Chapter 514

·

·

·

Protagonist:

Li Xiulan

In the blink of an eye it was noon, time to eat lunch.

Du Xiaojuan asked Wang Zhanggen and Li Xiulan:

"Uncle, Auntie, do you want rice or noodles? I'll order lunch for you."

"Rice," Wang Zhanggen replied.

Li Xiulan also said:

"I want rice too; noodles don't fill me up."

They were used to eating rice, unlike Northerners who are used to noodles, noodles being only occasionally eaten, so they had the illusion that noodles don't fill you up.

"Alright, then I'll order two portions of rice for you!"

Just then, the attendant pushed a small handcart over.

Du Xiaojuan waved to her:

"Hello, do you have rice?"

"Yes, we have braised beef rice, fish-flavored eggplant rice, and beef brisket rice. What flavor would you like?"

Du Xiaojuan looked at Wang Zhanggen and Li Xiulan, asking:

"Uncle, Auntie, what rice do you want?"

"I want braised beef rice," Wang Zhanggen replied.

Li Xiulan also echoed: "Then I want braised beef too."

Then she subconsciously asked:

"How much per portion?"

The attendant answered honestly:

"Fifty yuan per portion."

Li Xiulan was immediately shocked: "Ah? So expensive! Then forget the braised beef rice, is there anything cheaper?"

"Fish-flavored eggplant rice is forty yuan per portion, and noodles are a bit cheaper; the cheapest is egg noodles, 30 yuan per portion."

"They're all so expensive..." Li Xiulan was extremely surprised.

You know, in town a portion of egg noodles costs only six yuan!

Here it actually costs thirty yuan!

"Forget it, forget it, not eating!"

Li Xiulan hurriedly waved her hands.

She simply couldn't accept food this expensive.

Wang Zhanggen also thought it was too expensive and didn't want to eat anymore.

Du Xiaojuan hurriedly persuaded them:

"Uncle, Auntie, just eat; we won't arrive in Beijing until six in the afternoon."

Zhao Xinyi also hurriedly said:

"Uncle, Auntie, don't pinch pennies over this small amount, just eat freely; Sister Juan will pay."

Li Xiulan still shook her head:

"You eat if you want; I won't eat, it's too expensive, I'll eat after I get off the high-speed rail."

Du Xiaojuan and Zhao Xinyi hurriedly persuaded her, but no matter how they persuaded her, Li Xiulan just wouldn't eat.

This left them very puzzled and very helpless.

They didn't understand Li Xiulan's behavior, which was normal, because they hadn't experienced the hardships Li Xiulan had suffered.

Thinking back to those years, Li Xiulan, to support this impoverished family, went to town to do masonry work; just because the motorcycle fare from town back to Shangou Village was relatively expensive, she would rather choose to walk home for three or four hours than spend that fifteen yuan motorcycle fare.

Also, when building their own house, because the tractor cost twenty yuan, she thought it was expensive, so she would rather move construction materials herself than spend that twenty yuan tractor fee.

She was unwilling to pay either the fifteen yuan motorcycle fare or the twenty yuan tractor fee, let alone this fifty yuan per portion rice and thirty yuan per portion noodles?

Long-term poverty had made thriftiness engraved into her bones.

This made her more stubborn about saving money than Wang Zhanggen's obsession with face.

Li Xiulan and Wang Zhanggen were unwilling to eat the fast food on the train, so Du Xiaojuan and Zhao Xinyi naturally couldn't eat by themselves either.

If they ate themselves, letting the two old people stare at them with wide eyes, it would be obviously impolite; if it caused the two old people to have any misunderstanding, that would be even worse.

So they could only follow along and go hungry.

Hungry until past two in the afternoon, Zhao Xinyi really couldn't hold back anymore.

She found an excuse, pulled Du Xiaojuan to go to the toilet together, then said to Du Xiaojuan:

"Sister Juan, why don't we order rice to eat ourselves? I'm really starving; if we don't eat soon I'll faint from low blood sugar, I haven't eaten breakfast."

Du Xiaojuan saw that Zhao Xinyi's complexion indeed wasn't good, so she said:

"Then you go to the dining car at the front to eat."

Zhao Xinyi then asked:

"What about you?"

Du Xiaojuan smiled bitterly:

"They won't eat, how can I be embarrassed to eat by myself?"

Zhao Xinyi couldn't help but complain:

"They're really something—it's just a bit more expensive, do they have to be so stingy? It's not like they're so poor they can't afford food!"

Du Xiaojuan smiled helplessly:

"Old people's ideas are hard to change. Their frugality isn't their fault; it's shaped by the environment they survive in. There's no need to nitpick."

Zhao Xinyi said then:

"How about this: when I come back after finishing my meal, I'll buy you three instant noodles. I'll say they're 3.5 yuan each, so they should eat them, right?"

Du Xiaojuan said with a smile:

"You're quick-witted, Xinyi. Then you go buy the instant noodles after you finish eating. By the way, check if there's candy; buy some if there is. I'm afraid they won't even eat the instant noodles, so at least eating some candy will keep them from fainting from low blood sugar."

Zhao Xinyi hurriedly said: "Okay, okay."

At the same time, she couldn't help but interject:

"Sitting in a first-class seat costing thousands of yuan, yet trying to save a few dozen yuan on food—truly something."

Zhao Xinyi went to the dining car, and Du Xiaojuan returned to her seat alone.

"Where did Xinyi go?"

Seeing Zhao Xinyi hadn't returned, Li Xiulan asked.

Du Xiaojuan said:

"She went to buy food."

Li Xiulan hurriedly said:

"We're not hungry, no need to buy. The things on this train are outrageously expensive; buying them isn't worth it."

Du Xiaojuan had no choice but to hurriedly tell a kind lie:

"Auntie, what Xinyi bought is cheap stuff. In the dining car ahead, there are instant noodles for 3.5 yuan a bucket; the price is the same as outside."

"Really?" Li Xiulan said half-believing, half-doubting.

"Of course it's true. Don't believe me? Wait until Xinyi comes back and ask her yourself."

Du Xiaojuan kept smiling.

After twenty-something minutes, Zhao Xinyi returned with three buckets of instant noodles.

Li Xiulan hurriedly asked:

"Xinyi, how much is each bucket of instant noodles?"

"3.5 yuan a bucket, same price as outside." Zhao Xinyi answered without hesitation.

Wang Zhanggen asked instead:

"Why did you only buy three? There are four of us in total."

Zhao Xinyi hurriedly said:

"I bought four, but I'll eat mine after I finish my meal. You all eat these three!"

Du Xiaojuan hurriedly said:

"Uncle, Auntie, you sit. Xinyi and I will make instant noodles for you."

The two carried the instant noodles to get hot water.

Zhao Xinyi couldn't help but mutter softly:

"Just eating lunch, and I didn't expect it to be so troublesome. These old people are harder to coax than children."

Then she said again:

"Speaking of which, how could old people like them raise a son who got into Tsinghua University? Is he really their biological child?"

Du Xiaojuan laughed helplessly:

"Speak softer. If they hear this, it'll leave a bad impression on them."

However, Du Xiaojuan was equally puzzled in her heart. These two old people were truly too mediocre—not only mediocre, but full of bad habits. In the eyes of outsiders, most of the bad habits shaped by their poverty were obstacles for their children to break through social class.

Yet such a pair of parents had actually raised a son who got into Tsinghua University.

"Maybe Wang Xiaohua's genes mutated."

Thinking of Wang Xiaohua's short and ugly appearance, Du Xiaojuan couldn't help but say such a sentence.

To say Wang Xiaohua wasn't Wang Zhanggen's biological child was almost impossible, because although Wang Xiaohua was short and ugly, his facial features bore some resemblance to his father Wang Zhanggen, as well as to his two brothers Wang Dashan and Wang Erhai.

So the only explanation was gene mutation.

……