Don't Look Back

Chapter 43: Don't Look Back

Jiang Ning and Xue Yuantong stayed in the Small Garden for ten minutes, and the crowd on the campus's main road gradually dispersed.

"Let's go."

The two left through the school gates. Outside was a road over two hundred meters long, lined with all kinds of shops—small supermarkets, milk tea shops, stationery stores, Spicy Hot Pot shops, breakfast stalls—a dazzling array.

The road was fairly wide, with several modified Three-Wheelers parked along the sides, selling all sorts of snacks: fried food, Oden, and the like.

The place Xue Yuantong wanted to visit was not this Snack Street, but another one connecting two nearby schools, the University of Finance and Economics and Business and Trade Vocational College. That street was several times larger than the one outside No.4 Middle School.

"Jiang Ning, you're heading back pretty late!" Ma Shicheng called.

He sat on a wooden bench outside the small supermarket, holding a glass bottle of cola with a straw in it.

Jiang Ning looked up at the supermarket sign. "Yucai Supermarket."

"Planning to check out the Snack Street. You're not going home either?" Jiang Ning chatted with him briefly.

"I'm planning to go online in there for a while." He lowered his voice and pointed inside Yucai Supermarket.

There were several small supermarkets and restaurants near No.4 Middle School. On the surface, they ran legitimate businesses, but behind hidden doors, they kept a few computers so the owners could earn some extra cash.

It was close to the school and cheap, only two or three yuan an hour. Many students liked to go online there and play games like CrossFire, Dungeon Fighter Online, and League of Legends.

The regulars affectionately called this little supermarket the "Yucai Internet Cafe."

"Alright, have fun. We're leaving." Jiang Ning glanced sideways at Xue Yuantong. The little girl was quietly waiting beside him.

"Sure, see you next week!" Ma Shicheng made a dashing gesture.

Watching Jiang Ning and Xue Yuantong's tall and short figures walk away, he drained his cola in one gulp. He was not envious. To Ma Shicheng, games were the love of his life.

Today in League, I'll reward myself with a game of Sword Saint, Ma Shicheng thought.

After crossing the long road in front of No.4 Middle School and heading west for a while, a bustling long street appeared before them.

Xue Yuantong's eyes shone brightly, as if stars were hidden within them. She called out:

"Jiang Ning, I want Moon Cake, Fried Crispy Meat, Fuding Meat Slices, Double Skin Milk, Roasted Gluten, and sweet dumplings too! Their Hawthorn Sweet Dumplings are super delicious!"

Xue Yuantong rattled off several snacks in one breath.

"Can you even finish all that?" Jiang Ning looked at her disdainfully.

Xue Yuantong protested, "I can! Definitely!"

"What about you? What do you want to eat?" As soon as she asked, Xue Yuantong realized that after ordering that whole string of snacks, she might not have enough money left.

"For me, a Lamb Crepe, a cup of rice wine, and then I'll have some of your crispy meat, meat slices, and sweet dumplings."

Xue Yuantong quickly did the math in her head. Good, good. Her money was just enough.

Once they had decided, she pulled Jiang Ning off to queue up. He lined up at one stall while she queued at another, and before long, they had bought all their snacks.

When they reached the sweet dumpling shop, Xue Yuantong had enough money left for a bowl of wontons, so she decisively bought Jiang Ning a bowl of fresh pork wontons.

The sweet dumpling shop's counter was at the entrance. Customers stood in a long line while Auntie ladled the food straight into bowls for them to carry to their tables themselves.

The shop had two floors. The first floor was rather noisy, while the second had a better atmosphere.

Xue Yuantong liked eating upstairs, but whenever she carried a bowl up there, she worried that she might bump into someone and spill it. Every time, she was nervous while carrying her bowl.

She hesitated over whether to go upstairs. As she agonized over it, someone suddenly patted her shoulder. "What are you standing around for? Go upstairs and grab a seat. If you're too slow, there won't be any tables left."

Jiang Ning had just swept the second floor with his Spiritual Sense. If Xue Yuantong went up to claim a seat now, she could still get the last small table for two.

Xue Yuantong turned and saw Jiang Ning's face. Her gaze drifted down. He had the snack bags hooked around his little finger, while he held the wonton bowl between his thumb and index finger, looking extremely steady.

She pursed her lips. "Can you manage?"

"Stop talking and hurry up." Jiang Ning urged her.

"Fine, I'll go ahead." Xue Yuantong took a step, then turned back and took the snack bags off Jiang Ning's little finger.

Carrying the snacks, Xue Yuantong said, "I'll wait for you upstairs!"

Light on her feet, she went up the stairs. When she saw the last remaining table, she let out a sigh of relief.

Xue Yuantong wiped down the tabletop and the two chairs with tissues, then placed the bags of snacks on the table.

She sat in her chair, staring blankly ahead. Then she suddenly realized that she no longer needed to carefully carry her own sweet dumplings, no longer needed to hesitate over it, because someone would carry the bowl for her.

From now on, she was no longer alone.

In that instant, a tingling sensation rose from her forehead, and it felt as though something had filled her heart—security, gratitude, happiness.

The tangled emotions made her feel strangely at ease.

Even she did not know why she felt that way.

It was much like when she was little. Once, her mother had fallen ill and had not made breakfast. She was starving, so hungry that she cried from the unfairness of it.

When her mother saw her, she endured her discomfort and got out of bed to cook her rice soup, fry two slices of steamed bread, and stir-fry a plate of Green Pepper Shredded Potato.

After making the meal, her mother went back to bed to sleep. Xue Yuantong stood before the Small Dining Table, simply standing there in a daze.

What she felt now was incredibly similar to that time.

She still remembered that there had been no salt at home that day, so the Green Pepper Shredded Potato had been unsalted. Yet it was the best meal Xue Yuantong had ever eaten, bar none.

Jiang Ning set the two bowls on the table. Seeing Xue Yuantong's vacant expression, he waved a hand in front of her face.

"Possessed or something?" Jiang Ning muttered.

Xue Yuantong jolted and came back to herself. She huffed. "Of course not!"

"Alright, alright, let's eat!" She bit into a sweet dumpling. The hawthorn filling was sweet and sour, just as delicious as before.

Then she used a bamboo skewer to poke a piece of Little Crispy Meat. Its surface was sprinkled with spices, crisp outside and tender within. It tasted so good that she narrowed her eyes in bliss.

Seeing how much she enjoyed it, Jiang Ning's appetite was stirred. He took a bamboo skewer too and tried the crispy meat. To his surprise, it was delicious.

He ate several pieces in a row, making Xue Yuantong roll her eyes. He was going to steal all her crispy meat.

Qiao's Crispy Meat was an old shop. It was still open even after Jiang Ning graduated from university, and business remained excellent.

In the future, when most shops had joined food delivery platforms, Qiao's Crispy Meat would still insist on operating offline only. The owner worried that delivery would affect the flavor, so the shop never went online.

The same serving of crispy meat cost seven yuan now. Later, it would rise to ten, then fifteen.

Jiang Ning had loved Qiao's Crispy Meat in high school, but the seven-yuan price tag had kept him away. Every time he ate it, his heart ached.

In fact, this street had many delicious snacks. But Jiang Ning had never had much pocket money, and he also had to buy all sorts of things for Shen Qing'e.

There was barely anything left afterward, so he had to be stingy about everything.

His dream in high school had been that one day, he could walk into this Snack Street, eat to his heart's content without worrying about money, and truly satisfy his cravings.

Unfortunately, that dream had never come true during his high school years.

Years later, after graduating from university, Jiang Ning returned to Yuzhou City and walked this street again. By then, he had savings and no longer cared much about the cost of a few snacks.

With a thick wallet in his pocket, he looked at the Snack Street, still as bustling as ever, and remembered the years gone by.

That naive boy, that poor boy, those snacks he could not afford, all the things he had longed for but could not have—they were all yesterday now.

"I'll eat whatever the hell I want now!"

"No one can stop me!"

Jiang Ning ate at one stall after another.

Yet after only two or three servings, he could not eat another bite.

Had the flavor changed?

No. Those old shops were still widely praised.

What had changed was his state of mind.

Once he entered society, every kind of pressure came crashing down. The harsh reality lay before him—housing prices, work, his future—reminding him at every moment that he had to compete, had to overwork himself, could not lie flat, or else others would surpass him.

Just to become an ordinary person, he had already exhausted every effort.

That day, Jiang Ning stood before the long street, watching the bustling crowd. He silently finished the rest of his food and casually tossed the packaging into a trash can.

Then he turned and left, striding forward into the long road of life ahead.

Behind him, that impoverished boy stood before a Snack Stall, chewing mouthfuls of delicious food and smiling happily, never to grow up.

"If I bought osmanthus blossoms and wine to share,

it still would not be like our youthful days."

Back then, Jiang Ning had thought he would never be able to return.

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