As they left, the two of them fell to the ground simultaneously. Lin Yao even heard them both let out a loud fart in unison after they fell, and then they continued to fart after getting up, only this time it wasn't in unison.
“Little grass…” Lin Yao sensed something was amiss.
"Hehe, I punished them a little for you. We can't let them off so easily. Even if they have other methods, they won't escape punishment."
"Oh, alright, whatever you want." Lin Yao thought to himself that Xiao Cao was becoming more and more human-like; she could even judge her own likes and dislikes. Aside from dealing with danger, this was the first time she had taken the initiative to act. "What did you do to them?"
"Nothing much, just gave them diarrhea for a month and made them fart a bit. Nobody's going to die." Xiaocao's nonchalant reply left Lin Yao speechless.
A month? Lin Yao knew Xiao Cao's usual dosage; a week was enough for the fat man to lose weight successfully, but a month might really cause problems.
Xiang Honglian had long since left Lin Yao's embrace and was being comforted by a group of male and female classmates, which soothed her wounded heart.
Ten minutes later, Xiang Honglian returned to normal. She didn't want to ruin the rare class reunion. Since it had already happened, being sad and angry wouldn't help. Finding a solution was the right choice. With this information today, at least she could go home and comfort her father, so that the old man wouldn't lose his backbone.
"Thank you!"
Xiang Honglian's voice interrupted Lin Yao's thoughts. He was sitting alone on the sofa, while his male and female classmates were chatting. Apart from Xiang Honglian and Song Tiantian, no one brought anyone to the gathering, since it was a classmate reunion and it was inappropriate to bring family and friends.
"It's nothing, it's my duty. Right now, I'm your suitor." Lin Yao looked at Xiang Honglian with a smile. He admired this strong girl. After attending this class reunion, he had a deeper understanding of Xiang Honglian. She was not the superficial and frivolous woman she appeared to be on the surface, nor was she the kind of woman her words and actions suggested.
"No need to pretend anymore, that guy's gone." Xiang Honglian smiled. "All the classmates here know you're Xibei's boyfriend. Now you can chat with them freely. If you fancy any girl, just tell me, and I'll definitely play matchmaker for you. Just for what you said about getting out, you're my buddy, Xiang Honglian."
After a slight pause, before Lin Yao could speak, Xiang Honglian continued, "You know what, you were really impressive just now, so manly! I saw a lot of female classmates' eyes sparkling. At least five classmates asked me about you. Three of them lost interest after hearing your information, but two others wanted to know more. One of them is quite good."
Suddenly switching to a cheek-scratching expression, Xiang Honglian began teasing Lin Yao, "Mei Lanhua really admires you. Her family is quite well-off. Although none of them are officials, they are very wealthy. She's also their only daughter and doesn't have a boyfriend! Why don't you consider it?"
"Alright, thanks, but stop teasing me." The image of the pink-haired girl appeared in Lin Yao's mind, and a sweet smile appeared on his lips. "Please let me off the hook, I'm not rich. I only have a little over two thousand yuan left for my wife. Who would want me? You've already told me that potential stocks aren't popular anymore."
Just as Xiang Honglian was about to continue teasing, her classmates pulled her away. Everyone wanted to comfort her more, in their own way.
Lin Yao started spending time alone again, mainly because he was not familiar with these people. In addition, this was not a social event, but a class reunion. Some of them had not been seen for many years and would not have time to pay attention to him.
This was Lin Yao's first time attending a class reunion, and it was someone else's class reunion at that. He felt the strong camaraderie among his classmates and realized that he could not participate in such events again. Once was enough. It was too awkward for him to sit alone on the sidelines. Xiang Honglian was also unable to spare any time to attend to him.
Society is complex, and the people in society are even more complex—this is Lin Yao's conclusion.
As the saying goes, "You can't see into someone's heart; you can know their face but not their heart." Many times, it's impossible to objectively understand and recognize a person.
Judging from Xiang Honglian's outward appearance, Lin Yao couldn't imagine that she was the woman in the internal affairs office. However, without this class reunion, Lin Yao would only have known Xiang Honglian based on her work performance and would never have been so willing to accept her as a good friend from his early days in the world.
Humans are so complicated! Sometimes it's hard to judge whether they're good or bad unless they do something obviously good or bad.
Lost in thought, Lin Yao didn't mind that no one was paying attention to him. He would wander between all sorts of thoughts and observe and listen to the conversations of the people in the room. He discovered that he could listen to several groups of people talking at the same time without missing anything.
This discovery delighted him; it was practically the ability to multitask. So he continued to try and see how many things he could multitask and how long he could keep it up.
Time slipped away quietly, and Lin Yao, who was having so much fun, didn't feel lonely at all. It wasn't until Xiang Honglian woke him up and told him to leave that he reluctantly ended the game.
Eavesdropping on other people's conversations is so interesting; no wonder so many people enjoy peeping. Peeping on other people's private parts would probably be quite thrilling too.
Lin Yao couldn't help but speculate inwardly, then he snapped out of his reverie, realizing how wicked the thought was. He considered himself a simple and honest person, so how could he have such an idea? Was it because of his worldly experience? Because ordinary people would think this way?
After saying goodbye to Xiang Honglian's classmates, he received praise from each of them. The praise was all similar, nothing more than handsome, elegant, imposing, and composed. Some female classmates even said that Lin Yao had the demeanor of a noble family, and some even suspected that he was a rich kid who had come to experience life in the countryside.
One has to admire the imagination of today's young people, who exaggerate as much as possible. However, quite a few people guessed Lin Yao's identity as a big shot, but it's unclear whether their words were just polite remarks, jokes, or genuine judgments.
This belly, though thin, very thin, can conceal a person's true feelings.
Xiang Honglian's family lived near Princess Tomb, not far away.
However, this "not far" is relative to Beijing. There is an unverified claim that the city has a migrant and floating population of 100 million, and even official data shows a population of over 20 million. For such a city, the distance is already far greater than the furthest distance from Lin Yao's hometown, Ya'an.
In Ya'an, the most expensive taxi ride Lin Yao ever took cost only six yuan and fifty cents, while the short distance Xiang Honglian mentioned cost more than ten yuan.
Of course, the money came from Lin Yao. After learning about Xiang Honglian's family's predicament, no matter how much he wanted to save money to get a wife, he couldn't let Xiang Honglian pay for it, because Lin Yao would feel uneasy.
"Are you hungry? Let's go get something to eat. That lamb skewers place around the corner is pretty good. You probably haven't tried it yet, have you?"
Xiang Honglian regained her enthusiasm, as if nothing unpleasant had happened that night, as if her family had never encountered any difficulties. Lin Yao couldn't help but admire the adaptability and resilience of modern city dwellers.
At midnight, the temperature in Beijing was very low, and there were few pedestrians on the streets. Only the various vehicles shuttling back and forth like a swarm of locusts supported the prosperity of the city's night.
From afar, he could smell the aroma of oil. As he approached the street corner, he saw thick wisps of smoke that stood out conspicuously under the streetlights. Whenever the smoke was blown in his direction by a gentle breeze, even though he could no longer see the smoke clearly when it was close at hand, the rich smell of oil, like that of a kitchen run by the most incompetent chef, combined with the aroma of meat and cumin, made Lin Yao realize that the roasted lamb skewers in Beijing must be different from those in Chengdu.
Around the corner, a lamb skewer stall appeared about ten meters away, surrounded by a thick plume of smoke under the fairly bright streetlights. The stall owner was a man, but his features were not clearly visible. The smoke was so thick that even Lin Yao felt like he was going to cough.
"How many skewers do you want?" Xiang Honglian turned to ask Lin Yao, then immediately took back her question, because Lin Yao had no idea what lamb skewers were like in Beijing. "Never mind, boss, give me twenty skewers, extra spicy."
"Okay, just a moment, it'll be ready soon." The boss's accent wasn't that of a local from Beijing, but he was clearly from Northeast China because his tongue was rolled up so much. Northerners' rolled tongues always made Lin Yao wonder if their tongues were shaped like an egg cone.
As we got closer, the owner turned his head and nodded politely in greeting. One could imagine how he must have been taking a break from his busy schedule to give that nod, as he was about to grill a hundred or so skewers of lamb.
Eek~~~~~~~~
This is……
Lin Yao stared in surprise at the owner of the lamb kebab stall, feeling that the world was truly a small place.
Chen Shiwei, the tax bureau official who falsely accused Lin Yao of hitting him in Yanji and tried to extort 20,000 yuan from Lin Yao, is now a kebab vendor on the streets of Beijing.
What a small world! It's amazing that two people could meet in Beijing, a city with hundreds of millions of people, and Yanji is so far away from Beijing. It's truly fate.
Lin Yao chuckled inwardly as he carefully examined Chen Shiwei.
In Lin Yao's memory, Chen Shiwei was very fat, with a big head and ears, and a ruddy complexion. The oil on his forehead was so thick that it could be scraped off with a spatula and used to stir-fry vegetables.
At this moment, Chen Shiwei was no longer obese; his bloated body had disappeared, and he appeared quite robust under his military overcoat. The fat on his face was gone, and his double chin was no longer there, revealing a well-defined jawline. His face was etched with the marks of time, indicating that he had endured a very difficult year.