Chapter 176 - Taking The Heavenly Queen Shopping
It wasgetting dark, the street lights on both sides of the street were on, and nightwas about to fall.
Lu Chendrove his Zhonghua X7 and was traveling at a speed of no more than 10 km perhour in the rolling traffic.
Although Beijingwas no longer labeled as "clogged city" for a few years now, the roads inBeijing's Second and Third Ring Road were still very crowded during the late peakperiod and often congested, leaving people helpless. (TN: Clogged city means acity having severe traffic jam)
“Hello,dear listeners, this is Beijing Music Radio FM102.6…”
“The nextsong is "Happy Angel" by Chen Fei'er. I wish you all a good night!”
Listening tothe FM radio from the car radio, Lu Chen couldn't help but turn his head to theright.
Sitting inthe co-pilot's position, there was a woman wearing a t-shirt and jeans.
The whitet-shirt, that was as wide as bat sleeves, were printed with large and small Englishletters, and was full of postmodernist exaggeration under the multi-color contrastof splash ink style, which was exactly the style that fashionable young peoplelike nowadays.
The materialof the black and blue jeans is very thin, and there are many rips on thesurface, exposing the white jade skin inside.
She has a fluffyponytail, a thick purple eye shadow on her face, a pair of color-framed flatglasses mounted on the delicate bridge of her nose, her red lips like fire, andlong purple gold silk rings dangling on her left and right earlobes, shiningunder the flashing headlights from time to time.
This kind ofstyle is very common in the personal space of WeChat group and QQ group. Basically,it comes from those post-90s girls who are crazy about selfies, who chasefashion and color and like personalized decoration.
Even if itseems very exaggerated.
However,this…
Lu Chen was reallyspeechless. He never dreamed that Chen Fei'er could dress up like this!
If the entertainmentreporters get a picture of Chen Fei'er's appearance, moreover, she left all herassistants and entourage behind, and went shopping and have dinner with him, itwas estimated that this will certainly be able to make the headlines tomorrow.
Her image wouldbe completely ruined!
Queen ofSweet Song? Beautiful lady boss? The goddess that attracts a lot of attention?
It’s all goingto vanish!
Lu Chen feltthat his eggs hurt and he was under a lot of pressure.
Why did he agree?
Well, LuChen has to admit that the temptation to take the Heavenly Queen to go shoppingmade him unable to refuse.
This wasobviously not the first time that Chen Fei'er play like this. Earlier, when hegot out of the Mercedes-Benz business car, he only waited outside for half anhour to see that the Heavenly Queen had completely changed her appearance.
Even if she walksopenly on a bustling street, perhaps no one could tell who she really was!
Chen Fei'ernoticed Lu Chen’s gaze, as if she knew what he was thinking, she said softly,“People like us have no life of their own. It feels like we living forothers. The surface is bright and beautiful, but underneath it, others don’tknow how much pressure we're bearing.”
“I’mnot surprised that Brother Wang Bin had an accident, because he started doingthat a long time ago and couldn’t control it.”
“Idon’t want to use that kind of self-destructive way to relieve stress, so whenI have a chance, I will run out and just be an ordinary person, go shopping forclothes, eat food that I don’t normally dare to eat, go to the amusement parkto ride the roller coaster, or go to the amusement arcade to play games.”(TN: Amusement arcade is a venue where people play arcade games such as videogames, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games,merchandisers (such as claw cranes), etc.)
She told herstory softly, blending with her singing from the radio.
Lu Chen wassilent.
After a moment,he asked curiously, “Sister Fei, you running out with me like this, isn'tit…?”
Isn’t ChenFei'er afraid or worried? After all, he is a young and vigorous man!
If shereally suffered a loss, she would probably have to swallow it by herself.
“Whatare you thinking?”
Chen Fei'er pretendedto be angry and said, “I think of you as a younger brother. My youngerbrother is as old as you!”
She poutedand said with a smile “If I were ten years younger, I could really consideryou.”
Chen Fei'er hasnever been shy about saying her age. She is 30 years old, 8 years older than LuChen.
She has afavorable impression on Lu Chen and appreciates his talent. And believe in hischaracter.
Lu Chenrubbed his nose with a wry smile, speechless.
Chen Fei'erblinked and asked, “Lu Chen, you still don’t have a girlfriend?”
Lu Chennodded: “Yes. I don’t have such thought for the time being.”
Chen Fei'ersighed: “It's also true that us artist are different from ordinary peoplewhen it comes to relationship. Artists are always exposed to the flashing light.Moreover, most of the time artists are not with their love one and always havean on and off relationship.”
She suddenlysaid, “Xiaochu likes you very much. You don't consider her? She is alovely girl!”
Xiaochu?
Lu Chen frozefor a while, and soon realized that Chen Fei'er was talking about Mu Xiaochu.
He shook hishead: “I think of Xiaochu as a younger sister.”
Hearing LuChen’s answer, Chen Fei'er immediately smiled - she had just said that shethought of Lu Chen as a younger brother!
The Queen ofSweet Song smiled so beautifully that even heavy makeup couldn't cover it.
Theatmosphere inside the car became warm and harmonious.
The stagnanttraffic started moving.
When Lu Chenparked his car in the parking lot near Shichahai, it was already dark.
In theevening, it was agreed that Chen Fei'er will treat him to dinner, but she didn'twant to go to any luxury five-star hotel restaurant. Instead, she wanted to eatthe special snacks of the old capital, so she went to Shichahai.
Shichahai'ssnack street is famous throughout Beijing. There are dozens of century-oldbrands such as Yueshengzhai, deep fried tripe, Tea Soup Li, rice cake money,Cheese Wei, Wei Yangtou Horse, soft bean curd and so on.
Originally, Shichahai'ssnack street was hidden in Xiaoyou alley next to Soong Qingling's formerresidence. It was a square courtyard, and at most it could only accommodate afew hundred customers at the same time.
Later,because business was too hot, the government made some re-planning in theconstruction, connecting the old alley with the new pedestrian street, addingmore food and snacks from all over the country and even from abroad, and combinedwith the surrounding modern shopping malls to form an integrated pattern ofeating, drinking, playing and buying.
Business isbooming here every day. Especially at six or seven o’clock, when there are toomany people.
“I wantto eat deep fried tripe, rice cake and soft bean curd…”
Chen Fei'er wasn'tpolite. She held Lu Chen’s arm and said, “There are also lamb skewers, shumai,soup steamed buns and lemon juice!” (TN: Not being polite here means thatshe didn't treat Lu Chen as an outsider. They are familiar with each other.)
Walking inthe antique old street, the two followed the crowd, just like an ordinarycouple.
Chen Fei'eris more than 1.7 meters tall. Even if she wasn't wearing high heels, the two matchedwell together.
Lu Chen wassurprised: “Are you okay with eating this kind of food? Aren’t you afraidof getting fat?”
Chen Fei'ersaid with a smile, “I’m not afraid. I only eat it once or twice every afew months.”
Lu Chen alsolet loose: “If you're not afraid, then let’s open our belly and have agood time. Eat whatever you want!” (TN: Open the belly - eat to yourheart's content)
Chen Fei'er wasn'tafraid. What was she afraid of?
“That’sright.”
Chen Fei'ersaid with a smile, “If we came out to relax, we shouldn't think too much.Being happy is the most important thing.”
In otherwords, be unrestrained!
So, two unrestrainedpeople first ran to a stall selling lamb skewers. Lu Chen asked the boss for 10skewers.
“Makeit a little spicy!”
“Allright!”
The bossquickly counted 10 skewers that had just been roasted, and sprinkled itskillfully with chili powder: “That would be 50 yuan.”
A singlelamb skewer costs 5 yuan. Lu Chen took the lamb skewers but didn’t pay for it.
It was ChenFei'er who paid for it.
She took outthe money from her small bag, which was only 50 yuan, and handed them to herboss.
“Thankyou for your patronage!”
When theboss took the money, he gave Lu Chen a look of contempt.
Such ahandsome boy. How could he let the girl pay for their food?
He's either asoft egg or soft rice. (TN: Soft egg - timid person. Soft rice - a mandepending on woman for a living)
You havesuch a good appearance in vain!
Lu Chen didn'tknow whether to laugh or cry.
On the way, ChenFei'er emphasized that he was responsible for picking what to buy and holdingthings, and she was responsible for paying.
As a result,he was despised.
Chen Fei'ersmiled and divided several lamb skewers from Lu Chen’s hand and couldn’t waitto stuff them into her mouth.
As soon asshe chewed a few pieces of meat, she opened her mouth and breathed hard:“so spicy, so spicy!”
Her faceshowing a pained expression.
Lu Chenhurriedly bought freshly squeezed orange juice next to the lamb skewer stalland handed it to Chen Fei'er.
“Thisis good!”
Chen Fei'er wasobviously not very good at eating spicy food, but after a mouthful of juice,she continued to eat lamb skewers.
Lu Chenadmired this kind of spirit.
It’s justthat if her image of eating and drinking so unscrupulously and without anyladylike demeanor was seen by her fans, it is unknown how many people will beheartbroken!
While eatinglamb skewers, the two strolled on and stopped when they saw anything theywanted to eat.
Rice cake, softbean curd, shumai, soup steamed stuffed bun…
Eating allthe way, without having to think about anything else, they just ate.
As a result,they were only halfway through the snack street, Chen Fei'er had already eatenso much that she could hardly walk!
She alsofelt regrettable: “There are a lot of delicious food in the back.”
Lu Chen saidwith a smile, “We'll come back here and eat again. Let’s go to thepedestrian street and have a rest first.”
Ahead ofthem is the intersection of snack street and pedestrian street. Turning rightwill lead to the shopping mall.
Thepedestrian street that leads directly to the mall was less crowded. There were open-airteahouses and coffee shops on both sides.
There werealso benches for tourists to rest on.
Lu Chen andChen Fei'er found an empty chair to sit down. They were not tired, just alittle bit full.
Chen Fei'erordered a lot of things greedily. Then she tasted each of them and gave therest to Lu Chen.
Lu Chen’s stomachcapacity was also limited.
“Huh?”
Chen Fei'er'seyes suddenly brightened and nudged Lu Chen with her elbow: “Listen!”
Lu Chen listened.
“Thebrightest star in the night sky, can you hear clearly, the endless sighs fromlonely souls looking up…”
Unexpectedly,someone was singing “The Brightest Star In The Night Sky”!
He couldn’thelp turning his head and looking in the direction of the song.
Just a dozenmeters away, in the middle of the pedestrian street, a street singer wasplaying an instrument and singing.
Singing LuChen’s song.
“Willthe brightest star in the night sky recall, my companion, whose shadow meltinto the wind!”
Lu Chencouldn’t help smiling.
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TN: About the title. It’s shopping for food
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