School let out in the afternoon.
Jiang Ning went out to buy dinner. Over the course of a semester, he had sampled nearly every restaurant and snack stall nearby.
Whenever a new place popped up, he would always go check it out.
Shao Shuangshuang had asked him before whether, whenever it was mealtime, she should have the company chef prepare food and send someone over to deliver it.
Or, more simply, open a restaurant right outside No.4 Middle School's School Gate.
Jiang Ning had refused. There was no need.
He preferred this simple, down-to-earth life.
As Jiang Ning was leaving the school, Huang Yuzhu from his class passed by him.
Huang Yuzhu waved. "Jiang Ning, I'm off."
They had eaten together for a while, but later, in order to save money, Huang Yuzhu decided to go home for dinner in the afternoons, so they stopped.
Jiang Ning strolled leisurely through the crowd, enjoying the bustle of the mortal world.
Instead of buying snacks for dinner, he went to the newly opened Braised Chicken Rice restaurant outside the school.
In March 2014, Braised Chicken Rice was expanding crazily across the country, gradually becoming a well-known delicacy on par with Sha County Snacks and Lanzhou Ramen.
Jiang Ning had eaten Braised Chicken Rice at many places. What impressed him most was the enormous difference in flavor between restaurants—practically heaven and earth.
Good restaurants carefully prepared their sauces and used fresh chicken thigh meat, making it especially tender.
Unscrupulous vendors, on the other hand, used terribly tough chicken that nearly fell apart the moment you bit into it. It was awful.
And it was not just the chicken. Conscientious restaurants also used good-quality rice, which had an excellent texture.
Jiang Ning remembered that the Braised Chicken Rice outside No.4 Middle School tasted especially