"That person named Su Xiaoyue," Xia He asked Jiang Yueming, "how did you get to know her?"

Jiang Yueming was wolfing down the delicious food in front of him. Hearing this, he lifted his head from his bowl.

"It was... a chance meeting at the bookstore. She came up and struck up a conversation with me. It seemed like because, like me, she was also coincidentally reading... that book you recommended, hmm, the one you recommended."

Jiang Yueming's mouth was full of food as he spoke, his words muffled. He swallowed the mouthful of rice and added, "We just chatted a few sentences, didn't say much."

Xia He sat opposite him, her chopsticks holding a piece of spare rib suspended in mid-air, not brought to her mouth.

"A chance meeting?" Her tone betrayed no ripples. "She just came up to you and struck up a conversation?"

"Right." Jiang Yueming lowered his head and shoveled another mouthful of rice, completely oblivious to anything strange about that.

Xia He put the spare rib in her mouth and chewed slowly.

"What did she chat with you about?"

"Just about that book, The Human Chair. She said she liked it too, asked me what I thought about it, things like that." Jiang Yueming thought for a moment, then added, "Oh right, she also asked my name, and then we just chatted a bit."

"That's it?"

"That's it."

Xia He set down her chopsticks, lifted her cup of water, and took a sip.

"What do you think of her?" she asked, her voice sounding casual.

Jiang Yueming was in the middle of picking up a piece of braised pork belly to put in his mouth and froze at the question.

"What do you mean, what do I think?"

"I mean..." Xia He's fingertip traced the rim of the cup in a circle. "Her, as a person. What do you think of her?"

Jiang Yueming chewed on the meat and thought. "She's okay, I guess. Pretty chatty, and good-looking too."

He spoke without any thought, purely stating an objective fact.

Su Xiaoyue was indeed good-looking, a fact even a blind person could see. There was nothing to deny.

But he didn't notice the hand that held the cup opposite him pause for an instant.

"Good-looking?" she repeated.

"Yeah, why?"

Xia He looked at him, fell silent for two seconds, then suddenly smiled.

"Nothing, just asking casually." She picked up her chopsticks again, placed a piece of green vegetable in her bowl. "So when she was talking to you, did you feel anything was off?"

Jiang Yueming tilted his head and thought. "No, it was all pretty normal."

"Normal." Xia He repeated that word again.

Jiang Yueming finally sensed a trace of something unusual.

He raised his head and took a serious look at Xia He. Her expression seemed very calm, even carrying a faint smile at the corner of her mouth.

But he felt that smile was somehow off, as if drawn on with a brush.

"What's up with you?" he asked. "You don't like her?"

Xia He's chopsticks paused.

"No," she said. "I don't even know her. What's there to like or dislike?"

"Then why do you keep asking about her?"

"Just curious," Xia He placed a piece of meat into his bowl. "A strange girl came up to chat with you. What's wrong with me asking? What if she's some bad person."

Jiang Yueming was amused by this reasoning. "What kind of bad person could she be? She's just a girl who reads books."

"Bad people don't write it on their faces." Xia He said this half-jokingly, half-seriously. "You're too naive. Someone could sell you out and you'd still help count the money."

"I'm not an idiot." Jiang Yueming muttered defiantly, lowering his head to stuff the meat she'd given him into his mouth.

Watching him eat it, the curve of Xia He's lips became a little more genuine.

"Slow down. No one's fighting you for it."

Jiang Yueming grunted and slowed his pace.

The two ate quietly for a while. The atmosphere gradually eased. The steam from the hot pot rose between them, blurring each other's outlines.

"By the way," Xia He suddenly spoke again, "she said she's from Class Three?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"Had you ever seen her before?"

"Nope. First time meeting her today."

"And you hit it off so well on your first meeting?"

Jiang Yueming looked up at her, feeling like he had heard this question somewhere before.

"It was just chatting about a book. How is that hitting it off?" He scratched his head. "Are you fixated on her today? Why are you still asking?"

Xia He didn't answer right away. She picked up the strainer, scooped a few more slices of meat from the pot into Jiang Yueming's bowl, her movements deliberate.

"I just think," she set down the strainer and looked at him, "a stranger being this enthusiastic about you all of a sudden... isn't normal."

"What's not normal about it?"

"A girl you've never met before, being this enthusiastic on the first meeting, you don't think there's a problem?" Xia He retorted.

Jiang Yueming was stumped.

He recalled his conversation with Su Xiaoyue. She really had been very proactive, proactively striking up a conversation, proactively sitting over, proactively sharing a book with him.

But it didn't seem out of line. She might just be a girl with a more outgoing personality, right?

"Maybe she's just a cheerful person," he said.

Xia He looked at him. Something unreadable flickered in her eyes, too fast for him to catch.

"Maybe."

"Speaking of enthusiasm... aren't you pretty enthusiastic too?"

Jiang Yueming's words made Xia He's hand, which was picking up food, pause slightly.

"Me?"

"Yeah. From when we got to know each other, it's only been about a week, right? You said we chatted a bit during last week's duty shift, but I can't even remember it. Look, you're always piling food into my bowl now."

Jiang Yueming looked at the mountain of meat gradually piling up in his bowl. His own rapid eating speed actually couldn't keep up with the speed at which Xia He was serving him.

"What, you're not happy that I'm enthusiastic about you?" Xia He puffed up her cheeks slightly.

"No, not at all. To be honest, I'm quite happy about it."

Xia He's cheeks were still puffed, but after hearing this, her act of feigned anger could no longer hold. The corner of her mouth pressed down a curve that wanted to curl up but was too embarrassed to, and the rims of her ears flushed faintly pink.

The hot pot steam billowed. That expression was half-hidden in the vapor, like viewing flowers through a mist.

"What are you happy about?"

Xia He's voice softened, the pretty tip of her nose tilting slightly upwards, like a proud little girl.

"Isn't that normal? Anyone would be happy."

The corner of Xia He's mouth, just beginning to lift, froze mid-air.

"Anyone would be happy?" Her little face fell instantly. "Hey, Jiang Yueming, do you think I'm like this to everyone?"

Jiang Yueming was chewing meat and suddenly felt the delicacy in his mouth turn bland. An inexplicable sense of pressure made him look up blankly around, only to find that the source of that aura was Xia He, sitting right opposite him.

His heart skipped a beat.

"That's not what I meant..."

"Then what did you mean?"

"I just meant... you treat me really well."

Jiang Yueming hemmed and hawed for a long time before squeezing out that one sentence.

"So if someone else treated you well, you'd be pretty happy too?"

"That's different..."

"What's different?"

Jiang Yueming opened his mouth, only to find he couldn't out-talk her.

Xia He looked at his embarrassed expression, went silent for a few seconds, then sighed.

That sigh was very soft, almost inaudible, lost in the bubbling of the hot pot. But Jiang Yueming heard it. Not only did he hear it, he also made out what was in it.

It was clearly a sigh, yet Jiang Yueming actually sensed a softness in it, the kind of sigh his mother often had on her lips, carrying a helpless smile.

"Jiang Yueming," she called his name, "do you think I'm like this to everyone?"

She had asked this question once before, and he hadn't answered. This time she asked more directly, so directly that he couldn't gloss over it.

"... I don't know," he said.

"You don't know?" Xia He tilted her head. "Then let me tell you—"

She paused, as if organizing her words, or perhaps gathering her courage.

"Jiang Yueming, I'm only like this with you."