Chapter 50: Best Friends
Now that his parents had agreed to go for a health check-up, An Yuan finally felt relieved, and his mood was great.
"Morning!"
He had already heard that Chen Cheng was heading out, so he got himself ready, slung his bag over one shoulder, and waited at the door.
"Mm… morning…"
Noticing Chen Cheng’s exhausted expression and lifeless eyes, An Yuan teased, "Why do you look like you’re on the verge of death?"
"An Yuan! Watch your mouth when you talk to Chengcheng!"
His mom’s loud voice rang out from inside the house before the door even closed. Startled, An Yuan quickly grabbed Chen Cheng’s wrist and rushed down the stairs. As they walked, he grumbled, "My mom really treats you like her future daughter-in-law, huh? Can’t even joke around without her getting mad. So unfair."
"Good thing we’re just brothers. If you actually became my wife, my status at home would be lower than a dog’s."
Chen Cheng had been in a bad mood earlier, but her cold, expressionless face barely lasted a minute after seeing An Yuan.
Hearing his complaint, she laughed. "As if your status was ever high to begin with."
"It’s different. That woman wasn’t someone my mom liked." An Yuan had long since gotten over his former fiancée, joking about it with ease. "I must’ve been under some kind of spell back then. Looking back, I was pretty dumb."
"Chengcheng~ Take some fruit and milk to school with you~"
Auntie’s warm voice called down from upstairs.
Chen Cheng quickly said, "No need! Thanks, Auntie!"
"Let’s go, let’s go! If you stay any longer, you’ll empty out my whole house!"
An Yuan pulled her out of the apartment building. As they walked, he suddenly paused and looked down at their hands, his fingers still gripping Chen Cheng’s wrist.
It wasn’t exactly holding hands, but for a guy and a girl, it was still a bit too intimate... especially since he felt a little guilty about it.
Silently, he let go and casually stuffed both hands into his jacket pockets, acting as if nothing had happened. "You riding your bike today?"
"Yeah, I brought the key."
"Your memory's impressive, taking you two weeks to remember your bicycle lock key."
Chen Cheng rubbed her reddened wrist before pulling her scarf up higher, covering half of her face.
"A scarf? In 20-degree weather?"
"I get frostbite easily. My mom forced me to wear it before I left."
For some reason, once the temperature dropped below 20 degrees, she had a high chance of getting frostbite. If it hit single digits, her fingers would basically turn into frozen carrots.
"Let’s grab some breakfast on the way and bring some for your friends too."
The school cafeteria’s breakfast was notoriously bad, so many boarding students would either grab a quick bite from the school’s convenience store or ask their friends who live outside to "smuggle in" food from outside.
Riding their bikes, the two of them stopped by a breakfast stall and bought six or seven meat buns along with some bags of soy milk.
"Who are these for?" Chen Cheng asked, unzipping her backpack so An Yuan could toss the food inside.
"Gao Dong, Ah Qiang, and a few other boarding students you don’t really know."
"Let’s get two more. I’ll bring some for Shuting and Hu Wei."
An Yuan looked at her in surprise. It was rare for her to take the initiative to be nice to people she wasn’t that close with.
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Hmm, I just remember that you never used to take the initiative to make friends."
"They’re my besties~"
Those two girls might be considered her best friends, but in Chen Cheng’s mind, they still felt somewhat distant.
She frowned. What if they refused the breakfast? She wouldn’t be able to eat two extra portions, and it’d be super awkward… and embarrassing.
"Stop overthinking. Getting punished, getting scolded, getting rejected… You only care so much because you haven’t been out in the real world yet," An Yuan saw right through her hesitation.
"At least it’s not as bad as that one time when someone was about to give a presentation to an investor but accidentally played a porn video. If that happened to you, wouldn’t you wanna just disappear?"
"Huh? That extreme?"
"Wasn’t me, but it happened to a friend. He became a legend in the entire industry after that."
"Making friends out of nowhere!"
Chen Cheng couldn't imagine how horrifying and embarrassing it would be to mess up at work like that. If she were in the shoes of the guy An Yuan described, she'd probably never show her face in public again.
She was terrified of making mistakes and getting scolded, which was why she didn’t want a job where someone would constantly be watching over her. Living alone meant she didn’t have to deal with that kind of stress.
After picking up breakfast, they rode their bikes to class. As soon as Gao Dong saw An Yuan, he wagged his imaginary tail like an overexcited golden retriever and rushed over.
"Brother, did you bring breakfast?"
"Yeah, got soy milk and meat buns."
Chen Cheng placed her backpack on the desk, unzipped it, and handed Gao Dong two meat buns and a bag of soy milk.
"Thanks, sister-in-law~"
Gao Dong deliberately spoke in a high-pitched, exaggerated tone, making it sound ridiculously fake. The cringe made Chen Cheng shiver, and she shot him an annoyed glare.
"Sister-in-law my ass!"
Gao Dong laughed shamelessly and took his breakfast, leaving. Meanwhile, Chen Cheng hesitated, glancing at her two best friends.
She had always considered herself more like a guy and never really liked hanging out with girls. Her cold attitude was something they must have felt too. They used to come to her after class to chat and play around, but now, they only talked to her occasionally. If this continued, they’d probably become strangers.
With a mix of nervousness and fear of rejection, she took out the extra breakfast from her bag and hesitantly walked over to Hu Wei’s desk.
"Huh?"
Hu Wei looked up in confusion.
"Have you eaten yet?" Chen Cheng pursed her lips and placed the breakfast on Hu Wei’s desk. "Soy milk and meat buns…"
"Whoa! Thanks!" Hu Wei instantly jumped up and hugged Chen Cheng around the waist. "You have no idea how bad the school breakfast is! The meat bun’s dough is as thick as a steamed bun!"
Chen Cheng stiffened, still not used to this kind of physical affection between girls.
Seriously, why do girls always touch each other? She never saw guys hugging each other all the time.
"I got some for Shuting too."
"Shuting! Chengcheng got you breakfast!"
Hu Wei shouted across the room. Chen Shuting quickly came over, pressed down on Chen Cheng’s shoulders, and sat around the desk with her.
Before the morning class bell rang, the three of them sat together, chatting and eating breakfast.
"Chengcheng, are you free this weekend? Want to hang out?"
"How about a hiking trip?"
Hu Wei immediately rejected the idea for her. "Chengcheng is a homebody and super lazy! You want her to go hiking? You might as well ask her to run a marathon!"
"That’s not true…" Chen Cheng mumbled a weak protest.
"Besides, she has a boyfriend. She’s probably spending the weekend with him!"
Chen Cheng did enjoy spending time with An Yuan, but it wasn’t because he was her boyfriend.
She rolled her eyes at Hu Wei. "Keep talking nonsense, and I won’t bring you breakfast anymore."
"Nooo~" Hu Wei clung to her arm and swayed like a spoiled child. "Big sister~ I want Xiaolongbao (soup dumplings) tomorrow!"
There was no denying it, when girls acted cute like this, it was hard to resist. And since Hu Wei was small and adorable, her behavior didn’t feel annoying at all. Just cute enough to want to squish.
Chen Cheng blushed, struggling to handle it. "You better pay me back…"
"Of course! Shuting! You already ate, right? Save me a meat bun!"
Chen Shuting, who had been devouring her food like a hamster, nodded with her cheeks puffed full. "I thought you guys weren’t eating, so I just kept going."
She had almost finished both portions of meat buns by herself. No wonder she was a little chubby. She ate way too much.
Chen Cheng bit open a corner of the soy milk bag and sipped on it while resting her chin on one hand, watching her two friends bicker.
Honestly, making friends with girls wasn’t so bad.
As long as they didn’t start talking about fashion and celebrities, stuff she had absolutely no clue about.