"Make way! Lunch for the esteemed S-Rank coming through! Everyone else, stand aside!"
Fingel charged up to the table with two trays, shouting all the way. Grilled lamb chops, braised pork, fried chicken drumsticks, stir-fried noodles, steamed dumplings, savory pancake wraps... East met West, meat and vegetables alike.
"Reporting to the S-Rank: your lunch has been purchased as requested. Please inspect it."
Lu Mingfei took back his student card and glanced at the enormous tray.
"All that's mine?"
"Of course not!" Fingel pulled out a chair and plopped down without ceremony. "This is mine. I already gave you yours."
The other tray held Lu Mingfei's pitiful plate of vegetables.
Then Fingel unceremoniously tore off a large chunk of pork, skin and all, and stuffed it into his mouth. Chewing, he mumbled, "Kid, that menu you gave me was way too light on meat. We hybrids have fast metabolisms. Our genes come with money-burning furnaces built in. You can burn off anything you eat. No need to count calories!"
As he spoke, he grabbed a fried drumstick and took a huge bite, continuing through a mouthful of food, "And let me tell you, meat is what the chefs at the Cassell cafeteria do best. Eating vegetarian here is a waste of the trip."
Lu Mingfei ate his broccoli without expression.
Fingel polished off the drumstick in a few bites, wiped his greasy hands haphazardly on a napkin, then leaned closer and lowered his voice, his eyes gleaming with gossip. "Speaking of which, freshman, you work fast."
"Fast at what?"
"That." Fingel's gaze flicked across the table, then darted back.
Zero paused with her fork and raised her head slightly, sweeping Fingel with a cold glance from her ice-blue eyes.
Fingel shuddered and immediately drew his neck in. "Anyway... freshman, let me fill you in on the campus gossip. You're new, so you probably don't know-"
"No need," Lu Mingfei said.
"Oh, there's a need. This is juicy stuff you'd never hear at an ordinary college." Fingel cleared his throat. "Take Student Union president Caesar and that little redheaded witch. Do you know how those two first got together?"
Seeing that Lu Mingfei hadn't objected, Fingel immediately grew excited. "One night, Nono suddenly went nuts. She sat in her Ferrari outside the dorm, flooring the accelerator and shouting, 'I'll date whoever takes me out to have fun!' And that guy Caesar jumped straight out of a third-floor window! He even had two Desert Eagles in his hands, firing into the sky! While he shot, he shouted, 'Then let's go on a date!' Man, what a sight. Now that's a man's idea of romance!"
Following his account, Lu Mingfei pictured the scene. Two bored, adrenaline-driven brains, finding inventive ways to chase thrills in the sheltered greenhouse of peacetime.
"What happened next?" Lu Mingfei asked.
"Next? They got together." Fingel shrugged. "So, kid, sure, you looked cool in the Hall of Valhalla yesterday, but Caesar is the Gattuso family's chosen heir, after all... Hey, you and your admissions counselor... that... Hakone thing... what exactly happened?"
The girl's pace as she cut her steak noticeably slowed, her silver knife and fork scraping softly against the edge of the porcelain plate.
"Yeah, we went."
"You really went? What did you do?" Fingel's eyes widened, his hunger for gossip blazing.
"Enjoyed the scenery. Soaked in the hot springs." Lu Mingfei answered as though it were perfectly natural. "She wanted to persuade me to enroll. I said I wanted to go to Hakone, so she went with me."
"You went in the hot springs?!"
"Public hot springs," Lu Mingfei added. "Separate baths for men and women."
Fingel's expression went through an impressive range of changes, as though he was trying hard to believe him but couldn't help doubting. "So there's nothing between you?"
"Nothing."
"Just friends?"
"Just friends."
"A purely, innocently, purely counselor-and-freshman relationship?"
"Yes."
Fingel leaned back in his chair and let out a long breath, wearing an expression that seemed to say, I believe you, but I don't believe the world.
"Kid, do you know what your problem is?" Fingel asked.
"What?"
"You're too open about it." Fingel pointed at Lu Mingfei's plate. "Look, you didn't even blink while answering those questions. A normal person would blush, panic, or pretend to be angry when asked stuff like that. But you? It was like you were reciting a textbook."
Lu Mingfei thought for a moment. "Because everything I said was true."
"Right, that's the problem." Fingel slapped the table. "Everything you said was true, but what you did looked way too romantic. A three-day, three-night trip to Hakone before enrollment is something couples do. Now you tell me you're 'just friends.' Do you think everyone will believe that?"
"Who's everyone?"
"Everyone means everyone." Fingel spread his arms and looked around the cafeteria. "Everyone who saw Nono take you to Hakone. Everyone who heard you were the first freshman she'd personally guided through admissions. Everyone."
The girl across the table set down her knife and fork and pulled out a napkin to wipe the corners of her mouth. She stood, looking not at Fingel but at Lu Mingfei, then turned and left.
Fingel watched her petite figure retreat, then whipped his head back around, his tone more serious than ever. "Kid, let me tell you something from the heart."
"What?"
"This Zero girl is into you."
"Zero?"
Lu Mingfei looked up at Fingel, his eyes plainly asking, What are you talking about?
"The Russian chick sitting across from you!" Fingel grew impatient. "I'm a journalism student. I've got professional instincts. Do you know how many times she looked at your plate while she was sitting across from you?"
"No."
"Three times." Fingel held up three fingers. "Once when she sat down, once when you started eating broccoli, and once when you answered my questions about Nono."
Lu Mingfei thought for a moment. "What does that prove?"
"It proves she's watching you!" Fingel lowered his voice, but his tone grew increasingly excited. "When a normal girl eats across from a guy, she looks at her phone, out the window, or at her own food. She looked at your plate three times. That means she's interested in your eating habits. What does it mean when a girl takes an interest in a guy's eating habits?"
"That she wants to study nutrition?"
Fingel nearly choked on his own spit.
"Bullshit! You should've seen how intently she was looking at you! I got hold of the seating chart for the 3E Exam, and you were sitting right behind her. Come on, did you work some magic on her in the exam room?"
Lu Mingfei sighed and set down his chopsticks. "Zero isn't into me."
"She isn't? Zero's the silent, expressionless, reticent type. That kind of love makes no sound! She's a silent volcano!" Fingel kept babbling.
Lu Mingfei didn't want to explain anymore.
He had discovered a rule: when everyone was hoping for a story, the truth was the least welcome option.
He picked up his tray and stood.
"I'm done eating."
"Hey, hey, don't go, freshman!" Fingel hurriedly grabbed his sleeve. "What did you do during the 3E Exam? Why were you two allowed to hand in your papers early? That old stick-in-the-mud Manstein never lets anyone hand in early!"
Lu Mingfei pulled his sleeve free.
"I don't know what she wrote," he said. "I didn't do anything."
"Then why were you allowed to hand in early? That old stick-in-the-mud Manstein never lets anyone hand in early!"
"Because I never entered spirit vision in the first place."
Fingel opened his mouth, then closed it again.
He studied Lu Mingfei's eyes, trying to find some sign of a lie.
There was something about this S-Rank, neither the air of someone strong nor that of someone weak. It was a sense of detachment, like someone watching the world from far away, occasionally coming over to sit for a while before leaving again.
He remembered that photograph.
Fingel let go.
"All right," he said. "But, freshman, one last warning."
"What?"
"Whether or not you're interested in Nono, don't do anything that betrays Caesar." Fingel sounded serious for once. "When Caesar goes crazy, he's a lot crazier than you can imagine. If he can jump out of a third-floor window to chase Nono, he can jump out of one to cut you down, too."
Lu Mingfei looked at him.
"I'm not interested in Nono," he said.
Fingel smiled, a smile that suggested he'd seen far too many people deny things to their dying breath.
Lu Mingfei turned and left.
He put his tray at the return station and walked out of the cafeteria. An autumn breeze blew past, carrying a chill. He took a deep breath. The air smelled of leaves and earth.
As he passed the lawn, he saw Nono sitting on a bench.
She wore a red hoodie, its hood pulled up to hide most of her face, her legs tucked up on the seat as she looked down and scrolled through her phone. Sunlight filtered through the maple leaves onto her, the dappled light and shadow making her look smaller than usual.
Several groups of students eyed him curiously and whispered among themselves. Lu Mingfei gave up on saying hello and headed straight back to the dorm.
He pushed open his dorm room door. Old Tang's avatar was lit up on the computer.
Lu Mingfei typed him a message: "People here gossip way too much."
A dozen seconds later, Old Tang replied: "Hahahahahahahaha, you only just figured that out?"
Lu Mingfei leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling.
His phone vibrated again.
"If people gossip about you, it means you're worth talking about. You should cry when nobody does."