“Beef, tripe, tofu skin…”
With every dish Mo Xiangwen named, the waitress jotted it down on her notepad.
“Anything else?” she asked with a smile.
“That’s it for now. Let’s see if the two classmates across from me want to add anything.”
Mo Xiangwen handed the menu back, but to his surprise, they simply set it aside.
“This’ll do for starters,” Su Mengli said with a nod to the waitress. “We can order more later if we need it.”
“Got it.” The waitress turned and left.
Why aren’t they ordering? The brief respite from reality that ordering had provided was over, and Mo Xiangwen once again faced the immense pressure these two brought with them.
He pinched his thigh hard. The sharp pain jolted him back to attention.
“I didn’t expect you two to be girls—and such beautiful twin sisters, no less,” Mo Xiangwen said with a sigh. “Let me introduce myself first.”
“Mo Xiangwen—Xiang from ‘direction,’ Wen from ‘literary.’ Pleased to meet you.”
“Su Mengli—Meng from the dreams of Yunmeng Lake, Li from ‘liuli glass,'” Su Mengli said, looking at his pale face with amusement. “We’ve finally met, Xiao Yi.”
“Su Mengyao—Meng from the dreams of Yunmeng Lake, Yao from ‘Yao Pool,'” Su Mengyao added. Her eyes sparkled brightly, her smile radiant, her voice clear and lively. “Xiao Yi, want to guess which of us is which?”
She hadn’t spelled it out, but Mo Xiangwen got the idea: guess which one was which group member.
“Su Mengli’s the President,” he said without hesitation. “Which means you must be Xiao Huo, Su Mengyao.”
Su Mengyao wagged her index finger teasingly. “Wrong guess. I’m the President.”
It seemed Su Mengyao had coordinated with her sister beforehand, because Su Mengli just sat there smiling silently, watching them.
“No, absolutely not,” Mo Xiangwen said firmly. “You two may look identical, but your personalities are worlds apart. The President isn’t anything like your type.”
Su Mengyao blinked, then fixed him with a fierce glare from her big, dark eyes, trying to pressure him into doubting himself and changing his answer.
But the more she did that, the more certain he became.
That slightly clumsy behavior? Only Xiao Huo would pull something like that.
“Enough, Mengyao. You can’t fool him,” Su Mengli said, patting her silly little sister’s hand. Then she turned to Mo Xiangwen. “Just like you guessed, I’m the President.”
Su Mengyao pouted in dissatisfaction but said nothing.
“Oh, right—I almost forgot.” Mo Xiangwen suddenly remembered the book, his expression turning serious. “Thanks for lending me that book, President.”
“You’ve thanked me plenty of times already—not to mention treating us to this meal,” Su Mengli said, shaking her head. “The book’s in perfect condition. You don’t need to keep bringing it up.”
“There’s still a difference between thanking you over messages and doing it in person.”
“Alright, alright—we’re all group mates,” Su Mengli said with a laugh. “Why get so serious the moment we meet? I want to hang out with you relaxed, Xiao Yi.”
“Just like you said, Big Sis,” Su Mengyao chimed in. “Xiao Yi’s a total shut-in. He has zero experience dealing with girls. Of course he’s nervous with two he’s never met right in front of him.”
Su Mengli kept her polite smile in place while secretly reaching under the table to pinch her silly sister’s thigh hard.
“Ow.” Su Mengyao let out a pained grunt and shot a resentful glance at her big sister, not daring to say more.
Nice analysis. Don’t do it again.
If you’re going to analyze, at least keep it to yourself.
The three of them blinked at one another—him looking at her, her looking back at him, her looking at her sister—a awkward atmosphere settling over the table.
“Uh…” Su Mengli hesitated, then said softly, “It’s just…”
She pondered for a long moment but couldn’t come up with a good explanation. Her face flushed with embarrassment, leaving her at a loss for words.
“It’s fine. Shut-in or not, whatever,” Mo Xiangwen said, shaking his head. “We’ve known each other online for ages. I don’t take it as an attack.”
Su Mengli let out a relieved breath and shot her silly sister a dissatisfied glare.
Her sister was perfectly fine around classmates, but the moment it came to group friends, she let loose completely.
Still, thanks to Su Mengyao putting everything out in the open like that, Mo Xiangwen felt much more at ease now.
He could just act like he did online as a group mate—no need to pretend to be some smooth talker with girls. He couldn’t pull that off anyway, and he didn’t want to.
“Yeah, yeah—we game together, chase the same new anime together,” Su Mengyao said nonchalantly. “Insulting him would be insulting myself.”
Mo Xiangwen nodded and put on a serious face. “In that case, you’re a shut-in too.”
Su Mengli immediately covered her cherry lips with a small hand, her body trembling as she struggled to hold back her laughter.
Su Mengyao gave him a speechless look, wrinkling her dainty nose in dissatisfaction as she muttered, “Xiao Yi’s so petty.”
“Here’s your order.” The waitress wheeled the cart up beside them and began placing the dishes on the rack next to the table, checking off the list.
With the food arrived, they didn’t have to just sit there chatting awkwardly.
Mo Xiangwen wasn’t sure if the sisters could handle spicy food, so he’d ordered a split hotpot—one side mild, one side spicy.
Back then, the mental pressure had still been weighing on him. Now that he was relaxed, he figured he might as well ask.
He had no idea if their little guessing game made them happy, but it sure hadn’t made him happy.
“Can you two eat spicy?”
Su Mengyao nodded. “I’m fine with it, but Sis can’t handle much.”
Mo Xiangwen glanced at Su Mengli, who nodded lightly to confirm she wasn’t joking.
“Then make it half and half.”
“Hmm, come to think of it, us three already make up half the group,” Su Mengyao said suddenly. “When we were on our way earlier, Bai Bai and Pigeon were in the group chat saying how jealous they were for real.”
“Pigeon… who knows what goes on in her head. She’s probably just parroting stuff.”
“Bai Bai seemed like he really wanted to come. Wonder if he’ll get the chance.”
“Mm, Pigeon’s kinda hard to read,” Su Mengli agreed with a nod. “I’d love a chance to meet Bai Bai sometime too.”
Mo Xiangwen shook his head, coming to Pigeon’s defense. “Pigeon just likes joking around. I bet she wanted to come too.”
He hadn’t met her in person, but they shared a real rapport when it came to games. He even suspected her personality was a lot like his.
“Sorry, I’ll be right back.” Mo Xiangwen excused himself and headed to the restroom.
When he returned, he instinctively glanced over at the spot where Yan Nuoya had been sitting earlier. She was still there all by her lonesome.
A good number of dishes had arrived at her table, but it didn’t look like the rest of her group had shown up yet.
