The old residential area offered convenient living with comprehensive surrounding amenities.
Strangely enough, despite the city's rapid development, some neighborhoods seemed frozen in time. If you captured any moment from the scroll of time, there would be no difference between ten years ago and ten years later.
Lin Wanxing led Wang Fa into the supermarket with familiar ease.
The supermarket was called "Meijia."
Lin Wanxing remembered that Meijia had just opened when she was in kindergarten. Every time she held her grandmother's hand to enter the supermarket, she could buy "Zhenbaozhu" lollipops and strawberry-flavored ice cream.
She had such fond childhood memories of this place that walking in now felt somewhat unfamiliar.
The floor tiles hadn't been replaced in twenty years—dull and cracked—and the counters looked just as they had many years ago. Behind the checkout counter, a display case held various cigarette brands, accessible only with a key.
Following her memory, Lin Wanxing led Wang Fa to the back of the supermarket. It was even darker there. If not for the dusty glass tanks that once held aquatic products still standing, she would have doubted her own recollection.
"They used to sell fish and shrimp here when I was little!" Lin Wanxing told Wang Fa.
Wang Fa glanced around, then looked down at her. "How little?"
"Um... elementary school," Lin Wanxing admitted sheepishly.
"Then may I ask, Teacher Lin, when was the last time you visited a wet market?"
Lin Wanxing thought for a moment. She had started boarding at school since middle school, continued through university, and recently even spent winter and summer breaks working in the department laboratory. Her long-term food source had been the school cafeteria. Recalling this, her last trip to a wet market dated back to...
"Elementary school," she had to confess.
"No wonder," Wang Fa said with an understanding expression, leading her out of the supermarket.
Comrade Wang Fa left quite decisively, even ignoring her suggestion from behind to buy some dipping sauces.
Lin Wanxing: "What about a gas stove? Or an induction cooker? Pots!"
"They have those at the wet market too," Wang Fa replied, looking back.
Lin Wanxing hurried to catch up.
In fact, although Wang Fa had just returned from abroad, he seemed more familiar with the local life than she was. He would casually go downstairs to buy cigarettes and knew everything about the streets here.
"Did you used to live around here?" Lin Wanxing asked curiously as she followed Wang Fa into the wet market.
"No."
"You seem really familiar with this area," Lin Wanxing remarked.
"I've been relatively free lately, so I've explored more," Wang Fa said.
By then, they had entered the market, surrounded by the bustling evening scene—crowds weaving through lively, enthusiastic vendors.
Wang Fa navigated through the vegetable stalls, instinctively pulling a cigarette from his pocket with a lighter in hand. Coming to his senses and noticing her beside him, he merely held the cigarette between his lips without lighting it.
"What made you come to our Hongjing?" Lin Wanxing voiced her confusion. "It seems like if you were returning to work, a bigger city like Yongchuan would be better. Our Hongjing only has that small club, Mingzhu."
"A friend's suggestion," Wang Fa said.
"Oh." Lin Wanxing initially wanted to follow up by asking about his trial training at Yongchuan Evergrande that day. But seeing that Wang Fa didn't seem particularly enthusiastic, she figured the trial might not have gone well and decided not to press further.
Lin Wanxing hesitated for a moment, lost in thought. When she snapped back to reality, she found herself inexplicably being directed by Wang Fa.
Wang Fa shopped for groceries like a coach, instructing her to buy vegetables and vermicelli first, then various hotpot balls, and finally shrimp.
He really hadn't forgotten about the shrimp after all.At the seafood stall, the air was filled with bubbling sounds.
Wang Fa told her to only buy the shrimp the vendor had just scooped up—barely dead—saying they were sufficient for making shrimp paste.
"What a thrifty young couple," the vendor auntie praised.
Lin Wanxing, who had been studying the relationship between shrimp death time and freshness, didn't react immediately. By the time she realized she needed to clarify, Wang Fa had already scanned the QR code—uncharacteristically—and led her to the next stall.
Carrying numerous bags, Lin Wanxing exclaimed in surprise, "Coach, you actually spent money? Did your conscience finally awaken?"
"Teacher Lin misunderstands."
Wang Fa's gaze swept over, and Lin Wanxing immediately stood straight.
"Most of the time, men pay not because their conscience awakens," he said.
"Then why? Because you're the one who wanted shrimp paste?"
"Obviously, it's because my male dignity doesn't want to be accused of 'living off a woman.'"
Lin Wanxing nodded, finding Wang Fa's reasoning quite sound. But why specifically not want the shrimp-selling auntie to think he was freeloading?
Watching Wang Fa's retreating figure, Lin Wanxing felt puzzled.
——
In the end, Comrade Wang Fa only paid for that single purchase of shrimp.
When Lin Wanxing and he returned to the rooftop terrace with all the items the students had requested, not a single person came to greet them.
The rooftop was quiet. The evening autumn breeze swept through, making the entire atmosphere completely different from the lively scene before they left.
Lin Wanxing set down the plastic bags in her hands. A dead shrimp twitched reflexively.
She listened carefully: beyond the city's usual background noise, there were soft and heavy snores coming from her room.
Lin Wanxing pushed the door open slightly to find boys sprawled all over the floor.
Qin Ao's snoring was deafening, with Lin Lu's leg draped over his stomach. Fu Xinshu was slumped over the desk, Chen Jianghe occupied the sofa—the bed, sofa, carpet... every barely sleepable spot was taken by students.
They looked genuinely exhausted, eyes lightly closed, faces content, each sleeping deeply and peacefully.
Lin Wanxing watched for a while, then sighed helplessly.
She retreated from the room. The sunset light was as soft as gauze, and the rooftop ambiance was pleasant.
Wang Fa sat under the sun umbrella smoking. Lin Wanxing didn't disturb him and began washing the freshly bought vegetables by the sink. After all, the coach had specifically requested shrimp paste—with the footnote: hand-peeled from live shrimp.
The water flowed noisily. Suddenly, she heard the sound of a plastic chair scraping the ground beside her. Turning, she found Wang Fa lazily dragging a chair over to sit and watch.
The young man looked completely at ease.
"Can you help me with something?" Lin Wanxing asked while rinsing the shrimp.
"Sorry." Wang Fa refused outright without even hearing the request.
"I'm not asking you to work! Just look up how to hand-peel shrimp for shrimp paste!" Lin Wanxing wiped her hands on her apron and emphasized, "Baidu! Baidu!"
"Oh, that I can do."
Wang Fa clearly just didn't want to peel shrimp. Upon hearing it was just a search task, he quickly looked it up and held his phone before her.
The content on the screen was brief:
Purchase fresh shrimp, peel the shells, and remove the veins.
Take a kitchen knife and finely chop the shrimp meat...
Lin Wanxing scrolled down with her wet fingers...
Water droplets slid across the screen.When she looked up again, she happened to meet Wang Fa’s amused gaze. His eyes were light in color, and the contours of his brows and eyes were deep, so when he smiled slightly, he appeared even more languid.
Lin Wanxing’s heart skipped a beat.
"I’ve finished reading," Lin Wanxing said immediately under his teasing gaze.
Wang Fa didn’t stand on ceremony either. He slipped his phone back into his pocket, and with a soft "fizz," he opened a can of cola they had just bought. He sat right beside her, watching her peel shrimp as if he were enjoying a TV drama.
The more she was observed, the more Lin Wanxing told herself to maintain the composure of an expert.
Gritting her teeth, she picked up a shrimp, and it twitched nervously in her hand again.
Wait, did the instructions earlier not cover how to peel shrimp?
Lin Wanxing began to ponder the structure of the shrimp. In theory, shouldn’t the head be removed first? But when she tried it, the head immediately got crushed in her grip—so her technique was off?
And then there was the vein—how was she supposed to get that out?
As she thought and experimented, the shrimp in her hands quickly turned into mush.
Just then, the person beside her stood up. A pair of distinctly boned hands brushed past her fingers and unceremoniously took over the task.
Before Lin Wanxing could even register the cool touch on her fingertips, Wang Fa had already pulled off the shrimp’s head.
She couldn’t quite follow his movements, but the vein was smoothly extracted. Then, holding the shrimp body with his left hand and the tail with his right, he gave the tail a gentle squeeze, and the shrimp meat slid out effortlessly. In his right hand was the translucent shell, and in his left was a perfectly shaped shrimp, looking utterly tempting.
Lin Wanxing looked at the shrimp, then at Wang Fa, then back at the shrimp, and began clapping obsequiously. "Coach, you’re amazing! So skilled!"
"Still not as good as Teacher Lin," Wang Fa replied modestly.
"Huh?"
"After all, I can’t peel shrimp as if I’m torturing an animal. If you’d handled shrimp like that in Europe, you might’ve been sued by an animal protection association," Wang Fa said leisurely.
"..." Of course it wasn’t anything nice.
Though she wanted to retort inwardly, Lin Wanxing yielded to reality. She forced a sycophantic smile onto her face and gazed adoringly at Wang Fa. "Coach, how are you so capable? You can even peel shrimp."
"Because my mother insisted that boys must know how to cook, or they won’t be able to win over girls."
Wang Fa’s tone was natural as he lowered his head, focusing on removing the veins. His eyelashes were long and delicate, as if he were simply recounting a family expectation.
Lin Wanxing felt she shouldn’t read too much into it, but inexplicably, a happy anticipation stirred within her.
Inexplicably.
They fell silent after that. Wang Fa quickly finished preparing the shrimp, his movements clean and efficient.
Wang Fa was clearly the well-bred type. Instead of sitting back to drink his cola, he washed vegetables, tidied the table, rewashed the utensils, and arranged the dishes—everything in an orderly manner. Lin Wanxing, in contrast, only needed to assist.
The hot pot was soon set up, with side dishes covering the entire table.
Lin Wanxing and Wang Fa exchanged a glance and decided not to act like parents who had to wait for the kids to eat.
The gas stove was lit, its pale blue flame swaying gently in the breeze.
The divided pot began to bubble and steam gradually. In the distance, the sky grew darker than before—a perfect hue for dinnertime.
At first, neither of them spoke. Perhaps after the day’s hustle and bustle, they simply wanted to savor a moment of evening tranquility.The broth bubbled furiously as the thinly sliced beef was dipped into the pot. Chopsticks gently tapped against the boiling soup, and Lin Wanxing blew lightly on the beef before taking a satisfied bite.
"So delicious," she sighed, then turned to Wang Fa. "Is it troublesome to have hot pot overseas?"
The conversation naturally unfolded from there.
Wang Fa mentioned it used to be inconvenient, mainly because it wasn’t authentic enough, but things had improved a lot now.
Lin Wanxing shared that her grandmother was a delicate, refined old lady who loved shiny little leather shoes, disliked haggling, and preferred certainty over unpredictable choices—which was why she favored supermarkets over wet markets.
The food discussion continued. Wang Fa brought up London’s Chinatown, where the best Cantonese ingredient supplier in the UK was hidden in a deep alley, perpetually parked with garbage trucks, making it hard for many to find. Yet, the rice noodle rolls and roast goose there were exceptionally authentic.
After finishing the meat, it was time for the shrimp paste.
The waiting period stretched once again.
Lin Wanxing watched the lid of the pot, where steam condensed into mist. She looked up and asked the question that had been weighing on her all day: "How did your trial with Yongchuan go today? Was it smooth?"
"Mm," Wang Fa replied, taking a sip of cola.
"So, are you planning to join... Yongchuan Evergrande?"
"Yes."
His answer was as casual as ever.
Although this was the outcome Lin Wanxing had anticipated, hearing it directly from Wang Fa felt different.
The students’ snores still drifted through the night air on the rooftop. The translucent shrimp paste gradually turned a pale pink. Though the hot pot had just reached a rolling boil, the flame beneath the gas stove seemed to grow colder.
"Then when are you leaving?" Lin Wanxing asked after a moment.
Wang Fa was adding cabbage to the clear broth. At her question, he paused briefly before answering.
"Are you only considering Yongchuan Evergrande? Isn’t Green View International strong too? Why not check them out? There’s no need to rush your decision."
Seeing his hesitation, Lin Wanxing pressed on, voicing the arguments she had prepared earlier, mustering her courage to say them all at once.
"I’ll leave for Yongchuan after the National Day holiday."
Wang Fa’s reply shattered her illusions instantly. Lin Wanxing realized that meant he only had about two weeks left.
"So soon," she heard the thick disappointment and reluctance in her own voice.
"I have that Green View coach’s WeChat, remember? Why not gather more information? There’s no hurry—maybe we can negotiate for better terms?" Lin Wanxing composed herself, determined to try once more.
"There won’t be a better option," Wang Fa said.
Lin Wanxing understood those words were meant for her.
"Why not?" she asked.
"Because they’re offering way too much," Wang Fa replied.
"Ah, how much?" Her heart skipped a beat. She bit the tip of her chopstick and probed cautiously.
"15 million," Wang Fa said.
Lin Wanxing’s head snapped up.
"Euros."
"How much?"
"15 million euros. A two-year contract," Wang Fa stated calmly.
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