Chapter 2700 — What Is in the Backpack?

"I never said I'd finish it all today. I'll keep eating the leftovers tomorrow, and the day after that too—every day, every month, and sooner or later it'll all be gone," Yu Xiaoke said indifferently, then waved to the owner: "Boss, two large bowls of knife-cut noodles!"

"Coming right up. Meat and egg?" the owner asked.

"No extras," Yu Xiaoke said with a shake of her head.

"Side dishes?" the owner asked.

"None of those either," Yu Xiaoke refused.

"The side dishes here look pretty good. How about we get one?" Wei Zhao glanced at the side dishes; they were decently made, especially the tossed vegetable dish—glossy with red chili oil and quite tempting.

"No. They're not good," Yu Xiaoke said.

"Then I'll order one for myself?" Wei Zhao asked.

"Eat it yourself. That doesn't count as you treating me," Yu Xiaoke said.

"Fine, I'll spend my own money." Wei Zhao guessed that Yu Xiaoke was a cheapskate. Smiling, he stood up and had the owner dish out two plates of side dishes, then paid the owner, simply settling the bill for the two bowls of noodles as well.

The side dishes and the knife-cut noodles were set on the table almost at the same time. Yu Xiaoke picked up her chopsticks and unceremoniously dug into the side dishes—before she had even bothered to touch the noodles, she had polished off one whole plate!

"Didn't you say the side dishes weren't good?" Wei Zhao broke into a sweat watching Yu Xiaoke wolf down her food, yet he also felt a pang of sorrow. The Yu Xiaoke of today handled funds in the tens of millions with every transaction, but judging by the way she ate, she probably never got anything decent normally—otherwise she wouldn't be devouring her food like this here!

"Oh, they're usually not good. Today's are pretty tasty. Don't tell me you think I'm eating too much and don't want to treat me anymore? Then I'll leave?" Yu Xiaoke glanced at Wei Zhao and said without so much as a blush or a skipped heartbeat.

"Then eat up..." Wei Zhao chuckled and called for the owner to bring two more plates of side dishes, only to be glared at by Yu Xiaoke!

"Ordering so much—if you can't finish it, isn't that a waste?" Yu Xiaoke stopped the owner and had him bring just one more plate.

"Oink, oink..." The Heavenly Thunder Pig caught the aroma of the food and started squealing. Having lived with Wei Zhao for a long time, the little pig had begun eating human food too. After all, the true qi it cultivated all came from Wei Zhao, so it no longer needed to eat rare treasures of heaven and earth. With nothing else to eat normally, it just followed along and ate some human meals. Unexpectedly, it had gotten hooked on the stuff—it wouldn't eat pork, but it would even eat dog meat, until Mighty General gave it a beating and it finally behaved.

Wei Zhao frowned, startled! This Heavenly Thunder Pig was a real troublemaker—why did it have to squeal now? Was it trying to let Yu Xiaoke discover him?

Sure enough, Yu Xiaoke had heard the earlier "oink, oink" too, and gave Wei Zhao an odd look: "What's that in your backpack? Why is it making strange noises?"

"Oh, it's an inflatable toy," Wei Zhao said offhandedly, then raised his fist and thumped the backpack twice. The Heavenly Thunder Pig, stung by the pain, let out two more "oink, oinks," but this time it behaved and didn't dare squeal at random.

"An inflatable toy?" Yu Xiaoke was briefly taken aback, but she misunderstood—she thought he meant an inflatable doll. She gave a cold snort. "How disgusting!"

No wonder her thoughts had taken that turn. Wei Zhao was a grown man; there was no way he'd buy the kind of inflatable toys little kids played with. The only thing he could play with was an inflatable doll—and one that could make noises at that... So Yu Xiaoke quite naturally took the "oink, oink" sounds to be the noises of that inflatable doll luring men on!

How shameless. An inflatable doll that even says "jj"?

"???" Wei Zhao was baffled at being cursed by Yu Xiaoke. How was having an inflatable toy in his backpack disgusting?

But naturally Yu Xiaoke wouldn't explain it to Wei Zhao. She just wanted to finish eating quickly and be done with him. Though she knew that in all likelihood Wei Zhao had just been making an excuse to drag her out for a meal, and there was certainly no so-called orphanage development plan he wanted to discuss with her, Yu Xiaoke still asked cautiously: "Wei Zhao, didn't you say you had an orphanage development plan to tell me about?"

"Oh, the orphanage development plan..." Wei Zhao nodded. He really had given this matter serious thought, and he wasn't deliberately trying to deceive Yu Xiaoke: "There are more and more children at the orphanage now. Have you ever considered sending them to school?"

"Go to school?" Yu Xiaoke was briefly stunned. Wei Zhao's words sent her into memories... School—what a distant, unattainable thing it was for the orphanage's children. There was a time when Yu Xiaoke envied children who could go to school, but she knew the orphanage's conditions weren't enough; it could never pay their tuition. So she had buried the thought deep in her heart and never once mentioned it to the old director.

But now that Wei Zhao had brought it up, Yu Xiaoke couldn't help but think deeply about the future of the orphanage's children! Back when there were few children, once they grew up they took on work at the orphanage—just like Yu Xiaoke and Xiaoken, becoming staff members and devoting their youth to the other children of the orphanage!

This wasn't a bad thing in itself. But now the orphanage had more children, and more and more would grow up in the future. The orphanage certainly wouldn't need all of them—so what were these children to do?

Many of these children had congenital illnesses. Even once cured, their bodies were far weaker than normal children's. Without education, without a skill, and with poor health, what could they do once they entered society?

They wouldn't even be wanted to haul bricks at a construction site, would they? Construction sites wanted people with hauling experience and strong physiques—these children simply couldn't do it!

So how were these children to survive? The orphanage couldn't support them for a lifetime, could it? Its expenses were already tight. Supporting these children for a lifetime was basically a joke. Only now, with Wei Zhao's reminder, did Yu Xiaoke begin to consider the distant future.

"True. These children can't all grow up to be thieves like you, can they? You don't want that for them either, do you?" Wei Zhao asked.

"I... Are you looking down on me?" Yu Xiaoke glared at Wei Zhao.

"Not at all. If I looked down on you, I wouldn't have treated you to a meal," Wei Zhao said. "Actually, the reason I'm telling you this is to get you to free yourself up as soon as possible. It ages a girl to be too tired, and I don't want you turning into a yellow-faced hag before your time."

"What business is it of yours?" Yu Xiaoke was so angry her teeth itched. Round and round they went—he'd only said two proper sentences before going off the rails again. "If you have something to say, say it!"

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