On the street on the west side of Qinglin Road, which is opposite to the community where Lei Ting's family lives, there is an old noodle shop that has been in business for twenty years.
This noodle shop has always adhered to making hand-pulled noodles. Coupled with its really good taste and reasonable prices, it is deeply loved by the nearby residents. Lei Ting's family is also a regular customer here.
Now, the noodle shop is bustling with activity. The customers have occupied all the seats in the small store. These old customers, who have been eating noodles here for at least three years, are either enjoying their noodles or waiting for them, but they all don't forget to chat with the people around them. After all, they all live nearby, are neighbors, and are regular customers of this noodle shop, so they have basically become old acquaintances.
However, there is a new face in the noodle shop this morning. It is a girl who is wearing a light pink student-style dress similar to a school uniform, with two ponytails tied up. She is no more than 1.6 meters tall, has a fair and lovely face, and is about fourteen or fifteen years old.
She is wearing a polite smile on her face and answering various questions from the uncles and aunts surrounding her in an orderly manner.
"Dear, do you live nearby? Why haven't we seen you before?" An aunt with a slightly hunched back asks.
"No, I just came here to play with a friend today. She saw that I hadn't eaten and brought me to this noodle shop. But halfway here, she suddenly had a stomachache and ran home. She asked me to come here and pack two servings of noodles to take back," the girl replies obediently.
"How old are you, dear? Which school are you studying in? How's your academic performance?" Another aunt asks the classic questions.
"I'm fourteen years old this year. I study in No. 2 Middle School. As for my grades... they're okay, I'd say I'm above average," the girl answers after a moment of thought.
"You're really pretty, dear. If my naughty son saw you, he'd definitely be stunned!" This time, it's a middle-aged uncle wearing a pair of black-rimmed glasses. He doesn't even realize that he can't take his eyes off the girl, and he's still holding three bowls of packed noodles in his hand.
"Thank you for the compliment, uncle," the girl lowers her head slightly.
"..."
"..."
Since it's rare for a new face to appear in the noodle shop, and it's a sweet, cute, academically excellent, and pleasant-speaking girl, these old customers have unconsciously gathered around her, asking all kinds of miscellaneous questions, including some about emotions. Whenever she hears such questions, the girl blushes and whispers that she's still too young and hasn't considered these things, which makes the uncles and aunts around her burst into laughter.
It takes half an hour for the girl to finally get her two servings of noodles with great difficulty while surrounded by everyone. Then, amidst the calls of "Come and play often", she walks out of the noodle shop.
After she has completely left the noodle shop, the girl heaves a long sigh. The smile on her face fades, and she mutters in a rather helpless tone:
"They're a bit too enthusiastic, aren't they?"
After saying that, the girl calms down her mood and looks up at the community where Lei Ting's family lives not far away.
...
I don't know how much time has passed. When Lei Ting opens his eyes, the sense of fatigue has subsided, and it is replaced by a strong feeling of hunger that is just as intense as the previous fatigue.
Rubbing his growling stomach, Lei Ting has no other thoughts in his mind at the moment. He gets out of bed, pushes the door open, and rushes straight to the kitchen. He doesn't even hear his mother's words in the living room, "You actually got up so early today."
In the kitchen, Lei Tao has just put the noodles in his hand on the dining table when he sees his son pouncing towards the table like a starving ghost. Lei Ting pulls over a bowl of noodles and starts slurping them. In the blink of an eye, half a bowl of noodles disappears.
"Slow down, slow down. No one's going to抢你的面," Lei Tao says with a smile when he sees his son's way of eating. Instead of being annoyed, he pulls over a chair and sits down, watching his son eat.
Soon, Lei Ting finishes a bowl of noodles, and he even drinks up the soup in one go. But after eating a bowl of noodles, he only feels that the hunger is not so intense anymore, and he is far from being full. So, he starts eating the second bowl. Finally, after Lei Ting finishes all three bowls of fresh clear beef noodles and eats two whole Oreo cookies, he finally stops.
Touching his stomach that is already stuffed, Lei Ting feels a great sense of satisfaction. It is only at this moment that he notices that his parents have been looking at him, their eyes full of surprise.
The object of their surprise is naturally Lei Ting's astonishing appetite.
Feeling a bit embarrassed by his parents' undisguised gaze, Lei Ting scratches his head and says rather awkwardly:
"Sorry, I ate your portions too."
"That's not the point," his father, Lei Tao, replies.
"The point is your stomach... It's so bloated. There won't be any problems, will there?" His mother, Liu Huisheng, looks at Lei Ting with worry, her eyes constantly moving back and forth between his face and his obviously protruding stomach.
"Don't worry. It's okay. At worst, I'll skip lunch. Actually, I don't know why I ate so much this morning. I just know that when I woke up, I felt extremely hungry, so hungry that I felt like I could eat a whole cow!" In fact, Lei Ting has already guessed the reason for his increased appetite. It's nothing more than that he exhausted his body by testing his ability last night and needs a large amount of energy to replenish it.
But he obviously can't tell his parents the truth, so he has to play dumb and pretend that he doesn't know either.
The couple looks at each other after hearing their son's explanation, and they both see the helplessness in each other's eyes.
Since their son doesn't want to talk about it, they don't ask any more questions. After showing a few more concerns, Liu Huisheng walks into the bedroom to change clothes and go to work.
She is a librarian at the city library. This job is usually quite leisurely, but it is also a core position in the library. So, in fact, she doesn't have many holidays throughout the year.
After his wife goes out, Lei Tao, who is too lazy to go downstairs to buy breakfast, orders a takeout on his phone and then starts chatting with Lei Ting.
During the conversation, he naturally mentions the lovely girl who caught his eye when he went downstairs to buy noodles earlier. His words are full of praise for her cuteness, obedience, and politeness, and he also takes the opportunity to compare Lei Ting with her.
Seeing his father praise the girl so enthusiastically, Lei Ting can't help but become curious about her. However, due to the fact that there are so many people with similar images on the Internet, he can't form a clear picture of the girl in his mind. He can only barely construct an image of a lively and cute JK girl.
...
Three days later, on the 19th, at 0:00 in the morning, on the rooftop of the apartment building.
A girl with double ponytails, wearing a pink JK uniform, stands in a corner of the rooftop. Her expression is calm, ignoring the howling wind around her. She is holding the latest model of a certain "far ahead" brand phone steadily in her hand.
The phone screen is in the recording state, and it is facing the only iron door leading to the rooftop.
After a while, the rickety iron door that can't even stop a dog is pushed open, making a harsh scraping sound. Two seconds later, Lei Ting's head peeks out from behind the door.
He looks around. After confirming that there is no one on the rooftop, he walks out with a relieved expression, a smile of excitement and anticipation on his face.
"Let the tempest be more violent!"
I don't know if he is feeling particularly enthusiastic, but Lei Ting raises his arms and shouts loudly. And this extremely childish and dramatic scene is clearly recorded by the "far ahead" phone held by the JK girl.