dumpling
The entire urban village is empty. The people living here are travelers, migrant workers, and floating population.
When the Spring Festival comes, the tired birds return to their nests and this place becomes a deserted city.
There is another type of migrant population. People like them regard wherever they go as their home.
Shao Linyin's hand was held by Tong Xiaolai, and the tip of her tongue was still licking her lips, not wanting any trace of Xiaolai's breath to be blown away by the cold wind.
He walked all the way home, following the shadow of Tong Xiaolai cast diagonally on the ground.
Tong Xiaolai opened the newly bought folding bed and piled it in the corner of the public balcony outside. Whoever needed it could take it.
Then I went into the kitchen and cooked some dumplings.
Shao Liyin only ate two, and Tong Xiaolai didn't force him. People with weak stomachs really don't digest glutinous rice balls well. It was just that it was New Year's Eve, so he had to eat some.
This was the first time that the two of them lay in bed, not knowing where to put their hands and feet.
"Brother Li, we..." Tong Xiao looked at him with eyes that could not hide the tenderness in them.
"What are you thinking about, little brat? Don't even think about it before you turn 18. Go to sleep!" Shao Linyin glared at him, turned around, and faced away from him. After thinking for a while, she pulled a thin blanket between them.
Tong Xiaolai looked at the back of his head, smiled and touched the back of his slender neck, where the cervical vertebrae were protruding from his thinness, and then put his hand on his waist.
"Brother Li, please stop delivering food at the beginning of the new year. My scholarship plus your salary is more than enough for us to live on."
He still dares to ask for a scholarship???
The bill for the 5,000 yuan gloves hasn’t been settled yet!
It would have been fine if he hadn't said it, as it would have hurt his heart. But he didn't want to spoil the mood, so he pretended to be asleep and snored loudly.
Tong Xiaolai chuckled, gently pinched the thin layer of flesh on his waist, and said nothing more.
The next day, the first day of the Lunar New Year, the two of them slept until ten o'clock before slowly opening their eyes. When they opened their eyes, they looked at each other in bewilderment...
"Should we... kiss each other, have a good morning kiss or something..." Tong Xiaolai asked tentatively.
"Ah..." Shao Linyin blushed and was stunned for a while, "I haven't brushed my teeth yet, isn't that inappropriate..."
"..." Tong Xiaolai blew a breath into his palm, "It seems to be..."
Shao Linyin also let out a sigh, immediately threw off the quilt and prepared to get out of bed to wash up.
As soon as my feet touched the slippers and I hadn't put them on, someone pulled my arm and I fell down. Then a face came close to me, and the breath hit my face.
"Laugh..." he whispered.
"Um?"
The sound seemed to be right next to his ear, but it was drowned out by the heartbeat like a drum. His palms seemed to be sweating from nervousness. He gently grabbed a small piece of bed sheet.
He blinked and swallowed, his Adam's apple still rolling, and suddenly he felt a warmth.
The smiling lips fell on his Adam's apple.
His face flushed, red all the way to his neck, and an uncontrollable sweetness welled up in his heart.
The hands that were grabbing the bed sheet slowly loosened, and he put his arms around Xiaolai's neck, his fingers embedded in Xiaolai's soft hair.
"Laugh..." he murmured softly.
"Smile..." over and over again.
He raised his head and gently kissed the lips that did not fall on his face when the smile came.
Lips and teeth are inseparable, but it is hard to tell whose lips are and whose teeth are...
…
…
"Brother Li...is it okay..." His voice was a little hoarse as he laughed.
Shao Liyin sensed his strangeness, and her rationality returned instantly. Her eyes finally focused, and she gently bit his smiling, rosy lips before letting go: "Go take a shower, dear."
"Brother Li..." Tong Xiaolai wanted to continue, but there was grievance in his voice and eyes.
Shao Liyin was extremely sober at this time. He slapped his butt and squeezed it gently: "Be obedient, wait until you come of age..."
I watched Tong Xiaolai reluctantly move into the bathroom and listened to the sound of water splashing inside.
He sat on the bed, looking at the wrinkled sheets, and for a moment he couldn't help laughing. As he laughed, he felt...
very nice.
"That's great." He murmured.
After finishing the work and washing up, it was already noon. Tong Xiaolai took out the ingredients he had bought earlier and prepared to make dumplings.
The young master, who knew nothing, sat at the table, staring with surprised eyes, watching the white flour turn into dough, then into bowl-sized skin, and finally into plump big dumplings.
Watching Tong Xiaolai's fingers that could turn decayed things into magic moving flexibly, I couldn't restrain my eagerness to try, but I ended up not being able to finish the job, and all I got were defective products with broken skin and exposed contents.
Tong Xiaolai looked at him with a smile, and seeing that she had already wrapped ten dumplings, she stopped. She reached out to wipe the flour off his face, but the more she wiped, the more flour there was. She simply gave up and sat beside him quietly, letting him do whatever he wanted, giving him some instructions from time to time. Finally, she watched the young master throw away the skin that was pinched by the skin in frustration, and sat aside angrily.
He then carried ten intact ones and a pile of stuffing mixture, the number of which was so large that it was hard to tell the exact number, into the kitchen.
When the dumplings were served, Shao Linyin ate four and wanted to put down his chopsticks again. Tong Xiaolai tried to persuade him but to no avail, so she moved three of the full dumplings in his bowl to him and forced him to eat the remaining two.
When I ate the last one, it hit my teeth with a crunch. I took it out and saw that it was a coin.
Shao Liyin: "Xiaolai, you have serious food safety issues here."
Tong Xiaolai: "..."
"Tsk, it can even hold a coin." He took it out, wiped it, washed it, and put it in his pocket. "I can use it on the bus next time."
Tong Xiaolai looked at Shao Linyin, who seemed to know nothing at all, and asked cautiously, "Brother Li, do you know what it means to put a coin in a dumpling?"
Shao Liyin looked at him and said, "What's the point? If the food safety is not up to standard, you will be complained to the Consumers Association if you open a store."
Tong Xiaolai lowered his head slightly, ate two mouthfuls of the dumpling residue that Shao Liyin had ruined, then looked up and smiled: "Who knows how this coin fell in there? I'll be more careful next time and I won't do it again."
The afternoon sunshine felt very comfortable on the body. Shao Linyin stood on the public balcony, lazily leaning against the railing, facing the small window, looking at the busy people inside the window with a smile on his face.
Tong Xiaolai finished washing the dishes, cleared the table, mopped the floor, and sealed the trash can. Then he looked up at him through the window and said, "I'll go downstairs to throw away the trash and come back in a while."
Shao Liyin leaned on the railing and stood up and walked over: "Let's go together, the sun is shining, let's go down for a walk."
Tong Xiaolai picked up the key on the table and the coat hanging on the wall, closed the door, and walked down with Shao Linyin who was waiting at the door.
The place where the garbage was thrown was the same as last time. Shao Linyin looked at the place where Tong Xiaolai had finished eating the cake.
"It's New Year's Eve so fast!" Shao Liyin sighed, then turned to look at Tong Xiaolai, "You've grown so tall."
"I told you to drink milk but you didn't."
Shao Liyin was not convinced, so he grabbed the man and tried to compare him: "Look, he's not even as tall as me!"
"I'll surpass you next year."
“…Next year I’ll drink milk too!”
Tong Xiaolai threw away the garbage, and the two continued walking forward. When they walked out of the village entrance, they saw an artificial lake. This was their second time coming here together.
Walking on the health trail by the lake, Shao Liyin said, "Xiaolai, that cake is the first cake in my life."
Tong Xiaolai was startled and stopped.
Shao Liyin looked at him and smiled, then reached out and took his arm and continued walking forward: "I am very grateful for my eighteenth birthday. I finally made up my mind, bought this cake, and then met you.
The best birthday gift for my eighteenth birthday is here. My smile.
Tong Xiaolai felt a little uncomfortable.
Shao Liyin shook his arm again: "So, what does the cake taste like?"
"It's fragrant and sweet."
"So, it's the taste of your lips?"
Tong Xiaolai: "..., it also tastes like your lips."
The spring breeze passed between the two of them, and a forsythia flower came from somewhere. Shao Linyin reached out to catch it, put it to the tip of his nose and sniffed it, then reached out and put it between Tong Xiaolai's ears.
"Delicate flowers complement beautiful women, so pretty!"
Tong Xiaolai: "..." As long as you are happy.
"Laugh..."
"Um?"
"Tell me, what does it mean to put a coin in a dumpling?"
Tong Xiaolai paused.
Shao Linyin looked towards the lake, narrowed his eyes slightly, and continued to walk slowly forward with a childish smile: "I, actually, there are many things I don't know. You can tell me directly in the future. You don't have to consider my emotions and go along with me."
"Okay." Tong Xiaolai responded, then fell silent for a moment, then slowly recalled, "The first time I ate dumplings with coins in them was when I was seven years old. I was at the welfare home, and they were made by Director Tong himself.
There were twelve of us, and each of us could only get three coins, but I ate the coin. Dean Tong said that eating dumplings with coins in them during Chinese New Year brings good luck.
Shao Liyin smiled and said, "So that's how it is. My family's luck with laughter is good."
The child smiled but said nothing.
"Dean Tong is really a very good person. Did Dean Tong teach you how to cook?"
Tong Xiaolai shook his head. "It was the first family who adopted me. A month after I ate the dumplings with coins in them, a couple came to the orphanage and took a fancy to me."
"Are they treating you well?"
Tong Xiaolai fell silent for a moment. Shao Linyin held his hand, exerted a little force, and Tong Xiaolai held it back with his backhand.
"They chose me at the orphanage because of my age. At seven, I was old enough to take care of others, but not too old to have my own ideas."
"Xiaolai, stop talking. Don't think about the past."
Tong Xiaolai pulled away the fingers covering his lips and said, "There was an elderly person in that family who couldn't take care of himself, but none of the young children in the family were willing to take care of him at home, so they adopted me.
After I took care of the old man for a year, he passed away. I learned how to cook during that time. After he passed away, the couple who adopted me said I was unruly and had a bad temper, so they sent me back.
Shao Liyin pulled Tong Xiaolai over and kissed her lips: "From now on, I won't send you anywhere. We have to go together wherever we go."
He finally understood why Xiaolai was so good at taking care of people. His skills in bandaging and caring for patients were so skillful that it was heartbreaking.
Tong Xiaolai touched his forehead and took him to sit on a bench by the lake: "Brother Li, it's nothing. I'm actually very grateful for that time. The old man treated me well and never beat or scolded me.
When I first started cooking, the food was a little too salty, sometimes too bland, but the old man never complained and always said it was delicious. Before he died, he was still holding my hand, his eyes filled with worry for me.
Shao Liyin held Tong Xiaolai's hand and squeezed it: "My Xiaolai is just likable. Anyone who gets along with her will know."
Tong Xiaolai lowered his head for a moment, then raised it again and looked at Shao Liyin: "Brother Li, what about you?"
Shao Linyin turned her head away and stopped looking at Tong Xiaolai. She leaned back on the bench, looked at the shimmering lake, and pursed her thin lips.
Seeing that he didn't want to talk, Tong Xiaolai didn't ask any further questions.
After a moment, a smile appeared between his eyebrows and he said, "As for me, I'm afraid it will scare you if I tell you."
Tong Xiaolai: "..." He felt that Brother Li was going to start talking nonsense to scare him.
"Before I was twelve, I lived in luxury, with everything provided for me. I lived in a large villa, surrounded by experts.
Meals are thoughtfully prepared by nutrition experts, activities are tailored by behavioral scientists, and bodyguards accompany patients throughout their daily lives, fearing any falls or bumps. Even a headache or fever sends the entire hospital into a state of panic.
If I accidentally see blood, everyone around me will be terrified."
Tong Xiaolai: "...Brother Li, can you make up a more convincing lie when you're trying to scare people?"
Shao Linyin looked at the lake, the shimmering light reflected in her eyes, and a smile lingered in her voice: "Did that scare you?"
Tong Xiaolai rolled his eyes and couldn't help but want to expose her: "Then how come my young master, who lives in luxury, has never even eaten cake and doesn't even know how to make dumplings with coins in them?"
Shao Liyin: "Stupid! I'm a nutrition expert, how could I possibly eat something as high in fat and unhealthy as cake? And there are so many bacteria on that coin, how could it be wrapped in a dumpling?"
Tong Xiaolai: “…” I was shallow and offensive.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
