Half an hour later, Lu Zhiyu came out of the kitchen, carrying the inner pot from the rice cooker.
As for what was inside…
How should she put it?
If it was supposed to be porridge, the rice grains were still completely intact. The soup was soup, and the rice was rice, the two maintaining a polite distance from each other.
If it was supposed to be rice, there was far too much water. The rice grains were floating in the water like a pot of half-cooked congee.
Song Kening took one look.
“How much water did you put in?”
For once, Lu Zhiyu looked slightly uncomfortable.
“…I used the ratio for cooking rice.”
He had used the amount of water meant for cooking rice to make porridge in a rice cooker.
Song Kening stared at the strange mixture that was neither rice nor porridge and suddenly burst out laughing.
This man could write the underlying code for military-grade chips and crack a Wi-Fi password in less than a minute, yet he couldn’t even make porridge with a rice cooker.
The more she laughed, the more her eyes began to sting.
“Forget it.”
Lu Zhiyu put the inner pot back and turned toward the door.
“I’ll buy some downstairs.”
Less than ten minutes later, Lu Zhiyu returned with a disposable food container and two steamed buns.
The container held lean pork congee. The rice had been cooked until soft and broken down, with a sprinkling of chopped green onions on top. It smelled delicious.
The buns were fresh pork buns, white and plump, their dough slightly translucent from the juices inside. There was also a cup of soy milk and a fried dough stick.
“You eat this.”
He placed the porridge and buns on the folding table and pushed them toward the bed.
“What about you?”
“This is enough for me.”
Lu Zhiyu picked up the fried dough stick and began eating.
His breakfast cost 2.50 yuan.
Her lean pork congee and meat buns had cost 15 yuan altogether.
Song Kening opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but she knew it would be useless.
This man could be unbelievably stubborn about certain things.
She swallowed the words and picked up the spoon.
The porridge was hot, so she blew on it before taking small sips.
She tore open the pork bun. Inside was a generous amount of meat filling.
She took a bite.
The dough was soft, and hot meat juice burst into her mouth, making her hiss.
Lu Zhiyu sat across from her at the folding table, taking a bite of his fried dough stick and a sip of soy milk.
“Get some proper rest today. I’m going over there to report for work.”
After finishing the last bite of his fried dough stick, Lu Zhiyu stood up and wiped his hands with a tissue.
“And from now on, don’t keep saving money on food.”
Song Kening looked up at him.
His expression was serious. He wasn’t just being polite.
“Once you start earning money, we’ll have one meat dish and one vegetable dish every meal.”
Song Kening agreed.
“That’s right. We really can’t keep eating vegetables every day. Otherwise, one trip to the hospital would cost us enough to buy meat for two months.”
Lu Zhiyu nodded and turned toward the door.
“Wait.”
Song Kening called him back.
He turned around.
“If the boss asks about your education, just say you graduated from high school.”
Lu Zhiyu frowned slightly, not understanding why she suddenly brought that up.
Song Kening sat up straighter and explained seriously,
“Think about it. Most people working as loaders aren’t highly educated. They’re usually middle-aged men.”
“If you tell them you graduated from Peking University and used to be a billionaire CEO, they’ll inevitably talk about it when they’re chatting during breaks.”
She paused, her voice softening.
“That would make you feel bad too, right?”
“They’ll probably say things like, ‘So what if you’re highly educated? You’re still moving cargo just like us.’”
“Or something even harsher, like, ‘What’s the use of studying so much if you still ended up like this?’”
After saying that, Song Kening cautiously glanced at him.
Lu Zhiyu stood by the doorway with the light behind him, making it difficult to see his expression.
After a while, he nodded.
“Remember to come home for lunch.”
Song Kening finally relaxed.
“It’s cheaper to eat at home than outside, and I can cook.”
“Okay.”
The door closed.
Lu Zhiyu’s footsteps gradually faded down the staircase.
Song Kening leaned against the headboard and finished the rest of the lean pork congee.
She cleaned up the food container and bun wrappers, then wiped down the table.
After lying down for about half an hour, she felt some strength returning to her body.
She slowly sat up and moved her arms and legs.
Her head wasn’t dizzy anymore, and her stomach no longer hurt.
She felt energetic again.
She thought about it for a moment and decided to go outside.
Lu Zhiyu had started doing physical labor today.
Vegetables alone definitely wouldn’t be enough.
A loader had to move goods for ten hours a day. Where would he get the strength without meat?
She needed to buy him something nutritious.
And there were his shoes.
Before he went bankrupt, he had worn handmade Italian leather shoes. The leather was excellent, but they were still dress shoes.
Wearing leather shoes while moving cargo all day would be unbearable. The soles were hard and slippery.
He needed a pair of sneakers with soft, non-slip soles.
She took out her phone and checked her WeChat balance.
Before leaving, Lu Zhiyu had paid the hospital bill with the 5,000 yuan borrowed from the landlord and transferred the remaining money to her.
After calculating her budget, she grabbed her phone and keys and left.
Her first stop was Flower City Plaza across the pedestrian bridge.
The mall had only recently opened, so there weren’t many people yet. Cleaning staff were mopping the floors, and the smell of cleaning solution lingered in the air.
She went up to the second floor and found an Anta store.
It was a popular domestic brand with decent quality and relatively affordable prices.
The store had just opened. A young sales assistant was arranging the shelves when she walked in.
“Welcome.”
Song Kening went straight to the men’s shoe section.
A row of sneakers hung on the wall—black, white, gray, blue, and all kinds of styles.
She ignored the flashy designs and immediately focused on a basic black mesh pair.
“How much are these?”
The sales assistant came over.
“This model was originally 329 yuan. It’s 40% off right now, so 199 yuan.”
Song Kening picked them up and pressed the soles with her fingers.
They were soft enough, but still firm.
“Do you have size 44?”
“Let me check.”
The sales assistant went into the back and searched for a while before returning with a shoebox.
“Yes. It’s the last pair.”
Song Kening opened the box and inspected them.
There was nothing wrong with them.
“I’ll take these.”
After leaving the mall, she crossed the pedestrian bridge.
The old man selling jasmine flower garlands was still there.
One yuan each.
The white jasmine flowers were threaded together with thin wire, their sweet fragrance drifting through the morning breeze.
Song Kening looked at them before walking over.
“Grandpa, I’ll take one.”
Her next stop was the market.
The meat there was fresher than the budget supermarket’s, so Song Kening went straight to a stall selling live chickens.
“Boss, how much are the chickens?”
“Three-yellow chicken is 15 yuan per jin. Qingyuan chicken is 12.”
Song Kening thought for a moment.
“A three-yellow chicken, please. Give me one around two jin.”
The vendor quickly caught a chicken and put it on the scale.
“Two jin and three liang.”
“Please kill it and chop it into pieces.”
The vendor’s knife flashed.
In no time, half the chicken had been chopped into evenly sized pieces and packed into a bag.
Song Kening paid for it, then went to the dried-goods stall next door and bought a small packet of red dates and a handful of goji berries.
She was going to make chicken soup for him.