Chapter 40: Miscalculated Again?!
“Pick one!”
Cheng Fei gave Gao Ming a look.
These foods were very common in the province, but compared to what he had eaten before, they still felt a little different, just like the meals Qin Yi had cooked these past two days.
The cooking methods were mostly the same. The real difference came from the ingredients.
To be honest, Gao Ming wanted to try everything.
“How about beef offal soup?”
“In weather this hot, you really dare to pick that.”
“You told me to choose,” Gao Ming said as he started walking toward the shop.
In such terrible summer heat, drinking steaming hot soup was practically torture!
She had very obviously been standing with her back toward the beef offal shop. Wasn’t the hint obvious enough?!
Hah! This guy really knew how to take advantage of loopholes.
Still, it had been a while since Cheng Fei last drank it, and she did miss the taste a little.
The large electric fan inside the shop blew loudly, but it still could not chase away much of the heat. Even so, the small restaurant was packed with people sitting around the short tables.
Wow! Looks like everyone came here looking for excitement today!
After entering the shop, Gao Ming slowed down, letting Cheng Fei, the true local of Fuxian, take the lead instead.
The owner’s wife collected money nearby while the owner cut ingredients according to customers’ orders before pouring hot broth over them.
The steam from the giant pot made both their faces red, and every now and then they wiped sweat away with towels.
Just watching them made Cheng Fei feel hot.
Gao Ming could also feel the intense heat coming from the pot and was starting to feel a little afraid.
But this was his own choice. For the sake of pride, he could not back out now.
After waiting in line for a while, it was finally their turn.
Cheng Fei ordered beef heart, beef tripe, and beef slices, then turned around to ask Gao Ming.
“What do you want?”
“I’ll just get the same as you.”
Cheng Fei turned back to the owner. “One more exactly the same… Oh right, and add two beef eyes!”
“Got it!” The owner immediately started cutting the ingredients with an even brighter smile than before.
Was it really worth being that happy?
Beef eyes… Gao Ming had truly never eaten something this strange before.
Carrying the burning hot bowls, the two quickly found a place to sit.
Looking at the eyeball in his bowl, about the size of a preserved egg, Gao Ming felt more than a little uncomfortable.
He looked up, about to offer it to Cheng Fei instead, but then saw her happily stabbing hers with chopsticks and eating it enthusiastically, looking as if she were tasting the greatest delicacy in the world.
Gao Ming swallowed nervously.
“If you don’t eat it while it’s hot, it’ll start tasting greasy!”
“Is it really that good?”
“Try it!”
Cheng Fei raised her brows. Her expression already said everything.
Gathering his courage, Gao Ming picked it up, blew on it a few times, and took a bite.
A strong bloody smell instantly filled his mouth, mixed with a faint bitterness.
Still, it was within a tolerable range.
As he forced himself to keep chewing, the taste suddenly changed.
After the chewy and smooth texture, the bloody flavor faded away, leaving behind a rich aroma lingering between his teeth.
Hmm! Not bad.
Actually, it was very good.
Gao Ming immediately dropped his earlier resistance and quickly finished the entire beef eye in just a few bites.
Watching him from start to finish, Cheng Fei could not help smiling.
He looked almost exactly like she did back then. Except in her case, Lu Shengdong had forcefully stuffed it into her mouth.
The tenderness of the beef heart and beef slices, the crunchy tripe, and the flavorful broth with its long-lasting taste, together with crispy flatbread, it was unbelievably satisfying.
Compared to the versions sold in Yunzhou city, this was far better, not just by a little.
The heat from the soup forced sweat out of their bodies, leaving a layer of sweat on their foreheads, but compared to the delicious flavor, that hardly mattered.
Gao Ming finally understood why so many people were willing to sit here sweating heavily just to eat this food.
The eating felt wonderful.
The bill, however, hurt the heart.
“Eighty-two yuan? That expensive?!” Gao Ming knew beef prices had been rising like crazy lately, but even he was surprised.
“Beef is really expensive nowadays, so beef offal prices also went up. Besides, there were those two beef eyes! A cow only has two of them, fewer than tenderloin.”
Cheng Fei’s eyebrows twisted together tightly, clearly showing the pain in both her heart and wallet.
Gao Ming secretly laughed. “Just deduct it from my food expenses.”
“Heh.”
Cheng Fei gave him a fake smile.
It was true that Cheng Fei loved money, but she was not the kind of person who took advantage of everything. Making money should have a proper reason behind it. Otherwise, what difference was there between that and being a bandit?
“Full yet?”
“A big bowl of beef offal soup and a huge flatbread. My stomach is very satisfied.”
“I’ll take you somewhere for a look.”
Looking at him, Cheng Fei suddenly smiled mysteriously.
Where was she taking him? What was she planning to do?
Questions immediately started bubbling up in Gao Ming’s mind, making him cautious.
“Relax. I already promised I wouldn’t run away. I’m just taking you around nearby.”
After saying that, Cheng Fei put both hands into her pockets and walked ahead leisurely.
Deeper into the streets, the area was no longer as lively as the main intersection. Most buildings on both sides were short self-built houses, giving the place a strong “urban village” feeling.
Still, in a tiny county town like Fuxian, this was already considered a pretty decent area.
Passing a small alley leading into a courtyard, a large dark-red iron gate stood out the most.
“This is Old Zhou’s house.”
“Old Zhou?”
As they walked down the slope behind the street, Cheng Fei explained their relationship to Gao Ming.
Every little detail from childhood until now was as clear as a diary.
“Zhou Lin has a younger cousin. She was pretty and adorable. Back then, Zhou Lin’s grandfather passed away. His cousin was still very young and didn’t understand what death meant, and the adults didn’t know how to explain it to her. So Zhou Lin came up with an idea and told her their grandpa had gone into hibernation inside the grave!”
“Haha…”
“Later, that little girl, Hu Tong, secretly stole a blanket and covered the grave with it because she was afraid her grandpa would feel cold inside.”
Cheng Fei laughed while telling the story, and Gao Ming could not help laughing too.
“She must have been very close to her grandfather.”
Cheng Fei nodded.
“The old man spoiled her the most while he was alive. He loved listening to her chatter nonstop beside him. Later, when she grew a little older, she slowly started understanding what death actually meant.
“On Tomb-Sweeping Day, she wanted to ask why her grandpa had been sleeping so long, when he would wake up, and whether he missed her after all this time. Zhou Lin just followed along with her thinking and told her to ask him.”
“So Hu Tong said, if Grandpa missed her, then the pine tree beside the grave should move. After she said that, Old Zhou froze in panic. But then the tree suddenly started shaking loudly.”
Cheng Fei raised the corners of her lips.
Gao Ming immediately figured it out.
“There wasn’t anything supernatural. You were the one who shook the tree, right?”
Suddenly Cheng Fei jumped slightly and stared at him strangely.
“Huh? You’re pretty smart. But you're not bald like those people!”
Gao Ming glanced at her sideways. “Not every genius is bald. And what, you think I study physics or something?”
“Hehe.” Cheng Fei continued, “Actually, my family and I were also there visiting graves that day, and we happened to pass by. The moment I saw that little girl, I knew she had given Old Zhou a difficult problem. Luckily, I overheard them talking, so I turned around and kicked the tree hard!”
“That one kick helped Old Zhou out of trouble, but it also gave me a ten-year-long mission. Every Tomb-Sweeping Day after that, I would secretly hide nearby and kick that pine tree again. That poor tree got kicked by me for ten straight years.”
“Honestly, birth, aging, sickness, and death are all natural rules. Everyone has to face them sooner or later. Old Zhou just couldn’t bear seeing his little sister sad. He wanted her to keep living in a fairy tale.”
“He sounds like a very kind person,” Gao Ming said emotionally.
“Yeah, kind! So kind that he doesn’t even dare breathe loudly in front of his wife.”
Gao Ming smiled faintly, then turned toward Cheng Fei. “You telling me all this… what exactly are you trying to say?”
“Nothing much. I just want to express a few thoughts.”
“What do people use to prove they are themselves? Memories!”
“In the future, if countless identical clones of yourself were created, and your memories were uploaded and downloaded into them, wouldn’t that basically mean immortality?”
“And what do people treasure most? Things they’ve lost. Especially people they’ve lost.”
“But actually, losing something isn’t that scary. You just need to get it back in time.”
Cheng Fei shook her hair, tapped her own head, then turned and walked away in the opposite direction.
A light suddenly appeared through the fog in Gao Ming’s mind.
He finally understood a little of what Cheng Fei was really trying to say through that story.
‘Sorry, but you still guessed wrong,’ Gao Ming silently muttered in his heart as he followed behind her.
…………………
After closing for a whole week, the supermarket suddenly reopened.
The neighbors all knew about the tragedy that had happened to the Lu family, though none of them knew the full truth.
Everyone thought Lu Shengdong and Qin Yi were simply too heartbroken and could not bear staying home looking at their son’s memorial photo all night.
Opening the shop again was probably their way of distracting themselves.
Usually when neighbors came to buy vegetables, there would always be some playful teasing and chatting. It was almost another form of friendly competition.
But today, although many people came and went after the shop opened, nobody had the heart to mention those things in front of the elderly couple.
Their cheerful smiles and laughter seemed so natural that people thought they were simply optimistic and open-minded. Yet the neighbors still felt confused.
An electric tricycle carrying vegetables arrived.
To save time, Lu Shengdong helped the vegetable seller unload the goods. But age catches up to everyone. Even an old farmer could not resist the weight forever.
His trembling hands loosened, and just as the heavy sack was about to hit the ground, another hand suddenly reached out.
Huh! Pretty quick reaction.
“Oh! It’s Xiao Gao.”
Gao Ming smiled, secretly using strength to lift the sack together with the vegetable seller. Together they carried the huge bag of cabbage into the shop.
Meanwhile, Cheng Fei carried the lighter items inside.
Then Gao Ming went back out and carried in another giant sack.
Again and again, he repeated the process without even turning red or breathing heavily.
Lu Shengdong watched in surprise, and even the vegetable seller, who had spent years delivering vegetables, looked stunned.
“Young man, you’re impressive! That sack weighs over fifty kilograms!”
“No matter how busy I am, I still exercise for an hour every morning.”
“No wonder!” Lu Shengdong’s cheerful laughter spread through the area.
While chatting with Gao Ming, they quickly finished unloading the whole cart of vegetables.
While resting afterward, the old couple quietly whispered something to each other.