Chapter 66: Zhao Shanshan

Arriving at the classroom just in time, Li Xiao quickly made his way over to his three roommates.

To his surprise, a girl was sitting in the back row, which was supposed to be the exclusive spot for the four of them from his dorm.

The girl was dressed very plainly; she wasn’t wearing a single branded item with a logo.

If you looked closely, you could see that her cuffs and collar were noticeably lighter than the rest of her clothes.

It was obvious this was from being washed too many times.

Clearly, the girl’s family wasn’t very well-off.

Her features were rather delicate, and there was no trace of makeup.

Her figure wasn’t buxom, but she wasn’t flat as a board, either.

On a scale of one to ten, the girl would barely scrape by with a 6.5.

At the moment, the girl was next to Zhou Yu, and they were acting quite intimate.

Seeing Li Xiao approach, Zhou Yu quickly made the introduction:

"Brother Li, this is my girlfriend, Zhao Shanshan. She’s a freshman in the accounting department."

"Shanshan, this is the Li Xiao I’m always telling you about. You can call him Brother Li or Brother Xiao."

Zhao Shanshan glanced nervously at Li Xiao, then said softly:

"Hello, Brother Li!"

University classes and rules were inherently more flexible than in middle or high school.

As long as it wasn’t during a lecture, it was perfectly normal for a boyfriend or girlfriend to show up in their partner’s classroom.

Li Xiao smiled and gave her a nod, then pulled out a stool and sat down.

’To be honest, when Zhou Yu asked to borrow money to treat Zhao Shanshan’s entire dorm to a high-end Japanese meal, I’d assumed she was one of those vain, materialistic women. I figured she only chose Zhou Yu as her boyfriend because he was naive and easy to control. Once she had wrung him dry, she’d just toss him aside.’

’But looking at her now, it seems my initial impression might have been off. Maybe she’s just an ordinary girl from a normal, maybe even somewhat poor, family.’

’Her reason for suggesting that expensive Japanese restaurant was probably just because her roommates’ boyfriends had all done the same. She couldn’t avoid reciprocating, whether for her own pride or for Zhou Yu’s. After all, even university is a society built on social obligations. When other girls get boyfriends, they treat the whole dorm to a fancy meal costing several hundred per person. But if your boyfriend just takes everyone to a street food stall, you’d never hear the end of it.’

At that thought, Li Xiao could only shake his head helplessly.

But his opinion of Zhao Shanshan had changed, shifting from initial distaste to reserving judgment.

Soon, the bell signaling the end of the first class rang. Li Xiao remembered the nine Pine Needle Crabs at his apartment and asked his three roommates:

"By the way, are you guys busy tonight?"

Hearing this, Zhang Jiawen’s interest was immediately piqued.

He licked his lips.

"Brother Li, are you taking us out for something good again?"

Huang Zhiyuan was quick on the uptake. He immediately remembered that Li Xiao had promised his livestream viewers yesterday that he would cook Pine Needle Crabs for them today.

He quickly jumped in:

"Are you making the Pine Needle Crabs tonight?"

Li Xiao nodded.

"That’s right. Besides the 90 Pine Needle Crabs I gave away yesterday, I still have 9 left at my place."

"This kind of thing is best eaten fresh. If you leave it in the fridge for a day or two, the taste completely changes."

"I’m planning to cook them all today. If you guys are free, come over and help me finish them. Otherwise, it’d be a huge waste."

Of course, Li Xiao’s statement wasn’t entirely accurate.

Pine Needle Crabs, like king crabs and snow crabs, can be cooked and then flash-frozen.

This process, simply put, involves steaming them before immediately flash-freezing them.

Anyone who knows about crabs knows that after a crab dies, its meat spoils immediately and becomes incredibly foul-smelling.

Therefore, with the exception of crabs caught near the coast, most crabs brought back from distant waters are cooked and frozen to preserve their freshness.

This type of cooked, frozen crab is very convenient to prepare and store.

When you’re ready to eat them, you just need to reheat or process them further.

However, these cooked and frozen Pine Needle Crabs definitely can’t compare to fresh ones in terms of flavor or texture.

Since he had fresh ones to eat, there was no way Li Xiao would choose to eat the frozen kind.

Hearing Li Xiao’s invitation, Zhou Yu immediately started to accept without hesitation:

"Good food? How could I miss out—"

He trailed off as he seemed to remember that he had a date with Zhao Shanshan tonight to get malatang at the nearby snack street.

That was why Zhao Shanshan, who had no classes that afternoon, had come to the classroom early to attend class with him.

The plan was to go out shopping and grab dinner together after their two major-specific classes were over.

’A delicious meal versus my girlfriend... obviously, my girlfriend is more important.’

At that thought, he quickly changed his tune, an apologetic look on his face:

"Uh, I might not be free today. I’m supposed to go to the snack street with Shanshan, so..."

Hearing her boyfriend decline, the shy Zhao Shanshan quickly tugged on his sleeve.

"Since Brother Li is inviting you to his place for a nice meal, you should go. I can just eat at the cafeteria with my roommates later."

"Besides, we don’t have many classes tomorrow afternoon. We can just go to the snack street then."

Zhou Yu hesitated.

"Well..."

Li Xiao had been silently observing them. In his previous life, he’d known countless women.

He could tell the difference between someone genuinely shy and a manipulative "green tea."

’This Zhao Shanshan seems pretty decent,’ he thought. ’She came here to hang out with her boyfriend, and I just stuck my oar in and messed up their plans.’

He couldn’t let his brother get caught in the middle, so he waved a hand dismissively.

"Don’t make it so complicated."

"Shanshan, if you don’t mind, you should come with us to the apartment for dinner."

"I have a car. It seats exactly five."

"Class ends a little before 4:00. We can wrap up dinner by 8:30 tonight."

"I can definitely get you back to the dorm before 9:00."

Hearing Li Xiao invite his girlfriend along, Zhou Yu quickly chimed in:

"Yeah, you can come too! Brother Li lives in his Yangcheng apartment all by himself. His parents don’t usually visit."

Honestly, Zhao Shanshan was tempted by Li Xiao’s invitation.

Coming from an ordinary family, she had heard of Pine Needle Crabs but had never eaten one.

After all, a single Pine Needle Crab cost several hundred yuan, an amount she couldn’t bear to spend.

Zhao Shanshan:

"I... I don’t know if I should..."