I Feel Like I've Heard That Somewhere

The air was thick with the aromas of cumin, sizzling fat, and roasted meat. This was a nearby snack street, packed with stalls selling just about every kind of street food imaginable. Plenty of food lovers came and went; after all, most of them lived nearby and liked to stop by for a bite after work.

The warmth of everyday life was the greatest comfort to an ordinary heart.

Ye Shuang was walking down the snack street with An Shiyu, his eyes scanning the stalls for Chen Hai’s stand. The guy had given up on opening a shop and chosen to rent a stall instead, and among this dazzling array of food vendors, he was genuinely difficult to find.

“Grilled meat is easily the most common thing here, isn’t it? Where the hell is he? All he sent me was a photo of his stall. Couldn’t he at least have included something recognizable in the background?” Ye Shuang thought helplessly as he looked at his phone, where Chen Hai’s message was displayed.

Aside from the address, there was only a photograph of the stall—a perfectly centered shot of the stall itself, without so much as a single landmark beside it.

When Ye Shuang had messaged him afterward, there had been no reply. He had no idea whether Chen Hai was simply too busy.

“Ah, I see her,” An Shiyu suddenly said.

“Hm? You found Chen Hai? Where?” Ye Shuang immediately followed An Shiyu’s gaze, but saw nothing.

“No. I just saw a very cute girl.” An Shiyu wore a blank, wide-eyed expression. “I want to look at her sketchbook.”

Ye Shuang nearly fell silent. “Don’t say weird things like that.”

After walking all the way to the end of the second row, Ye Shuang finally spotted a familiar figure. A grill had been set up at the barbecue stall, its charcoal crackling with sparks, while skewers of meat sizzled on the metal rack.

Even in winter, Chen Hai was wearing a short-sleeved shirt. A cigarette dangled from his lips as he turned the skewers, dressed like any ordinary street vendor. Who would have guessed that just a few months ago, this man had been working in a high-rise office building dozens of stories tall, dressed in a suit and tie?

The smoke and heat had left Chen Hai’s face looking a little grimy, but despite the sweat pouring down his forehead, he seemed to be enjoying himself, as though everything were completely under control.

Neither Ye Shuang nor An Shiyu said anything when they saw him. Instead, a voice came from beside them.

“Handsome guy, pretty lady, how about some grilled skewers? Great prices, fresh ingredients. Come have a seat.”

Ye Shuang turned toward the voice. A girl who looked about the same age as An Shiyu was greeting them.

[Character: An Yao

Yao Yi Yao]

There was nothing particularly noteworthy in the information. Just as Ye Shuang was about to speak, Chen Hai looked up from the grill, immediately spotting Ye Shuang and An Shiyu.

“Oh, you made it?” Chen Hai said.

“Yeah. You look pretty busy,” Ye Shuang said with a smile. He glanced toward the seating area, where nearly every table was occupied.

“I told you business was booming.”

After having Ye Shuang and An Shiyu sit down, Chen Hai handed them a menu. “Go on, order whatever you want. An Yao, help me look after my buddies.”

“Sure, Brother Chen.”

“What would you like? Or you can grab things directly from the freezer. We bought all the ingredients from the supermarket this afternoon,” An Yao said.

“The supermarket? Shouldn’t you be buying from a wholesale market?” Ye Shuang asked.

“I don’t know, sorry,” she said with an apologetic smile.

Ye Shuang did not press the matter. After glancing over the menu, he simply let An Shiyu take a basket and pick out food from the freezer. He had not really come for the barbecue anyway; he mainly wanted to chat with Chen Hai.

But judging from how booming the business was, he would probably have to wait a while.

The moment she heard she could choose food, An Shiyu did not stand on ceremony. She opened the freezer and filled an entire basket.

“Can you finish all that?”

“It’s fine. If I can’t, you can eat the rest.”

“...”

An Shiyu then handed the basket to Chen Hai. “Mildly spicy. And add a dozen oysters.”

“Coming right up.” Chen Hai smiled, seemingly unconcerned.

A little while later, Chen Hai brought over the grilled skewers on a plate. The oil still crackled and popped on their surface. Barbecue was best straight off the grill, after all. But after setting the plate down, Chen Hai did not leave. Instead, he sat beside them.

“Come on, try my cooking. At the very least, it deserves an infinity-star Michelin rating.”

“You really are confident in yourself.”

Ye Shuang smiled faintly, picked up a skewer of grilled pork belly, and took a bite. It was charred and fragrant, with a crisp edge. He nodded. “A little overdone, but the seasoning is good.”

“Who says it’s overdone? This meat is amazing,” An Shiyu said from beside him. Clearly, Chen Hai’s cooking was exactly to Little Yu’s taste.

At An Shiyu’s age, she naturally preferred this sort of high-calorie food, whereas Ye Shuang favored lighter flavors.

When you start finding yourself enjoying plain water, perhaps it really means you are getting old.

“Young ladies really know how to appreciate my talent,” Chen Hai said cheerfully. But after chatting for only a few moments, he had to get back up to work when more customers arrived, seeming unable to stop for even a second.

It was not until Ye Shuang and An Shiyu had finished their skewers that the street’s rush hour finally seemed to subside. Once the number of passing customers had noticeably decreased, Chen Hai finally had time to sit down. He pulled over an electric fan and aimed it at himself. Drenched in sweat, he looked a little greasy.

“Business seems to be pretty good, but it must be exhausting, right?” Ye Shuang asked. He had roughly counted the customers and estimated that this single rush alone had brought in more than three thousand yuan in sales.

By the end of the night, the revenue would probably reach over five thousand yuan.

“Exhausting? Hell yes. Just skewering the meat had me busy from the afternoon until it was time to set up the stall,” Chen Hai said. “And all my meat is fresh, so I have to cut and prepare it myself. My ingredients are expensive, so I’m not actually making much profit.”

“If it’s that hard, why not come back?” Ye Shuang said. One of his former subordinates had only just escaped the life of running a stall to join the company group, while Chen Hai had gone in the exact opposite direction.

“No chance.”

Chen Hai looked tired, yet thoroughly satisfied. Ye Shuang could not help wondering whether the man was some kind of masochist. Then again, if he really were one, he probably would not have divorced Feng Shan so easily.

Ye Shuang’s gaze fell on the girl helping out at the stall. “That girl... she’s the one who helps clean your apartment, isn’t she?”

“Yep. She cleans my place, then helps out here. I pay her wages,” Chen Hai said.

“Where did you find her? She looks like she’s still a student.”

“She is. First-year university student,” Chen Hai said. “One time, I got drunk and passed out by the roadside.”

“Then this girl came over with a cup of instant noodles and asked if I was hungry. In the end, she took me back to her home.”

Ye Shuang’s expression remained blank. “I feel like I’ve heard this story somewhere before.”

“More or less, more or less.”