Chapter 64: The Long Journey (Part 2)

  Zhao Shuyan quickly pulled out a bag from under the bed, rummaging through it as she spoke: "It's not just you, it's already afternoon and this person has been busy to the point of forgetting they're hungry. You mentioning it makes me realize my stomach is growling too. Come on, let's eat something first, then you can rest. I'll make some delicious food for you in the morning."

  She took out two lunch boxes from that bag and also took out the mantou buns baked by Qiu's mother, placing them on a small table. Fortunately, it was hot now, so dry food could be eaten directly without cooling down; otherwise, there would be no place to have hot meals in this area.

  Qiu Ye had been waiting by the small table, holding a pair of chopsticks and getting ready. Zhao Shuyan opened two lunch boxes, Qiu Ye took a peek and exclaimed, "Wow, great dishes!" One box was braised pork ribs with green beans, and the other was fish-flavored eggplant (which Qiu Ye had taught her godmother to make).

  Zhao Shuyan arranged everything and said, "Hurry up and eat, have some more. These dishes can't be left over, they must be finished today, or else it'll go to waste. You start eating first, I'll go find Xiao Feng back, he's definitely hungry too."

  "Auntie, don't go looking for him, brother will be back soon, I guarantee it." Qiu Ye saw the delicious food and felt even hungrier, not caring about others, she picked up a piece of ribs with her chopsticks and started chewing, then sighed and said "Delicious!"

  Her own brother was still very familiar with her, he was a master who could smell the fragrance and follow it back, no need to worry at all.

  Above Qiu Ye were all female students from the Fine Arts Department, and as soon as they settled in, they excitedly went to chat with their classmates. Now you can hear the chatter of conversation coming from the next room. This doesn't need to be polite, just this little bit of food is enough for three people to eat one meal, Qiu Ye really didn't want to let others taste it.

  Although it's safe on the train, Zhao Shuyan still felt a bit uneasy. "I'll go take a look. Xiao Feng doesn't know which compartment he ran off to. I'd better hurry and call him back for dinner." After saying that, she got up to find someone.

  Qiu Ye was really hungry and didn't care about them anymore. He picked up a pancake and started eating it with the vegetables.

  Qiu Ye hadn't even swallowed his first mouthful when Qiu Feng bounced back, followed by Zhao Shuyan with a smiling face.

  "Sister, you didn't even wait for me and Aunt to eat, this is too much. " Qiu Feng saw that his sister hadn't waited for them, as if he could scold her, so he quickly started educating her. However, the aroma of the dishes was irresistible, and she immediately picked up her chopsticks, ready to dig in.

  "You also said that after getting on the car, you didn't even help us with our luggage. You just ran off without a trace. Do you still remember how you promised Dad? A real man should keep his promises, how can he say one thing and do another? Humph, we had to have Mom go find you for dinner, if it weren't for you, my mom and I would have finished eating long ago." When Qiu Ye was with her brother, she never suffered any losses, mainly because she knew when to push his buttons, and he always gave in to her.

  Qiu Feng was a bit embarrassed by his sister's teasing and finally remembered the task at hand, stopping himself from reaching for the chopsticks in the lunchbox. After getting on the bus, he indeed got distracted by all the new sights, looking around everywhere, even checking out someone's bathroom and squatting down to examine it carefully.

  Qiu Ye glanced at her brother, who was scratching his head and grinning foolishly after being scolded by her. She continued, "Alright, considering you're a first-time offender, this time I'll just punish you to go get us a cup of hot water before dinner."

  Qiu Feng listened and, as if he had received a sacred decree, grabbed the cup on the small table and rushed to fetch water. Just now, when he was in the car, he didn't idle around, he had already investigated all the settings on the car. Now that he had received the order, he rushed straight to the hot water dispenser to get hot water.

  Zhao Shuyan watched from behind as the two siblings clashed again, and then there was the expected result. She couldn't help but shake her head, thinking to herself, when would this son wake up? With his current state of mind, he still wanted to provoke his cousin, wasn't that just asking for trouble?

  Qiu Ye sent her brother away and then called Zhao Shuyan: "Godmother, come quickly, let's eat." After that, she also handed her a pair of chopsticks.

  "You can't always bully your brother, you know. Your brother is letting you off easy and not arguing with you. If it were outside, you couldn't treat others like that." Zhao Shuyan took this opportunity to educate Little Ye, others couldn't spoil her so much, so when dealing with outsiders, she still had to restrain herself a bit. But thinking of her godson being bullied by his sister and still smiling foolishly, she laughed and said: "But it's okay to bully him occasionally."

  Qiu Ye nodded in agreement, "Auntie, I know that in front of others, I'm a lady, but only in front of my brother can I be so casual." Qiu Ye knew she was the typical type who was tough at home but gentle outside. At least it was like that in her previous life, which was why she was bullied by her ex-wife's family. Although she tried to resist at first, in the end, she still yielded slowly. Although Qiu Ye had prepared herself not to swallow her anger and humiliation this lifetime since her rebirth, sometimes personality just couldn't be changed no matter how hard one tried.

  Qiu Feng returned when Qiu Ye and the others had almost finished their meal. Seeing a pile of beans left in the lunch box, Qiu Feng's face was about to scrunch up together, almost crying out loud.

  "Brother, why are you so slow? We've already finished eating." Qiu Ye put down her chopsticks and looked at her brother who was standing there like a statue.

  "Then, when I went to get hot water, there was someone waiting in line for it, so I lined up too."

  Qiu Feng also wanted to return quickly, but there were several people waiting for hot water to cook instant noodles at the water dispenser, so he could only line up and wait. When it was finally his turn, more than ten minutes had passed.

  Qiu Feng listlessly took the chopsticks handed over by Zhao Shuyan, not noticing the flash of smile in their eyes. He bit into a pancake with a dejected look, then poked at the pile of beansprouts in the rice box with his chopstick, causing one end of the pile to collapse and revealing the oily spare ribs inside. At this moment, he felt the joy of recovering something lost.

  Qiu Feng didn't care about his sister and stepmother's laughter, he opened his big mouth, excitedly and quickly pulled out a few bean sprouts from the top, under which were several pieces of pork ribs. He trembled with excitement as he picked up one piece, feeling moved that his sister was still good to him, leaving so much meat for him.

  He is actually still very unscrupulous, he didn't think at all that these ribs were likely left for him by Zhao Shuyan, and he directly thought it was his sister's good deed.

  "Brother, hurry up and eat! You're stupid. If you don't like eating it, I'll continue to eat it myself, I haven't had enough ribs yet!" Qiu Ye said with a smile to her brother who was standing there foolishly.

  Qiu Feng heard this and immediately picked up all the pork ribs he had clamped with his chopsticks and stuffed them into his mouth to prove that he liked to eat and could eat.

  "It's really delicious!" He also secretly vowed in his heart that he would be doubly good to his sister from now on.

  After finishing the meal and cleaning up, Qiu Ye monopolized the bed and took a nice nap. Qiu Feng was not satisfied enough after eating his fill, and he went out to stroll around again without stopping for a moment.

  After waking up from a nap at around three o'clock, she went with her godmother and others to look out the window at the scenery outside.

  Vast fields of farmland. Still lush and green, with rice and corn being the most abundant, while other crops are unrecognizable. Every now and then, villages would appear, with rows of earthen houses. In between, there would be a few slightly better brick-and-tile houses. And then there were patches of small woods, inside which were small earth mounds that the leaves knew were graves.

  At first, Qiu Ye was very interested in seeing these scenes again after a long time, but she got bored in less than an hour.

  She watched several female students sitting by the window, looking outside and chatting. She muttered to herself, she really didn't understand why everyone had been looking out the window since they got on the train, and they had already looked for several hours. How could this monotonous scenery still be so fascinating? Didn't they get bored?

  The scenery outside the window was always the same, and it really couldn't arouse her interest anymore. So she took out her spiritual sustenance from her double-shoulder backpack - a thick English original book, which she had deliberately taken from her godfather's bookshelf to kill time on the train.

  When Qiu Ye looked up from the English book, the sky outside had already darkened, and the sun lamp in the car had long been lit.

  Zhao Shuyan saw Qiu Ye finally lift her head and quickly said: "Xiao Ye, stop looking, it's time to eat dinner."

  Qiu Ye only then smelled the various flavors of instant noodles, tea eggs, and pickled vegetables wafting through the train car. Having sat for an entire afternoon with no exercise, being teased by these smells really didn't stimulate his appetite.

  "Auntie, I've been sitting for a whole afternoon and I'm not hungry at all. You guys go ahead and eat first, I'll eat when I get hungry."

  Little did he know, this sentence brought unanimous opposition from the two people in front of him.

  "No way, little sister. When I came home, Dad entrusted me to take care of you and told me to make sure you eat every meal without fail. If not, he won't let you run around everywhere in the future." Qiu Feng said to his little sister who was lying on the bed. At home, Dad had instructed him a lot, with the main purpose being to take good care of his sister from all aspects of life. He happily accepted this task and didn't think that Dad was biased or feel annoyed, but instead felt that he finally had a chance to be in charge, as his little sister wasn't like a little sister at all, but more like an older sister who always bossed him around. Now he finally had the opportunity to take care of her, and at this moment, he finally felt that she was like a little kid.

  "That won't do, even if you're not hungry, you have to eat a bit. This isn't just going out for one or two days, skipping a meal here and there will add up, this is going out for a month or two! You're already starting to skip meals now, by the time you get back, you'll be as thin as a bamboo pole. How can your auntie face your parents then?"

  Come on, Xiaoye is the best, even if you don't like to eat, you have to eat a little bit." Zhao Shuyan took one look at Qiu Ye's expression and knew that she was being picky again. But under current circumstances, she had to eat something or her body wouldn't be able to withstand the long trip.

  Qiu Ye pouted, but she also knew they were right, so she could only take the pancake and eat a little with her own pickled vegetables.

  Zhao Shuyan saw Qiu Ye eating and kept feeding her sausages, wanting her to eat more.

  Qiu Feng saw that his sister's food was less than a tenth of what he had eaten, and he frowned with a worried look.

  Qiu Ye felt a pang in her heart, it's great to have someone care about her, but she really can't eat as much as her brother, who has a huge appetite and eats anything without worrying about getting sick. This is just like the advertisement that says "Body super strong, eating super delicious!"