Little Xiang Ning finally agreed to put in a bit more effort in her studies on the condition that Xu Tingsheng would allow for a weekend fully planned by her, no nos allowed, no wild thoughts allowed and definitely no laughing at her. Having so many provisions in this, the matter in question that she had in mind seemed not that simple.

  Saturday, eating noodles.

  Actually, Xiang Ning had proposed going together to that noodle store many times before, but Xu Tingsheng would always find an excuse and refuse her. He would even rather go out and buy the food back himself rather than show up at that noodle store together with Xiang Ning.

  Because……there was too much that the boss there knew.

  The old restaurant had been there for the past decade and would still be there the next. With its unchanging old-fashioned furnishings and utensils, the low, short building gave Xu Tingsheng a surreal feeling of it existing outside of time. It was as if his two lifetimes could truly overlap.

  Here, the distance of time seemingly no longer existed.

  That couple in the year 2011, this couple in the year 2005, the same place, the same table……Xiang Ning asked Xu Tingsheng what noodles he would like. He said: Since you’re familiar with this place, why don’t you choose for me.

  The conversation played out the same, and Xiang Ning also ordered the same kind of noodles for Xu Tingsheng.

  Actually, Xu Tingsheng was already very satisfied just sitting here, seeing her smiling face as he sat across from her at this table. In those three years when he had been striving madly towards success, he had once come to Yanzhou, to this place. It was just that alone in her city then, he had feared running into her.

  Perhaps having been all alone and waiting for him over those three years, Xiang Ning too had actually come alone to sit here time and time again.

  Then, perhaps she had walked into the pouring rain that had descended at the time, all alone, wishing that she could know where he was.

  “Why are you looking at me?”


  “Because I like you.”


  One batch of customers after another left. Then, a sudden torrential storm arrived with no new customers arriving as the number of people in the store dwindled and it became increasingly empty. Xu Tingsheng found that the boss’s gaze was already beginning to drift unceasingly towards the small square table that the two of them were at.

  For fear that the boss would see him, he had entered with his back facing the boss when entering earlier, and it was also Little Xiang Ning who had ordered the food.

  When the place had been crowded and the boss had been busy, there had been no need to worry about this. Yet, there was no one nearby to block the boss’s line of sight right now as a single glance would be sufficient to spot him. And word had it that once, a youth of twenty had sat in this very noodle restaurant, heartbroken. At the time, the boss had offered him a glass of wine and a bowl of noodles. Now……

  “What, you should have come over and said hello, right?” The boss sat down beside Xu Tingsheng about the square table, directing him a meaningful look in the meantime.

  “You looked rather busy just now,” Xu Tingsheng explained rather awkwardly.

  “Hi, Boss! Do you know him?” Little Xiang Ning was actually better acquainted with the boss than he was, having come here virtually every week back in junior high.

  “I know him, and I know you too. It’s just that I never thought it’d be you two,” The boss smiled, having actually been flabbergasted and quite unable to believe it too when he had first spotted them.

  Still, as someone who could stand loyally by an old store for twenty years, he would naturally have a more amiable and open-minded mindset in life.

  The awkward part finally arrived. Something like a twenty-year-old guy being so depressed because of a fifteen-year-old girl just sounded a little discordant, and the couple in question were both present at this moment.

  Xu Tingsheng said nothing as he just focused intently on eating his noodles.

  The thick-skinned Little Xiang Ning smiled at the boss, not feeling any awkward at all.

  “It was probably over two years ago. For a period of time, a boy would often come over here and order takeaway seafood noodles……” The boss said.

  “Those were for me,” Little Xiang Ning said rather shyly.

  So more than two years had already passed. While they had not yet been on close terms then, with Xu Tingsheng even being some strange guy who had suddenly popped out of nowhere, Xiang Ning had not had rejected him intensely from the start as she had an unexplainable feeling that this person would not harm her.

  Actually, she had had a vague feeling sometimes that this person would know her very well.

  Looking at Xu Tingsheng, the boss laughed, continuing, “Yeah, right? While I clearly know the two of you well, I would never have thought it. Anyway, he would come frequently from time to time, until one day when he stopped coming for a very long time……”


  Here, Little Xiang Ning’s heart ached as she gazed at Xu Tingsheng. During that period of time, he had suffered an injustice in being ‘exiled’ by Mr and Mrs Xiang……

  “It was during that time. One night, he suddenly came here, drank a cup of my wine and left with a packet of noodles……” The boss said.

  “What happened to the noodles?” Little Xiang Ning asked Xu Tingsheng.

  “I walked around outside your school for a while, but didn’t dare to give it to you. In the end, the noodles had turned cold. I ate them alone by the roadside,” Xu Tingsheng was finally forced to answer.

  Little Xiang Ning imagined that scene, how he must have felt at the time……she reached out and gently stroked Xu Tingsheng’s face.

  It was the boss who felt awkward with that as he coughed lightly, getting up as he said, “Come often from now on!”


  The rain had not stopped despite a long time having passed. The boss lent them an umbrella. The water on the pavement soaked over one’s ankles. Xu Tingsheng got Xiang Ning to carry that umbrella and carried her up himself.

  “You seem heavier,” Xu Tingsheng commented.

  Because of that comment, the two ended up making a side trip in the car to buy a weighing scale before going home.

  47kg.

  “I’m, I’m……4 kilos heavier,” Little Xiang Ning looked at Xu Tingsheng, astonished at how much weight she had gained in less than two months, “It’s all your fault! You cook for me and buy me so many snacks too……”


  “But you’re 1.64 metres tall. 47kg is very normal, isn’t it? You were too thin before.”


  “Really?”


  “Yes.”


  “But it’s been less than two months. Will it stop?”


  “Well……how about we don’t buy snacks anymore? As for meals, we’ll stop eating sweet stuff and fried stuff too. How about that?”


  “.……”


  “Is that okay?”


  “I think you’d better get a refund for that weighing scale.”


  “Huh?”


  “Just don’t let me see it anymore, and you also aren’t allowed to talk about it.”


  It had been agreed beforehand that Xu Tingsheng could not say no to anything that day. He brought the weighing scale to the garage downstairs. When he returned home several minutes later, Xiang Ning was seated cross-legged on the sofa, watching television while clutching a bag of potato chips……‘crunch’.……‘crunch’.……

  And so, the crisis of a 4 kg weight gain in a month was dispelled just like that.

  For dinner, Xu Tingsheng fried some drumsticks and cooked some sweet and sour pork ribs……

  “Actually, being a bit fatter may also help you in growing bigger. Just as Lu Min and Su Nannan said, the flesh improves the sensation,” Rubbing her belly, Xiang Ning mused aloud on the sofa.

  Washing the dishes in the kitchen, Xu Tingsheng did not hear her words clearly as he came out with a half-washed plate in hand and asked, “What did you say?”


  “I mean, does becoming fatter mean growing bigger too?” Little Xiang Ning jutted out her chest, adding, “Improving the sensation when touching.”


  “.……Um, the sensation isn’t important, right?” Xu Tingsheng replied awkwardly, feeling like Xiang Ning was literally looking for an excuse for him to gobble her up uninhibitedly and unreservedly.

  “How is it not important? You even touched before, but……you know? No, you don’t know! Just, only tiny, almost like there is nothing at all……you probably thought you were touching my waist……”


  “Seriously?” Xu Tingsheng almost dropped the plate in his hand.

  “Yeah. One morning, I woke up earlier than you. Your, your hand was in my clothes here. And moving too……” Little Xiang Ning indicated the location with her eyes before saying aggrievedly, “Then, I was feeling so embarrassed the whole morning……but it was like you didn’t know about this at all.”


  “Huh? Are you sure? But I really didn’t feel anything……”


  Xu Tingsheng had made an unwise choice of words.

  Little Xiang Ning glared at him, “What did you say?!”


  She looked very wronged as she complained, “Even papaya soup is useless. They won’t grow together with me. Sigh, what do I do from now on……”