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[Chapter 022] Bian JinYuan, “Let’s eat together.”
Lu YunFei thought, how was he supposed to provide evidence? It’s not like he could draw it out as well, he wasn’t Leonardo da Vinci.
Bian JinYuan saw that he didn’t respond and carried the plate to Shuang Shuang, placing it in front of him.
Shuang Shuang was reading a storybook. Seeing them approach, he raised his head to look at Bian JinYuan.
Bian JinYuan rubbed his head and said, “This is my classmate, he’ll sit with you. Let him know if you need anything.”
Lu YunFei waved at Shuang Shuang. Shuang Shuang smiled at him, “Hello gege.”
“Hello,” Lu YunFei looked at the little white bun in front of him. He was already very familiar with Shuang Shuang. After all, the Tmall Genie in Bian JinYuan’s home was most often played by Shuang Shuang. It was just that he had always faced the little boy through the lens of the Tmall Genie. This was the first time that he had met Shuang Shuang as himself.
He relied on social conventions to ask, “What’s your name?”
Shuang Shuang looked at his gege. Seeing Bian JinYuan nod, he said softly, “I’m Shuang Shuang.”
“‘Shuang’ as in ‘to form a pair, to form a couple’ (æˆćŒæˆćŻč, chĂ©ng shuāng chĂ©ng duĂŹ)?”
Shuang Shuang didn’t understand the idiom, and could only raise his head up to seek his gege Bian JinYuan’s help.
“That’s right,” Bian JinYuan said gently, “Take a seat first, I’ll give you spelling later.”
“Okay.”
After Bian JinYuan said that, he asked after Shuang Shuang for a bit before leaving.
Lu YunFei sat opposite Shuang Shuang and observed him. He looked similar to what he saw as a Tmall Genie, a cute and lively boy with fair skin and dark hair, and who looked like he possessed a gentle disposition.
He pushed his cake over, “Would you like some cake?”
Shuang Shuang shook his head and said briskly, “I’ve eaten cake already.”
“Eat another one.”
“Gege said that I can only eat one a day, if I eat more I’ll get cavities.”
Hearing this, Lu YunFei took the cake back, “Then I’ll eat it. Will you get hungry if I eat in front of you?”
Shuang Shuang shook his head and held his face as he said, “I won’t since I’ve already had cake.”
Lu YunFei then started to eat with ease.
As he ate his cake, he took out the paper that he hadn’t yet finished to start doing homework. As he worked on them, he suddenly felt someone approach from his side. Lu YunFei looked up to see Bian JinYuan place a sheet of paper on top of his mock papers.
“Write.”
Lu YunFei twirled the pen in his hand, “I’ll show you.”
Bian JinYuan nodded, “I look forward to it.”
After saying that, he went back towards the cashier counter.
Lu YunFei picked up his pen and started the spelling.
Shuang Shuang moved closer in curiosity and asked, “Is this pinyin? B
 b
”
He tilted his little head and furrowed his brows in confusion, “How do you read this?”
Lu YunFei smiled, “This is not pinyin, it’s English.”
Shuang Shuang didn’t understand, “It looks the same as pinyin.”
“But you can’t understand it right?”
Shuang Shuang nodded.
Lu YunFei sighed, “I also can’t understand it.”
Shuang Shuang smiled, his eyes curved as he asked, “You’re so old and you still can’t understand it?”
“English has got nothing to do with age. You’re still young, you don’t understand the trauma it brings.”
“Then is my gege able to understand it?” Shuang Shuang asked.
“Of course your ge can, who’s your ge, your ge is almost a foreigner at this point.”
“My ge is not a foreigner,” Shuang Shuang said emphatically.
“Your ge is definitely not. Foreigners don’t learn grammar, but your ge even knows grammar.”
Lu YunFei said as he shook his head, continuing to work on the spelling.
Shuang Shuang sat obediently at the table and watched him spell, occasionally sipping from his drink.
Lu YunFei didn’t spend much time on the spelling before he completed it. He turned to look and saw that Bian JinYuan was still busy, so he didn’t rush over. When he saw that he had a bit more free time, he took his paper and said to Shuang Shuang, “Stay put, I’m going to hand in my paper to your gege.”
Shuang Shuang nodded.
Lu YunFei asked him, “What would you like to eat? I’ll bring it over.”
“No need, it’ll be lunchtime soon,” Shuang Shuang said.
Lu YunFei didn’t press the issue and went straight to Bian Jinyuan.
Bian JinYuan looked at the spelling that was handed to him, “Not bad, you actually memorised them.”
“Of course,” Lu YunFei said proudly, “Otherwise I wouldn’t have dared to come.”
Bian JinYuan took out the red gel pen from the cashier drawer and ticked the paper, even adding a 100 marks, and then handed the paper over, “Well done.”
“It was not a problem.”
During the afternoon, Bian JinYuan’s colleague ordered delivery and asked if he would like anything. Bian JinYuan said “No need” and walked over to Lu YunFei and Shuang Shuang’s table.
Lu YunFei was just reading a story from a storybook to Shuang Shuang. Shuang Shuang listened intently, occasionally emitting “wow”s.
Bian JinYuan waited for Lu YunFei to finish a sentence before interrupting, “Would you like to have lunch?”
“Sure,” Lu YunFei put down the storybook, “What are we having?”
Bian JinYuan turned to look at his didi, “Shuang Shuang what would you like to eat?”
Shuang Shuang wasn’t able to answer such a sudden question directed at him. He had been too immersed in listening to the story, and hadn’t considered this question. However Lu YunFei remembered that Zhao YuPeng had purposely tried to make Shuang Shuang hungry the night before, “Let’s eat KFC, kids love this. Shuang Shuang could get a kid’s meal and it even comes with a toy.”
Shuang Shuang was reminded by him and immediately thought of Zhao YuPeng’s hamburger the night before, his thoughts consumed by hamburgers. And so he looked up at Bian JinYuan and asked uncertainly, “Could we have hamburgers, gege?”
Bian JinYuan had always been partial to his only didi. He seldom spent money on himself, but was very willing to spend on Shuang Shuang, it was just that

He looked at Lu YunFei, “Are you alright eating this?”
Lu YunFei was naturally okay with it, “You still have to ask? Who doesn’t like fried chicken? I’m definitely okay with it.”
“Then let’s go, there’s a KFC nearby as well.”
After entering the restaurant, Lu YunFei asked Bian JinYuan what he wanted, and told him to take Shuang Shuang up to the second floor to find a seat. He took out his handphone to open the self-service menu. Today, the reason why he went to look for Bian JinYuan was not just to do spelling, but also to treat Shuang Shuang to a meal.
Lu YunFei thought of how Zhao YuPeng looked while taunting Shuang Shuang with food the night before and got angry. Wasn’t it just KFC? He would let Shuang Shuang get his fill today. After the food arrived, Lu YunFei realised that there were too many trays, and he wasn’t able to carry all of them.
“Jiejie, could you help me to change these to takeaway?” Lu YunFei had a flash of inspiration.
The girl at the counter nodded and took out a large bag to place the food inside. She also placed the drinks and sundae in a separate bag for him. Lu YunFei thanked her and carried the bagful of food, looking like a food delivery boy.
Bian JinYuan got a shock when he saw Lu YunFei carrying the bag. He looked at his deskmate in disbelief, “Your appetite is not bad.”
Lu YunFei didn’t mind the misunderstanding and laughed, “It’s okay.”
How is this just okay, Bian JinYuan looked at the bag on the table. He couldn’t see how his thin deskmate was able to hide such a humongous appetite. It was a case of not judging a book by its cover.
However Bian JinYuan’s thoughts weren’t held for long. When he helped Lu YunFei to take the food out, he discovered that he had bought a lot of children’s snacks.
Lu YunFei very naturally placed the children’s meals in front of Shuang Shuang, and then placed the rest of the food in the middle and put the bag away.
Bian JinYuan furrowed his brows subconsciously, “Didn’t you say you would buy a kid’s meal? You bought so many others as well.”
“It’s a greeting present,” Lu YunFei handed the milk to Shuang Shuang, “Careful it’s hot.”
Shuang Shuang quickly reached out to take the milk.
Lu YunFei then turned to look at Bian JinYuan, “It’s my first time meeting your didi, I have to do something about it. Moreover, Shuang Shuang helped to monitor my spelling just now. Invigilators earn money when they invigilate, there’s no reason for external invigilators not to earn anything.”
Bian JinYuan thought that this was a completely fallacious logic, “Let me know how much it costs, I’ll pay for it.”
Lu YunFei pouted, “Stop being pointless. Then you should also calculate how much it costs for you to look over my spelling, I’ll pay you by the month.”
“That’s not the same, I was only helping you along the way, you
”
“Forget it,” Lu YunFei interrupted him, “Along the way? Today is a school holiday, how is this along the way? You’re a cake shop staff today, is your cake shop so advanced? You still include English spelling?”
Bian JinYuan wasn’t able to retort to this.
Lu YunFei took a sip of his whipped cream coffee and continued, “My English tutor earns a thousand yuan per hour. If the lesson runs between half an hour to an hour, it’s still considered an hour. According to this, I reckon that I ought to pay you 2,000 for yesterday and today. Minus the stuff bought here, I still owe you a thousand, I’ll transfer the money to you via WeChat.”
Lu YunFei said and took out his phone. However he was barely able to unlock his phone when it was covered by Bian JinYuan.
Lu YunFei raised his head in innocence, “What now teacher Bian? You don’t prefer transferring via WeChat? Then we could also do Alipay.”
Bian JinYuan: 

Bian JinYuan said in exasperation, “Let’s eat.”
“Don’t, doesn’t teacher Bian want to calculate money with me? I’ll send the money over to teacher Bian.”
Bian JinYuan was tired, “Let’s eat.”
“Then are you still going to be calculative with me?”
“If you’re still going to ask me, then later when we go back, you could write a volunteer application for Lǐ Huá . # ”
Lu YunFei: 

Lu YunFei instantly deflated.
He would rather continue to memorise vocabulary than to help this scheming boy Li Hua on his behalf! It’s been so many years, and with so many students helping him to run errands, he still needed others to help him write letters, write volunteer applications, and even to reply his mail. He’s just lazy and good-for-nothing!
Quack Notes
# Li Hua is a hypothetical name that constantly comes up on English exams. Real examples of where Li Hua makes an appearance from this article on Li Hua (in Mandarin):
“Write a volunteer application. Li Hua wants to go to London to volunteer as an art museum.” – 2019 national exam paper one
“Assuming you are Li Hua. You and a classmate are editing a short script for English class. Please write an email to Miss Veans to seek her assistance. The email should include
” – 2020 national college entrance English exam paper three