That night, they waited for a call from Shannchyuan. Yihshyong and Iren got their turn first. They stood on guard while Shinnshiow and Jenqyih slept. Around three in the morning, Shinnshiow and Jenqyih got up and replaced Iren and Yihshyong to stand guard.
But that night, Shannchyuan did not call. He only called to give the news about eight in the morning. He said he was okay but didn't know anything yet about Songfei. The news that nothing terrible happened to Shannchyuan relieved them. At the same time, they were also somewhat worried that Songfei might be in trouble. They decided not to go anywhere today. After Shannchyuan returned, they would discuss what to do next.
At nine in the morning, the phone rang again. Iren rushed out of the room to answer the phone. He suspected there was the latest news from their dahge.
"Hello," said Iren.
"Hello," came a voice from the other end.
"Chioujen? Is it you?" Iren recognized the voice. The voice owner was Jongharng Chioujen, their comrade who, six months ago, moved to another city.
"Good Morning! Yes, it's me, Chioujen," replied the caller. He sounded happy.
"Good Morning! It's good to hear your voice, Chioujen!" Said Iren. Habitually, Chioujen called them once or twice a week to keep up with each other.
"How are you there? Have you found a new place for us to stay?" Asked Chioujen.
Many of Chioujen's stuff was still in their house. So, they still considered Chioujen as their housemate. So when they found a new place, it would be Chioujen's house too.
"Still not yet," replied Iren. "I think this problem will take a long time to resolve. So there is a possibility we will be vagrant next week," Iren was laughing out loud. "By the way, it's unusual for you to call us in the morning. Is there any important news you want to share?"
Usually, Chioujen made calls at night because long-distance calls were cheaper. Besides, it's because Chioujen worked during the day. Nine o'clock, like now, usually was a busy time for Chioujen.
"The company pulled me back to the head office. So tomorrow I'll go back there," said Chioujen.
"Wow, that's good to hear," shouted Iren, "Later, we can be homeless together here."
They both were laughing together.
"I'll be there in the evening. It's after ten," said Chioujen.
"Okay, I'll make sure we are at home tomorrow night."
Chioujen hadn't brought this house's keys with him when he'd moved out. So somebody had to be at home to open the door for him.
"Thank you very much," said Chioujen.
"Very well. We'll be waiting for you."
"Convey my greetings to the others."
"Okay. See you tomorrow night."
When Iren hung up, Yihshyong walked over to him.
Yihshyong's face looked curious. "Who is calling?"
"The company moved Chioujen back here. So tomorrow he will come home. He will arrive at this house after ten at night."
"Oh, that's great then. We have a friend with the same fate as a bum," said Yihshyong.
"At least he still has a job," said Iren.
Yihshyong burst out laughing when he heard Iren's words.
Chioujen, the youngest member of their group, had moved to another city six months ago. Chioujen had said the company where he worked had thrived, so they'd opened a branch in another city. Unlike the other residents who lived in the house, Chioujen had moved to this city three years ago. Then he'd lived and worked in this city. One year ago, he'd joined the others after they'd come to this city. Then, after some deliberation, he'd decided to stay together with the others.
While waiting for Shannchyuan to come home, Iren and Yihshyong read books and watched television. Meanwhile, Jenqyih and Shinnshiow slept until around eleven o'clock. At noon, it turned out that Shannchyuan still didn't arrive home yet, so half an hour later, they settled to have lunch without Shannchyuan. They thought Shannchyuan must have had lunch on the way home.
The four of them sat at the dining table. Iren can hear a faint roar from his stomach. It was obvious that he was hungry. His friends laughed. From their reaction, it seemed they could hear the roar, too. Iren took and put the rice in the bowl. As usual, he took a lot of rice. Since two months ago, he was actually determined to go on a diet. At least he wanted to reduce rice consumption. But it turned out to be very difficult. He lives with people who love to eat. So the temptation to eat more always graced Iren's days. Finally, Iren could only follow the eating habits of the surrounding people. He continued to eat as usual. However, he increases his physical activity so that the food he eats, especially carbohydrates, does not accumulate as fat in his body. It so happened that during the past two weeks, he had been going out every day. When he did activities outside, he tried his best to always walk to get there, except, of course, when he had to travel to a distant place, which was clearly impossible for him to reach on foot because it would waste a lot of time.
"What do you think about the dish?" Iren asked Shinnshiow. Since this morning, Shinnshiow slept until noon after staying awake from three to eight in the morning while waiting for news from Shannchyuan. It was Yihshyong who cooked the lunch this time.
"It's delicious," said Shinnshiow, glancing at Yihshyong. Yihshyong only smiled at the questions and answers. Yihshyong's cooking was quite good. It was just that it probably couldn't be compared to Shinnshiow.
"I'm learning how to cook properly," said Yihshyong with a laugh. "How do you honestly think?" Yihshyong asked Shinnshiow.
Shinnshiow chewed on the rice that was still in his mouth. After swallowing the rice, he answered Yihshyong's question. "Shyongge has made a lot of progress. Compared to three months ago, this is an extraordinary achievement," said Shinnshiow.
Three months ago was the beginning of all of them becoming unemployed. Starting from Shannchyuan, and then one by one successively, the other four also lost their jobs. It made sense that soon after that, Yihshyong would find plenty of time to practice cooking.
"Thank you! Thank you Shiowdi," said Yihshyong, "but I mean, in what way is my cooking still not good?"
Shinnshiow furrowed his brows. It seemed that he was having a little trouble coming up with the right words to describe his assessment of the dishes Yihshyong cooked.
"Well, in my opinion, the assessment of food is very subjective. What I feel is important, maybe it is not important to other people at all. So actually the perfect or imperfect of a dish depends solely on the basic philosophy adopted by the cook. itself."
Shinnshiow's words did sound cool. But in Iren's opinion, that words were completely meaningless. Yihshyong looked at Shinnshiow to wait for Shinnshiow to continue. However, Shinnshiow continued to feed the rice and side dishes into his mouth and then was busy chewing the rice and side dishes.
Yihshyong seemed to be still waiting for a clearer answer from Shinnshiow. Therefore, Shinnshiow then had to give an assessment that sounded more beautiful to Yihshyong.
"I think the progress that Shyongge has achieved is truly extraordinary. I think if Shyongge opened a small food stall now, the customers who come will certainly not complain about the taste of the dishes Shyongge cooks."
Yihshyong seemed thrilled to hear Shinnshiow's praise. Iren even worried that Shinnshiow's words would make Yihshyong desperate to open a small food stall if he didn't get a job in the near future.
As long as they enjoyed lunch, Jenqyih was silent. Iren did not know exactly what was bothering his friend's mind. It was not clear it was related to the problems they were facing together or only to Jenqyih's personal issues. Iren did not want to ask questions. Apart from not wanting to interfere too far, he worried that such actions might only worsen things. He could only hope that Jenqyih was willing to discuss matters that were bothering him. At least he had to open himself up to Shannchyuan, who was the central figure among them.
Whether it was because Yihshyong had cooked too much rice or, indeed, they only ate a little, what was clear before them was the fact that there was still a lot of rice left. Even until midnight, the amount of rice that much would most likely still not run out. They probably wouldn't be able to eat that much rice. Iren glanced at Shinnshiow. His reaction was really interesting. The youngest of them looked deep in thought. He gazed at the mound of rice still served on their dining table. Perhaps he was contemplating what they should do with the rice.