Lin Ci arrived at the night market without a sound.
The ground on the night-market street was covered in oil stains and standing water.
Lin Ci wrapped himself in the oversized black hoodie, pulled the hood extremely low, and even wore a black mask on his face.
He figured the disguise was seamless.
Mix into the crowd and absolutely no one would recognize him.
He lifted the greasy plastic door curtain of Old Zhao’s Skewers.
Heat and charcoal smell from inside rushed into his face.
But he had only stepped halfway in when the originally noisy finger-guessing shouts in the shop cut off at once.
The gazes of three tables of customers snapped over in unison and locked straight onto him.
The wide hood brim did block his forehead.
The mask covered his mouth and nose.
Yet it could not cover those cold, slender eyes.
Jet-black, smooth long hair slipped down from the edge of the hood and hung on both sides of his straight back.
Worse, even with heavy cumin and chili-oil smell all around, that natural milky fragrance on him was still clearly distinguishable.
A shirtless worker in the corner set down the beer mug in his hand and rubbed his eyes.
“Damn, where’d this gorgeous beauty come from?”
The corner of Lin Ci’s eye twitched.
He pretended not to hear and walked toward the empty table at the very back without looking sideways.
In his heart he cursed this bunch of unworldly guys more than ten times.
Back when he was a man himself, how had he never noticed night-market drunks had eyes this sharp?
Lin Ci sat down on the low plastic stool in a wide, unrestrained sprawl and yanked over the greasy menu.
“Boss. Ten beef skewers, five tendon skewers, two grilled steamed-bun slices.”
He deliberately flattened his voice, making it sound naturally cold.
Behind the counter, Gu Mianmian jerked her head up.
When she clearly saw that black figure sitting in the corner, the bamboo skewer in her hand nearly stabbed straight into her palm.
Gu Mianmian stood frozen in place for two seconds.
Her obsidian-like eyes widened slightly.
She had not expected Lin Ci would really come looking.
Lin Ci turned his head, swept her a glance as if casually, and signaled her to hurry up and work.
The charcoal fire in the back kitchen was burning strong.
Zhao Dayong moved fast.
In less than ten minutes the skewers were plated.
Gu Mianmian lifted the heavy iron tray and walked quickly toward Lin Ci.
Before she could get close, Zhao Peng, who had been smoking at the next table, stood up.
Zhao Peng tossed the cigarette butt underfoot and stamped it out, then swaggered two steps to Lin Ci’s table and plopped down opposite him.
“Beauty, eating barbecue alone?”
Zhao Peng rubbed his greasy hands together, a smile he thought was handsome piled on his face.
“This meal’s on bro. Order whatever you want. Bro’s treating.”
Lin Ci leaned back on the plastic chair and did not even lift his eyelids.
He did not even have the interest to deal with him.
This low-grade pickup routine was one he had watched other people wear out freshman year.
Zhao Peng hit a soft nail and lost a bit of face.
Just then Gu Mianmian walked over with the iron tray, head down, and set the skewers on the table.
Zhao Peng’s eyes rolled.
He turned to look at Gu Mianmian.
“Little Gu, this a schoolmate of yours? You know her? If you know her, introduce her to bro?”
While talking, Zhao Peng stretched out his right hand and reached straight to loop around Gu Mianmian’s thin shoulder.
Gu Mianmian froze in place.
Her spine went taut.
The left hand hanging at her side rapidly clenched into a fist.
In the instant before Zhao Peng’s palm was about to touch Gu Mianmian’s shoulder, Lin Ci moved.
Lin Ci’s hand turned faster than his brain.
Completely out of a man’s instinctive reaction, he lifted a hand, blocked Zhao Peng’s wrist, and shoved hard outward with a reverse motion.
This body had become a woman’s, but the athletic foundation and strength from twenty-two years still remained in his bones.
Lin Ci put full vicious force into that shove.
Zhao Peng had not guarded at all against how much strength a girl who looked soft and weak could have.
His whole body was pushed off balance.
Both feet slipped on the greasy floor tiles.
He staggered back several steps in a row.
His lower back slammed solidly into the corner of the folding plastic table behind him and knocked over two empty beer bottles.
The beer bottles smashed on the ground with a crisp crash.
“Fuck!”
Zhao Peng clutched his slammed-sore waist, his whole face full of disbelief.
A woman had shoved him into a stumble?
How could this woman’s strength be this big?
The other tables of customers in the shop all looked over and whispered.
Lin Ci slowly drew his hand back and stared at Zhao Peng with cold eyes.
“A little girl works here. Keep your hands clean!!!”
Lin Ci’s voice was not loud, but every word was ice-cold.
Zhao Peng rubbed his lower back and straightened up.
His face went green then white, as ugly as it could get.
He had wanted to blow up on the spot, but several regulars in the shop were watching the show.
And the masked woman opposite had eyes too cold.
The aura hard-pressed him into place.
Zhao Peng gritted his back teeth and forced out an ugly smile.
“Fine. You’re something.”
He tossed the line out in a snide tone and slunk off toward the back kitchen.
When he lifted the curtain at the back-kitchen doorway, Zhao Peng stopped, turned his head, and glared hard at Lin Ci.
His eyes were full of unwillingness.
Lin Ci rolled his eyes and did not take this kind of goods to heart at all.
Once Zhao Peng had gone far, Lin Ci turned his head to look at Gu Mianmian, who was still standing by the table.
Gu Mianmian kept her head down.
Heavy bangs covered most of her face.
“Did he used to put his hands on you like this a lot too?”
Lin Ci pulled the mask down from his face.
There was fire in his tone.
Gu Mianmian was silent for a moment.
Her voice was pressed very low.
“Sometimes.”
Lin Ci let out a breath, pulled a steaming beef skewer straight from the iron tray, and forcibly stuffed it into her hand.
“Take it. Eat it for me.”
Gu Mianmian pinched the bamboo skewer, her fingers a little at a loss.
“Senior, I’m on the clock. I can’t eat the customer’s food.”
Lin Ci glared at her, not in a good mood.
“I told you to eat, so eat. Where’d all these broken rules come from.”
“You still have to fill your stomach while working. Look at you, skinny enough that a gust of wind could blow you away. If you don’t eat more meat, how are you supposed to grow the strength to dodge bastards like just now?”
Gu Mianmian looked down at the glistening beef skewer in her hand.
A rich cumin aroma rose with the heat.
She lightly pressed her pale lips together, opened her mouth, and nibbled the beef off the skewer in tiny bites.
A lot of coarse chili powder had been sprinkled on the meat.
The spice rushed straight down her throat.
Gu Mianmian’s eyes turned red from the heat.
Fine beads of sweat even appeared on the tip of her nose.
But she did not make a single sound and ate the entire skewer clean.
Lin Ci pulled a sheet of cheap tissue from the table and held it out.
“There’s chili oil on the corner of your mouth. Wipe it.”
Gu Mianmian took the tissue, but she did not use it to wipe her mouth.
She took a clean handkerchief tissue from her pocket, wiped the corner of her lips, then right in front of Lin Ci folded the cheap tissue he had given her into a neat square.
Her movements were very slow.
After that she tucked that folded tissue properly into the deepest pocket of her jeans.
Lin Ci scratched his head watching.
This girl had gone crazy saving money.
She could not even bear to throw away a sheet of wiping paper.
That night at 12:00, Gu Mianmian got off the night shift.
Lin Ci strode in front.
Gu Mianmian followed two steps behind with her head down.
More than half the streetlights on the night-market street were broken.
The two of them stepped across the dim ground all the way back to the dorm.
From that night on, things became regular.
Every night at 11:30, Lin Ci would show up on time at Old Zhao’s Skewers.
Every time he sat in the innermost corner, ordered a two-yuan grilled steamed-bun slice, and chewed it slowly.
That coldly beautiful face sitting there made his whole person give off a keep-away-from-strangers chill.
Zhao Peng had been cowed by that shove that day.
Plus Lin Ci came to stand guard every day.
Zhao Peng restrained himself a lot and never again dared to take advantage of Gu Mianmian in the open.
On the fourth night, Gu Mianmian walked over carrying grilled steamed bun and said in a small voice.
“Senior, you don’t actually have to specially run over every day to pick me up.”
Lin Ci bit into a dry, hard bun slice and chewed with no expression.
“Who specially came to pick you up? I just like this freshly grilled midnight steamed bun.”
Gu Mianmian lifted her lashes.
A trace of helplessness flashed through those obsidian-like eyes.
“Senior, you’ve already come to eat grilled steamed bun five days in a row.”
Lin Ci’s face did not change.
He swallowed the food in his mouth.
“I’m persistent about food. Not allowed?”
Gu Mianmian stood by the table.
The corner of her mouth quietly moved upward.
The curve was extremely small.
If you did not stare carefully, you would not notice she was smiling at all.
Lin Ci looked at that meek appearance of hers and secretly let out a breath in his heart.
As long as this girl did not get bullied while working off campus, these few days of steamed bun had not been chewed for nothing.
And standing in the back-kitchen doorway, Zhao Peng had both hands in his apron pockets, his gaze stuck to Lin Ci’s back.
His eyes circled Lin Ci’s slim waist and long, straight legs.
His face grew more and more dark.
By the evening of the seventh day.
In the south city the sky was already fully dark just past 5:00.
Heavy, oppressive lead-gray clouds piled over the entire sky.
The air was so stuffy it was hard to breathe.
Right after, the heaviest rainstorm since autumn dropped with no warning.
Wild wind mixed with bean-sized raindrops slammed violently against the dorm’s glass windows.