Extra 2
The Xingyue Hotel seems to be the same as before, but it also seems a little different. The business hours have not changed, and it usually closes at three in the afternoon. On weekdays, when you go in, you will only see the proprietress and a little girl busy in and out. During the winter and summer vacations and holidays, you can still see a chubby little boy running around in the store. When he sees you, he will smile shyly first, then call you auntie or uncle softly, and help you move the chair away. If you order a drink while eating, he will definitely bring it to you.
But the difference is that you always feel like there is one more person.
The front door of the restaurant faces a vegetable market, but the back door faces a small yard where potatoes, radishes, and other things are piled up, as well as jars of pickled vegetables.
There are bamboos and ginkgo trees planted in the yard. When the sun is shining brightly at noon, the back door is opened to let in the breeze.
At this time, if you sit closer to the back door, you can hear some movement in the backyard, either the sound of water washing vegetables or the clattering of beans being cracked, but you can't see anyone or hear anyone talking. Even if you stretch your neck to look, you can only see a black shadow that occasionally sways.
The proprietress, on the other hand, would run to the backyard when she was not busy, holding a cup of tea in her hand. She would stand at the door, lean forward, and when she stood up again, the cup in her hand would disappear.
She was leaning against the door, muttering while eating melon seeds. She had white hair but black roots. When the wind blew her hair, you could always catch a glimpse of her pretty smiling face. Sometimes she would just walk into the yard when she was happy. After a while, all that came in with the draft was her laughter and talking.
"She had the final say over everything the couple was saying." The regular visitor took a sip from his wine glass, looked back, and a smile appeared on his face.
Only when a wave of customers has almost left, you can see a man coming in from the back door. He wears black clothes and black pants, or a white shirt when it's hot. He never wears short sleeves. He is tall and strong. When he stands there, it seems that the ceiling has become lower and the lights have gone out.
But there was no noise when he came in. Nowadays, young people love to play with their mobile phones and were so engrossed in their games that they didn't even notice him come in.
He just held the rag, bent over, and silently cleaned up the leftovers on the table. He was very neat and quiet. In the blink of an eye, the table was shining. After cleaning the table, he swept the floor without raising any dust.
After going around like this, people who are not careful would think that someone passed by, but in the end they saw nothing. An old man joked that if it were placed in wartime, it would be suitable for secret work.
When the next wave of customers arrived, the proprietress and the girl who spoke Sichuan dialect were busy in the store again.
But not all the people who come to eat are regular customers, some are just passing by. One or two o'clock in the afternoon is an awkward time, as lunch is over and dinner is still early. Ordinary restaurants are bound to have cold pots and cold stoves, but here, as long as the door is open, the food is always hot, the quantity is large, the price is affordable, and the taste is good.
There were only two tables of customers in the store at that moment, a young couple and a mother and son. The little boy became restless after eating a few bites and wandered around the store with the balloon in his hand. However, the store was small and he could only rub the balloon against the ceiling, which was boring. He turned around and saw that the door to the backyard was open, so he went out. As soon as he went out, he started to let himself go. The balloon made him swing it so hard that it made a humming sound. He swung it in circles on the spot and got dizzy. As soon as he let go, the balloon floated up to the sky and landed on a ginkgo tree and got stuck.
He stood there in a daze, craning his neck and blinking as he watched the balloon come down from the tree, float across the open space, and float back to him. A bunch of bamboo stars were tied to the end of the thin string.
It is said that this mother was having so much fun playing with her cell phone that when she looked up, her child was gone. She then checked the back door and saw it was open. She rushed to the backyard in a hurry and soon she was screaming at the top of her lungs like an air raid siren: "Who the hell is this mess? Where did they come from? It's so scary!" While dragging her son back, she was shouting in the store, making the young couple behind her frown.
She was arguing, and out of the corner of her eye she kept glaring at the kitchen. Northerners call it "snatching people with your eyes," and she was shouting, "You're hiring all these random people? Who's responsible if they scare my child?" When out of the corner of her eye caught a pair of feet in blue cloth shoes, the feet were thin, the ankles were slender, and they were white. Even without looking at her face, she knew she was a fragile woman, not as imposing as herself. She immediately became proud, raised her head and shouted at the intruder, "What kind of store is this? You're hiring all these random people in society? What if they scare the child? Watch out, I'll report you! I'm telling you!"
But when he looked up, he felt a little regretful. The proprietress usually had a bad memory and eyesight, and was careless, as if she was born not to care about others. If there was a change when paying the bill, she would just wipe it out. She was talkative and loved to laugh. Everyone who talked about her said she was "easy to talk to", "not tempered", and a little bit stupid.
But at this moment, she was neither angry nor anxious. She just tilted her head and looked at the woman. A few muscles on her face changed, and her whole face changed in an instant.
Humans are essentially animals, especially those with strong animal instincts. The woman suddenly felt like she was being stabbed in the back. She subconsciously took a step back, her arrogance mostly extinguished. She fiddled with the child's collar while pretending to be strong: "What are you looking at?"
The proprietress looked at her for a while, then lowered her eyes. When she looked up again, the sun was shining brightly again.
"I'm sorry, sister." She smiled. "I scared you. I apologize, but there's something I need to tell you."
She stopped laughing, took a step forward, looked into the woman's face, and whispered softly, "The man in the backyard is my husband, the shopkeeper of my family. He's not a promiscuous person. If I hear you say something I don't like again, I'm sorry, but I won't serve you." After saying that, she took a step back and smiled again, "Enjoy your meal."
After that, he didn't look at the mother and son again and turned back to the kitchen.
The woman felt frustrated and sat there with a gloomy face, stirring the food with her chopsticks. She was displeased with her son and started cursing at him, making him cry loudly and unable to eat his meal. He left soon after. The crying of the child and the woman's scolding could be heard across the vegetable market.
"Brother Shouyue, you're too polite." After the others left, the man who was eating said to the back door, "You haven't recovered yet. What if you fall from such a high tree?"
"That's right." His wife threw the sunflower seed shells and rolled her eyes in the direction the mother and son were walking. "Then let her pick it up herself, my dear son!"
A laugh, as hoarse as gravel grinding against warmed earth, came from the open back door. "It's okay."
After the young couple left, there was no one in the store, and the proprietress smiled and slipped out the back door.
The afternoon sun makes people sleepy, but also brings peace to their hearts. The soil is softened by the sun, the air is filled with the fragrance of bamboo leaves, and the yard is full of meowing sounds.
She sidled over with her hands behind her back, leaned against the ginkgo tree, and smiled foolishly as she watched several cats surround the man in the shade, jump onto his knees, hold his chest to smell his Adam's apple and chin, and knead his body for milk. Some of the cats, after eating their fill and having "sucked" enough people, turned over their bellies and lay in the sun, squinting their eyes and taking a nap.
She looked at it for a while, then moved over and hid in the shade of the tree.
"Were you scared by that woman?" She smiled tenderly, rested her head on his shoulder, rubbed the cat's soft belly with one hand, and stroked it with him.
He grinned, both corners of his mouth rising together, "Yeah, that scared me."
"Tsk." She gave him a coquettish look, "You're still acting coquettishly with me." She lay on his shoulder with her mouth open, sniffing his neck, and looking at his ears, which were dark and red, in the light.
He didn't say anything, just lowered his head and smiled, and the cat purred as he stroked it.
Under the shade of the tree, she finally revealed her true form, a vixen that feeds on men's semen and blood. She coquettishly nuzzled his neck, sniffing the "honest" scent emanating from his increasingly hot skin as his sweat sizzled, and murmured, "How can I make it up to you?"
He was still honest, which made her crazy and her throat dry, but he still lowered his head and smiled foolishly, swallowing hard and saying, "It's three o'clock, and I still have to go pick up Tiantian."
"Oh..." She rested her head on his shoulder, slowly revealed a wicked smile, sat up straight and patted his shoulder, "Go ahead, it's just right, Diandian and I will clean up the store together."
He was still smiling, but he just turned his head away and stroked the cat's belly in his arms. The corners of his mouth that had been raised slowly drooped, "Hmm."
She supported herself with her hands behind her back, squinted her eyes and took a long breath. While basking in the sun, she ordered arrogantly: "Bring me a string of candied haws when you come back!" But there was no movement around her for a long time.
She craned her neck to get a peek at the other side of his face and burst out laughing, "That's enough! I'm just teasing you! Let's go together!"
It was past three in the afternoon and many people were still taking a nap. Only the birds were jumping around on the willow trees and singing happily. A breeze blew by, bringing with it the chirping of birds and the fragrance of flowers and plants. The sun was so bright that one could forget all the pain in this life, as if everything in this world was quiet, gentle and peaceful, and there had never been darkness or winter.
The words on the bridge had been worn away long ago, but a few days ago, I don’t know which leader had a dream at night, and he suddenly had someone go to the bridge and paint the three words red again. With the old paint covered with the new paint, even an 80-year-old woman wearing red clothes would have some of the brilliance of her youth.
So if you stand farther away and look at the three words "Bridge of Sighs", you will feel less sad, just like now, standing under the bridge and watching the old bicycle with peeling paint going up the bridge against the sunset and evening breeze, with the plastic bag of pork hanging on the handlebars swaying gently in the laughter.
At first glance, you see a tall and strong man in a black shirt and black pants. The most noticeable thing on his dark face is his big white teeth. Behind him sits a woman. Her 1.7-meter height is still completely blocked, revealing only two slender white legs, which flutter along with her aqua blue skirt.
She had one arm around the man's waist and was chewing a candied haws in the other hand. Her mouth was still quiet, and the only sounds she could hear were in the evening breeze.
There was a little boy sitting at the front of the car. He was also pitch black and looked like a small piece of mud pulled out from the big pile of mud at the back. The only difference was his eyes.
Fox eyes look too feminine on a boy's face, but he is also consistent in his inner self, because he is so sensitive, delicate, and thoughtful. He sits at the front of the bicycle, holding the handlebars with both hands, and refuses to lean back. No matter what his father occasionally asks him from behind, he chooses to remain silent.
After the bicycle drove down the bridge and headed home, his father picked him up from the bike. As soon as his father touched his head, he ran to his mother's side, hugged her legs, grabbed her skirt and turned his head away.
"It's Daddy, call me Daddy." The mother was so frustrated that she almost begged, but no matter how she pulled him, it was useless, so she just backed away and kept shaking her head.
But the man always just smiled, and his smile was like a haystack dried by the sun. When the unrequited love came to his lips, all he could get was the repeated "It's okay". His tall body, as strong as a solid wall, was comically covered with small school bags, small clothes and colorful water cups.
As night fell, the couple quickly started talking about other "adult things" under the setting sun. Only then would the little boy walk while covering his face with his mother's skirt, secretly looking at the man walking beside his mother.
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