Chapter 21: Strawberry Yeye and Mango Nana

In front of the intercity train station in Shanhai City, it was the peak of the evening commute and school dismissal.

On the crowded plaza, Jiang Ciqiu felt like she was about to be completely swallowed by the surging masses. Looking around, all she could see were shoulders and arms.

Just as she was getting dizzy from being jostled, a hand suddenly reached over her head, grabbed her backpack strap, and gave a gentle tug, pulling her out of the crowd.

“Thanks, though I feel like you’re deliberately insulting my height,” Jiang Ciqiu said as she let out a long breath on a somewhat emptier street corner. She looked up at Lin Xia, who was a whole head taller, and thanked him with a hint of defiance.

‘It’s so unfair. We all eat the same and sleep the same, and even this guy, who spent years as a weakling stuck in bed, ended up so much taller. How could there be such a difference?’

“Your height is fine as is,” Lin Xia said, releasing her backpack strap and looking down at her with a smile. “It’s just perfect for me, at least.”

“It’s not fine at all!” Jiang Ciqiu grumbled indignantly. “Being 1.6 meters is the worst. Not tall enough to be a mature lady, not short enough to be a loli. It’s like being stuck in silver rank!”

“Don’t judge yourself with that old man’s tone, Ah Qiu. Can you have some self-respect?” Lin Xia said with a wry smile.

Jiang Ciqiu was at a loss for words and quickly shut her mouth, feeling uneasy.

As they chatted, they reached the dessert shop’s entrance. Unexpectedly, no one was lining up, probably because this shop’s crepes cost 48 yuan each, which was too expensive for most people.

The crepe shop named “Sakura Love Mood” had sparkly pink glitter pasted all over its lintel and doorframe, and a huge heart-shaped arch made of pink and white balloons. Combined with the exaggerated lace decorations on the glass display window, the shop looked like a plush toy that had accidentally wandered into a station full of office drones.

If a thirty-year-old office drone were standing outside now, whether alone or with friends, wouldn’t other customers give them the look of “an old geezer trying to act young”? Jiang Ciqiu thought.

Internally glad she now had a face full of collagen, Jiang Ciqiu steeled herself and walked up to the pink, bubbly ordering counter.

“Hello! Welcome to Sakura Love Mood! What would you like today?” The clerk’s pink uniform shirt was adorned with white petals, and her smile was so bright that it felt almost blinding to Jiang Ciqiu, who was a socially anxious introvert.

“Um, hello, I’ll, I’ll just take a look,” Jiang Ciqiu stuttered, unconsciously avoiding eye contact with the clerk.

‘Damn, how did I end up at the counter to order? Shouldn’t I just scan the QR code like a normal person, Jiang Ciqiu?!’

While silently scolding herself from a few seconds ago, she let her gaze drift down to the colorful menu. The fruits nestled in fluffy cream looked especially tempting, almost burying the egg-yellow crepe beneath.

“I’ll take this strawberry one,” Jiang Ciqiu said, pointing to the picture on the menu, trying to end this ordeal with the fewest words.

“Do you mean the Strawberry Yeye Cream Poof Sweet Crepe?” the clerk asked.

“…Yes,” Jiang Ciqiu said, closing her eyes in despair and nodding.

‘Kill me now.’

‘Of course, I deliberately pointed at it because the name is too embarrassing, and as an adult with a thirty-year-old mental age, I couldn’t bring myself to say it out loud! You extrovert clerk, don’t treat us introverts as your toy!’

The clerk chuckled at the girl’s blushing, adorable reaction to the name, then looked at the boy behind her who wore a gentle smile.

“Alright, and what would this handsome guy behind you like?” she asked.

Lin Xia snapped back to attention and considered the menu for a few seconds. “This one, the Mango Nana Yummy Mew Poof Crepe, in collaboration with Magical Girl Flash Gold.”

Watching him say the name without batting an eye, Jiang Ciqiu’s tendency to feel secondhand embarrassment flared up. She reached out and tugged on Lin Xia’s sleeve.

“Hmm? What is it, Ah Qiu? Do you want to change to this flavor too?” Lin Xia asked.

“No, how could you say that name without any shame…never mind.” Realizing both the clerk and Lin Xia were looking at her, Jiang Ciqiu felt her cheeks heat to the point of sizzling. Grabbing her menu, she fled toward a vacant table by the window.

‘Damn you, don’t be so smug! If you slip up and expose anything later, just see if I don’t burn you to a crisp!’

The clerk watched the girl’s panicked retreat with an ever-widening smile. “She’s a very cute girlfriend. The tomboyish style suits her well.”

“She is cute, but we’re actually just friends,” Lin Xia quickly explained, afraid that Jiang Ciqiu would hear and get angry.

The clerk smiled and said nothing. She had seen many of these couples teetering in the ambiguous stage and testing each other. The first time they came, they were too shy to say a word. Maybe in a few weeks, when they visited again on a date, they’d be sitting by the window and feeding each other without caring about the other customers’ stares.

Lin Xia followed Jiang Ciqiu and sat down across from her. Outside, well-dressed men and women hurried past with briefcases under their arms, faces wearing tired, blank expressions. The girl was staring out the window, lost in thought.

“Ah Qiu?” he said as he sat down across from her and handed her a glass of ice water with a paper straw.

“Oh, sorry, I was just thinking,” she said.

“Thinking about what?” the boy asked, resting his chin on his hand and smiling at her.

Ever since they were kids, he had always loved listening to Jiang Ciqiu talk, whether it was about her wild fantasies or trivial daily things. During the days when he was so weak that he could only lie in bed and couldn’t even walk, Jiang Ciqiu was like his eyes, bringing him different stories each day and helping him understand the world he couldn’t reach.

“It’s nothing interesting. I was just thinking that I could sit here and eat dessert while watching these office workers rush around for a living. It feels, how should I put it, strangely satisfying.” Jiang Ciqiu silently apologized to the office workers passing by. ‘Sorry, everyone. I guess people really can’t empathize with their past or future selves.’

Even though her soul was also a poor wage s*ave, watching other slaves wearily hustling from this prime VIP view spot was exhilarating.

Lin Xia was taken aback by the slightly guilty yet mischievous smile on her face, then burst out laughing. “That’s a bit malicious. I never realized you were like that, Ah Qiu.”

“Sorry I’m not the flawless childhood friend you had in mind,” Jiang Ciqiu said, biting on her straw and taking a big gulp before wincing at the cold flooding into her body.

Lin Xia also took a sip of water, trying to use the chill to suppress the craving he felt from this body.

“Speaking of which, Ah Qiu, you’ve seemed a bit… different these past two days. How should I put it, compared to what I remember, you seem a little dumber?” he said.

“Cough, cough, cough!” Jiang Ciqiu choked on his comment and started coughing violently. ‘Wow, I haven’t even started wondering if you’re really Lin Xia, and you’re already turning the tables and questioning me?’ But she couldn’t really argue, because the sixteen-year-old self she remembered wouldn’t act like an old man spouting nonsense, nor would she have been unable to solve a single math problem in the afternoon class.

“You’re the dumb one! I was just tired from something recently,” she said, blowing a few bubbles into her water cup out of defiance.

“And if we’re talking about changes, yours is way more drastic, don’t you think?” She pulled out her straw and pointed it at Lin Xia’s chest from across the table. “Going from a sickly, withdrawn kid to a handsome, active, sociable all-rounder? Even the protagonist of a high school light novel wouldn’t have such a dramatic turnaround.”

Faced with his best friend’s half-serious question, Lin Xia’s hand under the table clenched briefly, but he smoothly changed the subject. “Handsome? Do you think I’m handsome, Ah Qiu?” He rested his chin on both hands and smiled across at her, meeting her gaze just as she was putting her straw back into her cup.

The bubbles in her cup paused for a moment, but then the office worker’s rationality took back control. “Not bad, but not as handsome as me,” she said, rolling up her sleeve and flexing a nonexistent bicep. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a fleeting look of disappointment on his face and laughed triumphantly to herself.

‘Heh, Lin Xia, Lin Xia. You don’t really think a move like that will work on a thirty-year-old office worker like me, do you? If a true sixteen-year-old girl were sitting here, she might actually fall for that clean, handsome smile, but that trick won’t work on me, Jiang Ciqiu!’

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