"Where are you going, little brother? I have a car."
"To buy groceries."
"What groceries are you buying, little brother? I'll come with you."
"...Have you spent too much time with Zhang Suannai? Did she infect you with her bad habit of showing off?"
"I caught it from you!"
"..."
"Where are you shopping, little brother? I'll drive you."
"Where did you park, teacher?"
"Over there, by the road."
"Perfect."
From a distance, Chen Shu had already spotted his girlfriend riding over on her motorcycle. "If you want to come along, drive yourself and follow us. Otherwise, head straight back to the courtyard. Your little friend lives there anyway."
Chen Banxia stopped in her tracks.
Seconds later, her little brother was on Qingqing's motorcycle, waving to her. She could only stand there alone and watch them ride farther and farther away.
That heartless brat!
At the local farmers' market.
Ning Qing followed Chen Shu, looking around as they walked.
For the past few days, she had been cultivating Tongue Desire: the appetite for food. It was humanity's most basic desire, its most fundamental pursuit.
Appetites varied from person to person, in kind and intensity.
Some people lived to eat, their greatest ambition to taste delicacies from every corner of the world. Others had weaker appetites and, in peaceful times with ample variety of food, felt little pull from that desire. But that held true only while food was plentiful. After a stretch of scarcity, anyone would go mad for it.
Ning Qing could clearly feel the change in herself.
She had always liked Chen Shu's cooking and sour flavors, but that had been all. She had rarely felt an urgent craving for anything, and when she did, it was usually mixed with a wish for Chen Shu to cook