You Have Such a Good Appetite

This program is produced by Tomato Listening. Episode 44, "You Have Such a Good Appetite!"

Lin Yuzhu took a deep breath. These people never gave her a shred of confidence when it came to her looks. Could they not remember her simply because she was pretty?

Wang Xiaomei looked this way and that, and finally said pitifully,

"Cola."

Lin Yuzhu rubbed her temples and resignedly went to pour him a glass of plain water.

When she took the letter handed over by Shen Bojun, Wang Xiaomei even curiously poked her head over to take a look.

"Who is it?"

Lin Yuzhu was also somewhat baffled.

It was mailed from a county in the south, signed by Qiu Ming.

Lin Yuzhu wanted to ask the original host who this Qiu Ming was, but the original host didn't answer her at all.

Putting the letter away to read later, she waited for the stewed soup to be served. It truly was a huge bowl, a genuine and completely full bowl, with a little Chinese cabbage inside and a layer of chopped scallions sprinkled on top, making it look quite appetizing.

Wasn't the service at this state-run restaurant pretty good, too?

After a couple of bites, it really was quite good. No wonder they dared to take on jobs; they actually had some real culinary skills.

Coming to eat at this hour, they were clearly starving.

Once the stewed soup was served, several of them buried their heads and ate earnestly.

Wang Xiaomei was weak from illness; she was full after half a bowl and couldn't really eat anymore. Pitifully kicking Lin Yuzhu's sleeve, she muttered softly, "I can't eat anymore."

Lin Yuzhu deeply disliked waste at a time like this. It was true, and it wasn't fake that it was shameful—it was something easily spoken of, but she hadn't brought a lunchbox.

Lin Yuzhu let out a long sigh and moved her bowl over. "Ah, put it all in mine."

The fat man snorted out a cough, luckily remembering to turn his head to the side, or else he would have sprayed his face full.

Lin Yuzhu and Wang Xiaomei wore identical baffled expressions, while Shen Bojun felt it was disgraceful and couldn't bear to look.

The fat man felt a bit awkward too, and chuckled as he said, "Hey, your sister has quite a good appetite! Last time she ate a whole plate of braised pork all by herself. Who could afford to support her in the future?"

Lin Yuzhu licked her lips. Did this fat man want to drink some bone soup?

"Eat your food."

Shen Bojun said coldly, his face full of disgust.

The fat man lost his nerve, shrinking back like a quail.

Lin Yuzhu let out a cold snort, and Wang Xiaomei whispered again, "How much is it? I'll settle it with you later."

Lin Yuzhu shook her head and said, "My treat."

Wang Xiaomei's face instantly blossomed with joy. She was a twenty-year-old girl after all, and this smile really was just like a flower.

The fat man opposite stared straight at her.

Shen Bojun calmly lifted his bowl and finished the remaining dough drop soup in one breath. It seemed he really was hungry.

After finishing, he looked at the fat man. The fat man thought he hadn't eaten enough, pushed his own bowl forward, and said, "Hey, big bro, want me to pour you some?"

Shen Bojun immediately looked at him with disgust and said, "Eat quickly."

The fat man immediately stopped talking and concentrated on eating, though he ate quite delicately.

Lin Yuzhu gazed at the huge bowl of dough drop soup, took a breath, and went all in, swallowing the bowl of dough drop soup whole. Raising her head, her gaze collided right with Shen Bojun's, and she almost spat out the soup in her mouth.

"Don't stare at me while I eat, young man!"

Shen Bojun averted his gaze without a shred of guilt. He really did find this lass looking familiar, always feeling like he had seen her somewhere before.

Lin Yuzhu managed to swallow the stewed soup down, watching the fat man still dawdling there, and curled her lips in disgust. The fat man was left speechless.

Seeing that the sky outside was already dark, Lin Yuzhu didn't dare to delay any longer, so she stood up, grabbed Wang Xiaomei, and pulled her away.

They weren't close, so there was no need to say goodbye.

Shen Bojun watched the backs of the two leaving, looked at the already dark sky outside, and said to the fat man, "Eat quickly!"

As soon as the fat man was urged on, he immediately threw his shoulders into it and slurped down the remaining dough drop soup in a rush. Just now, seeing that there were lasses around, he hadn't felt comfortable letting loose and eating.

The autumn wind blew chilly, and Lin Yuzhu was glad she had brought her headscarf out.

She actually didn't like wearing this dusty thing, but right now it was most suitable for Wang Xiaomei, lest another gust of autumn wind blow her back into sickness.

When Wang Xiaomei put on the headscarf with a touched look, Lin Yuzhu clicked her tongue and shook her head inwardly. It really was rustic, far too rustic!

Pumping the pedals hard on her bicycle, she no longer felt cold. It was just that the road was pitch black, and passing by the fields always gave her a creepy feeling.

For a moment, all sorts of ghost movies surfaced in her mind.

A rural schoolteacher was her childhood nightmare.

An eerie voice flashed through her mind, seemingly calling out, "Little Zhu."

Lin Yuzhu shivered, and Wang Xiaomei asked with concern, "Chilly?"

With that, she hugged Lin Yuzhu's waist and pressed close against her.

It felt a bit ticklish. Hehe, she couldn't control herself for a moment, and the bike swerved a couple of times, scaring Wang Xiaomei into yelling aloud.

Following a hundred meters behind, the fat man rode his bicycle and shouted inexplicably.

"Uh, what's wrong, what's wrong? Did you run into bad guys?"

These words were spoken to Shen Bojun. He knew his Big Bro Shen had good eyesight, and not just ordinary good eyesight; at night he could see things like a night-prowling cat, able to see everything clearly.

Shen Bojun shook his head, his deep voice recounting slowly.

"No, looks like she didn't kiss, just scared the girl behind."

The fat man pedaled his bicycle laboriously and said, "As expected, the roads in Xiangyang really are hard to remember."

"Big Bro, what else did you say?"

"Nothing. Why are you so curious? Sending someone off, yet you don't want them to know?"

If you asked him, chasing a lass meant chasing her openly and honestly. Showing favor behind the scenes like this, how was anyone supposed to know!

"Keep your mind to yourself. Things haven't been peaceful lately, and two girls out at night are even more unsafe. One of them looks far too eye-catching."

Shen Bojun said coldly, not a trace of crooked, wicked thoughts audible in his voice.

The fat man swallowed back the words on the tip of his tongue and asked again,

"Mm, is that Skinny Monkey acting up again?"

Shen Bojun sighed. "The net is about to close." "Ah, that's great! Having to go carry loads at the black market every day, I can barely take it anymore."

Shen Bojun laughed helplessly.

While the two of them chatted away desultorily, Lin Yuzhu in front suddenly asked out of curiosity,

"Hey, I just remembered, how did Zhen Qiu get fixed up when she was sick last time?"

Wang Xiaomei tightly hugged Lin Yuzhu, terrified of being shaken off, and replied, "Just as someone from the village happened to go to town to pick up some returned and resold medicine that people had sent for, it cost her quite a bit of money."

Lin Yuzhu nodded. The villagers weren't all bad right now; most were very honest and simple.

After watching Lin Yuzhu and Wang Xiaomei enter the courtyard, Shen Bojun finally turned his bicycle around to head back.

At this moment, the night was deep and quiet, the north wind was howling, blowing the fat man's face numb. He sneezed, thinking Big Bro Shen must have taken a fancy to that stubborn lass—otherwise, why was he never seen being so kind on ordinary days?

The autumn nights were turning cold. Wang Xiaomei's fever easily tended to relapse after turning things over in her mind, so Lin Yuzhu still carried her bedding over to sleep in Wang Xiaomei's room. She stoked the stove fire until it blazed fiercely, heated a pot of water, and the two of them soaked their feet before finally climbing onto the kang.

A thick log was placed in the stove, and by now the kang was still piping hot.

In the pitch-black room, Wang Xiaomei's soft, sweet voice drifted over, "From the start I thought you were a kind person, and I really wasn't wrong."

Lin Yuzhu rolled her eyes. "When I first came here in my first year, I also caught a bout of illness. I tell you, my whole head was spinning."

Lin Yuzhu turned over to face Wang Xiaomei, signaling her to continue her story.

"That fever rose on its own with nobody caring for us, and they wouldn't allow us newcomers to ask for leave. I collapsed right there in the fields by myself."

"Four very good-looking young men were the ones who went to find the village's veteran doctor to treat me."

"Ah, there was a veteran doctor in the village? Then why did he carry people off to town—why didn't you say so earlier?"

Wang Xiaomei sighed and said softly,

"In my second year here, that veteran doctor passed away. After he passed, it turned out he used to be an old Chinese medicine practitioner."

Lin Yuzhu stopped talking. Chinese medicine had suffered no small impact during this period.

"Let's keep it down this time."

"It was that old man's house. The old man they kept saying was gone in the front courtyard—that was him."

"Mm, sigh, you go on with your story."

Wang Xiaomei was silent for a good while before she said gloomily, "He, too, was from the village. Back then I thought he was a good person. Although nothing was explicitly said with words, I thought it was tacitly agreed upon behind the scenes."

"Tacitly agreed upon what?"

Even the pitch-black room couldn't conceal those bright, sparkling eyes. "What else could it be?"

"If you don't understand, forget it."

Wang Xiaomei said with some displeasure.

Lin Yuzhu chuckled with a giggle.

"Aiyah, I know, I know."

"Heh, go on, go on."

Wang Xiaomei was left speechless; that tiny shred of sorrow in her heart had completely vanished.

"Not working, and I just happened to be assigned together with his mother to do farm work. His mother liked capable lasses, so I worked desperately hard at farm labor, terrified of being disliked."

Wang Xiaomei seemed to be reminiscing about past events like smoke in the wind. After a sigh, she continued, "His mother wasn't a kind person either, no better than Le Sicong by any measure."

"Back then, I thought he didn't know about the matter between me and his son, which was why she constantly spoke ill of me behind my back, saying my farm work wasn't good. Now that I think about it, she must have known. She did it on purpose, wanting to make me do more work. During the autumn harvest, not only did I have to finish my own share, but after finishing, I had to help her with hers too."

"Whenever work ended, he would come over to comfort me, saying his mother kept praising me for being so capable. His mother's health wasn't good, he said, asking me to bear with her a little more. Whenever people from the village came over, he would say his mother kept helping me with farm work, and that my high work-point earnings were all thanks to her help."

Sighing yet again, she said desolately, "Because I was rushing the farm work, I accidentally slashed my leg open, bleeding a lot. He secretly went to the doctor to buy medicine, boiled it for me to drink, and even secretly gave me candy to eat. The medicine was sweet."

"An egg is smaller than meat—" Lin Yuzhu always felt this scene seemed a bit familiar. This was pretty much the same as Zhang Yanqiu, except Zhang Yanqiu hadn't run into...

"A young man, his mother discovered that the eggs in the house were missing, and she wanted to catch the thief. Searching and searching, she caught me, saying I had tricked her son into buying eggs without paying, and that I was just bullying the young man for being soft-faced."

"Later she said she had helped me for nothing all this time, that a farm laborer really had no conscience, and demanded that I pay back the work points. The whole village just stood there watching the spectacle. At the time, I was so ashamed I wanted to die."

Seeing that Wang Xiaomei had stopped talking, Lin Yuzhu asked perplexedly,

"And then?"

"Paid it back. Not only did I use money to pay back the work points, but the work points were also canceled. Nobody believed that the farm work had been done by me alone."

By this point, her voice had already grown hoarse.