Chapter 58
Chapter 58: A Heart of Steel
In the courtyard, Wen Yu was grilling meat, Xiao Gua was telling lame cold jokes, Lu Min and Fu Chengque were shivering while listening, not sure if it was because of the cold jokes or the cold weather, and Fang Ling was skewering.
Fu Chengque might have been chilled by the weather and the drinks, so she ran up to Wen Yu and asked for something to eat.
“Wen Yu, Xiao Gua’s jokes are too cold, I can’t take it anymore, give me something warm.”
“Mushrooms in tin foil, clams in tin foil, or grilled eggplant, which one?”
“Clams, clams, I want clams.”
Lu Min also called out, “I want mushrooms!”
Fang Ling raised her head at this, “You’re as thin as a pole, and you still want to eat mushrooms? You should eat eggplant, to make up for your shape.”
Lu Min retorted, “You’re the one who’s as thin as a pole. You should let Chengque eat more eggplant.”
“What’s it to me!” Fu Chengque yelled, “Why do you keep talking about me?”
“Hahaha…”
The group laughed, and Fu Chengque, feeling wronged, said she wouldn’t play with them anymore and began to complain to Wen Yu in a low voice.
“They’re ganging up on me. What’s with this weird spicy stuff you gave me? I’ll go over there and teach them a lesson!”
“Last time you wanted to trick me, and you ended up suffering the consequences, remember?”
“What last time? There’s no such thing!”
Even though she said so, she grumbled and gave up this plan. She sat on a high chair nearby and ate grilled skewers, swinging her legs.
However, Wen Yu started making tin foil clams. Soon, a hot plate of clams was ready.
He picked up a clam with chopsticks, dipped it in the soup, and handed it to Fu Chengque’s mouth.
“Try it to see if it’s salty enough.”
Fu Chengque didn’t suspect anything and opened her mouth to accept it.
But the moment it entered her mouth, the strong spicy taste exploded, spreading a burning sensation throughout her body.
She was about to scream, then cut her throat with a chopstick. But then Wen Yu quickly said:
“Hold it in! Give it to them.”
She couldn’t help it, and Wen Yu said again, “A little patience brings success. Can’t Empress endure a chili?”
Fu Chengque’s mind instantly cleared, and she forcibly endured this extremely spicy sensation.
After a while, the spiciness eased a bit.
Fu Chengque, with a flushed face, whispered, “It’s too spicy, it’s going to kill me! Wen Yu, you have such a cruel heart!”
“What nonsense! Am I still not your strategist?”
Her eyes suddenly lit up. “What do you mean?”
“You are the Empress, and as your strategist, shouldn’t I use any means necessary to help you achieve your goals?”
Fu Chengque nodded vigorously.
“You asked me to make something extremely spicy to teach those three a lesson. I’ve done it now. To achieve the goal, is it not using any means necessary if I make you suffer a little? I’m absolutely following your orders, right?”
The girl nodded slightly, deeply agreeing.
“Now that you’ve tried it yourself, take it over. If you eat another one, you won’t be so embarrassed, and they will naturally eat it too. Hasn’t this plan succeeded?”
The Empress exclaimed, “Wen Yu, you’re brilliant!”
So, with a smug look, she presented the specially made super spicy tin foil clams.
The chili peppers Wen Yu prepared were a local variety from Jiangcheng, small in size, not red, and inconspicuous in appearance, but extremely spicy. Usually, only three or five are kept at home for seasoning. Just now, Fu Chengque’s request made him directly replace the ordinary chili peppers with the local variety.
Sniffing and looking at them, you couldn’t tell anything unusual, but once they were put in your mouth, even a slight touch would cause an explosion.
Meanwhile, Xiao Gua and the others had gathered around a table, chatting happily.
Fu Chengque brought over the clams. “Want some clams? They just came out, they’re delicious!”
“Is it spicy?”
“Just normal. Don’t eat too much. These were made by Wen Yu for me.”
“Oh, you’re so precious.” Fang Ling teased, “Now I really want to try them.”
“One at a time.” Fu Chengque held the plate high and reminded them again, “Only one each!”
Fu Chengque was also ruthless. Before serving others, she picked one for herself, put it in her mouth delightfully, and took a big bite, making the others extremely jealous.
“Pass it over.”
“I want to taste one too.”
“I want one too!”
Fu Chengque placed the plate down, and the three couldn’t wait to pick them up and put them into their mouths. Fang Ling and Xiao Gua even used the shells as bowls, scooping up some soup to eat.
Then —
BOOM!!
“Wow!! So spicy!!”
“It’s burning me!! Water!”
Lu Min didn’t say a word but used her hands to fan herself and looked around for water.
Fang Ling screamed while feeling the heat, “Chengque, you’re so ruthless… huff… huff… huff…”
Fu Chengque was sweating profusely, her face turning crimson, but she remained arrogant, laughing loudly with her hands on her hips. However, she couldn’t withstand the extreme spiciness and started, “Hahaha, ugh… huff… huff… hahaha, huff…”
While crying out in pain, Wen Yu appeared with milk drinks in hand.
The group hurriedly grabbed the milk, gulping it down frantically, gradually calming down after a while.
This was the characteristic of this local variety of chili. The spiciness came on fiercely, but it also subsided quickly, even if they didn’t drink water, it wouldn’t last long.
After calming down, Fang Ling sneaked up from behind and grabbed Fu Chengque, startling her.
“What… what are you doing?”
“What am I doing? Getting revenge!” Fang Ling said fiercely, “Tricking us into eating chili, it’s so spicy, you’re really ruthless.”
“It was you who started it…”
But Fang Ling didn’t listen to explanations and shouted, “Someone, tickle her!”
Xiao Gua and Lu Min smirked and approached, frightening Empress to the core…
Wen Yu chuckled and watched, eating and shouting, “Be careful, don’t trip.”
After the commotion, it was almost 2 o’clock in the middle of the night.
It was indeed freezing outside, so the group returned indoors.
After returning to the room, the four girls became lively again, pulling the mahjong master Wen Yu to play another hour of mahjong. Finally, they were exhausted and each found a place to lie down and rest.
Wen Yu closed the doors and windows tightly, raised the room temperature, and distributed several thick blankets to prevent anyone from getting cold if they fell asleep.
After a while of quietness, Fu Chengque suddenly exclaimed, “I can’t sleep!”
Immediately, the other three girls chimed in, “Me neither!”
“I feel a bit reluctant when I think that the gathering will end tomorrow.”
“Yeah, we’re in our final year of high school. We’ll need to work harder for the university entrance exams next semester,” Lu Min added.
The group agreed with nods and murmurs.
“After university, we’ll all go our separate ways. I wonder if we’ll still keep in touch then,” Fang Ling said.
Lu Min added, “Many good relationships from high school end this way.” She felt particularly regretful as she didn’t have many friends.
“I’ll always remember you guys, and I’ll remember today,” Xiao Gua said sadly. If anyone gradually drifted away from this little group because of future achievements or changes in status, she felt it would definitely be her.
Fu Chengque couldn’t stand the atmosphere and was afraid of stirring up someone’s sad memories, so she said, “What’s there to fear? What’s there to fear! By that time, I’ll definitely have become the strongest Empress in the world. When the time comes, with just a wave of my hand, you’ll all come flying to me. We can gather for as long as we want, haha.”
“Chengque is right,” Fang Ling said. “Nowadays, transportation by plane and train is so convenient. If we want to meet up, we can just fly over.”
“Yeah, by then, you guys can’t say you’re too busy with work,” Lu Min laughed.
“Then I want to stay with you guys every day,” Xiao Gua exclaimed.
But Fu Chengque was dissatisfied. “I’m serious. What airplanes? This Empress doesn’t need airplanes!”
“Alright, let’s cheer for Empress together!”
“Hail Empress!”
“Hail Empress…”
Wen Yu remained silent, just listening, and slowly felt the world begin to sway.
Such moments, despite some sadness about parting and worries about the future, were no match for the thought of “we can still see each other tomorrow” —
It’s really comforting…
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