When Ning Rongrong saw Lu Ye, the piece of meat in her chopsticks had yet to reach her mouth.
She was sitting by the window, with two dishes and a bowl of soup on the table. There wasn't much food, but it smelled wonderful. The hot soup had finally eased the discomfort from her morning run on the dirt road.
And just then, Lu Ye came down the stairs.
Her first thought was to lower her head.
But she felt that if she did, it would only make her look more like she had done something shameful. So she put the meat back in her bowl and sat up straight.
Lu Ye spotted her at once.
It wasn't as though he had come looking for her.
The shop's back courtyard was next to the Seven Treasure sales outlet. The manager in Soto had asked him to check the final batch of handover accounts, and was hosting several merchants who had come to collect goods before noon.
Lu Ye had been listening to the person beside him, but when he saw Ning Rongrong, he slowed his steps.
"Do you have the day off?"
Ning Rongrong's chopsticks tapped lightly against the rim of her bowl.
"I came out for a meal."
Lu Ye looked at the table, then at the dust on the hem of her skirt, but didn't sit down immediately.
"By yourself?"
"Mm."
The manager didn't know her. Seeing Lu Ye stop, he smiled and asked if they knew each other and whether he should order a few more dishes for them.
Ning Rongrong was about to speak when Lu Ye waved a hand.
"She already ordered. We'll go next door. Rongrong, take your time eating. Come talk to me when you're done."
With that, he really did leave.
The manager began talking about the new shops again. Lu Ye gave an acknowledging reply and led the group into the next room.
Ning Rongrong watched his back, no longer knowing what to do with the tension she had just summoned up.
She picked up the piece of meat again and chewed it twice. Suddenly, it didn't taste as good as before.
When Flender had told her and Oscar to run twenty laps around the village that morning, she hadn't refused right away.
She had only just told Lu Ye yesterday that she would study hard. She had also wanted people to know that her sorry performance in the assessment hadn't frightened her off.
On the first lap, she had run with even more enthusiasm than Oscar.
After the third lap, her shoes had started to rub.
After that, the same crooked tree appeared again and again ahead of her, and the road seemed to have no end. Oscar could still talk as he ran, but she couldn't even stand listening.
Breakfast at the academy had been simple, too.
She had thought she could endure it, but once she was truly hungry, yesterday's sense of novelty wasn't enough to carry her through.
Why did it have to be running laps?
She could boost her teammates, and if they really encountered an enemy, someone would naturally protect her. Zhao Wuji was so strong, yet hadn't none of them been able to stop him? Would running another dozen laps keep gravity from pinning her down?
With those thoughts in mind, she had initially only wanted to find somewhere to rest for a while, but in the end she had taken the road into the city.
Oscar had called after her, but she hadn't looked back.
At the time, she had still been thinking she would go back after eating.
Now that Lu Ye was actually here, though, she suddenly realized that saying so might not sound as reasonable as she had thought.
At the accounting table next door, Lu Ye stacked two invoices together.
The manager was still introducing the newly arrived traveling merchant. Everything he said pointed to the man's established shops in several nearby towns; if they were willing to give him more goods, he guaranteed they would sell no more slowly than in the city.
After listening, Lu Ye told him to write down the names of the shops one by one, then asked who could teach customers how to turn the phones on.
The man had come prepared and had the young assistant beside him demonstrate on the spot.
He didn't press anything wrong.
Lu Ye nodded and circled the supply quantity on the paper.
The accounts were checked and the goods handed over as usual. Just because Ning Rongrong was downstairs, he didn't bring everyone in the room to a halt.
Only after the others had all gone out did he pull his chair back a little.
Ning Rongrong was already standing in the doorway.
She had come sooner than he expected, leaving half her bowl of rice unfinished, and was still clutching her purse.
"I've paid."
"I didn't ask you about the bill."
Lu Ye looked up.
"Did you finish today's training?"
Ning Rongrong pressed her lips together.
She wanted to say that the dean had asked too much of her; that her feet hurt and she hadn't deliberately stayed away; and to ask whether she wasn't even allowed to come into the city for a good meal.
The words crowded together in her heart for quite a while, but in the end, only one came out.
"No."
Lu Ye closed the account book.
"How much was left?"
"I didn't keep count."
His tone wasn't harsh, but Ning Rongrong's face still grew hot.
It wasn't that she had run too many laps to keep count. She simply hadn't intended to keep counting after a certain point.
After hearing her answer, Lu Ye didn't work it out for her, nor did he put in a word with Flender.
Ning Rongrong looked at him for a while, then suddenly asked, "Will you tell Dad?"
"If he asks, I won't make something up for you."
"Can't you just..."
She stopped herself before the rest of the sentence came out.
When she had left home, the last thing she wanted was for her father to send people to keep watch over her. Now that something had gone wrong, the first thing she thought of was whether Lu Ye could cover for her.
She didn't like having him lay it bare.
She liked it even less that it had actually happened to her.
Seeing that she wasn't speaking, Lu Ye pushed the water on the table toward her.
"Finish this before we leave. Do your legs still hurt?"
Ning Rongrong lowered her head.
"A little."
"Did your shoes rub your skin raw?"
"No."
Lu Ye pulled out a chair and had her set her feet flat. She had been holding her toes tense all this time, and only when she relaxed them did her brow ease a little.
"Loosen your laces later. Don't let them rub the same spot again."
He added a few strokes to the paper and handed it to the manager waiting at the door, then took down the coat draped over the back of his chair.
Ning Rongrong felt a little more at ease as she watched him.
"Are you taking me back?"
"I need to speak to Dean Flender too. Tomorrow's the last day of the handover, and after that I won't be in Soto often."
"Then when you do..."
"You can tell him yourself."
Lu Ye didn't answer quickly, but he didn't leave any room for doubt, either.
Ning Rongrong was immediately displeased.
"I haven't even said anything yet."
"Then wait until we get there and say it."
She was left momentarily speechless and turned her head to drink her water.
Lu Ye asked an assistant to pack up what each of them had left over. Outside the shop, Ning Rongrong stood on the stone steps, but then didn't head toward the carriage service.
"Let's walk back."
Lu Ye glanced at her.
"Your feet?"
"They don't hurt as much when I walk."
He didn't make the decision for her, only followed her down the steps.
Two people on the street were comparing their newly bought phone cases. One of them played Cloud Sound Workshop's ready-made clothing video from that morning, and the familiar "first, give your measurements" rang out again.
Normally, Ning Rongrong would have stopped to watch.
This time, she only glanced at it before continuing on.
After they had passed the busiest intersection, she suddenly asked, "Now that I've passed the entrance test, are you all just going to leave me alone?"
Lu Ye slowed his steps.
"If I weren't going to bother with you, I would have pretended not to see you back there."
Ning Rongrong looked down at the tips of her shoes. After a while, she said softly, "Grandpa Bone wouldn't do that."
That much was true.
If Gu Rong had been here, he would probably have first asked why she had gotten thinner, then replaced her bowl of soup with something better. Only at the end would he have remembered to ask the man named Flender what gave him the right to let his Rongrong go hungry.
Lu Ye also thought of the old man holding his phone as he waited for a message.
He said, "When you left, he was also the one you were most afraid would come after you."
Ning Rongrong fell silent.
On the dirt road outside the city gates, the wind blew the dust into wisps of fine smoke. She walked slowly, and so did Lu Ye, his steps always falling half a pace beside her.
As they crossed the low bridge, her phone lit up.
It was Oscar. Before they had set out that morning, he had taken out the phone he had bought with money from selling sausages and smilingly asked her to add him as a friend, saying that from then on they wouldn't have to shout all over the village to find someone.
The message was only a few words, asking whether she was back and saying that the dean was calling everyone together again that evening.
Ning Rongrong gripped her phone, her finger lingering on the screen for a long time.
At last, she sent a reply.
"I'm on my way back."
Only after sending it did she raise her head and look toward the village ahead, its rooftops already coming into view.
The road she hadn't finished running was still there.
When they reached the village entrance, however, Lu Ye didn't see Flender.
Li Yusong was by the gate repairing a wobbly stool. Once he understood why they had come, he hammered the wooden wedge in his hand tight before looking up. "The dean went out. He'll be back this evening. If you have something to tell him, come back tonight."
Lu Ye acknowledged him and left the handover letter he had written beforehand, without asking the old man to go looking for Flender.
Ning Rongrong stood beside him, looking at the letter. Several times she wanted to ask whether it mentioned her, but in the end she said nothing.
Lu Ye didn't escort her all the way to the dormitory, either. He simply stopped by the gate.
"Go on in. I'll come see the dean tonight."
She nodded, took a few steps, then turned back.
Lu Ye was already saying goodbye to Li Yusong. He didn't wave her over and tell her to return to the city with him.
Ning Rongrong slowly tightened her grip on her phone, sent Oscar a message telling him she was back, and walked alone past the wooden sign by the gate.
The midday sun warmed her back. What she had avoided in the city couldn't remain outside it forever.