Chapter 138 Taste (Two in One)
With the help of Wang Jiaju, who "walked into the trap", Su Yun really followed Master Shi and cleared out the egg reserves in the kitchen during these two days.
In the end, Su Yun couldn't remember how many flavors of egg waffles they made. All she remembered was that in addition to the normal sweet flavor, they tried all kinds of flavors, such as salty, spicy, sour, fruity, etc…
After lunch, Mr. Shi checked the inventory and asked Zhao Liying to help look after the small building. He planned to go down the mountain himself to get supplies.
The geographical location here is remote. In the past, he and other hostel bought half of the supplies from farmers in the town, and sent young people to drive down the mountain to the city to purchase the other half. They rarely went down the mountain.
Mr. Shi was full of expectations for this trip down the mountain: maybe among the supplies he bought this time, there would be ingredients that could make the taste his wife wanted.
In the past few years, he has tried his best to make eggettes of various flavors. He has reached the point where he has given up hope. He just keeps trying out of habit, hoping that one of these many attempts will be a lucky one, allowing these two old men to fulfill their obsession.
Until Su Yun came.
Perhaps it was the children who always represented hope that brought new vitality to this old man. Although the kitchen was sometimes bustling with activity, Mr. Shi felt that it was a long-lost lively atmosphere, much more down-to-earth than the previous situation where they were two old people with a frustrated middle-aged man.
Since there was no more material, Su Yun, together with Wang Jiaju and Lin Jiashu, sat in the corridor behind the house, admiring the well-kept yard and enjoying the leisurely afternoon time.
This corridor also has a special name: margin side, which means the elevated corridor under the eaves in Japanese.
The deep eaves are a major feature of traditional Japanese wooden architecture. The space of the eaves is mostly used as an edge, usually located in a direction with good lighting conditions, to flexibly separate or connect the inside and outside spaces.
In anime, the protagonists often sit on the wooden floor, talking to the moon, sipping tea and listening to the rain, or reading on their side... With it, you can enjoy the scenery outside without going out.
It combines the functions of internal and external spaces, yet it is separated from the inside and the outside. It is a third domain between the inside and the outside, and its design and use are the most ambiguous.
Lin Jiashu was a drummer. Although he could play the guitar a little, his playing was like playing with cotton. In addition, he looked like a suicide squad running around with a submachine gun when he was holding the guitar. Su Yun thought he was making a lot of noise, so she waved her hand and sent him to take a nap.
He was not picky. He went back and got a pillow to use as a pillow and then lay down on the spot, looking like a paralyzed boss.
Seeing that Lin Jiaju had finally calmed down, Su Yun handed the guitar that Wang Jiaju had shamelessly taken away back to Wang Jiaju, and then lowered her head to write a schedule while Wang Jiaju was practicing a piece of music beside her.
"This is summer vacation!" Lin Jiashu, who was paralyzed on the ground, squinted his eyes and listened to his teammates' rehearsal music, then stretched his whole body.
"No matter how much food you eat, you can't fill your mouth." Su Yun rolled her eyes at him.
"I've been fed up with eating so much these past few days..." Looking at the several plates of egg waffles of various flavors placed nearby, and thinking back to what Su Yun had forced them to eat these past few days... Lin Jiashu almost shuddered.
Wang Jia suddenly stopped practicing, then reached out to grab two egg waffles to eat: "No, it's quite delicious, maybe you're just not used to it."
It makes people miss the old days especially.
In the past, in order to buy a bag of eggettes, my brother and I had to search all the small pieces in the house - and we were not always able to collect enough money.
"He has not experienced our past and really doesn't understand the significance of street snacks to us." Su Yun also took two and stuffed them into his mouth, speaking vaguely.
Seeing that these two people seemed to be excluding him by taking advantage of the difference in taste, Lin Jiasha immediately became anxious: "Who said I can't eat! I'll eat it for you to see, ah - cough cough cough..."
Seeing that he took too much and ended up choking himself, Wang Jiaju handed his teacup to him with a helpless look, patted his back and advised: "Don't force yourself. Food is like music. Sometimes you need specific conditions to taste its special flavor."
"Only under special conditions can one taste special flavors?" The speaker was unintentional but the listener was intentional. Su Yun repeated Wang Jiaju's words and felt as if the fog in her mind was cleared a little.
In order to verify her idea, Su Yun stood up suddenly, put the newly made plan aside under Zhao Liying's complicated gaze, then took a notebook and came to Grandma Liang.
"Grandma, do you remember when you first ate egg waffles?" The biggest characteristic of Alzheimer's disease is that the older the things are, the clearer they are remembered. Su Yun took a notebook and prepared to start recording.
Granny Liang thought for a moment before answering, "When I was ten, my mom celebrated my tenth birthday for me. People at that time only celebrated their tenth, twentieth, and thirtieth birthdays..."
"Do you remember what it tastes like? What ingredients are added?" Su Yun quickly wrote a line on the notebook and then asked again.
"We were so poor back then, there was no need to add any extra ingredients. We just had the most ordinary ones," said Granny Liang cheerfully.
Is it the regular original flavor?
It has already been made for Granny Liang.
Thinking of this, Su Yun put a cross behind the first record.
After hearing Su Yun repeatedly asking Granny Liang about the taste of the eggettes she had eaten, Zhao Liying finally shifted his gaze from the schedule on the table and asked, "Are you planning to try to find the flavor she wants by referring to the eggettes she had eaten?"
"Yeah." Su Yun nodded and scribbled on the notebook with great enthusiasm.
It was dusk as they spent the night. Su Yun looked at the dozen pages of records in the notebook, marveling at the old man's long experience and stretching his muscles.
Seeing her walking to the edge with the notebook, Zhao Liying thought for a moment, glanced at Granny Liang again, and after confirming that she had started listening to the radio again, he tiptoed to the table.
I quickly opened it and took a quick look, and sure enough, there had been changes.
He even used his previous modifications—wait, isn't this…
"What?! You want me, a rock singer, to sing Cantonese opera?!" Lin Jiashu's scream suddenly came from the side.
"To be precise, you were the one playing the music with a machine, and Jiaju and I were the ones singing!" Su Yun corrected him, "I know you don't have this plan, but you've already listened to most of The Flower of the Imperial Concubine. You can put the disc into the machine and play it, right?"
"It's possible, but what are your plans?" Lin Jiashu asked doubtfully.
"I'll take down the red quilt in the room. I'll put on the bed sheet, and Jiaju will put on the quilt. Oh, by the way, Jiaju, put on your black duck cap." Su Yun calculated, and then explained to the two, "I studied the types of egg waffles that Granny Liang had eaten, and decided to do a 'reenactment' of the most likely memory."
"Re-enactment of the case?" Wang Jiaju quickly understood what Su Yun meant. He picked up the notebook and pointed to a few lines of words and asked, "Do you want to reproduce this record?"
"That's right." Su Yun nodded, "That's what you said - food is just like music. Sometimes you need specific conditions to taste its special flavor."
Seeing that these children seemed to have made an agreement and were walking towards the hall from the side, Zhao Liying did not bother to find out whether Su Yun knew about his previous sneaky behavior. He quickly put down the new schedule and walked quickly back to sit on the sofa.
"Should we practice first?" Wang Jiaju asked a little nervously.
"No, I think you sang the phrase 'I'm on the street with no money to buy bread' back then." Su Yun teased him: It wasn't just when the two met for the first time that he sang this. The scene where the spoof words came out will be popular in future generations In the charity film "Banquet of the Rich", which Jiang organized all Hong Kong artists to raise funds for the floods in East China, Wang Jiajun also made a cameo with his band, playing the English version of "The Flower of the Emperor" with guitars, keyboards and other instruments. accent...
At that time, Wang Jiaju was not yet the cynical band leader, but just an ordinary teenager. So when Su Yun brought up his dark history and suddenly teased him, he blushed immediately: "You!"
The so-called "falling on the street with no money to buy bread" is actually a spoof of the lyrics in "The Flowers of the Emperor", "the sky is full of falling flowers and the moonlight is blocked". In the 1960s, there were many parodies of classic Cantonese songs. The song is very humorous and funny. The children found it interesting and learned a few lines.
"Don't be angry, don't be angry, let's go upstairs to the room to practice." Su Yun quickly held him down and coaxed him in a gentle voice, "I was just joking with you. It's just right that we're going to the room to practice. You can also help me take the things down later. I can't carry so much by myself..."
Seeing Su Yun dragging Wang Jiaju upstairs, Zhao Liying became even more anxious. He could only look at Lin Jiaju who was fiddling with the record player next to him: "What the hell are you doing?"
"We young people are doing things, so old people like you shouldn't interfere." Lin Jiashu waved his hand impatiently to chase him away.
That arrogant little look made Zhao Liying, who attached great importance to filial piety and propriety, very angry: What's wrong with children nowadays?
As the moon rose gradually, the heat in the house almost dissipated, and Mr. Shi, who had gone down the mountain to shop, finally returned to the small building.
"Wait for me for a moment, I'll make dinner right away." Mr. Shi said hurriedly.
"No need, we've all eaten." Zhao Liying quickly grabbed Old Man Shi: In order to prevent Su Yun from causing any trouble with the young man upstairs, he went downstairs to the kitchen for the first time in his life and hurriedly made a big stew and fried rice with the remaining ingredients.
Although it doesn't look very good, at least it can fill you up.
As Zhao Liying was thinking this, he suddenly saw Su Yun and Wang Jiaju coming downstairs carrying a bunch of things: "Uncle Shi, you're back?"
"That's great. I want you to make another dish of plain egg waffles without any ingredients..."
The tone of joy and excitement was not polite at all to Zhao Liying, who had a gloomy face beside him.
"Okay, I'll make it for you right away and you'll have food soon." Old Master Shi didn't notice that Zhao Liying, who was standing next to him with a dark face because he felt guilty, went into the kitchen carrying a lot of bags.
Seeing Master Shi enter the kitchen, Su Yun came to Granny Liang again: "Granny, there is a play by Sister Ren and Sister Xian tonight. I have bought the tickets for you. Come, sit here..."
As she spoke, under Zhao Liying's even more puzzled gaze, she coaxed Granny Liang to sit on the bamboo chair facing the small platform.
"Have you memorized all the hand gestures and positions?" Su Yun looked at Wang Jiaju as she arranged everything. "This time, we can only succeed and not fail."
"I'll try my best." Wang Jiaju said with a bitter face.
Having said that, after Lin Jiashu started playing music, his attitude was more authentic than Su Yun's.
After all, she grew up listening to Cantonese opera with the adults at home. She was influenced by it, so she must be better than Su Yun, who had to cram at the last minute.
"Fallen petals fill the sky, blocking out the moonlight. I'd like to borrow a cup of wine from the Fengtai..." Zhao Liying's face froze as he heard Su Yun, who was wearing a red bed sheet, "sing" along with her lips, as if he had realized something.
"Good! Good!" Looking at the two people on the stage, Granny Liang was all smiles and kept clapping her hands, as if what she was watching was not a lip-syncing performance like children playing house, but Ren Bai was really performing for her on the stage.
Zhao Liying thought about it for a moment, then started clapping as well: In the old days, the more lively the applause, the better the performance.
He was trying to make the "illusion" of the Su Yun case appear more real.
"What are you doing?" Mr. Shi came out with a plate in his hand, looking puzzled.
"Where is my egg roll?" Granny Liang suddenly muttered to herself, and then began to grope on the coffee table in front of her.
Seeing this, Mr. Shi quickly handed the plate over: "Here."
Granny Liang said "oh", took the plate and started eating: "Yes, this is the taste!"
This familiar sentence shocked the confused Mr. Shi: That's what she said back then!
That year, they were not yet husband and wife, but just a young couple who had a crush on each other. Because he bought rare theater tickets, the two of them made an appointment to go to the theater together.
Ren Bai's plays were already one of the most expensive shows in theaters at the time, but tickets were still hard to come by.
He spent all his savings to buy two tickets, and could no longer afford eggettes with added ingredients. However, his wife blushed and pulled his hand, and took the initiative to refuse the vendor's question about adding ingredients, saying that she had loved eating original eggettes since she was a child.
While watching a play, she took one to eat, and then said with great joy that this was the taste, and that this was the taste of the eggette her mother bought her on her tenth birthday, and she missed it very much...
In fact, her acting skills were very poor, which made him feel ashamed and uneasy, but also full of sweetness.
At the same time, at that moment, he knew that this girl was the one he wanted to protect for the rest of his life.
What’s a bit funny is that both of them wanted to leave more eggettes for the other, so throughout the whole show, each of them only ate one, and the remaining eggettes were kept tightly in paper bags, hoping that the other person would eat them warm - but in the end, they went bad in the hot summer night.
Thinking of this, Mr. Shi quickly called his wife to continue eating: "There is still a lot, eat more."
Granny Liang shook her head, as if she thought he was a neighbor who came to watch the show with her. Her wrinkled face showed the shy expression of a little girl: "No, I won't eat it. I want to save it for my future husband. He works very hard."
Mr. Shi bit his lip and nodded in response. Although he looked like he was smiling, tears were already flowing silently.
Although we no longer know each other, the deep love between us has never faded despite the ruthless passage of time.
Later, Zhao Liying once asked Su Yun on behalf of Mr. Shi at the dinner table why she came up with this method. Su Yun replied: "Sometimes, people remember not the taste in the memory, but the person in the memory."
"Just like you."
"Like me?"
"Yes, in the dark, fate will always push some things that should have belonged to you back to you. This is the little wonder that has ever happened in people's lives."
Just like Mr. Shi who took care of his foolish wife without any regrets. Even though he thought his wife had forgotten him long ago, he suddenly realized that her love for him had not changed at all.
Just like Zhao Liying: after going around in circles, he will eventually return to the career he loves.
"It looks like I won this bet." Seeing Mr. Shi hugging Granny Liang and crying silently, Su Yun on the stage took off the red bed sheet draped over her body and walked down slowly.
"Give me two days, I'll take care of things here and then go down the mountain with you." Zhao Liying glanced to the side and said calmly.
"Okay." Knowing that he was a loyal person, Su Yun nodded happily.
Having successfully brought Zhao Liyinghua into her hands, Su Yun couldn't help but want to celebrate with her friends that night.
However, in the end, only she and Wang Jiaju were sitting on the edge - Lin Jiashu, the precocious guy, was too sentimental. He was moved by the love between the two elderly people that transcended time and disease. He almost cried like an emoticon. As a result, after crying for a whole pack of 300 tissues, he had an asthma attack and had difficulty breathing. After emergency medication, he was carried back to the room by his partners to rest...
She looked up at the full moon in the sky, and while the night breeze brought a cool breeze, she reached out to pick up a few eggettes and stuffed them into her mouth.
With that big mouth that was trying hard to fit the egg, she looked like a little hamster, without any of her usual pretentious elegance and beauty. But for some reason, seeing her so down-to-earth and revealing her truest side, Wang Jia suddenly felt unusually nostalgic.
This was the look of Su Yun before she entered the entertainment industry. She didn't need to act pretentiously to maintain her image and could do anything with a happy smile.
When we had no money, we would get together in the hot and humid summer to drink a glass of water and be in a good mood; when everyone started to have money, we went our separate ways and could only get together a few times a year.
Those moments when a few children huddled together waiting for street snacks to be handed to them seemed to have gone away for various reasons.
Until this sweet summer night, when he saw her and him sitting on the edge, listening to the night breeze and eating the street snacks in his memory, Wang Jiaju couldn't help but watch them quietly for a long time.
Tonight seems particularly quiet, and the moonlight seems particularly moving.
It is the best place to get together and talk.
It’s not that Su Yun lost her original intention after she became famous, but she has been like this from the beginning: when she is around, she will be very kind to the people around her, as if making people want to drown in the vast sea of stars in her eyes; but once she leaves, she is like a gust of wind that cannot be caught, and those who chase the wind can only helplessly wait quietly for her next return...
"Why don't you eat? You don't have to leave it for me, there's still plenty in the kitchen." In the past, as the eldest among the children, Wang Jiaju would always save some for her and Wang Jiaxiang when there were not many snacks. His precocious understanding made Su Yun feel distressed.
Just because the children are one or two years older, the older children have to mature earlier and take care of the younger children. This is a dereliction of duty and shirking of responsibility on the part of the adults.
But the saddest thing is that even they themselves think this is a very normal thing.
"Why are you just looking at me without saying anything?" Seeing that he didn't answer, Su Yun asked again.
Su Yun's question brought Wang Jia back to his senses. He smiled and shook his head: "I was just thinking, we haven't sat together for a long time."
"Yeah, everyone is busy." Su Yun sighed, "Sometimes I can't even believe that in just a few years, I have become what I am now."
"But in my mind, you have never changed." Wang Jiaju suddenly asked, "What about you?"
She had gone so far that sometimes he doubted whether he could catch up with her.
Su Yun picked up an egg waffle that was full of egg flavor and swallowed it in one gulp. Then she took a sip of the boiled water in the cup and replied, "How should I put it... You are a very special existence to me."
Just like this glass of boiled water, it may not be as fresh and irresistible as the soda, juice and other drinks outside, but in the end, people still miss this glass of boiled water at home that seems plain but seems to have a little sweetness of time.
Both are core members of a nearly iconic, hall-of-fame band in their native regions. Compared to Lin Jiashu, who is willful and needs to be coaxed and pampered by his teammates, Wang Jiaju is the absolute key and soul to stabilizing the team.
Mingming's temper is typical for musicians, even to the point of being a bit cynical, but in the end he is always worldly-wise without being worldly-wise, smooth-talking yet naive, and when necessary he puts aside his principles and helps others with a pure heart.
Su Yun had laughed in her heart when she saw him leading the band to play the accompaniment of the English version of "The Flower of the Imperial Concubine". In fact, she also admired him very much for being able to temporarily get rid of the illusory "aloofness" of those musicians and to openly put down his status to actually do his part for the flood victims.
Maybe he is not as handsome as those who amazed the world on the silver screen, but the words "childhood sweetheart" and "neighbor's brother" do not need to be read out loud. In themselves, they already carry the gentleness and tenderness that linger in the retrospect of time.
Therefore, when he is by your side, you don't need words or any deliberate or unintentional flattery. You can naturally feel the peace of mind and the fact that he will always protect you wholeheartedly.
And it has never changed from beginning to end.
As the bright moon sank in the west, Su Yun sat on the edge of the room, quietly looking at the white sand, still water, stone lanterns and bamboo fences in the courtyard, which was like a minimalist painting in the quiet night.
On a summer night, these ordinary things will appear so beautiful.
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