Sour Son, Spicy Daughter

“Sure. Thanks for helping me out, upperclassman.”

Su Bai didn’t stand on ceremony. He pulled out his phone and prepared to scan the payment code.

“No, no, no.” The upperclassman from the anime club immediately held up a hand. “I’ll cover it. It’s only one meal. If you transfer the money to me, I won’t be able to sleep tonight.”

“That won’t do.” Su Bai shook his head with a smile. “You’re helping me because of our friendship, but the cost of the meal is the cost of the meal. If you won’t accept it, I won’t dare ask you to help me next time.”

The upperclassman stared at him for two seconds. In the end, she still brought up her payment code, muttering, “Fine, fine, fine. You’re the only one who knows how to argue.”

“For the Sichuan food, let’s get dry-fried pork with chili peppers, boiled beef, and mapo tofu.” Su Bai turned to Chen Yusheng. “Should we add another serving of sizzling beef?”

“Mhm.” Chen Yusheng nodded, her voice soft. “A little extra spicy.”

“Got it.” The upperclassman winked at her. “Don’t worry, Yusheng. I know the auntie serving the food. I’ll have her pour on an extra spoonful of chili oil for you.”

With that, she picked up the trays and turned toward the long line stretching all the way to the stairwell.

Su Bai led Chen Yusheng to a table by the window. This section of the second floor had recently been renovated, and the tables and chairs had all been replaced with light-colored wood. The windows were spotless, and the midday sun streamed in at an angle, casting a warm golden glow across the tabletop.

Chen Yusheng set her schoolbag on her lap and glanced toward the Sichuan-food counter.

The upperclassman was greeting several acquaintances in line and saying a few words to them. Those people turned around and peeked over at them. When they saw Su Bai, they immediately looked away and huddled together, whispering.

“See?” Chen Yusheng turned back, tapping her fingers against the table. “Those girls from the anime club are really nice to you.”

Su Bai was opening a pair of disposable chopsticks. He looked up when he heard that.

“What, are you jealous already?”

“What do I have to be jealous of?” Chen Yusheng said with a perfectly straight face. “I’ve simply noticed a pattern. Last semester, when you went to the anime club, the entire club came out to see you off. On the first day of this semester, they were willing to stand in line for your food as soon as they saw you.”

“Well, what else would they do?” Su Bai handed her the chopsticks, sounding as if it were only natural. “Have you ever calculated how much money I’ve invested in the anime club?”

Chen Yusheng blinked. “How much?”

“Twelve thousand dollars for the venue rental at each convention—we’ve held two of them.” Su Bai counted on his fingers. “The club’s activity budget is at least thirty thousand dollars a year, and they can ask for more whenever they need it. I also gave them two hundred thousand yuan in startup capital for that collaborative merchandise project last time. They don’t have to pay it back even if they lose money. We cleared out part of a floor in the Jiangda Industrial Park and gave it to them as a warehouse, rent-free. And that game-promotion deal from Wang Haoran went straight to the anime club. The club made nearly a hundred thousand yuan from that one.”

Chen Yusheng’s hand, holding the chopsticks, stopped in midair.

“…That’s more than the school allocates.”

“Of course it is.” Su Bai leaned back in his chair. “What kind of conditions did the anime club have before? Whenever they wanted to hold an event, they had to negotiate with the student affairs office for half a month just to rent a classroom. If they wanted to make a poster, the club president had to pay for the printing herself. Now they’re living the good life. They have a new activity room, I bought their projector equipment, membership fees have been waived, and every new member gets a club T-shirt on their first day.”

As he spoke, he tilted his head toward the Sichuan-food counter.

“Their popularity has gone up, too. Last semester, their membership grew from around eighty to more than three hundred. During recruitment, the line stretched all the way to the edge of the sports field. Anime clubs from other departments even came over to ask how they ran things. So tell me, when they see me, how could they not be polite?”

Chen Yusheng listened and slowly nodded.

“Got it.” She raised her cool, clear eyes. “It’s not that the girls like you. It’s that capital likes the club.”

“That sounds awfully impersonal.”

“I’m just stating the facts.”

Su Bai laughed. “With that level of insight, Teacher Chen, you could become an economics teaching assistant.”

“Don’t go assigning me jobs.” That was what Chen Yusheng said, but the smile in her eyes was impossible to hide.

As they were talking, the upperclassman squeezed over with two trays, sweat beading on her forehead.

“Here, here, make some room.” She set the trays on the table. “Three Sichuan dishes, one serving of sizzling beef, and I also grabbed two bowls of seaweed soup. Those are free.”

Su Bai reached out and took one of the trays. “Thanks for your trouble, upperclassman.”

“No trouble at all. While I was waiting, I also asked something on behalf of the club.” The upperclassman wiped away her sweat, her eyes curving into a smile. “The club is celebrating its anniversary next month. Could we borrow one of your venues again?”

“You can ask Zhou Jialu directly about that.” Su Bai thought for a moment. “The place by East Lake isn’t convenient for me, but there’s another venue in the city that you can use for a day.”

“Really?” The upperclassman’s eyes lit up, and her voice rose half an octave. “Thank you in advance, boss!”

Several male students at the next table had been eating with their heads down. At that, they all looked up in unison.

“Boss?”

“Which boss?”

“Don’t worry about it. Just eat.”

The upperclassman had already carried her portion away.

The four dishes filled the table, their red chili oil gleaming under the light. The green and red peppers in the dry-fried pork outnumbered the meat. A layer of chili oil and dried chilies covered the boiled beef, while the mapo tofu was generously sprinkled with ground Sichuan pepper. The beef on the sizzling platter was still crackling, and the aroma of onions kept wafting up their noses.

Chen Yusheng picked up a piece of the dry-fried pork and put it in her mouth.

After chewing twice, her entire expression changed.

“How is it?” Su Bai asked.

“Spicy.” She dabbed at the corner of her mouth with a tissue, but her eyes were shining. “Really spicy, but so satisfying.”

“Does it beat the yak meat we had the other day?”

“How could it?” Chen Yusheng picked up another piece, speaking indistinctly. “That was just salty and savory. This has a real kick.”

She ate several bites in a row. Fine sweat appeared on the tip of her nose, and the spice flushed her cheeks red. Her usually icy eyes were filled with pure satisfaction.

Su Bai tried some of the boiled beef as well and nodded.

“It’s really well made. They fried the Sichuan pepper until it was fragrant before adding it, and the beef is sliced thinly. The chef knows what he’s doing.”

“How does it compare with those restaurants you took me to?” Chen Yusheng suddenly asked.

Su Bai thought about it. “It’s nowhere near as refined. That Michelin-starred restaurant in Shanghai we went to last time had a six-step process for a single dish. The plating was more intricate than a painting, and they simmered the sauces for eight hours. This place doesn’t have the time or effort for that.”

“I know.” Chen Yusheng put down her chopsticks and spoke seriously. “Those restaurants are delicious, but…”

“But what?”

“But whenever I finish a meal like that, it feels as if I’ve just completed a ceremony.” She searched for the right words. “The food is excellent, but I can’t bring myself to eat freely. I’m worried about whether I look uncultured when I eat. Then, on the way home, I have to wonder whether something I did was embarrassing.”

Su Bai burst out laughing.

“This is different.” Chen Yusheng pointed at the plate of dry-fried pork with her chopsticks. “It’s so spicy that you keep sucking in air, you go through a pile of tissues, and your face turns red, but you eat until you’re completely satisfied. If we’re talking about everyday meals, I might actually prefer this.”

“Our Teacher Chen is finally telling the truth.”

“When have I ever lied?”

“Last time, you said the Michelin restaurant was delicious.”

“It was delicious. Both things can be true.”

Su Bai picked up a piece of tofu and placed it in her bowl. “All right. We’ll have the fancy stuff once in a while, and eat like this day to day. If you’re craving spicy food, I’ll arrange for a Sichuan chef to cook for you at the club.”

“No need to go to all that trouble.”

“It’s no trouble. It’s just a matter of paying someone’s monthly salary.”

Chen Yusheng rolled her eyes and lowered her head, continuing to battle the plate of boiled beef.

Watching her eat with such enthusiasm, Su Bai suddenly remembered something and pushed the soup bowl a little closer to her.

“Yusheng.”

“Hmm?”

“Have you been craving spicy food a lot lately?”

Chen Yusheng paused and thought for a couple of seconds.

“I think so.” She nodded honestly. “I was craving something spicy during those two days of camping. And the yak meat the day before yesterday still wasn’t spicy enough. Today, I saw the Sichuan food counter and immediately wanted to come over. I used to eat spicy food too, but I’ve never craved it this badly.”

“Then that settles it.” Su Bai set down his chopsticks with a solemn air. “There’s an old saying: sour means a boy, spicy means a girl.”

The movement of Chen Yusheng’s teeth against the end of her chopsticks came to a stop.

“…What?”

“Sour means a boy, spicy means a girl.” Su Bai repeated it, then unhurriedly added, “Looks like we’re going to have a daughter.”

The din of the cafeteria continued to pour into her ears. The beef on the hot plate was still sizzling. But at that moment, Chen Yusheng heard none of it.

She gripped her chopsticks, her mind suddenly consumed by that one word.

Daughter.

She had imagined what their child might look like countless times. That night while camping, lying beneath the stars in a folding chair inside the tent, she had rambled on about bringing blankets, a thermos, diapers, and all sorts of other things. But whether the baby would be a boy or a girl—she had never really thought about it.

Now, prompted by Su Bai, that vague little shadow suddenly came into focus.

She remembered the saying: sons take after their mothers, daughters take after their fathers.

If it were a girl…

Her gaze drifted, almost involuntarily, to Su Bai’s face.

He was six foot one, with broad shoulders and a powerful back, clean, sharply defined features, and a face that would make people turn their heads wherever he went at Jiang University. She didn’t know that the system had boosted his looks past a hundred, but she did know that there wasn’t a second person on the entire campus who looked like him.

If they had a daughter, and she inherited his looks…

Just how beautiful would that little girl be?

A whole picture unfolded in Chen Yusheng’s mind. A little girl with eyes and brows exactly like Su Bai’s, her hair tied into two tiny pigtails, wearing a pretty dress designed by Lu Yuning, crouching on the lawn of the club before looking up and smiling at her.

Her eyes would definitely be just like Su Bai’s.

The corners of Chen Yusheng’s mouth began to lift against her will.

She tried to suppress it, but couldn’t.

Hurriedly, she lowered her head and stuffed a piece of tofu into her mouth, pretending to concentrate on eating. Yet the hint of a smile still spread bit by bit from the corners of her eyes and the curve of her brows, softening her normally icy face.

Su Bai watched her without saying a word, simply propping his chin on one hand and smiling.

Chen Yusheng chewed the tofu, her cheeks flushed from the spice, her eyes bright enough to dazzle.

She raised a hand and pressed the back of it against her lips, covering the smile she just couldn’t manage to hide.