Chapter 210: Malatang

Ye Qingchang walked down the street, staring at Xiao Yi’an with a suspicious look on her face.

It was a bit too strange. It was as if he had become a completely different person, yet that sense of gloom still seemed to linger around him. Walking with him now, the focus of attention had shifted from Ye Qingchang to Xiao Yi’an. He even looked a bit ethereal.

“Do the articles you write actually get posted online?” Ye Qingchang asked.

“Yes, I’m somewhat famous, but it’s probably just a niche following,” Xiao Yi’an said as they walked. “Most people who read my books are as gloomy and damp as I am. They want to receive love for no reason without wanting to change, so they’re mostly looking for someone to resonate with.”

Ye Qingchang was stunned. She hadn’t expected Xiao Yi’an’s self-assessment to be so sharp.

“Won’t writing characters like that get you criticized for being cowardly?”

“I’m always being criticized, but there are so many people who relate to it, which makes the criticism even harsher.” Xiao Yi’an shrugged. “After all, as long as someone has even a bit of sense, they wouldn’t tolerate such a person getting a perfect life.”

“They really shouldn’t,” Ye Qingchang commented.

“It’s a pity I couldn’t come up with stories about high-spirited people before, so the only things I could write about were losers. Even when they received kindness for no reason, I would always think of you — why were you so nice to me back then for no reason?”

Xiao Yi’an’s tone was flat, as if he wasn’t telling his own story. “Later, I figured it out. It was just pity. Like a wealthy man who always gives a beggar two coins, and then one day stops. The beggar has no right to ask him for the two coins that never belonged to him in the first place.”

Listening to Xiao Yi’an’s speech, Ye Qingchang felt increasingly uneasy.

“Are you hiding something from me?”

‘Like the possibility that he’s actually an Oscar winner and everything before was just an act for my benefit.’

“I am hiding something from you.” A hint of surprise crossed Xiao Yi’an’s face. “I didn’t expect you to be able to tell.”

Ye Qingchang breathed a sigh of relief.

Then she saw Xiao Yi’an pull out the staff ID he had shown her for only a brief moment earlier. The photo and name on it were indeed his.

“Actually, I’m a staff member for this area. I joined the Student Union, but students in charge of maintaining order aren’t allowed to participate in club recruitment, so I’ve been breaking the rules this whole time.” Xiao Yi’an waited quietly for Ye Qingchang to examine the ID card.

“Well, you really are an outlaw.” Ye Qingchang’s lips twitched. This wasn’t the answer she had expected.

“Is there anything special you want to eat today?” Xiao Yi’an handed the parasol to Ye Qingchang while he stood outside its shade.

“Anything is fine, I’m not that hungry.” Ye Qingchang took the parasol. “Are you overestimating my fragility? This is the autumn sun, not the summer sun.”

Xiao Yi’an simply glanced back at Ye Qingchang and then pointed toward the vast, shadeless expanse of open ground ahead. The asphalt road, illuminated by the sunlight, even reflected light slightly, making it somewhat blinding.

For a dark-room vampire like Ye Qingchang, this was a bit too intense. Just by stretching out one finger, she felt a burning sensation. Yet Xiao Yi’an clearly didn’t feel the same way. It was as if he had suddenly become a light-walker, while she was still a vampire crawling in the shadows. Or perhaps a rat in the sewer.

This made her a bit annoyed, but she opened the parasol anyway.

There was a break during the noon club recruitment event, as time had to be set aside for lunch. However, if someone insisted on continuing recruitment without eating, that was another matter. At least Xiao Yi’an didn’t plan on that. He felt that the dozens of people he had lured in were enough.

“Let’s have Malatang then.”

“Sure.”

Ye Qingchang didn’t refuse. She had intended to just slack off, but Xiao Yi’an had dragged her along to work for half the morning. Since he offered to treat her to lunch, she would eat without hesitation.

A steaming bowl of 17 yuan Malatang was served in front of Xiao Yi’an and Ye Qingchang.

“The items you picked are quite heavy. Your 17 yuan bowl is almost half the volume of my 25 yuan one,” Xiao Yi’an commented briefly. “When eating this stuff, it’s best to use the tongs to squeeze out all the moisture. You should avoid the water-absorbing or frozen ones.”

“I just wanted to spend more of your money.”

“Oh.” Xiao Yi’an fell silent for a moment. “That’s fine then. Eat more, you’re skin and bones.”

Ye Qingchang lowered her head to pick up one beef ball and stuffed it into her mouth, then looked up at Xiao Yi’an, who seemed unbothered. “Don’t you feel wronged?”

“Wronged about what?” Xiao Yi’an stopped.

“You didn’t have to do any of this.”

Xiao Yi’an put down his chopsticks entirely. “It doesn’t work like that. Just like you said before, neither of us did anything wrong, and we don’t owe each other anything. But now that I’m reflecting and changing, once I have your forgiveness, my mistakes can vanish into thin air and be ignored. Then, the only one at fault will be you.”

Ye Qingchang was stunned.

Xiao Yi’an continued, “But if I don’t succeed, then it’ll be just like you said before — we’re both at fault, yet neither of us is at fault. We’ll be even, and then we’ll go our separate ways and live our own lives, except I will definitely never forget you.”

“So…” Ye Qingchang began to understand. “You’re actively changing yourself and showing me care because you want me to forgive you, so that it’ll be my turn to seek forgiveness from you? Is that what you’re looking forward to?”

“That’s part of the reason. Being deceived by you twice in a row made me quite angry, after all.” Xiao Yi’an picked up his chopsticks and stirred the Malatang in his bowl. “As for the other reason… I can’t keep living in a daze like I did before, always begging for unmerited love to fall upon me when I have no qualities of my own. That was never right to begin with, so I had to make a change.”

“Hearing words like that from you feels quite strange.” Ye Qingchang lowered her head to eat. “You said before that the Literature Club left something for me. What is it?”

“Are you planning to go take a look?”

“I won’t have a chance later. After this, I won’t be part of the Literature Club anymore, so it’ll probably be difficult to even get into the activity room,” Ye Qingchang said.

“Then let’s finish eating.” Xiao Yi’an glanced at the sun outside. “Once we’re done, we’ll head over to the club room for a look. I’ll go with you.”