At dinnertime in the internet café, Tu Nan sat in front of a small square table. A few proper dishes were arranged neatly on it, all freshly picked up by Fang Ruan from the most popular restaurant in town.
Some of the customers online caught the scent and couldn't help craning their necks for a better look.
"Eat more," Fang Ruan said from across the table, occasionally putting food into her bowl.
Tu Nan said, "You should go home. If you keep camping out here day and night just to play games, your mom will come inspect again, and I'll have to run for my life."
"I'm going, I'm going," Fang Ruan said, setting down his chopsticks and leaning in eagerly. "Then after I leave, can you think about that suggestion again?"
Of course. He wouldn't be this attentive without wanting something.
Tu Nan speared a piece of drunken chicken with her chopsticks, unmoved.
"Just think about it again," Fang Ruan said, holding up four fingers and wiggling them.
Forty thousand…
Just then, the bell above the door chimed crisply.
Tu Nan seized the chance to cut him off. "A customer's here. Stop talking and go."
Fang Ruan stood and shuffled a couple steps, putting on a world-weary sigh. "You've stayed around those lofty masters too long, Tu Nan. Listen to me. Money really is important."
"…"
A low voice suddenly picked up his words. "That's actually pretty true."
Tu Nan looked up with a deadpan expression and saw who was standing by the counter.
For a second, she thought she must be seeing things.
Fang Ruan looked surprised too. "Yo. What are you doing here?"
Shi Qinglin stood there with his hands tucked in, looking crisp and composed. "Obviously, I'm here to use the internet."
"A returnee comes to an internet café to go online?"
Shi Qinglin smiled. "What, do you refuse service to returnees?"
"No, not that." Fang Ruan spoke while glancing toward the entrance. Other than the man beside Shi Qinglin, no one else had come in.
Shi Qinglin said, "Stop looking. It's just the two of us."
So An Pei wasn't here.
Fang Ruan's disappointment showed. He went behind the counter and clicked around to open machines, then held out his hand.
"ID card."
"You need an ID card?" Shi Qinglin looked like he was hearing this for the first time.
Xue Cheng had already taken out his ID and handed it over. He gave Shi Qinglin a teasing pat. "Don't tell me you didn't bring yours."
"Yeah." Shi Qinglin had been out of the country for so long; how would he know you needed an ID just to go online?
"My fault. I should've reminded you," Xue Cheng said, then asked Fang Ruan, "Can we use one ID for both of us?"
Fang Ruan replied with professional firmness. "Nope. That's police regulation. If you really can't, you can borrow someone's."
Borrow from who?
Shi Qinglin's gaze shifted.
Tu Nan had already accepted that Shi Qinglin was the kind of returnee who didn't do things the usual way. If he could take time out of his schedule to visit a temple, showing up at an internet café wasn't exactly shocking.
Not her business anyway.
She picked up a peanut and was about to eat it when she felt something and looked up straight into his eyes.
"Tu Nan?" Shi Qinglin called her, meaning more than he said.
Tu Nan stared back, unmoving.
In that split second, it was as if his eyes carried the long night when she'd faced off with a drunk, the Guanyin Hall door blocked by protective netting, and the blazing noon when she'd hidden by his car.
Her hand jerked. The peanut dropped.
She set down her chopsticks, pulled her ID from her pocket, and handed it to Fang Ruan.
"Use mine."
Shi Qinglin smiled faintly. "Thanks."
Fang Ruan shot Tu Nan a strange look. Rare, really. She could be kind when she wanted.
Once everything was done, Shi Qinglin and Xue Cheng went inside one after the other to find seats.
Fang Ruan put on a face of reluctant farewell again. "Alright, now I'm really leaving. You should really…"
Tu Nan suddenly gave him a cold look.
Fang Ruan clamped his mouth shut at once, patted his lips, and headed for the door.
After all these years, he knew Tu Nan's temper well. Small things could be worn down with talk, but if he stepped on her line, she became stubborn to the point of terrifying. If he said more now, it would not end well.
He had barely left when the service call at the counter started ringing.
Tu Nan hadn't paid attention at first. After it rang several times with no response, she remembered the cashier girl was on the day shift and Fang Ruan had just left. That meant the only one in charge now was her.
She checked the seat number and walked over.
Near a tall floor-to-ceiling window sat several wide sofa chairs. From a few meters away she could already see Shi Qinglin sitting there, long legs crossed, framed by streetlights outside.
Tu Nan asked, "What is it?"
"To start the computer, I need the ID number," Shi Qinglin said, pointing at the screen, still on the login page.
Tu Nan had forgotten that part. She leaned over and typed the digits on his keyboard.
Shi Qinglin, mindful of privacy, turned his body slightly away. By accident, his eyes swept over the hand she had resting on the chair back.
Her fingers were long and slim, but not the soft pale hands most young women had. Near the nails there were even faint lines and roughness.
Was being an internet café administrator really that hard?
"Done," Tu Nan said, withdrawing her hand.
She straightened, glanced at him, and returned to the counter.
Beside him, Xue Cheng chuckled. "You know a pretty wide range of people. Even the internet café girl."
Shi Qinglin adjusted his posture and used one hand to click open the Sword Soars to Heaven icon.
"Met her by chance."
Sword Soars to Heaven focused on combat. There were several arenas in the game. After each match, players were sent to a different location. By the time they'd rotated through them all, it was already late.
Another round ended. Xue Cheng pushed away the mouse with a sigh.
"Still can't beat you. Didn't you say you don't play?"
Shi Qinglin flexed his fingers and laughed softly. "Can't help it. I'm just gifted."
Xue Cheng nodded. "That, I believe. Otherwise we probably wouldn't even have the you we have now."
Back when Shi Qinglin was studying in the U.S., something happened and his family cut off his tuition. He'd almost been forced to drop out.
Xue Cheng had been studying in Canada at the time and was practically ready to fly over to help him out. But before he could, he heard Shi Qinglin had paid the tuition himself with prize money from gaming.
The point was, Shi Qinglin hadn't even played that game for long. He'd thought it wasn't particularly fun. He'd done it purely for the money.
Sometimes you had to admit it: some people were simply geniuses in certain ways.
Shi Qinglin seemed to remember it too, a faint smile tugging at his mouth.
"Uh…" A voice suddenly popped up behind them.
They both turned and saw a high-school-aged boy standing behind their sofa chairs, pointing at their screen.
"Um, what server are you on? I play Sword Soars to Heaven too, but it feels like what you're playing isn't the same as mine."
Shi Qinglin said, "Closed beta server."
"Closed beta?" The boy stared. "Isn't that only for internal staff?"
"Yeah," Shi Qinglin said calmly. "I spent a lot of money to buy access."
"Oh… that explains it…" The boy backed off awkwardly and left.
Shi Qinglin and Xue Cheng looked at each other, barely holding in their laughter.
"Let's take a break," Xue Cheng said, leaning back.
They'd eaten together before coming here and had a couple drinks. The alcohol was hitting him now. He pulled out a cigarette from his pocket, rolled it between his fingers, and offered it to Shi Qinglin.
Shi Qinglin took it and lazily held it between his lips.
He wasn't a smoker. He didn't usually smoke, and he never carried cigarettes. Everyone who knew him knew that.
Xue Cheng included.
As Xue Cheng flicked a lighter and lit it for him, he said, "I heard there are two kinds of people you should never mess with. Women who successfully lose weight, and men who successfully quit smoking. Because those people are ruthless. But I think that's wrong. People like you are the scariest. Someone who can control even nicotine cravings at will."
Shi Qinglin exhaled a stream of smoke and tapped the cigarette-holding fingers lightly against the bridge of his nose.
"That's called self-control. A lot of things can't be done without it."
"You've already done a lot," Xue Cheng said, pointing at the game on the screen. "Like this. This game is this successful because of you."
"Is it?" Shi Qinglin flicked ash and shook his head. "Still far from it."
"You mean that project?"
"Mm."
Xue Cheng dragged his chair closer, sitting up straighter, his expression turning meaningful.
"Funny coincidence. The reason I came today was exactly because of that project."
He expected Shi Qinglin to be surprised, but Shi Qinglin only smiled faintly.
"I already knew. Otherwise what do you think I'm doing, letting you into the closed beta just because you're my brother?"
Xue Cheng blinked, then laughed. "Nothing gets past you."
Shi Qinglin said, "The day I went out to Ling Tan Temple, the investors called to rush the project. They mentioned the name Xue Cheng. I knew it had to be you."
Xue Cheng clasped his hands at him repeatedly. "I'm impressed. I'm impressed."
"Don't be so polite. You're the investor's representative. I should be polite to you."
"Then can you go easy on me next round?"
"No," Shi Qinglin said. "The project's core problem still isn't solved. I'm not in the mood to go easy on you." He stubbed out the cigarette and stood. "But I can buy you a drink. Consider it a celebration of our first collaboration."
Behind the counter, a kettle was bubbling, heating water.
Tu Nan sat on a stool, one hand pressed to her lower abdomen.
So much for having good luck with food. She ate something decent and her stomach immediately acted up. Maybe her usual meals were too light. She wasn't used to rich food.
Maybe mural copyists were born with commoner fates, unable to enjoy luxury.
The water boiled. She took the tea tin and started to make tea.
As she stuffed herbal leaves into a cup, a shadow fell over her. She looked up.
Shi Qinglin had sat down on the other side of the counter.
"Need something?"
Shi Qinglin paused. That didn't sound like something an internet café attendant would say. The proper line should've been, What service do you need?
He almost laughed. "If I'm here, what else would it be besides buying something?"
Tu Nan caught herself. She poured hot water into her cup, then asked again, "Then what do you want?"
Her service spirit was lacking. She'd clearly been doing her own thing first. Shi Qinglin noted that silently, then picked up the menu on the counter. No alcohol, only drinks.
He skimmed it and said, "Coffee."
Without another word, Tu Nan took a coffee cup from the sterilizer.
Shi Qinglin's gaze moved from the announcement on the glass door to the Sword Soars to Heaven poster on the wall. After a while, he realized he still hadn't heard the coffee machine.
He turned and saw Tu Nan standing sideways in front of it, motionless.
He suddenly noticed how thin she was. From the side, her chin was narrow and sharp. The line of her neck looked too soft under the light. Beneath her lowered lashes, the shadow was deep and heavy.
He watched for a moment before asking, "What are you doing?"
Tu Nan looked at him, her expression conflicted. "How about you do it yourself?"
"…." Shi Qinglin licked the inside of his cheek, forcing down the amusement at his lips. "You don't know how to use the coffee machine?"
"Mm." She hardly ever drank coffee, and it wasn't in her skill set.
Shi Qinglin nodded, understanding, then shook his head. "No. I'm the customer. I'm paying. There's no reason for me to make it. You're the manager here, the one providing service."
"I told you, I'm still new."
"Then you should've been trained before starting." Shi Qinglin thought of Fang Ruan and suddenly understood. "Did you get hired through connections?"
"…." Tu Nan raised a brow.
Yes. Exactly. Through connections.
At this point, she almost wanted to refuse the sale. Maybe she should've kept Fang Ruan here after all.
Shi Qinglin suddenly pointed. "What were you brewing?"
Tu Nan glanced down. The herbal tea in her glass had fully unfurled in the hot water, releasing a pale greenish tint and a clean fragrance.
"Lover's grass tea."
"Lover's grass?"
"Just an herbal tea."
It had been given to her by Xu Huai. His hometown produced this kind of herb tea. He'd brought some for every team member, and he'd given her extra because she was going alone to copy that mural in the cave.
Shi Qinglin asked, "How much?"
Tu Nan said, "It's not the café's. It's mine."
Shi Qinglin nodded. "So? How much?"
"…." He had her almost speechless. She blurted out, "Fifty."
Shi Qinglin smiled. "That's robbery." After a pause, he added, "No. It's charging an acquaintance extra."
Tu Nan kept her face perfectly neutral.
Shi Qinglin pulled out his wallet and placed a hundred on the counter.
"Two cups. Deliver them to my seat."