Chapter 19: Returning Home to Face the Consequences

"I'm completely out of money!" Xu Fangfang looked helplessly at her two brothers. The fourth, Xu Hongbin, briskly pulled out both his pockets, slapped them like pig's ears, and said, "I spent all my money when we settled the bill just now!"

Lin Jia rummaged through his pockets muttering, "I remember I still had a few coins..." He searched up and down until finally he found two one-yuan coins, a fifty-cent coin, and five ten-cent coins. Smiling in triumph, he exclaimed, "Ha! Just enough to buy three bowls of hot dry noodles!"

Hot dry noodles for one yuan a bowl are a specialty snack around Hubei’s Wuhan region, with Wuhan's version being the most authentic. The springy alkaline noodles are briefly boiled, then topped with scallion, ginger, garlic water, spicy radish, and a spoonful of thick sesame paste mixed with fragrant oil, finished with a sprinkle of cilantro. After stirring, you lift a chopstickful and stuff it into your mouth, slurping it down greedily... Ah! Rich, aromatic, and impossibly smooth!

After finishing a bowl, you still crave more, the taste lingering on your lips and teeth. A final lick of the sesame paste clinging to the corners of your mouth, followed by a fragrant burp, is sheer bliss. If, like Lin Jia and the others, you only have three yuan and can't afford a freshly squeezed soy milk, don't waste the sesame paste left at the bottom of your bowl—ask the vendor to pour in half a bowl of boiling water. Swirl it all together and drink every drop, and you'll be thoroughly satisfied.

Under the vendor's pained gaze, Lin Jia and his friends poured plenty of vinegar and enough chili sauce for more than three people into their one-yuan bowls of hot dry noodles. Then, as if preparing a cold cilantro salad, they heaped in a generous amount of chopped cilantro before finally digging in. Unfortunately, though the noodles were cheap and plentiful, they couldn't withstand the appetites of these hungry wolf cubs who'd gone half a night without food—two bites and the bowls were empty.

After breakfast, the fourth brother wiped his mouth and waved to the other two, saying, "I'm off! Call me if you go online tomorrow!" Then, without looking back, he sauntered home. The fourth lived in a different neighborhood from Lin Jia and the eldest, a ten-minute walk apart. Lin Jia and the eldest resided in a staff housing district of the steel enterprise where their parents worked, close to a large lake—the scenery was among the best in the small city. The elderly, having finished their morning exercise, were already heading to the community market to buy food for lunch.

Lin Jia waved goodbye to the eldest, slipped into his building, and, feeling weak and dizzy, struggled up to his fifth-floor home. He carefully took out his keys and opened the security door, peeking inside to check if anyone was in the living room—no one. Overjoyed, he quickly kicked off his broken sandals and crept toward his room.

But before he could reach his goal, a stern voice called out from the kitchen, "Where did you run off to yesterday? Stayed out all night!?"

Lin Jia broke out in a cold sweat and turned around, feigning surprise. His father, apron-clad, was kneading dough in the kitchen. Then, the mesh door on the balcony rattled, and the sound of slippers hurriedly approached—his mother burst out.

Before Lin Jia could speak, his petite mother erupted like a volcano: "You rascal! No sense of decency! Your courage is getting bigger and bigger! Where did you go to fool around all night, huh?"

Lin Jia's heart pounded, but he pretended nothing was wrong, quickly stripping off his sweat-soaked shirt and grinning, "I was playing at Xu Hongbin's house..."

"Playing all night? What's so fun about that?" His mother scolded furiously as she took the foul-smelling shirt from his hands. "You little devil! You stink!"

His father, dusting flour from his hands, stepped out and glared at the carefree Lin Jia. He barked, "You go out and play and don't bother to come home? Couldn't you call to let us know? Do you realize how worried we were?"

At home, Lin Jia feared his mother most; her nagging could go on for two hours without repeating herself, a torture worse than Sun Wukong enduring Tang Monk's chanting for hours. But when his usually easy-going father lost his temper, it meant serious trouble.

"I called yesterday afternoon! Nobody answered! Where were you guys yesterday afternoon, huh? Not at home!? Dad, weren't you off yesterday?" Lin Jia, sweating bullets, tried to shift the blame. He knew his father, off work, usually went to the market by the Yangtze River to buy wholesale fruits and vegetables—much cheaper than the community market. His frugal parents often traveled further to save a little money. His retired mother was restless and would spend afternoons cooling off in the neighborhood's green area, chatting and playing cards with other elderly folks. Lin Jia gambled that nobody had been home yesterday afternoon.

Luckily, his parents’ tone softened. His father said, "I went shopping for groceries in the afternoon. If you couldn't get through, you should have called again at dinner time..."

Lin Jia breathed a little easier, casually heading to his room to grab a clean pair of briefs and walk to the bathroom, grumbling, "Yesterday afternoon, we played basketball, then went online at the internet café, ran out of money so we went to Xu Hongbin’s house to play video games, ate dinner there, and ended up sleeping at their place... I was out of money, so how could I call home?"

Hearing his explanation, his father returned to the kitchen to knead dough. The family was originally from Henan and loved noodles, so his father often made dumplings. Meanwhile, his mother threw Lin Jia’s smelly shirt into the basin to soak and muttered, "How can you sleep in someone else's house stinking like that? Don’t their parents mind your mess? Didn’t I just give you ten yuan yesterday? Already spent it? Spending money all day long—how much do you think we have for you to waste? Look at other kids, so obedient. Tell you to study hard but you don’t listen! If you went to university, do you know how much you’d earn afterward..."

Lin Jia slipped into the bathroom for a shower, knowing he'd gotten away with it. He paid no attention to his mother's endlessly repeated complaints, hurriedly washed up with cold water, and rushed to bed.

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(Trouble: Uh... Did I mention the time? Well, alright! I admit I fell asleep. Two chapters updated as apology!)