The old man Zhou was pleasantly surprised when he saw that her granddaughter and customer had known each other.
"You guys know each other?"
Zhou Ya frowned in disapproval. "Grandpa, are you bothering our customer again?"
"Little Ya, I am really not this time. I was just making a small conversation with this pretty young lady."
Zhou Ya put her hand on her hips while shaking her head. "She's my classmate, and I think you have enough chatting for today, Grandpa."
"What?! But I still—!"
"No buts!" Zhou Ya didn't give in and ushered her grandfather to leave. The old man Zhou winked at Li Caiyi for the last time before Zhou Ya finally managed to get him back to the kitchen.
Then she approached Li Caiyi with an apologetic smile.
"I'm sorry for my Grandpa. Did he say anything rude to you?"
Li Caiyi giggled. "No, we were mostly talking about you. He said he has a cute granddaughter studying in the same school as me."
Zhou Ya sighed. "I knew he was going to do that. He always told the customers stories about his family. Well, it's not like I hated it, but it just feels awkward when that customer comes again and suddenly knows everything about you."
"Your grandfather seemed like a nice person who loves his family."
Zhou Ya tucked her messy hair behind her ear and smiled bashfully. "Well, he sure did."
Li Caiyi also had a grandfather who had passed away when she was little. Whenever their family visited Grandfather's house, he always gave Li Caiyi extra candies and spoiled her rotten. At that time, she often complained to Grandfather that her father only liked her older brother, and her mother liked her twin sister more, so no one wanted her.
Grandfather would always coax her and tell her stories until she fell asleep. She didn't spend that much time with her grandfather, but that memory remained strong in her mind even until today.
"Did you come here to eat? How is our shop's noodle?"
Li Caiyi gave her a double thumbs-up. "It's the best! I have actually come here a few times before, but it's the first time I see you today."
"I only helped out when the shop was short of hand. Usually, a part-timer helps my Grandpa and Dad run the shop. When the shop is too crowded or when one of the part-timers is absent, that's when you'll see me."
"I see. No wonder I have never seen you before." Li Caiyi thought this might be her chance to dig further, so she leaned in closer to ask Zhou Ya. "By the way, do you perhaps know any customer with the name Shen Qiang? He is a boy around our age."
"Shen Qiang?" Zhou Ya was silent for a while, thinking very seriously. "Not that I know of, but that name does ring a bell. I don't remember where I heard that name, though."
Li Caiyi's eyes brightened. She felt like dancing now, just from how happy she was. "Please, Zhou Ya! I need to find this person as soon as possible. Can you think about it harder?"
Zhou Ya was surprised by Li Caiyi's eagerness. She had never seen her so enthusiastic about something before. This Shen Qiang person must be important to her, then.
Zhou Ya was tactful enough not to pry, but no matter how she tried, she just could not remember where she had ever heard that name before.
"I'm sorry, Li Caiyi, but I really can't remember. I might have heard it in the shop or perhaps in school, but I seriously can't remember further than that."
"School? Do you mean you might have heard about Shen Qiang in school?"
"I can not say for sure, but I rarely go anywhere besides my house and school, so there is a high possibility of that."
Li Caiyi's heart beat so fast thinking about the possibility that Shen Qiang might be their school's student. It made her so pumped up, and she could not wait for tomorrow to come.
Shen Qiang might be closer to her than she thought.
Maybe that was why she got transported around this time! Because this was her chance to meet the younger version of Shen Qiang!
Li Caiyi did not know why she was so convinced, but she had a wonderful feeling about that idea. How wonderful would it be if that were true?
Li Caiyi grabbed Zhou Ya's hand with both hands, and she gave her the brightest smile she could muster on her face.
"Zhou Ya, you are my lifesaver! Thank you so much for your help!"
Zhou Ya was astonished, but then she looked doubtful.
"Li Caiyi, what I have just said is merely a guess, and there's no guarantee that the Shen Qiang I randomly heard was the same person you were looking for. I do not want you to have a big hope, only to be disappointed later."
Li Caiyi understood what she meant, but she could not help but feel like she and Shen Qiang were tied with a string of fate. If not, how could both of them frequently visit the same shop, who actually owned by her friend's grandfather?
There was no way she would know about this before her rebirth, but there was a reason she came to know about it in this timeline.
Li Caiyi refused to believe that all of this was a mere coincidence.
"Zhou Ya, I'm very happy I can get to know you. Please let me know immediately if you remember anything about Shen Qiang! I will forever be indebted to you if you do!"
"Oh? O-okay…." Zhou Ya was not used to the passionate Li Caiyi, so she unknowingly stuttered in her words.
After that, they chatted for a bit before Li Caiyi left while leaving a generous tip for Zhou Ya. She wanted to refuse, but Li Caiyi insisted that Zhou Ya had helped her immensely today, so she reluctantly accepted it.
It was not until Li Caiyi got in the taxi and drove away that Zhou Ya finally rested. She let out a deep breath as she put the metal delivery box away. She received a hefty tip today, so her mood was pretty good.
That was when the chime on the door rang, signaling another customer's arrival. Zhou Ya immediately greeted him with a business smile.
"Welcome! Do you need a table for one person?" Zhou Ya asked after confirming that this new customer came alone.
"No need, I will order a takeaway," replied the young man.
"Understood. Please take a look at our menu and give me your order." Zhou Ya gestured on the menu board on top of the counter, then swiftly pulled out a pen and paper from her apron's pocket.
"I will take this one and that one. One portion each." The young man pointed to the menu directly, and Zhou Ya noted it down fast.
"Please wait a minute until your order is ready. You can take a seat first, and I will deliver your order to you when it's ready!"
The young man briefly nodded before making his way to the seat Li Caiyi previously sat on. Meanwhile, Zhou Ya went to the kitchen to place the young man's order on the queue list.
The young man gazed outside the window absentmindedly when his phone rang. He picked up the call with a faint smile.
"I'm waiting for your favorite noodle right now. Wait a bit more, Shen Qiang."
Hi guys!
Finally I finished uploading 4 chapters. The first two are for regular update and the other two each for the 10 golden tickets and 100 power stones you have donated. Hope you guys enjoy it!
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On the following day, Li Caiyi left the classroom as soon as she finished her lunch. She could not sit still, knowing that Shen Qiang might be closer to her than she thought.
The first place she went to was the teacher's office. She was delighted when she found her homeroom teacher inside.
"Excuse me, Teacher Shi? Do you have some time?"
The young teacher raised her head. "Li Caiyi? Do you have something you want to ask about the lesson?"
"I do want to ask you about something, but it is not about the class." Li Caiyi fiddled with her fingers.
Teacher Shi showed full attention to her now, considering Li Caiyi rarely spoke to anyone in the class. "Alright. What is it?"
"I want to know if there is anyone named Shen Qiang in this school."
Teacher Shi knitted her brows in confusion. "I thought you were going to consult me about something. Why are you asking that?"
Li Caiyi had prepared an answer if the teacher asked her, so she replied immediately. "This person helped me before on the street, and he dropped a keychain with his name on it. I want to return it to him and wonder if he is one of our students in our school."
"Hmm, then you can just drop the keychain here, and I will help you return it to him. If that person really is our student, that is."
"I want to return it to him by myself if I can. I have not thanked him yet for his help."
Teacher Shi noticed something from Li Caiyi's words, and the corner of her mouth curled up with a playful smirk. "Well, well. I see that someone is eager. Let me guess, did that boy make your heart flutter?"
Li Caiyi's cheeks heated when she heard her teacher's teasing. She wished she was not a person who could be read easily, but her reaction had given it all away. Teacher Shi grinned even wider.
"Ah, the springtime of youth! When I was in high school, I was also like you, chasing after the boy I liked. Gosh, I missed those times!"
"Teacher, it is not like that!"
Teacher Shi playfully waved her hand. "Ah yes, yes. That is the usual reaction when someone finds out who your crush is. You are not convincing anyone if you said that with such a red face."
Li Caiyi pressed her cheeks with her palm, and indeed, her cheek felt hot to touch.
'What am I, a teenager? Wake up, Li Caiyi! You are a full-grown adult. You are embarrassing yourself!'
Li Caiyi coughed a few times to regain her composure before she asked again, "Teacher, can I ask you to check it for me?"
After she had fun teasing the younger girl, Teacher Shi stopped joking around and went back to serious mode. "I usually can not disclose a student's data, but I think it should be fine if you only want to check for a name and class. Wait a minute."
Teacher Shi grabbed a file from her desk and gave it to Li Caiyi. "This is the list of our students' names. Try to find which class he is in."
Li Caiyi gratefully accepted it. "Thank you, Teacher Shi!"
"Haha, do not forget to bring me a gift if things go well between the two of you," she said with a wink. Li Caiyi only laughed dryly before taking the heavy file to an empty table in the room's corner.
Li Caiyi used her finger to trace the name list from up to down. She searched for every student with the same name and wrote their full name and class. So far, she managed to find two students with the same name—one from the second year and another one from the third year.
"Well, it turned out better than I expected," Li Caiyi smiled in satisfaction. She did not want to waste any more time, so she quickly returned the file to Teacher Shi after she finished checking it and left the teacher's office.
***
Her next destination was the 2-C classroom. The school arranged the class by student's grade, and Li Caiyi belonged to the 2-B class, while Li Chunhua was in the 2-A class.
When Li Caiyi thought about how Shen Qiang could be studying in the room next to hers all this time, her heart beat faster.
Li Caiyi hastened her step subconsciously, so it did not take long before she finally arrived in front of the 2-C classroom.
Before entering the classroom, she straightened her hair and made sure her uniform and glasses looked neat. After making sure everything was in their place, she took a deep breath and was ready to meet Shen Qiang.
Li Caiyi did not know anyone from this class, so she was actually kind of nervous. She approached the friendly-looking girl standing near the door.
"Uhm, excuse me? Can I have a minute with you?"
The girl looked at Li Caiyi with widened eyes. "You are… not Li Chunhua, right? Are you Li Caiyi from class B?"
Li Caiyi did not expect that someone would recognize her. "You know me? Have we met somewhere?"
"No, we did not know each other officially, but I heard about you. You are Li Chunhua and Senior Li's sister."
Ah. Of course, everyone would recognize her from that. When you were close to someone famous, people could not help but recognize you, too.
"Yes. That is right. I came to find Fu Shen Qiang. Is he here?"
Li Caiyi mentioned the full name just to be sure. The girl tilted her head in bewilderment. "Wait, you too? Since when did that guy become so popular?"
'Too?' Li Caiyi thought that the girl's reaction looked unusual. However, she did not have time to ask because that girl had called for Shen Qiang.
"Fu Shen Qiang! Someone is looking for you again!"
"Huh?"
Every other thought suddenly washed away from her mind, leaving a sense of expectation and longing. Li Caiyi gulped nervously before she looked up.
Her gaze fell to a chubby boy with an oily face. The boy ran over to them, and the fat on his belly bounced around like a basketball. Li Caiyi's eyes widened in shock. This was… Shen Qiang?
The boy noticed Li Caiyi before he smiled smugly. "To think many beautiful ladies would seek after me today, I must be in luck today."
Li Caiyi smiled awkwardly. She did not want to judge other people so quickly, so she kept a positive mind. Perhaps Shen Qiang would look like this when he was fat? It did not matter how he looked as long as he was indeed the Shen Qiang she was looking for.
"Hello. I need to talk to you for a bit." Li Caiyi said in a small voice, but suddenly the entire class who watched this scene was in an uproar. Some even made a whistling sound.
"Shit! Fu Shen Qiang, you are just a fatty, but how can you be so lucky?!"
"How could you get ahead of us and become popular? Tell me your secret, dammit!"
"Are those two's eyes functioning properly? Out of all people, why would they go for the fatso?"
Li Caiyi felt extremely uncomfortable being in the center of attention. Her figure shrunk as she tried to avoid people's gaze.
Fu Shen Qiang noticed that, so he used his sweaty hand to grab her hand and dragged Li Caiyi outside. "You single dogs! Go bark somewhere else, and don't ruin other people's happiness!"
"What did you say, you pig? Who wants to be like you? Roll! Roll away with that round belly of yours!".
Li Caiyi could still hear shouts of anger and curse even from the hallway. She was so confused by this turn of events, but she was thankful Fu Shen Qiang brought her out of that situation, so she let him drag her.
When they arrived at a quieter and secluded hallway, Fu Shen Qiang finally stopped. He panted so hard, and his face looked like a balloon that could pop out at any minute.
"Are you okay?" Li Caiyi asked her.
"This… is… nothing… *wheeze."
It certainly did not look like nothing, but Fu Shen Qiang insisted he was fine, so Li Caiyi waited for him to steady his breath before she finally asked what she came for.
"Fu Shen Qiang, have you ever had a girlfriend before? Or someone you like?"
Shen Qiang said he rarely interacted with girls, so this point was very crucial to ask.
Li Caiyi's question took Fu Shen Qiang aback. But later, he seemed to understand something. He coolly swept his hair behind with his fingers as he flashed his most charming smile. "What? We have only met for a few minutes, but you already can't wait to leap into my arms. You are bolder than you look. I like it."
"Huh?" Li Caiyi could not understand why he suddenly said that at first, but after a few seconds, she finally understood why there was such a huge commotion in the C class earlier.
She hurriedly waved her hand. "I think there is some kind of misunderstanding here. I do not mean it like that!"
Fu Shen Qiang shook his head. "No need to be shy, little kitten. All you need to do is nod, and I. Will. Be. Yours."
Li Caiyi felt like worms were crawling under her skin. She shuddered more when Fu Shen Qiang suddenly pinched her chin and leaned in closer, making the big pores on his face look more prominent.
"I can not say you are my type, but your face looked the same as Li Chunhua, so I guess you will do as well."
No! There was no need for further asking. Li Caiyi could already tell that this disgusting guy could not be her Shen Qiang. Putting the difference in their physique aside, Shen Qiang would never throw a lame pickup line or treat other people rudely like this!
"I'm sorry, I got the wrong person!" Li Caiyi swatted his hand away and ran as fast as she could.
"What the—?! Kitten?! Where are you going?!"
Li Caiyi closed her ears, hoping that it could help prevent that voice from haunting her dream tonight.
Thanks for reading ! ^^