Chapter 17.3| Swallows return to nests

The "Foodie Group" saw Li Yong's recent photos for the first time in the preparatory document of the Xu Family Project Team brought by Xu Zhiyi. The child was small and thin, trying to look fierce with wide eyes, but appeared particularly cute and well-behaved. 

As agreed beforehand, the "Foodie Group" evenly distributes the annual funding, study-specific funding, and living allowance into two fixed accounts. 

When Li Yong turns sixteen, he will have the freedom to allocate study-specific funding.

Compared to the other first-time sponsors, Xing Xiuze appeared to have some experience. When he was very young, his father took him to do these things. 

Xing Xiuze took a piece of sweet and sour spare ribs from Xu Zhiyi's plate and put it in his mouth. 

"Xing Xiuze, why do you always steal Xu Zhiyi's food!" Lin Xipei said indignantly. 

Xiuze's brazen behaviour of 'stealing' food is not uncommon. Starting from once a week, it has now escalated to daily occurrences, extending to everyone except the two girls, with Xu Zhiyi being the most frequent target. 

Facing Xipei's questioning, Xiuze was immune, "Haven't you heard that the same dish tastes better in someone else's bowl?" 

"So if one day you get beaten up for stealing food, you'll deserve it," Hai added, but that didn't stop Xiuze from taking a bite of clearly oversalted braised eggplant.

"You can rest assured, such a thing will never happen." Xiuze only exhibits such immature behaviour in front of close friends.

 "Hey, wait a minute," Xing Xiuze suddenly realized, "I've eaten Xu Zhiyi's sweet and sour spare ribs so many times, why are you all so opinionated today?" 

"Just thinking about the cute little face of Li Yong makes me wonder how his lunch is today. Turning around and seeing you waste food every day makes me angry," Xipei said with a hint of sadness. 

Xing Xiuze: "... "

"Just thinking about the tiger skin eggs you stole from me in junior high makes me angry." "Meng Yin, you're just adding fuel to the fire." Xiuze looked at Zhiyii, with a look that said - Xu Zhiyi, you better control your sweetie! 

Zhiyi smiled knowingly as if watching a show. 

Xiuze immediately decided to rise up and transform into the mocking king!

"Do you know Xu Zhiyi —" Before he could finish his sentence, Xiuze was stuffed with sweet and sour spare ribs by Zhiyi, and he added to Xiuze's words, "When we were kids, we both loved sweet and sour spare ribs, but he always liked to steal from my plate." 

Busy chewing on sweet and sour spare ribs, Xiuze didn't know what expression to make to maintain his image as the top student in liberal arts, so he could only roll his eyes. 

Although Xu Zhiyi was right, that wasn't what he wanted to say! 

Xipei glanced at Xiuze and Zhiyi's plates, and indeed, they both had sweet and sour spare ribs. The only difference was that Xiuze's plate only had sauce left, while Zhiyi's plate still had half of the sweet and sour spare ribs.

Xing Xiuze swiftly devoured his favourite sweet and sour pork ribs and then glanced at the slightly shocked expressions of the others. Of course, this did not include Meng Yin and Xu Zhiyi, who were still watching the scene unfold.

"Foodie Group" had been established for at least three months, yet this group of people had not even noticed that the dish most frequently appearing on Xu Zhiyi and Xing Xiuzé's plates was sweet and sour pork ribs. 

Feeling like a monkey, Xing Xiuze unhesitatingly teased Xu Zhiyi. He raised his proud eyebrows, gazed at Xu Zhiyi's face, and then stared and scrutinized him.

"Xu Zhiyi, do you know what you resemble lately?" Before Zhiyi could respond, Xiuze extended a finger, pointing at an imaginary flag and confidently stated, "You resemble the rainbow flag in our class."

"I'm a hundred per cent sure that I do not need that flag," Zhiyi narrowed his eyes at Xiuze, "You are the one who needs it more."

"Don't talk to me about orientations! If I didn't know your orientation, you'd be lost!" Xiuze roared and invited Xipei and Hai to witness, "You two, come and judge. Isn't Xu Zhiyi this semester showing off like our class's rainbow flag?"

Several people silently bowed their heads, focusing on their meal, ignoring Xing Xiuze.

Xiuze and Zhiyi left the cafeteria a few steps behind, with Xing Xiuze trying to sling his arm around Xu Zhiyi's shoulder, putting most of his weight on Xu Zhiyi.

"What are you doing?" Xu Zhiyi asked, "I don't want to get involved with you."

"Who said anything about getting involved with a straight guy? You are not my taste."

"So, you're already 'bent'?"

"Ugh!" can't have a decent conversation with Xu Zhiyi, Xing Xiuze thought to himself. He glanced at the people walking ahead and then turned to Hai walking beside him, "Did you have the pork floss pastry in your Nan Zhao Ji this morning?"

"Pork floss pastry? No."

Xiuze gave Zhiyi a meaningful look and patted his shoulder, "Bro, care to explain the extra two pork floss pastries that always appear in your Nan Zhao Ji's bag?" 

At the subconscious inception of the group, Yin noticed that everyone did not reject this traditional pastry and even had their own preferred flavours. With this revelation, she made sure to introduce each new item from Nan Zhao Ji to the group.

Xiuze discovered that Yin would always include two extra pork floss pastries in Zhiyi's compared to others, which was entirely accidental. Who would have thought that he liked to torment Xu Zhiyi by picking on him whenever he had the chance or that he would spot Xu Zhiyi's bag of Nan Zhao Ji on the table, leading him to indulge in the pork floss pastries inside and subsequently receive a beating from Xu Zhiyi?

Others might not know, but as childhood friends, Xing Xiuzewas well aware - pork floss pastries were one of Zhiyi's few favourite snacks.