why not?

[Muke]: I quite like it.

[Tang Erda]: Eat, @ Bai Liu, I have two bottles of orange liqueur, not too strong, can I bring you one?

Bai Liu replied a few more times and gave Liu Jiayi a call, saying that she would pick her up later. Liu Jiayi coldly refused and warned Bai Liu that no one should be picked up on the back of the Haro bike, and then asked Bai Liu to send her address so she could find it herself.

On the way, Bai Liu bought half a catty of mushrooms, a catty of lettuce and a catty of enoki mushrooms, sliced half a catty of beef, picked up a two-litre bottle of Coke on sale at the supermarket downstairs and two catties of oranges on sale.

Bai Liu bought Mu Sicheng's shrimp sliders, tripe and duck intestines, but they were all frozen and there were no fresh ones at this hour.

But it didn't help that the pile of stuff cost Bai Liu 167 dollars.

But in the end, Bai Liu bought it anyway.

He also bought some crispy sausages and balls, food that children would enjoy, but not brain and lung slices, which were not available in the supermarket and the vegetable market was closed.

Bought piecemeal, the total cost was 218.2.

Du Sanying walks apprehensively behind Bai Liu, who is carrying a plastic supermarket bag, into an old neighbourhood.

The neighbourhood is located in a cluster of residential buildings with one or two large supermarkets and two convenience stores nearby. The neighbourhood gatekeeper is a very old man who sits on a rusty bench wearing a washed-out army coat, squinting and nodding with his legs crossed as he guards the gate.

Bai Liu swept up the old man as he walked over to them.

The old man's eyes suddenly opened when he saw Bai Liu, and he stared at him for a long time: "Are you Fang Dian's high school classmate?"

Bai Liu politely returned, "It's me, it's been a long time, Uncle Li."

Uncle Li laughed as he stood up and patted Bai Liu on the shoulder like a greeting, sighing, "I haven't seen you for two or three years and I didn't recognise you at first."

"Good thing this head of yours hasn't been this long since high school, I'd have recognized it with a couple more looks."

Uncle Li asked, "Have you and Lu Yizhan been hanging out at Fang Dian's place since high school? In the past two years, Lu Yizhan has been living in the house, but you, why don't you come here anymore?"

Bai Liu paused, then spoke again with an impeccable smile of false politeness, "I'm working, I'm a bit busy."

"You young people are always saying that you are busy with your work." Uncle Li shook his head disapprovingly, "You and Fang Dian have been friends for many years, how can you just say you're not coming?"

"When you were in high school, you three had such a hard time and supported each other through it, how rare is this relationship? If you don't cherish it now, when the connection fades and you break their hearts, where will you find such two friends who have survived all the way through high school with you?"

Uncle Li nudged Bai Liu inside and gestured for him to go in, "I won't keep you.

"Thank you Uncle Li."

Bai Liu heads deeper into the neighbourhood with a pocket full of ingredients.

The residential buildings in the district look very old, the highest is only seven floors, so none of them have built lifts. The electronic locks in front of the residential buildings are also very old, the display flickers and feels broken.

Bai Liu didn't even enter his password, he just pushed open the door and entered.

Du Sanying asks Bai Liu, "What floor is it on?"

Bai Liu said, "Third floor."

As they walked up the stairs, Du Sanying hesitated before asking, "Mr. Bai Liu, did you come here a lot when you were in high school?"

As soon as the security guard came over to talk to Bai Liu, Du Sanying pulled away quickly. He only vaguely heard some of the conversation between the two men, but he could tell that the security guard was very familiar with Bai Liu.

"Hmm." Bai Liu rounded the stairs and took one step upwards, his voice calm, "This is Fang Dian's home."

"Sometimes when I didn't have access to a dormitory and couldn't go back to the orphanage, she would bring me the keys and let me stay here."

Du Sanying didn't respond for a while and asked, "Huh? Why is there a time when you can't live in a hostel or go back to the orphanage?"

"I'm going to be expelled from school because someone is going to charge me with luring my classmates into gambling and having an armed fight with them." Bai Liu's tone is flat, "The school is doing everything it can to try to clear its name with me, a future criminal, and the orphanage is examining my eligibility for financial aid and considering whether to refer me to juvenile hall."

"I was living in an internet cafe for a week when Fang Dian found me and gave me her house key."

Step by step Bai Liu made his way to the third floor, carrying a cold plastic bag, and stood beside the old, decaying staircase, looking up to see the red stainless steel security door directly opposite, just two more steps away.

An inverted golden fortune character is affixed to the centre of the door, with untorn spring couplets on either side, a gossip mirror hanging from the top of the door, and a bunch of dried mugwort next to it.

He hadn't been here for almost two years or more, but everything seemed to be the same as when he first came.

In the dimly lit chaos of the cyber cafe, all next to a pandemonium of smoke and fire, Fang Dian grabs Bai Liu from the crude marching bed cobbled together by two swivel chairs and drags him out the door.

Bai Liu didn't let her drag him, he stifled Fang Dian dragging his wrist half leaning back in the chair, his head drooping to one side as three folds of sleep came out of his eyelids, he looked tired and cold as he half lifted them to look at the person: "...... I'm not awake yet, what for? "

"Back to school." Fang Dian turned back to Bai Liu and said in a matter-of-fact tone, "You haven't been to class for a week, Lu Yizhan has been looking for you like crazy, I didn't expect you to be hiding in this little internet cafe."

"He could have done without me." Bai Liu says as his eyes close again and he slides down the curve of his chair back, "We weren't meant to be in the same world."

"Now that you've found me, can you let me sleep?"

Fang Dian crouched down, "An internet cafe is not a place to sleep."

"Do what you have to do where you have to do it, play games when you're at the internet cafe, but when you've had enough, you have to go back to school." Fang Dian pulled the keys from her chest and placed them in Bai Liu's hand as she whispered, "Go home and sleep in."

"Go home, Bai Liu, Lu Yizhan and I are waiting for you."

Bai Liu turns over on his side, wraps his hands around his school jacket and buries his face in the sofa, breathing evenly, his eyelids not shaking, as if he has fallen asleep and can't hear the outside world.

This means that he does not want to spend more time dealing with Fang Dian and wants to drive her away.

Fang Dian could not help but laugh at Bai Liu's appearance, she reached out and gave Bai Liu's head a firm rub, "Then come back when you've had enough, I won't tell Lu Yizhan where you're going."

"We made a pact between us that I would help keep Mr. Lu in the dark when you did something bad."

"But Bai Liu, I can help you hide the times you do something bad." Fang Dian got up and she said, "I can't help you hide when you do something wrong."

"You don't feel guilty about doing bad things, but is it really because you've done a bad thing that you feel so bad now?"

Fang Dian looked at Bai Liu, who was curled up slightly in a chair, and she suddenly smiled, "When someone feels bad for doing something bad, it means they feel they've done something wrong."

"From that point of view, Bai Liu, you and Lu Yizhan are of the same world."

Fang Dian left the key for Bai Liu and left.

Bai Liu can't quite remember what happened after that, it seems he stayed at an internet cafe until he ran out of money, all he can remember is that he ended up at Fang Dian's door with his keys and twisted the door open for a moment -

On the sofa directly opposite the door lie Lu Yizhan and Fang Dian, both of whom are so tired and sleepy that they don't even notice the door has been opened.

The coffee table in front of them was a jumble of paperwork of all kinds, transfer, administration, school rules, lawyers, mixed with several sets of unfinished practice test papers, densely covered with notes, next to a lot of photocopied documents and an assortment of letters that hadn't been sent out yet, addressed to various benefits and authorities, as well as some reputable schools.

At the bottom are two neatly written pledges.

A guarantee was given to the orphanage for Bai Liu's future moral education and that the incident was not his fault.

One guarantee was given to the school and there was no guarantee, only that Bai Liu would go with her if she was expelled, and that the guarantor was Fang Dian.

It is possible that the sound of Bai Liu flipping through the papers woke Fang Dian and the two men woke up sleepily and confusedly identified the person in front of them as Bai Liu.

There were no angry accusations, no angry insults, no tears of disappointment.

Fang Dian just lazily propped up Lu Yizhan beneath her, peeked out from the sofa, crossed the coffee table and gave Bai Liu's head a good buddy pat, "Home at last, huh?"

"Don't be afraid to go home just because you've done something wrong." Fang Dian laughed, "Like children."

Bai Liu, carrying his plastic pockets, is quiet for a moment and he steps forward to knock on the door when it suddenly opens from the inside.

Fang Dian, carrying a rubbish pocket, looked up at Bai Liu in the doorway, startled, then quickly arched her eyebrows and smiled, reaching out her hand and giving Bai Liu a cheeky pat on the head.

"It's finally time to give up and go home."

She smiled and said to Bai Liu, "Don't be afraid to go home just because you've done something wrong, you're so old and still acting like a child."