I Start with a Mysterious Island-Chapter 103: The Weather Is So Hot, Don’t You Feel Hot Being So Close?
The moment Su Yue heard that her mother wanted to ask about Lin Li, she immediately guessed what her mom was up to.
"Mom, don’t get the wrong idea. We’re just regular friends."
"I never said you two were anything special. Why are you in such a rush to explain?
Come on, sit next to me and tell me about that young man." Zheng Qiuyi gave her daughter a look, then patted the spot on the sofa beside her, beckoning for her to come over.
"..." Seeing the curious gleam in her mother’s eyes, Su Yue had no intention of obediently sitting down to tell her all about Lin Li. "Mom, I’m hungry. I’m going to go make some noodles."
With that, Su Yue turned and left the living room, heading to the kitchen to prepare dinner.
Seeing her daughter turn and walk away, Zheng Qiuyi thought, ’I’ve got plenty of time to question her about that friend later.’ She calmly turned her attention back to the TV show in front of her.
In the kitchen, Su Yue spotted a large black plastic bag in the corner.
She opened the bag for a look and found it filled with many vegetables of excellent quality.
"These vegetables Lin Li brought over are really high quality!"
Su Yue took two large, bright-red tomatoes from the plastic bag, then opened the refrigerator and took out a few free-range eggs.
For dinner tonight, she planned to make a pot of tomato and egg noodle soup.
...
Inside a beef hot pot restaurant in Rongcheng East District, Lin Li sat at a table near the street-side window.
After replying to Su Yue’s message, he muttered to himself.
’Su Yue thanked me for the vegetables and said she’d cook me a meal to pay me back. A single bag of veggies is enough to get a personal home-cooked meal from her? I’ll have to send her vegetables more often from now on.’
As Lin Li was contemplating his new plan to trade vegetables for free meals, he saw a waiter approaching with a small cart. He knew his order had arrived, so he locked his phone screen and set it on the table.
"Sir, here are the dishes you ordered. Would you like anything to drink?"
While asking, the waiter began moving the plates from the cart to Lin Li’s table: sliced beef rolls, beef tripe, beef tongue, beef meatballs, and more.
Lin Li helped the waiter arrange the dishes he’d ordered, then requested a drink. "I’ll have a bottle of ice-cold ’Happy Otaku Water’!"
"Of course, one moment please." The waiter nodded and pushed the cart away. A moment later, he returned with an ice-cold bottle of ’Happy Otaku Water’.
Lin Li took the drink, and after the waiter turned to leave, he pulled the tab on top.
"GLUG GLUG GLUG..."
After taking a big swig of his ice-cold soda, Lin Li began to dig into the beef hot pot before him.
Although Lin Li had ordered a clear broth, eating hot pot in the summer still made you sweat. Even with the restaurant’s powerful air conditioning keeping the temperature comfortable, it didn’t take long for him to be drenched.
"Phew..."
He used a slotted spoon to fish a cooked, handmade meatball into his bowl. He then picked it up with his chopsticks, blew on it to cool it down, and popped it into his mouth.
’Delicious. The handmade meatballs at this place are amazing! I should buy some of the raw ones to take home when I leave.
That way, when I’m out in the wilds hunting Mutant Beasts, I can cook some for lunch.’
As Lin Li savored the fragrant, juicy handmade meatballs, he mentally added them to his field lunch menu.
...
By the time Lin Li finished his hot pot, paid for a large bag of raw meatballs to go, and stepped out of the restaurant, the sky had already gone completely dark.
Carrying the bag of meatballs, Lin Li didn’t head straight home after leaving the restaurant. Instead, he began a leisurely stroll along the street.
An old saying goes, "Walk after a meal, live ’til ninety-nine." Feeling full and satisfied, Lin Li decided to walk for a bit to digest the delicious hot pot feast before heading home.
’Walking around carrying a big bag is kind of a pain,’ he thought. ’Might as well put it on the Mysterious Small Island.’
As Lin Li rounded a street corner, the large bag of raw meatballs in his hand vanished.
After dinner time, quite a few people were out on the streets, strolling and window shopping.
It was late July, and the hot weather meant everyone was dressed in increasingly lighter, cooler clothing.
As Lin Li walked, he saw plenty of pretty girls in short skirts, walking in pairs or small groups, chatting and laughing cheerfully.
’The temperature hasn’t dropped much tonight. Aren’t those two hot, sitting so close together?’
Lin Li’s gaze fell upon a couple on a roadside bench. Seeing how clingy they were, pressed tightly together and whispering in each other’s ears, he couldn’t help but make a snarky comment to himself.
He continued walking. The crowds on the street began to thin out. Lin Li remembered there was a park nearby and decided to head there, find a place to sit, and play on his phone for a while before going home. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺
The park he was headed for was somewhat remote, located next to an old residential area slated for demolition.
After cutting through the old residential district, its walls spray-painted with demolition markers, Lin Li emerged back onto the street and saw the small park he was heading toward.
’What’s that?’
Just as Lin Li was about to head toward the park, he saw a beautiful, fashionably dressed woman emerge from an intersection about thirty meters away.
The woman looked to be in her late twenties, with long, wavy, golden hair.
She carried an expensive, brand-name bag in her left hand. She was wearing a camisole top, a miniskirt that reached mid-thigh, and black high heels.
Ordinarily, if Lin Li saw such a stylish, beautiful woman, he would have glanced once and then looked away, not stared like some kind of pervert.
But now, contrary to his usual behavior, he was staring intently at this fashionably dressed woman.
The reason was that he saw a suspicious-looking bald man in sunglasses trailing behind her.
As the stylish woman walked past a man with a tattoo on his arm, the tattooed man suddenly called out to her.
"Excuse me, miss, do you know how to get to the Benefit the People Public House from here?" the tattooed man asked, holding up his phone as he asked the stylish woman for directions.
"The Benefit the People Public House?" The stylish woman stopped and thought for a moment before replying, "I don’t think there’s any place around here called that."
Just as the stylish woman paused to answer the tattooed man’s question, the guy who had been following her made his move.
...
