Chapter 28 Let's Eat Hotpot

So Li Fu pulled aside the outer paper, revealing the two mooncakes wrapped inside.

The mooncake skin had become hard because it had been left for too long. Li Fu pinched it and it felt like it could be used as a stone to hit someone.

To be honest, he hasn't eaten mooncakes for many years since his mother passed away.

He even almost forgot that according to festival customs, people should eat moon cakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival.

His mother told him that eating mooncakes means the family is together and will never be separated.

But, Li Fu thought, he actually had no family left.

Maybe, Uncle Xing is his family, but Uncle Xing doesn't care about festivals, let alone what to eat on each festival according to festival customs. Only Chu Ran would care about these seemingly useless things.

Li Fu put the mooncake back, wrapped it in paper again, then opened the door and walked out.

In the yard, Xing Ji was gesticulating with Chu Ran with his hands.

Hearing the movement inside the door, the two turned around and looked at Li Fu who was leaving.

Xing Ji gestured towards Li Fu: "He asked me to come over to welcome you."

Chu Ran walked over, put one arm on Li Fu's shoulder, as if they were brothers, and walked towards the center of the yard with Li Fu.

"Yes, it's a welcoming party. Do you see that fire? We'll have hot pot later."

Li Fu often doesn't understand some of the words Chu Ran says, such as the words hot pot and welcoming party he just mentioned, but it doesn't matter, Li Fu doesn't care about it.

In order to have this meal, Chu Ran spent a lot of money and collected some fresh ingredients from everywhere, otherwise he would not be able to put together this hot pot.

Fortunately, the old eunuch also knew the rules and did not intend to eat and drink for free. When he came here today, he was accompanied by a young eunuch. The young eunuch had a food basket on his elbow, and the food basket contained prepared rabbit meat, venison and the best pork belly.

Four people each had a stool and formed a circle in front of the pot, holding a bowl in their hands. Soon after the food was thrown in, they all grabbed it with their chopsticks like starving ghosts.

Among the four people, only Chu Ran and the old eunuch were fighting for food.

Li Fu didn't rob, he should know that even if he didn't rob, he wouldn't starve to death.

Xing Ji was mainly responsible for diligently adding food to the pot.

However, one hand still limited Chu Ran's performance. Xing Shu just threw a piece of pork belly in, and when Chu Ran tried to pick it up, the old eunuch had already grabbed it first.

Chu Ran raised his head and glanced at the old eunuch with a dim gaze. The old eunuch's eyebrows were flying because of eating. Fortunately, the eunuch's beard was shaved, otherwise, his beard would definitely be flying all over at this moment.

Xing Ji put another piece of meat into the pot.

This time, Chu Ran was quick-eyed and quick-handed. The meat was taken out of the pot within a few seconds of being in the pot.

The old lady grunted, "Okay? Just take it."

Chu Ran looked down and saw that the meat was still raw, so he had to put it back into the pot in disappointment.

White smoke was rising from the pot. Chu Ran was eating with his head down, his face turning red from the hot air, like a ripe tomato.

Li Fu suddenly turned his eyes sideways and looked towards Chu Ran.

Not only did Chu Ran's cheeks turn red from eating, but her lips were also rosy and shiny. In the hazy mist surrounding her body, she looked like the most dazzling and eye-catching bright color.

Li Fu didn't move for a long time, just staring at Chu Ran.

Chu Ran noticed Li Fu's gaze, and subconsciously stretched out his hot, bright red tongue tip and licked the shiny red lips from left to right.

"What's wrong?" Chu Ran stuck out his tongue and licked it again, "Is there something on my mouth?"

"No." Li Fu quickly retracted his gaze and pretended to concentrate on eating.

"Oh." Chu Ran shifted his gaze back to the pot, looking at the bubbling milky white soup, ready to dip his chopsticks in at any time.

Through the dense white mist, Li Fu raised his head again, glanced at Chu Ran, and then lowered his head again.

After the meal, all four of them were full.

The old lady returned to the recliner and continued to rock comfortably. Xing Ji was cleaning up the mess in the yard. Li Fu called Chu Ran and asked him to come into the house.

"Let me see your hand." Li Fu said.

Chu Ran subconsciously hid his hands behind his body again, and said with a dry smile: "It was just a perm, nothing to see."

Li Fu said, "I just asked Uncle Xing, and he said that your hand was burned seven days ago, so why hasn't it healed in such a long time?"

"I'm clumsy." Chu Ran said guiltily, "and burns are not so easy to recover from."

"Really?" Li Fu asked.

"Yes, yes." Chu Ran nodded hurriedly.

“Then why don’t you let me see it?”

Chu Ran gently pinched his left hand with his right hand and whispered, "There's nothing to see."

Li Fu said, "I want to see it."

At such a young age, I don't know where he got his aura from. The two of them stared at each other for a long time. Finally, Chu Ran compromised and slowly took out his hands from behind his back.

Li Fu stretched out his hand, and when his fingertips were about to touch Chu Ran's hand, Chu Ran turned his head, gritted his teeth, and whispered: "Then...be gentle when you do it, I'm afraid of pain..."

Li Fu withdrew his fingers shortly after they touched Chu Ran's fingertips.

He turned around, his eyes dim and unclear, "Let's wait and see when I change the dressing tonight."

As soon as he finished speaking, Chu Ran immediately withdrew his left hand, which was wrapped like a rice dumpling. The knuckles of his raised right hand curled slightly inward and he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Before going to bed, Li Fu took off his shoes, put on white footwear, and sat cross-legged on the bed.

Chu Ran sat opposite Li Fu, also sitting cross-legged.

Hesitantly, he stretched out his injured left hand towards Li Fu, his expression somewhat stiff due to nervousness.

Li Fu circled the cloth wrapped around his palm and slowly took it off, like peeling a mangosteen. After peeling off the thick shell, the soft and tender layer inside was exposed.

The wound was very long, running diagonally from the base of the little finger to the base of the palm, almost across the entire palm.

Even though the wound has started to scab over, I can still imagine how bloody it was at the beginning.

Li Fu knew what most wounds looked like, burns, abrasions, whiplash, falls, and wounds from being hit by heavy objects. Even a burn from boiling water would not look like this.