The Legend of Tokyo Taoist

Chapter 47 On-the-job Training (6)

Inuyama Heita was frightened. He took out his cell phone and saw that it was Qian Xiaoyi calling.

"Finally!" Inuyama Heita breathed a sigh of relief. He knew Qian Xiaoyi would not leave him in such a hellish place, so he answered the phone and said, "Brother Yi!"

"Pingtai, turn left." Qian Xiaoyi said. The phone signal was very bad, making his voice a little distorted.

"Yes!" Inuyama Heita ran to the left without hesitation. It was a road leading deep into the residential area.

When Inuyama Heita ran to a fork in the road, Qian Xiaoyi said again: "Turn right now, Heita."

Inuyama Heita hesitated for a moment and stopped because he saw that the compass needle in his hand was pointing straight at the mobile phone in his other hand which was still on the line, without moving.

"What's wrong with you, Pingtai? Why don't you leave?" Qian Xiaoyi asked.

Inuyama Heita raised his phone to his ear and asked, "Um... Brother Yi, I'm suddenly hungry, so I want to ask, is there anything to eat in the office kitchen refrigerator? I want to go back and make something to eat later."

"There are still some left." said the person on the other end of the phone.

Hearing this answer, Inuyama Heita's hands shook and he hung up the phone.

——Lingkong Office doesn’t have a kitchen, and Qian Xiaoyi usually calls his name wrong, not to mention...how would the other party know that he didn’t continue walking?
So...who is on the other end of the line? !
The phone rang again, and Qian Xiaoyi's name was clearly visible on the caller ID, but Inuyama Heita didn't dare to answer it. The ordinary ringtone was like a note of death, beating on Inuyama Heita's heart. Inuyama Heita wanted to smash the phone now, but he couldn't bear to do it. He had worked part-time for a long time to get it, and he had grown attached to it.

The surroundings were still the dim streets at dusk, but Inuyama Heita's sensitive senses seemed to indicate that there were countless prying eyes coming from the single-family houses beside the street. Although the curtains of those houses were drawn, he could still sense that there were people behind them.

"Where... is this..." Inuyama Heita's teeth began to chatter, and he couldn't help shaking. He had a primitive impulse to run away from here, and fear was slowly taking root...

Just when he was about to run away in despair, a wisp of condensed smoke drifted slowly past his eyes.

Inuyama Heita turned his head blankly and saw that the smoke was drifting from a corner not far away. He seemed to understand something and walked quickly towards the source of the smoke.

The smoke condensed and did not dissipate. Inuyama Heita crossed several intersections and passed through several alleys, and finally stopped in front of an ordinary alley. The smoke came out from here.

Inuyama Heita swallowed his saliva. The ringing of the phone in his pocket was still going wild, and even began to distort the tone, but he didn't care. He resolutely walked into the alley and continued to follow the smoke. He walked around for a while, and after turning another corner, he finally saw a group of people passing by the alley not far away! This was the road he came from!
Go, go, go! Inuyama Heita ran at full speed. When he rushed out of the alley, the scenery suddenly opened up and the crowd passed by. At this time, he bent down, propped up his knees and gasped for breath. Looking up, the sun was about to set. There was a faint red light on the horizon. The street lights were on, illuminating the streets like daytime. The noisy sound made Inuyama Heita feel at ease. A strange smell of cigarettes came from Inuyama Heita. Inuyama Heita turned around suddenly and found Qian Xiaoyi leaning against the wall beside the alley, holding a cigarette in his mouth, playing mobile games leisurely.

"Yo~" Qian Xiaoyi greeted without even looking up: "Is it fun in there?"

"Not! Fun! At! All! At! All!" Inuyama Heita was rarely angry. He didn't know where on earth Qian Xiaoyi had tricked him into going? He almost couldn't come back!

Qian Xiaoyi scratched his head while looking at the cards on the screen of his mobile phone, and put out his cigarette. He said, "Hiss... This hand is a bit difficult to play. After I finish this hand, let's go to dinner together later. You choose the seat and I'll treat you. Just think of it as a way to calm you down."

“…Okay.” Inuyama Heita agreed.

As Qian Xiaoyi lost all his happy beans, he sighed, and the two of them went to the shop recommended by Inuyama Heita. It was a ramen shop with good business. There were already many customers slurping noodles in the small shop.

"Give me a bowl of deluxe ramen set! Add a portion of barbecued pork and a serving of rice!" Inuyama Heita said angrily. He decided not to be polite at all and just order what he wanted to eat.

Qian Xiaoyi said: "I'll have the same as him, uh... except no rice." He could never understand why the Japanese eat rice with ramen. It's a carbohydrate bomb, a staple food with a staple food. It makes him feel sick just thinking about it.

"Hey~I'll be right there." The ramen chef greeted.

The two found a place to sit down. During the time Qian Xiaoyi was in Japan, he had not been to many restaurants except for the time he met Harada Taro. The reason was simple: to save money. But now that he finally opened a restaurant, he wanted to go out and eat something good.

Not long after they sat down, the ramen was ready. Japanese ramen is basically machine-cut rather than "pulled" noodles. The soup and other ingredients are ready-made, so it is prepared very quickly. Two large bowls were filled with rich soup, and on top were a dozen slices of barbecued pork, a runny egg, seaweed, fish cake and other side dishes. Finally, a layer of green chopped green onions was sprinkled on the surface. It looked very delicious.

"I'm starting to eat!" Inuyama Heita impatiently broke open his chopsticks and started eating, making a "hissing" sound, as if he was trying to soothe his frightened heart in this way.

Qian Xiaoyi was also hungry at this time, so he picked up the chopsticks and took a bite. He didn't know how salty it was until he put it in his mouth, as if salt was free. There was also a thick layer of oil floating on the surface of the soup, which was salty and greasy.

"Oh my god..." Qian Xiaoyi quickly drank a sip of tea. Only then did he understand why Inuyama Heita ordered rice with his noodles. Was it because he was choking? Or maybe he didn't treat ramen as a staple food at all, but as a main dish, to go with rice?
While the ramen chef wasn't paying attention, Qian Xiaoyi added some tea to the bowl, which made it easier to eat. The two of them slurped the noodles, and no one mentioned what happened before. When Inuyama Heita finished the soup in the ramen bowl in one breath, he wiped his mouth and asked, "Brother Yi, where is the place you asked me to go today?"

He finally couldn't help asking, even now, he was still frightened.

(End of this chapter)