Rules of the Strange: I Can See Through All the Weird

The two went out of their house again to meet up. It was already dark, and the streetlights cast long and short shadows.

The barbecue restaurant wasn't far, only a seven or eight-minute walk away, and there were already five or six tables of people lined up outside.

Qi Tong took out her phone and glanced at it, while Liu Zi whispered a reminder in her mind.

[Host, we've checked. This store offers a 15% discount on everything from Tuesday to Thursday after 8 PM. It's 6:50 now. Would you like to wait an hour?]

"...If I starve to death in an hour, will you take responsibility?"

How can a single system be responsible for this...?

Hearing 666's coquettish words, Qi Tong couldn't help but smile and pulled Xu Ning inside to get a number for a four-person table.

"There are three tables ahead of us, that's alright, we'll wait about twenty minutes."

Qi Tong notified Qin Yu and Chen Jie in the group chat that they could go out.

The two quickly replied that they had received the message.

The two arrived in less than twenty minutes.

Fortunately, there was already an empty four-person table. Qi Tong led Xu Ning inside, and Xu Ning sat down in a booth.

Qi Tong himself sat on the outside.

Chen Jie and Qin Yu sat down opposite each other.

The dishes were served quickly, and the baking tray was already sizzling impatiently.

Qin Yu remained expressionless as usual, using tongs to place meat onto the baking tray.

Chen Jie, sitting next to him, seemed a little nervous.

He glanced at Qi Tong every now and then, then at Xu Ning, and finally finished with a look at Qin Yu.

Chen Jie sat opposite him, wearing a large black hooded sweatshirt with the hood pulled low, obscuring most of his face. He was dressed like a thief.

"Is someone chasing you?"

Chen Jie paused for a moment, his palm rubbing against the cuff of his hoodie.

"Yes, Dark Palace."

He lowered his head and gave a bitter smile.

"I'm offering a 100,000-point reward."

Qi Tong looked at him, as if he wanted to shrink into his hoodie.

Leaning back in his chair, he said in a lighthearted tone, "One hundred thousand points. You're now the most expensive barbecue partner in the entire bizarre world."

Chen Jie had prepared a whole set of arguments.

He said he would be careful, that he wouldn't implicate them, and that he could disappear immediately if they felt uncomfortable.

He had rehearsed these words in his mind several times, but Qi Tong shut them all down with a single sentence.

Chen Jie looked at Qi Tong, his lips moved, but no sound came out.

She didn't ask him if he was scared, didn't say "you have to be careful," and didn't blame him for what he did in the dungeon.

He wasn't pressured to give any answers.

Xu Ning, standing to the side, didn't say anything extra, but simply pushed the beef tongue in front of her toward Chen Jie.

Qin Yu flipped the meat on the grill, his tone as calm as a training exercise: "The City of Everything has its own rules. As long as you don't enter the dungeon, you'll be fine."

Chen Jie looked down at the sizzling beef tongue on the grill.

After a long pause, he hooked his finger on the hat, stopped for a moment, then pushed it back to reveal his entire face, and used his chopsticks to take the slice of beef that Qin Yu had just grilled.

"I know. But we still need to enter the instance."

He took a bite, chewed it twice, and then added a sentence.

"Order more if that's not enough. I have points."

Qin Yu glanced at him and put the other freshly baked slice into his bowl as well.

"Eat this plate first. You're too skinny. I'm afraid you won't be able to handle my training."

Chen Jie did not refute, and lowered his head to eat the meat.

Qi Tong picked up the barley tea that the waiter brought over, took a sip, and winced from the heat, quickly putting it down.

"This tea is hotter than my life."

Chen Jie was chewing something and staring at the patterns on the edge of the table when he heard this. His lips twitched, but he didn't look up.

Xu Ning chuckled softly to herself and pushed her cup aside to cool.

Qin Yu had already wiped the grease off the baking tray, picked up the first slice of beef tongue and placed it on it. With a sizzle, white smoke rose up, and the aroma immediately spread.

Qi Tong tapped the edge of the plate with her chopsticks.

"Qin Yu, do you also have training targets for barbecuing?"

Qin Yu's hands didn't stop flipping the meat, his tone the same as when announcing physical test results: "Flip in three seconds, roll in five seconds, and it's done in ten seconds."

"..."

Qi Tong paused for a second, then turned to look at Xu Ning: "Is he serious?"

Xu Ning laughed out loud, shook her head, and didn't say anything.

Chen Jie finally raised his head, glanced at the beef tongue on the baking tray that was curling up, then at Qin Yu's expressionless profile. His throat bobbed, as if he wanted to say something but swallowed it back.

Qi Tong noticed this and waved his chopsticks at him.

"Are you implying that he's like an AI in the world of barbecue?"

Chen Jie couldn't help but smile slightly, but quickly suppressed it and lowered his head to get the barley tea.

"No...no."

"Your smile is giving you away."

Xu Ning picked up a slice of freshly grilled meat from the side, put it in her bowl, dipped it in sauce, took a bite, and whispered, "Actually, it's quite delicious. There's a reason for flipping it every three seconds."

"You betrayed us too quickly," Qi Tong glared at her.

"I'm telling the truth."

Qin Yu ignored their conversation and added another layer of pork belly to the baking pan. The sound of the pork slices hitting the hot iron pan was muffled, and the fat immediately oozed out, bouncing a few times on the pan before the edges started to char.

Chen Jie sat there holding a teacup, his posture still a bit stiff, his shoulders slightly hunched forward, but his eyes had already begun to dart towards the baking tray.

Qi Tong casually picked up a piece of pork belly, put it in his mouth, chewed it twice, and sighed dramatically.

"Oh my god, this is the first time I've felt so happy about eating meat. I was looking at the meat in the cafeteria during the last dungeon but couldn't eat it."

"The only thing I can't let go of in my life is chopsticks."

Qi Tong devoutly closed his eyes, clasped his hands together, and held chopsticks between his palms.

Xu Ning choked a little and coughed twice, covering her mouth.

"...Who would describe themselves as so unambitious?"

"I call this a spiritual connection with food."

Chen Jie lowered his head, his shoulders finally relaxed a little, and the slight smile on his lips didn't disappear.

Qin Yu divided the second batch of roasted meat evenly into everyone's bowls with swift movements. After dividing it into four bowls, the plates were empty, and not a second was wasted.

Qi Tong looked at the few neatly arranged slices of meat in her bowl and remained silent for two seconds.

"...Qin Yu, if you retire in the future, you can open a barbecue restaurant. You only need to be the one in the kitchen."

"Not considering it."

"Because the combat team is short-staffed?"

"Because no one at the barbecue restaurant wanted to fight with me."

Xu Ning finally couldn't help but laugh out loud.

Chen Jie laughed along, a soft laugh, but it was the first time that laugh had come out of his throat that night, a laugh with a hint of breath.

After he finished laughing, he lowered his head to eat the meat, his movements becoming much more natural than before. He no longer deliberately held the meat lightly with his chopsticks, but picked it up steadily.

The next half hour was basically spent eating.

Plate after plate of beef tongue was served, pork belly was rotated, and kimchi was refilled twice.

Qi Tong and Xu Ning had a few words of banter about "who ate the last piece of beef tendon".

Qin Yu stood by, expressionless, flipping the meat over, occasionally adding a precise "You ate it" to deliver the finishing touch.

Chen Jie didn't say much. He went to the restroom to wash his hands, and when he came back, he stopped for a moment as he passed by Qi Tong.

Qi Tong looked up at him.

"...Thank you." He spoke in a low voice, as if afraid of being overheard by the other two people.

"What are you thanking me for? You didn't steal my beef tendon."