Chapter 52: A Trip Down Cringe Memory Lane
The meat sizzled on the grill, its aroma filling the air. Just as Ya Qing reached to grab a piece, Mobius's chopsticks darted out and snatched it away. She popped the piece of meat into her mouth without a second thought, seemingly forgetting it was fresh off the scalding hot grill.
"Hot, hot, hot..." Mobius frantically fanned her alluring red lips with her hand, unwilling to spit out the meat.
"Senior Mobius, the clumsy 'airhead' personality doesn't really suit you," Ya Qing chuckled, amused by the scene. Remembering Otto's teachings on etiquette, he gallantly handed her a glass of ice water.
Mobius took the glass and downed it in one go, feeling the stinging pain on her lips. She suspected a blister was already forming.
"And how would you know what my personality is?" Mobius stared into Ya Qing's eyes.
Ya Qing smiled faintly, picking up a piece of grilled meat. "Senior, our first meeting was about ten years ago, right? You were a sophomore, while I, Kevin, and Su were freshmen. I remember you even had the title of 'The Ice-Cold Campus Belle.'"
"Hah, 'ice-cold'?" Mobius scoffed. "Would you bother listening to the thoughts of beasts? It wasn't that I was cold; it was more that I couldn't be bothered to interact with them."
Suddenly, as if remembering something, Mobius couldn't suppress a giggle. "Speaking of our school days, I just remembered. You, Su, and Kevin—your little sidekick—they called you... what was it again? 'The Three Kings of Senba,' hahaha!"
"Senior, is it really a good idea for us to be digging up such cringey history?" The mere mention of that chuunibyou nickname made Ya Qing's skin crawl. He figured that back then, only Kevin would have been thrilled to call himself 'His Highness the Prince.'
"Weren't you the one who started it?" Mobius retorted, not giving an inch.
At a nearby table, Kevin and Mei watched the laughing pair with confusion. "What are they talking about that's so funny?" Kevin wondered. "We should have sat closer."
"I think I heard them talking about... 'The Three Kings of Senba'?!" Mei's expression turned strange. She was well aware that her boyfriend had been a severe case of chuunibyou in college. When others gave him the title 'Prince,' he had eagerly embraced it.
The mention of the embarrassing name made Kevin, now a corporate drone for five or six years whose chuuni tendencies had been worn away by life, feel a deep sense of discomfort. The memory of himself unironically calling himself 'Prince' was enough to make him physically ill.
"Why are they bringing that up now?" Kevin grumbled, stuffing his face with barbecue as if he could use gluttony to forget his cringey past.
"Maybe this is what modern dating is like? You talk about each other's embarrassing history?" Mei said, finding it hard to comprehend.
"That can't be normal. But..." Kevin paused, considering. "...for Ya Qing and Mobius, it somehow feels perfectly normal."
At that moment, both Ya Qing and Mobius sneezed. They both had the distinct feeling that someone was talking about them.
"So what are you thinking?" Mobius asked.
"Thinking about what?" Ya Qing dipped a piece of meat in sauce.
"About making an anime again. After that last show, The Saintess's Redemption, got zero ratings, you lost all confidence in your new script, didn't you?" Mobius blew on a hot piece of meat before placing it in her mouth.
"I swear, I was not the one who wrote the script for The Saintess's Redemption," Ya Qing said, gritting his teeth in frustration.
Thinking about it still made him furious. Right after graduation, Otto had called him back to be the scapegoat for that disaster. The failure had been used against him ever since, with the board of directors constantly citing it to reject his creative ideas.
"I figured as much. A story about Saintess Kallen could only have been written by President Otto," Mobius said. "So, you disappeared from the Far East without a word just to go back and take the fall for him, right?" At the time, she had actually believed the rumors that Ya Qing was in love with a married woman.
"So, this time, you're letting someone else take the fall?" Mobius glanced at the script's credits, which listed only 'Welt Yang' as the writer. She knew Ya Qing was making the same choice Otto had.
"This isn't a lack of confidence. It's the exact opposite. I have too much confidence in this script," Ya Qing said as a fruit platter arrived. He took a slice of watermelon to cut through the grease of the barbecue.
"It's precisely because I'm so confident in the script," Ya Qing said seriously, "that I'm afraid people will send me death threats. I could even see some radical fans trying to stab me in real life."
"Just what did you write at the end?" Seeing him so willing to give the credit to someone else, Mobius was growing curious.
"Nothing much. Just a story about a beautiful girl saving the world," Ya Qing said, adding more raw meat to the grill.
Mobius frowned. "You're not one of those NTR writers, are you?"
Ya Qing, who had just taken a sip of water, nearly sprayed it all over Mobius's face. He barely managed to hold it in. If he hadn't, he wouldn't have to wait for angry fans; Mobius would personally escort him to an operating table.
"How could you even think that?!" Ya Qing's feigned gentlemanly composure shattered as he stared at her, aghast.
"Well, what else could it be?" Mobius wiped her mouth with a napkin. "You say it's a story about a beautiful girl saving the world. Besides betrayal and cheating, I can't think of any other reason you'd be so afraid of fans trying to kill you."
"Hah, that stuff is a cancer. It shouldn't even exist in this world," Ya Qing muttered as he ate.
Mobius propped her chin on her hand, quietly watching him.
After they had finished all the meat on the grill, Ya Qing stood up to pay the bill, but Mobius stopped him.
"Don't move."
Ya Qing instinctively froze.
Mobius pulled out a napkin and gently wiped a smudge of sauce from the corner of his mouth.
From the next table, Kevin silently snapped another photo and sent it to Su.
[A Healer's Benevolence]: So... intimate?
Back at the Golden Courtyard, Su, who was having dinner with the others, was so shocked by the photo that his perpetually closed eyes snapped open.
"What's wrong, Su?" Pardofelis, sitting closest to him, was the first to ask, her curiosity piqued by his rare expression.
"It's nothing. Kevin just sent me a picture of a restaurant I've always wanted to go to," Su lied smoothly, his face a perfect mask of calm. It was a lie so blatant that not even Can would have believed it.
[COOL~]: I feel like they're even sweeter than Mei and I are. I have to say, even the dangerous Senior Mobius acts like a gentle maiden when she's in love.
[A Healer's Benevolence]: Kevin, you'd better not say that in front of Senior Mobius. Otherwise, you might end up just like Senior Klein.
[COOL~]: Of course not, I'm not an idiot. Anyway, they're leaving.
After paying the bill, Ya Qing and Mobius left the restaurant. This time, they took the elevator straight down to the basement parking. Mobius settled into the passenger seat of the McLaren.
"So, Senior, where to next?" Ya Qing asked, one hand on the steering wheel while the other took out his phone. "World Serpent, or back to the Courtyard?"
"Let's go to World Serpent. I still have experiments to run. But first, we need to go to..."
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