Leng Xuan certainly didn’t mean that, but there were still two girls at home waiting for him to cook, and with all these twists and turns, if he really starved them, he’d have a tough time when he got back. He chuckled wryly and said, "Want to, of course I want to. But, do you plan to accompany me?"
"Hm?" Pang Shanshan said, "I was thinking of buying some clothes for myself anyway, so it’s not like I’d be going just to accompany you."
Leng Xuan awkwardly said, "But... cough, I really don’t have time to go now! How about you just give me the money instead, and I’ll go buy it when I have time."
Pang Shanshan’s eyes widened in surprise. To think he could make such a request?
Could it be that this kid was planning to ditch her halfway?
Thinking this, Pang Shanshan was truly infuriated. Before, when she saw Leng Xuan always glancing at her chest, whether intentionally or not, she thought he was a pervert drooling over her. She assumed if she asked him to go clothes shopping with her, he would be over the moon. And now, to her surprise, he was actually thinking of leaving her halfway?
"How much does your outfit cost?" Pang Shanshan was still their class teacher after all, and it wouldn’t be proper to be too demanding, though she was inwardly seething, she managed to remain composed on the surface.
"One outfit?" Leng Xuan was taken aback for a moment. Only his shirt had been stained with blood; his pants were fine, so he looked doubtfully at Pang Shanshan and said, "1867, let’s round it down to 1800."
Pang Shanshan couldn’t be bothered with the specifics and simply took out two thousand dollars from a bag and handed it to Leng Xuan, saying, "All right, here’s two thousand dollars, you go buy it yourself. Don’t let today’s incident slip out, or you’ll get zeros in all your future grades!" After saying this, she couldn’t help but laugh, then she got out of the car.
Leng Xuan didn’t expect that this girl, Pang Shanshan, could be so generous. The shirt he was wearing had cost him nine hundred and eighty dollars in total, so this meant he had made nearly half of that back. More importantly, the blood on the clothes wasn’t something that couldn’t be washed clean; from his time in the organization, having blood on his clothes was a common affair. Usually, just using enzyme detergent and soaking in warm water for a couple of hours was enough to clean even the most stubborn bloodstains spotlessly.
"Di di, di di..." Suddenly, the ringtone of Leng Xuan’s old phone went off. Checking the caller ID, he saw it was Li Mengjie’s number. Guessing that the girl was probably urging him to hurry back, he didn’t bother to pick up. He set the car to its highest speed within the speed limit, and soon, he was back where Ling Xuejiu lived. He parked the car in the garden outside.
The moment he stepped through the door, Leng Xuan smelled a whiff of burning tar, which left him stunned for a moment, wondering what was going on with an expression of pure bafflement, until he heard coughing sounds from the kitchen coming from Ling Xuejiu and Li Mengjie. That’s when he figured it out and walked over. Upon entering the kitchen, he saw a scene of smoke and chaos.
Amid the smoky haze, Leng Xuan noticed Ling Xuejiu and Li Mengjie each wearing a cute little apron. Ling Xuejiu’s face was smeared with soot, holding a cooking spoon in one hand and a shield (pot lid) in the other, angrily stirring the pot and cursing, "You dead Leng Xuan, stinky Leng Xuan, I’ll stir-fry you to death, to death..."
Li Mengjie, with a kitchen knife in hand, stood far from the eye-watering smoke, laughing cheerily and said, "Xue Jiu, stop cursing. It sounds so awkward!"
"Huh?" Ling Xuejiu asked, confused, "Awkward? How’s it awkward?" Then it dawned on her—did "I’ll stir-fry you to death" sound almost like "I’ll fuck you to death"? Suddenly, she blushed crimson with embarrassment and felt almost like she was going to collapse.