My sister comes to the city

Wu Meilai lay in the small cubicle for a few days. The store was closed and no one cooked. When she was hungry, she just ate instant noodles. She was extremely depressed.

She didn't know if her frustration was more due to her own embarrassment, or because Zhou Qianling had a partner, or because...

The other party has completely given up on himself.

After returning that day, she mustered up the courage to ask, only to find out that Zhou Qianling had deleted her quietly long ago.

In an instant, she was struck by lightning, and deleted all the updates with shaking hands, as if keeping them for even one more second would be evidence of her own self-degradation.

The cold wind howled outside the window, mixed with the sound of children throwing firecrackers.

Another New Year has arrived.

Wu Meilai got up, put on her coat, and slowly walked out.

Every household on the street has pasted window decorations and Spring Festival couplets on their windows. Adults and children gather in front of their doors to set off fireworks, just waiting to light them on New Year's Eve.

Wu Meilai originally wanted to use the liveliness of others to dispel her depression, but when she stood in the crowd, her loneliness became even more obvious, so she went back into the store.

She had never been one to complain about herself, and she always found a way to relieve herself before she was on the verge of collapse. Relaxing by the pool was one way, and exercising was another.

She picked up the mop and bucket and started cleaning.

Outside the shop, people were shouting the countdown to the New Year. Wu Meilai didn't look at them. Instead, she scrubbed the floor even harder, picking away every speck of dirt from every crevice.

Beads of sweat oozed out of his forehead, as if bringing out the mud in his heart.

Fireworks exploded, sounds rang out overhead, and cheers continued.

Wu Meilai squatted beside the bed, bent down, pulled out the old clothes box, shuffled them and folded them again.

She was stunned when she saw the music box at the bottom.

Ding Dong.

It’s a WeChat message from He Xiao.

[Sister, Happy New Year [Cute]]

Squeeze the music box.

She can find someone else, so why can't I?

There was a faint glimmer of madness in Wu Meilai's eyes.

I'm not just looking for one, I'm looking for many, many more.

——

When the last bell rang, the woman sitting opposite Zhou Qianling adjusted her glasses and stood up.

"Aren't you leaving yet?"

"Well, there's a meeting later."

"Being a class teacher is just tiring." After saying that, the woman ran away.

Zhou Qianling looked at his phone and saw an announcement in the first-year class teacher group: it will be moved to Monday.

Zhou Qianling turned off the announcement and continued to correct homework.

The rustling sound of the ballpoint pen rubbing against paper was interrupted.

He frowned and picked up his phone.

Mom: You don't have evening study today? Come home for dinner. Your dad and I miss you.

Zhou Qianling didn't reply. Sure enough, two seconds later, another message came: "Bring your boyfriend over so we can get to know each other."

Zhou Qianling sighed and sent a message: I’m on a business trip and have to stay in Mexico for a while.

Mom: That’s the bad thing about translation, running around the world all the time.

Zhou Qianling didn't reply and felt a little annoyed.

After finishing half of it, she put the rest in her bag and got up to go home.

She did not live in the staff dormitory, but rented a small apartment nearby, just ten minutes away from the school.

After leaving the school gate and crossing an overpass, Zhou Qianling walked forward to the snack street. He did not go in, but turned and walked in the other direction. There was a vegetable market in front.

After buying some vegetables, she paused as she passed the meat section.

Recently, after dinner, I can always smell a minty scent coming from my math teacher.

It doesn't smell like toothpaste, it smells like...

"Please cut a pound of mutton."

"Okay." The stall owner weighed it and packed it in a plastic bag. "18.3, just give me 18."

"Thank you, sis."

After taking the mutton, Zhou Qianling returned to the vegetable area and picked some mint and vermicelli.

It was already half past eight when I got home and it was already dark.

Zhou Qianling opened the window, prepared the ingredients, and set up the pot. He first blanched the lamb, then cooked the rice noodles in a small clay pot. Once the rice noodles were cooked through, he added the lamb. He then selected chili oil, pickled chili peppers, Sichuan peppercorns, salt, and other seasonings from the jars in the closet, stirred them, turned off the heat, and added the mint.

The familiar aroma of mutton noodles instantly overflowed.

Zhou Qianling put on heat-insulating gloves, lifted the casserole to the dining table, and started eating.

After taking a bite, she put down her chopsticks.

It tastes terrible. No matter how you cook it, it doesn’t taste like anything else. Even the smell is terrible.

She got up, opened the balcony door, and leaned against the fence to wait for the smell to dissipate.

Zhou Qianling looked at the blurry sky boredly, thinking that at this time of year, the sky in Qianzhou should be completely dark, and the busiest time for the small restaurant must have passed.

I don’t know if she noticed that I deleted her.

Probably not. If it is true as I thought, that her updates were sent to me, then after realizing that I did not respond, she would probably add me back to ask.

But she was still happy for her. She could feel that Wu Meilai was slowly living out her true self and enjoying life.

Suddenly feeling familiar, Zhou Qianling looked down at the street below the building.

There's nothing strange about it.

She has been having the illusion that someone is watching her lately.

The phone on the sofa rang, and Zhou Qianling came in to answer it.

"Hey, Chih-ling, where did your boyfriend go this time?"

"Mexico." She was silent for a moment, then asked, "Did my mom check with you again?"

Jiang Chunmei exclaimed on the phone, "Auntie is really cunning and shrewd. She even said Canada is deceiving me."

silence.

Jiang Chunmei: "Why don't you just tell her you like her..."

"Chunmei." Zhou Qianling interrupted.

The phone was silent for a few seconds, and Jiang Chunmei said softly, "How come my hometown has become so feudal after a trip back home?"

Zhou Qianling poured the cold mutton noodles into the trash can, rinsed them clean, and asked with a smile, "Have you eaten yet? Let's have mutton hotpot together?"

"Well, uh... I'm afraid not today. Oh, by the way, I saw a few days ago... beep-beep-"

Wang Xiaoli put the phone back into Jiang Chunmei's coat pocket, reached under her coat, hooked her sports bra, and smiled, "Didn't you promise to give me all the time tonight?"

Jiang Chunmei clearly saw the danger in her eyes and said awkwardly, "I, I'm just used to it, and Qianling is very annoying to me—"

The coat on her chest rose and fell, and Jiang Chunmei asked shamelessly: "Sister Wang, are you too..."

Wang Xiaoli's five fingers were deeply buried in the buckwheat dough.

"Hmm? Too what?"

“I’m so hungry…”

…

After Zhou Qianling finished grading the papers, he felt dizzy with hunger and planned to go out to buy something to eat.

Many students in the high school where I teach live on campus, and it is not completely closed, so every Friday night, the snack street outside the school is crowded with people.

Zhou Qianling bought a bowl of wontons and continued walking inside to buy some barbecue. When he passed by a small cart, he suddenly stopped.

Turning around, I saw a banner hanging on the top of the cart: Qianzhou Biji Mutton Noodles.

Yes, that’s the taste.

Zhou Qianling's mouth was watering as he stood in front of the cart waiting for the stall owner to come back.

Five minutes later, Zhou Qianling changed to a portable wonton.

The owner of the cold noodle stall next to him couldn't stand it anymore and said, "Beautiful lady, you should go somewhere else. The mutton noodle stall owner is going to the bathroom and won't be back for two hours."

Zhou Qianling: ...

"Okay, thank you." Then he turned and left.

After being marinated in the toilet for two hours, I am not very appetizing even if the noodles are authentic.

As soon as she left, my aunt winked at the woman squatting behind the cart.

"Let's go. Hey sister, how much money do you owe her that you're so scared?"

Wu Meilai came out from under the cart and didn't answer. She just looked at Zhou Qianling's back and said, "Thank you, sister. I'll treat you to dinner later."

"Well, forget it. It's good enough that you don't have to ask me, your sister, to treat you." The stall owner joked.

Wu Mei came and smiled. When she saw Zhou Qianling buy a few skewers and turn around, she quickly hid under the car again.

After a while, she saw a pair of leather boots appear behind the sewing machine, stopped for two seconds, and left.

"Sister, I think that girl is a reasonable and civilized person. Why don't you talk to her and give her some time? You don't seem like someone who wouldn't pay back the money, so she should understand. Otherwise, she'll either run or hide every time she sees you, which isn't a solution."

Wu Mei came to tidy up her messy hair and said, "Let me think about it."