Chapter 13: The Warmth of a Bowl of Noodles

The steamy air in the noodle shop, combined with the owner's overly enthusiastic voice, instantly made the atmosphere awkward and suffocating.

“All right! Buy one, get one free today! Two bowls of noodles for the price of one for these two students!”

To Xu Yuan, the owner’s smile felt like a public execution. She wished she could just disappear on the spot. She could feel her cheeks, already flushed from running around and nervousness, burning so hot it seemed they might bleed.

She instinctively glanced at Jiang Yi, bracing herself for his expected cold mockery.

But Jiang Yi remained silent.

His face, always shrouded in a perpetual frost, showed no expression. Yet, from his slightly pursed, colorless lips, Xu Yuan sensed a rare trace of unease.

He neither coldly pulled out money for two bowls of noodles to assert his unyielding pride, nor did he turn and walk away.

He simply stood there quietly, like a high-performance processor rapidly analyzing this utterly illogical and painfully awkward situation before him.

At last, just a second before the owner placed two steaming bowls on the table, he moved.

Instead of sitting opposite Xu Yuan, he chose a more distant corner, separated by the table between them.

With this action, silently yet unmistakably, he drew a clear boundary—for the enthusiastic owner and for Xu Yuan alike.

We are not close.

Xu Yuan’s heart felt a gentle prick, a faint, prickling pain. But more than that, there was an indescribable sense of relief, a loosening of tension.

That was good.

This was for the best.

The owner approached with the noodles, his smile faltering for a moment when he saw the distance between the two as if divided by an invisible chasm. Then, with an “I understand, lovers’ quarrel” look, he knowingly placed the two bowls in front of them separately.

“Student, here’s your clear broth noodles,” he said to Xu Yuan.

“Handsome guy, this is yours,” he said to Jiang Yi.

Then, smiling cheerfully, he returned to the cash register, quietly satisfied.

Xu Yuan buried her face deeply into the bowl, letting the rising steam hide the embarrassment on her face.

The noodles smelled delicious—simple and familiar. The broth was light, the noodles firm, with a few pieces of green vegetable scattered on top. At five yuan a bowl, it was the cheapest warmth she could find in this bustling city.

She lifted a strand of noodle with her chopsticks but hesitated before bringing it to her lips.

Unable to resist, she glanced sideways toward that distant corner.

Jiang Yi was quietly eating too.

His manner of eating was graceful, almost elegant. Unlike other boys who devoured their food, he took small, deliberate bites, slow and focused, as if conducting a precise scientific experiment.

His long fingers, usually tapping out code and creating worlds, now held a pair of ordinary wooden chopsticks, even a bit worn.

Sunlight filtered through the greasy glass window of the noodle shop, resting on his lowered eyelashes, softening the sharp contours of his cold profile.

Xu Yuan suddenly felt that the scene before her was somewhat unreal.

The boy who had been shamelessly humiliated in the library yet remained as calm as a rock; the boy who had lost control in the karaoke room, radiating an aura of destruction because of her humiliation; the boy who had awkwardly treated her wounds in a dark alley, using money stained with mud to buy medicine for her...

And now, here they were, sitting in the same humble noodle shop, eating the same five-yuan clear broth noodles.

They were so different, yet at this moment, bound by the same poverty and awkwardness, they reached a strange, tacit harmony.

Just then, Jiang Yi seemed to notice her gaze and slowly raised his head.

Their eyes met.

His gaze was as deep as ever—like a midnight sea after a storm, calm yet surging with hidden currents.

Xu Yuan’s heart skipped a beat, like a thief caught red-handed, and she immediately withdrew her eyes, lowering her head to pretend to focus on the noodles.

She could feel his gaze lingering above her head for a full five seconds.

Then, she heard the faint sound of a chair scraping from across the table.

He was finished eating.

He was about to leave.

An inexplicable wave of loss welled up in Xu Yuan’s heart.

She kept her head down, unwilling to look at him.

A shadow loomed over her table.

He approached.

Xu Yuan nervously clenched her chopsticks, her heart pounding in her throat. What did he want?

Yet Jiang Yi did nothing.

He only took out some crumpled, warm bills from his pocket and gently placed them at the corner of her table.

Not too much, not too little—exactly five yuan.

Without a word, he turned, pushed open the door, and walked out.

Xu Yuan stared blankly at the five yuan on the table, then at his solitary figure disappearing through the doorway. It took her a long moment to realize.

That was... the money for his bowl of noodles.

The owner had said buy one, get one free, but Jiang Yi had stubbornly and unmistakably accounted for this bowl of noodles in this way.

We have only a business relationship.

Between us, no debts are owed.

Looking at the five yuan, Xu Yuan felt as if it were a branding iron burning her eyes with a sharp sting.

...

At five in the afternoon, Xu Yuan appeared punctually at her dormitory desk and opened her battered secondhand laptop.

The HR of Nebula Technology had already sent her, via email, the testing tasks and related software she needed to complete today.

The task was not difficult; it mainly involved testing a newly developed social app for compatibility and smoothness on different devices, recording every possible bug.

For a journalism student, this job was somewhat dull but simple, with flexible hours and daily pay.

Xu Yuan took a deep breath, pushed all the chaotic emotions aside, put on her headphones, and threw herself wholeheartedly into the work.

She needed money.

More than ever, she needed money.

Time flew by with each click, swipe, and record.

When she finally completed the last testing process and sent the detailed report to the designated mailbox, the sky outside was already sprinkled with stars.

She glanced at the time—ten at night.

She hadn’t moved for five whole hours.

She massaged her stiff neck and exhaled deeply.

Almost simultaneously with sending the report, her phone chimed—a transfer notification.

[Your savings account ending in 6772 received a transfer at 22:01: 750.00 yuan.]

Seven hundred and fifty yuan.

Staring at the number, Xu Yuan’s eyes uncontrollably moistened once again.

This was money she had earned through her own effort.

It was her lifeline in this cold city.

She was staring at the phone screen, torn between tears and laughter, when her best friend Lin Feifei’s head suddenly appeared from the upper bunk.

“Well, well, our great talent Xu Yuan, what are you doing? Smiling at that broken phone like a silly goose.”

“Feifei!” Xu Yuan quickly wiped away the moisture from her eyes and looked up.

“Cut it out,” Lin Feifei jumped down from the bed, snatched the phone, saw the transfer notification, and immediately let out an exaggerated gasp. “No way! Seven-fifty? What did you do, rob a bank?”

“No, no,” Xu Yuan laughed as she reclaimed the phone. “It’s the pay from the online part-time job I found today.”

“Online part-time? What kind of job pays that well?” Lin Feifei was curious.

“Just... software testing,” Xu Yuan explained vaguely.

“Software testing?” Lin Feifei frowned. “A journalism student doing software testing? Are you sure you’re not getting scammed?”

“No, no,” Xu Yuan shook her head. “It’s... Jiang Yi who introduced me.”

“Jiang Yi?!” Lin Feifei’s voice shot up eight notes, as if the whole dormitory could hear her. “Again with him? Xu Yuan, be honest—what’s going on between you two? How come he’s so good to you, even helping you find a job?”

“We really just have a business relationship...” Xu Yuan’s voice grew quieter, and even she felt it was unconvincing.

“Yeah, right!” Lin Feifei crossed her arms like a cop interrogating a suspect, pacing around her twice. “Always defending you, helping you out, introducing jobs... I’m telling you, that guy definitely likes you!”

Xu Yuan’s heart involuntarily skipped a beat at her words.

“Impossible,” she denied immediately. “Someone like him...”

She wanted to say that someone like him was like an iceberg, like a rock—how could he possibly have feelings for anyone?

“What about someone like him?” Lin Feifei interrupted, wearing an “I’ve seen through it all” expression. “Listen, Jiang Yi’s that cold-on-the-surface but warm-inside tsundere type. If he really hated you, he wouldn’t give you the time of day, let alone help you. The fact he’s helping you now means only one thing—”

“He’s interested in you!”

Just then, Xu Yuan’s phone, its screen cracked and barely holding together, buzzed unpredictably.

It was an unfamiliar number, from out of town.

Puzzled, Xu Yuan answered and turned on speakerphone.

“Hello,” came a cool, professional female voice, tinged with undeniable fatigue.

“May I speak to Xu Yuan, please?”

“This is she. Who’s this?”

“I’m Jiang Yi’s sister, Jiang Wan.”

Jiang Yi’s... sister?

Xu Yuan and Lin Feifei exchanged a shocked glance.

On the other end, Jiang Wan spoke in an official yet pleading tone:

“My father’s case is scheduled for trial next Wednesday. I know this is sudden, but... I hope you can accompany Jiang Yi then.”

“Because I’m afraid he won’t be able to handle it alone.”