When Xu Qingfan returned to the teachers’ rest area, Guan Biyue was chatting leisurely with Zhong Wenqing.
"Isn’t the exam not over yet? How come you’re out?" Seeing everyone staring in their direction, Guan Biyue fought back the urge to beat up Xu Qingfan on the spot and asked curiously.
The other accompanying teachers also cast inquiring glances, wanting to hear if something unexpected had occurred.
"It was too easy. I turned in my paper early," Xu Qingfan shrugged after finding a place to sit.
"Tsk!" The teachers who had been waiting for some drama couldn’t help but laugh out loud, retracting their inquisitive gazes.
"That confident? Be careful not to make careless mistakes!" Guan Biyue flicked him lightly on the forehead.
"Look who’s talking," Xu Qingfan pulled out the Probability Theory book from his bag and showed off, "Sister Qing, what are we eating for lunch?"
"What do you want to eat? Fried liver, stewed food, you guys won’t eat it, nor will you eat noodles, so it’s just barbecue, roast duck or hotpot then," Zhong Wenqing enumerated their picky eating habits as Southerners with her finger.
"Who eats noodles at noon anyway," Xu Qingfan, a staunch rice aficionado, shook his head insistently.
"Huh?" Upon hearing Xu Qingfan’s words, many Northern onlookers turned to look at him in unison.
"Actually, having noodles occasionally is quite nice, ha..." he added awkwardly.
"Pfft~ With just these dishes in Yanjing, if you don’t feel like eating any, you’ll have to settle for the northwest wind," Zhong Wenqing patted his head with a chuckle.
"Then let’s go for roast duck. Are we going to Quan Que De?" Xu Qingfan had never had the chance to visit Yanjing in his past life and had only heard about the fame of Quan Que De’s roast duck in his middle school English essays.
"That place is a tourist trap, all for fooling outsiders. I’ll take you to where I usually go!"
"Ah? Then how come it’s so famous?" Xu Qingfan thought that in 2004, there shouldn’t be any "internet famous" shops.
"If you could say hello and eat in the Emperor’s Hall at the Peace Store, of course it would be delicious, with the chef watching over the roasting just for you. But we’re going to..." Zhong Wenqing shrugged, her face showing an expression that said it all.
"Alright," Xu Qingfan understood immediately, it could be made delicious, but it wasn’t necessary.
The three of them idly waited in the lounge until the bell was about to ring for the end of class. "Alright, let’s pick up Xiao Xiao and Lingyu and go have a feast!" Guan Biyue slapped her seated bottom and stood up to say.
When Xu Qingfan and his group reached the exam room where Xia Xiaoxiao and Wu Lingyu were, the bell signaling the end of the exam sounded just in time, with Xia Xiaoxiao being the first to spot Xu Qingfan at the window, flashing a knowing smile after a slight pause.
Xu Qingfan also waved and smiled back, and as soon as the invigilator had collected all the exam papers, the two hurried out.
"Teacher Guan, Sister Qing," they said in unison. Wu Lingyu glanced at Xu Qingfan and added, "Brother Fan."
"Get in the car first, it’s too cold outside," Zhong Wenqing, a Northerner herself, happened to be the one who disliked the cold the most.
"Xu Qingfan, is the answer 2.5?" Once they were in the car, Xia Xiaoxiao eagerly asked, rubbing her hands together for warmth.
This time, the exam featured the kind of rectangular path problem that the little girl least wanted to encounter. Unable to solve it with the standard method, she had no choice but to measure out an answer with a ruler.
"You can’t blame yourself for that; the answer is three-eighths. How could a normal person guess that right?" Xu Qingfan comforted her by rubbing her head.
"Ah~" Xia Xiaoxiao looked dejected.
"Alright, now that the exam is over, let’s put it behind us. No checking answers. Let’s enjoy ourselves in Yanjing these few days!" Guan Biyue said, turning around from the front passenger seat to address the three of them.
"What are we going to eat now?" Xia Xiaoxiao, obediently pushing aside her displeasure, looked through the window at the endless stream of cars and asked.
"I’m going to take you to eat roast duck. Freshly sliced duck skin and meat with cucumber and green onion, all wrapped up in freshly baked lotus leaf pancakes, and you won’t say a word once you start eating!" Zhong Wenqing enthusiastically explained the various ways old Yanjing people eat roast duck to everyone.
Having concentrated intensely on the exam, they hadn’t felt hungry, but now, with Zhong Wenqing’s description, all three began to feel a significant hunger.
"So what are we going to do after we eat?"
"After eating, we’ll head back to the hotel for a good sleep, and once we wake up, we’ll go for a grand shopping spree!" With the limited variety of goods in Li City’s shopping malls, Guan Biyue, who was rare to visit Yanjing, had to return loaded with purchases, making full use of the 20KG free baggage allowance on the flight.
The car swiftly arrived at the destination, and Zhong Wenqing led them to an unmarked simple shed. Even before entering the shop, the aroma of roast duck wafted into their nostrils.
The shop’s owners were a middle-aged couple, the man in charge of roasting ducks and the woman in charge of drawing customers, with their child squatting in front of the TV watching, a very typical Chinese family-run establishment.
"Chef, one six-pound duck, please!"
The stools provided for customers in the shop were long wooden benches like those used in rural feasts. Xu Qingfan sat in the center with Xia Xiaoxiao and Wu Lingyu on each side.
Since it wasn’t quite mealtime yet, they were the only customers in the shop, and the roasted duck with its skin crisped and spotted lay alongside lotus leaf pancakes, quickly brought to the table.
"Photos first, photos first!" Xu Qingfan slapped away Xia Xiaoxiao’s hand as she reached for a lotus leaf pancake and took out his camera from his bag to photograph the feast.
"Yes, yes, let’s eat!"
After putting away the camera, Xu Qingfan didn’t bother about the heat, and picked up a lotus leaf pancake barehanded, laid it out on his palm, piled high with crispy duck skin and meat along with cucumber strips, rolled it up, dipped it in sweet bean sauce, and took a hefty bite.
"Is it good?" Xia Xiaoxiao, who couldn’t eat hot food, blew on her rolled-up roast duck to cool it down while asking Xu Qingfan.