Page 424 - updated on July

Yu Jihui: “A Stinking Old Ninth – A Tale of the Coal Capital” (updated on July 2020)

can eat dumplings while drinking porridge. That’s

delicious meal!”

She smiled. I put some rice into my mess tin,

added some water and then put it on the top of the

stove. She put her mess tin with dumplings on the top

of the stove to roast them. We sat around the stove,

talking, while porridge boiled in the mess tin.

Occasionally I would stir the porridge with a spoon.

She said there were two thing she still didn’t

understand. I asked her what they were. First she

asked me why I didn’t like Great Smoker. Then she

asked why I divorced Big Wang when I was so fond

of her.

I told her the whole story of Great Smoker first. I

told her how I was cheated, how she harassed me,

and how she tried to force me to marry her. Then I

told her the story of Big Wang. I said it was not I

who had decided to get the divorce. It was she who

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