Climbing up the moss-covered steps, Hua Jin smelled a sour, spicy and spicy aroma. She turned her head and looked around. She saw a cloth sign hanging at the door of a store with the words "Wolf Tooth Potatoes" written on it.
Wolf tooth potatoes can be considered one of the special snacks in Shu Province, but as a local of Shu Province, Hua Jin has only eaten it once. This memory is too long ago, and she only vaguely remembers that she ate it very slowly and carefully, and she was reluctant to waste even the sauce at the bottom of the disposable plastic bowl.
"Sister, come and try some authentic wolf-tooth potatoes." The owner was a plump older sister. Seeing Hua Jin looking into her store, she greeted her warmly, "Eight yuan for a big bowl. I guarantee you'll want more after eating it."
Pei Yan narrowed his eyes and looked at the shabby and narrow store without saying anything. Hua Jin walked forward and said, "Give me two bowls. Don't make it too spicy."
"So you are from outside the city." The shop owner heard Hua Jin speaking Mandarin and skillfully pouring the cut potato strips into the oil pan, "Are you here for your honeymoon? We have a lot of old wines in our cellar. If anyone in your family likes to drink, you can buy some and have it delivered back."
Honeymoon?
Hua Jin's eyebrows twitched. Who? She and Pei Yan?
"I didn't expect that you outsiders would come here specifically to buy the dragon and phoenix red umbrella. Nowadays, the younger generation has cars when they get married, so this kind of dragon and phoenix red umbrella is basically unnecessary." The store owner said as she turned the potatoes over. "On the whole street, only the old Chen family has the most authentic umbrella craftsmanship, but the price is not cheap."
Hua Jin had no choice but to explain with a smile: "You misunderstood, we are just friends."
Upon hearing this, the shop owner quickly apologized, and then awkwardly explained the reason for her misunderstanding: "In the past, when newlyweds got married, it would sometimes be rainy, but it was unlucky to use an umbrella of another color, so families with better conditions would prepare two big red dragon and phoenix umbrellas in advance before the wedding, symbolizing the dragon and phoenix becoming immortals, with red clouds covering the sky."
"Umbrella" sounds like "scatter" in Chinese. In order to have a good start on their wedding day, some people would be superstitious about these things.
After listening to the store owner's explanation, Hua Jin didn't know whether to laugh or cry. She suspected that the old man who sold her the umbrella just now also misunderstood the relationship between her and Pei Yan.
The wolf-tooth potatoes were ready, and Hua Jin gave a bowl to Pei Yan: "I asked the boss to make it less spicy, you can try a little."
The potatoes were sour, spicy, and fragrant, and tasted pretty good, but Hua Jin found that they were not as delicious as she remembered. Perhaps some things that were not satisfied in the past, even if you get a lot later, it is difficult to find the original state of mind.
She turned to look at Pei Yan and saw that he was red from face to neck, and even his eyes were watery. She was shocked and asked, "What's wrong with you?"
"Spicy." Pei Yan threw the uneaten potato into the trash can. "Is this what you mean by less spicy?"
Hua Jin: “…”
Adding less spiciness is already the biggest compromise. Wolf tooth potatoes that are not spicy will be expelled from their homeland.
The other person's lips were as red as blood, and his eyes were filled with tears, as if he had suffered a great injustice. Hua Jin felt soft-hearted and went to the store next door to buy him a bottle of water: "Drink some water, you will feel better."
Pei Yan drank half the bottle in one breath: "Thank you."
"You're welcome." Hua Jin silently added in his heart: Serving the beauty.
The two of them each held a red oil-paper umbrella in their hands. Remembering the words of the wolf tooth potato shop owner, they tacitly used their mobile phones to search for the nearby express delivery station and sent the umbrellas out.
Pei Yan didn't know why he wanted to keep this thing. After hearing Hua Jin say, "Since we're here, we can't go back empty-handed," he really sent the umbrella back.
The rain had stopped and a cool breeze blew by. Hua Jin saw that Pei Yan's lips were still red: "I thought Mr. Pei's ancestors were from Shu Province, so he should be able to eat spicy food."
"My great-grandfather moved away from here as early as the last century." Pei Yan's tone sounded a little lazy. The spicy taste just now seemed to have sucked away most of his energy. "Why do I feel that you understand the culture of Shu Province better than I do? Could it be that after learning Shu embroidery, you have fallen in love with Shu Province?"
"I'm originally from Shu Province. I've lived here for more than ten years. I must know more about the living habits and dialects here than you do." There was a slope ahead, and Hua Jin walked slowly. "I haven't been back for seven or eight years. Shu Province has changed a lot."
"Seven or eight years?" Pei Yan glanced at Hua Jin's face. "You have never been back. The place you live in is very remote and transportation is inconvenient?"
"Yes." Hua Jin smiled nonchalantly, "My hometown is in a very remote small village. The transportation was really bad eight years ago. I don't know how it is now."
Pei Yan walked forward for a while in silence, and suddenly said, "If you want to go back and take a look, I can go with you after I finish offering sacrifices to the ancestors."
"Thank you." Hua Jin smiled a little, "But it's not necessary."
"Really?" Pei Yan looked at Hua Jin, wanting to confirm whether she was politely refusing or really didn't need it.
"Yeah." Hua Jin smiled and nodded, "Really not necessary."
"Okay." Pei Yan nodded, "I'll go back to my hometown early tomorrow morning."
He did not ask Hua Jin why she didn't want to go back, nor did he ask about anything about Hua Jin's hometown, and he never even mentioned the matter again.
Pei Yan's hometown is in a small county town under the jurisdiction of Jiangjiu City. After the two returned to the village, they were warmly received by the villagers. Hua Jin saw Pei Yan take out a lot of books, medicinal materials and toys from the trunk of the car and gave them to the elderly and children in the village. When he went to burn incense, Hua Jin did not follow him, but stayed in the village to ask several elderly grandmothers about what happened decades ago.
But these old ladies didn't want to talk about embroidery decades ago, they just wanted to know when Hua Jin and Pei Yan got married. Even though Hua Jin tried her best to explain that she had nothing to do with Pei Yan and they just happened to be traveling together, these old ladies still smiled, "We are experienced people, we understand."
Faced with this smile, Hua Jin could only give up explaining. Anyway, people here only knew Pei Yan and didn't know her. So she should let Pei Yan deal with this misunderstanding himself.
The villagers kept praising the Pei family for how good they were, how much money they had donated to build a road, and which processing plant in the county was invested by the Pei family. They almost pasted the words "Ten Perfect Saints" on the Pei family's foreheads.
"Although Pei Yan's parents died early, his grandparents are reasonable people. You will definitely not be wronged if you marry into such a family." The old lady who spoke had gray hair and looked a little thin, but she was in good spirits. "Sister, don't you think so?"
What else could Hua Jin say? Of course, she could only smile and say yes. Finally, she tried her best and finally turned the conversation to the martyr who sacrificed his life for the country.
"Life was really hard back then." Some older grandmothers still have memories of those years, but they have few memories of embroidery. All they can remember is the hunger and panic during the war.
Hua Jin also took the opportunity to look at an old lady's dowry. Because it was too old, the white pillow had turned yellow. The embroidery of mandarin ducks playing in the water was very stiff and the stitches were rough, like something that was hastily made by an ordinary embroiderer. But the old lady was very proud because not many brides could use embroidery as dowry in those days.
When Pei Yan came back from worshipping his ancestors, he saw Hua Jin sitting in the yard with several old ladies. The small table in front of her was filled with melon seeds and candies, and she looked very happy. Looking down at the mud on his feet, he felt inexplicably complicated. As he got closer, he could hear several old ladies teaching Hua Jin how to make men more obedient.
It is said that women in Shu and Yu are very good at dealing with men. After listening to it today, it is indeed true. Pei Yan felt that as a man, he should not step into the absolute domain of women at this moment.
Fortunately, the village chief who accompanied him to the ancestral tomb stood up bravely, interrupted the old ladies' on-site teaching of how to control their husbands, and asked Pei Yan to sit down and rest.
Good-looking young men are always liked by old ladies. As soon as Pei Yan sat down, the old ladies began to ask him about his well-being and showed concern for him from head to toe. Young Master Pei, who was so powerful outside that countless people kept away from him, was unable to resist the concern of the old ladies. In the end, he escaped from the old ladies' enthusiastic concern with the excuse of taking Hua Jin around.
There were many late-planted rapeseed flowers in full bloom on the mountain, a large area of golden color, and a very strong fragrance. Hua Jin looked at the mud on the soles of his shoes and sighed: "Mr. Pei, it's not enough that you have mud on your feet, but you still want to drag me into this trouble?"
Pei Yan saw that Hua Jin was having difficulty walking in her small leather shoes, so he turned around and walked back: "Let's go back."
"Don't be impatient." Hua Jin stopped him, "The cauliflower is so beautiful, take a picture for me."
Pei Yan looked at her with a stern face: "I'm sorry, I've never had a girlfriend, so I don't look good in photos."
"It's okay, I don't mind." Hua Jin held her face with both hands, "Quick, take a picture like this, it makes my face look smaller."
In the end, Pei Yan took out his expensive mobile phone and took more than a dozen photos of Hua Jin before taking her back.
During lunch, the village chief asked Hua Jin to sit down: "This..." He turned his head to look at Pei Yan. He had been busy for most of the day, but still didn't know the name of this beautiful girl.
Pei Yan looked up at Hua Jin, waiting for her to introduce herself.
"Hello, my name is Hua Jin, you can just call me Xiao Hua." Hua Jin said with a smile, "Sorry for disturbing you today."
"Don't bother me, don't bother me." The village chief smiled naively. "We are all very grateful for everything the Pei family has done for the village. We are so happy that you can sit here today that we can't wait to bother you. Your name is well chosen. It sounds like a flourishing flower. It sounds very blessed."
"Thank you for your good wishes." Hua Jin smiled faintly. As for whether there will be blessings in the future, who knows.
When leaving the village, Hua Jin and Pei Yan collected a lot of local specialties, even the back seat was filled with them.
“The people in your hometown are so welcoming.”
"It's normal for them to be enthusiastic towards me, why are they so enthusiastic towards you too?" The country road was not very wide, so Pei Yan drove very slowly.
"Maybe they thought I was your girlfriend?" Hua Jin sighed, "It's a pity that my reputation as a single beauty that I have maintained for many years has been ruined just like that."
Pei Yan: “…”
Who will suffer greater reputation loss due to this misunderstanding?
The author has something to say: Pei Yan: Protest! We want equality between men and women, but who will protect the reputation of single men? !
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