Chat up
Like, what is it like?
Wu Meilai stared at the cute kitten avatar on the phone screen in a daze, and only clicked "agree" after being reminded.
"Do you like cats?" Wu Meilai asked.
Zhou Qianling was a little surprised that she actually took the initiative to talk to her. She smiled and nodded, "Yes, but unfortunately I'm allergic to cat hair."
"Oh." Wu Meilai also felt it was a pity, because a wild cat had secretly given birth to several kittens upstairs in her house. She was also thinking that if this person was interested, he would take her to see it.
The two of them didn't say anything else. Wu Mei opened the door and went into the kitchen to light the fire. "What do you want to eat?"
"Mutton noodles."
Zhou Qianling sat back at the same seat he sat yesterday and opened Wu Meilai's circle of friends. The only few messages were all about store discounts and price increases.
After logging out, she clicked into her homepage and changed the emo selfie she posted last month, which was visible only to herself, to one that was visible only to "Mei Lai Clay Pot Lamb Noodles".
When Wu Mei came out, turning off the fire and carrying the clay pot, she saw the city dweller staring at his phone, laughing and rubbing his hands together, his fingers red from the cold. She placed the clay pot on a heat-insulating mat, pulled a hand warmer from a pile of junk in the corner to charge it, and then sat down to play a game.
Zhou Qianling ate in silence, and for a moment the only sounds in the store were "good" and "amazing".
After eating one-third of the food, the voice prompt stopped. After a while, a plate of pickled cabbage and pickled red radish appeared in front of me, plus a hand warmer.
"Thank you." Zhou Qianling raised his head and smiled unusually warmly and gently.
"No need." Wu Meilai was a little confused by her sudden fake smile. City people were too polite.
Seeing everyone sitting back in their original seats, Zhou Qianling put the hand warmer on his left hand to cover it, and then heard the great sound coming from the other side again.
Zhou Qianling sighed secretly, thinking that the owner must be a quiet person and difficult to approach.
However, it made her want to get closer even more.
After taking a bite of the noodles, Zhou Qianling discovered that there were no onions or chili peppers in it. She wanted to ask how I knew my taste, but then she thought that she had just eaten it yesterday and her intention to flirt with him would be too obvious, so she held back.
Halfway through her meal, she picked up a piece of radish and found it sweet. She wanted to exclaim, "I thought it was sour." But that was too boring, so she held back again.
Seeing that the bowl of noodles was almost empty, Zhou Qianling suddenly had an idea and asked, "What are you playing?"
"Candy Crush."
"I haven't played it before, can you send it to me?"
Zhou Qianling wiped his mouth after finishing his meal, then took a long step and sat next to her. She added, "My frequently used apps are so slow here."
Zhou Qianling maintained a proper smile on his face and accepted the other party's slightly confused gaze.
"Do you want me to send it to you via Bluetooth?" Otherwise, why would he suddenly sit over here?
"Oh, yes." Zhou Qianling turned on the Bluetooth and stared at the slow movements of her fingertips in a trance.
“It’s been sent.”
"Thank you." Zhou Qianling didn't even look at him and smiled very gently again. The curve of her mouth had been rehearsed in her mind many times.
"...No need." I just shared a piece of software. Is it really worth such a formal thank you?
Really polite diners.
Seeing her acting the same as always, Zhou Qianling couldn't help but feel disappointed. She had always thought she was charming, but after repeatedly failing to get any feedback, she began to doubt herself.
She silently installed the game. Entering the game for the first time required loading and logging in. Zhou Qianling put her phone aside and imitated the elders chatting casually, "There seems to be only one restaurant here. Business is usually pretty good, right?"
"We can barely make ends meet, and most people are reluctant to spend money on eating out."
"Oh." Zhou Qianling was just talking nonsense. She'd been here for ages and no one was around, so how could business be good? She tried to find something to say, but couldn't find anything, so the topic ended again.
She picked up her phone while the game was still loading, so she switched to the browser to search for "how to approach girls", "what topics to talk about with girls", "what to do if the conversation with girls becomes awkward", etc.
As expected, the page was stuck in the "Please wait, working hard to load for you" state. However, pretending to be busy did effectively alleviate the awkwardness.
But after even the sound of the game disappeared, the store became unusually quiet.
"I think we've met before." The page finally loaded, and Zhou Qianling immediately read out the first guide. He couldn't help but frown when he realized what was going on: such an outdated pick-up line.
She made up for it by saying, "I came here when I was a child, maybe we met then."
"You still remember it."
Zhou Qianling looked at her and saw that the woman finally smiled slightly. Like a light feather, it slowly floated to the surface of the lake, creating tiny ripples.
"On New Year's Day, I heard your mother bought some big fireworks, so I invited a few friends and I to go to your house to watch the fireworks."
That should be the first time she saw me.
When Wu Meilai was a child, she was wild and ran around the mountains and fields every day. One day, when she was fishing in the river with her friends, she met a mother and daughter who lived opposite each other. The girl was wearing a cotton-padded jacket and skirt, and her two pigtails bounced with her movements. She was very cute.
There are very few children in the village who are as clean as her. Most of them are like her. They will not change their clothes for ten days or half a month, and their hair is messy and cannot be combed.
The girl and her mother stood on the shore holding an umbrella and asked: It's snowing, aren't you cold?
The sound is also soft and sticky.
Most of the children were like Wu Meilai, shyly swimming to the big rock in the middle of the river without saying a word. Only one boy, who was usually not afraid of people, swam over, said loudly that it was not cold, and then quickly swam back. Then everyone in the middle of the river immediately burst into laughter.
Actually, there was nothing funny about it, but Wu Meilai also laughed out loud.
It seems there is a less obvious way to get noticed by people on the shore.
She suspected the others felt the same way. But whose attention were they trying to attract? She wasn't sure. Nine out of ten children in the village were left behind, and everyone subconsciously yearned for a mother's attention. Wu Meilai felt the same way about herself.
Before the two left, she handed the fish skewered on the thatch to her friend and asked her to swim over and give it to them.
"I gave you a bunch of small fish by the river that time. I don't know if you ate them." Wu Meilai recalled.
"Huh? They fried it and ate it, but I thought it was a boy at that time." Zhou Qianling thought, girls really change a lot when they grow up.
"I still remember when my mom gave you a dollar, you smiled a bit meanly."
"...That's not me." And that bastard actually embezzled such a huge sum of money. No wonder he was willing to treat himself to two slices of spicy strips when he returned home, which cost a full 20 cents.
Seeing the woman pursed her lips and her expression became much more lively, Zhou Qianling joked, "Then I'll give you the money now." Then he transferred one dollar to her WeChat.
"Need not."
Received a refund the next second.
The shop owner was a somewhat formal person, so Zhou Qianling could expect this. Seeing the chat box finally open with a conversation, she felt a little relieved, then realized that the note he had sent her was: Hello, parent, I am Teacher Zhou from Class 1, Grade 12.
So after chatting for so long, the other party still doesn't know his name...
"I forgot to change the verification message. My name is Zhou Qianling." She sent three words.
Wu Meilai looked at the message and murmured softly after a while: "Qianling..."
"I'll ask Wu Mei to come." She said with a smile.
He actually asked Wu Mei to come.
Zhou Qianling deleted the original note, leaving only the two words "Mei Lai".
The door curtain fluttered, and finally some business came. Wu Meilai got up and went into the kitchen. Zhou Qianling helped to clean up his table and then sat back down.
After the game loaded, she logged in with her WeChat account, and saw that she had already cleared more than 2,000 levels... She found the recent login list and discovered that Wu Meilai was at more than 8,000 levels.
Maybe, I can’t see myself.
Generally speaking, if Wu Mei had as many friends as she did, it would be hard to notice...
Never mind, we've struck up a conversation anyway.
She had played the game when she was bored in college, and she hadn't logged in for almost ten years, so the system gave her a bunch of birds like a cheat. Zhou Qianling made great progress and was really into the game.
The diners who came in were attracted by the sound, looked at her for a long time, and chatted: "Which An is this?"
Zhou Qianling didn't know what he was asking, so he didn't answer.
Wu Mei joined in: "She is Miss Zhou San's niece."
"Mrs. Zhou Fang?"
When Zhou Qianling heard his mother's name, he looked up and smiled, "Yes."
The woman smiled a little more and said in surprise, "Miss Zhou Fang has grown so big."
She sighed, "Your mother and I were classmates. Your mother was very capable. She was the first university graduate in town."
Zhou Fang didn't talk much about her past. Zhou Qianling put down his phone and listened with interest.
From the women, she learned that her mother had been bright since childhood, always at the top of her class. Like all her classmates, she helped with farm work after school. However, unlike others who played and danced around after work, she would study by kerosene lamp until late at night.
"It's better to study. After you go to university, you can find a local husband right away and transfer your household registration there to become a city dweller."
Zhou Qianling frowned. His mother was a gentle but capable person. Her achievements at work were slightly better than his father's. Even if she didn't get married, she could still gain a foothold in Yanzhou.
Zhou Qianling knew that deeply rooted ideas were difficult to change, and there was no need to correct them, so he nodded lacking interest.
Wu Meilai brought her the spicy chicken noodle soup and said, "Auntie, add the chili pepper yourself."
The woman took out her chopsticks and looked at her back as she went back to the kitchen to clean up. She said regretfully, "If you had continued studying at that time, you would probably be a city dweller."
Wu Mei paused for a moment, then laughed and said, "No, I probably won't be able to keep up in high school."
"Ah, it's a sin to have such parents. They are so stubborn. If you went to college and found a job in a big city like Zhou Fang... Hey? Come and eat noodles." The woman called out to the outside of the store.
"Oh, you've made a fortune, and you're eating out." Three women of similar age walked in, joking. "Did you win at mahjong?"
"I didn't win a damn thing. I lost over a hundred yesterday."
"Be careful, your family will beat you to death."
Several people ordered mutton noodles and two bowls of hoof pollen respectively, and sat together chatting and laughing loudly.
Zhou Qianling absentmindedly stared at the busy figure in the kitchen. Every movement was so smooth and effortless that it was pleasing to the eye. The noisy environment made her look even more calm and peaceful.
Wu Mei came to clean up the kitchen and turned around to see Zhou Qianling staring at her. She wiped her hands and sat next to her, asking, "You seem to like staring at people?"
It was the same yesterday. As soon as she came out, she saw this person who wanted to stick his eyes to her face.
Wu Meilai touched her face with the back of her hand. The brief eye contact made her inexplicably embarrassed.
She cursed herself inwardly for becoming more and more petty.
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