All Single Dogs

"Morning. You're late today—I'm criticizing you for that."

Seeing Nana walk into the shop with a small bag over her shoulder and a fragrant breeze in her wake, Xie Xiaochun, who was wiping glasses and cleaning the machines behind the counter, greeted her with a cheerful smile.

Nana returned the greeting and explained with a smile, "I had breakfast at the courtyard today. It was such a rare occasion, let me tell you. Barley talked with Wang Yan about some things yesterday. Maybe Wang Yan could tell something was off with her, so he tried to talk her through it. I have no idea how he did it, but Barley actually listened. She had dinner with me last night, and later on, Wang Yan, Xu Hongdou, Teacher Hu, and the others all came back. We cooked together, drank, and chatted.

"This morning, except for Teacher Hu, the five of us got up early again and had breakfast together. Wang Yan bought buns from Yiwei Restaurant, and Barley cooked a huge pot of noodles. It was great. Oh, right—look at this."

As she spoke, Nana put away her bag, took out her phone, tapped through it a few times, and handed it to Xie Xiaochun.

After wiping her hands, Xie Xiaochun took the phone and looked at it. Her eyes widened almost immediately. "Am I seeing this right? Is this Wang Yan and Hongdou? I never would've guessed it. Wang Yan looks tall and skinny, but he's got moves like that? He's trained. Wow, look at him stepping on that thief while chatting and laughing with everyone like it was nothing. He's really got a certain flair—he looked so cool. And he spoke well too, didn't bring any bad press to Dali. Hahaha, look at Hongdou's stunned expression. That's too funny...