Chapter 20: Chapter 20: An Unwelcome Request
Yuran left Phoenix Tree Avenue a while ago, and that photography student from another school was still standing there until his companion came along, tapped him on the shoulder, and said, "Hey, hey, hey, what are you spacing out for? Who are you looking at with such gusto?"
His companion looked puzzled, followed his gaze, and, seeing the crowd bustling along Phoenix Tree Avenue, felt embarrassed, "Our school has its own Phoenix Tree Avenue, too. Could it be that others always look better?"
Silent for a moment, the student with the camera left, "You're late, I will definitely turn in an astonishingly impressive answer sheet!"
The companion hurried to catch up, full of curiosity, "Did you get some good shots? I told you, coming here is no better than going to Diying, where beauties abound!"
"Can you not be so superficial? What we're looking for is artistic conception, do you even understand the concept?"
"Tsk... Beautiful things create artistic conception! Speaking of which, let's see the good stuff you shot, come on, show me."
The student: "..."
The companion, "Hey, hey, hey, don't be so stingy, let me have a look!"
"If I show you now, what kind of surprise would it be? Just wait!"
"You're no fun..."
The voices gradually fade away...
After finishing the report, Yuran got a call from Annan, "Yuran, I'm at your school's South Gate, have you finished your report? Let's have a meal together!"
"You got here so fast?" Yuran laughed in surprise.
Annan, "Of course, I squeezed my way in."
Ten minutes later, the two met at the South Gate of Diwai. They hadn't seen each other all summer, and Yuran was a bit surprised when she saw Annan; her desk mate had lost a lot of weight, looking quite different from before.
Yuran approached her, looked her up and down, and clucked her tongue, "Tsk tsk, you've been focused on losing weight over the holiday."
Annan smiled, "Is that what you're focused on? Let's not talk about that. Losing weight is definitely not the goal. I visited my aunt who got married in Dubai. The food, the weather, I couldn't adjust to anything. Now that I think about it, it's all a nightmare. I would rather not visit a second time.
Let's go, I know a good place nearby, we can chat while walking."
Yuran followed Annan through several winding alleys before they arrived at a serene private restaurant, a very old quadrangle courtyard.
After Annan mentioned the phone number for the reservation, they sat down and then she took out a gift from her bag and handed it to Yuran, "I didn't know what you'd like, so this is a gift for you, a small token of appreciation."
The gift Annan gave her was a piece of old-pit glass-type jade of excellent quality, with full color, not too big, teardrop-shaped, and definitely not cheap.
Yuran felt undeserving and suddenly found the small piece of jade in her hand to be incredibly heavy, "Did you strike it rich? Giving me a gift all of a sudden, I'm quite nervous!"
Annan blinked her eyes, hesitated slightly, and then said slowly, "Well, Ranran, I have a favor to ask of you! I don't know if 'you can't bite the hand that feeds you' applies to you, but does it work here?"
Looking skeptically at the fidgety Annan, her eyes deepened slightly. Playing with the jade in her hand, she smiled and said, "It works. Go ahead and talk!"
Annan bit her lip, seemingly feeling a bit bad about it, but she pushed on, "Here's the thing, I want to ask you to write a song for me, as a gift to my friend;
He's not doing so well in his career, in a bit of a slump, and the company is really squeezing him. I'm worried he won't hold up much longer, so I'd like to help him out!"