Ordered some seafood

After breakfast, Lin Mo went to the market before returning to the rental apartment. Xie Yuling was slowly typing away on the keyboard.

Since there was no computer at home, she had to practice typing in pinyin at a leisurely pace.

When Lin Mo pushed the door open and entered, Xie Yuling didn’t seem flustered at all, continuing to type without pause.

She turned her head and asked, "My cousin said he needs help skewering ingredients for the barbecue this afternoon. Want to come along?"

"Sure, since we’re eating his food, it’s only fair to lend a hand."

Lin Mo casually took a seat and picked up his Olympiad Math guide to continue studying.

After a few more clacks of the keyboard, Xie Yuling asked again, "Any food you can’t eat?"

"Yeah, I can’t stand shiitake mushrooms. But you guys can go ahead—grilled shiitake won’t affect the other skewers."

Everyone had their dietary restrictions, and for Lin Mo, it was shiitake mushrooms. Even a tiny bite would make him gag.

So he always avoided dishes with shiitake.

That said, he never stopped others from eating them.

"Got it. I’ll tell him to buy less then."

After finishing her chat with her cousin, Xie Yuling turned back to see Lin Mo engrossed in his book.

"Between you and Xue Zigui right now, who’s better at math?"

Lin Mo thought for a moment before answering confidently, "Probably me. But since the max score is 150, as long as he doesn’t make mistakes, he can hit that mark easily."

However, Lin Mo’s Chinese and English scores were a bit weaker.

Memorizing English vocabulary wasn’t too hard, but sentence structures and cloze tests gave him trouble.

With all the tense variations in English, he planned to focus on Chinese and English only after mastering Olympiad Math.

"So you’re planning to major in sciences later, right?"

Someone with such strong math skills usually didn’t perform poorly in the sciences.

"Yep, sciences suit me better. What about you? Thinking of going for humanities?"

Xie Yuling shook her head like a rattle-drum. "No way. I hate rote memorization—humanities aren’t for me."

"Alright, I’ll tutor you in math when the time comes."

"Sounds good. Maybe I can help you with your weak subjects too."

Xie Yuling didn’t believe anyone could be all-knowing, so she was certain Lin Mo had his own shortcomings.

Then she vacated the computer seat.

"Here, it’s all yours."

Lin Mo set aside his Olympiad guide, logged into QQ, and was immediately bombarded with messages.

Some were from Fang Jun, others from classmates—both guys and girls.

After returning last night, Fang Jun had shared their ambush story in the class group chat, stirring up quite the frenzy.

Lin Mo hadn’t checked his QQ messages, so he’d missed the commotion.

He skimmed through them one by one.

Fang Jun had asked if he’d gotten home safely. Lin Mo replied casually that he’d already woken up.

Then there was Jiang Yunlu’s concern.

"My family has strong ties with a law firm. Let me know if you need any help."

"Thanks, but no need. It’s a criminal case—the prosecutors will handle it."

Jiang Yunlu replied quickly.

"Alright. Fang Jun made it sound so intense—I thought something terrible had happened to you."

"You actually believed him?"

Lin Mo then checked the group chat.

"Suddenly, a dozen men charged at Lin Mo, wielding divine weapons. With a single slash of their blades, they split the void, ready to tear Lin Mo apart in seconds."

Seriously? What kind of ridiculous novel had this guy been reading?

Lin Mo facepalmed before typing in the group: "Thanks for the concern, everyone. I’m fine. I just kicked a few times, and the rest ran off on their own. It wasn’t as dramatic as Fang Jun made it sound."

Lastly, there was Chu Miaomiao.

She was far calmer, not flooding him with messages like Jiang Yunlu.

Her message was simple: "I knew you’d be okay. You’re too capable for anything to happen."

Lin Mo replied, "You know too much. I’ll have to assassinate you one of these days when I’m free."

Chu Miaomiao didn’t respond immediately.

After a while, she sent back a scared-stiff emoji.

......

After clearing his messages, Lin Mo queued up for a few solo matches in his game.

The girl sat behind him, watching him play. At first, she found it intriguing, but soon grew bored, unable to understand why guys were so into these games.

Yet, whenever Lin Mo pulled off an impressive play, she couldn’t help but feel a flicker of excitement.

Eventually, she blurted out:

"I wanna try!"

Try at your own risk.

"Go ahead. Just play around with it."

Lin Mo started a bot match and swapped seats with Xie Yuling.

"By the way, how old’s your cousin? Should I buy him candy or something?"

"He’s the same age as me—also a first-year in high school. We weren’t in the same class in middle school, though. Now he’s at Peilin High."

Peilin High wasn’t too far, just an extra ten-minute bus ride compared to their school.

But Peilin was second-tier, admitting students with scores around 500—a far cry from Lin Mo’s elite institution.

"I see. I thought he’d be a few years younger, hanging out with middle or elementary school kids."

Then it dawned on Lin Mo why Xie Yuling had invited him to the barbecue.

Her cousin’s friends would all be around their age.

Surrounded by too many peers, Xie Yuling tended to shut down emotionally, turning into an ice-cold statue.

But since she couldn’t skip it, bringing Lin Mo along made perfect sense.

By noon, Auntie Zheng called them upstairs for lunch.

In the afternoon, Xie Yuling stayed at Lin Mo’s place, using his computer to binge dramas. Around 3 or 4 p.m., she checked the time and said, "Let’s go. Time to skewer the ingredients."

"Sure. I need to swing by the market first—I ordered something to pick up."

Xie Yuling gave him a puzzled look.

"What did you order?"

"Just some food. Let’s go."

With that, the two headed downstairs.

It was Mid-Autumn Festival—some people were dining out, while others were cooking at home.

Xie Yuling pressed, "What exactly did you order? Everything’s expensive today."

Lin Mo stayed silent as they walked through the market, stopping at a seafood stall.

"Boss, is my order here yet?"

"Ah, yes, yes! Came in around 2 p.m. Since you weren’t here, I kept it alive for you. Let me pack it up now."

The rubber-booted vendor hurried to prepare the items.

Xie Yuling couldn’t resist asking, "Boss, what did he actually order?"

The vendor glanced at Lin Mo, who didn’t object, then answered, "Black tiger shrimp and oysters."

A two-pound bag of black tiger shrimp and two crates of oysters.

Lin Mo lifted the boxes.

The boss warned, "Careful, young man. These are heavy—filled with water and ice."

Lin Mo nodded. Each crate weighed at least twenty pounds, mostly from the ice and water.

Xie Yuling naturally took the bag of shrimp.

"How much did this cost?"

"Not too bad. The oysters were about a hundred for two dozen, same for the shrimp."

Back in 2012, black tiger shrimp already cost over eighty per pound at market price—wholesale would’ve been much cheaper.