LRAB 026 The food was served very slowly.
026 The food was served very slowly.
It wasn't the weekend, so the mall below Raffles City was relatively empty. However, the restaurants on the third and fourth floors were packed with customers, with many people waiting in line with numbers.
Most of these people come up here directly from the underground parking lot by elevator, which is why the shopping mall entrance below is deserted while the restaurant area above is bustling with activity.
Jiang Yihe led Yu Wenhao past several busy shops, but she frowned slightly and didn't go in. They continued until they reached a Chaozhou restaurant, where the greeter smiled and said, "Miss Jiang, you've arrived?"
She seems to be a regular customer here.
Jiang Yihe smiled and nodded at her, and the hostess led them inside.
Unlike other bustling restaurants, the Chaozhou restaurant was rather deserted, with only half the seats occupied. Yu Wenhao understood perfectly well; everyone knew Chaozhou cuisine was notoriously expensive. His restaurant might be okay in MixC shopping mall, but opening it here was practically suicide. Only someone like Jiang Yihe, who wasn't short of money and disliked crowded places, would come here.
The two sat down at a table in the corner. Jiang Yihe asked Yu Wenhao, "What would you like to eat?"
"I don't know, I've never eaten Chaozhou cuisine before. You order," Yu Wenhao said.
Jiang Yihe smiled and asked, "Are there any dietary restrictions?"
"I wouldn't dare. My stomach is made of stainless steel; it can handle bitter, spicy, sweet, salty, and even cloyingly salty things," Yu Wenhao said.
Jiang Yihe chuckled, "Okay, then I'll see if we have any iron ore or coke to burn."
She scanned the QR code with her phone, quickly finished ordering, and put her phone down.
Jiang Yihe glanced around, leaned forward, and whispered to Yu Wenhao, "Be patient, don't rush."
Yu asked, "What?"
Jiang Yihe said, "Don't be fooled by the fact that this restaurant doesn't seem to be doing very well and doesn't have many customers. The food is served very slowly. If you ask them, they will tell you that it's because all the ingredients in the restaurant are very fresh and are made to order."
Yu nodded in greeting: "I guess even the chef will have to be hired on the spot."
Jiang Yihe suppressed a laugh and nodded repeatedly at Yu Wenhao, "I think so too."
"Tell me, did you come here to eat on purpose to help the poor?" Yu Wenhao asked.
Jiang Yihe finally laughed and said, "No, it's because there are few people here. I hate it when a lot of people eat together; it's too noisy."
The waiter brought them tea first, and the two of them drank their tea while waiting.
Jiang Yihe looked at Yu Wenhao, hesitated for a moment, and said, "Brother Yu, could I ask you to do me a favor?"
"Okay, what's up?" Yu asked.
Jiang Yihe laughed: "I haven't said what it is yet."
Last night, Yu Wenhao had a heated exchange with Jiang Yihe, and Jiang Yihe retaliated today. Yu Wenhao also said:
"You don't seem like a bad person, so you definitely won't let me do anything bad."
Jiang Yihe nodded, looked at Yu Wenhao, and her face became serious. She said, "Brother Yu, I'd like you to do a live broadcast tomorrow morning, just like today, okay?"
Yu Wenhao agreed, "If you're willing, I can do a live stream with you every day."
"Really?" A glint flashed in Jiang Yihe's eyes.
Yu nodded and said, "Really."
"You're so kind, Brother Yu!"
Yu Wenhao said, "It's not that I'm too nice, it's that I want you to be well, really."
"Thank you!" Jiang Yihe said, lowering her head in silence. After a while, she asked, "Brother Yu, do you think I'm sick?"
Yu Wenhao was stunned. He hadn't expected Jiang Yihe to ask so directly. He was still thinking about how to answer when Jiang Yihe continued:
"It's okay, I know I'm sick."
Jiang Yihe raised her head, looked at Yu Wenhao, and said, word by word:
"Brother Yu, actually, I know I'm sick, but my parents refuse to admit it and have never thought of taking me to see a psychiatrist. They think that only mentally ill people go to psychiatrists, and if I go to see a psychiatrist, then I'll be a mental patient, and they'll feel extremely ashamed."
Yu Wenhao said, "That's true. There are many people, especially those your parents' age, who still can't change their mindset."
"Yes. I know it's not good, but I just can't control myself. As soon as I'm about to go out, my mind goes blank and I start to get nervous. Then I do everything over and over again. I apply lipstick and wipe it off, apply it and wipe it off again, and I always feel like I haven't applied it well and it looks ugly."
"It's the same with clothes. I put this on and think that other one is better, but when I put it on, it's still the same. Sometimes, after using perfume, I feel that the perfume smells wrong, like it stinks, so I take a shower again to wash off the perfume and then switch to a different brand. What is this if not an illness? But I just can't control myself, I have to do it."
"I don't know when it started, it must have been when I was in the third grade of elementary school. I went to see a doctor, and the doctor told me that it might be like that. I went to see a psychiatrist, I went secretly by myself. Brother Yu, I was really in pain, and I wanted to change, so I went to see a psychiatrist, but all these kinds of mental illnesses require the cooperation of family members."
"I don't even dare tell my parents I'm going to see a psychiatrist, so how can I expect them to cooperate? It's pointless to go anyway..."
"What happened when you were in third grade?" Yu asked.
"I grew up with my grandparents when I was little. My parents ran a factory and didn't have time to take care of me. I grew up in the countryside with my grandparents until I was in the third grade of elementary school, when I went to school in Jincheng Town. Going to the county meant going to the city and studying there, and of course I was very happy."
"But when I got to school, I couldn't speak Mandarin well. We were all in the countryside, so we spoke the local dialect. My classmates laughed at me and called me a country bumpkin. Even our homeroom teacher would deliberately imitate my accent when he spoke to me, which made the students laugh."
"At that time, I was really, really insecure. I just wanted to hide away and not see them. Or shrink down, shrink to a tiny size, so small that no one could see me. Every morning, I was terrified at the thought of going to school. In the dead of winter, I would deliberately not cover myself with a blanket at night, hoping to catch a cold so I wouldn't have to go to school the next day, but it didn't work."
"Every morning, I don't want to go to school. I want to stay at home. My parents are in a hurry to get to the factory. When they see me dawdling, they yell at me. Sometimes my dad gets really angry and thinks I'm too slow. He'll hit me, put me on the back of his motorcycle, and ride to the school gate. He'll make me get off, and as soon as I get off, he'll ride away. I feel like a pile of garbage, just left there."
"When I got to school, I felt like a country bumpkin. I thought I was ugly, my clothes were ugly, my shoes were ugly, I was so ugly. I walked with my head down, walked into the classroom with my head down, and didn't dare to speak. If I spoke, I would just be a typical country bumpkin. That's how it was."
"So every time you went out after that, you wanted to make yourself look perfect, right?" Yu asked.
"That's right." Jiang Yihe nodded. "But no matter what I do, I still feel very ugly. No matter how expensive the cosmetics I use or how good the designer clothes I wear, it's useless."