Jiang Ning and Xue Yuantong stayed in the small garden for ten minutes, and the crowd on the main campus road gradually dispersed.
"Let's go."
The two walked out of the school gate. In front of the school gate was a road more than 200 meters long. On both sides of the road were all kinds of shops, including small supermarkets, milk tea shops, stationery stores, hot pot shops, and breakfast shops.
The long road is relatively spacious, with some modified tricycles parked on the side, selling various snacks, fried foods, oden and the like.
The place Xue Yuantong wanted to go was not this snack street, but the snack street connecting two nearby schools, the University of Finance and Economics and the Vocational College of Commerce. The scale of that street was several times larger than the one in front of No. 4 Middle School.
"Jiang Ning, you're back quite late!" Ma Shicheng shouted.
He sat on a wooden chair at the door of a small supermarket, holding a glass bottle of Coke with a straw in his hand.
Jiang Ning looked up at the sign of the small supermarket, "Yucai Supermarket."
"I was planning to go to the snack street. Why aren't you going home?" Jiang Ning chatted with him.
"I'm going to go online in there." He lowered his voice and pointed inside the Yucai Supermarket.
There are some small supermarkets and restaurants near the Fourth Middle School. On the surface, they appear to be doing legitimate business, but behind secret doors, they all hide several computers for the owners to make extra money.
This place is close to the school and the price is not expensive, only two or three yuan an hour. Many students like to go in and surf the Internet and play games like f and lol.
Students who often come here affectionately call this small supermarket:
'Yucai Internet Cafe'.
"Okay, go ahead and play, we're leaving." Jiang Ning tilted his head to glance at Xue Yuantong. At this moment, the little girl was quietly standing beside him.
"Okay, see you next week!" Ma Shicheng made a cool gesture.
He watched Jiang Ning and Xue Yuantong, one tall and one short, walking away, and drank the Coke in one gulp. He was not envious. For Ma Shicheng, games were his favorite thing.
"Today's alliance will reward myself with a sword." Ma Shicheng thought to himself.
…
After crossing the long road in front of the No. 4 Middle School and walking west for a distance, a bustling long street appeared in front of us.
Xue Yuantong's eyes were bright, as if they were hiding stars. She shouted:
"Jiang Ning, I want to eat moon cakes, fried crispy meat, Fuding meat slices, double skin milk, roasted gluten, and Yuanxiao. His hawthorn Yuanxiao is super delicious!"
Xue Yuantong named several snacks at once.
"Can you finish it?" Jiang Ning looked at her with disdain.
Xue Yuantong was unconvinced and said, "I can, absolutely!"
"What about you? What do you want to eat?" Xue Yuantong had just asked when she realized that she had ordered a series of snacks and seemed to not have enough money.
"For me, I'd have a lamb wrap, a glass of rice wine, and some of your crispy meat, meat slices, and Yuanxiao."
Xue Yuantong quickly did the math in his head and decided that luckily, the amount of money was just right.
After making the decision, she pulled Jiang Ning to line up. They lined up at one store and another, and soon bought all the snacks.
When they arrived at the Yuanxiao shop, Xue Yuantong still had enough money left to buy a bowl of wontons, so she decisively bought a bowl of fresh meat wontons for Jiang Ning.
The counter of the Yuanxiao shop is located at the door. Customers line up in a long queue. The auntie pours the food directly into the bowls, and the customers bring it to the table themselves.
The Yuanxiao shop is divided into two floors. The first floor is noisy, while the second floor has a better environment.
Xue Yuantong liked to eat on the second floor, but when she carried the bowl there, she was always worried that she would accidentally bump into someone or knock over the bowl, so she was very nervous every time she carried the bowl.
She was hesitating whether to go to the second floor. As she was struggling, she was suddenly patted on the shoulder:
"What are you standing there for? Go to the second floor and grab a seat. If you're not too late, there won't be any more tables left."
Jiang Ning just scanned the second floor with his spiritual sense. If Xue Yuantong went to reserve a seat now, he could still get the last small table for two.
Xue Yuantong turned around and saw Jiang Ning's face, then moved his eyes downward. Jiang Ning had his little finger hooked on the snack bag, and was holding the wonton bowl with his index finger and thumb, looking very steady.
She curled her lips: "Can you do it?"
"Stop talking nonsense and go quickly." Jiang Ning urged.
"Okay, I'll go first." Xue Yuantong took a step forward, then turned back and took away the bag of snacks that was hooked on Jiang Ning's little finger.
Xue Yuantong carried some snacks and said, "I'll wait for you upstairs!"
She was nimble and went up the stairs, and when she saw the only table left, she breathed a sigh of relief.
Xue Yuantong wiped the table and two chairs with a tissue, then placed bags of snacks on the table.
She sat on the chair, staying there, and suddenly thought that she didn't have to carefully serve the Yuanxiao by herself, and she didn't have to worry about it, because someone would serve the bowl for her.
She was no longer alone.
In an instant, a tingling sensation emerged from my forehead, and my heart seemed to be filled with something, a sense of security, touching, and happiness.
A mixture of emotions made her feel unusually at ease.
Although she herself didn't know why she felt this way.
It seemed like when she was a child, her mother was sick and didn’t make breakfast. She was so hungry that she cried.
When her mother saw this, she endured her discomfort and got up to cook rice soup for her, fried two steamed buns, and stir-fried a plate of shredded green peppers and potatoes.
After finishing her meal, mom went back to bed and slept. She stood in front of the small dining table, just standing there in a daze.
The feeling now is very similar to that time.
She still remembers that there was no salt at home that day, so she didn't put any salt in the shredded green peppers and potatoes. But it was the most delicious meal Xue Yuantong had ever eaten, no doubt about it.
Jiang Ning placed two bowls on the table, and seeing Xue Yuantong's dazed look, he waved his hand in front of her.
"Is he possessed?" Jiang Ning muttered.
Xue Yuantong shuddered, came back to his senses, and hummed:
"I didn't!"
"Okay, okay, let's eat!" She took a bite of the Yuanxiao, which was filled with hawthorn, sour and sweet, and still had the same taste.
She poked the crispy meat with a bamboo stick. The surface of the crispy meat was sprinkled with spices. It was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. It was so delicious that she squinted her eyes with an expression of enjoyment.
Seeing her eating so happily, Jiang Ning's appetite was aroused. He also took a bamboo stick and poked the crispy meat. It was unexpectedly delicious.
He ate several pieces in a row, causing Xue Yuantong to roll her eyes, and he snatched all her crispy meat.
This 'Qiao Ji Crispy Pork' is an old shop. It was still in business and doing good business until Jiang Ning graduated from university.
In the future, when most shops have joined the food delivery platform, "Qiao Ji Crispy Pork" will still insist on operating only offline, because the boss is worried that food delivery will affect the taste, and has not yet gone online.
The same portion of crispy pork now costs seven yuan, and will later increase to ten yuan, and then to fifteen yuan.
Jiang Ning loved eating Qiao Ji Crispy Pork when he was in high school, but the price of seven yuan per serving stopped him from buying it, and he felt heartbroken every time he ate it.
In fact, there are many delicious snacks on this street, but Jiang Ning didn’t have much pocket money before, and he usually had to buy various things for Shen Qing'e.
There is very little money left, so we are very frugal in doing things.
His dream when he was in high school was to be able to walk into this snack street one day, eat a big meal without worrying about money, and satisfy his cravings.
Unfortunately, this dream never came true during high school.
Many years later, Jiang Ning graduated from university and returned to Yuzhou City, walking on this street again. At that time, he had some savings and didn't care much about the cost of this snack.
He held a thick wallet in his pocket, looked at the snack street which was still as prosperous as before, and recalled the past years.
That naive boy, that poor boy, those snacks he could not afford, those things he longed for in the past years, are all yesterday.
"I can eat whatever I want now!"
"No one can stop me!"
Jiang Ning ate with each family.
However,
He only ate two or three snacks and couldn't eat any more.
Has the taste changed
No, those old stores are still very popular.
It becomes a state of mind.
When entering society, all kinds of pressures come, and heavy reality is placed before one's eyes. House prices, jobs, and future remind him all the time that you have to compete, you have to compete inwardly, and don't lie down, otherwise you will be overtaken by others.
He had done his best just to be an ordinary person.
That day, Jiang Ning stood in front of the long street, looking at the noisy crowd, silently finished the remaining food, and threw the packaging bag into the trash can.
Then he turned and left, striding forward, facing a long journey in life ahead.
And behind him, the embarrassed boy was standing in front of the snack stand, chewing delicious food, smiling happily, and he would never grow up.
…
'I want to buy some osmanthus flowers to go with the wine,
It's not like,
Young people travel.'
At that time, Jiang Ning thought he would never go back.