Chapter 56 56. They Exploded Quietly
Xie Kang had drunk with Xu Zhen and others at Zhuang Yongyuan's house during the day, and the alcohol had not yet been completely metabolized. He had not drunk much at night, but he felt dizzy and had double vision.
He rubbed his temples and checked WeChat on his phone. Someone was talking in the newly formed group chat, so he clicked on it to see.
Xu Zhen posted a photo of his family's winter solstice dinner, a round table filled with people, a chubby little hand beside the long legs of a king crab. Du Jiahao posted a photo of his dinner, which was placed on a stainless steel counter in the kitchen. His photography skills were so poor that the steam blurred the lens. Xie Kang spent a long time trying to identify the sauce-colored object on the plate, but couldn't make it out.
Zhuang Yongyuan didn't say anything, probably still asleep. Xie Kang raised his phone, trying to find a good angle to take a photo of the food on the table. As soon as he clicked on the camera, a white wine glass entered his frame.
"Xiao Yu, come and toast to your brother Xie Kang. If he hadn't helped you with your sprint tutoring, how would you have gotten into Xiamen University?"
Xie Kang smiled and waved his hand: "Uncle, you are too polite. It's because Xiaoyu has a good foundation and can understand it immediately."
"I spent over 100,000 yuan on tutoring before, and not only has the tuition not been raised, but it's even going down. I think these teachers are just taking the money and slacking off. Wow, each one is more famous than the other. I still think the people I work for are reliable."
Xie Kang's mother Yang Ruihui picked up a piece of mutton and put it in the bowl. People in Pingnan pay attention to eating mutton on the winter solstice to replenish the body's heat for the winter. Yang Ruihui and her colleagues ordered a live sheep a week ago. At noon, the mutton was delivered and she put it in the pot. She fried it and stewed it with sugarcane for an afternoon. It was soft and boneless. Yang Ruihui easily tore off a small piece of meat with chopsticks and put it into her mouth.
Uncle Xie Kang praised: "This mutton is delicious. You can't buy such fresh mutton in the market."
She had been chewing slowly, but when she heard Uncle San say that, she quickly swallowed the mutton in her mouth and said, "That's right. I opened the bag at noon, and the meat was still warm. It jumped in the pot."
After saying that, Yang Ruihui got up and went to the kitchen, carrying a pressure cooker to add soup to the hot pot. The bones for stewing the soup fell into the pot, and a few drops of soup splashed onto Xie Kang's face and clothes. He took out a tissue and wiped it hard, and the tissue was torn, but the dark oil stains still remained on his chest.
Even though he was not at home at noon, he could still imagine the fresh, warm, soft, and beating flesh and blood in Yang Ruihui's mouth.
Yang Ruihui continued the previous topic with her uncle, "That can't be generalized. I used to try out Kangkang's tutoring teachers. Besides the teacher's level, I also looked at whether the teacher's teaching method and personality were compatible."
Her uncle toasted her and said, "How can Xiaoyu compare to Akang? Akang is a child prodigy."
Xie Kang's cheeks heated up when he heard the word "child prodigy". Just as he was about to deny it, Xie Tao spoke up: "What's the use? This is how my job is for the rest of my life. I'm almost 30 and I don't even know where my girlfriend is."
He finished speaking, raising his hand to clink glasses with his uncle. "Xiaoyu, have you found a girlfriend yet? Let me tell you, don't worry about your relationship affecting your studies. Life's big events are like getting into college or finding a job; you have to fight for them. Most high-quality girls date in college and get married right after graduation. They're not on the dating market, haha."
My uncle said, "A Kang looks like this, and girls can't even walk when they see him. Why would he need to go on blind dates?"
Xie Tao glanced at Xie Kang and sneered, "How can I understand him? He's not very capable, but his temper is getting worse and worse."
Xie Kang put down his chopsticks. He guessed he looked unwell, so Yang Ruihui gave him a gentle kick under the table. Fortunately, the conversation quickly shifted away from him and turned to a country that recently launched a satellite that exploded in mid-air. Did our country launch something this year? Did you know about the Zhurong satellite and Wang Yaping? A female astronaut, a real toughie! She's going to celebrate New Year on Mars.
Xie Tao's face was rosy and shiny from drinking, and he and the others were breathing in the smell of alcohol and cigarettes. The sticky smell of alcohol and cigarettes, along with the heat from the hot pot and mutton stew, rose above the restaurant.
Xie Kang's throat felt blocked again, and he looked up at the ceiling. The new house he had renovated six years ago used crystal chandeliers that were the favorite of rich people in the 1990s. Because they were outdated and difficult to maintain, they were unsaleable and were sold at a low price.
The beads hanging from the chandelier sparkle thanks to Yang Ruihui who climbs up the ladder to polish them every week.
Zhuang Yongyuan likes to smoke flavored cigarettes, such as ice cream, yogurt, and red wine, which smell sweet. Xie Kang sometimes deliberately leans over to smell the smoke he exhales, and Zhuang Yongyuan scolds him for this, saying that this is the first time he has seen someone actively inhaling secondhand smoke.
Zhuang Yongyuan didn't drink before, but now he drinks all the time, as if he wants to make up for what he missed in the past.
Of course he smelled of alcohol when he was drunk. It was really strange. Even if it was the same kind of alcohol, the smell on him was different from that on others. Xie Kang thought it was fragrant. It made him feel like he was drunk with Zhuang Yongyuan. It was unlike the smell of cigarettes and alcohol here. The more Xie Kang smelled it, the more he wanted to vomit, and it became stronger.
"By the way, Kangkang, didn't I introduce you to Lao Lin from the Education Bureau for dinner last time? Did you tell him about your job title evaluation?"
"Not yet..." Xie Kang then remembered that he had missed several deadlines for submitting materials. After Zhuang Yongyuan came back, he completely forgot about the professional title evaluation.
Xie Tao sneered and said, "He didn't come home every day this semester, saying he was busy with work. I thought he wanted to give me a surprise."
Uncle Xie Kang saw that the atmosphere was not right, so he tried to smooth things over by saying, "Ah Tao, you are just too strict with the child. I just hope Kang Kang is healthy and safe."
He lowered his voice, "My former comrade Li Lixin, Ah Xin, do you remember him? His wife and Ah Hui were colleagues. Their child used to play with Kang Kang and would jump off a building if he wanted. I went to his house to see him this time and was terrified. He was in his fifties, but he acted like a man in his seventies."
Xie Tao took the belly of the steamed grouper and said, "This kind of kid is here to seek revenge on his parents."
Xie Kang couldn't help but say: "Li Xiuyu is not..."
Uncle San didn't seem to hear him and interrupted him directly: "That's right, that child is abnormal. To put it bluntly, everything he thinks in his head is perverted. Even when he grows up, he will still be infuriating."
Yang Ruihui fished the fish out of the hot pot and said as she peeled it, "I advised them to have another child back then. If they had, the child would be in junior high school now and would have something to do instead of thinking about it all the time."
"Wow--"
Xie Kang suddenly stood up from his chair, rushed to the toilet, and held the toilet bowl and vomited continuously. First he vomited what he had just eaten, then he vomited acid water. He vomited until there was really nothing left to vomit. He kept making vomiting movements and broke out in a sweat. Now he felt cold, and the cold air stuck to his body, making him shiver again and again.
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