depressed
The climate here is humid, and the houses are mostly half-built. Walking down the wooden planks into the room, there was a creaking sound. Inside, Guoguo was sitting on the floor playing with his toys. Qiu Zimu and Ye Jing'an sat beside Guoguo, playing with him and making him smile widely.
Guoguo's mother said, "You guys take a break first, or go for a walk around to kill time. We've been cooking for over an hour with firewood."
"Well, I'll go out for a walk then." Liu Muzhe said.
"Wait...wait! Are you going out like this?" Ye Jing'an asked.
"What's wrong with me?" Liu Muzhe asked puzzledly.
"Come, come here." Ye Jing'an pulled him to the bathroom, wet the handkerchief with water, wrung it out, and said to Liu Muze, "Turn your back to me."
"What's on my back?" Liu Muzhe turned around.
Ye Jing'an patted the dust off Liu Muzhe's pants with a handkerchief.
"What are you doing!?" Liu Muzhe was startled and turned around.
"Brush off the dirt! The back of your pants is covered in it. How are you going to go out like this?" Ye Jing'an was stunned. "What do you think I'm doing?"
Liu Muzhe grabbed his trousers and took a look. He patted them twice with a handkerchief and found that the dust had indeed faded a lot. His expression eased a little and he remained silent.
"You don't think I'm going to spank you, do you?" Ye Jing'an was speechless. "Brother Liu, you don't have to, do you? I just touched your thigh as a joke last time, and you really think I'm a pervert, thinking I'm always coveting your flesh?"
"I don't, I just don't like others touching me." Liu Muzhe explained.
"I didn't touch you. I just slapped you with a handkerchief." Ye Jingan threw the handkerchief to him and said, "Then do it yourself. I'm leaving."
Ye Jingan walked out of the house, feeling a little depressed. This has been misunderstood by Brother Liu twice. Is he really a pervert? He is quite serious. There are so many beautiful girls around him over the years, and he has never flirted with anyone. Why is he considered a pervert by Brother Liu...
After brushing off the dust, Liu Muzhe came out and didn't see Ye Jingan, so he asked Qiu Zimu where he had gone.
"He just went out and I don't know where he went. He looked weird and ignored me when I called him," said Qiu Zimu.
"Yeah." Liu Muzhe went out, looked around, and walked towards the lively place.
Ye Jingan walked aimlessly in the alley. Almost every household here had their doors open. There was a small wooden table at the door, or a white snakeskin bag on the ground, with some vegetables and fruits on it. Unlike those bought at the market, the vegetables here were thin and had insect bites on the leaves. They probably grew their own vegetables and sold them outside because they couldn't finish eating them.
Ye Jing'an also saw a family selling figs. He quite liked eating them. He had a fig at home and often picked and ate it when he was a child. He hadn't eaten any this year, and since he hadn't eaten any fruit in the past few days, he thought of buying the whole bag of figs and eating them slowly.
A grandmother with completely white hair was sitting in front of the door. Ye Jingan said, "Grandma, I bought these figs."
The old lady made a "yeah" gesture with her fingers and said, "Two yuan a pound."
"How much? So cheap?!" Ye Jing'an asked in surprise.
"This is grown at home. It would be a waste if we couldn't finish it, so we usually sell it to our neighbors." The old lady smiled and said, "Two and a half pounds, four yuan."
"Okay, thank you grandma, where is the payment code?" Ye Jingan asked.
"What horse?" Grandma asked in confusion.
"Got it. Cash, right? Grandma, wait a minute. I'll go change some cash." Ye Jing'an ran to the young man next door to exchange some change. He stacked four one-dollar bills, put a ten-dollar bill in between, and handed it to Grandma, saying, "Here, Grandma."
"Thank you, young man." Grandma opened the money box and ten yuan fell to the ground. She picked it up and waved, saying, "Young man, thank you for the extra money!"
"Not too much." Ye Jing'an waved and continued walking. He found that everything here was very cheap. He even met an aunt selling fried water centipedes. Qiu Zimu had told him that these were the larvae of an insect, not a centipede that lives in water. Qiu Zimu liked to eat these, so Ye Jing'an bought them all for him to eat as a snack.
I was almost done shopping and was about to go back for dinner when I turned around and saw Liu Muze coming out of the alley next to me. Ye Jingan said, "Brother Liu, are you out shopping too? Did you buy anything you like?"
"Well, no." Liu Muzhe hesitated for a moment and said, "I'm sorry just now, I didn't mean that, it was just a conditioned reflex..."
"Oh, it's okay, I don't mind." Ye Jingan took a fig and handed it to him, saying, "Try it, it's delicious."
"I don't want to eat." Liu Muzhe said.
"Then eat this." Ye Jing'an said with a smile.
Liu Muze took the insect from his hand, looked at it, and handed it to Ye Jingan's mouth and said, "If you eat it, I will eat it."
"I don't want to eat it." Ye Jingan said with disgust.
"You don't even eat it yourself, and you ask me to eat it?" Liu Muzhe sneered.
"Qiu Zimu said this is a good thing!" Ye Jing'an shook the water centipede in front of him, "It tastes better than pigs, cows, and sheep."
"Give it to Qiu Zimu." Liu Muzhe turned his head away.
"Well, I bought it for him originally." Ye Jing'an tied the bag and stuffed it into his pocket.
Before he even reached the door, Ye Jingan could smell the aroma of food from afar. The smoke from the wood fire in the kitchen wafted out continuously, mixed with the aroma of meat. The spicy smell of the fried chili peppers was very choking. Ye Jingan squinted his eyes and coughed violently twice.
When he walked into the house, there were already four plates on the dining table. Qiu Zimu was sitting beside them. He picked up a brown-black object with a toothpick and put it in his mouth. After chewing it twice, he nodded affirmatively and wanted to pick up another one to eat.
Ye Jingan slapped the door and shouted, "How dare you! You actually cheated on us!"
Qiu Zimu was startled, then breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Why are you yelling? You're not going to eat this plate of bugs anyway, so what's wrong with me picking two to try?!"
There were three or four different kinds of bugs, big and small, on the white plate. They didn't look at all appetizing. Ye Jing'an tossed the bag of water centipedes to him and said, "You're always hanging around these lousy bugs, eating and raising them. Why do people here eat bugs too? I saw someone selling them when I was out shopping just now, so I bought you a bag."
"What kind of bug? Let me take a look." Qiu Zimu untied the bag, took out one, and stuffed it into his mouth. "This is delicious, just like jerky."
"You're back. The sour meat and sour fish are ready. Come and try them." Guoguo's mother put two large plates on the table and took three pairs of chopsticks for them.
The sour meat was coated in a white flour paste and deep-fried until pale yellow bubbles formed. Ye Jingan took a bite and found it crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. The meat, like its name, was sour. The taste was strange but delicious.
"This tastes really good!" Ye Jing'an picked up a small piece and fed it to Liu Muze, saying, "Brother Liu, try it."
Liu Muze chewed twice, smiled faintly and said to Ye Jingan: "Eat more."
After a while, the food was all served. There were seven dishes and one soup on the table, and each plate was filled to the brim. Guoguo's mother poured them a cup of milky white soup and said, "This is the rice soup from cooking wood-fired rice. It's good for the stomach."
"Thank you, Sister Jiang, you are a great cook!" Ye Jing'an praised.
"Hahahaha, then eat more." Guoguo's mother scooped a spoonful of meatball soup into the rice, mashed a big meatball, added some shredded lettuce, mixed it with rice and fed it to Guoguo.
Guoguo's mother prepared food for six people, and Ye Jing'an and the other two had almost finished the whole table. No one ate the bugs except Qiu Zimu and Guoguo's mother, so Qiu Zimu took the plate to his room as a snack. Ye Jing'an also took the sour meat away and said to Liu Muze, "Brother Liu, don't you want a snack?"
"I'm full and there are no other dishes on the table." Liu Muzhe said helplessly.
Every time these two guys eat, they are like starving ghosts. They are usually very talkative and noisy, but when they talk about eating, they just start talking non-stop. He eats slowly, but luckily there is enough food every time, otherwise he really can't beat them.
"Come find me when you're hungry. I have some food in my bag." Ye Jing'an and Qiu Zimu went upstairs to play games with their plates. "Brother Liu, do you want to join us?"
Liu Muze shook his head and said, "I'm going out for a walk."
"Didn't you just come back from shopping?" Ye Jing'an said.
Liu Muzhe ignored him and turned away.
Qiu Zimu patted Ye Jingan's arm and whispered, "Brother Liu just came to look for you specially."
"Oh, really?" Ye Jing'an raised his lips. However, this sudden good mood didn't last long. He kept losing games and was scolded by others. "I don't believe it! Let's do it again!"
Just as the time started, Ye Jingan heard Sister Jiang calling Guoguo downstairs, but he didn't pay attention. Children often run around, and when he was a child, Ye Zhuoran couldn't find him at all when he ran around at home.
After a while, there was a knock on the door. Guoguo's mother opened the door a crack and said, "Sorry to bother you. Did Guoguo come to play with you?"
"No, haven't you found it yet?" Ye Jing'an asked.
"Yeah, I searched all over the house." Guoguo's mother sounded worried.
"I'll help you find it. I know what kids generally like." Ye Jing'an said.
"That's great, thank you." Guoguo's mother went to the neighbor next door to ask.
Ye Jingan and Qiu Zimu looked everywhere in the house where children could be hidden, but they didn't see any trace of Guoguo. Ye Jingan said, "No way, that little thing can hide better than me?"
"Could it be that Brother Liu took him out to play?" Qiu Zimu asked.
"Brother Liu, is he the type to play with a child?!" Ye Jing'an sneered.
"Brother Liu has a good temper. If Guoguo pesters him, Brother Liu should agree to take him out to play." Qiu Zimu said.
Ye Jing'an thought about it and felt that it made some sense. He said to Qiu Zimu, "Okay, you help look around here, and I'll go find Brother Liu."
Ye Jingan went out to a quiet place. When he was about to leave the village, he saw Liu Muze walking back slowly along the mountain road. Ye Jingan asked, "Why did Brother Liu go out? Did you see Guoguo?"
"He was playing in the living room when I was out," Liu Muzhe said.
"Guoguo is missing." Ye Jingan said.
"Where could the child run to? Go back and help look for him." Liu Muzhe said.
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