under the tower

Ji Xi quickly took it, only to see Yan Yi go through the crowd and find an empty table to sit down.

Holding two huge plastic plates, Ji Xi sniffed, and was at the end of the cooking line.

It's ridiculous to say that he once lived in Yan's family for half a year, and the sick wood area can be called his second home. Occasionally, on weekends, they have a lot of money and Yan will come here to eat when they are free, but after such a long For a period of time, Ji Xi never came to make a meal in person.

He is always the one who sits at the top and waits, and Yan Yi has always been responsible for queuing up to order food.

To this day, he is holding an empty plate, squeezed in the sweaty and crowded queue, but he is in a hurry. He imitated the example of the people in front of him and put the plastic plate on the edge of the sliding table.

Inside the glass cabinet, there are small rectangular iron-colored squares containing different dishes, and Ji Xi carefully scanned them one by one.

The eating conditions in the diseased wood area are really bad. At first glance, they are all vegetarian, without any meat, and the most expensive and luxurious food is only scrambled eggs.

Ji Xi remembered that Yanyi once told him that it was because the diseased wood area rejected the base’s expensive polymer food, so the food sold in the entire diseased wood area was grown in the most primitive way, and because there were no conditions for animal husbandry , so the residents here can only eat vegetarian dishes almost all their lives.

At that time, he complained about the conditions here almost every day, with a bitter face, saying that he was not used to eating, but later Yan Yi couldn't resist him, and sometimes he would deliberately abduct him to the market in Chengqiao District next door to bring back some meat after returning from missions. , Give him extra meals.

Just thinking about it, Ji Xi burst into tears.

The person in the back pushed him and said in a bad tone, "Hey, what are you doing? Order or not!"

Ji Xi quickly regained consciousness, trying to suppress the strong soreness in his nasal cavity.

He pushed the plate forward and said to the chef who ordered, "Uh... I want scrambled eggs with tomato."

The master spoke with a strong local accent, and asked in a rough voice: "Do you want a large portion or a small portion?"

Ji Xi listened to it twice before he understood. The whole dining hall was too noisy. He said in a voice that was almost roaring, "Big portion!"

The master took a look at him, filled him with a large spoon, put it on a plate and handed it to him.

Ji Xi is still not satisfied: "Master, please give me more eggs!"

The master added half a spoonful to him: "Is it enough?"

A plate was piled with scrambled eggs as golden as a hill, Ji Xi nodded, and then nodded to the glass cabinet.

"I also want... this braised white radish, green vegetables and loofah."

After Ji Xi finished speaking, he added, "Big portion! Thank you!"

The rice cooker felt that it was novel, and shouted: "You, a skinny kid, eat so much?"

Ji Xi smiled, and in the eyes of everyone, a plate was piled up in one hand, and there were two big bowls of rice on it, Gui Suteng moved to the checkout counter.

The entire canteen was crowded and stuffy, and his arms were sore from holding the plates. Ji Xi was already sweating from such a short distance.

He clumsily placed the two plates in turn on the digital scale at the checkout counter.

"A total of 131 points." The cashier said.

Ji Xi took out the smart assistant and handed it over, and the person gave him an impatient look: "No cash?"

"..." Ji Xi suddenly remembered the primitive traditions of the sick wood area, thinking that he had forgotten about this experience, so he blushed and said embarrassingly, "...I didn't bring it."

"Then you wait for it first." The checkout clerk said, "Electronic payment is always troublesome, can you improve your memory in the future?"

Ji Xi nodded quickly: "I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

Probably because Ji Xi had a good attitude, and the checkout clerk didn't want to embarrass the child. Although his expression was irritable, he still picked up his smart assistant at the cash register, manually entered the numbers, and manually deducted the money.

——The cash register machine in the sick wood area is too old and does not even support automatic sensing.

After a while, the man returned the smart assistant to him: "Okay."

"Thank you." Ji Xi hurriedly picked up his two large plates to make room for others before the line waiting for the checkout got impatient. With shaking arms, he brought them tremblingly to the empty table where Yan Yi was sitting. On the table.

As soon as he sat down, he felt that his hands were numb, and he was so hot that he was sweating.

Yan Yi sat in front of the table, glanced at the two large colorful plates expressionlessly, and said, "You bought too much, you can't eat it."

"Ah." When Ji Xi sat down, his face was flushed with heat, he fanned himself with his hands, he paused, felt that there seemed to be some accusation in Yan's words, and suddenly said nervously, "I..."

He wanted to say that I don't know, but he hesitated for a moment, but he didn't say it.

This time he didn't know, but there will be no next time.

"I was wrong..." Ji Xi looked at his expression carefully, and whispered, "...I'm sorry."

Yan Yi didn't say anything more.

The two looked at each other and ate in silence.

Ji Xi casually picked up a few dishes with chopsticks, pounded them with rice, and ate them in one bite, but he didn't remember what he picked up at all.

He just chewed mechanically and could not taste anything in his mouth.

He and Yan sat at the same table, but Yan Yi just buried his head in his meal without even looking at him.

As he ate, the rice in his mouth became salty.

During the whole process, Yan Yi didn't raise his head.

I don't know if it was Ji Xi's illusion, but he felt that Yan Yi ate his meal much faster than usual, maybe it was because he was in a hurry to leave and couldn't bear to stay with Ji Xi for a few more seconds.

…When he said please eat, he really only wanted to eat, and there were no other incidental services at all, as if what he was sitting in front of him was just a ball of air.

Ji Xi became more and more uncomfortable.

He didn't have much appetite, and Yanyi couldn't eat that much by himself, and in the end, there was at least half of the unfinished food left on the dinner plate of the two of them.

Ji Xi lowered her eyes and stood up voluntarily: "...I'll pour it out."

Yan Yi didn't say anything.

In the corner of the dining hall is a recycling place for leftovers and dirty dishes. Ji Xi and Yan Yi have been here so many times, so they know it anyway.

Since there is no automatic service machine to clear the dishes, diners here should consciously clean up the leftovers after eating.

Ji Xi cleaned up the table, picked up the plate, and said in a trembling voice: "...you wait for me here."

The meal was finished, and he was afraid that if he left, Yanyan would disappear in a blink of an eye.

Then he scurried through the crowds, carrying greasy dishes, to the recycling area.

Yan Yi seemed to have heard that sentence, he sat on the spot like a statue, without moving.

Ji Xi breathed a sigh of relief, hurriedly hugged the dinner plate, and walked behind the crowd who poured out the food. In front of them were two huge trash cans covered with black plastic bags. The mixed leftovers were mixed together, emitting a faint smell. Sour smell.

Ji Xi held her breath, thinking of finishing the matter quickly.

Just as he moved slowly to the trash can and was about to dump the plate in his hand, his arm was suddenly hit by someone who came out of nowhere.

Ji Xi shook his hand, and the dish mixed with the sauce splashed all over the clothes of the person who hit him.

Ji Xi was startled, and subconsciously said "I'm sorry".

However, that man didn't let him go so easily. When Ji Xi raised his head, he saw a tall, bald man standing in front of him. The volume is at least two or three times that of Ji Xi.

"Hey! Boy!" The man raised his eyes aggressively and pointed at Ji Xi, "You don't have fucking eyes, are you still blind?"

Ji Xi put down the plate and said calmly, "You bumped into it yourself."

"Hey! You're still quibbling!" It doesn't matter if Ji Xi doesn't say this, but the man immediately roared angrily, "Is it my fault that I got splashed all over? You little brat, look Gentle, huh? Your skin is itchy, right?"

Ji Xi didn't want to mess with him at all, he said bluntly: "How much is your dress, I will pay you back."

The man blew his beard and stared at Ji Xi, "Are you dismissing the beggar?"

Ji Xi frowned: "Then what do you want?"

The bald head grabbed Ji Xi's arm: "Go! Come with me to the Investigation Bureau! I want you to go to jail and pay me for mental damage!"

Ji Xi was so anxious that he threw it away vigorously, and said angrily: "Are you sick? Didn't you just stain one of your clothes, so why pay for mental damage? Are you thinking about money?" Are you crazy?"

All the people around stood by, watching the commotion.

Ji Xi didn't understand why he stepped on a pile of dog shit, and he didn't want to be watched, so he turned around and left, but the bald head was reluctant, and his body like a wall immediately blocked Ji Xi's way of leaving.

"Stop!" he shouted, "If you don't make it clear today, don't even think about leaving!"

Ji Xi's face turned completely cold, and he said word by word: "Today I will compensate you for this piece of clothing, there is not much, if you want to blackmail you have found the wrong person, get out of here!"

The bald head snorted coldly: "Yo, you kid has really hard bones..." He drew out his fist and greeted Ji Xi's face.

Ji Xi clamped his hand, and took out the saber at his waist, a cold light flashed at a speed that was hard to catch with the naked eye, and the blade rested on the bald head's carotid artery.

Seeing a knife move in an altercation, the crowd screamed.

"I'll say it one last time..." Ji Xi squeezed out a few words from between his teeth, "Get out of the way."

But the bald head was unmoved, instead he smiled sinisterly, and said confidently: "Child, you threatened me with a blade, do you think I will be afraid of you?"

Ji Xi had already been made irritated by him, and his hand holding the knife was stuck on the bald man's neck more and more forcefully. In his fury, inadvertently, the sharp edge of the knife had already scratched a little bit of the man's neck. skin.

Suddenly, Ji Xi stared blankly.

The bald yellow-white skin was scratched with a crack, exposing the flesh inside, but not a single drop of blood leaked from it.

What is this? !

Just before realizing the crisis was approaching, Ji Xi withdrew his hand suddenly, and the saber cut a half-finger-wide gash on the bald head's neck.

Ji Xi took a step back, tilted her bald head in front of her, and giggled.

That triumphant and insolent laugh was extremely penetrating, and it was even more eerie and grotesque when combined with the neck that was cut in half but no blood flowed out.