Tang Li suppressed her emotions: "It’s just...I’m getting kind of hungry, thinking about going for a late-night snack makes me a bit excited."
Upon hearing this, Song Baiyan, who was driving, revealed a smile.
A man’s smile can come in many forms, some smile out of politeness, others to charm women. Such smiles are often forced and insincere. Even though Song Baiyan’s smiles were usually brief, they lacked exaggeration, resembling the mellow aftertaste of aged wine, irresistibly stirring her heart.
Tang Li was in charge of picking the place for the late-night snack.
She didn’t choose a restaurant and casually pointed at a street food stall.
Then, she turned her head to look at Song Baiyan, remembering his status: "This place is a bit dirty, let’s find a better restaurant."
"It’s fine," Song Baiyan pulled over a plastic stool and sat down first by the table: "There’s no need to be so particular about a late-night snack."
The corners of Tang Li’s lips curved slightly, and she seated herself next to him. The owner brought over a menu: "Call me when you’ve chosen."
With that, he immediately went to attend to another table.
Tang Li handed the menu to Song Baiyan: "I insisted on treating you, so you pick first."
"Did you bring enough cash tonight?"
Remembering the time they bought medicine, Tang Li’s cheeks warmed up, and she nodded: "I brought over two hundred, definitely enough."
In the end, they ordered two bowls of Diannan’s crossing-bridge rice noodles.
It cost a total of 30 yuan.
After paying, the owner started to cook the rice noodles.
Tang Li suddenly stood up: "I’ll go buy something else, I’ll be back soon."
Song Baiyan sat at the food stall amidst the bustling market and didn’t feel impatient. The street was illuminated with a string of light bulbs, most of the passersby were tourists. He picked up the vinegar bottle on the table and poured some into a white porcelain dish.
A few minutes later, Tang Li returned with two small paper bags.
The bags contained fried rice cakes.
Hanging from her wrist was a plastic bag holding two cups of sugarcane juice.
At that moment, the owner also brought over the crossing-bridge rice noodles.
Tang Li sat back down, distributing the rice cakes and sugarcane juice, one portion each: "I asked for some honey from the owner, the rice cakes are filled with red bean paste, very sweet."
Song Baiyan asked, "Don’t you find eating so much sweet stuff cloying?"
"Don’t you like it?" Tang Li said while opening the plastic bag to take out the sugarcane juice, then suddenly realized something, she looked up at Song Baiyan: "...You don’t like sweets?"
Glancing at the sugarcane juice, she added: "Last time I met Song Jingtian, we had dinner together, he said you like sweets a lot."
Even so, she suspected she might’ve been deceived again.
Tang Li recalled the night they ate at Weiqian Ramen, Song Jingtian had gulped down a large cup of chocolate milkshake, burped satisfactorily, and while holding the menu intending to order a sundae with herbal jelly, she stopped him. Then, leaning back with his youthful face, he said, "Can’t help it, liking sweets is a family trait, my elder brother is practically addicted to them."
Song Jingtian bringing up Song Baiyan might have just been using his brother as a cover to keep her from stopping him from ordering ice cream.
—See, even my elder brother eats sweets, what reason do you have to stop me?
Thinking this, Tang Li immediately withdrew the rice cakes and also took the sugarcane juice back: "If you don’t like them, I’ll eat them, I quite like sweets."
However, Song Baiyan reached out to keep the sugarcane juice: "I wouldn’t say I like them, but I don’t dislike them either, changing tastes once in a while isn’t bad." Saying this, his gentle gaze met hers: "Jingtian is precocious with no fewer schemes than you; usually, you can only believe half of what he says."
"..." She was just worried for nothing.
Tang Li lowered her head and took several sips of the sugarcane juice through a straw.