Redemption from the Abyss: The School Beauty Insists on Pulling Me Out of the Mire

Space-themed braised chicken rice.

As a culinary powerhouse in the old town of Jiangcheng, the restaurant's decor can be summed up in four words: wild and sophisticated.

The air was filled with a rich aroma.

This is a paradise for those who work in the kitchen.

Of course, this is also Lu Yi's "hell".

"The air here... is too thick."

Lu Yi stood on the greasy floor, carefully pinching the hem of his black trench coat with two slender fingers, like a fallen medieval nobleman.

"With every breath, you inhale molecules filled with the greasy smell of the marketplace."

Xie Wangli ignored him completely.

Su Qinghe sat down next to Xie Wang: "Lu classmate, although the environment of this restaurant is so-so, the food is really good. We used to eat here all the time."

Three minutes later.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

The proprietress brought over three hot clay pots that were still sizzling and bubbling.

"Three medium spicy options! Serve your own rice from that bucket over there!"

The proprietress shouted loudly, then turned around to fetch other dishes.

The bright red broth was boiling vigorously in the clay pot, with large chunks of chicken leg meat mixed with soft, tender potatoes and green peppers.

Gumbling.

Xie Wang and Su Qinghe got up and served two large bowls of rice.

Xie Wang casually served Lu Yi a bowl as well and placed it in front of him.

"Eat up, poet who numbs his soul with carbohydrates." Xie Wang gestured for him to eat.

Lu Yi looked at the pot of boiling red oil in front of him and took a deep breath.

Then, he picked up his chopsticks.

It turns out that the more noble a person's words are, the more honest their actions are.

"Hiss...this crude chili pepper..."

Lu Yi picked up a piece of chicken and stuffed it into her mouth. She was instantly scalded by the heat and gasped for breath. Her eyes turned red from the spiciness.

But this did not stop him from eating at all.

He even picked up his rice bowl, poured the rich broth from the casserole over the white rice, and shoveled it into his mouth.

"As Baudelaire said... ah... true beauty... is often accompanied by pain..."

While frantically searching for water to keep quenching her thirst from the spiciness, Lu Yi was also enthusiastically showing off by mixing rice with the broth, all the while trying to save face.

"I'm experiencing this... ouch... the pain of my soul being burned by flames... Boss! Another bowl of rice, please!"

Xie Wang: "..."

Su Qinghe: "..."

God's hell, your soul is being burned! This is what you call a starving ghost reincarnated!

The two ignored him and began to focus on the casserole in front of them.

As he ate, Su Qinghe's brows furrowed slightly.

She picked through the casserole with her chopsticks, trying to pick out the pieces of ginger that looked remarkably like chicken.

But the owner of this shop is clearly a knife-wielding genius; he cuts ginger into pieces exactly like chicken pieces, making it impossible to guard against.

Just as Su Qinghe was about to give up and decide to swallow it with his eyes closed,

"Let me do it, Teacher Su."

A helpless voice came from the side.

He picked out the pieces of ginger disguised as chicken from the pot one by one.

Incidentally, he tossed the tenderest pieces of chicken leg meat from his pot onto Su Qinghe's white rice.

"Eat more meat, you've lost so much weight lately."

Xie Wang picked up the food while nagging like an old woman.

Sitting across from me, Lu Yi was holding his second bowl of rice, hissing and spitting out the spiciness.

Upon seeing this, the chopsticks in his hand froze in mid-air.

The heat from the clay pot fogged up his glasses, but that didn't stop him from seeing the blatant display of dog food.

"Oh."

Lu put down his rice bowl and gave a cold, eerie laugh.

"What's wrong, Master Lu?" Xie Wang didn't even lift his eyelids, continuing to eat the green peppers that Su Qinghe had picked out of the pot.

"Did you hallucinate because of the spiciness of the chili peppers?"

"I am in mourning."

Lu Yi took off her glasses, wiped the fog off with a tissue, and looked at the two of them with a pitying gaze:

"I used to think that love was nothing more than a neurotoxin produced by an overproduction of dopamine and endorphins, but now I realize I was wrong."

He put his glasses back on and began to complain:

"It is not only poison, it is also a disability-creating machine that deprives primates of their basic ability to take care of themselves."

Lu Yi pointed at Su Qinghe:

"Su, these hands of yours, capable of solving Lagrange equations, can't even pick a slice of ginger now?"

He then pointed at Xie Wang:

"And you, Xie Wang, a top-tier hacker, have actually become a ginger-shredding machine?"

The air seemed to freeze for a second.

Su Qinghe: "..."

Su Qinghe silently put down her chopsticks. Her cheeks, which were already slightly red from the steam, now burned up at a visible speed, along with her ears.

What kind of poison did Lu Yi eat to grow such a mouth?!

That's so damn embarrassing!

Then, under the table.

"Bang."

A dull thud.

"hiss--"

Xie Wang gasped sharply.

He remained calm and composed, even swallowing the green pepper in his mouth without changing his expression, but he took a solid, deadly double kick to the thigh from Su Qinghe.

Xie Wang internally screamed:

No way! Lu Yi has such a foul mouth, why did you kick me?!

"Even food can't shut you up." Xie Wang gritted his teeth, forcing a smile, and cursed at Lu Yi.

"If you keep talking nonsense, I'll throw your copy of the Eight Pieces of Brocade into a pot and boil it!"

Knowing when to stop, Lu silently picked up his bowl and continued to numb his soul with carbohydrates.

……

Twenty minutes later.

After the three of them had eaten and drunk their fill, they prepared to pay the bill and leave.

"Boss, check please."

While wiping his mouth with a tissue, Su Qinghe took out his phone and opened WeChat to scan a QR code.

"It's a deal I'm treating today to celebrate Lu's discovery of his health and wellness secrets."

However, before she could even point her camera at the QR code...

An arm had already reached over her shoulder, and Xie Wang's phone beeped, indicating that the QR code had been successfully scanned.

"WeChat payment, 40 yuan."

The proprietress's voice announcement rang out in the store.

"Huh?" Su Qinghe was taken aback, then turned to glare at him. "Didn't you say I'd treat? Why did you insist on paying?"

"yes."

Xie Wang put his phone back in his pocket, pointed confidently at Lu Yi behind him, and solemnly shifted the blame:

"You treat him, I'll treat you."

"How could I let Teacher Su spend money? So these two are on me."

Su Qinghe was so confused by his logic that she didn't know how to refute him for a while.

Then, Xie Wang turned his head away.

He looked at Lu Yi, who was standing behind him, elegantly wiping the sweat from his forehead with a tissue.

Xie Wang crossed his arms and a smile played on his lips:

"Master Lu, your braised chicken is twenty yuan."

"Scan QR code or pay cash?"

Lu Yi's hand, which was wiping away sweat, froze.

He looked at Xie Wang in disbelief: "You...didn't you settle the bill?"

"I paid the bill for myself and Teacher Su."

Xie Wang shrugged, his tone revealing a damnable double standard and arrogance:

"After all, an artist's dignity is inviolable. How could I use my money, so tainted by worldly concerns, to insult your noble braised chicken?"

"Didn't you say today that you wanted to exchange sentiment for vulgar paper? Come on, show me your sentiment."

Lu Yi: "..."

A cold wind blew in through the crack in the door of the braised chicken and rice restaurant, chilling Master Lu's heart to the bone.

What a hypocrite! This is class oppression!

Finally, Lu Yi silently took out his phone and scanned twenty yuan.

In his heart, he wrote a hundred poems in mourning for Xie Wang.