It was nothing like dealing with Lin Li, who was shipping out tens of thousands of pearls at a time. It was as if he could produce any quantity you asked for, no matter how large. It was truly astonishing.
"If your friend needs more pearls, just give me a number. Give me a little time, and I’ll get them for you..." Lin Li said.
"Okay." Zhang Yuxi wiped the surprise from her face and watched Lin Li leave the parking lot.
Although she was incredibly curious about where Lin Li was getting so many high-quality pearls, she didn’t ask.
She’d been in business for a few years, after all. There were unwritten rules among businesspeople that had to be followed. Even with a good friend, you didn’t ask about their sources for high-quality goods.
After Lin Li’s figure disappeared into the distance, Zhang Yuxi opened her car door and got into the driver’s seat.
She didn’t start the car right away. Instead, she rested her hands on the steering wheel, glanced in the rearview mirror, and muttered to herself.
"Lin Li really isn’t like other men!"
Zhang Yuxi had received plenty of gifts from men over the years, but this was the first time she’d ever been given two large bags of fruits and vegetables.
VROOOM...
The engine roared to life, and Zhang Yuxi drove out of the parking lot. She didn’t head to her jewelry store; she wanted to take the two large bags of produce Lin Li had given her home first.
「...」
After giving Zhang Yuxi the two large bags of produce he’d prepared that morning, Lin Li drove his van to a nearby buffet.
The buffet, which cost 128 per person, had a pretty rich selection.
As he was paying with his phone, he saw a message from Su Yue. He sent a quick reply, finished paying, and then headed over to the food stations to get something to eat.
It was lunchtime at the school. In the teachers’ office, the shapely Su Yue was leaning back in her chair with her headphones on, watching a show on her tablet.
Just then, her phone, which was sitting on the desk, chimed. She picked it up and saw it was a reply from Lin Li.
"Not yet. I’m just about to have lunch."
After reading Lin Li’s message, Su Yue tucked a lock of hair behind her delicate ear.
Then, her slender fingers danced across the phone screen. "It’s almost one in the afternoon, and you’re just now having lunch?"
Inside the buffet, Lin Li carried several heaping plates of food to an empty table and sat down.
He was starting to feel hungry and was about to dig in when his phone chimed in his pocket.
He took it out and saw it was another message from Su Yue.
"I ate so much barbecue this morning that I’m only now getting hungry. That’s why I’m having a late lunch." Lin Li typed out the excuse and hit send. Then he picked up his ice-cold soda and took a long, satisfying gulp.
"Oh, I see! Alright then, I won’t bother you while you’re eating." After sending the message, Su Yue locked her phone, placed it back on the desk, and returned to the show on her tablet.
Back at the buffet, Lin Li put his phone back in his pocket and began to enthusiastically demolish the mountain of food on his table.
If Su Yue had been the one treating him to lunch, Lin Li wouldn’t have held back. He probably would have eaten enough to cost her a month’s salary.
As it was, he’d had to find a place on his own to fill his stomach.
「...」
In the Ping’an Garden District, a silver-white van was parked in one of the community’s parking spots.
After parking, Lin Li got out of the van. As he shut the door, he let out a sudden belch.
He had gorged himself at the buffet just now and was a bit overstuffed.
He probably wouldn’t go back to that buffet again. He had eaten so much that several of the staff members had started coming near his table to sneak glances at him.
’Thinking back on it, the staff’s behavior was understandable.’ They worked at a buffet and had surely seen plenty of big eaters, but they had never encountered a customer who could eat as much as Lin Li.
In just half an hour, they watched him eat nonstop, consuming enough food to stuff four or five grown men. It was astounding.
Lin Li walked toward his apartment, thinking, ’For the next few days while my appetite is this huge, I need to figure out how to handle my meals at home.’
He only thought this because it was frankly embarrassing to be gawked at in a restaurant for eating so much.
Being stared at once or twice was fine, but if it happened too often, it would be unbearable.
Especially at buffets. A guest with such a shocking appetite would stand out, even if he only visited each restaurant once. Word would inevitably get around.
’If someone secretly filmed me and uploaded it to the internet, I wouldn’t care if strangers saw it. But if people I know saw it, they’d definitely message me to ask what’s going on. That would be mortifying.’
Lin Li was mulling over how to handle his meals for the next few days as he passed a stretch of greenery.
In the shade of a large, leafy tree, two little stray cats looked up and fixed their unblinking gaze on him.
’For the next few days, I’ll just order takeout and eat at home.
But eating takeout all the time isn’t healthy. Maybe... for the next few days, I could eat in Dongwu City.
After all, hardly anyone knows me in the Otherworld. It wouldn’t matter if people there found out how much I can eat.’
Just as Lin Li was considering whether to solve his food problem by eating in Dongwu City while his appetite was abnormal...
...he suddenly felt two pairs of eyes staring at him, unconcealed and intense. He stopped and turned to look where the gazes were coming from.
’Huh?!!’
’Oh, it’s just these two little stray cats staring at me.’
’I don’t have any food on me. What are they staring at me for?’
The Little Black Cat saw Lin Li stop and look over. It meowed to its companion, "Meow... Is that human looking at us?"
Seeing a smile spread across Lin Li’s face, the Little White Cat grew even more wary.
It had once seen a smiling human use a sausage to lure another stray cat close, only to snatch it away.
It never saw that cat again and had no idea what its fate had been.
"Meow... We can’t stay here. Let’s find another spot." For some reason, the Little White Cat felt a faint but terrifying aura coming from this human.
It had sensed it before but hadn’t paid it much mind. Now, however, the terrifying aura seemed a little stronger, making it deeply afraid of the human before it.
"Meow... Another spot? Where to?" the Little Black Cat asked its companion.
Unlike the Little White Cat, it couldn’t sense the terrifying aura coming from the human who was looking at them.
But since its companion said the human was dangerous and that they had to be careful, it naturally chose to trust its friend and became wary as well.
"Meow... Follow me," the Little White Cat said, pulling its gaze away from Lin Li.
’Why’d the little guys run off?’ Lin Li had seen the two stray cats staring at him and had tried to offer a friendly smile.
But he hadn’t expected that the moment his smile appeared, the two strays, who had been lounging on the grass in the shade, would immediately jump up, turn, and bolt, disappearing into a distant thicket of bushes.
Lin Li had no idea his smile was the main reason the two cats had fled. He just assumed the little things were probably hungry and had gone off to find food.
"If you’d come over and let me pet you, I would have given you some food," Lin Li grumbled to himself as he continued on his way home.
「...」