Chen Ya took Liu Ruyan to find a 24-hour convenience store.
Pointing to the refrigerator where the quick-heat bento boxes were stored, Chen Ya said, "Take whichever one you like."
Liu Ruyan's eyes darted around, scanning the plastic-wrapped food. She turned back and asked him, "Are these edible?"
"What kind of question is that? If you think it's cheap, I won't treat you to a meal."
"no……"
Liu Ruyan picked up a bowl of Sichuan pepper beef rice with her left hand and a bowl of two-color curry omelet rice with her right hand and said, "I want to eat both."
"Are you a pig?"
Liu Ruyan hesitated for a long time, and finally, under the urging of her stomach, she reluctantly put down the two-color curry omelet rice.
"This one actually tastes better." Chen Ya said, pointing to the two-color curry.
After saying that, he went to pick his own midnight snack.
Behind him, Liu Ruyan quickly changed the rice in her hand to two-color curry.
Finally, the two of them went to the cashier to pay. Chen Ya's midnight snack was a bowl of bucket noodles.
"Do you want it heated up?" The male cashier on night shift was very cool and didn't talk much.
"Heat it up and soak the noodles for me."
"We don't help with seasoning here."
"fine."
The cashier put Liu Ruyan's meal in the microwave. She sat at an empty table with no leftover food, holding her chin with her hands and waiting.
After a while, Chen Ya came over with a bowl of instant noodles.
The bowl was already full of hot water. He first took out the powder packet and tore it open. The brown seasoning powder fell on the golden noodles and was soaked into black by the soup.
Then came the sauce packet. As soon as Liu Ruyan opened the plastic packaging, she smelled a strange fragrance.
Finally, there are the vegetable packs. After being dehydrated, the dried vegetables appear small and cute, scattered in the noodle soup, laughing and jumping like naughty children.
Chen Ya stirred it with a plastic fork for a while, then inserted it into the instant noodle bowl, fixed the plastic lid on it, and then waited.
During this time, Liu Ruyan kept staring at him.
It was the first time she saw the entire process of making instant noodles.
Chen Ya's movements were smooth and flowing. Watching him make instant noodles was like watching teppanyaki.
However, teppanyaki is a performance in nature and may seem like a deliberate show-off, but he is not like that.
Every step he took was extremely practical.
Especially the last moment of using a fork to fix the noodle cover on the noodle bowl is really fantastic.
If he hadn't demonstrated it in front of her, she would never have thought that a fork could be used like this.
After a long moment, she said, "This is the first time I've seen this."
Chen Ya said calmly, "Miss, your world is so far away from us mortals. I feel like we live on different planets."
"I don't want that either."
"I know, and I don't care. Don't expect me to feel inferior to you," Chen Ya said. "What I mean is, you live in a completely different world from everyone else. How can others understand you?"
Returning to this topic, Liu Ruyan became painful again.
"Whether it's strict parents, an excellent nanny, or even a cat that got indigestion from eating salmon, these are experiences that ordinary people rarely have in their lifetime. How can you expect others to understand your pain?"
Liu Ruyan didn't say anything, but her expression looked very uncomfortable.
Chen Ya didn't say anything either. He was a cool guy, and if someone didn't respond, he wouldn't say more than three sentences.
After a while, Liu Ruyan stared at the braised beef pictured on the instant noodle bowl and said, "How can I make others...understand?"
“First, learn to understand everything, at least things that are different from yourself.”
Liu Ruyan tried very hard to swallow his words and break down what she could understand from them.
Chen Ya opened the lid of the instant noodles, and a strange fragrance came out with the hot steam, rising to the ceiling, then spreading and diffusing into the entire space.
Liu Ruyan had never smelled such a fragrance before.
Neither Kaiseki cuisine nor Teppanyaki was as fragrant as the smell she smelled now.
Chen Ya checked the chewiness of the noodles and put the lid back on.
"The two-color curry is ready."
The waiter at the cashier said.
Liu Ruyan stood there in a daze. Only when Chen Ya reminded her to get it did she go over and get her food back.
Putting it on the table, she stared at the intact plastic wrap and pondered.
“…”
Chen Ya took her meal, helped her open the package, and pushed it in front of her.
"You can eat now."
The girl noticed: there was no instant noodles smell.
So, for the second time in her life, she mustered up the courage and took a tentative step into the unknown world:
"I want to eat yours."
Chen Ya glared at her: "Yours is more expensive than mine!"
"But I just want to eat yours."
Chen Ya pushed the instant noodles to her and watched Liu Ruyan pick up a few noodles with the fork he had used.
"You might as well pick more. You don't need your aristocratic etiquette to eat instant noodles."
Liu Ruyan blushed.
After a while, she looked up.
Just like a long drought finally ending in rain, she felt her whole body swelling up like a balloon that was gradually being filled.
It’s so delicious.
Soon, the sound of "slurping" noodles leaked out uncontrollably like panting, filling the entire convenience store.
“This is delicious.”
In between sips of noodles, she raised her head and said something, then immediately lowered her head again.
Chen Ya picked up the spoon and moved her rice in front of him: "It's a good thing you ordered two-color curry. I don't like Sichuan pepper beef."
He was halfway through eating the two-color curry and the diced chicken inside, but Liu Ruyan had already finished her noodles and looked at him with an unsatisfied look.
"Is this delicious?"
Chen Ya looked at her helplessly: "Are you not full?"
Liu Ruyan thought for a moment and said, "A little."
"Then... do you want to try it?"
"Try a little." Liu Ruyan's face was filled with unconcealable greed.
Chen Ya pushed the half-eaten omelet rice to her with a look of shock. Just as he was about to get a new pair of disposable chopsticks, Liu Ruyan directly picked up the diced chicken in the bowl with a fork.
"Yeah, it's delicious, but not as good as instant noodles."
Chen Ya pressed his forehead and leaned back in his chair.
He had nothing more to say.
After finishing their meal, the two men piled the garbage against the wall, and Liu Ruyan lay on the table.
"What are you going to do next?" Chen Ya asked while fiddling with his phone. "When are you going to jump into the lake again?"
Liu Ruyan was too lazy to think and said, "I think I'll wait a few days before going."
"Don't want to jump into the lake?"
"No, I want to think about it carefully." She felt her eyelids getting heavier.
"Planning to go home?"
"No," Liu Ruyan felt as if the voice came from far away. "If I go back, I'll be beaten to death."
"That's good. That way I don't have to write a suicide note."
Liu Ruyan no longer had the energy to respond to the joke. Her lips moved, but no words came out.
She fell asleep on the table.
She slept very soundly and had a dream of riding on clouds.
The next morning, she opened her eyes and saw an unfamiliar ceiling.
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