The restaurant closest to Building 6 is Restaurant 3. When Shen Yue and Si Chengyou arrived, there were already quite a few people in the restaurant.
Different from the exquisite environment of Restaurant No. 1, Restaurant No. 3 has only a few high-end private rooms, and the rest of the seats are directly located in the lobby.
The dining tables in Restaurant No. 3 are only half the size of those in Restaurant No. 1. On the other hand, it can accommodate more prisoners to dine at the same time.
Restaurant No. 1 is mostly where prisoners in Building No. 1 and their protectors dine, or where high-ranking officials from other buildings dine. Occasionally, there will be killing rituals like the one Shen Yue first saw in Restaurant No. 1. It is an area that only a few people in the prison can get involved in.
Restaurant No. 3 is more accommodating. As it is closest to Building No. 6, there are often sick prisoners here. Therefore, Restaurant No. 3 always has some light meals.
It is the peak dining time and there are long queues in front of every window.
Si Chengyou did not go to the window to queue up, but asked Shen Yue to find a place to sit down. Soon, someone came to Si Chengyou, gave Shen Yue and him a menu each, and asked them to order.
Si Chengyou simply ordered a meat dish, a vegetable dish and a bowl of rice, while Shen Yue ordered a bowl of eight-treasure porridge and a portion of chili sauce.
Si Chengyou watched Shen Yue order food without saying anything or interfering.
After Shen Yue ordered the meal, he asked casually, "Do you know the origin of Eight Treasure Porridge?"
Shen Yue shook her head. No one had ever told her about this kind of thing, and there was no point in knowing it.
Seeing Shen Yue shaking her head, Si Chengyou continued to talk to himself, "Laba porridge is also called Eight Treasures Porridge. There is such a legend: Zhu Yuanzhang used to beg for food in his early years. On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month one year, he had not eaten for several days and was starving and cold. Suddenly he saw a mouse crawling into a hole. He wanted to catch the mouse and eat it, so he dug up the mouse hole and found some rice, beans and grains inside. So he made a pot of porridge and ate it, saving himself from freezing and starvation. After becoming emperor, he would make porridge on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month every year to commemorate the past, and it also meant remembering the bitter past and thinking of the sweet past."
Shen Yue listened to Si Chengyou telling this story without any reaction. She just stared at the table in front of her, not knowing what she was thinking.
Si Chengyou asked again, "What do you think about this story?"
Shen Yue answered honestly, "No."
"Do you think this is just a meaningless story?"
"yes."
Si Chengyou smiled softly and said in a tone that could make people unconsciously relax, "Not every story needs meaning, and not every thing needs a purpose. Sometimes you don't have to achieve a purpose when doing something, you just want to do it."
Shen Yue didn't understand why Si Chengyou said this to her, but she didn't sense any malice or calculation in Si Chengyou's words, so she nodded.
Soon, Shen Yue's eight-treasure porridge and chili sauce were served to the table.
Eight Treasure Porridge is sweet, but chili sauce is spicy. This combination looks strange no matter how you look at it.
But Shen Yue ate the eight-treasure porridge and chili peppers with an expressionless face.
Sweetness is a taste. Shen Yue didn’t know that she liked sweet taste before. It was Martha who helped her find the taste she liked.