Chapter 147 — The Long-Awaited...

"Yang Ce, can you eat spicy food?" Zhao Ying suddenly asked, pointing at a Sichuan restaurant not far ahead.

"Sure I can. That Anhui beef board noodle was so spicy, and I still ate it with relish." Yang Ce looked in the direction Zhao Ying was pointing and saw a Sichuan restaurant with decent decor and size. Several cars were parked in front of it—it looked fairly popular.

"Then let's go give it a try!" Zhao Ying nodded and said, "It's so cold. I want to eat something spicy."

"Sure, no problem." Yang Ce said, "Though it's a good thing you're not my girlfriend yet—otherwise we'd have a real problem on our hands."

"What do you mean by that?" Zhao Ying was baffled by his words. What did he mean, a good thing she was not his girlfriend yet? What was he getting at? Was he hinting that she was just a fling? But what did he mean by "a real problem"?

"Haha, the other day I was on a forum, and a guy there posted that his girlfriend absolutely loves spicy food, so they were always going to Sichuan restaurants. And every time they finished eating, he got to experience firsthand what it means to 'Burn, O Firebird!'" Yang Ce explained.

"Burn, O Firebird?" Zhao Ying clearly did not follow. "What does that have to do with 'Burn, O Firebird'?"

"'Bird,' you see, is slang for 'dick,'" Yang Ce said with a wicked chuckle. "So 'firebird' means—"

Zhao Ying was no innocent little girl. The moment Yang Cenbin said that, she understood at once what the forum post Yang Ce had mentioned was really getting at. Her face flushed crimson, and she said crossly, "Yang Ce, why is your head always full of such garbage?"

"It's not what I came up with—I was just speaking from experience." Yang Xugu spread his hands innocently. "That's what the brother on the forum said. What's it got to do with me?"

"Hmph." Zhao Ying gave a little snort. "Even if I were your girlfriend, I wouldn't do that sort of thing for you. Or—maybe I'll eat chili peppers every day. Hmph, hmph."

Yang Ce couldn't help but laugh out loud at the sight of her. In his heart he thought, a great mission like that had best be left to Wang Yanqiu—that girl was bolder, game for anything. As for Zhao Ying, well, she and Wang Yanqiu were thick as thieves; in time she could learn and compare notes. No need to rush these things.

The two of them went into the Sichuan restaurant together, and a waitress led them to a table for two. Business was roaring. Yang Ce had wanted a quieter spot, but now it looked like a seat at all was a stroke of luck. He counted himself fortunate to be a party of two—a group of four who had come before them still had no table.

"What would you two like to eat?" The waitress was a Sichuan girl, and she set the menus before Yang Ce and Zhao Ying with an easy friendliness.

Yang Jiyan pushed his menu over to Zhao Ying. "You order first. See if there's anything good."

The moment Zhao Ying and Yan came in, a man in a tracksuit at a nearby table fixed his eyes on them, his gaze alight with excitement and a venomous cunning.

Ha ha, and here I was just thinking about how to get back at this brat, and he waltzes right in the door, handing me a perfect opportunity. Truly, what you seek comes without effort.

To be continued

1017. Let Me Give You a Taste

Li Deding took out his phone, pretending to scroll through his contacts, and quickly snapped a whole string of photos of Yang Ce and Zhao Ying.

Ha ha, aren't you Wang Yanqiu's boyfriend? If I show these photos to Wang Yanqiu, the two of you are finished, I'd say. And on top of that, it hands me a perfectly legitimate excuse to get close to Wang Yanqiu.

Li Deding snickered twice and slipped the phone back into his pocket.

"Coach Li, what was that just now? What were you laughing at?" asked a female student sitting across from him.

"Nothing, just a text from a friend. Very funny," Li Deding said offhandedly.

"Oh, I see." The girl's voice turned coy. "Coach Li, when are you going to give me some more personal coaching? At the provincial games this time, I want to place. If I make the top three, I can get a recommendation to a sports college in the province."

"Heh heh, that all depends on how hard you train," Li Deding said with a lecherous smirk.

The girl was a woman of the world herself, and she caught on at once. She nodded and said, "Coach Li, then I'll come by your place in a bit. You can give me a little one-on-one coaching."

"Good, good," Li Deding said again and again.

The girl's looks were honestly nothing to write home about, but she was an athlete, and her figure was quite fine. Li Deding figured that once the lights were out, it all came to the same thing anyway.

Still, after all these years, the one Li Deding most wanted to get his hands on was Wang Yanqiu. But the girl seemed hopelessly oblivious to his advances. Li Deding told himself he would just have to redouble his efforts.

Zhao Ying ordered a boiled beef in chili oil, a shredded tofu skin in red oil, and a mapo tofu, then handed the menu to Yang Ce. "Yang Ce, I think that's about enough—three dishes for the two of us."

"Yeah, that's about right." Yang Ce flipped through the menu at random and handed it back to the waitress. Every dish Zhao Ying had picked was something he could eat—the sort of homestyle fare everyone liked.

He had expected the food to come slowly with the place so crowded, but to his surprise the dishes arrived not long after they ordered. It seemed everything Zhao Ying had chosen was a popular item here; the kitchen surely had all the ingredients prepped, needing only to toss them in the wok.

"Yang Ce, what do you think of this place?" Zhao Ying asked after a bite of the mapo tofu.

"Pretty good," Yang Ce said approvingly. "The flavor is fairly authentic. Looks like we've found a restaurant worth coming back to often."

The two of them ate about half before they could go no further, leaving most of it behind. Zhao Ying had the waitress pack it up to take away—she lived alone, after all, and it would do for tomorrow's meal. Besides, she had eaten it with Yan, so she didn't mind.

The two of them left the restaurant and walked off in the direction of the residential compound.

"Ying-jie, I remember you once said you were going to be my wife," Yang Ce said suddenly, turning his head to look at Zhao Ying with a smile.

"Ah?" Zhao Ying gave a start, then remembered that she had indeed said such a thing before. She hurried to explain: "But I meant—only if you couldn't find a wife. Now you've got more than one, so naturally that doesn't count anymore."

"Wrong." Yang Jiyan shook his head with great solemnity. "Those are girlfriends, not wives. So in the true sense of the word, I still don't have a wife. Ying-jie, aren't you going to make good on your promise?"

"I—" Zhao Ying was flustered. She hadn't expected Yang Ce to bring this up out of the blue, and she stood there frozen, not knowing how to answer.

"Ying-jie." Yang Ce suddenly reached out and took hold of Zhao Ying.

"Mm?" Zhao Ying started and tried to pull her hand free from Yang Juehuan's grip, only to find she was no match for his strength. In the end she gave up. It wasn't as if he hadn't held her hand before, she thought, and felt a little calmer.

"Ying-jie." Yang Ce tightened his grip on her small hand and called to her softly once more.

"What?" Zhao Ying felt her breathing quicken. Seeing Yang Ce looking straight at her like that, she grew flustered.

Yang Jiyan suddenly pulled Zhao Ying into his arms and kissed her tender, red lips. "Ah—" was the only meaningless sound that escaped Zhao Ying's mouth before she went still, completely sealed off by Yang Ce. A flicker of panic and confusion came into her eyes; her whole body went rigid, and her mind was left a complete blank. She had never imagined Yang Ce would be so bold as to kiss her right there on the street.