CH 5

Chapter 5 – The Basement Tenant

At noon, Zhao Pianpian came to the third floor to eat with Luo Bei and Grandma Luo.

Because there was a pregnant woman present, Grandma Luo prepared a variety of dishes.

Luo Bei couldn’t help but joke, “Grandma, you are being biased. It’s usually simple dishes when I’m at home, but now there’s chicken soup and beef…”

“I’ll prepare a sumptuous banquet for you every day if you’re pregnant.” Grandma Luo scolded laughingly.

There were meat dishes and vegetable dishes as well as soup. Zhao Pianpian usually cooked at home too, but as her belly grew larger, she couldn’t do as much as she wanted and ordered takeaway a few times. She was afraid that it would be bad for her baby if she kept eating so she summoned up her courage to ask Grandma Luo for that favor.

The building the Luo family owned didn’t have an elevator. After their meal, under the command of Grandma Luo, Luo Bei supported Zhao Pianpian back to Room 202.

Luo Bei was originally going to go home, but Zhao Pianpian stopped her.

“Beibei, can you accompany me to the park nearby for a walk?”

Zhao Pianpian’s emotions were slightly unstable. Luo Bei knew approximately why. At lunch, the TV was playing the news of Lei Corp and Lu Corp cancelling their marriage alliance. There was no way Zhao Pianpian would not have been affected.

Luo Bei had nothing to do anyway and with Zhao Pianpian’s identity as the future wife of a CEO, she had no reason to disagree.

Of course, it wasn’t that Luo Bei wanted to gain power and wealth, it was just the mindset of a small-town girl.

After Zhao Pianpian struck gold later and became rich, it would be great if she could think of her family and send some money their way. It was fine if she didn’t too. After all, it wasn’t like Zhao Pianpian owed her anything. Paying more attention to Zhao Pianpian now was just putting in a little more effort in Luo Bei’s eyes. Whether Zhao Pianpian thought of it as a great favor or just extra help didn’t matter to her.

There was a park near the slums just a ten-minute walk away.

Today was a workday. The uncles and aunts of the neighborhood had gathered to play mahjong and the park was empty.

Although it was a little hot at the moment, the park was full of trees. Sitting under the shade of the trees, the wind blowing a cool breeze, it wasn’t too uncomfortable.

Zhao Pianpian suddenly asked: “Beibei, have you ever had a boyfriend?”

To be honest, Luo Bei and Zhao Pianpian didn’t know each other too well. Zhao Pianpian was only close to Grandma Luo, so naturally, Zhao Pianpian was quite fond of Luo Bei by association.

“Yeah.” Luo Bei pondered, “Twice.”

“What kind of people were they?”

Luo Bei recalled, “They were both classmates. One from high school and the other a senior from college. They were both really nice but the one from high school went to study abroad and we slowly lost contact. The senior was busy working after graduating and I was tired of the relationship at that time so we broke up after quarreling a lot.”

Her dating history was very simple, nowhere near as thrilling as Zhao Pianpian’s, nowhere near as sensational either.

Zhao Pianpian smiled again, “That’s good. Ordinary feelings are better.”

Luo Bei had seen how the whole story would play out. Zhao Pianpian’s heart was currently like dead ashes, she no longer had fond feelings towards Lei Yuhao. Therefore, even if Lei Yuhao was no longer engaged or getting married, although her emotions were stirred, she would not go looking for him anymore. Her only goal now was to give birth to the child in her belly and raise it well.

After hearing Zhao Pianpian’s words, Luo Bei did not know what to say. She only knew that her dream back in middle school was to have a rich lady scornfully wave a cheque of a few million dollars and tell her, “Here’s 5 million, stay away from my son.” She would definitely immediately pick up the cheque and sashay away.

So many years had passed, not a single person came up to her giving her five hundred dollars to leave, let alone five million.

After returning from the park with Zhao Pianpian, Luo Bei’s WeChat rang with a notification.

It was a message from Zhan Qi.

He invited her to eat ma la tang1 [javascript:void(0)]ma la tang is spicy, numbing hot soup from Sichuan. It works by selecting the ingredients you want and giving them to the kitchen to cook. together.

Luo Bei and Zhan Qi could barely be considered to be childhood sweethearts. Of course, all the men in this neighborhood that were similar in age could be considered her childhood sweetheart.

There was an old, very famous ma la tang restaurant in the slums. There were no branches and the pair of husband and wife worked from dawn till dusk. The business wasn’t doing too bad, either, there was always a queue even until nighttime.

It was afternoon, there weren’t a lot of people in the ma la tang store. When Luo Bei arrived, Zhan Qi was already there. The two chose a few dishes and sat under the electric fan for a conversation.

There was really nothing much to talk about between the two of them.

Zhan Qi liked talking about his small business, but the point was that Luo Bei didn’t understand and had no interest at all.

She wasn’t hungry in the first place and stopped eating after a few bites.

She wouldn’t fight with Zhan Qi to pay for the bill for this bowl of ma la tang, but as they were going to leave, the tenant from the basement of her building walked in.

This tenant from the basement had also moved in only a few months ago. He didn’t talk much, but paid the monthly rent on time.

He was very thin. He looked over 180cm tall but he was emaciated to the point he was a walking skeleton. When he moved in, the only thing he had with him was a guitar.

Grandma Luo couldn’t bear to see him in such a state and gave him the old sheets and bedding that had been washed from home. If not for those, Luo Bei didn’t know how he was going to sleep as the basement room was usually very damp and cold.

When Luo Bei passed by him, she noticed that he only selected a round of instant noodles and the cheapest vegetables, coming up to about five yuan in total.

She didn’t believe that it was because he wanted to lose weight. It was probably because he had no money.

Ma la tang – All the craze these days, yum!