Chapter 25: Of All People, It Had to Be Jiang Chiyu!

“Eight Treasures Porridge,” Jiang Chiyu enunciated each word slowly, a mischievous glint in his eyes. Before Su Tian could react, he reached out to take it, saying, “That works.”

“Wait,” Wei Sicheng suddenly interrupted.

Su Tian and Jiang Chiyu, who hadn’t completed their exchange, both looked at him.

Wei Sicheng forced a smile and explained, “Her drink is quite sweet. Guys usually don’t like that. Let me swap with you – mine is also hot milk tea.”

He took out the last milk tea from the plastic bag and held it out, “Here.”

Su Tian quickly pulled her drink back and agreed promptly: “Okay.”

Worried that Jiang Chiyu might not agree, she hastily pierced the seal and put the straw in her mouth.

Jiang Chiyu gave her a meaningful look and let out a soft snort. He accepted Wei Sicheng’s milk tea with a slight nod, “Thanks.”

Just then, Han Shuo arrived, sweating profusely and explaining breathlessly: “Traffic was bad, so I ran here. Sorry I’m late.”

Zhou Ying quickly said, “It’s fine, we’re not in a hurry. You could have just texted me to take your time. Let me get you some tissue.”

She turned around, “Su Tian, pass me the tissues.”

“…”

Su Tian pulled out several sheets and handed them to Zhou Ying.

Zhou Ying gave them to Han Shuo.

Han Shuo was a second-year student with a crew cut. He had a sunny appearance, and when he smiled, you could see a small tiger tooth, making him look even more cheerful.

Su Tian looked at everyone’s height and realized she was the shortest.

Zhou Ying was now 1.7 meters tall.

She was only 1.67 meters even with height-increasing shoes.

Wei Sicheng was the tallest, being on the school basketball team, nearly 1.9 meters.

Jiang Chiyu was slightly shorter than him, about the same height as Han Shuo.

Standing in the middle, she felt like a toy.

Slightly self-conscious..

Wei Sicheng distributed the milk tea to Han Shuo.

Since the three boys weren’t very familiar with each other, Zhou Ying took the initiative to introduce them. “You know Su Tian. This is Jiang Chiyu, Su Tian’s childhood friend and deskmate. This is Wei Sicheng, who was in the same middle school class as Su Tian and me.”

Wei Sicheng looked quite surprised, glancing at Jiang Chiyu.

Zhou Ying, feeling somewhat guilty, added an explanation, “Jiang Chiyu just returned from abroad and isn’t very familiar with our area yet.”

The three boys exchanged greetings, and everyone walked toward the amusement park together.

They had to line up for ticket inspection. Su Tian stood first, followed by Zhou Ying and Han Shuo, while Jiang Chiyu lagged behind, standing last.

When it was Su Tian’s turn, the ticket inspector looked at her face, then at her shoes, then at the adult ticket in her hand. They kindly reminded her, “Children under 13 can buy children’s tickets, it’s half price.”

“…”

“Pfft!”

Zhou Ying was the first to burst out laughing, not even trying to hold back, quickly evolving into covering her mouth while laughing out loud.

Han Shuo and Wei Sicheng were also holding back their laughter. Jiang Chiyu was shaking with laughter, even more dramatically than Zhou Ying.

The ticket inspector looked at them, seemingly realizing something, and explained, “Ah, I’m sorry. I really couldn’t tell.”

“…”

That explanation made it even worse.

The group indeed laughed even more uncontrollably.

The tickets had already been checked, and Su Tian silently walked forward.

After all five had their tickets checked, Zhou Ying was still laughing, while the others were in various states of barely contained amusement.

Afraid that Su Tian might be angry, Zhou Ying consoled her: “It’s okay, you’re only in first year of high school, you’ll still grow.”

Su Tian remained dejected and silent, taking a sip of her milk tea.

Being Sunday, the amusement park was quite crowded. This was a newly opened park with numerous attractions. Zhou Ying stood in front of a direction board, looking at the dizzying array of signs, and asked for their opinions: “Where should we go first?”

Han Shuo: “Ladies first, you choose.”

Zhou Ying didn’t refuse. “Then Tian, you pick first.”

Su Tian scanned the direction board and pointed to the carousel in the middle. “This…”

A barely suppressed laugh came from beside her.

Su Tian gritted her teeth, knowing without looking who it was. She quickly raised her finger higher, pointing to the icon above the carousel, “This one.”

The atmosphere suddenly turned silent.

Zhou Ying: “Are you sure?”

Su Tian nodded while looking at the icon she was pointing to – it was a Halloween pumpkin with four characters beside it: Ghost House Horror.

Su Tian: “.”

Jiang Chiyu, finding her expression amusing, echoed Zhou Ying’s question, “Are you sure?”

If anyone else had asked her again, Su Tian would have immediately chosen something else.

But it had to be Jiang Chiyu.

Of all people, it had to be Jiang Chiyu!

Su Tian clenched her teeth and nodded. “This is it!”

Jiang Chiyu: “Fine.”

Han Shuo also agreed.

Zhou Ying thought about it – dark and scary haunted houses were perfect for couples in the early stages of romance, so she nodded too.

Only Wei Sicheng remained, and Su Tian looked at him, “What about you?”

Wei Sicheng had an odd expression, looking at Su Tian, and stiffly nodded.

Being tall and backlit, Su Tian couldn’t quite make out his expression. So she just nodded and pointed to a path, “This way.”

To avoid boredom while walking, Su Tian initiated conversation, “Zhou Ying, how many times have you been to a haunted house before?”

“Three or four times.” Zhou Ying recalled, “But they were all small ones, not very scary. This amusement park has many attractions, so the haunted house probably won’t be too big either.”

“Probably, the small ones aren’t scary. After all, they can’t fit many props.”

Han Shuo added, “I went to a medium-sized one before, themed as a psychiatric hospital. The whole haunted house was built like a hospital. There were even some graves in the back yard, felt really immersive.”

Su Tian glanced at Jiang Chiyu, who was walking lazily at the edge of the group, feeling he seemed out of place. Thinking that she knew him best, she took on the responsibility of including him, walking to his side and asking, “What about you? Have you been to haunted houses in England? Were they scary?”

Jiang Chiyu looked down at her and shook his head, “No, didn’t have time.”

“Were you very busy?” Su Tian asked again.

Jiang Chiyu knew what she was thinking. His eyes curved in amusement, and for once he didn’t tease her, speaking seriously for a moment. “It was okay, just had a lot of school stuff. The wind there was very strong, making it inconvenient to go out, so I didn’t often go out to play. But once our school arranged a camping trip, and there was a cemetery just ten meters away.”

“Ten meters…” Su Tian murmured, trying to imagine the distance, falling silent.

She couldn’t help but comment, “How is that any different from living in a cemetery?”

She continued asking, “Weren’t you scared at night? Didn’t you think about your neighbors coming over at midnight to check out these rare living visitors?”

She shuddered at her own thoughts.

“No, I had just arrived in England then and wasn’t very good at English, not enough for casual conversation. So I figured the ghosts probably wouldn’t approach me because whatever they said, I could only reply with ‘Excuse me, can you speak Chinese? I don’t understand.'”

Everyone burst out laughing.

Wei Sicheng’s laughter gradually faded, and he wiped his sweaty palms on his pants.