Chapter 183 The distance between kisses is one palm
Xu Sirui's voice was not loud, but his words were more effective than the class recorder's shouting at the top of his lungs. As soon as he finished speaking, the whole place fell into dead silence.
Not only was Zhu Yingning petrified, but Liu Guifang was also speechless. After a long pause, she finally uttered a flat, "Ah."
As for what she was saying "ah", she herself couldn't explain it clearly.
In the living room, you could hear a pin drop, the ticking of the second hand as loud as thunder. The instigator, however, was in a very good mood. He covered his lips with his hand, squinted his eyes, and yawned like a cat. He looked very sleepy and said, "I'm going back to bed," and then walked back to his room as if nothing had happened.
Only after he closed the door did Liu Guifang glance at Zhu Yingning. She wanted to say something, but was afraid of angering her. Her lips moved for a moment, and finally she simply said, "You should wash up and go to bed early."
Zhu Yingning nodded and went to the bathroom to brush her teeth and wash her face.
The entire process was done by muscle memory, even the act of lying down on the bed. She closed her eyes and quickly fell asleep.
**
—The part about falling asleep is of course fake.
The next morning at four or five o'clock, she walked out of the bedroom with dark circles under her eyes and decided to kill the old hens that she had not killed yesterday.
The old hen was easy to spot; it was the one with no hair on its neck. She sat on the same low stool in front of the door, the pot of boiling water at her feet. She pinched the chicken's wings with her left hand, bent its neck back, and with her right hand, she aimed the knife at the neck with a quick, precise, and fierce cut. Then she put the knife down, grasped the chicken's feet with her right hand, and hung it upside down to bleed it.
A pool of bright red blood soon accumulated in the stainless steel basin.
"Aren't you afraid?" Xu Sirui's voice came from behind her. Since he had just woken up, his tone was still lazy and had a sticky nasal sound.
His voice gave her a start, but she quickly steadied herself and pretended nothing had happened. She turned around and said calmly, "What are you afraid of?"
He squatted on the threshold behind her and pointed at the chicken in her hand that was dying with its eyes open.
"Ah..." Zhu Yingning was stunned for a moment, then smiled knowingly, staring at the dim pupils of the old hen in his hand. He said, "My father taught me how to kill a chicken for the first time. I was really scared at the time. I felt it was pitiful to see a living chicken being bleed by me by cutting its neck. So when my father asked me to cut harder, I hesitated. I didn't have enough strength and only cut the trachea, not the blood vessels. I also made the chicken fly out and struggled for a long time before dying, with blood splattering everywhere."
"The second time I killed a chicken, my father showed me how to do it. He had steady hands and great strength, but most importantly, he didn't hesitate like I did. He just wiped the chicken's neck, and it flapped its wings twice before falling silent. That was the first time I realized that sometimes hesitation can be the greatest form of cruelty."
She shook off the blood and said, "The harder I cut, the less pain it feels."
Xu Sirui listened attentively to her story at first, but then the more he listened, the more he felt something was wrong. He was afraid she would make an association and use him as the chicken to cut the Gordian knot, so he quickly changed the subject: "Why kill the chicken?"
"I want to take it to visit Teacher Chen and his wife and wish them a happy new year." As she spoke, she dipped the chicken in hot water and mentioned that Chen Bin was already married.
Remembering that Xu Sirui had also been taught by Chen Bin for a few months, she casually asked, "Do you want to go with us? Teacher Chen would probably be very happy to see you."
"Okay." The topic smoothly turned away from the topic of cutting the Gordian knot. Xu Sirui breathed a sigh of relief, stood up and stretched, "I'll go wash up first."
After processing the whole old hen, Zhu Yingning picked up the chicken feet and planned to go to the kitchen refrigerator to find the frozen pork front legs to take with her. However, after entering, she saw Xu Sirui, who had just washed up, cooking in front of the stove.
Simple clear soup noodles.
He stirred the noodles with chopsticks to prevent them from sticking to the pan, then turned around and said to her very naturally, "I didn't find any other ingredients, so I just made some."
"Oh..." She responded softly, but she felt more and more weird and uneasy in her heart. It was not until the two of them sat at the dining table and he placed the chopsticks in front of her that she realized what was strange.
This seems to be her home, right?
How did he manage to be so self-aware of being a man?!
The noodles were steaming in front of her, and she felt she had to say something, but she couldn't think of anything to say. It seemed that anything she said would make the situation even more awkward. After thinking for a long time, her stomach growled appropriately, and she picked up her chopsticks and started eating.
**
The way to school was similar to the past, yet very different. Along the way, Zhu Yingning was busy introducing these new changes to Xu Sirui, including Chen Bin's new home, which was said to be allocated by the school and was in a village near the school.
When they arrived, Chen Bin was practicing Tai Chi in his front yard. He was surrounded by people and was delighted to see Zhu Yingning. He smiled so hard that his eyes were embedded in the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes and eyebrows. He glanced at Xu Sirui and subconsciously wanted to ask who it was before he saw the other person's face. It was not until he looked closely that he was shocked. He patted Xu Sirui's shoulder and laughed out loud: "Xu Sirui! You are Xu Sirui, right?! I thought you would never come back here in your life! Why are you here all of a sudden?"
Xu Sirui smiled. He couldn't say that he went to Zhu Yingning's house purely out of mischief and with no good intentions. He could only pretend to be mature and say that he had grown up and thought about his previous experiences here, feeling that he had benefited a lot, so he came back to take a look.
It was all nonsense, but Chen Bin believed it and was very excited. He said that he had changed a lot and became a real man. He waved to Zhu Yingning with his left hand, took him with his right hand, and walked straight to his home.
His wife Huang Huixin was lying on the sofa catching up on her sleep. Zhu Yingning was worried about disturbing her, but she smiled and said, "It's okay. I lie on the sofa all day now, and I do the same when friends and family come to visit."
After not seeing each other for a long time, as a teacher, what Chen Bin was most concerned about was naturally where they would go after graduation. Chen Bin first asked Zhu Yingning, and she answered. Then he asked Xu Sirui, and Xu Sirui also told him the truth.
"Oh, good, good, you are all very promising..."
As Chen Bin spoke, he rubbed the tip of his red nose repeatedly with his hands. Huang Huixin smiled and pushed him, "Are you done yet? I'm fine even with the effects of pregnancy hormones during my pregnancy, but you're even more sentimental than me."
Chen Bin said that since the tears had come, the wine must also be there, so Zhu Yingning and Xu Sirui accompanied him to drink some wine. They didn't drink too much, just a sip, because Chen Bin still had to keep a clear mind and body to take care of his wife.
After lunch, Huang Huixin went to take a nap, and Zhu Yingning and Xu Sirui said goodbye and left.
The mountain road was winding. She walked in front, and Xu Sirui followed a few steps behind her. The midday sun shone directly on their heads, and their shadows and the road were all under their feet.
He watched the ends of her hair drift up and down as she walked downhill, just like when he was a kid watching ants moving rice grains. Without thinking about anything, without any purpose, simply watching, he could while away long stretches of time. He didn't know how much time had passed before he said, "My mom and I will be back this afternoon."
Zhu Yingning paused for a few seconds, then continued walking forward and hummed vaguely.
After walking a little further, she suddenly stopped, bent down and picked up a bunch of gray weeds from the middle of the road.
Xu Sirui took a few steps forward and discovered that the clump of weeds turned out to be a yellow-billed sparrow.
"It's a young bird that hasn't even reached adulthood yet. It must have fallen from a tree." She looked up at the nearby trees along the road, and after a round of searching, she saw a bird's nest on the branch of one of the trees.
He said nothing, but took the sparrow, which was too frightened to move, from her hand.
The tree wasn't too high for him, so Xu Sirui stepped on the lowest branch and reached out to lift it back to the bird's nest. When he was done, he was about to get down when he looked down and saw her looking up at him.
The sunlight cut the leaves into tiny spots and cast them on her face. The leaves were blown by the wind. Her eyes were sometimes hidden in the darkness and sometimes appeared in the light. The irises were illuminated by the sunlight with a rich brown color, clear and crystal like amber tens of millions of years ago.
The wind blew through the forest, lifting the corners of his clothes and ruffling her hair.
The leaves rustled.
He stretched out his right hand and covered her bright eyes from top to bottom.
"...Xu Sirui?"
Deprived of her vision, everything in front of her was pitch black. She was confused and didn't know what he was going to do, so she called out to him tentatively.
On the other side where she couldn't see, he leaned forward slightly and gently pressed his lips against the back of her hand.
The thickness of your palm is the distance of a kiss.
He kissed her eyes through the burning palms.
**
The Spring Festival holiday passed in a flash. On the afternoon of the seventh day, Zhu Yingning took a bus back to the village where she worked.
After the New Year, everything was recovering slowly and orderly. After dealing with the accumulated affairs in the village and holding several meetings to clarify the tasks for the new year, in mid-February, they finally received an actual reply from one of the companies they had invited before the New Year. The other party said that they would send someone for an on-site inspection at the end of the month.
Not only Zhu Yingning and his team were excited, but leaders from the township and county also attached great importance to this event. In order to support them, they set up a special team, sent two county-level leaders to take charge, and selected several people from the Investment Promotion Bureau to assist, determined to fully welcome the arrival of the inspectors.
At this point, many subsequent matters were handled by more professional and influential personnel, and Zhu Yingning and Shen Fei had a little more free time.
Of course, when the inspection team came, as members of the village cadres, they had to go to greet them and carefully introduce the situation of the village and the farm to the people from the enterprise. After all, no one knew it better than them who lived here and were the initiators of the project. However, the subsequent negotiations or policy introductions were handled by other people, so they no longer needed to do it themselves and work hard 24 hours a day.
The rare free time made Chen Fei and Wen Wenxu feel empty.
After playing Landlord for three consecutive nights, Wen Wenxu suddenly put down his cards and said, "I realize I'm a bitch."
"?"
Zhu Yingning and Shen Fei looked at each other.
Chen Fei said: "There's no need to belittle yourself like this..."
"I actually really want a job." Wen Wenxu slapped his knees hard, sighing and feeling heartbroken. "If this isn't being a jerk, what is? Back when I was a freshman, my only dream was to find a stable job that was easy. I never thought my original intention would change. This is terrible! No wonder everyone says it's hard to stick to your original intention. I have to find a way to find my original intention again."
Zhu Yingning didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "If you really want to work that much, I have an idea."
Chen Fei and Wen Wenxu looked at her together.
"I've been thinking about promoting our farm lately. If we want to make our brand famous, marketing is inevitable, but how should we do it? We don't have mass-produced products yet. These semi-free-range pigs take seven or eight months to raise, which is longer than regular pigs. Regular pigs can be slaughtered in about five months. We don't have a time advantage to begin with. If we don't increase our presence, or wait until the first batch of pigs are slaughtered, won't it be too late?"
Shen Fei nodded: "Indeed."
Wen Wenxu also spoke up, "That's true, but we don't have any income yet. Without income, we have no money for marketing. With the little money the cooperative currently has, let alone marketing, even a thief would shake his head if he came."
"You can get a loan in the name of the village cooperative. I remember there is such a policy," said Shen Fei.
"I've read about this. I can get a loan, but how should I put it..." Wen Wenxu scratched his head. "Anyway, the money isn't enough. Marketing costs a lot of money."
"Besides, if we start marketing before we have produced enough products, won't it be counterproductive?" Shen Fei also had concerns.
Zhu Yingning nodded, acknowledging their concerns. "I've considered all of these issues, so the choice of promotional method is very important. We'd better try a marketing method that's not too expensive and has long-term effects."
"How can there be such a marketing method?" Wen Wenxu scratched his head again, feeling even more bald.
"Everything is about the Internet+ these days. I think we need to find a way to link our poverty alleviation work with the information age." She looked at Chen Fei and said, "Chen Fei, I have an idea. Can you tell me if it's feasible?"
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The author has something to say: I went out to play today (eyes moved) There is only one update, more updates tomorrow
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