Today happened to be Tu Junhui's birthday. He had originally planned to treat the entire dormitory to crayfish, barbecue, and similar food, since Chen Yao and Xiong Da had both treated everyone when their birthdays came last year.
As for Lin Nan, his birthday was during summer vacation.
Lin Nan's emotions were quickly soothed. He had been angry, but when he heard he no longer needed to pay back the remaining debt, he became quite happy.
After the four dormmates plus Dong An played two five-man ranked games, Tu Junhui saw that the time was about right and handed his phone to Lin Nan: "How about one jin of crayfish per person? For barbecue, order whatever you want."
"For barbecue... anything's fine, I guess?"
Lin Nan said this, but without hesitation ordered expensive barbecue items like chicken legs, frogs, and large squid.
He hadn't had barbecue in a long time. Though he had recently eaten at a Korean barbecue buffet, he didn't have much craving for barbecue. After ordering about thirty-something yuan worth of food, he returned the phone to Tu Junhui.
"So what exactly is in your medical report that can't be seen?" Tu Junhui took the phone while continuing to chatter, but when he looked up and saw Lin Nan's face darkening again, he quickly walked toward Chen Yao. "Chen Yao, order whatever barbecue you want."
Although the dormitory doors were locked after ten at night and the school gates were completely sealed, not allowing anyone in or out, the problem was that the school's fence had been cut up by off-campus delivery personnel, leaving it in tatters. Basically, anyone with a normal build could slip through sideways, and the school currently had no plans to repair the fence.
This led to quite a few students climbing over dormitory walls after evening roll call to stay out all night. Tu Junhui had twice spent all night at bars with friends from the fitness club.
However, this semester he didn't plan to work out anymore, and he had basically lost contact with the club.
Lin Nan used his mouse to scroll through his recent gaming win rates. He had to admit magic was indeed useful. Previously, his win rate was probably around fifty-five percent, but his match win rate over the past month was approaching eighty percent.
If he didn't always like to play random picks like Yasuo when solo queuing, his win rate would be even higher.
The cost was that previously he could play over ten games a day, from morning to night and even pulling all-nighters, but now after two or three games he was so tired he didn't want to move his fingers.
He listlessly propped his cheeks with both hands, staring at food videos on his computer screen, occasionally swallowing saliva.
Tu Junhui had already placed the takeout order and began arranging several suitcases together as a temporary small table. He seemed to be in a good mood because of his birthday.
"Chen Yao, want a smoke?" Tu Junhui finished setting up his temporary table and pulled out some milk liquor from his wardrobe that he hadn't finished last time. "It's my birthday today. Who's going to drink a few cups with me?"
"I'll skip the cigarette, but I'll drink with you a bit." Chen Yao replied while crossing his legs.
The dormitory atmosphere finally returned to its usual unruly noisy state. Chen Yao was quite pleased with himself. During the five-man ranked games earlier, Lin Nan had rarely said a word, making their usually cheerful games feel bland and tasteless.
Xiong Da was allergic to alcohol, so Tu Junhui turned his attention to Lin Nan, but as soon as his gaze moved over, Lin Nan quickly shook his head in refusal.
There was no magic that needed unlocking this time, so Lin Nan didn't need to borrow liquid courage from getting drunk. Moreover, he had no interest in alcohol to begin with. After drinking, the alcohol smell was no less powerful than cigarette smoke to him.
"What a pity." Tu Junhui sighed, though Lin Nan didn't seem to mind the earlier incident.
The takeout was ordered from shops behind the school's back gate, so after waiting only about half an hour, the delivery person had already brought the crayfish and barbecue to their door.
The four moved their chairs to sit around the temporary table made of suitcases. When Lin Nan saw the bright red crayfish, he couldn't wait for Tu Junhui to speak and eagerly put on gloves.
"Nan Nan doesn't usually like eating crayfish, right?" Tu Junhui suddenly asked.
"What's it to you?" He had indeed said such things before. After thinking about it, suspecting this guy might want to eat his portion, he quickly explained, "I just eat less because peeling shells is too troublesome."
"It’s cause you're poor." Chen Yao interjected with a laugh.
Mm, ultimately it was still because of poverty.
Lin Nan felt heartbroken thinking about the pitiful thousand-something yuan in his account, and felt even more hopeless about life thinking about how there would be no more living expenses for the next few months.
The bigger problem was that he spent money quickly too.
Cola's food, vaccines, toys. On Friday he still had to take transportation home, which would be at least over two hundred yuan for a round trip. Fortunately, his living expenses were sufficient this month, and he had also scammed some money from his uncle, otherwise he might really have to live on instant noodles this month.
This crayfish was probably his only good meal recently... didn't he think the same thing about the last Korean barbecue?
Thinking of this, Lin Nan's crayfish-eating speed increased considerably, but after eating only two, when he looked up, he saw his three dormmates had already eaten five or six each.
"How do you manage to eat so fast..."
"You usually eat less." Tu Junhui enthusiastically took a crayfish to demonstrate, showing his genuine remorse. "Look, suck once, twist, press hard, and the meat comes out easily."
"..."
Lin Nan clumsily tried to learn Tu Junhui's movements, but the crayfish covered in sauce was extremely uncooperative in his hands. With just a little force, the whole thing slipped out and fell to the floor.
I'm really not suited for eating anything with shells. Should I learn some shell-peeling magic?
He mourned for the fallen crayfish for two seconds, then saw a complete section of shrimp tail meat suddenly appear in front of him. Looking up, he realized Chen Yao had handed it to him.
"Here, at the rate you're eating, you'll probably run out after just a few pieces."
Lin Nan was immediately overjoyed. As expected of his childhood friend and best buddy!
Tu Junhui looked over, was stunned for a moment, then quickly offered the crayfish he had just peeled to Lin Nan as well.
"You already sucked on it..." Lin Nan refused with disgust.
"Damn, that hurts." Tu Junhui grumbled and stuffed the crayfish into his mouth.
Xiong Da ate without saying a word. Looking up and seeing the three's interaction, he pondered for a moment, then silently peeled a crayfish and handed it to the secretly hurt Tu Junhui, still wearing his trademark poker face: "It's your birthday today. Birthday present."
"Your present is pretty unique." Tu Junhui's chubby face twitched, but he didn't refuse. Since his hands were busy, he simply opened his mouth: "Ahh~"
"Disgusting..." Xiong Da felt goosebumps all over and unhesitatingly threw the shrimp tail meat into the sauce. "Fish it out yourself."
"It's mine!" Lin Nan quickly scooped up that piece of meat.
Lin Nan thoroughly enjoyed this late-night snack. Someone helped peel his crayfish, he ate the grilled skewers with satisfaction, and drinking Tu Junhui's cola made it wonderfully comfortable—almost as if he were the one celebrating a birthday.