Chapter 4

Chapter 4

“What’s your name? What class are you in?” Feng Wendong’s family seemed pretty influential. I might have to use the Xu family’s power to help her.

“I’m Zhao Linfeng from Class 16, Grade Eleven.”

“You’re Zhao Linfeng?”

Then Pan Li’s gossip was clearly wrong. Feng Wendong obviously didn’t have a crush on Zhao Linfeng. Who had a crush on someone and turned them into a cripple?

“You know me?”

“Of course I do. I just transferred into Class 16, Grade Eleven. My name is Xu Woruo-the Woruo from ‘before the mulberry leaves fall, they are lush and glossy.’ You haven’t been in class these past few days, or we would’ve met already.”

Zhao Linfeng smiled. A spark of delight rose in her amber eyes. It was only the faintest smile, but for a moment, it made her seem radiant.

“I’ll be back in class soon, so we’ll be classmates then. But you really shouldn’t provoke Feng Wendong…”

“All right, all right. You don’t have to worry about anything else. Xu Woruo, Messenger of Justice, will be striking hard.”

“Haha, you’re really funny.”

As we walked, we arrived at the snack street outside the school.

The snack street sat between Baimu High School and the staff housing of a beer factory that had already gone bankrupt and shut down. There weren’t many original residents left in the old beer factory apartments now. Most of the units had been rented to parents accompanying their children in school and to students themselves. Since the surrounding area was packed with people, business on the snack street was great.

Zhao Linfeng walked up to a little stall called Aunt Li’s Shredded Potato Pancake. The woman running it was about five foot three, with two rolls of flesh stacked around her waist. Her arms were as thick as my thighs, and her face had been stained sallow by cooking smoke. Her short, graying hair had already clumped into greasy locks, making one seriously question whether this little stall met any standards of hygiene.

This auntie with tiny eyes, a bulbous nose, and a catfish mouth was Zhao Linfeng’s mother?

I knew I shouldn’t judge people by appearances, but the two of them standing together looked so mismatched that it was hard not to let my mind wander.

“Mom, this is my classmate Xu Woruo. She walked me back just now.”

It was already past the afternoon dismissal period. Most of the students had gone back to their classrooms for evening self-study, so Aunt Li, like the other vendors, was sitting behind her stall playing on her phone while waiting for the wave of business after evening self-study ended.

The moment she heard Zhao Linfeng, she immediately stood up, lit the burner, and started making me a shredded potato pancake.

“No need, Aunt Li. There’s dinner at home. Thank you, though.”

Aunt Li’s voice was full and booming. “Take it and eat it on the road! How can I let such a good classmate go home hungry? You came all the way to my stall and don’t even get to eat a shredded potato pancake? Absolutely not! Sit down. It’ll be ready in no time!”

Aunt Li had Zhao Linfeng take two little folding stools from behind the stall. The two of us sat side by side on those tiny, low stools, waiting for our shredded potato pancakes and looking up at Aunt Li like the featherless baby birds on Animal World, mouths open and waiting to be fed.

Zhao Linfeng leaned slightly toward me and whispered, “See? I told you that you didn’t have to walk me back. My mom is super enthusiastic.”

Of course I couldn’t admit that I regretted bringing her back, so I answered with righteous conviction, “Perfect. I’m super enthusiastic too. I also super love shredded potato pancakes.”

Then I watched Aunt Li add pork tenderloin, grilled sausage, chicken strips, and a fried egg into our shredded potato pancakes before drizzling them with a generous layer of red chili oil sauce. Just looking at it made my mouth water uncontrollably.

Ever since I’d transmigrated into this body, I’d been eating nutritious meals every single day. My mouth was so bored it was about to grow feathers.

“Here, Woruo, Linlin. One each. No fighting, got it? If it’s not enough, there’s more.”

The two chirping baby birds were fed by Mother Bird with two enormous shredded potato pancakes so big we couldn’t even hold them properly with both hands.

In this pancake, the ingredient with the lowest proportion was the shredded potato.

I anxiously took a small bite, then exclaimed, “Whoa, it’s good!”

Sure enough, there was no such thing as bad food from a stall outside a school gate.

The moment Zhao Linfeng heard me, she desperately signaled with her eyes for me not to say that, but it was already too late.

Aunt Li said, “If you like it, there’s more!”

She lit the burner again, heated the oil, warmed another pancake, and took precious squid, cod, and crab sticks out of the cooler.

With a lift of her hand-clang, clang, clang-the shredded potatoes were fried. With a sweep of her arm-tap, tap, tap, tap-the squid was cut into pieces. With a turn of her body-glug, glug, glug-a full ladle of red chili oil was poured on top. Finally, with two great slaps of her left and right hands, the shredded potato pancake was wrapped up.

Never mind that it was only a small shredded potato pancake. The grandeur in every movement made me feel as if I’d just watched a brilliant performance of The Execution of Chen Shimei.

In the end, Zhao Linfeng and I sat together and finished one shredded potato pancake, then I carried another gigantic shredded potato pancake home.

After I got home, I had diarrhea five or six times-I couldn’t remember anymore. All I remembered was the doctor’s ashen face when he came to the house.

I didn’t dare eat the remaining shredded potato pancake, but I couldn’t bear to throw it away either, so I placed it reverently in the fridge and worshipped it with my eyes whenever I wanted a look.