The Fat Man Who Could Eat

The place Zhang Shuai rented was in Yulong Residential Complex, Qingshui City—a shabby old one-bedroom apartment of sixty square meters. The monthly rent was only five hundred yuan.

He had been struggling to make a living in Qingshui City for over three months, yet he had not saved much money. Money was hard to earn these days, especially for an ordinary person like him, born in the countryside with no diploma, no looks, and no gift for talking. Making money was even harder.

Back at his rental, Zhang Shuai stretched his body and did a set of push-ups and sit-ups.

Over the past few years, he had been working hard to lose weight. He blamed his inability to find a girlfriend on being too fat, so if he wanted a girlfriend, he had to keep exercising and slimming down.

He had thought this injury would leave his body somewhat weaker, but after exercising, he discovered that his physical condition seemed even better than before the injury. He could do dozens more push-ups and sit-ups than before.

After working out, he suddenly felt ravenous, so hungry that his heart began to panic.

He searched the kitchen and found a few eggs and half a kilogram of dried noodles.

So he cooked a pot of egg noodles. After wolfing down a huge basinful, not only did he not feel full, he felt even hungrier.

What was going on? Zhang Shuai was baffled. He was indeed somewhat fat, but his appetite should not have been this enormous. He had eaten a huge basin of noodles, yet it had not filled him in the slightest.

But there was nothing left to eat at home. He thought he could endure it until it passed, but only a few minutes later, his stomach began growling. The feeling of going hungry was simply unbearable.

With no other choice, he could not just sit there and starve. He decided to go out and have a proper meal, eating until he was full.

Less than six hundred meters from Yulong Residential Complex was a large shopping mall, and beside it was a self-service bank branch.

He first deposited the thousand yuan in cash on him into his bank card. Cash payments were rarely used these days, and he was already accustomed to paying with his phone.

The entire third floor of the mall was filled with restaurants. One of them was an all-you-can-eat hotpot and barbecue restaurant that he had visited a few times before. It was currently running a promotion: a Douyin group-buying deal cost only sixty-nine yuan for unlimited food.

Zhang Shuai decided to eat there. No matter what, he had to fill his stomach this time.

When he arrived at the all-you-can-eat hotpot and barbecue restaurant, he placed an order through Douyin. A server arranged a seat for him, and he began getting food.

The restaurant was huge, and its food selection was plentiful: all kinds of grilled meat, grilled fish, grilled vegetables, grilled tofu, some seafood, various snacks, fruit, and drinks.

He first prepared his hotpot, tossing the side dishes and ingredients into the broth to cook. Then he filled the electric grill with all kinds of meat and brushed them with oil and sauce.

After that, he took two bottles of drinks and collected over a hundred skewers of various pre-grilled foods from the counters, then began tearing into them.

Perhaps he truly was starving. He ate at an astonishing speed, wiping out over a hundred meat skewers in less than ten minutes and finishing both bottles of drink. By then, the grilled meat was ready, so he devoured all of it as well. The meat and side dishes cooked in the hotpot were also swept clean by Zhang Shuai.

After eating so much grilled meat, he still did not feel full. Instead, his hunger grew even more intense.

Zhang Shuai realized something was wrong, and fear rose in his heart. No normal person could eat this much food. He might be fat, but he had never been able to eat this much before!

Could there be something wrong with his body?

Without a doubt, if something really was wrong, it had been caused by the electrocution accident. Could the shock have damaged his digestive system, making every bite of food instantly digested the moment it entered his stomach?

If that was true, would he never be able to eat his fill?

An inexplicable terror gripped Zhang Shuai. If this went on, would he not starve to death sooner or later?

Since he was not full, he took another huge pile of skewers—two hundred in all—along with a large bowl of stir-fried rice noodles and two bottles of drinks.

He returned to his table and continued eating.

Before long, he noticed a female server in her thirties standing not far away, occasionally stealing strange glances at him.

It made him feel somewhat uncomfortable. Strictly speaking, he had only spent sixty-nine yuan, yet the food he had eaten was worth at least several times that amount. The restaurant was definitely losing money on him.

Still, this was an all-you-can-eat barbecue and hotpot restaurant. As long as he was not deliberately wasting food, the restaurant had nothing to say even if he ate a lot.

Then, under the female server's strange gaze, Zhang Shuai ate every last bit of the huge pile of skewers, grilled meat, stir-fried noodles, and everything else on the table.

Yet he still was not full. By now, he no longer cared about the server's strange looks. He had paid, after all; he was not eating without paying. So he went and selected another tableful of food.

Huang Dan was a server at this buffet restaurant. Her main duty was collecting the plates customers used to hold their food and promptly sending them to the back kitchen for washing. At a buffet, customers used a great many plates.

At this moment, Huang Dan was greatly shocked. She had worked at this buffet restaurant for over two years and had seen customers with big appetites before, but she had never seen anyone who could eat like the fat man before her.

From what she had seen, the fat man had eaten at least five kilograms of grilled meat, two bowls of stir-fried noodles, two hundred meat skewers, not counting the side dishes and meat added to the hotpot. He had also drunk at least four bottles of beverages. She alone had collected more than a dozen empty plates, as well as a huge handful of bamboo skewers.

Such an appetite was simply terrifying. Even someone who had not eaten for three days could not eat that much. Even six normal people could not eat that much!

What shocked Huang Dan even more was that after eating so much, the fat man still did not seem full. He had actually gone back for another huge pile of meat skewers and all kinds of food, filling an entire table.

Watching the fat man open his mouth wide and gorge himself, Huang Dan felt a little frightened. It was not because she felt sorry for the restaurant's losses. She was just a working server; what the customers ate had nothing to do with her. Whether the restaurant lost money or made money was not her concern. She only collected her wages.

But Huang Dan feared that this person would develop a problem from binge-eating. What if he ate himself to death? It would be bad if a life was lost. If the fat man really died from overeating in their restaurant, she might even lose her job.

Huang Dan felt this issue had to be taken seriously, so she went directly to the restaurant manager, Yang Wan, and reported the matter of the fat customer.

"How much? How much did you say he ate?"

Yang Wan widened her eyes and asked in disbelief.

"At least five kilograms of grilled meat, over two hundred meat skewers, plus stir-fried noodles, hotpot, and so on. Anyway, he ate at least as much as six or seven people by himself."

Yang Wan found it hard to believe. Even a pig could not eat that much, let alone a person.

"He really ate that much?"

"Manager Yang, I was the one clearing the plates and trash from that table. I saw everything he ate!"

Yang Wan had a headache. She knew Huang Dan had reported it out of kindness, but theirs was an all-you-can-eat barbecue and hotpot restaurant. So long as the customer did not waste food, she could not interfere with how much he ate. When running a business, they could not ruin their reputation.

Just as Yang Wan was unsure how to handle the matter, Huang Dan's next words gave her an opening.

"Manager Yang, that person is eating far too much. I'm worried something might happen to his body. If anything happens in our restaurant, that will be difficult to deal with."

Yang Wan's eyes lit up. Right, this was the best excuse.