Chapter 63: The Song of Taotie (Part 3) Sisyphus's Pie. ...
Zhang Deng had a keen intuition like his peers, and he could see that Li Mai was suffering from gluttony.
This is often a byproduct of extreme weight loss. Li Mai's skin is very loose and her salivary glands are very large, which means that she is in a huge storm.
Zhang Deng calmly quickened his eating pace, eating noodles in big mouthfuls. Seeing that he ate a lot, Li Mai felt a little relaxed and wolfed down the food in his bowl.
Wei Yuanye had no idea what happened at the dinner table.
Even the smartest detective cannot understand a girl's tearful notes.
For Wei Yuanye, this kind of problem is too far away from his life and he can never imagine it.
Li Mai's mood didn't improve after she finished eating. Instead, she kept stroking her bulging belly. She said with some worry, "Tomorrow is still a day."
Zhang Deng asked, "Did you call a taxi?"
"Yes."
The three of them walked out together, and a very small and gentle snowflake fell on Zhang Deng's eyelid. Zhang Deng looked up in surprise and saw thin snowflakes falling from the velvet-like sky.
Zhang Deng and Li Mai screamed at the same time: "It's snowing!"
Li Mai took out his phone, took a picture of the sky, and said, "I haven't added your contact information yet."
A few people exchanged accounts, and Zhang Deng took the initiative to offer to take a photo of Li Mai, but Li Mai refused with great resistance.
She said, “I don’t like taking pictures.”
"Okay." Zhang Deng said.
Li Mai added, "I can take a picture of you two."
So Zhang Deng and Wei Yuanye took a photo in front of the flower bed of the office building. Zhang Deng made a rabbit ear shape with his hands in a very old-fashioned way and placed it behind Wei Yuanye's head. Wei Yuanye put his hands in his pockets with a faint smile on his lips, as if he knew everything.
Li Mai’s photography skills are amazing, and he took very nice photos of the two of them.
On the way back, Zhang Deng secretly looked at this photo several times. He was not looking at himself, but at Wei Yuanye. Wei Yuanye was so handsome.
The snow was getting heavier, and Zhang Deng's hair fell a lot. He put on his hat and said, "I really like snow."
“Things that many people find annoying,” Zhang Deng said, “are actually beautiful to me.”
Zhang Deng said, "But I can understand why people find it annoying. Sometimes I feel like I have a little girl's personality, and sometimes I feel like I understand what men are thinking. I have a double share of worries."
Wei Yuanye said: "Then your life is worth more than anyone else's."
Zhang Deng didn't expect him to say that. He said, "But I feel like I sometimes have a sensory overload."
Wei Yuanye said: "In your eyes, we are just like uncivilized savages."
Zhang Deng felt that this statement was too flattering and said, "You can't say that."
Wei Yuanye didn't argue with him.
Zhang Deng felt very complicated while having this meal with Li Mai.
He felt that Li Mai was living a very heartbreaking life, which was even more painful than the life he had lived before, but perhaps, Li Mai was not the only one living such a life.
Under what circumstances would a person exile himself from the flow of life?
Maybe it was because he had lost the strength and courage to climb ashore in the turbulent river.
the next day.
When I turned on the light and arrived at my workstation, I found Li Mai sitting at her desk with exquisite makeup on.
There was a cup of coffee and a bag of vegetable salad on her desk.
Zhang Deng greeted her, and Li Mai asked, "Have you eaten?"
This question was actually very stressful for Zhang Deng in the past, but now Zhang Deng felt a sense of calmness as if he had turned over a new leaf. He said, "I ate some bread."
Zhang Deng and Wei Yuanye shared the leftover cake from last night and also had some snacks.
Zhang Deng is the kind of person who must eat breakfast. Even when he was most demanding on losing weight, he would make sure to consume some calories at breakfast. He didn't want to get sick because it would affect his figure.
Zhang Deng quickly scanned her breakfast and calculated about 300 calories. This was a reasonable calorie range for a breakfast, but from a nutritional perspective, it was completely unscientific.
But Zhang Deng knew that he could not comment on the diet of a person with an eating disorder.
Zhang Deng sat down in silence, but Li Mai was in a good mood this morning and said to him, "You know, I passed by a convenience store last night and saw some steamed buns. I bought three and ate them all."
Zhang Deng said, "Are you too tired?"
Li Mai was stunned for a moment, and hadn't finished chewing the salad in his mouth.
Zhang Deng said: "I used to have a lot of work pressure and wanted to lose weight. I ate a whole pizza by myself. It was this big."
Zhang Deng compared the size with his hands. Thinking about it now, he felt it was exaggerated. He said, "It was super greasy. I couldn't swallow it anymore, so I washed it down with soda."
Li Mai asked, "Will you do the same?"
“But what is pizza?”
Oh yes, Zhang Deng thought, maybe there is no such food as pizza in this world, but there should be something similar. Zhang Deng said: "The specialty of my hometown is a kind of sweet food. It's really a sin. Now that I think about it, I don't really like sweets. I go crazy when I try to lose weight."
Li Mai's work that day still seemed to be going poorly. She kept frowning and typing away on the computer. Around ten o'clock in the morning, she received some message, packed up, and left her workstation immediately.
Zhang Deng felt a little strange. He saw that Li Mai was not wearing a scarf but had put on a coat. He guessed that she might have gone out to do something. About fifteen minutes later, when he was hesitating whether to go look for her, Li Mai came back.
She was holding two bags of milk tea in her hand. When she sat down, Zhang Deng smelled the smell of cigarettes on her.
When Li Mai opened the milk tea package, it was probably the only time since she sat here that her mood eased. She took out the milk tea, knocked on the partition between them, and said, "Snack time."
Zhang Deng took it, but saw that there were still two cups. Li Mai quickly put one cup down at her feet and the other on her table. She said, "I want to try both of them."
Zhang Deng saw that the cup she ordered for him was also sugar-free.
In the second half of the morning, Li Mai drank milk tea, replied to messages, and occasionally felt lost. Zhang Deng thought something seemed to be wrong with her. Since he couldn't ask more, he was the first to stand up during lunch and asked her, "Want to eat?"
Li Mai seemed to be waiting for this moment and asked him, "Will you eat with me? Where are your friends?"
"He's gone to the scene," Zhang Deng said, "You can accompany me."
Li Mai now had a legitimate reason to eat. She said, "Want to order? I know a really good place."
Li Mai is indeed a good eater. Everything she ordered was delicious. When she was arranging the food, her eyes were always on the food, and her movements seemed a bit rude because of her impatience.
This amount was undoubtedly huge for the two of them, so much so that Sister Hong laughed as she passed by. She was holding a cup of coffee, and on her hand was a very thin, delicate ring that gleamed with heavy metal. She said, "How could you two eat so much?"
Li Mai paused, then smiled awkwardly and said, "I guess we can't finish it."
"Eat less," Sister Hong said. "These foods with lots of oil and salt are very hot and harmful to your health."
Zhang Deng always seemed very friendly. He asked, "Would you like to eat together?"
Sister Hong showed her coffee and said, "This is all I need. I've gained weight recently and am trying to lose weight."
"You look very thin too," Sister Hong said, "How can you eat so much?"
Li Mai slowly unpicked his chopsticks, but he wasn't looking forward to the food as much as before. Zhang Deng rolled up his sleeves and said, "I can't wait."
Sister Hong didn't seem to have anything to do during her lunch break, so she stood in front of the two of them with a cup of coffee, chatting and watching them eat. Sister Hong asked, "How's your progress?"
"Almost done," Li Mai said, slowing down and eating in smaller bites. "Just a few details left."
Sister Hong said, "You always do things so meticulously."
"Hey, Xiao Zhang, is that Xiao Zhang?" Sister Hong asked, "Do you have a girlfriend?"
Zhang Deng said, "Yes."
Sister Hong seemed a little surprised: "Then you two..."
"I thought you were single," Sister Hong said, "but that's true. You're so handsome."
When people are completely speechless, they will want to laugh.
Sister Hong asked, "Is your partner very beautiful?"
"You can't say she's not beautiful," Zhang Deng replied politely. "After all, if I thought she was ugly, why would I talk to her?"
"You're quite good at talking," Sister Hong said. "We don't have to be so formal when we chat. I guess it's just that you seem very picky."
Zhang Deng didn't know why he looked so picky. He felt that this was a completely unfounded accusation.
After all, in the previous 26 years, no one had ever praised him for being handsome as frequently as during this period.
And now everyone tells him that he is handsome.
Is this ridiculous? When he needed comments the most, he tried his best to lose weight, but no one praised him. But now that he is in love and his emotions are stable, everyone comes to praise him.
Li Mai became more and more silent as he ate. He soon put down his chopsticks and said, "I'm full."
She barely touched her main course and didn't take many bites of the side dishes before throwing her chopsticks directly into the trash can. Zhang Deng knew this behavior, which was like a period during eating. She used this action to mark her appetite: let's stop here.
Sister Hong drank a cup of coffee and said, "You only eat so little?"
"That's right," Sister Hong said, "I saw you drank two cups of milk tea this morning."
Sister Hong said, "You can't lose weight this way. Milk tea is very high in calories. You might as well eat a good meal."
Li Mai raised his head, smiled, and said, "I think so too."
Sister Hong didn't understand, or perhaps didn't care about Li Mai's resistance at all, and continued, "You don't eat your meals properly, and then you overeat at night, and you're starving for nothing."
"I really can't eat anymore," Li Mai said, still smiling, "I'm not trying to lose weight on purpose."
Sister Hong said, "Ah? Aren't you losing weight?"
Li Mai's smile was about to break. When Zhang Deng thought Li Mai was going to get angry, Li Mai adjusted his mood again and said self-deprecatingly: "I want to lose weight, but I can't."
Sister Hong said, "I told you, you can't eat like this."
"It's okay," Zhang Deng said. "Weight isn't the only thing you need to manage in your life."
"That's right," Sister Hong agreed immediately, "I just think Li Mai is very beautiful. She would be perfect if she were a little thinner."
Zhang Deng: "Why is she so perfect? She's not going to participate in a beauty pageant."
Zhang Deng was able to say things very naturally that he had never been able to say before.
Watching other people's pain made Zhang Deng feel like he had suddenly completed some of his own life lessons.
Li Mai, on the other hand, acted as a buffer between social conventions and said with a smile, "So many people are doing this for my own good. I'm so touched."
Even so, she refused to eat another bite of the meal. Zhang Deng was left alone to fight.
The cleaning lady came over with a broom, pointed at the trash can and said, "Don't you want these anymore?"
"Put it away." Li Mai said.
"Auntie Song, huh?" Sister Hong said, "By the way, I have a question for you. Did you take the bracelet off my desk?"
Aunt Song had just arrived and was not familiar with the environment. When she heard her ask this, she was a little nervous and said, "What bracelet? I haven't touched it."
Li Mai said, "What bracelet? Is that the new one you bought?"
"Yes, I can't find it," Sister Hong said, "Auntie, you took it away, didn't you?"
Aunt Song said firmly: "It's not me."
The minister heard the noise and came over: "What's going on?"
"Xiao Hong, look for it again," the minister said, "but maybe the auntie who took it before took it."
Aunt Song took the garbage bag out of the bucket and said, "If you don't believe me, I'll check the surveillance."
Sister Hong said, "Then I really checked it?"
Zhang Deng was about to lose patience and was about to speak when Wei Yuanye came back, smelling of cold air. Zhang Deng said, "You're back just in time."
"What's wrong?" Wei Yuanye handed the bag of snacks in his hand to him.
He looked at the crowd and inquiringly looked at Zhang Deng. Sister Hong seemed overwhelmed by the crowd and said, "Forget it. I'll go back and look for more."
Only then did he let the aunt go.
Zhang Deng opened the bag Wei Yuanye gave him, and found another bag of beautiful and exquisite desserts.
“Why buy it?”
"I see you like it very much," Wei Yuanye took off his coat and hung it on the chair with the lamp, "There's a place next to the scene, and a lot of people buy it."
Zhang Deng was speechless. He stood up and offered his stool to Wei Yuanye, saying, "These are the leftovers from our lunch. Have you eaten yet? Do you want some?"
Wei Yuanye had obviously eaten. He went with his colleagues and it was impossible for him to come back without eating. However, if Zhang Deng thought it was a waste, Wei Yuanye didn't mind eating some more. He sat down and said to Li Mai, "Are you done?"
Li Mai leaned back in his office chair and played with his phone: "Ah, I'm full."
Zhang Deng shook the bag, found a rice cake that was slightly lower in calories, and asked, "Would you like to try it?"
"No." Li Mai said.
But her eyes still looked at the cake.
Zhang Deng handed it to her directly: "Then eat it when you are hungry."
Li Mai asked, "Isn't this bad?"
She felt that this was bought by Wei Yuanye for Zhang Deng, and she felt a little embarrassed to take it away.
Wei Yuanye didn't care at all and said, "If you like it, take it away. He can't finish it."
Zhang Deng said, "You knew I couldn't finish it, but you still bought it."
Li Mai's eyes moved between the two of them, as if he had discovered something, but he said nothing and accepted the cake.
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