That night, they waited for a call from Shanquan. Yixiong and Yiren got their turn first. They stood on guard while Xinxiu and Zhengyi slept. Around three in the morning, Xinxiu and Zhengyi got up and replaced Yiren and Yixiong to stand guard.

But that night, Shanquan did not call. He only called to give the news about eight in the morning. He said he was okay but didn't know anything yet about Songfei. The news that nothing terrible happened to Shanquan relieved them. At the same time, they were also somewhat worried that Songfei might be in trouble. They decided not to go anywhere today. After Shanquan returned, they would discuss what to do next.

At nine in the morning, the phone rang again. Yiren rushed out of the room to answer the phone. He suspected there was the latest news from their dahge.

"Hello," said Yiren.

"Hello," came a voice from the other end.

"Qiuzhen? Is it you?" Yiren recognized the voice. The voice owner was Zhonghang Qiuzhen, their comrade who, six months ago, moved to another city.

"Good Morning! Yes, it's me, Qiuzhen," replied the caller. He sounded happy.

"Good Morning! It's good to hear your voice, Qiuzhen!" Said Yiren. Habitually, Qiuzhen called them once or twice a week to keep up with each other.

"How are you there? Have you found a new place for us to stay?" Asked Qiuzhen.

Many of Qiuzhen's stuff was still in their house. So, they still considered Qiuzhen as their housemate. So when they found a new place, it would be Qiuzhen's house too.

"Still not yet," replied Yiren. "I think this problem will take a long time to resolve. So there is a possibility we will be vagrant next week," Yiren was laughing out loud. "By the way, it's unusual for you to call us in the morning. Is there any important news you want to share?"

Usually, Qiuzhen made calls at night because long-distance calls were cheaper. Besides, it's because Qiuzhen worked during the day. Nine o'clock, like now, usually was a busy time for Qiuzhen.

"The company pulled me back to the head office. So tomorrow I'll go back there," said Qiuzhen.

"Wow, that's good to hear," shouted Yiren, "Later, we can be homeless together here."

They both were laughing together.

"I'll be there in the evening. It's after ten," said Qiuzhen.

"Okay, I'll make sure we are at home tomorrow night."

Qiuzhen hadn't brought this house's keys with him when he'd moved out. So somebody had to be at home to open the door for him.

"Thank you very much," said Qiuzhen.

"Very well. We'll be waiting for you."

"Convey my greetings to the others."

"Okay. See you tomorrow night."

When Yiren hung up, Yixiong walked over to him.

Yixiong's face looked curious. "Who is calling?"

"The company moved Qiuzhen back here. So tomorrow he will come home. He will arrive at this house after ten at night."

"Oh, that's great then. We have a friend with the same fate as a bum," said Yixiong.

"At least he still has a job," said Yiren.

Yixiong burst out laughing when he heard Yiren's words.

Qiuzhen, the youngest member of their group, had moved to another city six months ago. Qiuzhen had said the company where he worked had thrived, so they'd opened a branch in another city. Unlike the other residents who lived in the house, Qiuzhen had moved to this city three years ago. Then he'd lived and worked in this city. One year ago, he'd joined the others after they'd come to this city. Then, after some deliberation, he'd decided to stay together with the others.

While waiting for Shanquan to come home, Yiren and Yixiong read books and watched television. Meanwhile, Zhengyi and Xinxiu slept until around eleven o'clock. At noon, it turned out that Shanquan still didn't arrive home yet, so half an hour later, they settled to have lunch without Shanquan. They thought Shanquan must have had lunch on the way home.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

The four of them sat at the dining table. Yiren can hear a faint roar from his stomach. It was obvious that he was hungry. His friends laughed. From their reaction, it seemed they could hear the roar, too. Yiren took and put the rice in the bowl. As usual, he took a lot of rice. Since two months ago, he was actually determined to go on a diet. At least he wanted to reduce rice consumption. But it turned out to be very difficult. He lives with people who love to eat. So the temptation to eat more always graced Yiren's days. Finally, Yiren could only follow the eating habits of the surrounding people. He continued to eat as usual. However, he increases his physical activity so that the food he eats, especially carbohydrates, does not accumulate as fat in his body. It so happened that during the past two weeks, he had been going out every day. When he did activities outside, he tried his best to always walk to get there, except, of course, when he had to travel to a distant place, which was clearly impossible for him to reach on foot because it would waste a lot of time.

"What do you think about the dish?" Yiren asked Xinxiu. Since this morning, Xinxiu slept until noon after staying awake from three to eight in the morning while waiting for news from Shanquan. It was Yixiong who cooked the lunch this time.

"It's delicious," said Xinxiu, glancing at Yixiong. Yixiong only smiled at the questions and answers. Yixiong's cooking was quite good. It was just that it probably couldn't be compared to Xinxiu.

"I'm learning how to cook properly," said Yixiong with a laugh.

Everyone nodded.

"How do you honestly think?" Yixiong asked Xinxiu.

Xinxiu chewed on the rice that was still in his mouth. After swallowing the rice, he answered Yixiong's question. "Xiongge has made a lot of progress. Compared to three months ago, this is an extraordinary achievement," said Xinxiu.

Three months ago was the beginning of all of them becoming unemployed. Starting from Shanquan, and then one by one successively, the other four also lost their jobs. It made sense that soon after that, Yixiong would find plenty of time to practice cooking.

"Thank you! Thank you Xiudi," said Yixiong, "but I mean, in what way is my cooking still not good?"

Xinxiu furrowed his brows. It seemed that he was having a little trouble coming up with the right words to describe his assessment of the dishes Yixiong cooked.

"Well, in my opinion, the assessment of food is very subjective. What I feel is important, maybe it is not important to other people at all. So, actually, the perfect or imperfect of a dish, depends solely on the basic philosophy adopted by the cook themselves."

Xinxiu's words did sound cool. But in Yiren's opinion, that words were completely meaningless. Yixiong looked at Xinxiu to wait for Xinxiu to continue. However, Xinxiu continued to feed the rice and side dishes into his mouth and then was busy chewing the rice and side dishes.

Yixiong seemed to be still waiting for a clearer answer from Xinxiu. Therefore, Xinxiu then had to give an assessment that sounded more beautiful to Yixiong.

"I think the progress that Xiongge has achieved is truly extraordinary. I think if Xiongge opened a small food stall now, the customers who come will certainly not complain about the taste of the dishes Xiongge cooks."

Yixiong seemed thrilled to hear Xinxiu's praise. Yiren even worried that Xinxiu's words would make Yixiong overconfident to open a small food stall if he didn't get a job in the near future.

Since the beginning to the end they enjoyed lunch, Zhengyi was silent. Yiren did not know exactly what was bothering his friend's mind. It was not clear it was related to the problems they were facing together or only to Zhengyi's personal issues. Yiren did not want to ask questions. Apart from not wanting to interfere too far, he worried that such actions might only worsen things. He could only hope that Zhengyi was willing to discuss matters that were bothering him. At least he had to open himself up to Shanquan, who was the central figure among them.

Whether it was because Yixiong had cooked too much rice or, indeed, they only ate a little, what was clear before them was the fact that there was still a lot of rice left. Even until midnight, the amount of rice that much would most likely still not run out. They probably wouldn't be able to eat that much rice. Yiren glanced at Xinxiu. His reaction was really interesting. The youngest of them looked deep in thought. He gazed at the mound of rice still served on their dining table. Perhaps he was contemplating what they should do with the rice.

After lunch, Yiren and Yixiong looked around their front yard. Just then, they saw a boxcar stop in front of their neighbor's house. Yiren and Yixiong then came out of their fence to take a closer look. When they came out of the fence, they looked closely at the house to their left. Two people who looked like electronics technicians also went out of their neighbor's house fence. Their neighbor walked behind the two people. After the three had chatted for a while, the two technicians got into their boxcar, which immediately sped away.

"Have they finished repairing your television?" Yixiong greeted their neighbor.

"They're done, but I'm still not satisfied," said their next-door neighbor. He was standing in his yard, right in front of the gate.

"Unsatisfied how, Sir?" Yiren leaned forward.

"The color is not bright enough. Because this is a new television, so it is still under full warranty, so I asked them to replace it with a new television."

"Are they willing to replace the television, Sir?" Yixiong's eyes widened.

"At first they didn't want to. But because I insisted, they finally relented. But they said they couldn't do it today. So, only tomorrow afternoon, they have time to deliver a replacement television. It couldn't be earlier than that."

After that, their neighbors went back into the house. Yiren and Yixiong were still standing outside for a few minutes. Besides looking around the outside of the fence, they also saw some plants growing in the front yard. Although not often, sometimes they do things like that. However, they soon entered the house because the weather was quite hot.

They busied themselves with their own activities while waiting for Shanquan to return. Yixiong and Yiren watched television in the living room. Xinxiu and Zhengyi sat in the dining room. Yiren didn't know what the two of them were doing, but he assumed that his two friends might be reading a book or magazine since he didn't hear their voices.