"Still wanna sleep with me?"
Su Bai coughed and continued as if nothing had ever happened:
"Do you prefer dry dish or oil dish?"
A dry dish referred to dry pepper powder, while an oil one was fried pepper sauce. Normally, most restaurants would let their customers choose which kind of seasoning they wanted. Spicy food was not a custom or a fashion, but a lifestyle.
"Dry."
"Okay. Sir, another dry dish, please!" Su Bai shouted to the owner nearby.
"Aye!"
The owner immediately came with seasoning and a new set of cup, bowl, dishes and chopsticks.
"Beer?"
Litchi shook her head.
Su Bai opened a beer for himself and took a gulp. If this lady wasn't sitting in front of him, maybe Su Bai would be quietly enjoying this casual time with a beer after a story world. But she was sitting there looking completely normal and extremely beautiful. However, Su Bai was under a kind of pressure that only someone who knew about Litchi's real identity could feel, and he was not feeling very well about that.
The red soup was boiling. Su Bai put in some sticked food and started boiling while Litchi just sat there without moving a muscle. Su Bai felt as if he had become a servant. Other people might be happy to serve such a beauty, but Su Bai wouldn't lose his mind so easily. Though he wasn't valued in his family, he was one of Su people after all, and his parents had left a great fortune after they died. Therefore Su Bai was a real playboy, and he never cared too much about beauty which others might desire. Some of his friends used to invite Su Bai to philander with young film stars or other pretty girls, but he was not interested at all.
"You're not happy to have meal with me, are you?" Litchi said.
"Sort of." Su Bai nodded honestly. He now knew a little about Litchi's temper, she wouldn't be mad about trifles like this.
"Then get used to it." Litchi said.
"Yeah." Su Bai paused. "Em, what?"
Litchi didn't repeat. She just picked up a stick of lettuce from the pot, dipped in her seasoning dish and put it into her mouth. Her moves were delicate and elegant. This was a lady that could integrate elegance into her bones. She wasn't acting, but everything she did was so charming.
Su Bai didn't keep asking what that was supposed to mean. Seeing that the food was ready, he started to fill his stomach.
After half an hour, the table between them was covered with sticks. Su Bai had only ordered enough food for himself, but now there was one more person, and she wasn't eating any less— even though Litchi was eating slowly and elegantly, she was indeed eating all the time. Therefore, Su Bai was… still hungry.
And he believed that Litchi was still hungry as well. So he had to get more food and continue boiling.
"Porcine brain?" Su Bai asked.
"Yep." Litchi answered straightforwardly.
"With sauce?"
"Yep." Still straightforwardly.
Su Bai put some porcine brain in a small bowl, added in sesame oil, salt, MSG[1] and a spoon of smashed garlic, stirred it nicely and then put it in front of Litchi.
Litchi kept eating while Su Bai was eating. When Su Bai was full and dropped his chopsticks, Litchi also put down hers. Su Bai felt as if Litchi was still longing for more, but he was too embarrassed to ask if she hadn't had enough.
"Sir, I'll pay our bill." Su Bai called the owner.
And the owner came to count their sticks.
Just then, Lucky gradually woke up, climbed up onto the chair, sat there and looked at Su Bai.
Su Bai was not willing to look at this cat ever again. The first time he met Lucky, he saw a horrible image of dead bodies and blood only because he and the cat had looked at each other. For any normal man or even an abnormal man, that image would bring great tension.
He paid the bill and stood up.
"We..."
Su Bai was suggesting: dinner was over, it was the time for them to say goodbye.
Litchi also stood up. Lucky followed her.
Watching Litchi walking into the distance, Su Bai suddenly felt a little upset. He took out a cigarette and lit it. Honestly, Su Bai had been holding back his desire to smoke for quite some time. He liked to smoke when eating spicy food, just to alleviate his thrill. But with Litchi around, Su Bai didn't help himself so as to show his respect to a lady.
Finally, Litchi and Lucky disappeared at the dark corner of a street lamp. Su Bai finished smoking, tossed the cigarette butt on to the ground, stepped on it and was ready to leave.
Just then, Su Bai's phone rang. He took out and saw that it was a message from Litchi.
"Don't go home tonight."
Su Bai smiled. Was that an invitation to her place?
Of course, Su Bai wouldn't dare to answer like that. He just replied with a "?".
But there was no more reply to that.
Su Bai shook his head. Now he couldn't go back to his place. Litchi wouldn't do anything randomly. Last time, Litchi had told him to watch out for people like himself, then it turned out that Director Zhou, who was also an experiencer like him, was actually the most terrible person in that story world. Now she came from nowhere, had a meal with him and left a message like that, it couldn't be just a joke.
He could know from Ego's response when he heard Litchi's name that Litchi was even more powerful among players than Su Bai had imagined.
Since he couldn't get back right now, he'd better get a room.
Feeling a little absurd, Su Bai came to the home inn opposite to the housing estate where his home was. He got a room, went inside and took a bath. Then he turned the TV on and lay down on the bed.
Soon, he felt that he could use a sound sleep, so he turned the TV off, pulled up his quilt to cover his belly and fell asleep.
"Ring! Ring!"
It was his cellphone. It kept ringing for so long that he had to stretch out his hand and answer that.
"Yeah…" Su Bai murmured weakly.
"Bai, it's Nine. I'm here with your goods."
"Oh, Nine. Where are you now?"
"At your door. Where are you? Not home?"
"I'm coming back right now."
Su Bai got up, put on a coat and walked out of the room. When he arrived at the first floor and went out of the hotel, a chilly night breeze passed over his face. He suddenly woke up from dizziness and sleepiness. He quietly took out his cellphone and entered WeChat. Litchi's message was still there:
"Don't go home tonight."
Su Bai frowned and re-dialed Nine's phone number. But from the cellphone, there came a voice: "Sorry, the number you dialed is powered off."
Su Bai hung up and hesitated for a while. These things were too coincidental. According to his experience from last time, he trusted Litchi, but Nine…
Nine was always like a senior family since Su Bai was a kid. He could remember that when he was young and his parents were still alive, Nine enjoyed lifting him up, putting him on his shoulders and playing with him.
But he didn't hurry home. Instead, he sent a video call request to Litchi on WeChat.
However, to Su Bai's surprise, the video call was picked up pretty soon. But it wasn't Litchi that showed up in the screen but a black cat. It was Lucky.
"......"
Looking at the black cat, Su Bai became tongue tied. But he knew that Lucky could understand human language, so he just asked:
"A relative came to my place. Can I go back and pick him up?"
"Meow." Lucky said.
"......" Su Bai.
Lucky shook his head, still indifferent, but it moved the cellphone a little to show Su Bai a fine bed with no one on it. Lucky stretched out his paw and waved in front of the camera.
"Litchi's not home?" Su Bai asked.
"Meow." Lucky nodded.
Su Bai took a deep breath. He had no choice but hang up. But he had to get Nine anyway.
Just then, a car stopped in front of Su Bai. The window was rolled down, and Nine's face showed up.
"Hey, why are you staying in a hotel when you've already got a house? What, your place's not ready yet? Never mind. Hop in. I'm starving, let's go find some food first. Damn it, I bought a power bank, but it doesn't work, and now my phone's dead."
Su Bai release a long breath and got in the car.
Nine shifted the gear and the car went on.
"How was your trip?" Su Bai asked.
"Pretty good. It's not as serious as the customs inspection." Nine picked up a packet of cigarettes and passed one to Su Bai.
Su Bai took it and lit it for himself. Then he noticed that Nine seemed to have trouble finding his own lighter, so he immediately offered:
"Allow me."
Su Bai moved his lighter closer to him. Nine smiled, nodded and approached with the cigarette in his mouth. Su Bai started the flames.
Just then, the car shook.
The flame burned Nine's finger. Su Bai subconsciously wanted to move the lighter away, but suddenly, he thought of Litchi's message and slowed down a little.
The car was still moving and shaking because it was a bumpy path.
But Su Bai managed to keep the flames burning Nine's finger.
However, Nine…
… seemed to have felt nothing.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] MSG: Monosodium Glutamate, a kind of seasoning.