"Wing Chun, Ip Man!"
Zhang Zhaomu raised his hands and struck a stance.
Chen Zhenzhen: "..."
Her eyes suddenly widened, and she stared fixedly at Zhang Zhaomu's face.
"Holy shit! Zhang Zaowan?"
She sat bolt upright. "It's only been one summer since I saw you. How come you look almost presentable now? Did you get plastic surgery?"
Zhang Zhaomu rolled his eyes. "You're the one who got plastic surgery. I'm a handsome guy by nature, okay?"
He looked Chen Zhenzhen over in turn and grinned. "What about you? Why are you still such a slob? You're a girl. Can't you pay a little attention to your appearance?"
Chen Zhenzhen wore a plain black T-shirt that didn't quite fit, far too baggy on her, and thick, baggy cargo capris that came below her knees. Her straight-cut bangs were even and thick, while her short hair fell just past her jaw, hiding the contours of her cheeks, as though she were wearing a heavy black helmet.
Her face was quite small, though. Her nose, lips, and even her pointed chin were all especially small and delicate. Only her eyes were unusually large, with distinct black pupils and clear whites, but the shadow of her bangs had dimmed their shine and robbed them of some of their color.
"What do you mean, a slob? I just don't fuss over my appearance!"
Chen Zhenzhen gritted her teeth. "Besides, you of all people have no right to say that about me, do you?"
When they first met, Chen Zhenzhen had liked wearing little dresses and making herself look pretty. But after hanging around Zhang Zhaomu for so long, her style of dress had grown more and more casual.
It was mostly because Zhang Zhaomu was always saying things like, "You think changing clothes every day makes you hot shit, huh? You're such a noob! Huh?" or "A haircut? That's so expensive. The money I'd save would cover internet café fees for ages."
Over time, Chen Zhenzhen had come to feel that living like that was pretty great too.
"Sorry, I'm not who I used to be." Zhang Zhaomu spoke with an air of composure. "Chen Zhen, times have changed."
"It's Chen Zhenzhen!" Chen Zhenzhen was going a little mad. "Call me Chen Zhen again and, I swear, I'll make a plaque saying 'Kidney-deficient Zhang Zaowan' and make you eat it!"
"You keep calling me Zhang Zaowan too," Zhang Zhaomu retorted irritably. "My name sounds perfectly nice, but the way you changed it ruined all its poetic charm."
"Doesn't Zhaomu just mean morning and evening, the same as Zaowan? I'm just translating it, and it rolls off the tongue much better." Chen Zhenzhen curled her lip, her gaze still fixed on Zhang Zhaomu's face. She couldn't resist complaining again:
"Seriously, is the Magic City that amazing? You only spent two months there with your mom, and now you've completely got the manner of a respectable young man from the big city?"
"Not telling, not telling." Zhang Zhaomu brushed her off.
He really didn't want to tell her that, although his mother had kept him under tight control during his two months in Shanghai, to the point where he'd barely had a chance to play games, how could a person's nature change so easily? If not for the Refined Persona that had appeared out of nowhere, his plan upon returning would have been to let himself loose and go wild.
After all, Zhang Zhaomu's parents had divorced when he was in middle school. His mother had gone all the way to Shanghai for work and soon found herself a local partner, while his father had also remarried in a flash and acquired a ready-made daughter. Neither of them had much time to look after Zhang Zhaomu. They had originally wanted him to board at school, but he had resisted so strongly that they had simply rented him a place nearby instead.
Whenever Zhang Zhaomu told Chen Zhenzhen about it, his face was full of pride.
Who else his age had as much freedom as he did? After class, he could go to the internet café whenever he wanted, and at night he could go to bed whenever he pleased! There was no one to stop him!
As for those feelings that occasionally surfaced late at night, Zhang Zhaomu thought they were nothing more than a fool troubling himself. After a night's sleep, everything was fine, and another day of doing as he pleased began.
"Your rice noodles, handsome." The proprietress brought the noodles over and set them in front of Zhang Zhaomu, unable to resist giving him a couple of extra looks. "A student at Xinxi No. 1 High School? You look a little unfamiliar. Is this your first time here?"
"Sister Liu, I'm a regular," Zhang Zhaomu said with a polite smile.
"Oh, look at my memory." The proprietress patted her forehead. "I must've been too busy and forgotten. Otherwise, I'd definitely remember a handsome young man like you."
Zhang Zhaomu hurriedly played along. "Thank you for the compliment, Sister Liu. You've still got your charm too. You must have been a great beauty back in the day!"
Sister Liu's face lit up with delight. "You really know what to say, young man. Tell you what, the fried egg's on me today. Come by often from now on."
With that, she hurried back to work.
Zhang Zhaomu deftly picked up the mountain pepper oil on the table, dripped two drops into his noodles, and gave them a few quick stirs. A rich aroma rushed into his nose. Unable to wait, he picked up a big chopstickful and slurped it down.
"Sss-hot!"
But the delicious flavor of the rice noodles, coated in chili oil and bone broth, filled his taste buds. Combined with the distinctive fragrance of the mountain pepper oil, it made him unwilling to spit them out. He grimaced from the heat but still couldn't resist praising them through a full mouth. "So good! That's the taste!"
After hurriedly slurping down several big mouthfuls, he finally looked up at Chen Zhenzhen, who sat across from him. "What's with that look?"
Chen Zhenzhen narrowed her eyes, her tone teasing. "'You've still got your charm,' huh~"
"I never knew you were so good at compliments. A couple more and Sister Liu might offer herself to you in marriage."
"What are you thinking?" Zhang Zhaomu said irritably. "I was just being polite. She said nice things to me too, after all. Besides, I saved a few yuan. Hehe, that's two hours at the internet café!"
"You never used to say polite things like that." Chen Zhenzhen sounded a little down. "Zhang Zhaomu, you've changed so much."
Zhang Zhaomu froze for a moment. "Isn't that a good thing?"
Chen Zhenzhen pressed her lips together. "It's good."
"It's just... I'm not used to it."
"What's there to worry about?" Zhang Zhaomu picked up a fried egg from his bowl and put it in Chen Zhenzhen's. "I know I'm so amazingly handsome now that you feel ashamed of yourself, but don't worry. I'll always be your dad. Here, have an egg."
"...Get lost!" Chen Zhenzhen glared at him. "Why don't you say something polite to me?"
"No need." Zhang Zhaomu gave her a sidelong look. "Wouldn't it be disgusting to say that kind of thing to you?"
Zhang Zhaomu and Chen Zhenzhen knew each other far too well. Since middle school, he and Chen Zhenzhen had been pure and simple best friends, spending their days together reading web novels, playing games, or simply strolling aimlessly through the county town at night.
As a result, even with the Refined Persona's influence, Zhang Zhaomu felt none of the contrast between his thoughts and his words and actions when talking with Chen Zhenzhen that he had felt when spending time with Duan Chan'er.
No matter how refined a person's life was, they would still let themselves go in front of their best friends.
Chen Zhenzhen thought about it and shuddered. "It does seem a little disgusting."
She picked up the fried egg and took a fierce bite. The chili oil gave her soft pink lips a rosy sheen. With good food in her mouth, she finally stopped dwelling on Zhang Zhaomu's changes and chatted casually:
"Zhang Zaowan, you signed up for the humanities track, right?"
"What else?" Zhang Zhaomu spread his hands. "I'm not as smart as you. I just can't get the science subjects into my head, so I can only drift along in the humanities track."
Sometimes Zhang Zhaomu was curious about how Chen Zhenzhen's brain worked. She spent all her free time hanging out with everyone else, yet her grades never slipped at all, consistently staying in the school's top twenty. He thought that if she didn't love playing around so much, she might even have a shot at getting into Tsinghua University or Peking University.
As for Zhang Zhaomu himself... his grades had always been stable. To put it tactfully, at least he had never come in last.
"That's not true." Chen Zhenzhen's tone was serious. "You're smart too. Otherwise, why would I always lose to you at games?"
Zhang Zhaomu thought nothing of it. Wouldn't he know whether he was smart or not? Not studying hard might be an excuse, but there really were things he just couldn't learn.
Math, for example. Those abstract geometry problems and number sequences were still beyond him, even now that he had the Refined Persona's help.
Being a salted fish was fine. With a persona added, he was a refined salted fish at most.