Life is a Game

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A big question mark was drawn on Jiang Weiguo's face, and the hand holding the lotus root stopped in mid-air, neither taking it in nor letting it go.

"Drink?" Jiang Weiguo couldn't believe his ears.

There was no turning back when she opened the bow, even though Zhao Lanhua's face was already flushed from embarrassment, she still had to bite the bullet and say, "Just take a sip, just a little."

As he spoke, he stretched out his hand and made a comparison.

The question mark on Jiang Weiguo's face has not disappeared: "Then drink, there is a bowl over there."

Zhao Lanhua quickly went to get the bowl, and she didn't forget to take a ladle, and scooped up half a bowl of sugar water mixed with brown sugar and white sugar. She happily squatted on the ground with the bowl in her hand, and drank it like a kitten drinking water. stand up.

Little by little, when Jiang Weiguo put the lid on the pot and lit the fire, the sugar water in Zhao Lanhua's bowl seemed untouched.

Seeing Zhao Lanhua squatting on the ground drinking sugar water, Jiang Weiguo thought it was funny and interesting, so he couldn't help asking, "Is it that delicious?"

"It's delicious." Zhao Lanhua said, "This is the first time I drink brown sugar water. It's delicious."

"Haven't you ever drank sugar water before?" Jiang Weiguo was a little surprised. He knew that Zhao Lanhua's family was not in good condition. From Zhao Lanhua's face and figure, it could be seen that the family was very poor.

But a family that can raise all 5 daughters will not be able to give saliva to the Chinese New Year.

At least judging from the new gown on Zhao Lanhua's body, she shouldn't be so poor that she can't afford sugar water.

"I've drank sugar water. Every year during Chinese New Year, my mother would knock out a small piece of sugar and make a bowl of sugar water for us to share, but I never drank brown sugar water." Zhao Lanhua explained, taking another sip.

"Our village is no better than your city. You can't buy brown sugar in the supply and marketing cooperatives. If you want to buy brown sugar, you have to go to the county to buy it. Only women can drink it when they are confinement or when their children are sick. If you can't drink it if you have a minor illness, you can only drink it if you are seriously ill. , I remember that when I was young, my eldest sister fell into the pond, and she was sick for several days and drank a bowl of brown sugar water." Zhao Lanhua described brown sugar water as a magic medicine that could cure all diseases, "My sister-in-law used to be a little My mother also prepared a bowl for her during confinement, and my sister-in-law wanted to share it with me, but she only had one bowl and I didn't drink it."

Jiang Weiguo watched Zhao Lanhua slowly finish a small bowl of sugar water, and asked, "How does it taste?"

"It's sweet, it's different from the one made from malt sugar, it tastes better and sweeter than the one at home," Zhao Lanhua said.

"Do you want to eat something else?" Jiang Weiguo asked.

"No need, these are enough. I'm almost full now." Zhao Lanhua said, "My appetite is actually very small. I can work in the fields by eating two corn cobs a day."

Hearing what Zhao Lanhua said, Jiang Weiguo couldn't control his facial expression for a moment and frowned, looked at the clock hanging on the wall, and said, "The glutinous rice and lotus root need to be boiled for two hours. Aunt Zhao told me to take you to the street. Go shopping, I will take you around while it is still dark."

"Will it delay your time, you have to go to work later?" Zhao Lanhua asked.

"Today I only work for half a day. I'll leave a note for them later, telling them not to touch the pot when they come back." After Jiang Weiguo finished speaking, he went out to find a pen and paper, wrote a note, and pressed the note under the cutting board.

Definitely a position where the chef can see it.

Zhao Lanhua sighed at the words on the note: "Wow, you can also write, your handwriting is so beautiful!"

Jiang Feng leaned over to take a look, and there were a few crooked characters on it, which were as big as his own dog crawling, and they were still in traditional characters: Do not touch the steamer on the table and the soup pot on the stove.

Jiang Feng: ...

Comrade Lanhua, your fan filter is really heavy.

In the final analysis, I still suffer from the culture.

Jiang Weiguo led Zhao Lanhua out of the state-run hotel. Jiang Weiguo didn't know which street to take the girl to, and Zhao Lanhua didn't know which street he wanted to go. The two just walked on the street casually.

Because Zhao Lanhua was illiterate and couldn't read the signboard of the store, she basically asked Jiang Weiguo what the store was for when she saw a store she had never seen before. Walking all the way like this, the two of them actually talked a lot, and even the tone and movements of their speech were much more natural than before, just like friends talking about family matters.

Jiang Weiguo has seen all kinds of storms and waves when he traveled the rivers and lakes in the past few years, and he speaks very strictly. Along the way, Zhao Lanhua would say anything whenever he asked him a little bit, but Jiang Weiguo didn't reveal any news about himself.

As time passed, the sky darkened, and many shops were closed because of the darkness, so that the brightly lit taverns on the street corners were very eye-catching.

"Comrade Jiang Weiguo, what does that store do, and why are there so many people there?" Zhao Lanhua asked curiously.

"It's a tavern. There are many people drinking there at night, so it's very lively." Jiang Weiguo said.

"Only drinking?" Zhao Lanhua asked.

"I don't know, I haven't been there."

"You don't like to drink? I thought all of you men like to drink. My dad loves to drink, and my brother likes to drink too. When our family has neither money to buy wine nor extra food to make wine, so my dad and my brother can only Go to my uncle's house for a drink during the Chinese New Year." Zhao Lanhua unintentionally betrayed her brother and father again.

"I usually drink it at home or go to Master Huang's house. I brew the wine myself," Jiang Weiguo said.

"Oh yes, you are a chef, so you must also be able to make wine." Zhao Lanhua has already equated the profession of chef with supernatural powers.

The two continued to walk forward. City Z is not too big, and there are only a few bustling streets. If you simply walk, you can walk through them all in less than an hour. Along the way, Zhao Lanhua pulled Jiang Weiguo east and west, and when she saw a shop selling cloth or something she didn't know what it was, she couldn't help but go in and have a look. It took a lot of time, Jiang Feng roughly estimated It's three hours at most.

If they return now, if the two walk more slowly, they should be able to catch up with the glutinous rice lotus root.

Jiang Weiguo was obviously also counting the time in his mind, as if he had a quick watch in his heart, he took the time and led Zhao Lanhua back. He stopped and stopped along the way, and when he returned to the state-run hotel, there were still no customers.

It seems that the business hours are over, and the real business hours of state-run restaurants are usually very short.

The fat waiter was cleaning the table, and when he saw Jiang Weiguo and Zhao Lanhua came back, he greeted them warmly: "Master Jiang and Miss Zhao are back, have you gone to watch a movie? It is said that the movie shown in the cinema today is very good, new movie!"

"I didn't watch a movie. She and I went outside for a walk." Jiang Weiguo said plainly.

The fat waiter was obviously used to Jiang Weiguo's rather indifferent attitude, and said with a smile, "Master Jiang, you should take Ms. Zhao to the movies next time. The movie theaters in our city don't necessarily have a new movie every year. It was those films that were played back and forth so that I could perform for them."

Jiang Weiguo nodded and led Zhao Lanhua into the kitchen.

Master Huang was cooking a small stove in the kitchen, and he was startled when he saw someone coming in. He looked back and saw that it was Jiang Weiguo and Zhao Lanhua who were relieved.

"Do you like watching movies?" Jiang Weiguo asked.

"Ah?" Zhao Lanhua didn't understand why Jiang Weiguo asked this suddenly, "I like it. A few years ago, someone from the village came to let it go. Everyone moved a small bench from home to watch it together. I couldn't get in the front because I was in the last row. , the picture is too blurry to see clearly, but the melon seeds given by the village head are very delicious."

Master Huang saw that Jiang Weiguo and Zhao Lanhua were chatting on their own like this, but the expressions on their faces were not very enthusiastic. For a while, he couldn't guess whether they saw each other or not.

"Xiaojiang, what's in your soup pot? What kind of soup are you cooking? I haven't dared to open it until you came back." Master Huang asked, "I added firewood to the stove a few times on the way, and the fire should be fast now. Turn it off, see if you want to add some more."

"Glutinous rice lotus root." Jiang Weiguo said, "Just let it go out naturally. Did you leave the buns in the steamer?"

"How dare we touch your dinner?" Master Huang laughed.

Jiang Weiguo took the soup pot off the stove and lifted the lid of the soup pot.

The sweet fragrance hits the face, and the whole air is full of sweet taste.

The two sections of tender lotus root in the pot have been completely stained with the color of sugar water, and the color of the sugar water has also become darker due to the long-term stewing, making it look very thick.

Master Huang went up to take a look, and exclaimed: "My dear, how much sugar did you add to it?"

"More than 4 catties."

Master Huang couldn't help being astounded by Jiang Weiguo's extravagant behavior.

To make two sections of lotus root flowers and 4 catties of sugar, if he cooks this dish at home, his mother-in-law will have to break his legs.

"Shall we eat now?" Jiang Weiguo asked.

Zhao Lanhua really wanted to nod, but she was a little bit reluctant to use 4 catties of sugar as the lotus root. She felt that she was not worthy of eating and should take it home as an offering.

"But... it may not be finished." Zhao Lanhua said.

Jiang Weiguo thought that Zhao Lanhua was too embarrassed to eat it in front of Master Huang, so he took out a piece of oil paper from the cabinet and wrapped two knots of lotus root.

"Then you can take it home and eat it. Before eating, steam it in a pot. When eating, separate the two lotus roots, take out the bamboo stick in the middle, and slice the lotus root." Jiang Weiguo said.

"Okay, thank you." Zhao Lanhua suddenly felt that she had traveled all the way to the city today to go on a blind date.

After wrapping the glutinous rice and lotus root, Jiang Weiguo took out his enamel cup and tin lunch box from the cabinet, stuffed the cold meat buns into the tin lunch box, and poured all the thick sugar water left in the soup pot into the enamel cup inside.

"Master Huang, when are you leaving?" Jiang Weiguo asked.

"Ah? I'll just pretend to leave after the noodles are cooked." Master Huang said, suddenly he felt that he was a little dazzling in the kitchen, "Xiaojiang, I suddenly remembered that my lunch box didn't come in from outside. I'll go out and find the lunch box , help me look at the noodles in the pot."

After speaking, Master Huang slipped away.

"What about you? Comrade Zhao Lanhua, when are you going back?" Jiang Weiguo asked.

"I'll go back tomorrow morning and stay at my aunt's house tonight. She will build me a temporary bed in the living room." Zhao Lanhua said, feeling a little discouraged as she spoke. Although the process was beautiful, the ending was still a failure up.

She came on a blind date today, but in the end the date didn't work out, but she even ate and took.

Jiang Weiguo pushed the tin lunch box and sugar porcelain cup in front of Zhao Lanhua: "Take them home and eat."

Zhao Lanhua repeatedly refused: "No, no, Comrade Jiang Weiguo is too precious. It's 4 catties of sugar, and I can't finish the 4 meat buns. I have to leave tomorrow morning. I have a small appetite."

"You didn't have enough to eat today," Jiang Weiguo said.

Zhao Lanhua was taken aback for a moment, and argued in a low voice: "I'm really full, I eat very little."

"I have seen people who starved to death. More than 10 years ago, in Shanghai, the War of Resistance had not yet been won. It was a young mother who lived next door to me. Her husband died and her three children lived by washing clothes for others. Health." Jiang Weiguo said.

Zhao Lanhua looked at Jiang Weiguo, wondering why he said this.

"She eats very little every day. She is hungry, skinny, skinny, thinner than you, and looks like a skeleton. The most I heard her say is that she eats very little. Every day I finish my work. You can hear her say this to her child when you come back," Jiang Weiguo said.

"And then?" Zhao Lanhua asked.

"And then she just starved herself to death."

Zhao Lanhua gasped, her eyes widened in horror. Although she seldom had enough to eat since she was a child, she had never heard of anyone starving to death in the village.

Although some people would throw their newborn baby girls into the mountains, Zhao Lanhua had only heard about it and had never seen it with her own eyes.

"And what about her three children?"

"I don't know. After that young mother died, the room next to me was rented to another family. Her three children should have died too. At that time, the most important thing in Shanghai was orphans who died by the side of the road. People who died of starvation or sickness are everywhere, and the traffickers don't bother to ask for it." Jiang Weiguo said.

Zhao Lanhua couldn't help shivering.

"So don't say that you have a small appetite, eat what you have, eat when you can, and eat if you like. It is not a shame to be able to eat. Only when you are full can you work hard. If you like sugar water, drink it in big gulps." Jiang Weiguo said.

"But... but Comrade Jiang Weiguo, I really can't eat 4 buns tonight and tomorrow morning." Zhao Lanhua looked embarrassed.

Jiang Weiguo was so choked by Zhao Lanhua that he couldn't speak.

"Actually, you can also take it home to eat." Jiang Weiguo said.

"Your lunch box..."

"I'm off next Saturday. Today I asked someone to buy a movie ticket but I didn't get it. If you are free, I will ask someone to buy a movie ticket earlier. If I can buy it, I will treat you to a movie. Remember to wash the lunch box clean Bring it to me."

Zhao Lanhua, who took dozens of seconds to realize what Jiang Weiguo meant, rubbed her face, her whole face flushed, she was in disbelief and excited, and her words were incoherent.

"I... I washed the lunch box cleanly."

"I'm not saying I'm free, I'm free, next Saturday I...I'll be there on time." Zhao Lanhua didn't know where to look, so she could only lower her head, just in time to see the enamel cup, He picked up the enamel cup and drank a big mouthful of thick sugar water.

Jiang Weiguo showed a smile.

When Jiang Feng was amazed at the operation of the young old man's Jedi counter-killing, he realized that there was fog.

Jiang Feng left his memory.