Chapter 233 - 95: Winter Sweet Potato Meeting

Chapter 233: Chapter 95: Winter Sweet Potato Meeting

Gala Gives Mu Gaoshou picked up his phone and sent a message to the "Dream Net Testing Team" group chat:

"@Uncertainty Robot, Xiaoxiao, do you have any classes tonight?"

"Nope, I just got out of class. What’s up?" Wen Xiao’s message came back in less than half a minute.

"Perfect. Old Yu and I spent the whole afternoon looking into this. We have good news and bad news. Old Yu wants to get you and Brother Yi together tonight to meet up and sort this out," Shi Zuozhou typed, his fingers flying rapidly across the screen.

"Okay, I’m still at the Second Main Building. Should I go find Senior Sister Yiyi after dinner?"

Yang Liu Yiyi’s message popped up: "Then just come straight here after class. It’s raining heavily outside, so don’t eat out. I’ll see what’s left in the fridge and whip something up."

"Alright, we’ll go to the ground floor of the Second Main Building to pick you up in a bit. @Uncertainty Robot," COS replied.

As winter approached, the sky grew dark earlier and earlier. Just past six o’clock, night had already fallen over JCU.

Yu Xian and Shi Zuozhou picked up Wen Xiao outside the lobby of the Second Main Building.

The "Michelin Man" had swapped to a white skin today. With a red knitted scarf wrapped around her neck, she looked a whole size larger than usual. Most of her face was buried in the scarf, leaving only a pair of clear eyes exposed as she stared blankly at the curtain of rain outside.

The weather was getting colder and colder, yet it still hadn’t snowed. People seemed to have grown accustomed to this bizarre weather, or perhaps they simply had no other choice. The surrounding students tucked their hands into their sleeves and stomped their feet, the hot air they exhaled turning into plumes of white mist under the streetlights.

"Let’s go," Yu Xian said, stepping forward to greet her.

Wen Xiao snapped out of her daze, nodded, and opened her small off-white umbrella, following the two of them.

The trio walked toward the West Gate along the campus paths where the puddles were shallower. The biting wind drilled into their collars and sleeves, making them shrink their necks against the cold.

As they neared the outer gate, Yu Xian caught a whiff of a sweet, roasted aroma. He looked up and saw a tricycle selling roasted sweet potatoes parked under a streetlight not far ahead. Mounted on the cart was a blackened iron stove. Wisps of white smoke billowed from its opening, the rising heat mingling with the falling drizzle as it spiraled upward.

The vendor was an elderly man bundled in an army-green overcoat, a cotton hat, and thick gloves. Sheltered under the small canopy of the tricycle, he used a pair of tongs to pull a freshly roasted sweet potato from the stove, placing it on the iron rack by the opening. The row of sweet potatoes was roasted to a golden brown. Their skins had cracked open, oozing sugary syrup. Baked by the fire, they radiated a comforting warmth that was exceptionally tantalizing in the cold rain.

Walking beside them, Wen Xiao’s pace noticeably slowed. Yu Xian noticed that she tilted the edge of her umbrella up slightly toward the cart, only to lower it quickly, as if afraid of being caught looking.

"Wait for me a second," Yu Xian said, stopping in his tracks. "I’m going to buy a few sweet potatoes. I happen to be a little hungry."

"I want two," Shi Zuozhou said without batting an eye.

Yu Xian turned and walked straight up to the tricycle. "Sir, I’ll take five roasted sweet potatoes. Pick the softer ones."

Yu Xian paid, and the vendor nimbly wrapped five sweet potatoes in newspaper. The moment Yu Xian returned, that toasty aroma drilled straight into their noses. The scalding heat was palpable even through the paper bag.

"Here." Holding it through the paper bag, Yu Xian handed one to Wen Xiao.

"Thank you..." Wen Xiao murmured softly. Holding her umbrella in one hand, she used her other sleeve to receive the piping hot sweet potato. She didn’t eat it immediately; instead, she cradled it tightly against her chest like a hand warmer.

"Heh, you’ve grown up." Shi Zuozhou wasn’t standing on ceremony at all. He snatched one from Yu Xian’s hands and, hissing from the heat, directly bit into the charred, crispy skin. "F-F-F... Fuck, it’s burning, it’s burning!"

Despite crying about the heat, Shi Zuozhou still took a huge bite. The savory roasted sweet potato dispelled the chill of the bitter winter. He then tucked his umbrella under his arm, freed up a hand to hold his phone, snapped a photo of the half-eaten sweet potato, and immediately forwarded it to the "Crazy Thursday (4)" WeChat group.

Gala Gives Mu Gaoshou sent a message: "@AAA Divine Calculation Immortal (Corrupted), this sweet potato is so sweet and rich, but it’s burning my mouth. I can’t eat it, what should I do?"

Yu Xian tapped the photo to take a look. It showed the golden, soft, and glutinous flesh of the sweet potato radiating white steam. In the background were misty streetlights and soaking wet plane trees in the rain.

Within seconds, Shao Yiyi’s message popped up in the group chat: "Do you know what will kill you if you eat it with roasted sweet potatoes? It has a hard green shell—you absolutely have to be careful!"

Shi Zuozhou typed one-handed with his head down as he walked, nearly stepping into a puddle by the road. He replied to the group: "Is it some seafood that causes an allergic reaction? Green mud crabs?"

Shao Yiyi sent a clown mask sticker, immediately followed by her reply: "Idiot, you can’t even guess that? A hand grenade."

Shi Zuozhou froze for a second, then sent a long string of ellipses to the group.

Watching the two of them passionately bickering and firing meme stickers back and forth on the screen, Yu Xian’s mouth couldn’t help but twitch. He shook his head helplessly. The brainwaves of these two goofballs were surprisingly in sync.

By the time they reached the ground floor of the apartment building, Shi Zuozhou’s sweet potato was reduced to half a piece of newspaper. A distinct ring of golden-brown sweet potato mash clung to the corners of his mouth, making it look like he had grown a circle of yellow stubble.

Yu Xian smiled helplessly. With that golden-brown mess around his mouth, he looked like he’d been eating crap, truly living up to the sound of his surname, *Shi*.

Upstairs, Senior Sister Yang Yiyi had already brought the dishes to the table—two meat dishes and one vegetable, along with a pot of piping hot tomato and egg soup. The rice cooker sat at the corner of the table, its lid flipped open and venting white steam.