"Yuying? Why are you staring at the cars?"
Ming'er blinks as he immediately turns away from the road. He sees Tian Gou standing in front of him, looking at him with the same confused expression that he'd looked at him with back at the food court.
Tian Gou's hand is hanging comically mid-air like he's still debating whether or not to take Ming'er by the hand. His face contorts as he looks like he's urging himself to just be brave and grab Ming'er by the hand, only to ultimately withdraw it because he's much too shy to do so.
As fascinated as Ming'er was by the cars, or the 'horses with wheels' as he liked to call them, he had to remind himself that they were a norm in this world.
/Ming'er, you fool...!/
/You must look even more out of place than you already do now...!/
/Who the heck stares at something that's the norm in their world? That's pretty much the equivalent of staring at the horses and carriages that travel back and forth back in my world, and as far as I'm concerned, no one except for little kids has all the time in the world to do so...!/
/Plus, this is the nth time that you've zoned out today...!/
/C'mon, Ming'er, pull yourself together...!/
And so, Ming'er tells himself to just follow Tian Gou and try not to zone out until they reach the Humanities Building, the very place that he's apparently supposed to be at.
Just then, Ming'er realizes that he hadn't answered Tian Gou's question. He'd, quite literally, left him hanging.
And so, Ming'er decides to cook up an answer.
"O-Oh, about earlier," Ming'er finally manages after a short moment of silence, "I just thought that I saw my friends in one of the c-cars."
Ming'er internally pats himself on the back for making up something relatively convincing, though he couldn't help but stutter at the word 'cars' due to how foreign it still was to him.
"Oh, really?" Tian Gou quips, "Who were they?"
"I think they were...Xiao Ming, Xiao Hua, and Xiao Li," Ming'er splutters, telling Tian Gou the first three names that came to his mind, which were coincidentally the most basic and unoriginal names that are overused by the primary and secondary school students in this world in their Chinese compositions.
"Xiao Ming, Xiao Hua, and Xiao Li?" Tian Gou repeats as he furrows his brows.
/Oh God, he's gonna say that I don't have friends with those names or something./
And so, Ming'er decides to correct himself, as well as add on to his freshly-invented narrative.
"Yeah, that's right," Ming'er nods in the most convincing manner that he can, "They're not really close to me per se, considering that I only met them once at this event, and that was it," he continues, "So I guess they're more of acquaintances than friends."
"Acquaintances, huh?" Tian Gou hums. He purses his lips and looks like he's trying to recall the time when Yuying had mentioned this to him.
Seeing that Tian Gou didn't really seem to buy it, Ming'er elaborates. "Yes, they're acquaintances that I met at an event that I forgot to mention to you about," he explains, placing particular emphasis on the word 'forgot'.
Ming'er decides to lie in even greater detail so that it would be as convincing as it could be. "Anyway, I thought that I saw Xiao Ming, Xiao Hua, and Xiao Li in a, um, silver c-car," he drawls as casually as he can, "Xiao Hua was at the wheel, and Xiao Ming and Xiao Li were at the back."
Tian Gou furrows his brows as he seems like he's absorbing this new information. Ming'er holds his breath and prays that he hadn't gotten so carried away that he'd somehow said something that he shouldn't have somewhere along his lie.
"Huh," Tian Gou says at last, "I don't know a Xiao Ming or a Xiao Li, but I do know a Xiao Hua," he hums, "He's a Chinese major too, and as far as I know, he still doesn't have his driver's license. The poor guy told me that he'd failed the test three or four times now."
"O-Oh," Ming'er replies, not really knowing what else to say. He doesn't know why, but he somehow felt like Tian Gou was subtly implying that he wasn't telling the truth.
Ming'er wouldn't have it.
"But as I said, the Xiao Hua that I've made acquaintances with at the event is another person from another school," Ming'er lies smoothly, "And based on what you said, perhaps this Xiao Hua is just better than the other one."
"Ouch, what a ruthless burn," Tian Gou chuckles, "You're a savage, Yuying."
Ming'er furrows.
/Burn? What burn? I don't see any fires or torches around.../
/And what savage? I don't see any of the barbaric tribes they'd told us to stay away from when we were younger around.../
/What the heck is he talking about? Is it some sort of lingo in this world.../
At this moment, Ming'er and Tian Gou turn into a place that's bustling with student activity. Unlike the previous food market-like place that Ming'er had unconsciously walked into, this place seemed more like a general marketplace. Aside from food and drink stores, there were stores selling other things along the wide alley-like area.
It reminds Ming'er of Qilin Alley.
It wasn't really an alley, but rather, an equivalent to this general marketplace-like area. However, instead of being within the campus, the alley was just a five or ten-minute walk away from Qilin Academy. It was kind of like an extension of the academy in that sense.
It's a shopping district with an assortment of restaurants and shops selling all sorts of things. Most importantly, however, it's the place for the students at Qilin Academy to get their school supplies, such as their weapons, books, brush and ink, and many more.
It's also the place where Ming'er snuck out to past curfew along with Chen Jun and Ruofei the most often. However, despite being repeated warnings on the semi-rare occasions that they'd been caught, the three best friends continued their shenanigans over and over.
After all, there was only so much that the academy could do to a prince and his two best friends, who happened to be the sons of lords who held considerable power.
Ming'er spots two students coming out of one of the stores at the further end with new-looking books and appliances that he didn't recognize in their hands.
Even though Ming'er couldn't read the signboard of the store, he could immediately infer that it was a bookstore of some sorts, similar to the little shop that they had back at Qilin Academy.
The store right beside the bookstore is the largest one in the alley.
Ming'er peers inside it for a brief glimpse as he and Tian Gou walk past.
As soon as Ming'er sees fruits and vegetables, as well as boxes, containers, bottles, and packets containing all kinds of products that he didn't recognize, he knows that the store must be some sort of market.
/An indoor market?/
Ming'er furrows his brows at this unfamiliar concept.
/That's new, I've never heard of or seen anything like that./
Ming'er also sees a queue forming up at the counter, where a middle-aged woman seems to be stationed. She appears to be checking the items that the people were bringing up to her. The woman would only let the people take the items after they've whipped out their mysterious-looking box thing.
Ming'er is momentarily confused by the lack of silver and gold coins, as well as how the mysterious-looking box thing comes into play in all of these.
/So they can take their items as soon as they've shown the woman their mysterious-looking boxes...?/
/Does that mean...the mysterious-looking box thing function as silver and gold coins as well?/
/No, that doesn't make any sense...it's not like they're handing their mysterious-looking boxes over to the woman.../
Ming'er unconsciously places his hand over his pocket, where his own (or rather, Yuying's) mysterious-looking box was.
Ming'er decides to save his questions for later as he tries to keep up with Tian Gou, who's walking so fast that it's like he's the one who has to meet Professor Williams instead of Ming'er.
Soon enough, Ming'er and Tian Gou walk out of the place that reminds the former of Qilin Alley. They're now walking towards...a wall?
Ming'er furrows his brows. There seems to be some sort of platform with doors that has been built into the wall.
/What's this thing in the wall?/
Ming'er watches as Tian Gou presses this button that he hadn't noticed until now that was beside the platform-thing.
Ming'er widens his eyes when the button lights up after Tian Gou had touched it.
Just then, the entire rectangular frame in the wall lights up as well. The door opens to reveal...some sort of enclosed box?
Even though Ming'er is skeptical about it, he follows Tian Gou when he seems the latter enter the box.
There's a vertical row of buttons in the interior of the box. Ming'er watches as Tian Gou presses the lowest button.
Just then, the box shifts. Ming'er widens his eyes slightly as he backs into a corner and grips the railings at the sides of the enclosed box.
Tian Gou shoots a concerned glance at Ming'er, but does question his behaviour. After all, the latter seemed to be a little jumpy today.
Ming'er soon realizes that the box is taking them down. It seems to be some sort of machine that transports people between floors.
Ming'er also notes that the numbers on the buttons correspond to the number on the very top of the box as they go down. He realizes that the box is taking them to the lowest floor.
/Oh...!/
/That's actually really cool...!/
/This must be one of the inventions in this world...!/
Ming'er imagines briefly just how nice it would be if they had this box-like thing back in his world.
/I wouldn't have to climb the stairs just to get up to the Imperial Palace.../
/And Big Brother wouldn't have to be stuck in there all day.../
Ming'er couldn't help but feel his heart throb slightly at the thought of Mingyi.
/I wonder how Big Brother is doing now...?/
However, Ming'er couldn't dwell about it for too long before the box reaches the ground floor.
Ming'er follows Tian Gou out of the box as soon as its doors open. They find themselves in some sort of long corridor.
As long and confusing as it may seem, Tian Gou clearly knows the way well from the way that he seems to move on auto-pilot.
Soon enough, Ming'er and Tian Gou reach the Humanities Building. There's an open-air foyer in the main area, along with a few benches that some students are studying at. There's also an office right beside it.
Ming'er turns into a corner with Tian Gou, where there's yet another of the box thing that they'd come across earlier.
This time, however, instead of going down, Tian Gou presses one of the buttons that's above the floor that they're on.
There's another corridor that awaits them when the door opens. Just like before, Tian Gou navigates it effortlessly.
Tian Gou seems to be so familiar with the place that Ming'er is starting to wonder whether he studies the layout of the entire university in his free time or something.
"We're here," Tian Gou suddenly announces. They're standing in front of the door with Professor Williams' name on it.
"T-Thank you," Ming'er murmurs awkwardly. As big of a simp as this Tian Gou was, he couldn't deny that he'd helped him out a great deal.
"No problem," Tian Gou beams as he knocks on the door for Ming'er.
"Come in," a voice calls out from inside.
"Good luck in there, okay?" Tian Gou winks as he opens the door slightly for Ming'er, "I'll see you later."
"S-See you," Ming'er stammers shyly as he walks into the room.
As soon as he closes the door behind him, Ming'er finds himself coming face to face with the woman whose illustration he'd seen on the mysterious-looking box earlier.
"Ah, Yvonne," Professor Williams grins.
"There you are."