Episode 888: Kingdom of Delays (14)

"Not that kind of fast," she said. Dou Dou rubbed his belly. "So we haven't eaten our bento boxes yet?" "Right," Chen Jiande said, suddenly bursting into laughter. "None of us three have eaten our bento boxes yet." As he stood up, one of the three tickets in his jacket's inner pocket slipped out. When he picked it up, he noticed a line of very small print on the ticket, so small it looked like someone had secretly stamped it: Paid: One Honesty. He put the ticket away, back into the pocket his wife didn't even know about. Epilogue: The Third Bento Box on the Way Home On the platform, Mrs. Chen held three bento boxes in one hand and looked at her phone with the other. "How did you guys get here so fast? I thought you'd eat on the train." "We ran into a little something on the train," Chen Jiande said. "What happened?" "...The high-speed rail changed its livery." Xiao Kui let out a very forceful sigh. That evening, Xiao Kui handed in her essay. The topic was <The Most Unforgettable Trip I've Ever Taken>. She wrote 2,300 characters, and the teacher wrote four words next to it: Rich imagination. She didn't argue. Because tucked into the last page of her notebook was a ticket—on that ticket, a line of small print that only she could see. And deep within a warehouse in the Kingdom of Delays, an empty glass jar was quietly glowing. It was new, with a label attached: Unspoken: Thanks. (The End)