Ch4 - (pork) rib noodles

Guo Jingyu’s cooking skills were fairly good; his fingers moved light and easy, shaping each wonton so they resembled fat little ingots. Thin skinned and thickly stuffed with filling, they were especially beautiful.

In the beginning, when he’d just entered the college for the arts, besides his own major, he’d also spent a decent amount of time taking classes in the sculpture department, to the point where all of the old professors treated him like their own blood related descendant, wishing fiercely that they could snag him as an apprentice immediately and mentor him through graduate school and a PHD in the future. It wasn’t until they mentioned it to several colleagues in the printmaking and mural departments that they realized he had his feet in several boats, and so had finally let their desire go. 

The professors said he liked to play too much. Sculpting required a steady hand and a certain degree of reliability, but he was clearly only there to enjoy the atmosphere. Since he wasn’t calm enough for it, might as well just release him early.

These words were really quite well said. After, he ran a gallery and opened his own studio, and so strictly speaking should be considered an art dealer. He didn’t solely exist within the artistic circles, yet had great relationships with others who did. In Beijing, he got along so well with the artists that whenever there was any event, there was always a spot on the roster saved for him.

 

 

Guo Jingyu finished wrapping the wontons and used cling wrap to separate them into individual portions, twenty per bag, and prepared to stick them into the fridge to freeze. “Tomorrow morning, take them out and cook them for yourself. Let them boil twice and they’ll be…do you know what twice boiled means? When the water’s roiling, add a little bowl’s worth of cold water, and then repeat this again once, and it’ll be done.”

Li Tongzhou nodded, “It’s the same as boiling water, half an hour, right?” 

Guo Jingyu nearly lost his grip on the wontons in his hand, he was laughing so hard, “Who told you ‘half an hour’? If you boil them for half an hour, forget about eating wontons, they’ll have long since become a bowl of thick soup.”

 

Li Tongzhou asked doubtfully, “But normal water boiled for five minutes will kill off bacteria, fifteen minutes of boiling will kill endospores as well….”

Guo Jingyu shut the fridge door, dusted off his hands, and said, “Stop worrying about these things. Hearing it makes my head hurt. Tomorrow morning tell ayi, have her boil them for you to eat together, alright?”

“My mother’s on a business trip.”

 

“She won’t be here the day after tomorrow either?”

“She won’t be here this entire week.”

Guo Jingyu didn’t even want to bother asking Li Tongzhou about his dad, who was basically a household display that only appeared at New Year’s to say some appropriate remarks and bring his wife and son out to do the rounds and enjoy the semblance of respectability. Otherwise, it was usually hard to encounter him even once per month.

 

Li Tongzhou was still watching him, and Guo Jingyu’s heart softened a little, so he said, “No worries, I’ll come over earlier tomorrow morning and make them for you.” Probably because of the thought that they could meet tomorrow, Guo Jingyu’s mood improved sharply as if it were a bird winging directly upwards. “Let’s ride the bus together again tomorrow, the earliest one; should be the one at seven, right?” 

“Tomorrow we have supplemental classes so there’s no need to attend morning self study. We just need to get there before nine.”

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

Guo Jingyu finally remembered that they were currently taking summer supplementals.

Winter and summer breaks in high school may as well have been Schrodinger’s breaks, for educators to organize and strictly supervise. The gaokao was so rigorously grim, it was basically the equivalent of thousands of soldiers and tens of thousands of horses rushing the same single plank bridge. Every last high school teacher wanted nothing more than to control all of this dwindling time, so allowing for a week and some days of summer break was already very generous.

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Guo Jingyu said, “It’s messy, you should go wash it off quickly.”

“It’s nothing.”  Li Tongzhou’s eyes curved as a trace of a smile ghosted across his face. It was quick, but Guo Jingyu still noticed it. Before he could respond, his fingers were squeezed once more and released, and he heard the other say lightly, “Jingyu, I’ll wait for you tomorrow morning.”

“‘Kay, I’ll definitely come!” 

Guo Jingyu was absolutely satisfied, his heart full. His family’s small boyfriend was so easy to coax, all it took was a few wontons to have him this happy.

In the end, Guo Jingyu dragged it out to almost nine before he left. His mother had already called several times to hurry him along. He shrugged on his bag at the entrance and swapped out his shoes. Suddenly, he raised his head and looked towards the person standing to one side and said seriously, “Li Tongzhou, I’m testing you on something.”

 

Li Tongzhou nodded slightly, “Okay.”

“Let me hear you recite my home address once.” 

Li Tongzhou recited it obediently, somewhat uncomprehendingly, he asked, “What’s going on?”

Guo Jingyu had moved many times in the past. Now, how could he say he’d forgotten where his own house was? He could only resort to such deceit. “Nothin’ much, I just wanted to see if I take up space in your heart of hearts.”

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In the shallow pools of Li Tongzhou’s pupils, there was only him. Mildly, he said, “You do.”

Guo Jingyu froze, unprepared for such a remark. The tips of his ears felt hot. Bag in tow, he hastily went downstairs. 

He got onto the bus by himself and didn’t bother finding a seat for two whole stops. He just stood wherever, staring outside of the window at the wind blowing, the apartment buildings flashing by in a whirl of rainbow hues and couldn’t hold back foolish, delighted laughter.

This Li Tongzhou, usually all clammed up with nary a sound, sure was good at speaking endearments.

How could he have never discovered this before? He’d always thought this person was especially honest. But now, if you asked him, Li Tongzhou could really produce a course and teach it—his words had provoked the little creature in Guo Jingyu’s heart so much that it’d broken free and dashed a full eight hundred meters.

By the time he got home, his mother was guarding the door like a tiger after its prey. 

Guo Jingyu looked at his mother’s hair, dyed blonde, with some shock, but his attention was quickly absorbed in full by the chicken feather duster she held. “Ma, I really went to do homework, it’s all done, if you don’t believe it you can check it yourself!”

His mother said furiously, “Who’s talking about that with you? Don’t think just because you hid at xiao Zhou’s house you’re off the hook! I spent all that money getting you a tutor, and you only attended for a day before you ditched? Your father and I earned money without ever mentioning our hardships, is it so difficult for you to study more? In front of xiao Zhou, considering his face, I gave you some face too, but now you had better give me an explanation, unless you want to rebel!”

Guo Jingyu had a vague impression of how his high school grades back then were poor so there had indeed been a college student hired to tutor him, only that person’s tutoring was rather mediocre. After several months his grades were still padding the barrel, so in the end it was only because Li Tongzhou stepped in that his grades began to rise. But back then he’d just started dating Li Tongzhou, the same formula only sounded good when uttered from his mouth, mostly due to the influence of hormones. The college tutor really couldn’t be blamed.

Under his mother’s glare, Guo Jingyu hurriedly raised his bag and said, “Ma, please listen to me explain, I think hiring a tutor is useless….” 

“That’s nonsense. Even our neighbor Fan nainai’s grandson knows that the stupid bird flies first: that those with limited ability must work harder to compensate!”

“It’s not that, I’m not saying that studying more is no good, only that the person should be switched, the tutor I mean. What do you think of Li Tongzhou? He’s first in our year, and even placed at the International Mathematical Olympiad, and happens to sit in front of me, how about having him tutor me?”

His mother really only held the duster as an intimidation prop, and after hearing Guo Jingyu’s clever mouth coax her, her heart really softened, and she said hesitantly, “Is xiao Zhou willing? He must be busy studying on his own.”

Guo Jingyu patted his chest and promised, “He’s willing!” 

“He said so himself?”

“Of course! He said for me to go tomorrow morning.” —to boil wontons for him.

 

Hearing that there was a solid plan regarding her son’s studies, Guo Jingyu’s mother was all smiles. Setting down the duster, she took his bag from him and said, “Tomorrow, don’t be empty handed when you go, bring them something. Whether or not they lack it is one thing, in any case our regards will be conveyed. Enough, you two probably ate whatever you could get your hands on earlier; your dad made noodles, go eat some now.”

She carried his bag to the living room to carefully inspect his homework. She really was truly worried about her son’s grades. 

Guo Jingyu’s father had been in the kitchen this whole time observing the state of affairs, listening to the mother and son’s parlay. Only now did he carry noodles out, saying quietly, “Jingyu ah, you must be awfully hungry hm? Quickly, go wash your hands so you can eat these noodles. When I got off work earlier tonight and passed the market I noticed the ribs were particularly fresh. I just finished stewing them, it’s really quite fresh.”

At this age, Guo Jingyu just happened to have a bottomless stomach. The barbecue from earlier had been pretty much fully digested. As he smelt the savory fragrance of the pork rib noodles, saliva gathered in his mouth. His dad’s cooking skills needed no further discussion. He washed his hands, sat down, and began eating great big mouthfuls of the noodles.

As he ate, his father sat opposite him and spoke softly. Their family was different from other families, the woman reigned outside and the man inside. His entire life Guo Jingyu’s father had been a foundational piece, steadily serving society, serving his home. His temper was also extremely good, he was the type of person that tried to never offend anyone.

“You’re already at this age, don’t let your mother worry. Her work is already hard enough….have another rib?” 

Guo Jingyu pushed his bowl towards him, and his father happily went and served a few more pieces of ribs before handing it back to him. “Tastes good right? Today, when stewing them I added Chinese cinnamon and angelica root. Your mother also complimented it and said it was tasty.”

Guo Jingyu said, “It really is not bad, dad, why are you still wearing an apron?”

His father, whose waist was covered in an apron emblazoned with little blue flowers, said, “Ah, well, I’m waiting for you to finish so I can wash your bowl.”

Guo Jingyu laughed a little, lowered his head and quickly ate a few bites so he could drink all the soup and hand over the bowl. 

His father, again, happily carried the bowl over to scrub it, humming a little tune. When his family ate lots, it was a compliment to his cooking, and his heart was full.

Guo Jingyu glanced towards the living room. His mother was still intently going through his homework, but he wasn’t worried at all. He’d copied Li Tongzhou’s work last, there was absolutely no problem. So he didn’t go over, but stood in the entrance to the kitchen and asked, “Dad, do you have any leftover ribs, the ones that you already stewed?”

“I do, I do.”

“Then tomorrow morning, pack a box for me, I’ll bring it for Li Tongzhou to eat.” 

“Okay!”

—

T/N: heya!! it’s loach! ahh,, i miss porkrib noodle soup TT i want some too.. and i want my dad to make it. speaking of, i really like jingyu’s dad! what a loveable malewife ^^ i hope tongzhou appreciates the ribs!!

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