"Xiaodong, don't rush off. Come inside and have a bite with us. We're having a special meal tonight."
Shen Lang dashed out ahead of the others, stopping his childhood friend from the same village who had just set down his things and was preparing to say goodbye.
"No thanks, dinner is ready at home. I'll go back and eat."
In the courtyard, a tall young man with thick eyebrows, big eyes, and an honest face smiled good-naturedly. He picked up the things from the ground and handed them to Shen Lang, his eyes drifting consciously or unconsciously toward the main room.
"Oh, come on. If your stepmother ever leaves you a single bowl of leftovers, it'll be a miracle of her finding a conscience."
Without taking no for an answer, Shen Lang pulled Feng Xiaodong toward the house.
Feng Xiaodong was one of Shen Lang's many buddies, and also the only kind soul who had ever given relief to the Shen family.
"Xiaodong, how is your mother lately? Is her asthma any better?"
Huang Qionghua warmly invited Feng Xiaodong to sit, asking after his mother's health with a kind expression.
"She hasn't had an attack much lately. Sorry to trouble you with your worry, Auntie."
Feng Xiaodong took the initiative to pull out the pastries he had brought from the county town and placed them on the table, inviting the Shen family to try something fresh.
"Lingling, there are a few eggs left in the kitchen. Go fry them for Xiaodong. Being sucked dry by that pair of mother and son every day—look at how exhausted they've made this poor boy."
Hearing this, Shen Ling laughed helplessly. "Mom, Brother Xiaodong is built sturdier than my brother. You're exaggerating too much."
"You little brat, just go when you're told. What nonsense are you spouting?"
Huang Qionghua scolded with a smile.
With that, Huang Qionghua pushed the remaining half-basin of braised pork ribs and taro toward Feng Xiaodong.
"Xiaodong, treat this place just like your own home. Don't stand on ceremony at all. Eat it all up, not a single bit allowed to be left behind."
Among all of Shen Lang's young friends, Huang Qionghua pitied Feng Xiaodong the most. It wasn't just because Feng Xiaodong had an honest and dutiful character; it was simply that he had it far too miserably.
When he was seventeen or eighteen, Feng Xiaodong's parents divorced, and his mother remarried into the county seat. His father then married an older spinster from a nearby village.
Ever since then, the bitter days of Feng Xiaodong's life began. Every single day, he was ordered around by his stepmother like a hired farmhand. Following the birth of his stepmother's own child, Feng Xiaodong hadn't even been able to get a full meal in recent years.
Fortunately, while his biological father was no better than a beast, his birth mother—who had remarried in the county seat—always kept this child in her thoughts. Every few days, she would send a letter asking Feng Xiaodong to come to the county town to play, using the opportunity to improve his life and build up his nutrition.
Every family has its hard-to-read scriptures. After all, his mother had remarried, and no matter how much she pitied Feng Xiaodong, she didn't dare bring him to live by her side.
As a fellow woman, Huang Qionghua couldn't stomach the stepmother's abuse of Feng Xiaodong, but after all, it was someone else's family business. The only thing she could do was to have her younger daughter call Feng Xiaodong over to eat whenever there was something good at home. Beyond that, Huang Qionghua couldn't help him with much else.
Before long, the unique fragrance of stir-fried eggs drifted from the kitchen.
Feng Xiaodong smiled cheerfully and said, "Auntie, Big Brother, Lingling's cooking is getting better and better."
Shen Lang crossed his arms and smiled without a word.
For every shred of kindness someone showed him, Feng Xiaodong would repay it at least threefold. Just because Huang Qionghua had pitied him and invited him to eat a few times, Feng Xiaodong would end up spending practically his entire life repaying the kindness shown by the Shen family.
Moving with nimble speed, Shen Ling took only a few minutes to whip up a plate of fragrant razor clams stir-fried with eggs.
"Brother Xiaodong, when you went to the county town today, you wouldn't happen to have been acting as a groomsman, would you? That family is way too stingy—they brushed you off with just a single coin."
As Shen Ling handed the chopsticks to Feng Xiaodong, she spotted a red envelope tucked inside the shopping bag. Out of curiosity, she pulled it out and felt it: there was only a coin inside.
"No, no, I wasn't anyone's groomsman."
Fearing that Shen Ling might misunderstand, the good-natured Feng Xiaodong waved his hands repeatedly.
"That red envelope was a lucky bonus given out to passersby for the opening of a shop in the county. I wanted Auntie, Big Brother, and Xiaoling to share in some of the good fortune, so I put the red envelope in the bag."
"Really? Brother Xiaodong, you aren't pulling my leg, are you? A shop opening in the county giving away money to passersby? Th... that's way too lavish."
Shen Ling instantly grew interested and pestered Feng Xiaodong to tell her all about it. Whose shop was so bold that they gave away money the moment they opened?
Shen Lang picked up the red envelope and peered at it. On the front, it read: *Grand Fortune Seafood Restaurant — serving all kinds of seafood, specially featuring master chefs from Hong Kong. All guests are welcome to come and taste.*
Huang Qionghua, who had lived for decades, was also hearing for the first time of someone opening a business and giving away money.
Feng Xiaodong put down his chopsticks and described the bustling scene at the opening of Grand Fortune Restaurant that day. It was a sea of people; practically half the county town had gone to watch the excitement.
"Auntie, do you know how much a plate of their sea urchin fried rice costs in the shop?"
"Sea urchin can even be fried with rice? Isn't that stuff something nobody eats?"
Huang Qionghua was stunned. Seafood wasn't worth much in those years. Sea things like sea urchins and mantis shrimp were items nobody wanted even if you gave them away for free. In most cases, the sea urchins that got scooped up were just smashed and rotted down for fertilizer.
"Eighteen yuan a plate," Feng Xiaodong said solemnly.
"Good heavens! Sea urchins that nobody would buy even at a few cents a jin can actually sell for eighteen yuan a plate once they're turned into fried rice..."
Shen Ling was utterly astonished after hearing this and begged Feng Xiaodong to take her along next time he went to the county.
Shen Lang flipped over the special red envelope and looked at the back.
Credit where credit was due: the boss of this Grand Fortune Seafood Restaurant was definitely a capable man. Not only had he cleverly thought of distributing red envelopes to build up the seafood restaurant's fame through word of mouth, but he had also turned the red envelope into an opening day promotional flyer.
Twenty years into the reform and opening up, the notion that "foreign monks are better at chanting scriptures" was gradually taking root in people's hearts. *Specially featuring master chefs from Hong Kong*—that single point alone was enough to draw the attention of countless people.
The front was a flyer, and the back of the red envelope hadn't been wasted either. It offered high-price acquisitions for all kinds of fierce and fresh seafood: the fresher they were, the higher the price. At the same time, it blared an imposing slogan: *Seeking only the best, never fearing the most expensive!*
"Hahaha!"
Suddenly, Shen Lang threw back his head and laughed out loud.
Darn it, this wasn't just someone sending you a pillow when you wanted to sleep—it was like having a Simmons mattress and a goose-down duvet handed straight to you.
"You little brat, what are you going crazy for now?"
Shen Lang's sudden, roaring laughter gave Huang Qionghua a massive start.
"Xiaodong, do you want to completely cure your mother's asthma?"
Shen Lang stopped laughing and looked at Feng Xiaodong with a serious expression.
A bitter look appeared on Feng Xiaodong's face as he said, "The doctor at the county hospital said my mother's asthma has dragged on for too long. The only way to cure it is to go to the city hospital. Altogether, it'll cost at least over three thousand yuan. Even if I sold myself, I... I wouldn't be able to scrape together that much money."
Feng Xiaodong was not only a good kid who knew how to repay kindness, but also deeply filial. His father was a rotten gambler of a husband who didn't care about his mother's life or death, and while the stepfather she had remarried was pretty good to her, he couldn't pull out that much money for medical treatment either. Whenever he thought of these things, Feng Xiaodong only hated himself for being useless.
"The day after tomorrow, I'm taking you to go catch seafood."
As those words fell, the room suddenly dropped into dead silence.