"Let me tell you! If we'd taken two days to drive here, we most likely would've arrived in the afternoon or evening. We'd have had dinner, strolled around, and then gone back to the hotel to sleep," Brother Nan said slowly, carefully analyzing the situation for him. "Then, many, many years later, all you'd remember is visiting this place with—no, not one, two, or three—but three friends. Just a trip, and that would be it."
"But now it's different," she said, turning her head.
"Many years from now, you might already be married with children, transformed from The Campus Hunk of Cai University into a greasy middle-aged man, drinking wolfberry-infused soy milk every day…"
"Did you install surveillance in my house?" Zhou Li asked.
"His dad is just like that," Huai Xu explained from the side. "He puts wolfberries in his soy milk and takes it from home to the company to drink every morning."
"Don't interrupt me! Oh no, look, I've completely forgotten what I was about to say..." Brother Nan frowned.
"When the future me reminisces..." Zhou Li prompted, helping her restart.
"Oh, right, right!" Brother Nan suddenly recalled and continued, "When the future you reflects on this, you'll remember that one day we drove over 630 kilometers of bad roads for sixteen hours. We got up early, drove from nine in the morning, taking sixteen hours to arrive here in the dead of night the next day. We struggled to find accommodation, and once we did, surprisingly, instead of sleeping, we ran out to eat barbecue in the middle of the night."
"In this unfamiliar city, with not a single person on the streets, and taxis few and far between, the few of us just walked and walked along the street… And then you'd say, 'We were crazy back then, like a bunch of fools!'"
"And when you talk about these things..." Brother Nan thought for a moment, an unwitting smile spreading across her face. "You'd definitely be smiling without even realizing it."
Zhou Li didn't see her smile. He only saw her tall, slim back and the cowlick on her head bouncing with each step. After pondering for a bit, he asked, "But what if I don't remember?"
Brother Nan turned her head again. "Then I'll kill you!"
"I'm telling you, when you're young, you have to be a little crazy," Brother Nan said, getting into the swing of it. "The crazier, the more exciting; the crazier, the more profound the memory. Life is like a canvas; it needs to be splashed with all sorts of colors. No matter what they are, the more colors and the deeper they are, the more splendid it becomes…"
"But you're pretty lazy, so just be yourself. It's enough for you to occasionally go a little wild with me, Brother Nan." After a moment's thought, Brother Nan added, "You can also be the one to pull me back if I go too far."
"Oh! There are signs of life over there!" Brother Nan said, glancing back at Zhou Li as she picked up her pace.
"I smell something delicious!" Huai Xu also shouted.
Jinghong has several night markets, the most well-known to tourists being the Gaozhuang Night Market in Gaozhuang Xishuangjing, which is aimed at extracting money from tourists. They were heading to the riverside night market in the city, named for its proximity to the Lancang River. Brother Nan had researched it in advance and, as they walked, told Zhou Li about its advantages over the Gaozhuang Night Market.
「It was already two in the morning by then.」
Many vendors selling handicrafts and souvenirs had already packed up, but the food stalls were still open, though there weren't many people left. The riverside felt a bit deserted as a result; however, the colorful riverside lights were still flashing.
They took a walk around first. Seeing a fruit stall still open, they each bought a pineapple to munch on. After a few steps, Brother Nan, finding it tasty and cheap, turned back to buy several bags of fruit before they finally settled at a late-night food stall.
Brother Nan and Huai Xu stood before the stall, studying the menu.
It was common knowledge that Huai Xu wanted to eat everything.
And Brother Nan, ever generous and magnanimous, whatever Huai Xu wanted to eat, her answer was always the same—
So they ordered three pineapple rice dishes as their main course, along with a vegetable-stuffed fish and fried oxhide, considering them specialty dishes.
The barbecue items varied in size. For large items, they ordered a grilled chicken, a lemongrass-grilled fish, a skewer of some unknown fish, and, for each of them, a large skewer of pork belly costing 15 yuan. These were all served on flat bamboo skewers; some even had the meat tied directly to bamboo strips with lemongrass stalks, giving them a very rugged and bold look. The smaller barbecue items were quite ordinary, nothing special. Overall, Brother Nan ordered a lot, much to Huai Xu's delight.
Finally, they added two bottles of beer and a bottle of herbal tea.
Zhou Li felt somewhat helpless.
Eating in the middle of the night, how could this be okay…
Brother Nan came back to sit next to Zhou Li, stretching out her legs as if intentionally showing off their length.
She tapped her thighs and said to Zhou Li, "I heard there's another barbecue place here that was featured on 'Life's Skewers.' We should try it tomorrow night. And that what's-it-called… Deadly Little Skewers, the name's a bit hard to remember. They have all sorts, meat or veggie, all just 50 cents a skewer. When we go, we'll just grab handfuls of them. How awesome would that be, right?"
After waiting five or six seconds without getting a response from Zhou Li, she turned her head and nudged him with her elbow. "Right?"
"Are you feeling sleepy?"
"My eyes are a bit sore, but I'm still pretty alert," Zhou Li said after a moment's thought. "As long as I'm walking around outside, I don't feel sleepy."
"Well, I'm not sleepy either."
"Of course you're not."
Brother Nan's normal body clock meant she usually went to sleep around three or four in the morning.
Previously, when Zhou Li and Brother Nan had pretended to be a couple for a week, every time he reminded her to sleep early, Brother Nan would readily agree, proclaiming she was about to go to sleep. The next day, when he asked what time she had gone to bed, she'd say she went to sleep right after they said goodnight. Huai Xu also confirmed she hadn't been playing online games with Brother Nan. If it weren't for Little Cousin, Zhou Li would have been completely deceived by her. Tʜe sourcᴇ of thɪs content ɪs n͟o͟v͟e͟l͟f͟i͟r͟e͟.net
Miraculously, if there was something to do the next day, she could still wake up early and be full of energy.
Zhou Li couldn't compare.
As the two chatted, the barbecue gradually arrived.
The table was filled with large skewers, and every aspect—color, aroma, and taste—was bursting with rich local character.
Lemongrass, bird's eye chili, lemon, banana leaves... You didn't even need to taste them. Just looking or smelling was enough to experience the uniqueness of Banna barbecue. The sour-spicy kick from lemon and bird's eye chilies, along with the aromatic spices of the dry dip, were the hallmarks of Dai-style barbecue.
Brother Nan dipped a piece of pork belly into some lemon-infused dipping sauce, took a bite, and her eyes immediately narrowed in pleasure.
"Authentic!" she commented.
She then downed another gulp of beer. Utterly delish!
「It was four in the morning by the time they returned to the hotel.」
Zhou Li rarely stayed up this late.
"You go wash up first, then hurry to bed," Brother Nan said generously.
Zhou Li glanced at the bathroom.
Good, it wasn't the frosted glass type.
「Half an hour later.」
Zhou Li walked out wearing shorts and a T-shirt, his hair dripping wet. He looked towards Brother Nan.
Brother Nan was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the bed, looking at her phone. She had changed into a pair of loose, drawstring shorts. One of her long, pale legs was so white it was almost dazzling, and her phone screen displayed pictures of various local cuisines.
Zhou Li hesitated for a moment, then said, "I'm done. You go wash."
Brother Nan replied without thinking, "You go to sleep first. I'll wash after you've fallen asleep."
"I'm looking up what we're going to eat over the next few days."
"It's too late. You can look tomorrow."
"You're being too nosy!"
The air conditioner had chilled the room considerably. Zhou Li climbed onto Tuanzi's bed. Seeing Tuanzi open her eyes and glance at him dazedly, he whispered, "Can I sleep next to Lord Dumpling?"
A lazy, drawn-out sound, tinged with a kittenish sweetness.
Zhou Li couldn't understand what she meant anyway, so he took it as agreement and snuggled comfortably under the covers.
He closed his eyes. The sounds of Huai Xu and Brother Nan talking through the wall echoed in his ears; Huai Xu was recounting to Brother Nan the weird and wonderful delicacies from her fragmented memories. Zhou Li pictured Brother Nan sitting on the bed, her hair unbound. Opening his eyes again, he saw the ceiling, which seemed covered in static. It seemed Zhou Li had a bout of insomnia.
He couldn't remember when he fell asleep.
In his dream, he faintly heard Huai Xu saying she was going to turn invisible to conserve energy. Brother Nan was worried Huai Xu might spy on her. Huai Xu, meanwhile, claimed she knew the physical makeup of both Brother Nan and Zhou Li like the back of her hand. This was followed by the sound of trickling water.