At eleven, Jing Shu planned to clock out. Unfortunately, Wang Danai tugged her toward lunch. She felt a bit guilty. All morning Wang Danai had been running around, while she had only made a circuit of the grounds.
"I brought my own lunch, so I will not go to the canteen," Jing Shu said.
"Come on. Bring it and we will still eat in the canteen. Today's lunch is mushroom and garlic sprout soup with a little scallion on top. It is really good."
Hearing about another clear, thin soup, Jing Shu truly could not muster enthusiasm.
"I will tell you a secret about our president. Come," Wang Danai coaxed.
"Fine." Gossip was every woman's weakness. Jing Shu was curious.
One lie always needed several more to back it up. Jing Shu had to climb into the amphibious shark submarine and take her own meal out from the Rubik's Cube Space.
She hesitated, then decided she would not wrong herself. Listening to a secret could take time. She would not bring anything too extravagant, but at least it had to be enough.
So Jing Shu carried over a four tier lunchbox. Wang Danai blinked. "All that for one lunch?"
The lunchbox was practically a small trunk.
"My lunch is yours too. I cannot finish that much," Jing Shu said.
Wang Danai beamed. Tagging along with Jing Shu was like getting a free meal ticket.
She had always assumed Jing Shu's food would be like theirs, modest portions at most. Until Jing Shu opened box after box, filling a four person table. Wang Danai was stunned.
"You eat all this alone?"
Jing Shu nodded. "Yes. I have a big appetite."
"Uh." Wang Danai was speechless. "Hadn't she claimed a small appetite this morning? No, this was not about appetite at all. She clearly despised the canteen food."
Now Wang Danai understood the gap.
Jing Shu's "ordinary" lunch was a box of coconut sticky rice, a box of braised meat, a box of crispy salt and pepper mushroom, a box of fried fish and fried chicken, plus an extra bowl of milky white soup sprinkled with scallion. The smell suggested fish broth.
Each box was stuffed full. Four big boxes in all. Color, aroma, and taste, everything was there. Fragrant.
People drifted over, drawn by the smell, staring longingly at the spread.
Wang Danai swallowed. Somehow even her favorite mushroom and garlic sprout soup tasted dull now. If this was "soup," what was that in her bowl?
This was the most ordinary food Jing Shu dared take out of the Rubik's Cube Space. She sighed. She really should not have eaten here. See, she had caused a scene.
"So it is you. I heard you are the representative planter for Wu City, the rep… representative?" A young lady stood with hands on hips, ready to confront, but after seeing the table, she sucked in a cold breath.
"Yes, that is her," Jiao Jiao said smugly, but the next second she too froze at the sight of the food, saliva threatening to drip.
Chewing a piece of fried chicken, oil glistening at the corner of her lips, Jing Shu said, "President Tie said that. I did not."
The young lady swallowed again, eyes blinking as she watched Jing Shu polish off a big mouthful of coconut scented sticky rice. The flavor seemed to melt on her tongue just by imagining it.
"Damn it, what was I going to ask?" All her righteous anger dissolved into raw hunger. Her family never lacked rice, and there was meat every few days, but when had she ever tasted fish broth this fragrant, or fried chicken this crisp?
Her stomach growled. Jing Shu looked up in surprise. "Do you want to eat?"
The girl flushed with shame, wanted to crawl into a hole, and burst into tears before running away.
Jing Shu: "What… what just happened?"
"You are finished," Jiao Jiao muttered, gulping. "You made the young miss from this batch cry." Then she ran off too.
"Forget them," Wang Danai said, swallowing hard. "Let me tell you the secret. About our president." She needed to change the subject, or she would drool to death.
Jing Shu knew how powerful food could be, but she had not expected it to deflate an opponent's momentum. So this was the legendary starving-the-enemy tactic.
Fine. For this secret, she was paying a steep price. She tipped back the fish broth in a few swallows and, in the blink of an eye, cleared two dishes. Even Wang Danai was a little frightened.
"Our current president is a Daoist priest. Supposedly a real adept, often in seclusion. I have worked here for years and never seen him. Then one day…"
Ring ring ring.
Jing Shu's phone chimed. It was Wu You'ai. What could she want at this time?
"Hello? What is it?"
Wu You'ai's voice was tight with panic. "Jing Shu, Jing Shu, come home quick. Grandma fainted."
Jing Shu's head exploded, hair standing on end. In the second year of the apocalypse, she had protected her family well. Nothing like this had happened, except for the kidnapping of Wu You'ai.
"Wait there, I am coming now. Don't panic. What does grandma's face look like, pale or purplish? What caused it? Was it something external?"
Grandma Jing had high blood pressure and heart disease. She had never stopped taking her medicine these two years. Even with daily Spirit Spring, she never skipped medication. It should not be those illnesses.
"Her face is a little pale. Her breathing is fast, like she is short of oxygen. She was chatting and suddenly collapsed. I did not let the other person leave."
"Got it. Find a doctor first."
"But… that person says he is a doctor."
"Then wait for me."
Jing Shu hung up and ran. Her thoughts spun out of control, but all her hope fixed on the Spirit Spring. She did not know if it could save a life in this situation, but it should be fine, right?
Behind her, Wang Danai shouted, "Jing Shu, your lunch, your lunch!"
"Eat it. When you finish, pack up the lunchboxes," Jing Shu called back, waving as she sprinted.
She pushed the throttle to the limit. A trip that usually took an hour took ten minutes. She even refueled the amphibious shark submarine once on the way and nearly clipped a building.
At least she reached the villa.
All the while, her mind raced. Why had Grandma Jing collapsed so suddenly? Another illness? But after drinking Spirit Spring so long, when others fell ill, her grandparents did not.
Jing Shu knew Spirit Spring's effects. Her grandparents had not grown younger, but their complexions were much better. Grandpa Jing had even regrown teeth he had lost, proof that the Spirit Spring had powers of regeneration.