Your Appetite Is Really Something

Produced by Tomato Listening, Episode 44: Your Appetite Is Really Something!

Lin Yuzhu took a deep breath. When it came to beauty, these people never gave her even the slightest confidence. Couldn't they remember her because she was pretty?

Wang Xiaomei looked at this one, then that one, and finally said pitifully.

"Cola."

Lin Yuzhu rubbed her temples and resigned herself to pouring him a cup of plain boiled water.

When Wang Xiaomei took the letter Shen Bojun handed over, she curiously leaned in to take a look.

"Who's it from?"

Lin Yuzhu was also baffled.

It had been mailed from a county town in the south and was signed Qiu Ming.

Lin Yuzhu wanted to ask the original owner who Qiu Ming was, but the original owner did not answer her.

She put the letter away, intending to read it when she got back. When the lump soup arrived, it came in a huge bowl, filled to the brim. There was some cabbage in it, and a layer of chopped scallions sprinkled on top, making it look quite nice.

"The service at this State-Run Restaurant isn't bad, huh?"

After two bites, it really was delicious. No wonder they dared take on the job—they really had some skill.

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

Once the lump soup was served, the group lowered their heads and ate in earnest.

Wang Xiaomei was weak from her illness. She was full after half a bowl and could not eat any more. She pitifully tugged at Lin Yuzhu's sleeve and muttered softly that she could not finish it.

Lin Yuzhu hated wasting food. Waste really was shameful, and saying so was useless when they had not even brought lunch boxes.

Lin Yuzhu let out a long breath and moved her own bowl over. "Here, give it all to me."

The fat man suddenly choked on a cough. Luckily, he knew to turn his head aside, or he would have sprayed them full in the face.

Lin Yuzhu and Wang Xiaomei looked utterly confused. Shen Bojun found it embarrassing and could barely stand to watch.

The fat man was a little awkward too. With a chuckle, he said, "Hey, little sister, you've got quite the appetite. Last time, you ate an entire plate of braised pork by yourself. Who could afford to feed you in the future?"

Lin Yuzhu licked her lips. Was this fat man asking for bone soup?

"Eat your food."

Shen Bojun spoke coldly, his face full of disgust.

The fat man cowered, shrinking up like a quail.

Lin Yuzhu snorted. Wang Xiaomei spoke softly again. "How much was it? I'll pay you back later."

Lin Yuzhu shook her head. "My treat."

Wang Xiaomei immediately beamed. She was, after all, a twenty-year-old girl. When she smiled, she truly looked like a flower.

The fat man across from them stared blankly at her.

Shen Bojun calmly lifted his bowl and gulped down the remaining dough lumps in one go. It seemed he really was hungry.

After finishing, he glanced at the fat man. Thinking he had not eaten enough, the fat man pushed his own bowl over. "Hey, brother, want some of mine?"

Shen Bojun immediately looked at him with disdain. "Hurry up and eat."

The fat man immediately stopped talking and focused on eating, though he ate strangely delicately.

Lin Yuzhu stared at the huge bowl of lump soup, took a breath, and went for it. She wolfed down the entire bowl, then looked up just as her eyes met Shen Bojun's. She nearly sprayed the lump soup in her mouth.

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

Shen Bojun shifted his gaze away without the slightest guilt. He truly thought the girl looked familiar, as though he had seen her somewhere before.

Lin Yuzhu finally swallowed the lump soup. Seeing the fat man still eating so slowly, she curled her lips in disdain. The fat man was speechless.

Seeing that it was already dark outside, Lin Yuzhu did not dare delay any longer. She got up, pulled Wang Xiaomei along, and left.

They were not familiar with each other, so there was no need to say goodbye.

Shen Bojun watched the two women leave. Looking at the dark sky outside, he said to the fat man, "Hurry up and eat!"

Once urged, the fat man immediately let himself go and slurped down the rest of his dough lumps. Earlier, he had been too embarrassed to eat freely with girls around.

The autumn wind rustled, and Lin Yuzhu was glad she had brought a headscarf.

She did not actually like wearing such a tacky thing, but it was perfect for Wang Xiaomei right now. She could not let an autumn wind make her sick again.

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

Pedaling the bicycle hard kept them from feeling cold, but the road was pitch-black. Whenever they passed fields, it always felt a little creepy.

All kinds of horror movies suddenly flashed through her mind.

Rural Teacher had been her childhood nightmare.

A creepy voice echoed in her head, seemingly calling out, "Little Zhu."

Lin Yuzhu shuddered. Wang Xiaomei asked with concern, "Are you cold?"

As she spoke, she hugged Lin Yuzhu around the waist and pressed herself close.

It was a little ticklish. Hehe, Lin Yuzhu lost control for a moment, and the bicycle swerved twice, frightening Wang Xiaomei into screaming.

A hundred meters behind them, the fat man rode his bicycle and inexplicably shouted.

"Uh, what happened? Did they run into bad guys?"

He was asking Shen Bojun. He knew Brother Shen had sharp eyes—more than ordinarily sharp. At night, he could see like a night cat and make out everything clearly.

Shen Bojun shook his head, his low voice calm as he spoke.

"No. Seems like they almost kissed and scared the girl in the back."

The fat man pedaled laboriously. "Xiangyang's roads really are hard to remember."

"Brother, what are you even talking about?"

"Nothing. Why are you so curious? You're escorting them but don't want them to know?"

In his opinion, if you were pursuing a girl, you should do it openly. How could she know if you only showed concern in secret?

"Put away those thoughts of yours. Things haven't been peaceful lately. Those two girls are less safe at night, especially since one of them is too eye-catching."

Shen Bojun spoke coolly, without even a hint of improper intent.

The fat man swallowed the words that had reached his lips and asked again.

"Mm, has Skinny Monkey started causing trouble again?"

Shen Bojun sighed. "We're about to close the net. That's good. Going to the Black Market every day to hold things together has nearly done me in."

Shen Bojun smiled helplessly.

As the two chatted idly, Lin Yuzhu suddenly asked curiously from ahead.

"Hey, I just remembered. What happened when Zhen Yanqiu got sick last time?"

Wang Xiaomei held tightly around Lin Yuzhu's waist, afraid of being thrown off. She replied, "Someone from the village happened to be going to town and brought back some returned medicine. It cost her quite a bit."

Lin Yuzhu nodded. The villagers were not all bad after all. Most of them were simple and honest.

Only after watching Lin Yuzhu and Wang Xiaomei enter the courtyard did Shen Bojun turn his bicycle around and head back.

By then, the night was deep and quiet. The north wind howled, numbing the fat man's face. He sneezed and thought Brother Shen must have taken a liking to that wild girl. When had he ever been so kind before?

Nights turned cold after autumn. Wang Xiaomei's fever could easily return, so after thinking it over, Lin Yuzhu carried her bedding over to sleep with her. She stoked the stove until it burned brightly, boiled a pot of hot water, and only climbed onto the kang after the two of them soaked their feet.

A thick piece of wood had been placed in the stove, and the kang was still nice and warm.

In the pitch-black room, Wang Xiaomei's soft, sweet voice sounded. "I thought you were kind when we first met. Looks like I wasn't wrong."

Lin Yuzhu rolled her eyes. "When I first came here, I got sick too. I had a fever and felt dizzy all over."

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

"No one cared when I had a fever, and they would not allow us newcomers to take sick leave. I fainted alone in the fields."

"Four handsome boys took me to the village's old doctor to see a doctor."

"Ah, there was an old doctor in the village? Then why did he carry someone all the way to town? Why didn't you say so earlier?"

Wang Xiaomei sighed and spoke softly.

"In my second year here, that old doctor passed away. After he was gone, it was because he was an old Chinese medicine doctor."

Lin Yuzhu fell silent. Traditional Chinese medicine had suffered quite a blow in those days.

"Take it easy this time."

"It was his old house. The old man everyone in the front courtyard kept saying was gone—that was him."

"Mm. Sigh, go on with your story."

Wang Xiaomei was silent for a long while before speaking faintly. "He was from the village too. Back then, I thought he was a good person. Although he never said it outright, I thought we had silently agreed to it in private."

"Agreed to what?"

Even the darkness could not hide those sparkling eyes. Could she still deny it?

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

Wang Xiaomei said unhappily.

Lin Yuzhu giggled.

"Alright, alright, I get it."

"Hey, keep going, keep going."

Wang Xiaomei was speechless. The tiny bit of sadness in her heart had completely vanished.

"When we weren't working, I happened to be assigned with his mother. His mother liked capable girls, so I worked desperately hard in the fields, afraid she would dislike me."

Wang Xiaomei seemed to be recalling the smoke and clouds of the past. After sighing, she continued, "His mother was not a good person. She was no better than Li Si."

"Back then, I thought she did not know about me and her son, so she would always talk behind my back about how I was bad at work. Looking back now, she probably knew. She said those things on purpose to make me work harder. During the autumn harvest, not only did I have to finish my own work, I had to help her after I was done."

"After work was over, he would come comfort me, saying his mother had always praised me for being a good girl. He said his mother was in poor health and asked me to take on more. Whenever some customers came to the village, he said his mother had always helped me with farm work, and that I only earned such high work points because she had helped me."

She sighed again and said gloomily, "Because I was working in such a rush, I accidentally cut my leg and bled a lot. He secretly went to the doctor to buy medicine, gave it to me to drink, and even secretly gave me eggs to eat. The medicine was sweet."

Eggs were scarcer than meat. Lin Yuzhu felt this scene looked familiar. It was much like Zhang Yanqiu's situation, except Zhang Yanqiu had not met a young man like that.

"Then his mother discovered that eggs were missing from the house. His sister-in-law wanted to catch the thief, and while searching, they found their way to me. They said I had tricked her son into buying eggs for me without paying, that I was taking advantage of a young man because he was softhearted."

"Later, they said he had helped me with so much work for nothing, and that I was an ungrateful farming girl. They wanted me to return the favor. The entire village just watched the spectacle. I was so ashamed that I wanted to die."

Seeing Wang Xiaomei stop speaking, Lin Yuzhu asked in confusion.

"I paid them back. I even paid back the work points with money. No one believed that I had completed those tasks alone."

By this point, her voice had already gone hoarse.