Chapter 23 - Ch 23

...

  Maybe he is overthinking.

  *

  After listening to Jiang Baixing's words, Ji Fanling nodded.

  Unexpectedly, Fu Yingcheng and Jiang Baixing have such a connection.

  ——No wonder I brought her here for dinner.

  The girl raised her eyes and looked at Jiang Baixing.

  When he was a child, he was as soft as a bun, with his eyes and nose squeezed together. Now his eyebrows are long, clean and vigorous, and he is somewhat delicate and handsome.

  very nice.

  Ji Fanling suddenly felt a sour feeling in his heart. He touched his nose uncomfortably and asked, "How tall are you now?"

  Jiang Baixing: "One hundred and eighty-two."

  Ji Fanling: "How are you studying?"

  Jiang Baixing didn't know. So he replied: "I was first in the class at the end of last semester."

  "It's okay, keep it up." Ji Fanling agreed.

  Jiang Baixing: "..."

  Is it an illusion?

  The girl looked at him with a look that was somewhat tinged with the kindness of an elder.

  Ji Fanling looked down at the menu.

  In the past, the menu of Jiangjia Noodles only had seven or eight lines, and was laminated on A4 paper by the window. Now it is filled with pictures and texts, and the most expensive crab roe noodles cost 88.

  Out of business.

  Ji Fanling suddenly noticed the bottom of the menu and was stunned for a moment: "Why do you still have plain noodles...why only three yuan?"

  Back then, plain noodles also cost three yuan, but things are different now. Now Jiangjia Xiaonoodles is in such a good location and has such a large area. If you still sell it for three yuan, you must be losing money, right?

  "My mother said that the price of our plain noodles will never increase." Jiang Baixing replied.

  For some reason, the tip of Ji Fanling's nose suddenly felt a little sore.

  She put down the menu: "Then I'll have a vegetarian dish..."

  "A family portrait and a crab roe." Fu Yingcheng handed the menu to Jiang Baixing.

  "Okay." Jiang Baixing responded immediately.

  Ji Fanling: "?"

  Ji Fanling: "Didn't you agree to let me order it?"

  Fu Yingcheng: "You're too slow."

  "Wait a minute, little Xingxing." The girl shouted again.

  A crisp shout, as if traveling through time and space, with a heart-stopping familiarity, struck the boy's eardrums like lightning.

  Jiang Baixing's footsteps suddenly stopped.

  "——No peanuts in the noodles, if any." The girl held her chin and looked at him.

  "Okay."

  Jiang Baixing turned back hesitantly: "How do you know my nickname?"

  How do I know...

  doesn't everyone call it that?

  Ji Fanling raised his chin at Fu Yingcheng and said calmly: "I heard what he said."

  Fu Yingcheng: "..."

  The man glanced at her silently and acquiesced.

  He had an undeniable aura about him, and the young man did not dare to ask again: "Oh, it was Mr. Fu who said it, no wonder..." But his speaking speed became slower and slower.

  He is no longer a child.

  Except for Jiang Mu, no one has called him his nickname for seven or eight years, and even Mr. Fu... shouldn't know it.

  The boy took a few steps and looked back at the girl, with traces of confusion spreading deep in his pupils.

  ...

  as if laboriously searching for that face in the dusty memory.

  *

  The kitchen.

  Jiang Baixing pulled Jiang Mu aside and told what Fu Yingcheng had come to the store but didn't want to say.

  Jiang's mother nodded immediately and told the chef that she would cook the two noodles ordered by Fu Yingchen herself.

  Jiang Baixing washed his hands, went over to help, and then came closer and said, "Mom, do you remember what your sister looks like? I remember there was a small mole on her earlobe."

  There has always been only one person who can make Jiang Baixing call her "sister".

  The movement in Jiang's mother's hand froze: "How old were you then? What can you remember? Did you dream about her again?"

  "It's not a dream. I have a good memory. Do you remember?" Jiang Baixing asked for confirmation.

  "I don't remember it being so detailed."

  Jiang Baixing was peeling the crab roe in his hand, but he couldn't help but raise his head, looking through the window at the girl sitting in the distance: "My sister always says she doesn't want peanuts, does it mean she doesn't like eating them? "

  She's allergic to peanuts." Jiang's mother gave him a strange look after saying:

  "Why do you keep mentioning her today? Did she give you an idea? Let's burn some paper for her when I close the house at night..."

  "Okay."

  Mother Jiang wiped her forehead with the back of her hand, kneaded the dough vigorously, and said to herself: "She always ordered plain noodles in the past, but she never had good noodles from me. She didn't eat a single bite of that bowl of noodles that day. Just left..."

  His voice, soaked in guilt, was too low to be heard clearly.

  "... She must be well fed over there."

  *

  "Hiccup."

  Ji Fanling stuffed the last spoonful of yellow crab roe into his mouth and couldn't help but burp.

  Mrs. Jiang hand-made the noodles for Fu Yingcheng. The side dishes were piled into a hill as if they were free. Three plump female crabs were peeled out of the bowl of noodles.

  She always wanted to be full but not to eat well. She had never had such a good thing in her stomach. It rarely made her head spin.

  "Don't eat when you're full."

  Fu Yingcheng fluttered his eyelashes and looked at the bowl she had emptied in five minutes, "I usually don't feed you?"

  Ji Fanling wiped his mouth slowly: "It doesn't matter. There's no shame in eating slowly, I can wait for you."

  After Fu Yingcheng finished eating, Jiang Baixing came to give him a meal again, but he refused to accept any money.

  Fu Yingcheng had no intention of being polite in small matters, so he put on his coat, got up and prepared to leave.

  Jiang Baixing hurriedly caught up: "How was your dining experience, Mr. Fu? Do you have any suggestions for improvement?"

  Fu Yingcheng: "No."

  "This is our restaurant's membership card. You can earn points by bringing the card for discounts when dining." Jiang Baixing handed over the membership card. Pass it to Ji Fanling.

  Ji Fanling was thinking about the three yuan plain noodles, so he took it and put it in his pocket.

  "By the way, did you say you didn't add peanuts because you thought it didn't go with the noodles?" Jiang Baixing asked without leaving any trace.