"Keep it in your heart?" Yuantong repeated.
Her heart felt sweet, even sweeter than the sugar pills she had in the hospital when she was a child.
Her eyes smiled, and she tried to laugh, but then, she put on a stern face, mimicking the demeanor her mother used when scolding her,
"Keep it safe in your heart, huh, you still won’t listen to me? What if you cause trouble by drinking?"
Jiang Ning was just about to say that wouldn’t be possible.
Yuantong saw through his thoughts and preempted, "What if you cause trouble for others by drinking?"
That would require compensation, not to mention it would be scary!
Without realizing it, Yuantong had taken his position and considered the consequences for him.
Jiang Ning waved his hand, "Okay, okay, I won’t drink."
"Hmph." Yuantong lifted her chin as if she had won a victory, proudly leaving the room.
Within the range of Divine Sense, Jiang Ning noticed a lady in the corridor outside about to pass by, possibly bumping into Yuantong.
He spurred his Spiritual Power.
Suddenly the lady’s neck pained, making her stop walking.
Yuantong looked at her strangely, not understanding why, she swiped her card to open her room.
The room instantly brightened, yet it seemed emptier.
Yuantong was both courageous and timid; she dared to live alone by the river dam during middle school, waiting for her mother to return from night shifts.
But after entering Yu Zhou Fourth Middle School, she was afraid to walk on the roads at night.
In the unfamiliar city, in the spacious room, in that moment, Yuantong thought about turning back to Jiang Ning’s place.
However, worrying about being laughed at by Jiang Ning if she returned, she bit her lip and decided to stay, as it was already very late and time to sleep.
The hotel bed was very soft, a bit more comfortable than the one at home.
Yuantong’s small body was curled up in the blanket, the air conditioner set at 24°C.
She rolled over in the large bed a few times, feeling like snacking, but regretted having already brushed her teeth.
She sent a message to Jiang Ning in the next room, "Don’t forget to set the alarm for the buffet tomorrow."
"Have you ever had a buffet breakfast?" Yuantong asked.
"Where did you have it?"
"In our school cafeteria, don’t they give you three types of porridge in the morning, and also buns and pancakes?" Jiang Ning replied earnestly.
Yuantong was shocked, "Ah, so the hotel’s buffet breakfast is the same as the cafeteria’s?"
Her anticipation quickly faded by half.
Jiang Ning replied, "You’ll know tomorrow."
Yuantong found typing too tiring, so she switched to a voice call with Jiang Ning. The hotel had Wifi, so no data would be wasted.
They often called each other at home; sometimes, Yuantong deliberately didn’t hang up because she wanted to hear Jiang Ning snore and then tease him about it, but unfortunately, he didn’t snore.
"It’s 12 o’clock, and you’re still not asleep," Jiang Ning said while browsing on his iPad, which he had secretly brought with him in his Storage Ring, otherwise, it might have been commandeered by Yuantong by now.
Yuantong, used to staying up late, claimed in a righteous tone, "I can’t sleep if you don’t sleep. I’ll wait for you to sleep first."
Jiang Ning responded, "Wow."
Unfortunately, ten minutes later.
Jiang Ning asked, "Are you asleep?"
He covered her with Divine Sense, and Yuantong was sleeping peacefully with her eyes closed.
He sighed in silence, gently caressed her with Spiritual Power, and tucked her in.
The next day, July 11, there was haze.
At night, the city was lit with lights.
A group of people headed to Taishan.
Yuantong told Jiang Ning, "We watch the sunrise tomorrow morning and come back quickly. We can’t waste the buffet breakfast."
That morning, she, cradling disappointment, stepped into the hotel restaurant, only to discover that the buffet breakfast was not like the school’s, but exactly like she had imagined it—fruits, vegetables, buns, fried dough sticks, pastries, cakes, milk, soy milk, yogurt, everything was there!
Yuantong ate with the intention of getting her money’s worth, selected a huge array of food, skipped lunch after finishing, and only ate something in the evening to fill her stomach.
The meal was unforgettable for her.
Yang Sheng, who was nearby, found it amusing, yet undeniable that, although the taste wasn’t excellent, the breakfast was indeed substantial.
When you go out, you should definitely enjoy a good sleep, then get up for breakfast.
If only the hotel Jiang Ning was staying in wasn’t so expensive, Yang Sheng would even consider checking in.
Huang Zhongfei pointed to a brightly lit store along the road, "Let’s buy some snacks to put in our bags, beef jerky, chocolate bars, sausages."
Tang Fu asked, "Do they sell food on the mountain?"
She was used to traveling light and only brought a very small shoulder bag.
Huang Zhongfei said, "There will definitely be food, but it’s awful."
The buffet breakfast on Taishan cost 10 yuan per person, and the taste was hard to swallow.
Hearing this, Tang Fu also decided to buy some snacks.
They took a taxi, entered the night-time Tai City, and after about twenty minutes, they arrived at Taishan’s Red Gate Visitor Center.
The giant sign stood before them, and Yuantong, looking at the dense crowd ahead, exclaimed,
In her imagination, climbing the mountain at night would be lonely, but the scene before her resembled a bustling temple fair.
Huang Zhongfei explained, "Taishan is almost the mountain with the most visitors in the country. In recent years, the number of people climbing each year has been more than 3 million, and this year it is expected to exceed 4 million."
"An average of over 10,000 people a day, now during summer vacation, tens of thousands of people easily."
Yuantong was enlightened, completely different from what she had imagined.
Huang Zhongfei continued, "We’ll start from Red Gate, take the most classic route, also the path walked by emperors who performed rituals here in the past, there are many stone carvings and monuments along the way..."
"Too bad they can’t be seen at night," he said self-deprecatingly.
Tang Fu mentioned, "I saw online that Taishan is only 1500 meters high, it’s not very tall. Why didn’t the emperors climb Mount Everest to perform rituals? It would be more majestic, right?"
Yang Sheng quipped, "You might as well just ask for the emperor’s life."
As they discussed, an old lady approached, "Do you want to buy climbing sticks? Five yuan for two."