2020/12/10 18:03
The McDonald’s I’d ordered earlier had been left outside my door by a careless delivery rider. No one told me it had arrived; no one seemed to care. It sat there, abandoned, for almost half an hour.
I suddenly remembered it, went downstairs with a vague sense of worry, and rescued it from the cold wind. I touched the bag lightly — still faintly warm.
I didn’t dare linger. I went back upstairs, laid each item out on the desk, and started eating. Beside it was an iced coffee I’d bought at the school canteen at lunch. I hadn’t gotten a Coke.
The fresh smell of the burger and chicken fillet filled my mouth. My stomach, which had endured hours of painful hunger, finally got its relief — like the first heavy rain after weeks of baking sun. I licked my lips greedily; the hand holding the burger trembled a little. I finished the burger and chicken without trouble.
But as I bit into piece after piece of chicken nugget, coated in thick sweet chili sauce, my stomach started to feel off. Something seemed to be hitting at me from inside; a wave of nausea came over me — dizzy, on the verge of retching.
A sense of duty pushed me to keep going. I pressed the nuggets down my throat one by one. At the third-to-last piece, my throat seized; I let out a loud cough and quickly washed it down with a gulp of coffee. After a few more mouthfuls I set the nuggets uneasily to the side and reached for the chicken wings.
After finishing the wings, I rummaged through the scattered paper bags to throw away the bones.
I found another bag. Also chicken wings.
I had no memory of ordering two portions of wings.
A creeping unease came over me. I couldn’t bring myself to eat any more. I grabbed the whole takeout bag in a mild panic, went downstairs, and shoved everything into the fridge.
2020/12/11 06:45
The air was clean and crisp, with only a few wisps of cloud drifting by. I woke up in the sacred morning light with a feeling of reverence.
After washing up, I went downstairs to get breakfast.
I scrolled through my phone while the water boiled. The moment my hand touched the refrigerator, it recoiled as if shocked. Something came back to me all at once.
A chill ran down my spine. I couldn’t bring myself to open the fridge.
I turned and left the house, though I knew I’d have to come back that evening. My hand had started to feel a little swollen and sore.
2020/12/11 14:30
Having just finished the economics exam, I remembered I hadn’t looked at a single Japanese vocab word. The relief I’d felt dissolved immediately.
While half-heartedly going over vocabulary, my mind drifted to the economics monthly test. I’d checked it multiple times — there couldn’t be any mistakes. My review last night had been thorough. I didn’t think there was a single point from the packets that I’d missed.
But I hadn’t slept well. And the last time I was sure I’d gotten everything right, I didn’t even hit the class average.
In a daze, I opened WeChat.
I felt something crawling from my legs up toward my throat.