Chapter 33 Conjecture
When the woman left, the fatty let out a huge sigh of relieve and slumped into the chair. After a long while, he finally sat up straight and looked at Jiang Han excitedly.
“Big brother. From now on, you are my big brother. Thank you so much for helping me out earlier.” The fatty’s expression was much exaggerated. It looked as if he would even get down on his knees at any time.
“No no no, there’s no need for that. It’s just a small matter.” Jiang Han didn’t know whether he should laugh or cry. He helped out this fatty without expecting anything in return, however, he did not imagine that he would react as such.
“Big brother, you don’t understand. My sister forces me to accompany the old man for meals and whenever I’m around him, I can’t seem to catch my breath and that’s why I always slipped out of it. However, this time around I was strong-armed by my sister and had already resigned my fate to it. But at the last minute, I thought about how suffocating it was and decided to slip away again. If it wasn’t for your assistance, I really wouldn’t know what to do.” The fatty was overly friendly and even though Jiang Han had no intention of asking about it, he told the whole story from head to toe without missing out on a single detail.
As such, Jiang Han understood the whole situation. This was just a kid who was at odds with his own parents. At first glanced, it would seem that it was a communication issue.
To be clear, this was because both parties had vastly different standpoints, and it was extremely difficult for them to see eye to eye. Jiang Han could tell from looking at the fatty that their communication issue was rather severely.
However, it was inappropriate for Jiang Han to meddle with another family’s problems and thus could only listen quietly without saying anything.
“How about this big brother, weren’t you just about to order something to eat. It just so happens that I too have yet to eat, so why don’t us brothers have a feast here on me. Consider it as my gratitude for your assistance, what do you think.” The fatty saw that Jiang Han did not say anything and was couldn’t tell what was on his mind.
“This doesn’t feel right.” Jiang Han said quietly. This fatty had not treated Jiang Han as an outsider but one of his own and had already considered him a brother.
“It’s fine. After we’ve eaten and I’ve returned the favour, if you still feel unsatisfied then we can talk about it some more. But first we feast.” The fatty was completely unaware that Jiang Han was actually embarrassed to be treated to a free meal.
However, Jiang Han could no longer refused his offer at the point. Furthermore, it was time for fatty’s performance; without looking at the menu, he opened his mouth and ordered more than 10 dishes in a single breath. The waiter next to them took down all their orders with freakish finesse.
“Big brother, I’m done ordering. If you have anything else that you would like to order, please go ahead.” The fatty had a pair of eyes that were big and round, but when these pair of eyes were placed on his big round face then it became rather small comparatively.
Jiang Han was completely oblivious to the menu in this restaurant. The purpose of his visit was not to have a feast but since the fatty had asked him to, he simply ordered a dish he had previously heard about from the man with the afro.
“Our apologies sir, but that dish has not been available for a couple of days now. Would you like to order something else?” The waiter could only smile meekly and apologise after hearing the name of the dish Jiang Han just ordered.
“It isn’t? Why isn’t it available?” Jiang Han was shocked. It was rather unlikely that this sort of superior restaurant would not have any spare ingredients available.
“That’s because that dish requires a unique ingredient which was not delivered by our various suppliers for a couple of days now. Therefore, we are not able to serve this dish at the moment. We appreciate your kind understanding in this matter.” The waiter briefly explained the situation to Jiang Han.
Jiang Han couldn’t do anything about it since the dish was not available and did not order anything else. The waiter took down all their orders and left. The fatty looked at Jiang Han fascinatingly, his eyes showed that he was a little surprised.
“Big brother, you’re really brave to order that dish.” Jiang Han was confused. He only knew the name of the dish but the fatty obviously was familiar with it.
“Why, is that dish really scary?” Jiang Han was alarmed. Could this restaurant actually have an inedible dish?
“Kekeke, it isn’t scary per se.” The fatty let out a fake cough, “It’s actually horrifying!”
The fatty’s reaction only served to increase Jiang Han’s interest in the dish as it was what he was investigating, “Why is that?”
“It’s actually nothing much. It’s just a big worm that’s a speciality of a small town to the east. However, that dish is served raw. One bite and your whole mouth will be filled with its juice. Ah, I can’t say anymore. Next time I’ll treat you to it then you can enjoy it on your own.” As the fatty tried to describe the dish, he couldn’t help but dry heave, like he was reminded of a torturous experience.
“Then let’s forget it… …” Jiang Han shivered. Even though these worms had a rather high nutrition value, and to be honest, a lot of these worms were rather clean, however if it really came to it, Jiang Han really couldn’t bring himself to actually eat such a thing.
Soon, the table was filled with various fragrant dishes. Jiang Han swore that this was the most luxurious table of food that he had ever seen in his life. Every single dish was picturesque and it didn’t require any further touch-ups to be displayed on a gourmet food magazine cover page.
It actually turned out to be as the waiter previously had said, it was exactly the same as depicted in the menu. Jiang Han was full of praise while the fatty next to him had already started digging in and his chubby hands handled the chopsticks with finesse.
No matter how pretty the dishes were, it could not escape the fatty’s chopsticks and was all picked up and placed into his mouth with absolute precision. Just like that, with Jiang Han’s participation, the two strangers shared a meal together on the same table.
After their little interaction, Jiang Han discovered that this fatty was evidently not a rotten apple. He was different from a lot of those that could not get along with their parents who had a lot of distorted views and opinions. This fatty that was called Liangmu did not looked like he had any repulsive qualities about him.
A considerable amount of time was required for a meal like this. Jiang Han had initially wanted to investigate the dishes but right now he could only dismiss his original intentions. In the end, he had a nice conversation with the fatty instead.
“Big brother, let me tell you that I dare not eat the dish that you tried to order. However, there is another equally famous dish called The Dong River Steak. What’s even more mysterious is that it’s produced from the same place as that worm, the town is called Dongjiangzhen(1).” The fatty mumbled and said while chewing a bunch of food in his mouth.
“Dong River Steak? Is that the new dish at Xilaishun(2)?” Jiang Han put down his chopsticks upon hearing about the steak. Coincidentally, this was also one of the dishes that he was investigating as it was one of the dish that the crew-cut man had with his daughter.
“Aiya, Big brother’s actually a gourmet. It seems like we are a cut from the same cloth. But how is it that you are this thin, how strange.” When the fatty found out that Jiang Han knew about the dish, he felt an inexplicable camaraderie with him and a big smile could be seen on his face.
Unfortunately, he did not discover that Jiang Han was already deep in thought. Could it be a mere coincidence? Or is there some sort of connection?
Just then, Jiang Han had formed a conjecture when he learned that the two different dishes from two different restaurants had ingredients that was produced from the same area.
t/s notes:
Dongjiangzhen is an actual place in china that is right next to the ‘east river’ or dong river. Dongjiangzhen, Zixing, Chenzhou, Hunan, China Xilaishun, 西来顺 is the name of an actual restaurant in Beijing, China. I don’t know if there’s a branch in Suzhou, but from pictures online, it doesn’t seem that upscale and therefore my conjecture is that it isn’t the same placed as describe and mentioned in the story.
Chapter 33 Conjecture
When the woman left, the fatty let out a huge sigh of relieve and slumped into the chair. After a long while, he finally sat up straight and looked at Jiang Han excitedly.
“Big brother. From now on, you are my big brother. Thank you so much for helping me out earlier.” The fatty’s expression was much exaggerated. It looked as if he would even get down on his knees at any time.
“No no no, there’s no need for that. It’s just a small matter.” Jiang Han didn’t know whether he should laugh or cry. He helped out this fatty without expecting anything in return, however, he did not imagine that he would react as such.
“Big brother, you don’t understand. My sister forces me to accompany the old man for meals and whenever I’m around him, I can’t seem to catch my breath and that’s why I always slipped out of it. However, this time around I was strong-armed by my sister and had already resigned my fate to it. But at the last minute, I thought about how suffocating it was and decided to slip away again. If it wasn’t for your assistance, I really wouldn’t know what to do.” The fatty was overly friendly and even though Jiang Han had no intention of asking about it, he told the whole story from head to toe without missing out on a single detail.
As such, Jiang Han understood the whole situation. This was just a kid who was at odds with his own parents. At first glanced, it would seem that it was a communication issue.
To be clear, this was because both parties had vastly different standpoints, and it was extremely difficult for them to see eye to eye. Jiang Han could tell from looking at the fatty that their communication issue was rather severely.
However, it was inappropriate for Jiang Han to meddle with another family’s problems and thus could only listen quietly without saying anything.
“How about this big brother, weren’t you just about to order something to eat. It just so happens that I too have yet to eat, so why don’t us brothers have a feast here on me. Consider it as my gratitude for your assistance, what do you think.” The fatty saw that Jiang Han did not say anything and was couldn’t tell what was on his mind.
“This doesn’t feel right.” Jiang Han said quietly. This fatty had not treated Jiang Han as an outsider but one of his own and had already considered him a brother.
“It’s fine. After we’ve eaten and I’ve returned the favour, if you still feel unsatisfied then we can talk about it some more. But first we feast.” The fatty was completely unaware that Jiang Han was actually embarrassed to be treated to a free meal.
However, Jiang Han could no longer refused his offer at the point. Furthermore, it was time for fatty’s performance; without looking at the menu, he opened his mouth and ordered more than 10 dishes in a single breath. The waiter next to them took down all their orders with freakish finesse.
“Big brother, I’m done ordering. If you have anything else that you would like to order, please go ahead.” The fatty had a pair of eyes that were big and round, but when these pair of eyes were placed on his big round face then it became rather small comparatively.
Jiang Han was completely oblivious to the menu in this restaurant. The purpose of his visit was not to have a feast but since the fatty had asked him to, he simply ordered a dish he had previously heard about from the man with the afro.
“Our apologies sir, but that dish has not been available for a couple of days now. Would you like to order something else?” The waiter could only smile meekly and apologise after hearing the name of the dish Jiang Han just ordered.
“It isn’t? Why isn’t it available?” Jiang Han was shocked. It was rather unlikely that this sort of superior restaurant would not have any spare ingredients available.
“That’s because that dish requires a unique ingredient which was not delivered by our various suppliers for a couple of days now. Therefore, we are not able to serve this dish at the moment. We appreciate your kind understanding in this matter.” The waiter briefly explained the situation to Jiang Han.
Jiang Han couldn’t do anything about it since the dish was not available and did not order anything else. The waiter took down all their orders and left. The fatty looked at Jiang Han fascinatingly, his eyes showed that he was a little surprised.
“Big brother, you’re really brave to order that dish.” Jiang Han was confused. He only knew the name of the dish but the fatty obviously was familiar with it.
“Why, is that dish really scary?” Jiang Han was alarmed. Could this restaurant actually have an inedible dish?
“Kekeke, it isn’t scary per se.” The fatty let out a fake cough, “It’s actually horrifying!”
The fatty’s reaction only served to increase Jiang Han’s interest in the dish as it was what he was investigating, “Why is that?”
“It’s actually nothing much. It’s just a big worm that’s a speciality of a small town to the east. However, that dish is served raw. One bite and your whole mouth will be filled with its juice. Ah, I can’t say anymore. Next time I’ll treat you to it then you can enjoy it on your own.” As the fatty tried to describe the dish, he couldn’t help but dry heave, like he was reminded of a torturous experience.
“Then let’s forget it… …” Jiang Han shivered. Even though these worms had a rather high nutrition value, and to be honest, a lot of these worms were rather clean, however if it really came to it, Jiang Han really couldn’t bring himself to actually eat such a thing.
Soon, the table was filled with various fragrant dishes. Jiang Han swore that this was the most luxurious table of food that he had ever seen in his life. Every single dish was picturesque and it didn’t require any further touch-ups to be displayed on a gourmet food magazine cover page.
It actually turned out to be as the waiter previously had said, it was exactly the same as depicted in the menu. Jiang Han was full of praise while the fatty next to him had already started digging in and his chubby hands handled the chopsticks with finesse.
No matter how pretty the dishes were, it could not escape the fatty’s chopsticks and was all picked up and placed into his mouth with absolute precision. Just like that, with Jiang Han’s participation, the two strangers shared a meal together on the same table.
After their little interaction, Jiang Han discovered that this fatty was evidently not a rotten apple. He was different from a lot of those that could not get along with their parents who had a lot of distorted views and opinions. This fatty that was called Liangmu did not looked like he had any repulsive qualities about him.
A considerable amount of time was required for a meal like this. Jiang Han had initially wanted to investigate the dishes but right now he could only dismiss his original intentions. In the end, he had a nice conversation with the fatty instead.
“Big brother, let me tell you that I dare not eat the dish that you tried to order. However, there is another equally famous dish called The Dong River Steak. What’s even more mysterious is that it’s produced from the same place as that worm, the town is called Dongjiangzhen(1).” The fatty mumbled and said while chewing a bunch of food in his mouth.
“Dong River Steak? Is that the new dish at Xilaishun(2)?” Jiang Han put down his chopsticks upon hearing about the steak. Coincidentally, this was also one of the dishes that he was investigating as it was one of the dish that the crew-cut man had with his daughter.
“Aiya, Big brother’s actually a gourmet. It seems like we are a cut from the same cloth. But how is it that you are this thin, how strange.” When the fatty found out that Jiang Han knew about the dish, he felt an inexplicable camaraderie with him and a big smile could be seen on his face.
Unfortunately, he did not discover that Jiang Han was already deep in thought. Could it be a mere coincidence? Or is there some sort of connection?
Just then, Jiang Han had formed a conjecture when he learned that the two different dishes from two different restaurants had ingredients that was produced from the same area.
t/s notes:
Dongjiangzhen is an actual place in china that is right next to the ‘east river’ or dong river. Dongjiangzhen, Zixing, Chenzhou, Hunan, China Xilaishun, 西来顺 is the name of an actual restaurant in Beijing, China. I don’t know if there’s a branch in Suzhou, but from pictures online, it doesn’t seem that upscale and therefore my conjecture is that it isn’t the same placed as describe and mentioned in the story.