The large porcelain bowl was filled with cold noodles, topped with cucumber shreds, cilantro, a small pinch of beef shreds, and half a hard-boiled egg.
Zhao ii leaned over the bowl, took a sip of the soup; it was icy cold and sweet and sour, seed to have a hint of orange or apple flavor.
Shi Yang handed the broken chopsticks to Zhao ii, "Eat up."
Zhao ii was eating cold noodles for the first ti; at ho, she always ate the noodles her mom made. Cold noodles had more texture, and they looked fun, plus they tasted good.
Zhao ii slurped down a few bites, and when she bit into a slice of cucumber, she frowned and pulled it from her mouth, placing it on the table.
Shi Yang glanced over, "Why aren’t you eating the cucumber?"
Zhao ii swept her thin eyelids and pouted, showing a disgusted expression, "Cucumbers are not tasty."
Shi Yang noticed the layer of cucumber shreds floating in her bowl and instinctively picked them all into his own bowl, saying while he did, "You’re at the age where you need to grow, being picky isn’t good."
Zhao ii stuck out her tongue, "Does cucumber even have any nutrition? It’s all water."
Zhao ii hated cucumbers the most; during the hottest days of sumr, her kindergarten teacher would give them cucumbers and tomatoes chilled with cold water to cool them down.
As sumr progressed, they ate cucumbers and tomatoes until the season ended; at first, Zhao ii thought they were delicious, but after eating too much, she grew sick of them and didn’t want any upon seeing cucumbers and tomatoes.
After the al, Shi Yang asked Zhao ii, "Are you full?"
Zhao ii had eaten half a bowl of cold noodles, drank a belly full of soup, burped contentedly, and nodded, "I’m full."
Shi Yang went to pay the bill and took Zhao ii along with Qu Chaozong out of the restaurant.
Qu Chaozong rubbed his belly, "Got nothing to do this afternoon, co to my place to play gas?"
Qu Chaozong ant the arcade near his house. Shi Yang glanced at Zhao ii, hesitating.
Zhao ii heard about going out to play, and quickly tugged Shi Yang, "I want to go too, take with you."
Qu Chaozong pleaded on her behalf, "Isn’t there a fruit machine? Let ii play that."
Before school started, Shi Yang was busy cramming howork; his hands were itching to play. He turned to Zhao ii, "You really want to go?"
Zhao ii nodded excitedly, "I want to go!"
"Alright then! But you gotta keep this a secret from your parents when you get ho," Shi Yang reminded.
Zhao ii nodded repeatedly, feeling a smug sense of having a little secret inside.
Zhao ii had never been to an arcade before; it was a small iron shed with a few machines piled inside. People sat in front of the machines, holding joysticks in their hands, yelling incoherently.
Zhao ii thought it was quite interesting.
Qu Chaozong wiped sweat from his face, "It’s hot as hell here, there’s not even a fan. I’ll go buy two bottles of iced water, what do you want to drink?"
Shi Yang: "Anything, get ii a bottle of soda."
Shi Yang took out money and exchanged it for so tokens, giving Zhao ii a handful, waiting for the person playing in front of the fruit machine to leave, then led her to the side of the machine, teaching her how to choose fruits, how to press start, telling her if she guessed right she would get tokens, if wrong she should play again.
Zhao ii was smart, and learned quickly. She put the tokens in her pocket, throwing them, and choosing fruits herself.
The fruit machine was essentially all about luck; the machine’s factory settings had already determined how many rounds would go before a big prize appeared, all based on whether the player hit the right mont.
Zhao ii chose large waterlon, orange, and apple. Shi Yang had thrown two tokens when teaching her, generating so points. Zhao ii, playing for the first ti, threw in two more, watched the points rise rapidly, found it interesting, and threw a few more in.
Zhao ii reached to press start, when suddenly soone spoke, "Hey! Kid! I’m still playing this machine! Get up!"
Zhao ii turned her head and saw a boy wearing the Seventh Middle School uniform, glaring at her impatiently.
The boy saw Zhao ii didn’t move, got annoyed, "I told you to get up, didn’t you hear ?"
Zhao ii had never feared anyone in her life, she was fierce, squinted her eyes and glared at him, "Who are you?"
The boy reached out, pressing down on the back of Zhao ii’s chair, "Didn’t you hear what I said? I’m playing this machine!"
Zhao ii mimicked her Brother Yangyang, flipped her eyelids coolly, "There wasn’t anyone here when I sat down. You say you’re playing, who can prove it?"
The boy grabbed Zhao ii, "Get lost! Prove my ass!"
Zhao ii didn’t cry though being shoved, stubbornly retorted, "If you can’t prove it, how can you kick out?"
The boy tried to drag Zhao ii off; his arm was tightly gripped by a strong hand, "What are you doing!"
Shi Yang’s face was composed, glaring fiercely, dark eyebrows knitted into a knot, "You want to talk, then talk. Why are you dragging my sister?"
The boy turned around, saw the age matched, raised a brow, "I’m telling her to get up!"
Shi Yang kept a cold face, "Why should she get up? She’s playing. If you want to play, wait in line!"
The boy glared, "Why should I wait in line? I’ve been playing this machine all along!"
Shi Yang: "When I brought my sister here, no one was in front of this machine."
Boy: "Because I just went out to order food!"
Shi Yang: "Once you leave the spot, anyone else can play. You want to play? Wait until my sister finishes, then you can have the spot."
"Damn! You’re pretending!" The boy cursed.
"Get lost!" Shi Yang was done wasting words, reached out, pried open the boy’s hand from Zhao ii’s chair back.
"Damn you!" The boy charged forward, kicking at Shi Yang.
The redness in Shi Yang’s eyes showed no emotion, he cursed back, "Damn you!" grabbed a chair beside the machine, and swung it at the boy...
With one chair swing, he knocked the boy down. Shi Yang tossed the chair aside, stord over, throwing punches and kicks, really hitting hard.
Shi Yang grew up with his mom living alone outside, bullied quite often as a child. Fighting was sothing he learned instinctively.
He looked gentle and obedient on the surface, but deep down carried a natural intensity; he never hesitated to fight, truly daring to strike.
Qu Chaozong joked that day to Zhao ii, revealing Shi Yang’s past. In fact, everything he said was true; Shi Yang was quite famous at Sixth Middle School, known among the teachers for his good grades, handso looks, and well-off family; in the eyes of the students, he was a school bully, feared by none.
Shi Yang was not only handso but could fight; in the eyes of teens just entering puberty, he was simply walking hormones, cool to the bone, making people infatuated.
The arcade owner quickly ca out to intervene, understood the situation, didn’t say who was right or wrong, just grabbed a handful of tokens from the counter for the beaten boy, offering him a way out, "Enough, co back and play next ti. Your ordered food should be ready by now, right?"
The boy looked at Shi Yang with hatred, morized his face, didn’t take the tokens offered by the owner, and turned away.
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