An Unusual Life Beginning with Evil Spirits-Chapter 133 : Small Circle

Volume 4: High School Arc - “I” Come to Find You~
After recalling the afternoon classes, I resumed eating.
But just then, another figure suddenly appeared in front of me.
Instinctively, I thought it was Song Yang again.
"Didn't I say not to bother me while I'm eating?"
As soon as I said that, the person clearly froze for a moment and asked,
"What’s wrong? Not in a good mood?"
Hearing that voice, I subconsciously looked up and saw Lu Haochen.
Behind him were two others—one was the big chubby guy, Huang Lishan, and the other was the skinny Li Kaihuai.
Huang Lishan’s family ran a restaurant business.
The first time we had a group meal, we went to his family's hotel.
"Why is it you?"
When I looked up and saw him, I was momentarily surprised.
I really thought it was Song Yang—who would've thought it was actually Lu Haochen?
"Why can’t it be me? Was there someone else here just now?"
Lu Haochen laughed as he spoke, sitting down naturally beside me.
The tables here were all small rectangular ones.
Except for a few larger round tables, most of them followed this layout.
I had originally picked a table by the window and was sitting on the outer side.
When I saw him come over—and then looked at Huang Lishan and Li Kaihuai—fine.
Rather than sitting with those two, I might as well sit with Lu Haochen.
Besides, eating alone was really boring.
I shifted inward and moved my tray further inside.
Lu Haochen sat on the outer side.
Normally, these rectangular tables seated five people at most.
But usually, no one sat in the fifth spot.
Because one side was by the window, and the other side was the aisle, the fifth seat happened to be right in the middle of the passage.
Even though the cafeteria was spacious, sitting in the aisle seat always felt a bit uncomfortable.
After scooting over, I ended up leaning against the window.
Li Kaihuai sat across from me, while Huang Lishan sat directly across from Lu Haochen.
"Everyone else is avoiding me. Why are you guys still coming over? Aren’t you afraid of getting ostracized too?"
As I said that, Lu Haochen suddenly pushed over a small bowl and pointed to the braised tomato and beef in front of me.
"Give me some."
Ugh… His overly familiar attitude really caught me off guard.
I was slightly stunned and was just about to reach out to serve him a little, when I suddenly realized—what the hell?
Why should I be serving him?
With that thought, I simply pushed the tray toward him.
"Serve yourself."
Despite my slightly sharp tone, he didn’t get mad.
Instead, he smiled and helped himself to a small bowl of tomato beef.
"Sis, give me some too. I’ve got some braised pork ribs here—I’ll share with you. Food tastes better when we eat together!"
As he said this, Huang Lishan also pushed his bowl over.
Li Kaihuai adjusted his glasses and pushed his bowl forward too.
Damn!
That serving of beef was only enough to make me three-tenths full!
You guys came just to mooch off my food, didn’t you?!
But... I’ve always been the type who’s hard on the hard, but soft on the soft.
If I didn’t respond to either, I’d be a veteran scoundrel by now.
I figured I hadn’t reached that level yet—at best, I was a half-rookie.
If someone challenged me head-on, I’d never go easy.
But when someone showed genuine goodwill, I really didn’t know how to turn them down.
Forget it.
Just serve them a bit.
They were sitting too far for me to easily reach, so I gave each of them a small bowl and pushed them back.
Lu Haochen, sitting beside me, looked on with a wronged expression.
"Why the double standard?"
"They’re far. I’d have to get up to serve them. You’re sitting so close—why can’t you serve yourself?"
Lu Haochen sulked a little but still scooped out another spoonful for himself.
"Hey hey hey! That’s enough! No more!"
I hurried to stop him, but didn’t make it in time.
Lu Haochen looked down at his little bowl, then at the big bowl in front of me, hesitated for a second, and pushed over his stir-fried meat.
"You’ve been sick the past few days. This is just right—lamb helps with recovery. I’ll give you some..."
"I’m saying, bro, how about we just put everything together and grab whatever we want? What’s the point in dividing this and that—it’ll never end."
Huang Lishan looked at the four hot and four cold dishes on the table.
The rule in this cafeteria was that each person could only get one hot and one cold dish.
For Chinese meals, it was served like this.
For Western meals, it was a set.
"This way is more efficient."
Li Kaihuai pushed up his glasses.
This guy was even shorter than me, just a little over 160 cm, while Huang Lishan was nearly 190 cm.
Put side by side, one looked like a mountain of meat, the other like a monkey cub—the contrast was downright comical.
"Let’s do that then."
Lu Haochen seemed to notice the awkwardness too.
He simply pushed his dishes toward the center of the table.
The other three followed suit and moved theirs over as well.
Seeing that... I had no choice but to push my cold mixed tofu skin and tomato beef forward too.
Sigh… I was already barely full, but now, I just might be.
"Nice, this is much better! Big Sis, how about we always eat together like this? Once Bai Juanjuan joins us, the five of us could have ten dishes."
Huang Lishan didn’t hold back.
He reached out and stuffed a chunk of meat into his mouth while grinning.
His round, chubby face gave off a strangely adorable vibe.
"More balanced nutrition..."
Li Kaihuai also picked up his chopsticks.
While eating, he still found time to push up his glasses again, giving off this hyper-rational analysis vibe.
"They both have a point. Let’s eat like this from now on—what do you think?"
Lu Haochen grabbed a piece of rib for himself and turned to ask me.
You guys already decided—what are you asking me for?
But… this kindness, I accepted it.
Lu Haochen had definitely come on purpose.
After that rumor from the second class spread,
I didn’t know the exact details, but I was sure that now, a lot of people probably wanted to avoid me.
If this continued, I would end up completely isolated.
But Lu Haochen’s move had pulled me back from that brink of exclusion.
Once a small group like this formed, it was hard to break it apart.
And even if someone disliked one member of the group, they rarely disliked the whole group.
The option of isolating someone disappeared instantly.
So… this situation, I suppose, was a form of help?
Since it was genuine goodwill, I wouldn’t refuse it.
I glanced at the monkey cub and meat mountain across from me, then nodded slightly.
Then I glanced at Lu Haochen.
Lu Haochen must’ve realized I’d picked up on his intention, because he gave me a warm smile and nodded back.
"In that case, let’s stick together. Let’s reintroduce ourselves. I’m Liu Yunyan."
"Huang Lishan! Big Sis, just call me Dàshān, but please don’t call me Dàhuáng!"
Huang Lishan, spoke as he chewed.
"Li Kaihuai. Big Sis, you can call me Little Li or Little Huai, either is fine."
Li Kaihuai pushed up his glasses and even set down his chopsticks to speak politely.
Lastly, it was Lu Haochen’s turn.
He turned to look at me, smiling.
"Lu Haochen."
Looking at this guy’s act, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes.
"Got it."