Chapter 971 — A Bowl of Noodles

Chen Xi knew her mother was loath to part with the money, but... the doctor had said her mother did not have long to live, and to come here once for a bowl of beef noodles was her dearest wish. Thrifty as Chen Xi was, she gritted her teeth all the same and said, "Then let's have two bowls."

"Oh child, wouldn't the extra just go to waste?" Her mother cut her off, turning to the waiter. "We'll take one bowl, then—how much is it?"

"Hello, one bowl of beef noodles—that comes to fifteen yuan." The waiter felt deeply for the mother and daughter, but he too was only a hired hand, and his own circumstances were hardly any better than theirs. Nor could he take it upon himself to treat them to a bowl on the house, for that would only mean the owner docking the cost from his wages.

Her mother's face fell at the news that a single bowl cost fifteen yuan, but Chen Xi pulled a neat stack of bills from her pocket, counted out fifteen yuan, and handed it over to the waiter.

The waiter knew that this money must have been earned at great cost for the mother and daughter, yet there was nothing he could do about it. He could only cast them a look of sympathy and plan, on the quiet, to tell the kitchen to give them an extra helping of noodles—the one thing he could do for them.

"Xiao Xi, money is hard to come by for you, and you still have my treatment to pay for. From now on, let's not throw it around..." Chen Xi's mother murmured. "Fifteen yuan—think how many bundles of dried noodles it would buy! Enough for the two of us to eat for days..."

"Mom, it's my birthday today, and you promised I'd have the final say!" Chen Xi cut her mother off with a smile. "After today I'll be sixteen, a proper grown-up. From now on I'll earn pots of money and bring you out for a feast every day!"

"Hehe, all right, Mother will wait for that..." But inwardly she sighed, wondering if she could even hold on to that day. Seeing her daughter sensible and grown, she could at least go to her rest with a lighter heart.

This noodle shop was a time-honored name in the neighborhood, having stood for years. When Chen Xi was small, every time she and her mother passed by, the pair would gaze with envy at the customers dining inside. Back then her mother would always tell her that once they had money in the future, she would bring Chen Xi here for noodles.

In the blink of an eye, Chen Xi had grown up—but then her mother was diagnosed with cancer. The blow left the already-straitened Chen family at its wit's end. Her mother could no longer work, and the household could only scrape by on the scrap cardboard and drink bottles Chen Xi gathered after school.

Today was Chen Xi's sixteenth birthday, but she could not muster the faintest joy. A few days earlier, when her mother had gone to the hospital for a follow-up, the doctor told her that her mother had at most a month or two left, and that she should make the funeral preparations...

Chen Xi had been utterly stunned. Though she had long known such a day would come, she had never imagined it would arrive so soon! Mom—was she really going away? Chen Xi was grieved, heart-stricken, but afraid her mother might catch on, she had to force a cheerful face.

Using her birthday as a pretext, she brought her mother to the noodle shop. Her mother took it as the willfulness of a child, but Chen Xi knew that if she did not bring her mother today, her mother might never taste the noodles of this place in all her life.

And so Chen Xi had spent several evenings coming home two hours late, riding the bus to the beach to collect drink bottles, until she had finally scraped together thirty yuan—all for the sake of sharing one meal of beef noodles with her mother. She had asked about the price beforehand: fifteen yuan a bowl. Expensive as it was for her, she thought it well worth it.

Wei Zhao's gaze swept over Chen Xi and her mother and came to rest at last on Chen Xi's mother.

She was a haggard woman with a slightly sickly air. Worn down by disease as she was, one could still tell she must have been lovely in her youth. But to Wei Zhao's eye, her days were numbered. As for the specific cause, he could not say; without a more thorough examination, he had no way of knowing what illness she carried.

The girl named Chen Xi, however, was very pretty—no doubt the image of her mother in her youth. At only sixteen, she had already blossomed into a radiant young beauty. Her clothes were plain, yet clean and neat.

It made Wei Zhao think, unbidden, of Tang Yun, and his heart gave a faint stir...

Wei Zhao frowned. Since when had he become, it seemed, so much less cold? Almost a little fond of poking his nose into other people's business?

Was it the surroundings here that had changed him?

Wei Zhao realized that he had indeed drifted far, far away from those days of blood and storm, and had begun to blend into this world—had even come to like it.

The waiter approached, and Wei Zhao withdrew his gaze and looked at Feng Xiaoxiao. Feng Xiaoxiao's eyes, too, had been on the mother and daughter all the while; plainly the sight had stirred her as well.

"Hello, would you two like to order now?" the waiter asked as he came up.

"We'll have a bowl of beef noodles too!" Feng Xiaoxiao spoke up before Wei Zhao could say a word. She had taken her inspiration from the mother and daughter—sharing a bowl of noodles with Wei Zhao would bring their feelings closer.

"Oh... all right." The waiter blinked, then nodded. There was nothing remarkable about a couple sharing one bowl of noodles; it merely struck him as a coincidence that Feng Xiaoxiao should order a single bowl hard on the heels of that mother and daughter.

"Just one bowl? Aren't you eating?" Wei Zhao frowned at Feng Xiaoxiao.

"Of course I'm eating!" Feng Xiaoxiao nearly exploded at his words. It's you treating me to noodles, isn't it? And then you ask if I'm eating? If I weren't going to eat, what would you be treating me for?

"Oh, in that case, two bowls," Wei Zhao said lightly to the waiter.

"Very well, sir." The waiter laughed under his breath. Either Wei Zhao had no clue about romance, or Feng Xiaoxiao was flattering herself. The two of them need not be lovers at all—more likely it was the woman pursuing the man.

Feng Xiaoxiao was put out. "I can't finish a whole bowl—the servings here are enormous..."

"Then tell him to give you a smaller portion," said Wei Zhao.

"...Do I look stupid?" Feng Xiaoxiao was too angry to speak, and waved a hand crossly at the waiter to signal he could go.

The waiter shook his head. Not wanting to provoke Feng Xiaoxiao, he strode off to put in the order.

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