Chapter Nine: The Autumn Excursion (Part Two)

"Let's eat together. Boss! Two more tea-stewed eggs, please!"
"Coming right up, students!"
He Tianran sat down with an imposing manner, unpacked the freshly bought steamed stuffed buns on the table, and took the first bite himself.
Cao Aiqing scooped up a spoonful of porridge, blew on it lightly, and slipped it into her mouth. Perhaps finding it not quite sweet enough, she smacked her lips slightly.
"Can you really get full just drinking porridge? We'll have to hike once we arrive, and we won't get to eat until we reach Quanling Temple. You'll be hungry along the way," He Tianran reminded her with his mouth full, while peeling a tea-stewed egg in his hands.
"Well... eating too much sugar makes you gain weight, you know, so everything comes with a price," Cao Aiqing said with a troubled expression.
At that moment, He Tianran placed the peeled egg on a small plate and pushed it toward the girl, joking:
"It's not like you won't be exercising. Eating a little more is better than starving. If you can't manage the climb halfway through, don't come crying to me."
Cao Aiqing glared at him, then smiled, picked up the egg with her slender fingers, peeled off the egg white piece by piece, and finally held out the remaining egg yolk.
"Here, for you."
"You don't eat the egg yolk?"
Cao Aiqing wrinkled her delicate nose and nodded, saying, "Mmm, I've disliked it since I was a kid, but it feels such a waste to throw it away."
"So I've become your garbage bin then?" He Tianran took it and popped it straight into his mouth without standing on ceremony.
"No way, actually the egg yolk is much more nutritious than the egg white!" Cao Aiqing said with a serious expression.
"You know it's nutritious yet you still turn your nose up at it. I'll never understand you girls."
"It's right that you don't understand~" Cao Aiqing bobbed her head, picked up a small steamed stuffed bun and began to eat it. It was clear she was in a good mood.
The two of them finished off the remaining buns, and before leaving, He Tianran bought another portion, intending to take it along for Xue Yong.
At that moment, in the school parking lot, the students of Class 2 were already starting to line up and board the buses.
Xue Yong waved at He Tianran. Seeing this punk walking over alongside Cao Aiqing, a thoroughly "I understand everything" smile spread across his face from ear to ear.
"Stop letting your imagination run wild. We just ate a few buns, that's all."
He Tianran tossed the food straight into that brute's arms.
"Didn't you have a bowl of sweet tofu pudding~?" Xue Yong teased.
Cao Aiqing had already gone off to find her best friend, Bai Tingting, so naturally she couldn't hear the conversation over here. However, watching the two girls playfully shoving each other not far away, he figured Bai Tingting must have said something similar.
He Tianran rolled his eyes and replied, "Just eat your food. Can't these buns plug that big mouth of yours?"
Xue Yong laughed heartily, devouring the steamed stuffed buns one by one. He said, "Hey, this time is a great opportunity. You better tell me your plan quickly, lest you regret it later, you know."
"What plan? Regret what?" He Tianran played dumb. Of course he knew what Xue Yong was hinting at, but right now he had no such intentions whatsoever.
"Go ahead and play dumb. I'll just improvise later then." Xue Yong didn't beat around the bush with him.
He Tianran was puzzled, asking with genuine curiosity, "Do you want to see me and Cao Aiqing get together *that* badly?"
"Yep." Xue Yong took a slurp of soy milk to wash down the food in his mouth, and said frankly, "If you're with Cao Aiqing, you won't compete with me for Ah Liang anymore. How great is that?"
He Tianran was left momentarily speechless. At that instant, Ye Jiaqi, who was in charge of organizing the boarding in front of the tour bus, suddenly shouted out:
"Xue Yong!"
"Why are you calling your dad!" Xue Yong looked over at her with an impatient expression.
"Get over here and help me organize! Is being a dad really that easy to take on?" Ye Jiaqi shot back, turning his own words against him.
"Tch... women really are invincible once they drop their shame."
With a muttered complaint, Xue Yong walked in that direction. With his back to He Tianran, he said casually, "Well then, I'm just going to improvise."
He Tianran had no idea what kind of method his so-called "improvisation" would entail. In any case, his state of mind was very peaceful right now; as long as he didn't have those thoughts, no amount of matchmaking from outsiders would make any difference.
The students boarded the bus in pairs and groups. He Tianran had never liked lining up and always waited until there were hardly any people left before moving. This autumn outing involved the entire senior grade—nearly four or five hundred people in total. The tour buses alone were lined up in an entire row. As a class monitor, Cao Aiqing naturally had to organize her own classmates to maintain order, so she didn't board immediately.
After waiting for about ten or fifteen minutes, almost everyone had boarded. He Tianran arrived in front of his class's tour bus, only to see Xue Yong standing right at the bus door, blocking Bai Tingting behind him and Cao Aiqing in front of him.
"Class monitor, go find a spot on Class 5's bus to hitch a ride. Their class has fewer people, and there's only one seat left on this bus."
Bai Tingting, standing behind him, flared up and said, "That seat was the one I saved for Aiqing!"
Xue Yong turned his head with a despicable grin, "Then where am I supposed to sit? Old Ban told me to be responsible for leading you guys up the mountain. If I go ride on Class 5's bus and end up delaying things or losing track of people along the way, I'll just tell everyone you take full responsibility, how's that?"
Bai Tingting stamped her foot in anger, "We're grown-ups, how could we possibly get lost?"
"Oh, so you know that? Then do you two *have* to be glued to the hip? Besides, won't you be together once we reach the destination anyway? Don't give me extra trouble!"
Xue Yong spoke with absolute righteousness. Just as Bai Tingting was about to say something else, Cao Aiqing, standing beneath the bus, hurriedly interjected, "Alright Tingting, let's just listen to Xue Yong. I'll go look for another bus to ride on. Are all our classmates on board yet?"
"Let me check." Xue Yong glanced into the bus interior, then turned back, raised a finger and pointed at He Tianran, who was walking over. "Hey He Tianran, don't walk this way, there are no seats left. There's only you and the class monitor left, you two go find a spot on Class 5's bus yourselves."
With that, he climbed onto the bus, shoved Bai Tingting inside ahead of him, and then instructed the driver. The bus doors slowly closed.
Outside the bus, He Tianran and Cao Aiqing looked at each other, both feeling rather helpless.
The two of them coordinated with a few class officers from Class 5. Neither of them had any friends in Class 5, but there were still a few empty seats left—not that they needed to squeeze together. So, they each found a window seat separately.
It seemed Xue Yong's improvisation had fallen flat after all?
He Tianran thought silently to himself, took out his earphones, and prepared to listen to some music and have a good sleep.
He simply hadn't expected that some trouble would arise on Cao Aiqing's end.
Perhaps the reputation of the school belle was just too overwhelming, and since Class 5 was a science-focused class with a notoriously skewed gender ratio—out of 37 students in the whole class, there were only 3 girls—seeing Cao Aiqing board their bus, how could those punks not seize the chance to show off?
A bold male student had already planted himself right next to her, his motives painfully obvious. Cao Aiqing wasn't used to this, so she stood up and changed to another seat. To her surprise, another boy followed suit and immediately went to sit beside her.
"Students, please fasten your seatbelts and stop moving around. We're about to set off," came the voice of the middle-aged driver from the front.
Cao Aiqing sighed, almost resigning herself to her fate. The male student sitting next to her looked ecstatic, frantically fastening his seatbelt as if terrified that some other punk might snatch her away.
At that moment, within the girl's line of sight, she saw He Tianran shift his body toward the aisle seat. He tapped his finger on the inner seat beside him, then shot her a look, signaling whether she wanted to move over and sit with him.
Without the slightest hesitation, leaving the bewildered boy behind with a blank expression, Cao Aiqing got up from her seat and finally sat down next to He Tianran.
Having witnessed the entire process, He Tianran teased callously,
"How does it feel?"
Cao Aiqing paused for a moment, then lowered her voice and said,
"Terrifying."