Chapter 79: Guo Er’s Strange Illness

“What is going on, Mom?” I stopped fooling around with my second sister and looked at my mother with interest. I knew how much I could eat because my consumption was high, but for someone to eat as much as I did would also be quite an interesting thing.

I also went to school in the market town, but I was always coming and going in a hurry every day. Apart from staying in close contact with Su Rou, I basically had little interaction with anyone else. In other people’s eyes, I was rather reclusive, completely unlike the mischievous, cheerful, and unruly child I had been when I was young.

I knew in my heart that I was afraid of developing feelings for my classmates, only to end up unable to let go when the time came. This was because the loneliness left behind in me, still young at the time, on the day my family moved, had been too deeply etched into my memory. I was truly afraid of that.

Because of this so called reclusiveness, my sources of information about the various happenings in the market town were very limited.

“You still do not know about it, San Wa Er?” My mother was indeed surprised by my ignorance.

“What am I supposed to know? All I do every day is either studying at school or practicing cultivation on the mountain. Mom, just tell me what is going on,” I said.

“Yes, Mom, why have you not mentioned it these past few days?” My second sister was also very interested. She really wanted to know what kind of person could eat to the same level as her younger brother. Could it be someone who was also practicing cultivation like him?

“Oh, I only heard about it yesterday. Yesterday I went into the city to buy things and happened to run into Aunt Liu from our village. Her son has settled down in the market town, you know that, right?” my mother said.

“Mom, just tell us already. Why keep asking whether we know or not?” I urged her.

“Exactly,” my second sister said anxiously.

“Alright, alright,” my mother said after taking a sip of water. She turned and saw that my father also looked very interested, so she could not help but tap his head before continuing. “Her son has settled in the market town, so he knows a lot about what happens there. That day when I ran into her, we chatted for a while, and she told me that Guo Er in the market town suddenly became extremely able to eat starting about a week ago. In the morning he could eat two jin of noodles, and before noon he would be hungry again. At lunchtime, he could finish an entire pot of food meant for a family of six. Before the others in the family could even eat a couple of bites of vegetables, he would already wolf everything down. That appearance... tsk, tsk... I have never seen anything like it, but just hearing it makes you feel like your stomach would burst.”

My second sister looked at me and said, “Little brother, you are not going to turn into that too, are you?”

I frowned. Speaking of eating, I did eat far more than normal people, but I was probably still a bit short of Guo Er’s level. Moreover, my daily amount of exercise also determined my consumption.

After following Old Man Jiang for so many years, I vaguely felt that something was off. Ignoring my second sister, I looked at my mother and asked, “What about at night? Does he not eat at night? Has eating like this not killed him?”

My father spoke up, “How did Guo Er end up like this? Even though that guy was a bit unreliable, he was one of the sharpest minds in the market town. Back when times were so hard, he still managed to support his family despite not doing proper work. He would never do something as stupid as eating like a pig.”

Because Guo Er was quite well known in the market town, not only my parents had heard of him, but even my second sister and I, who had been studying there for years, had heard about him. He was known for having a quick mind and apparently also bold courage.

“Oh, just let me finish,” my mother continued. “I do not know exactly why he became like this, but I do know he still eats the same way at night. You ask if it has harmed him? Of course it has. I heard that after eating at noon, he usually vomits everything back up. His face turns completely pale from overeating. But after vomiting, he still keeps eating. Aunt Liu told me that these past few days, their family does not even dare to cook anymore, because Guo Er has already eaten himself to the point of vomiting blood. His stomach is probably ruined. No one knows the details anymore. Anyway, the matter has spread throughout the market town. His wife has been going everywhere looking for doctors. They already took him to the county hospital the day before yesterday. If it does not get better, they will have to send him to the city.”

My second sister turned to me and asked, “Little brother, is Guo Er failing in cultivation and damaging himself from overeating?”

It was difficult for me to explain to my family that how much one eats is not a sign of successful cultivation. However, I also felt a vague unease for reasons I could not explain. I said vaguely to my second sister, “He is not cultivating. He probably has some strange illness. It is quite odd.”

My second sister had a somewhat frightening memory in the past and was rather sensitive at heart, so she asked cautiously, “Little brother, did Guo Er accidentally run into something strange?”

Before I could answer, my mother said, “No, no. I thought so too at first, but Aunt Liu said Guo Er is as clear headed as ever. It is only his eating that is abnormal. It does not look like he ran into anything like that at all.”

“Mm, then it is just a strange illness,” I said as well. In truth, I knew it was not that simple. Over the years with Old Man Jiang, I had heard many strange things. The world was full of all kinds of bizarre occurrences, and matters involving ghosts were just minor issues.

However, my family were ordinary people. I could not let them know too much, and I did not want them to know too much either. In earlier years, because of me, they had already been frightened enough.

The discussion about Guo Er ended there. I tried not to think about it and spent a warm, peaceful time with my family. Days like this, as my fifteenth birthday approached, were probably becoming fewer with each passing day.

Early the next morning, I returned to the market town because I still had to attend school. My studies were strictly supervised by Old Man Jiang, and I did not dare to slack off, even though I no longer had Liu Chunyan as that tightening constraint.

That is right, Liu Chunyan had already gone to study in the town. She was an ambitious girl, and my eldest sister was her target to surpass.

After a few classes at school, at noon I went out to find Su Rou. We were currently studying in the same middle school in the market town, just not in the same class.

I found Su Rou behind the teaching building. That guy was hanging out with a few delinquent students, hiding behind the building and smoking. When he saw me, he quickly pulled out a pack of green Emerald cigarettes from his pocket, shook one out, and handed it to me. “San Wa Er, want one?”

I looked at Su Rou in front of me. That kid had been getting fatter every year, but he had also grown taller. Now he was big and sturdy, standing there like a stone pillar.

After entering middle school, he had taken a liking to mixing in street circles and had become something of a school tyrant along with a few others. Fighting, skipping classes, he did it all, but that did not affect the deep friendship we had built since childhood.

“I do not smoke,” I said, pushing away the cigarette he offered. Su Rou did not mind. He smiled and put it away carefully in his pocket, then threw an arm around my shoulder and said, “These Emeralds are good stuff I stole from my dad. I just wanted to share them with you.”

“I see you are smoking Emeralds now,” I thought to myself, feeling a bit warm inside. This guy Su Rou. I figured he would be beaten by his father in a couple of days once the stolen cigarettes were discovered anyway.

“Big big brother,” the few other kids beside Su Rou also greeted me quickly. I responded casually.

Su Rou was now basically the boss of this school, with so called underlings under him. He called himself the boss, and since I was his boss’s boss, those little delinquents had to call me Big Big Brother.

He often boasted, “You do not know, San Wa Er does not like to act. But once he does, he can take on ten at a time.”

Ten at a time. I had never tried that, so I actually did not know.

I had tried to stop this bragging about the Big Big Brother thing a few times, but with no effect, so I eventually let it be.

“Su Rou, come with me. I need to talk to you about something,” I said.

“Alright, just finish a couple more puffs. Waste not, these Emeralds,” Su Rou said, taking two heavy drags before throwing the cigarette butt on the ground and throwing his arm around my shoulder as we walked off.

Ten minutes later, we were sitting on four lunch boxes on top of the school ping pong table, our usual place for eating. If we ate like this in the classroom, we would be treated like monsters.