Chapter 223: Study Tour ④
Zhang Haiyang nudged Li Kai, placing a hand on his shoulder and smiling, “A Kai, today is a good day for you and Nie Qiu to officially start dating, and it’s also a day we got good grades. Let’s go celebrate!”
“Right, right! A Kai, treat us to a meal at noon today!” Wang Chao Lei said, slinging an arm around Ma Xin’s shoulder, “You guys are all paired up now. By rights, Haiyang, Ah Xu, and A Kai, the three of you should treat us, just to console Ma Xin and me, the singles.”
Li Kai smiled, “Alright, alright, I’ll treat. Let’s go to KFC!”
Huang Yan’s eyes lit up, “Great, great! Let’s go to KFC.”
“KFC is too expensive. I know a place that’s delicious and cheap,” Nie Qiu said, tugging Li Kai’s hand. There were eight of them now, all young and healthy. If one person wanted to eat their fill at KFC, it would cost a set meal per person. A hamburger, a chicken leg, fries, and a cola were naturally essentials. It wasn’t easy to get full at KFC. It was more cost-effective to eat at a small restaurant where a stir-fried vegetable dish cost only a few yuan, and a meat dish cost only a little over ten yuan, with free refills of rice.
However, as soon as Nie Qiu said this, Wang Chao Lei burst out laughing, “A Kai, you’re so lucky. Look, Nie Qiu is already thinking about saving you money.”
At Wang Chao Lei’s words, Nie Qiu blushed slightly and glared at him. Li Kai lowered his head, smiling at Nie Qiu, who was shorter than him, and said, “Nie Qiu, you lead the way!”
Nie Qiu nodded and led Li Kai and the others to the place where she often got boxed meals when helping Nie Aifang sell vegetables. The restaurant was very small, just a shopfront. Outside the door, several large honeycomb briquettes were stacked, with large pots on top, and a gas stove. A plump, robust chef was stir-frying dishes over the blazing gas stove. He tossed the wok a few times, then scooped the food onto a dish plate. A short, middle-aged woman carried the dish and shouted loudly, “Stir-fried kidneys! Which table is this for?”
Then, someone sitting inside the shopfront replied, “Table number eight.”
The middle-aged woman carrying the dish then placed it on table number eight. The burly man cooking at the door rinsed his wok under the faucet and began stir-frying the next dish, his movements clean and efficient. After the dishes were finished, someone inside would replenish them.
The reason this small restaurant was called a small restaurant was because it was truly small. Inside the shopfront were ten four-person tables, each seating four people facing each other.
Nie Qiu led the group inside, and Zhang Haiyang called out, “Boss Lady, combine tables.” Combining tables meant pushing two tables together so they could all eat together.
Except for Li Kai and Bai Ya, everyone else had eaten stir-fried dishes and fried rice at such small restaurants before, so they didn’t feel awkward. Instead, Li Kai and Bai Ya, standing in the somewhat crowded restaurant, seemed a bit reserved.
The woman who was serving dishes smiled in response, walked over, pulled out stools, and in a few quick movements, pushed two small tables together. She also arranged the stools. After the eight people were seated one by one, the Boss Lady brought a menu and a small notebook, smiling as she said to them, “Whatever you want to eat, look at the menu and order yourselves. Write it down on the small notebook when you’re done.”
Nie Qiu nodded. Li Kai’s eyes widened. He had eaten at night market stalls before, but at the night market, you didn’t need to write down your order; you just said what you wanted, and it would be brought to you. In large restaurants, there were dedicated waiters for taking orders. He had never encountered a situation where he had to write down his own order.
However, before Li Kai could finish being surprised, the Boss Lady got busy. Nie Qiu, Huang Yan, and Zhang Haiyang were already ordering. After writing down what they wanted to eat and what Huang Yan wanted, Nie Qiu looked at Bai Ya, “Bai Ya, what do you want to eat?”
Bai Ya thought for a moment, “I… I remember the salted egg yolk pumpkin at Zijin Hotel was very delicious. Do you… do you have salted egg yolk pumpkin here?”
Nie Qiu nodded and wrote down salted egg yolk pumpkin on the notebook. After asking everyone else, she finally asked Li Kai, who was sitting next to her, “Is there anything you like to eat?”
Li Kai thought for a moment, “I heard people say that snails and things like that are cooked better at small restaurants than at big ones. Let’s order a plate of snail meat!”
Nie Qiu nodded and wrote down what Li Kai wanted to eat on the small notebook. After everyone had ordered their dishes, Nie Qiu wrote down two free soups. Huang Yan, sitting on Nie Qiu’s other side, called out, “Boss Lady, we’ve ordered. Here’s the order form.”
After serving a table, the Boss Lady wiped her hands on her apron, took the small notebook from Huang Yan, and handed it to the kitchen behind. Soon, the kitchen prepared the dishes and brought them to the plump chef at the door. The chef began stir-frying one dish, rinsed the wok under the faucet, and then placed it on the gas stove to start cooking Nie Qiu and their dishes.
The dishes were served one after another. Huang Yan eagerly picked up her chopsticks.
While Nie Qiu was eating, Nie Aifang was also eating. Since today was the day Nie Qiu received her report card, Nie Aiwen also really wanted to know how Nie Qiu’s grades were. As soon as he got off work at noon, he went to a large restaurant to pack a few dishes and came to the vegetable market.
However, when he arrived at the vegetable market, he didn’t see Nie Qiu. Nie Aifang also said Nie Qiu hadn’t returned yet. Nie Aiwen knew that the unchanging rule was the thorough cleaning before the long holiday, so he knew Nie Qiu would be back later. By one o’clock, Nie Aifang, afraid the food would get cold and spoil, packed some for Nie Qiu into an insulated food container, then laid out the remaining dishes and started eating with Nie Aifang behind the vegetable stand.
The stool placed behind the vegetable stand was really too small. Nie Aiwen, wearing a suit and suit pants, sat on the small stool to eat, which looked like squatting on the ground to eat. This scene was somewhat amusing, like when he first came to the big city to work. Although he had attended junior high school, it was difficult to find a job in the big city with only a junior high education. He used the little money he had to buy a suit and went to the talent market, participating in various recruitments. But there was no news. Finally, he helped move bricks at a construction site, wearing a suit, squatting in a makeshift shed, eating the meal that a kind construction worker had given him.
He hadn’t… squatted down to eat like this for many years. But Nie Aifang squatted here to eat every day. Thinking of this, he felt a pang of heartache. He looked up and said, “Sister… when will you tell Qiu Qiu about us?”
He knew Nie Aifang didn’t want to settle in this city and was definitely going back to her hometown. So, he sold the house the developer had given him and continued to live in the company dorms, sometimes going to Nie Qiu’s place to sleep on the sofa. But… he wanted to be with Nie Aifang.
To put it crudely, he wanted to sleep together and do things lovers do. He was in his thirties, and Nie Aifang wasn’t old either; they were both in their prime. When you’re with someone you like, and you’re in a lover relationship, it’s natural to want to be closer and closer… But during the day, Nie Aifang had to set up her stall from five in the morning to seven or eight at night. At night, she slept with Nie Qiu because the rented house was too small, making it impossible to use the excuse that Nie Qiu needed to sleep alone in a separate room.
