Chapter 39

Outside the cafeteria, at dusk.

Tang Wulin had just returned the training equipment to the storage room and washed his face. He was about to head to the cafeteria to find Gu Yue when Lu Menge stopped him. Rarely, she was not wearing her white lab coat today, having changed into a loose beige knit cardigan. Her slender high heels clicked crisply against the flagstones outside the cafeteria.

"Wulin, come here. I need to tell you something."

Tang Wulin wiped the water from his face and obediently walked over. Lu Menge pulled him behind a pillar by the cafeteria's side entrance and lowered her voice, as though assigning a top-secret mission. "This is for you. Secretly. Don't tell Gu Yue."

She stuffed an envelope into his hand. Tang Wulin lowered his head and opened it—inside was a stack of Federation credits. It was not an especially large amount, but it was certainly not small. "Sister Lu, this is...?"

"Spending money. An increase. You've done well these past few years, and your forging has improved, so your spending money should increase too." Lu Menge slipped both hands into her cardigan pockets and spoke casually. "But—you're supposed to use this when you take Gu Yue out. You can't let her pay."

Holding the envelope, Tang Wulin's expression gradually shifted from confusion to embarrassment, then from embarrassment to the solemnity of someone entrusted with an important mission. He opened his mouth. "Sister Lu, I've saved a little myself—"

"What you save is yours. This is extra. Taking her out to eat, buying clothes, wandering around those flashy little shops—all of that costs money. Especially if she looks at something a few extra times but doesn't say she wants it, just buy it. Don't ask. Asking makes you look oblivious." Lu Menge raised a finger and pointed it vaguely at his nose. "If you run out, ask me for more. But there's one rule—you absolutely cannot let Gu Yue know I gave you this money. She'll trace it from me secretly increasing your spending money to me putting together dating funds for you two, then from those funds to things I haven't even figured out myself. That brain of hers runs deep."

Tang Wulin carefully put the envelope away in his pocket and nodded solemnly. "Understood. Thank you, Sister Lu."

"What are you thanking me for? Come on, let's eat." Lu Menge turned toward the cafeteria's main entrance. After taking a few steps, she looked back. "Oh, right—the grilled fish place you said you liked last week. I asked around for you. There's a branch in East Sea City's West District too. It's a little more expensive than this one, but it tastes better. Take Gu Yue—she knows where it is."

Tang Wulin stood beneath the pillar, slipped a hand into his pocket, and felt the outline of the envelope. Then he started running toward the cafeteria's main entrance. After a few steps, he slowed down, straightened his collar at the doorway, and only then pushed the door open. Lu Menge was already seated at their usual table by the window. Gu Yue sat across from her, with Wu Changkong beside her. Tang Wulin took the empty seat beside Gu Yue. She casually pushed the extra serving of ribs she had gotten toward him. Taking hold of his chopsticks, he said quietly, "This weekend—the West District opened a new snack street. Let's go together."

Gu Yue raised her dark eyes to look at him, her tone flat. "Who's paying?"

"Me." Tang Wulin pressed down the edge of the envelope in his pocket. His tone was as natural as if he were announcing the formation for their next practical combat class. "There were still unused materials left over from the Ice Spear parts I forged for you last time, and Teacher Mang Tian settled the bill. From now on, I'll pay. See if there's anything you like on that snack street. If you look at it twice—no need to ask, I'll just buy it."

Gu Yue's chopsticks paused. She put another piece of rib into his bowl. Beside them, Wu Changkong raised his eyes and glanced at Tang Wulin, then looked at Lu Menge, who was holding her thermos with an innocent expression. Lu Menge winked at him and mouthed three words: "You taught him." Wu Changkong neither admitted nor denied it. He merely picked up the last piece of braised pork on the table and placed it in her bowl, as naturally as sheathing the Heavenfrost Sword. Tang Wulin lowered his head and continued eating. His ears were still a little red, but he did not suppress the curve of his lips.

After night fell, Lu Menge went alone to knock on Wu Changkong's door. She had changed into a casual cotton long T-shirt and wore slippers, with her thermos cradled in her arms. Leaning against the doorframe, she tilted her head at him. "Wulin is taking Gu Yue to the snack street today—what do you think he'll buy her?"

Wu Changkong put down the training schedule in his hand. "How much money did you give him?"

"Not much. Enough for a few good meals." Lu Menge smiled as if nothing mattered. "How did you know I gave him money?"

"He never used to bring up taking Gu Yue out to eat on his own. Today, he said it twice. And when he mentioned the 'forging balance,' his voice was half a pitch higher than usual, and his left pinky was touching his pocket—you gave him cash. The envelope in his pocket was about as thick as the one you used when you stuffed prescription slips into my drawer last time."

Lu Menge froze for a moment, then lowered her head and smiled. "You even noticed Tang Wulin touching his pocket with his finger—then did you notice that every time I went to scout out the West District last week, I brought you an extra serving of salt-and-pepper ribs?" She lifted her head and gently placed the thermos in his hand. Its base still carried the warmth of her palm.

Wu Changkong looked down at the crooked Little White Tiger sticker on the thermos for a long time in silence. Then he returned the thermos to her hands. "Next time you go to the West District, you don't need to scout it out beforehand. Just call me."

Lu Menge stood in the hallway holding the thermos, watching his back as he returned to the desk to continue reviewing training logs. The door was not fully closed, leaving a narrow crack. The desk lamp's light spilled through it, falling precisely over the floorboard beneath her feet. Her happiness had not yet all been spent—money slipped to Tang Wulin, dating funds put together for Gu Yue, recipes for Wu Changkong's extra meals. Only just now, when he had completed the half-sentence she had left unspoken, was that unspent happiness truly settled. She pressed the thermos against her cheek and turned toward her room, her white T-shirt swaying softly in the draft through the hallway.