Life in siheyuan era

On Saturday evening, the Yuanhang Restaurant was packed. Zhou Zhiyuan and Shen Lanyin's table had seen three different groups of people.

Yang Dan sat to Shen Lanyin's right, Hao Zhiwen next to Yang Dan, while across from them sat five young men engaged in loud discussions. One burly youth was boasting about his glorious achievements, "Those two punks dared to act tough with me, I kicked them both to the ground..."

As he spoke, he kept glancing at Shen Lanyin, then sweeping his gaze over Yang Dan, before finally settling his eyes back on Shen Lanyin's face.

The other four youths were chiming in with flattery:

"Exactly, who doesn't know how awesome Brother Tiger is?"

"Forget two punks, even if a few more came, they wouldn't be a match for Brother Tiger."

While that side was noisy and boisterous, this side remained silent.

Shen Lanyin felt very awkward. She had come to the Yuanhang Restaurant with Zhou Zhiyuan, but she hadn't expected Hao Zhiwen to bring Yang Dan along and join them at their table.

She wanted to leave immediately, but Zhou Zhiyuan remained unmoved, slowly picking up a piece of cabbage and putting it in his mouth.

He really liked eating cabbage and had ordered a cabbage stew with tofu and a braised beltfish. He wanted to order two more dishes, but Shen Lanyin stopped him. The two of them wouldn't need that much food with the meat pies.

More importantly, Shen Lanyin definitely didn't want Zhou Zhiyuan to think she was greedy.

But then Hao Zhiwen brought Yang Dan, and he also ordered two dishes: Kung Pao chicken and shredded pork with garlic sauce. He even asked Yang Dan to invite Shen Lanyin to eat with them.

Faced with this situation, Shen Lanyin felt embarrassed. She gently nudged Zhou Zhiyuan's thigh with her knee, and when he didn't react, she turned to look at him.

At this moment, she noticed that Zhou Zhiyuan wasn't paying attention to Hao Zhiwen and Yang Dan, but was instead looking thoughtfully at the young man called "Brother Tiger."

"What does he want to do?"

Just as Shen Lanyin had this thought, she heard Brother Tiger say, "Then three more punks came, and I did a flying kick..."

Brother Tiger was about to continue when Zhou Zhiyuan suddenly interjected, "It's 'a flying kick,' not 'did a flying kick.'"

Zhou Zhiyuan's interruption caused the five young men to immediately shut up and look at him in unison.

Hao Zhiwen and Yang Dan also looked at him in surprise, but Shen Lanyin immediately knew he was trying to cause trouble.

Brother Tiger was slightly stunned. He slammed his hand on the table with a bang, stood up, and roared, "What did you say?"

This roar immediately silenced the noisy second floor, and diners at every table turned to look.

But Zhou Zhiyuan said slowly, "You must pay attention to the correct use of measure words. You can't say 'a chicken' when you mean 'one chicken,' you can't say 'a dog' when you mean 'one dog,' and you can't say 'a leg' when you mean 'one kick.' But the measure word for 'flying kick' must be 'kick,' absolutely not 'leg.' I'm reminding you, you don't need to thank me."

Zhou Zhiyuan's words were ridiculous. Yang Dan couldn't help but giggle, while Shen Lanyin rested her right arm on the table and propped her forehead with her hand. She had heard Shen Lanbo say that Zhou Zhiyuan was good at pretending to be a pig to eat a tiger, and that before a fight, he would always find a sufficient reason for himself and put on a victimized face.

He wanted to cause trouble, but on the surface, he was correcting Brother Tiger's spoken language errors, pretending to be an intellectual and putting on a look of tireless teaching, so that if a fight broke out, he would perfectly fit the image of a victim.

But Brother Tiger was definitely not someone who would humbly learn. Seeing that he was still educating him, he immediately roared angrily, "You're asking for a beating."

With a roar, he stood up and walked towards them, and the four young men stood up together and surrounded them.

Seeing their posture, Zhou Zhiyuan jumped up in panic and shouted in a trembling voice, "What do you want to do?"

After shouting, he immediately yelled again, "Lanyin, you go first, I'll hold them back, I'll resolutely protect your safety."

This shout was filled with righteousness, with a look of seeing death as if it were going home, which should have been very touching.

Yang Dan was very touched and hurriedly nudged Shen Lanyin, whispering, "They're going to fight."

At the same time, a shout came, "Liu Hu, stop!" With the shout, a figure squeezed out of the crowd and came forward.

Zhou Zhiyuan looked at this figure and knew that this fight wouldn't happen. Xu Laoer's direct descendant, Qiu Yin, was right in front of him, first bowing to him and shouting, "Comrade Zhou."

Then he shouted to Liu Hu and the others, "This is Comrade Zhou, why aren't you apologizing?"

Hearing him shout "Comrade Zhou," Liu Hu's face changed, and he and the four young men behind him took a step back together. Then, hearing Qiu Yin shout, "Why aren't you apologizing?"

Liu Hu hesitated for a moment, bowed to Zhou Zhiyuan, and said, "Comrade Zhou, I'm sorry."

The four young men then followed suit, bowing and shouting in unison, "Comrade Zhou, we're sorry."

This scene made a group of onlookers widen their eyes, and Zhou Zhiyuan patted his chest and said in a low voice, "That scared me."

His voice was very low, but the action of patting his chest made every audience member know what he was saying.

Then, he heard him say in a trembling voice, "We must reason, we can't resort to violence."

"Yes, yes, yes..." Qiu Yin replied with a smile, "Comrade Zhou is the most reasonable."

"That's good." Zhou Zhiyuan responded and sat down.

But he heard Qiu Yin say, "Comrade Zhou, I'll add two dishes for you."

"No need..." Zhou Zhiyuan refused, "We're about to finish eating, adding dishes is a waste, we must reason."

"Yes, yes, yes..." Qiu Yin replied, "We must be reasonable."

Zhou Zhiyuan was very reasonable. Under the influence of reason, the five young men were ashamed and took their wine and dishes and followed Qiu Yin downstairs.

But Zhou Zhiyuan smiled and said, "Lanyin, this is the power of example. By reasoning, we can resolve a conflict. The behavior of kicking and punching is absolutely undesirable."

At this moment, he was kicked on the calf, which required him to speak from personal experience.

Shen Lanyin was in a good mood. Zhou Zhiyuan's plan to cause trouble had come to nothing. She kicked him again, relaxed her arm, raised her head, and casually echoed, "Yes, we must reason."

Then, she kicked him again and said in a low voice, "Let's go."

She wanted to leave, but Zhou Zhiyuan looked at the food in front of him, sighed, and said, "Let's go."

He was quite sorry. There were still four meat pies left, and Shen Lanyin had only eaten two bites of the braised beltfish, and there was still a large portion of the cabbage stew with tofu left.

This was a waste, but at this time there was no such thing as taking leftovers home. Zhou Zhiyuan got up with regret and walked downstairs with Shen Lanyin.

Hao Zhiwen was about to get up and follow them, but Yang Dan grabbed him, whispering, "Lanyin can't leave, if we leave, this food will be wasted, it won't sound good if word gets out."

Yang Dan didn't want to follow them. This reason was tenable. Hao Zhiwen hesitated slightly, sighed softly, and sat down.

Zhou Zhiyuan and Shen Lanyin walked out of the restaurant, looked at the sky, and saw no stars. He said in a low voice, "It's going to rain, I'll take you back."

He wanted to go back earlier, but Shen Lanyin glanced at him and said coldly, "The original plan remains unchanged."

The original plan was for the two of them to go to a movie after dinner. Shen Lanbo had bought the tickets in advance, so the two of them had to go.

Zhou Zhiyuan's excuse made her unhappy. Over the years, how many boys had wanted to have dinner and see a movie with her, only to be disappointed, but Zhou Zhiyuan repeatedly declined.

The dinner and movie had been set for this Tuesday, but it had been ruined because the two of them hadn't coordinated well. Tonight, it had to be carried out.

The return of that important figure to Beijing made her feel apprehensive. She changed the topic to this aspect, "That lady comes to the hospital for a check-up every six months. According to the time, it should be in May, but I'm afraid it will be earlier."

"It's possible." Zhou Zhiyuan agreed, then said in a low voice, "She may look for you to talk, you need to be prepared for this."

"At the same time, someone will be arranged to find me and put pressure on me to leave you. On this point, we two must cooperate well."

"I can definitely withstand the pressure on my side, it depends on your side."

He gave Shen Lanyin confidence, but Shen Lanyin said coldly, "I'm no worse than you."

Zhou Zhiyuan smiled faintly, walked to the bicycle, unlocked it, turned to Shen Lanyin, and said, "Which direction is the People's Cinema? You sit in the back and point the way."

Shen Lanyin looked left and right, pointed in that direction, and said, "Go that way, but I'm reminding you, I may not be able to see the road when I'm sitting in the back."

She said this casually, but Zhou Zhiyuan misunderstood, asking, "Do you want to sit in the front?"

But Shen Lanyin replied without hesitation, "What are you thinking?"

Zhou Zhiyuan's idea was very dirty. Sitting on the front beam of the bicycle was equivalent to being held in his arms, and Shen Lanyin would never do such a thing that would allow him to take advantage of her.

Her attitude was very clear, but hearing Zhou Zhiyuan breathe a long sigh of relief, she felt indignant. Zhou Zhiyuan's attitude was as if he was afraid that she would take advantage of him.