Chapter 58 58. Fishing Market
“No seasoning.”
Zhuang Yongyuan pointed out this problem after watching Xie Kang humming a song and arranging the kitchen utensils on the counter one by one.
There is no oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, onion, ginger, garlic, Gushan wine, star anise, cinnamon, or bay leaves. The only thing I can do with the pot is to cook instant noodles.
"I don't eat boiled mutton." Zhuang Yongyuan continued.
As a half-coastal person, he is not afraid of fishy smell, but only of mutton smell. Previously, when he went to Xinjiang to perform at a music festival, he was unable to eat because of the ubiquitous mutton smell. He lost weight visibly in just two days. Even the airplane meal on the return trip became suspicious. He ate at a Minnan restaurant for three consecutive days after returning to Shanghai before he recovered.
Xie Kang stood there in a daze. Zhuang Yongyuan figured he couldn't just keep knocking on each of his neighbors' doors, so he said, "Okay, take the mutton back and get some rest. You have work tomorrow."
Xie Kang didn't respond. Zhuang Yongyuan pushed him. Xie Kang opened his eyes wide and looked very excited: "It's past two o'clock. The wholesale market should be open by now!"
He pulled Zhuang Yongyuan out of the door. Even though he was so drunk, he still had some self-awareness and didn't drive. However, he was not much better. A shiny black motorcycle was parked on the side of the road under the street light, with its teeth bared.
Zhuang Yongyuan touched the front of the car like he was patting a kitten's head and asked in surprise, "Is this car still there?"
"Do you still remember it?" Xie Kang handed the helmet to Zhuang Yongyuan and urged, "Hurry up and get up, time is running out."
"What time?" Zhuang Yongyuan asked.
Xie Kang held the handlebars, and the cold wind blew on his hands for a long time. The cold handlebars froze his hands, and he pulled his hands back as if he was burned as soon as he touched them.
Zhuang Yongyuan saw it from the back seat, grabbed his hand, blew a breath into his palm, and then pressed it back on the handlebar.
Xie Kang twisted the handlebars and said, "As for the time of daybreak, didn't they say that as long as it's still before daybreak, it's still the winter solstice?"
"That's not how you calculate it," Zhuang Yongyuan muttered. Regardless of whether one used the lunar or new calendar, the winter solstice was yesterday, and it had already passed.
Xie Kang didn't say anything. Zhuang Yongyuan put his hands in Xie Kang's coat pockets to keep warm.
In order to save time, Xie Kang rode his bike very fast. After a while, the familiar Yanjiang Bridge appeared in front of them again. As they approached and went up the bridge, street lights were left behind one after another. The moist night wind on the river blew up Zhuang Yongyuan's coat.
Zhuang Yongyuan vaguely felt that his life was somewhat unclearly connected with this bridge, but before Zhuang Yongyuan could take a closer look at the bridge, they crossed the bridge to the new district opposite.
Zhuang Yongyuan also knew the wholesale market 50 meters away that Xie Kang was going to. The things there were fresh and cheap. When he was a child living with his grandmother, his grandmother would often wake him up at four or five o'clock and take him to the market to buy vegetables.
Zhuang Yongyuan couldn't remember what the market looked like exactly, but he only remembered that each stall had very bright light bulbs hanging on it, which were shining white and looked like many stars from a distance.
After crossing the bridge, Zhuang Yongyuan hugged Xie Kang's waist tightly and whispered in his ear, "This motorcycle has been around for so long, there won't be any problems, right?"
Xie Kang was afraid that the wind would drown out his voice, so he shouted at the top of his lungs, "I ride once a week!"
The summer after Xie Kang graduated from high school, his uncle modified his old motorcycle and gave it to him. As if to remember this place thoroughly before leaving, Xie Kang spent most of the summer riding it, taking Zhuang Yongyuan with him around Pingnan. Sometimes he'd even bring his piano and speakers, playing casually in parks or on suburban lawns, always accompanied by people taking photos and videos.
Although he didn't take it seriously at the time, Xie Kang now really wants to see those photos.
After Li Xiuyu's death, they hesitated for a long time, but still went to see the Yantong Band's performance in Xiamen. Xie Kang rode a motorcycle on the highway, set off at noon, stayed in a hotel at the exit for one night, and arrived in Xiamen the next day.
While this motorcycle wasn't as aggressive as the ones ridden by the late-night hooligans, it was still unrestrained. Zhuang Yongyuan felt that with Xie Kang's current personality, he would definitely not ride it to work. Curiously, he asked, "Where do you ride it every week?"
"I'm not going anywhere. I'm just riding around in a circle and going home," said Xie Kang.
The closer he got to the market, the more trucks of all sizes appeared on the originally deserted road. From time to time, a tricycle loaded with vegetables passed by tremblingly. Xie Kang slowed down the car. The bright lights and the smell of the sea in the distance were the Wushimi Road Wholesale Market.
The Fifty-Meter Road is indeed a road, but it is much longer than fifty meters. It is a narrow road with barely two lanes. Cars cannot pass through it at this time. Both sides of the road are crowded with small stalls, and foam boxes and red and blue plastic basins are piled full.
The ground had remained damp for decades, and Zhuang Yongyuan walked very slowly. Xie Kang's figure was stretched out in the puddles. The sounds of hawking, bargaining, and chatting continued in the market, and from time to time someone carrying a box of goods urged him to make way.
Zhuang Yongyuan's attention was focused on the trachea that pumped oxygen into the water. The sound of bubbles emerging and bursting was dense, and he suddenly felt like he was sinking, just like the nights when he wrote Lily Heart's first album independently.
He tried to capture that fleeting trace of hidden existence, but was interrupted by Xie Kang's shouting.
"Don't go, wait for me!"
Zhuang Yongyuan turned around and saw through a few passers-by that Xie Kang was standing in front of a stall with an anxious look on his face.
He waved to Xie Kang, walked through the crowd and came to Xie Kang's side. Xie Kang then bent down, reached into the foam box in front of him with his right hand, took out a flower crab, and stared at it.
"Why are you buying crabs?" Zhuang Yongyuan asked in confusion. He thought Xie Kang came just to buy some seasonings and side dishes for cooking mutton.
Xie Kang asked the boss to bring a thick plastic bag, threw the flower crab into the bag, and said, "Since we're here."
After buying two flower crabs, he looked left and right, frowned, as if he thought they were not fresh enough, paid and walked on.
Zhuang Yongyuan followed him and said, "I didn't know you could pick seafood."
Xie Kang said: "My mother is very good at choosing. Relatives and friends often ask her to choose."
The image of Xie Kang's mother emerged in Zhuang Yongyuan's mind: a serious, middle-aged woman with a bitter look, thin, and a look that made people feel uneasy.
Logically speaking, Zhuang Yongyuan almost called her "mother-in-law". Thinking of this, he felt relieved.
While Zhuang Yongyuan was daydreaming, Xie Kang brought a bag of lively shrimps to the boss, weighed them, and settled the bill.
He kept buying, and the more he walked, the more bags he carried: abalone, pomfret, oysters...
Several bags were still dripping with water. He strolled slowly, and Zhuang Yongyuan said nothing. When they were almost at the end of the fifty-meter path, Xie Kang suddenly checked his watch and said in panic, "Ah, we have to hurry."
He rushed into the condiment store next door and quickly bought a bunch of condiments. He handed them to Zhuang Yongyuan and asked him to take them. He walked quickly to the motorcycle and hung the purchased vegetables, meat and seafood on the handlebars on both sides.
The red and white plastic bags from the vegetable market looked tacky against Xie Kang's motorcycle. Zhuang Yongyuan thought Xie Kang had indeed changed. He would never have tolerated such a thing before returning to Pingnan.
When Xie Kang returned to Zhuang Yongyuan's house, he felt that time was running out. He half begged and half ordered Zhuang Yongyuan to help him. Zhuang Yongyuan shrugged his shoulders, took the bag of abalone he gave him, stood by the pool, flushed the water and brushed the abalone with a brush.
This was his first time doing this. He felt fresh at first, but soon became impatient with the repetitive movements. His hands became rough, repeatedly rubbing the black stain on the abalone's mouth. He asked Xie Kang, "When did you learn to cook?"
When they lived together in college, the kitchen was unused and was only used to cook instant noodles and, at most, fry an egg.
Xie Kang put the shrimp into the water and boiled them, saying, "I haven't learned it before, but you'll learn it by watching."
"Watching your mother cook?"
"Um."
Xie Kang poured a layer of oil into the pot, added ginger slices and fried them until fragrant, then poured in the mutton. The oil splashed everywhere with a "crackling" sound. Zhuang Yongyuan immediately dropped the abalone in his hand and stood far away, watching Xie Kang working hard to stir-fry the mutton in the pot.
The aroma of frying meat couldn't cover the slight smell of mutton. Zhuang Yongyuan covered his nose and asked Xie Kang, "Why did you suddenly come to cook for me?"
"I miss you." Xie Kang answered fluently.
Zhuang Yongyuan laughed out loud. Xie Kang poured boiling water and aged wine into the pot, then fumbled with soy sauce and spices. He said, "What are you laughing at? Come and help me."
"I don't like lamb."
"It's the winter solstice, so we have to eat something no matter what."
"You talk like an old man."
Xie Kang didn't answer. He poured the mutton into the casserole and simmered it on low heat. He asked Zhuang Yongyuan, "How do you want to eat the crab?"
"casual."
“Steamed or stir-fried?”
“Stir-fried cauliflower.”
"good."
Zhuang Yongyuan was afraid that Xie Kang would call him for help again, so he ran out of the kitchen. Too lazy to go upstairs, he sat beside Zhuang Fu's spirit tablet, listening to the movements in the kitchen across the wall.
The kitchen knife hit the chopping board with a loud bang.
The water splashed on the cauliflower that Xie Kang had cut, making a crackling sound.
Xie Kang was choked by the smoke and sneezed.
The casserole was boiling fiercely and the lid kept jumping. Xie Kang ran quickly to turn down the heat. His footsteps were short and louder than usual because he was in a hurry.
If there were a guitar in front of him right now, Zhuang Yongyuan would have liked to play it, and maybe even sing it out. He hadn't heard such a sound in a long time, and for some reason he felt a little excited and trembling.
He remembered more sounds. Xie Kang turned over beside him, his pajamas rubbing against the sheets. A lighter clicked, tobacco burning. The bathroom door in the rental house was faulty, and it creaked every time it opened and closed. Xie Kang sat at his computer, a gentle man wearing glasses, repeatedly pressing the keyboard, searching for the effects pedal he thought would be most suitable. He was always impatient when changing guitar strings, and the thinnest strings would easily break, and the sound of the breaking always scared Zhuang Yongyuan so much that he jumped up from his chair. He loved to play the interlude from "Too Smart" during sound checks.
No matter how late he slept, the first thing Xie Kang did when he woke up was make coffee. They had a small moka pot. Xie Kang ground the coffee beans with a manual grinder, and the foamy liquid spurted out of the moka pot's nozzle, with ice cubes clinking into the cup. Xie Kang would gently shake him awake, ask if he wanted to get up, and if so, make him a cup too.
The voices of the past and the present mixed together. For the first time since Zhuang Yongyuan returned to Pingnan for so long, he clearly remembered all the trivial experiences he and Xie Kang had shared.
All these experiences couldn't stop him from leaving without saying goodbye. Zhuang Yongyuan felt a dull pain in his chest, and it was a long time since he had remembered that he had been abandoned many times, by many people.
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