"Xu Ye-gege, when you said a big dinner, you meant snail noodles?"

Inside a Liuzhou snail-noodle shop.

Wang Yuxin sat with her chin propped on her hand, looking down at the three bowls on the table and asking the question with resignation all over her face. [TL: 螺蛳粉 (luósīfěn), the signature dish of Liuzhou in Guangxi — rice noodles in a broth of fermented bamboo shoot, famous throughout China for its powerful smell and beloved anyway. It is cheap street food, which is the point of her question.]

Xu Ye slurped up a mouthful and laughed. "That'll do. You've got food in front of you, so no more talk."

Wang Yuxin let out a sigh like a woman of seventy, and in the end picked up her chopsticks and started on it in small mouthfuls.

"Xu Ye-gege, when are you going back to Shanghai?"

"Day after tomorrow."

"So the next time you come home is winter break?"

Xu Ye answered, "I'll be back later than that this year — the company doesn't take time off that early. Stop nagging and eat it while it's hot. When you're done I'll take you home."

Wang Yuxin obediently started eating.

Xu Ye ate fast and was finished in no time. He got out his phone and called Jiang Meilin.

"Hello? Xiao Xu?"

"Auntie, Qingqing and I are out eating. Have you and Auntie Yang Lin eaten yet? If not I'll get something packed up and bring it back for you."

Jiang Meilin laughed when she heard it.

Even back when she and Chen Hansong were first married, when he was out at dinner with clients he had never once called to ask whether she had eaten, let alone offered to have something packed up and brought home for her.

"What are you and Qingqing having?"

Xu Ye laughed. "Snail noodles."

Jiang Meilin said quickly, "Hold on, let me ask your Auntie Yang Lin whether she wants any."

"Sure."

A few seconds later Jiang Meilin was back. "Two orders of snail noodles, then. Not too spicy."

"You got it."

The call ended.

Yang Lin…