The kitten snores
Hu Tong and Cheng Zhou went to the hot pot restaurant they hadn't been able to eat at before. They ordered a fish and frog dish, served with side dishes like tofu, lotus root slices, and lettuce. The aroma made Hu Tong's mouth water.
In a stainless steel pot, the soup was boiling. Peppercorns and bright red dried chilies floated on the surface, bubbling and gurgling like a kitten purring contentedly as its belly was exposed and being petted by students.
Cheng Zhou had thick, dark eyebrows and eyelashes. He lowered his eyes and blew on the fish slices on his chopsticks. Wisps of white smoke rose up, only to be quickly fanned away by his long eyelashes, as if they couldn't dissipate the heat. This made his crimson lips stand out even more. Even the cut at the corner of his mouth looked like a ruby, sparkling brilliantly.
Like a blood-sucking fairy.
Hu Tong thought to himself, sucked the meat off the bullfrog's leg, and spat a thin bone into the porcelain plate next to him.
Cheng Zhou was fair-skinned with smooth facial features. His lips were usually light in color, but when he closed his pure black eyes, his face seemed to lose its anchor point, making it hard to know where to look.
Now, it exudes a sense of aggression, like a half-finished ink painting that has been temporarily turned into an oil painting, with bright and heavy paints being used to smear and pile up.
Hu Tong likes anything bright, intense, or outgoing.
Hu Tong looked around and pondered, then scooped a large piece of fish fillet from the pot. The thickly sliced but very tender fish fillet was pressed into the dipping sauce, and the skin immediately turned a reddish-gold color.
She pressed her lips to the fish slices to test the temperature, and a few specks of oil splattered out of the pan. She mumbled an order to Cheng Zhou, "Turn the heat down a bit."
"oh oh."
Cheng Zhou was either too engrossed in eating or overwhelmed by the spiciness, and it took him a long time to recover.
After adjusting the fire, he smiled at Hu Tong with his eyes crinkling, and then threw himself back into the battle with the fish slices.
Cheng Zhou isn't very good at handling spicy food, but he enjoys the illusion of being burned.
The first time he was brought to tears by spiciness was at his mother's funeral. He had eaten pickled pepper chicken giblets and stood in front of the plastic-steel toilet door with large frosted glass panels, acting as Hu Tong's doorman.
Mom said that people are most vulnerable when they go to the toilet because the "Kuoyue Chicken" becomes loose... Xiao Chengzhou didn't know what a "Kuoyue Chicken" was, but he felt that his mother was wrong.
He didn't want to cry at all when he went to the toilet. On the contrary, he wanted to cry most when he came out of the toilet and waited outside the door, emphasizing to others, "Auntie, Uncle, there is someone in the toilet here!" and feeling like he was Hu Tong's guardian angel.
When Xiao Hutong jumped out of the toilet, patted his shoulder with hands that were either unwashed or not, and loudly said thank you, Xiao Chengzhou felt like crying the most.
At his mother's funeral, he was always pitiful, superfluous, and expected to stare wide-eyed, asking questions incessantly in an annoyingly naive tone—
Where did Mom go?
Why isn't Mom up yet?
Why didn't you buy medicine for my mother?
He kept asking questions until it was both funny and exasperating. I patted his head and said it was lucky he was so naive.
But Cheng Zhou has become sensible.
He was also very sad, and saddened by this futile sadness.
So, feeling that she had finally found some "use," and because of Hu Tong's hands, which might be contaminated with bacteria, Xiao Chengzhou's snow-white face trembled, and one tear after another fell onto the bluestone pavement, patter, patter.
"Hey, why are you crying?" Xiao Hutong leaned closer.
"The pickled peppers I just ate were too, too spicy..."
"Silly, then don't eat it!"
Only when someone says that their tears are for chili peppers can others laugh out loud in a relaxed manner, without pity, embarrassment, or annoyance.
Thankfully, there are chili peppers; everything can be blamed on chili peppers.
Are you full?
Seeing that he had put down his chopsticks, Hu Tong asked while turning up the heat, "I'm not full yet, wait for me a moment."
As the temperature rises, the red oil skin in the pot gradually cracks and eventually dissolves in the soup. The sound of a kitten purring reappears, gurgling and bringing warmth to people's hearts.
It's not a branding iron that stabs your heart with intense heat, but rather a gentle warmth, like the aroma of oil or tea, that seeps into your being.
Cheng Zhou looked up at her, through the light, misty vapor.
In my memory, that chubby face was stretched into an oval shape by an invisible hand, becoming a perfect egg-shaped face;
The thin, yellow hair that was pinned to her forehead like ginger shreds also grew wildly under the sun and rain. Now it is black and thick. In Hu Tong's own words, her hair is really impressive. It is so black and shiny that if you grab a handful and twist it, it seems like you can squeeze out ink.
His eyes, however, remained consistently bright.
Cheng Zhou looked at her and said, "Mmm, I'm full."
The person who had just been spied on by Hu Tong now opened their eyes wide and retaliated.
Hu Tong felt uncomfortable being stared at and slammed down his chopsticks. "Why are you looking at me like that!"
The fierce expression on the oval face lasted only a moment before it was replaced by a smile.
Hu Tong propped himself up with interest, blinked, and teased, "Oh dear, you cried from the spiciness again?"
"No, that's not true." Cheng Zhou turned his face away and retorted softly.
Hu Tong waved his hand dismissively, comforting her, "Don't cry, this meal is on me."
She deliberately teased him, stretching out her hand, her taut fingertips trembling, about to poke his temple.
Cheng Zhou turned his face as if sensing something, and his warm fingertips just happened to touch the tear that was about to fall from the corner of his eye.
Along with the tears, his emotions also burst forth.
Cheng Zhou held her hand, lowered his eyes slightly, and his eyelashes brushed against Hu Tong's damp fingertips, causing a faint itch.
"I told you I didn't cry from the spiciness."
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