Chapter 70 Chapter 70 Hot Pot
*
Cleaning the deck, disinfecting indoors and outdoors, refilling the Fengyi's water tank with mountain spring water... Gu Mengran tried his best to keep himself busy and not think too much.
But at midnight, when Gu Mengran finished his shower and lay in bed, his head was still buzzing. Liang Zhao's words at noon were like a group of hardworking little bees, flying around Gu Mengran's ears again and again, making him uneasy.
Liang Zhao recovered his previous life——
No, he dreamed about his previous life and possessed some of his memories.
As for why he possessed it, Liang Zhao said that he watched a "movie" from the perspective of an observer, rather than a memory dug out from the depths of his mind.
Well... this is already terrifying for Gu Mengran!
Good news: Liang Zhao currently only knows the content presented in the "movie", such as the process of their meeting and some major events they experienced together, but the details of their relationship are still relatively vague.
This means that…
Gu Mengran still had a fig leaf left, and was not completely exposed.
Bad news: Although the reason is unknown, judging from the current situation, it should only be a matter of time before the memory is restored. And Liang Zhao is very likely to know that he, Gu Mengran, also has memories that do not belong to the present.
At first, Gu Mengran couldn't understand it. Liang Zhao clearly hadn't realized that he had been reborn. If he just thought of it as a bizarre dream, why did he hide it?
When he was taking a shower, he realized it belatedly.
Liang Zhao was testing him.
When Liang Zhao boarded the ship, in order to have a reasonable explanation, Gu Mengran lied that he had a dream in which he saw the future and that Liang Zhao had saved him in the dream.
The more you talk, the more mistakes you make. In order to avoid exposing his true identity, Gu Mengran would avoid mentioning this "dream" if possible, and deliberately acted as if he had only dreamed of fragments and had only a vague understanding of the dream.
The two people had the same dream, and the seeds of doubt had already been planted in Liang Zhao's heart. He obviously didn't believe it was just a dream, and suspected that Gu Mengran knew more details, so Liang Zhao used the information he had obtained to test him.
It was obvious that the three fish were just one bait, the bait thrown by Liang Zhao. When Gu Mengran seriously asked him for confirmation, he implicitly admitted that he knew it and cared about it.
He took the initiative to bite the hook...
Gu Mengran punched the quilt heavily, "Damn it!"
The thought that Liang Zhao might remember his past life completely filled Gu Mengran's brain with embarrassment, awkwardness, and secret joy. He became extremely excited and couldn't even feel sleepy in the middle of the night.
He didn't want to lose face, even in front of Liang Zhao.
Since his memory will be restored sooner or later, and he will die anyway, he might as well take advantage of it now, while he still has a slight advantage, and while Liang Zhao is a little easier to fool.
*
“Boom boom—”
The dark clouds rolled rapidly, several silver lightning flashed across the sky, and a loud thunder exploded. Gu Mengran, who was sleeping, woke up instantly, threw back the quilt and got up at the speed of light, without even having time to put on his slippers.
Pulling open the curtains, the dark sky came into view. Bright lightning pierced through the clouds one after another, and silver centipedes flashed across the river surface stirred by the strong wind.
After the lightning, there was another loud "boom", as if the sky and earth were collapsing and thousands of horses were galloping. The lingering sound echoing between heaven and earth made people's scalps numb.
"Patta, patter", fine water droplets bloomed on the deck. Gu Mengran slowly raised his head. In the sky with lightning and thunder, heavy rain was pouring down.
The scene was so grand, as if someone had opened the floodgates in the sky, and the water rushed down rapidly and fiercely like a waterfall. In just a few minutes, the white mist covered the Huangjiang River with a mysterious veil.
“Huahuahua——”
The sound of rapid rain lingered over the Huangjiang River. Apart from the occasional muffled thunder, Gu Mengran could no longer hear any other sound.
Of course, there are exceptions.
"It's raining! It's raining, friends!"
The intercom on the bedside table rang, and Zheng Yiji's loud voice drowned out the sound of rain outside the window and reached his ears very clearly.
Gu Mengran turned and walked towards the bed. Just as he picked up the intercom, the old man responded before him:
"What's so strange about raining? Our Meng Ran said that it will rain every day from now on. You look pretty energetic after staying up all night, why don't you come to the cab and take charge for a while?"
Zheng Yijie: "I'm playing, Grandpa Meng. I just got off work."
"What do you mean you just got off work? What time is it now? You can't sleep anyway, so come and sit with the old man for a while. It happens to be cold today, how about we have hot pot for lunch?"
It's too boring to drive a boat alone, so the old man tried every means to trick Zheng Yiji.
Zheng Yijie didn't take it seriously at first, but when the word hotpot came out, he was obviously tempted. He was silent for a few seconds and tried to bargain: "Then I will take over later in the evening?"
The old man agreed immediately: "Okay, okay, go and wake Gu Mengran up first. He is still sleeping at this time."
After hearing this, Gu Mengran realized something was wrong and raised his hand to check the time - 11:30 in the afternoon.
It was so dark that if he hadn't looked at the time he would have thought it was only early morning.
When there was a knock on the door, Gu Mengran had just finished washing up and was about to go out.
They opened the door and looked into each other's eyes. Without giving Zheng Yijie a chance to speak, Gu Mengran indicated that he had heard everything and took him directly to the kitchen to prepare the ingredients.
Liang Zhao couldn't go out yet, so Gu Mengran didn't plan to make things too complicated for the three of them to have hotpot.
Cut the best beef and mutton into several plates, put fresh vegetables, soy products, and various frozen meatballs on each plate, add some wide noodles and mushrooms, and you're all set.
The two of them worked together and prepared the dishes in just half an hour.
Finally, after cleaning up the table, Gu Mengran turned his head to look at Zheng Yijie who was standing aside, raised his chin, and said, "Why are you standing there? Bring it to the cab."
Zheng Yijie's eyes swept across the countertop, the stove, and slowly shifted to Gu Mengran, his eyes revealing a bit of confusion, "Where are the hot pot ingredients? Don't you plan to stir-fry them? Boiling them directly with water won't be tasty enough. I tell you, I am--"
"Who said we need hot pot ingredients?" Gu Mengran turned on the faucet, washed his hands, took a piece of kitchen paper, and wiped the water slowly.
Zheng Yijie, a native of Shancheng, was increasingly confused. "What do you mean? How can we eat hot pot without hot pot base?"
Before he could finish his words, a pot suddenly appeared on the clean and tidy countertop.
The pot has a round body, a chimney that is narrow at the top and wide at the bottom, and two small ears on the edge of the pot. This is a copper hot pot!
Zheng Yijie almost exploded with anger. He pointed at the copper pot and glared at Gu Mengran fiercely, "You are kidding me! I am so sleepy and I am still here preparing ingredients. After all this time, I ended up with this thing. You call this hot pot?"
"Why not? It's called copper hotpot. It's just a difference in cuisine between the north and the south." Gu Mengran shrugged and said innocently, "Besides, it was you who decided to eat hotpot. I just chose a flavor."
Zheng Yijie tried to struggle and reached out to grab Gu Mengran's arm, "Brother, Brother Mengran! I'm from Shancheng. I don't even eat shabu-shabu normally. What's the point of this bland soup? Just stir-fry some ingredients."
Gu Mengran pulled his arm out of his hand, patted his shoulders twice, and said seriously: "Be patient, Liang Zhao has just recovered from his illness and can't eat spicy food. Wait a few days, when we settle down in Fengjin Lake, you can eat whatever you want."
Zheng Yijie really wanted to turn around and leave, but those plates of brightly colored, fat-and-lean freshly-cut beef and mutton were too tempting.
After much hesitation, he finally endured it.
I thought, forget it, at worst I can just make a spicy dipping sauce.
The smokeless charcoal boiled the water in the pot, and three pairs of chopsticks holding mutton were immediately put into the pot. In just a few seconds, the mutton with curled edges was fished out of the pot, and the delicious and mellow mutton smell filled the cab.
Rainy days and hotpot are very suitable. They ordered mutton and beef. The three of them were enjoying the food. No one spoke, and the only sound in the house was the faint chewing sound.
After several large portions of beef and mutton were completely cleared, Zheng Yijie, who had initially sneered at the copper hot pot, licked his lips and looked at the old man with a smile, "Is that enough, Grandpa Meng? How about I go and cut a few more plates?"
“Hey kid, if you want to eat it, just go and cut it yourself. Why are you asking me in a roundabout way?” The old man saw through his thoughts and the corner of his mouth twitched.
Hearing what the old man said, Zheng Yijie slapped his thigh and stood up, "Okay, then I won't be polite."
Zheng Yijie hurried out of the cab as if someone was chasing him.
What did this person say before? Gu Mengran laughed, picked up the chopsticks slowly, put the last piece of mutton roll in the pot into the takeaway box, and then closed the lid and put the takeaway box into the space.
The old man saw it, squinted his eyes, and said with disdain: "You are so considerate. You always think of Liang Zhao when you eat, just like a little wife."
Gu Mengran didn't say anything. He picked up the plate and started serving vegetarian dishes. He took a moment out of his busy schedule to glare at the old man.
Meng Gaoyang pretended not to notice and changed the subject a little awkwardly: "You said that these meats and vegetables, do you want to send some to Hengrongsheng? We are eating delicious food here, and they are eating instant noodles in the back. I feel a little guilty."
It’s better not to look for this topic.
Gu Mengran sighed helplessly, "How to send it? Just say we have space? Grandpa, these are not things that should exist now, there is no way to explain it. Even if we say we planted them, we can't grow them in the extreme high temperature some time ago."
"I, I know that too, but I feel that since they sent so much fuel, we..." Before he could finish his words, the old man touched his nose embarrassedly.
He put some of the vegetarian dishes in the pot as well. Gu Mengran put down his chopsticks and looked at his grandfather, expressing his understanding: "I understand. People who take things from others are soft-hearted and always feel like they owe them something. Wait a little longer. When things stabilize, I will find a way to reasonably send them something."
From the tone of his voice, it seemed that he had already planned this. The old man looked at him expectantly, "What's the reasonable way?"
Gu Mengran pursed his lips and smiled confidently, "Keep it secret for now."
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