The Tired Villainess

Xu Qiang - 1.5

Xu Qiang came back quickly with whatever she could buy. She wasn't carrying a lot of money so the only food she could buy were side dishes. The food was wrapped up neatly and Xu Qiang held it close to her, not wanting it to become cold. 

She looked down and saw the boys sitting on the pavement looking up at her. Xu Qiang crouched down and started to unwrap the food.

"Sorry, I didn't have much money on me so this is all I could buy for you." 

"...It's alright." He Shun said quietly. 

Maybe they weren't used to seeing such regular food because the boys couldn't stop staring at it. Xu Qiang looked at He Shun's face and saw a tinge of disapproval on it as he eyed the food. The same went for the rest of the boys but they didn't say anything because there was nothing else to eat. 

"Don't worry. It's just food, it's not going to bite you." Xu Qiang laughed at her own joke. 

Li Cheng and Qiao Chonglin managed to smile and the other two looked away out of embarrassment. Xu Qiang went back to the takeout shop to get some cutlery so that the boys could eat. 

When she was gone the boys started to talk amongst themselves.

"Does anyone know what this is?" Qiao Chonglin asked curiously.

"I don't know, it looks new." Kang Donghai replied.

"Of course it's going to look new we've never had food from a takeout shop before!" Li Cheng exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air. 

"What if it tastes bad?"

"...It's not going to." He Shun spoke up. "...At least I hope not." He muttered under his breath.

Xu Qiang came back with some disposable cutlery and handed it to the boys. 

"There were no plates so you're going to have to share the food in this one container."

Li Cheng nodded at her and used his little knife to poke at the food. Kang Donghai joined in and started to stab the food with his fork to pick it up. Xu Qiang looked at what they were doing with a bewildered expression on her face.

"What are you doing?"

"We're trying to pick up the food?" Kang Donghai said unsurely.

"With a... knife and fork?" 

Li Cheng and Kang Donghai glanced at each other with a confused look in their eyes.

"You're supposed to use a spoon for that." Xu Qiang pointed to the spoons in their hands. 

"...Why would you get us a fork and a knife if all we needed was a spoon?" He Shun said silently.

Xu Qiang looked over at him and raised her brow, "I just wanted to be nice and give you options. I assumed that you would know when to use a fork and when to use a spoon."

He Shun's ears turned red and he muttered something before he picked up his spoon. Everyone followed suit and started to eat the food. Xu Qiang sat down on the pavement as well and waited for them to finish eating.

Once Qiao Chonglin tasted the food his eyes lit up and he started to eat quicker than the rest. Li Cheng saw the change in pace of Qiao Chonglin's eating and he started to eat faster as well. Kang Donghai and He Shun gave up on eating after a while as they had already had their fill. 

What Xu Qiang forgot to mention to the boys was that the food was quite spicy.

It was a slow, throat-burning spicy that came after you finished eating. Xu Qiang only realised that she forgot to tell them when she saw the tears in both Qiao Chonglin and Li Cheng's eyes. Feeling guilty, Xu Qiang went to the nearest convenience store and grabbed some popsicles. 

These boys are eating up all my money.

Kang Donghai and He Shun watched Qiao Chonglin and Li Cheng in pain because of the spiciness. They both saw Xu Qiang run to them and give them cold popsicles and repeatedly apologise for not warning them about the spicy food.

Feeling a bit left out, the two boys looked away and wanted to complain. They ate the food too! Why are those guys only getting special treatment? 

They both looked at the container which still had some food left and slowly picked it up, eating the rest of the food.

...