Chapter 50: Elementary School Chickens Quarrel
After their meal, they strolled around the amusement park, looking for any other attractions suitable for post-dinner fun.
Passing by the Ferris wheel area, Wen Chu lingered for a while, feeling that riding it would be very ambiguous. It is said that if you kiss the person you like when you are at the highest point, the relationship will last forever.
She glanced at the person next to her out of the corner of her eye. The man stood there without saying a word, clearly not intending to take a seat.
Let's forget about it.
They went up to each other, staring at each other blankly; it was quite awkward.
"It seems like there's nothing else to do. Let's go to the food stalls outside and grab some snacks!" Wen Chu suggested.
"You ate two plates of meat and a plate of spaghetti, and you're still not full?" Lu Ming looked at her, his eyes filled with disbelief.
"Well... not that much..." Wen Chu scratched her head. "I'm really craving these things. I haven't had them in ages. I want stinky tofu, grilled gluten, fried rice cakes... Ah, I can't take it anymore, my mouth is watering just thinking about them! Let's go!"
Eventually, they turned onto the market outside the amusement park. It was a long street selling all sorts of things.
Wen Chu's eyes lit up as she looked at the food, wishing she could stop at every single stall. How long had it been since she'd tasted such divine delicacies!
"The items on these stalls don't seem safe, and it's uncertain whether these vendors even have business licenses," Lu Ming kindly reminded them.
Wen Chu rolled her eyes at him, muttered "What a fuss," and then rushed to the nearest stall selling stir-fried rice cakes: "Boss, two servings of stir-fried rice cakes! One spicy and one sweet!"
Unable to stop the person, Lu Ming silently walked over, took out his phone, and scanned the QR code to pay.
Half an hour later, they sat at an outdoor table with a variety of snacks in front of them. Wen Chu ate with her mouth full of oil, and didn't forget to add some delicious food to Lu Ming's bowl.
"Isn't it delicious?" Wen Chu looked at him with bright eyes.
Lu Ming slowly picked up a piece of sweet fried rice cake with a bamboo skewer and put it in his mouth. "It's alright." Then he noticed the oil stains on Wen Chu's lips, frowned in disgust, and pulled out a piece of paper from the side and pressed it to her mouth. "Wipe your mouth."
Wen Chu grunted, took the paper, wiped herself while chewing, and even asked someone to eat some more.
The summer night breeze carried a hint of heat, and Wen Chu's forehead was covered in a fine sheen of sweat, but she was completely unaware of it. People came and went on the street, some were families, others were couples, chatting and laughing, all looking relaxed. Enveloped in this atmosphere, one could briefly forget about stress and worries.
Lu Ming couldn't remember the last time he had felt this kind of life. He was always the one driving by, but now he was part of this pleasant atmosphere.
He subtly observed the person opposite him, his eyes lowering and then raising again, cautiously, as if afraid of being discovered. Fortunately, the person opposite him was so engrossed in eating that they didn't have time to look at him.
"Were you a starving ghost in your past life? You eat so much." Lu Ming couldn't help but ask.
"It's not hunger, it's craving. I can't explain it to you." Wen Chu wiped her mouth, touched her stomach, and felt she couldn't eat anymore. She packed up the food, tugged it into her hand, and stood up. "I'm not eating anymore. Let's go look at other places."
Lu Ming looked at the things in her hands: "Just leave them here, we can buy more later. It's too much trouble to take them back."
“These are all grains grown by farmers with hard work. Do you know how shameful it is to waste food?” Wen Chu said, twisting something in her left hand and pushing him with her right. “Come on, let’s go play ring toss.”
They wandered around, buying twenty rings and trinkets from the roadside, but in the end, they only earned a bottle of Coke and a small yellow duck keychain for thirty yuan—crudely made, with uneven red paint sprayed on the duck's beak, making it ugly.
Wen Chu was furious. She threw the cola at Lu Ming, deciding to ignore it and just play with the little keychain in her hand. Every time she squeezed it, the little yellow duck would light up and make a hoarse Donald Duck sound: "Love you~ Quack~"
However, she was squeezing too roughly, and the pendant kept making noises like, "Love, love, love..."
Lu Ming was annoyed by the noise. He glanced at her and couldn't help but say, "If you keep squeezing like that, this only trophy is going to die."
"Love, love, love you—" Wen Chu was still pinching it, and said angrily, "Luckily this duck is somewhat cute, otherwise I would have exploded with anger!"
"Are you... serious?" Lu Ming couldn't help but examine the ugly and abstract little pendant in her hand more closely, wondering if their aesthetic sense was on different levels.
Wen Chu pouted and then pressed the duck hard against his ear again.
"Gah—"
Lu Ming tilted his head and hissed, feeling that his ears had been contaminated, and glanced at the person helplessly.
They then went to the stall where they painted plaster dolls. Wen Chu immediately spotted a round little devil with a tail. "This looks exactly like you. I'll paint this one."
Are you sure... you have the patience to finish this?
"I'm super patient, okay?"
Lu Ming squinted slightly, reached out and picked through the shelves, finally picking up a grumpy rabbit with two prominent front teeth, one big and one small eye, and its ears standing up.
"You like this?" Wen Chu asked curiously. "Have you seen the cartoon about this rabbit?"
"No." Lu Ming lowered his head and started teasing, then after a while said in a muffled voice, "This one looks most like you."
"I...Is that how you see me?!"
Lu Ming smiled without saying a word and began to apply the color.
Wen Chu pouted, her competitive spirit burning fiercely, vowing to make something absolutely perfect.
But the end result was that she was holding a demon that was painted crookedly and completely black, barely recognizable as a demon, while Lu Ming was holding a grumpy rabbit that was painted very finely and had a 98% accuracy in its reproduction.
When it came time to pay, the stall owner first saw Lu Ming's masterpiece and exclaimed in amazement, "It's really beautiful." When it came to Wen Chu, he hesitated for a moment, but then smiled and said with high EQ, "It's quite unique."
Wen Chu forced a smile, thinking, "Thank you, but I didn't have to praise you if I couldn't find the right words." Holding her own doll, she glared resentfully at the one in Lu Ming's hand, its body radiating a melancholic aura, and muttered, "You said you weren't going to play with it... but yours is so much more detailed than mine..."
Lu Ming curled his lips slightly and said sarcastically, "Why does it feel like someone is just as bad as me and is getting angry because they're embarrassed?"
“I’ve never had much artistic talent since I was a child. You have nothing to be proud of if you beat me in this area.”
"As long as we defeat them."
Having been bored in this world for a long time, everything seemed new and exciting to Wen Chu. She bought a ghost face mask, thinking that she could scare Lu Ming in the middle of the night. At the enthusiastic invitation of the stall aunt, she also tried on several earrings and pieces of jewelry. One of the rings was not adjustable, but it fit her middle finger perfectly, which surprised even Wen Chu.
The vendor smiled and said, "This ring is perfect for you! It's a matching couple's ring. Handsome, why don't you buy one for you and your girlfriend?"
Wen Chu said she didn't need it, but she couldn't pull it off even after trying for a long time. The aunt kept trying to sell it to her with nice words. Lu Ming glanced at Wen Chu, but couldn't refuse her enthusiasm. In the end, he nodded and took out his phone to scan the code.
Wen Chu looked at the man in surprise. This guy actually bought her a ring? Could it be that he's fallen in love with her?
The aunt put the men's ring in the ring box, handed it to him, and saw them off with a smile.
"Why buy it? I don't actually have the habit of wearing rings." Wen Chu had already taken the ring off and was playing with it on her hand. Lu Ming, however, took it from her hand and put it into the ring box.
Wen Chu: "?"
Lu Ming explained, "I don't want Aunt Yang to see you wearing this fake diamond and ask about it, and then you'll say it was a gift from me."
Wen Chu pouted and casually said, "Then buy me a real one?"
"Anything can be found in dreams."
"Then why did you buy it in the first place?!"
Lu Ming answered truthfully: "I don't want that aunt to think I'm a miser who can't even spend a few hundred yuan on his girlfriend."
"Fine, fine, I have nothing to say." She shouldn't have had even the slightest illusion about this person. Wen Chu angrily hugged the plaster doll in her arms and strode forward a few steps, leaving the man behind.
As soon as she sensed that the other party was about to catch up, she would run a few steps forward. In the crowded scene, she weaved and twisted, constantly making things difficult for the people.
This guy was so proud that he avoided bumping into people even when walking, and in no time Wen Chu had left him far behind.
She played by herself for a while, then walked to a stall to look at things. Out of the corner of her eye, she glanced to her right and behind her, but couldn't find Lu Ming at first glance. She looked again, but still couldn't find him.
She straightened up and looked completely behind her, only to realize with a start that she had lost track of him!
Damn! There are a lot of people, but not enough to make us lose track of them!
There was no sincerity whatsoever. Not only did he not follow, but now he's vanished. Did he turn back home on his own? Wen Chu thought about it more and more, and the possibility seemed increasingly plausible. Her anger flared even more.
She glanced at her phone; Lu Ming hadn't texted her, he'd just disappeared.
Wen Chu took two deep breaths, thinking that it seemed their date was coming to an end.
The ship of friendship can capsize at any moment.
She really shouldn't have expected Lu Ming to follow her all the time; it was the harmonious interaction during the day that made her temporarily forget that this was just a task the other party needed to complete.
There's nothing genuine about it.
Feeling a tightness in her chest, Wen Chu let out another breath, trying to find something else to distract herself. She remembered there was a fireworks show at the amusement park at nine o'clock, and since she had a VIP wristband that allowed her to come and go freely, she went back into the amusement park, bought a Ferris wheel ticket, and planned to ride it high in the sky to watch the fireworks and end her day on a high note.
Half an hour before nine o'clock, Wen Chu sat idly by the flower bed, looking up at the roller coaster carrying tourists "up to the sky and down to the ground," occasionally amused by the pitiful screams and the traditional Chinese opera, her eyes flickering with light.
She felt that there might be something wrong with her mindset. This was just a game, and once she finished the game, she would return to the real world. But now, because of a virtual character, she felt genuinely disappointed.
She wasn't like this at first.
Wen Chu felt a little down for a moment, then cheered herself up and comforted herself, "Wen Chu, this is just human nature! It doesn't mean anything! Even if you spend a lot of time with cats and dogs, you'll feel disappointed if they ignore you. So how much more so with a person you've known for so long? Don't overthink it!"
As soon as she finished speaking, she heard a meow. A small yellow cat emerged from the flower bed, its bright green eyes staring at her and meowing, seemingly interested in the food in her pack.
Wen Chu opened the bag, cut out a small piece of sausage and placed it in front of the kitten. The kitten lowered its head and started eating, making slurping sounds, which was incredibly cute.
"This world really can't be without kittens." Wen Chu rested her elbows on her legs, propped her chin on her hand, and watched the kitten shaking its head, slowly regaining her composure.
After finishing its meal, the little yellow cat circled her twice, then licked her a few times with its tail to express its gratitude before disappearing into the crowd and running to the flower bed next to the haunted house across the street.
Wen Chu watched it leave, then sat by the roadside in a daze. Every now and then she would look up at her surroundings, then lower her head again.
Suddenly, she faintly smelled something burning in the air. She didn't think much of it, assuming it was just the smell of a barbecue stall, but then she heard someone shout, "Fire! Fire!"
She looked up sharply and saw that a corner of the cardboard decoration wall at the entrance of the haunted house diagonally opposite was on fire, emitting flames and quickly bursting into flames with each breath, the fire soaring into the sky and billowing thick smoke.
As soon as Lu Ming entered, he saw thick smoke in the sky and the sky illuminated by the firelight. He frowned and quickly went inside, searching through the crowd, hoping the woman wasn't nearby. Just then, he saw the figure he had been looking for dart in that direction.
Lu Ming's heart skipped a beat. He tilted his head in confusion, quickly put down what he was holding, and chased after them.
People, eager for a good spectacle, gathered outside the fire's blaze, watching as tourists from the haunted house fled one after another. Decorations were constantly falling off as the fire raged, waves of heat rolled in, and the distant sirens of fire trucks could be heard amidst the chaos.
"Is there anyone still inside?" Lu Ming asked, stopping the last tourist to come out.
The tourist, sweating profusely, hurriedly said, "It seems there's still some left."
"Did you see a girl in her twenties rush in?"
"I don't know, I think so..." The tourist's mind was in a mess as his family rushed over and took him away, offering their anxious condolences.
Looking at the fire, Lu Ming grew increasingly anxious. He was sure he wasn't mistaken; Wen Chu was indeed running in this direction, though he didn't understand what had gotten into her.
He considered it for a moment and was about to go in to take a look, but was stopped: "Sir, the fire truck is coming soon! Please don't go in!"
Lu Ming insisted, "My girlfriend seems to be inside."
"Most of the people inside have come out, and the rest will be out soon with the help of staff. It's too risky for you to go in now! Nobody knows how badly the fire will spread."
"No, she's mentally unstable. I have to go in and check on her." Lu Ming said, pushing the other person away, covering his mouth and nose, and walking inside.
Seeing how serious he was, the staff immediately realized that his girlfriend might be disabled, and they were deeply moved. While they were struggling with this dilemma, Lu Ming had already rushed inside, bypassing the flames.
However, his arm was suddenly grabbed and he was pulled away heavily: "I think you've got a problem with your head!" Wen Chu held the cat in one hand and pulled the person with the other, and moved away from the fire at lightning speed.
They ran for a long time until the firelight was almost out of sight before stopping. The cat jumped off her arms, meowed twice, and ran away.
Wen Chu bent over, supporting herself on her knees, panting heavily, her forehead covered in sweat.
Lu Ming stared intently at her, and only after confirming that she was alright did his expression soften. "Everyone is heading outside, but you're the only one rushing this way. What else could it be but being crazy?"
"I went to pick up the kitten from the side, okay! I've been looking for it for ages, this little guy is running around everywhere! Do you think I'm stupid? Do you think I don't have eyes? Do you think I'd rush into the fire?!"
Lu Ming was also a little angry: "How am I supposed to know what's wrong with you?"
"You're blaming me now? Why didn't you do this earlier!" Wen Chu sat down on a nearby bench and turned her head away.
"You ran off and got lost, so why are you being so tough about it?"
"How am I running around? I'm just walking normally on my two legs. Do you have short legs or something? You can't even keep up with this."
Lu Ming was seething inside, and said coldly, "Wen Chu, you need to understand, I'm not your real boyfriend. You should be more mindful of how often you throw tantrums."
It felt like a tiny prick to her chest, making Wen Chu feel extremely uncomfortable. She stood up again and said, "Fine, I'm throwing a tantrum. You can leave then. I didn't ask you to come back to me." As she spoke, she walked back.
Lu Ming grabbed her arm, his eyes fixed on her, thinking she was about to run away in a huff again: "Where are you going this time?"
Wen Chu shook off his hand: "You're not my boyfriend, why should I tell you? Mind your own business." She walked very fast, almost running, but Lu Ming, with his long legs, reached out to stop her, so she took detours.
Lu Ming didn't want others to watch their argument like it was a show, so to end this farce quickly, he walked directly in front of Wen Chu, hoisted her onto his shoulder, and said, "That's enough for today, time to go home."
Wen Chu's eyes widened. "You called me a hooligan, but what you're doing now is nothing short of hooliganism! Put me down!"
"I can't explain it to you, and I don't want to talk to you anymore. Go home."
"You!" Wen Chu struggled, but the more she struggled, the more she suffered. Her stomach was in great pain from being constricted, and she also attracted the curious stares of many tourists. She suddenly felt very embarrassed and dared not make too much noise, lest people think they were acting in a short play!
"It's unclear whose fault it is; did you even speak properly?"
Lu Ming ignored her and continued walking towards the amusement park exit.
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