Chapter 82: Summer and Such ④
Huang Yan listened, half understanding, but she was very happy to receive a gift, which showed that Nie Qiu truly considered her a very, very good friend. “Okay then, I’ll treat you to ice cream. Let’s go to McDonald’s for ice cream.”
Nie Qiu grabbed Huang Yan. “Just the kind we used to eat is fine. McDonald’s isn’t good.” Actually, to be honest, KFC, McDonald’s, and Dicos aren’t particularly delicious. They’re not as good as traditional local delicacies. But these chain restaurants are well-promoted and convenient. For students, they represent a certain status. Coupled with the influence of television and the internet, they’ve grown to their current scale. In reality, they’re just so-so.
Huang Yan looked at Peng Yu Yang and asked, “What about you?”
“I didn’t expect you to ask me,” Peng Yu Yang joked. “I’ll eat whatever you two eat. By the way, you mentioned saving a lot of money just now. What’s going on?”
“You don’t know how good Nie Qiu is at bargaining! That skirt I just bought, the boss lady wanted sixty-eight, but when we were leaving, she said fifty. Guess how much we paid for it?”
“Wasn’t it fifty yuan?” Peng Yu Yang played along.
“It was fifty for two!” Huang Yan revealed with a smile. “We saved a whole twenty-five yuan!”
“Then you have to treat us to something good!” Peng Yu Yang was also surprised. Nie Qiu is really good at bargaining. It’s not easy to get something for twenty-five yuan that was originally sixty-eight. The only person he could think of was his maternal grandmother. Even when selling side dishes for one yuan, she could haggle the price down by half. Although the quality of the vegetables she bought was slightly worse than others, with good cooking skills, the dishes made in the kitchen would be just as good.
“Then how about we go eat barbecue skewers, lamb skewers, and the like?” Huang Yan suggested happily.
Nie Qiu rolled her eyes, speechless. “Why don’t you come to my family’s stall after evening self-study and eat there? It’s better to let our family earn than others.”
“Alright, let’s not eat anything now. We’ll go to Nie Qiu’s family’s barbecue stall after evening self-study,” Huang Yan declared decisively and smiled. “I’ll be going now. I need to eat dinner and then go to evening self-study!”
Peng Yu Yang also bid farewell to Nie Qiu. “I’ll be going too. I have evening self-study tonight.”
“Go on, go on!” Nie Qiu said with a smile. “See you tonight!”
“Nie Qiu, you’re the lucky one, not having evening self-study,” Huang Yan wrinkled her nose, envious. “I’m so jealous.”
“Talk about it when your grades are as good as Nie Qiu’s!” Peng Yu Yang said, trying to bring her down. He waved to Nie Qiu. “Well, bye.”
“Bye!” Nie Qiu also waved to the two. After the three parted ways, Nie Qiu went home with the swimsuit she had bought. That evening, after evening self-study, Nie Qiu, who was collecting money, saw Huang Yan and Peng Yu Yang. She smiled and said to Nie Aifang, “Mom, my classmates are here. I’ll go greet them.”
Nie Aifang nodded. “Go ahead, go ahead!” she said while tending to the barbecue in the deep-frying pot.
Nie Qiu walked up to the two who were already seated and asked with a smile, “What would you two like to eat?”
“Ten skewers of fish balls, ten skewers of chives, one skewer of chicken wings…” Huang Yan said happily, then looked at Peng Yu Yang. “What about you? What do you want to eat?”
“Are you ordering all this for yourself?” Peng Yu Yang asked Huang Yan in surprise.
Huang Yan lifted her chin. “What? Is that not allowed? You said you were treating us.”
“Okay, okay, eat, eat, eat,” Peng Yu Yang said helplessly. “I’ll have a bottle of green tea, and a few skewers of dried tofu and potato slices! Nie Qiu, what about you? What do you want to eat?”
“What’s going on? Didn’t Huang Yan say she was treating?” Nie Qiu asked curiously.
“During evening self-study, he made a bet with me. We both went to the blackboard to answer the same question, and I got it right. So he’s treating today,” Huang Yan said, sitting on a stool, smiling and exclaiming, “Ah, today is truly my lucky day.”
Nie Qiu and Peng Yu Yang both chuckled. Nie Qiu smiled and said, “Then please wait a moment, I’ll grill it for you soon. There are quite a few people getting off evening self-study right now, so I’ll handle it personally.”
“That would be great!” Huang Yan said with a smile.
Nie Qiu smiled and returned to the tricycle, making barbecue for them, and also made over a dozen pan-fried dumplings. Nie Aifang leaned down and said to Nie Qiu, “Charge them a little less later. They’re your classmates, after all.”
Nie Qiu nodded and smiled, “I know.”
After making food for the two, Nie Qiu personally brought it over to them and sat down to eat with them. Huang Yan ordered a bottle of peanut milk and ate with her mouth full of oil.
Peng Yu Yang was the same. Because his family was in the catering business, he was instilled with the viewpoint that roadside stalls were unhygienic from a young age, and he rarely ate at them. Therefore, for someone who usually eats shark fin and abalone, eating such snacks was a true delicacy. He also ate with joy and seriousness.
After Peng Yu Yang and Huang Yan left, Nie Qiu continued to help Nie Aifang watch the stall. Thinking of Huang Yan and Peng Yu Yang’s satisfied expressions when they left, Nie Qiu also smiled happily. It wasn’t just Huang Yan’s luck, was it? She felt that having friends like Huang Yan and Peng Yu Yang made her… very lucky too!
Nie Aifang saw Nie Qiu smiling happily and asked, “They’re your friends, aren’t they?”
Nie Qiu nodded with a smile. “Yes.” That’s right! They are her friends! Her most precious, most precious friends.
After returning home, freshening up, and lying on her bed, she took out the notebook a classmate had given her earlier and started writing her diary. She hoped to record every little detail of her life, so that when she was old, all the joys and sorrows, the happy smiles, the sad tears, all the bittersweet experiences, would be a memory.
After finishing her diary, Nie Qiu carefully put the notebook away.
Entering her space, Nie Qiu began to chatter to “Dao” about her happiness, what she had done today, and where she had gone with her friends. After finishing, Nie Qiu lay on the grassland and smiled, “Dao, you know? I never thought I’d have one or two really good friends.” It’s so fulfilling. It’s different from how Nie Aifang makes her feel. With friends, she feels like she can be unrestrained, playful, and have no secrets. Nie Aifang, on the other hand, gives her warmth.
The overflowing sense of beauty made Nie Qiu doubt if all of this was real, if it was just her imagination, or if even her coming back to life in this identity was a dream.
But if it were a dream, she hoped she would never wake up. This dream was too beautiful. She had a mom, she had friends… and a group of lovely classmates.
