Chapter Thirty-Five: Sharing a Meal with Zhang Liying (Part One)

Wei Xiaofan, it’s true that people have their pride, but pride can sometimes bring trouble if it becomes too strong! Everything has a positive and negative side; used properly, it brings benefits, but if misused, it leads only to disadvantage. So, when relying on your pride, you have to weigh all possible gains and losses. Take us, for example: now that we’ve become good friends and are practically old companions—in my heart, you already are! Since we’re going to share good times and hard times together, you shouldn’t worry so much about who pays more or less when we eat together. If you care too much, it might make one of us unhappy. Can you do that?

Wei Xiaofan gazed sincerely at Wei Xiaoping, and in Wei Xiaoping’s eyes, he saw the same honest look reflected back.

After a moment, Wei Xiaofan smiled gently and said, “Then from now on, when we eat together, whoever has money pays first, or whoever has more pays a bit more. That, I can accept. If you want me not to pay at all, I just can’t do it!”

Wei Xiaoping thought, “In the end, you still insist on paying! That’s fine; after all, not paying anything doesn’t sit well with anyone.”

“Alright, we’ll do it that way! But I still think I should pay a bit more. My father runs a business and my mother has a steady salary, so our family income is more stable. To ease Uncle’s burden, I’ll cover a bit more of the food expenses—so you don’t have to trouble Uncle too much!”

“Good!” Wei Xiaofan laughed loudly, “In that case, I’ll just eat at your house for decades, until your family is as poor as mine!”

As he spoke, Wei Xiaofan grabbed a pillow and tossed it at Wei Xiaoping, then laughed again.

Seeing Wei Xiaofan agree and playfully throw a pillow, Wei Xiaoping threw one back at him.

The two spent a while tossing pillows back and forth.

Wei Xiaofan asked, “It’s noon now—have you eaten lunch?”

Wei Xiaoping thought, today was Sunday, and the school cafeteria never cooked on Sundays. This guy probably hadn’t even had breakfast!

“I haven’t eaten either. The cafeteria’s closed today, so let’s go eat outside!”

“We can just cook some rice porridge in the dorm and use that chili sauce Aunt gave us yesterday. Going out is too far and expensive.”

Suddenly, Wei Xiaoping remembered seeing Li Bufan and another class’s top student eating together in a small restaurant when he took the bus back earlier. He stood up, grabbed Wei Xiaofan’s hand, and said, “Come on, I’ll take you somewhere to eat, and we can check out two people while we’re at it!”

“Who? Besides you, I don’t know anyone else here!”

“You’ll see!”

Wei Xiaofan, intrigued by Wei Xiaoping’s mysterious tone, followed him out.

As they passed beneath the girls’ dormitory, they saw their class monitor, Zhang Liying, returning with a parcel from home.

Zhang Liying saw Wei Xiaofan and Wei Xiaoping heading out and asked, “Wei Xiaofan, Wei Xiaoping, where are you two going? Wei Xiaofan, have you eaten?”

Wei Xiaoping replied, “Not yet. I was just about to go with Xiaofan to the little restaurant by the road.”

“Oh! Wait for me—I haven’t eaten either and was thinking of going there myself. Hold on, I’ll drop off my things in the dorm and be right out!” Without waiting for their reply, Zhang Liying ran off toward the girls’ dorm.

Wei Xiaoping had two reasons for taking Wei Xiaofan to that restaurant: first, Wei Xiaofan had studied here for over two years but never eaten out, and with the cafeteria closed on Sundays, it was inconvenient to eat, so he wanted him to experience a restaurant atmosphere; second, he genuinely wanted to see if Li Bufan and the other student were still there, and find out what their relationship was, to try and deduce why Li Bufan wanted to slander him and Wei Xiaofan.

He hadn’t expected to run into Zhang Liying, and now she wanted to join them—and even before they could answer, she ran off. She seemed intent on eating with them.

So Wei Xiaofan and Wei Xiaoping waited for her.

“Xiaoping, should we really wait for Zhang Liying?” Wei Xiaofan whispered.

“She already said so, and she’s the class monitor. It’d be awkward to refuse.”

“You’re right,” Wei Xiaofan said, feeling uneasy. It was his first time eating at a restaurant, and now with girls—a situation he wasn’t used to! And what about paying? If they split the bill, he had no money; the thirty yuan Wei Xiaoping’s mother gave him yesterday had already gone to Wei Xiaoping.

“Wei Xiaoping, if Zhang Liying comes along, how will we pay? Split the bill or treat her? I really don’t have any money. Maybe we should just skip it.” Wei Xiaofan said, thinking: If I’d known Zhang Liying would join us, I wouldn’t have gone out. It would’ve been better to stay in the dorm and read.

At that moment, Wei Xiaoping shoved the thirty yuan into Wei Xiaofan’s pocket and said, “When we finish eating, Zhang Liying as class monitor will definitely discuss how to pay. If she doesn’t, I’ll just pay the whole bill. If she insists on splitting it, then we pay our own share. We’ll decide based on the situation.”

Wei Xiaofan wasn’t sure what Wei Xiaoping meant by “splitting the bill.” He thought, does it mean each pays their own?

“Xiaoping, what’s splitting the bill?” he whispered.

“It means after eating together, everyone pays their own share.”

“So that’s it,” Wei Xiaofan thought.

Soon, Zhang Liying came downstairs, bringing another girl with her.

“Oh no!” Wei Xiaoping thought, “Originally, with just me and Wei Xiaofan, we’d spend maybe ten yuan. Now Zhang Liying’s here, and she brought another girl! If we split the bill, it doesn’t matter who else comes, but if I pay for everyone, it’ll be at least twenty yuan. That’s going to leave a gap in our grocery money for the month. We’ll see how it goes.”

“Let’s go! Zhang Xiaoyan hasn’t eaten lunch either, so she’ll come too,” Zhang Liying said.

“Wei Xiaoping, Wei Xiaofan, did you two not go home this weekend?” Zhang Xiaoyan asked.

“I did—I just got back not long ago,” Wei Xiaoping replied.

“I went to Wei Xiaoping’s house yesterday for the day, then came back,” Wei Xiaofan said.

“Really? Wei Xiaofan actually went to your house?” Zhang Liying asked.

Wei Xiaofan noticed Zhang Liying asking Xiaoping again, as if she doubted him. He thought, I already said so, but she’s still asking as if I lied!

“Wei Xiaofan and I have known each other for over two years and have been good friends all that time. As old friends, I’ve always invited him to visit, but he kept saying he was busy. The day before, I found out he wasn’t going home, so I asked him to come over.”

“Usually I go home on weekends—mainly to help with chores, and because the cafeteria doesn’t cook, it’s hard to eat. This time I stayed because next week is the model student competition, and I wanted to study more,” Wei Xiaofan explained.

“Wei Xiaofan is such a good student! Even away from home, he still thinks about helping his family on weekends. We all should learn from him!” Zhang Xiaoyan exclaimed.

“By the way, the competition’s next week. How prepared are you?” Zhang Liying asked Wei Xiaoping and Wei Xiaofan.

“No idea—we’ll just do our best. If we win, great; if not, we’ll give it our all so we can face ourselves and our teachers. After all, eight classes from the whole grade are competing,” Wei Xiaoping said.

“I heard this time the competition scores all five aspects: morality, intelligence, physical fitness, aesthetics, and labor. Whoever scores highest becomes the class’s model student,” Zhang Liying added.