Chapter 210: Year after year
Turning around, they saw starch sausage again. They loved starch sausage so much that they would buy one as soon as they saw it.
Xu Cheng did not forget to give a reminder.
"Auntie, put chili in mine."
"Auntie, I want some chili, too. Just a little more than him. I can handle spicier food than him."
"Little kid, you Lin Wanzhou, you have to compete with me."
"Just compare."
The aunts thought the two kids were funny and handed them the gifts with a smile .
Lin Wanzhou's was indeed very spicy. She blew on it until her lips turned red from the spiciness. She looked towards the ring-tossing stall, stared at it for a while, and patted Xu Cheng's shoulder.
"Let's play ring toss, Xu Cheng."
"This is child's play. Let's go play that one."
Xu Cheng was referring to scratch tickets.
“Scratch-off lottery…”
The girl thought about the nine years of compulsory education she had received and was a little worried, "This is considered gambling."
"It's just charity. Let's go. Each of us will scratch five tickets, and two of us will scratch ten. We'll take whatever we win. We won't buy more."
Lin Wanzhou pouted, "You just teach me blindly. You taught me all the bad things."
"Don't blame the game for your poor academic performance. You're actually quite naughty."
The girl felt as if she had suffered a great injustice.
"I don't have any!"
If there weren't so many people here, she would have beaten him again, but she had to remain a lady in a crowd, so she didn't do anything.
Xu Cheng paid 20 yuan to buy ten scratch tickets, took them from the boss, counted out five and handed them to Lin Wanzhou.
"Here, five cards each, let's see who has better luck."
"Then if I win the prize, I'll treat you to ice cream."
Lin Wanzhou expressed it generously, then remembered that he had never played it before, so he quickly asked him, "How do you play this?"
"Just scratch off this black layer and find the winning number..."
Xu Cheng briefly explained it to her and started to scratch the five cards he had. Lin Wanzhou didn't scratch either, but just stood there and watched.
"Give me your hand, lend me some luck."
"No, no."
The girl hid her hands behind her back.
There were people watching around, and Xu Cheng was too embarrassed to snatch the tickets openly, so he started scratching them with the plastic. As a result, he didn't even get two dollars from the five tickets, which caused the girls to laugh at him.
"What a wretch."
"You asked me to lend you my luck but you refused."
"Whoever wants to lend it to you, look at me."
The first four tickets were also donated to charity, but after scratching the fifth one, Xu Cheng patted her shoulder excitedly.
"Lin Wanzhou won the prize!"
"Ah? Really?"
"Yes, yes, you are indeed very fertile!"
"Yeah~"
The girl's heart was blossoming and she jumped up high in excitement.
Her slender arms were around Xu Cheng's neck, and her long legs were wrapped around his waist. She hugged Xu Cheng like a koala hugging a tree trunk.
Xu Cheng was stunned for a moment. The fact that he didn't win the two dollars just now was no longer important. He felt that this was the real winning.
Lin Wanzhou was very light and soft, and because she was wearing thin stockings today, the feeling of rubbing against him was particularly good.
Just as he was hesitating whether to hold the girl's butt with his hands, she had already moved off him.
Her little face turned red and she didn't dare to raise her head.
So embarrassing...
Just now Xu Cheng told her that he had won the lottery. The shock of becoming rich was so great that she was so excited that she jumped on him all of a sudden.
Just as she was thinking about it, she saw Xu Cheng beside her suddenly bend over. The girl thought he had a stomachache and looked at him worriedly.
"Eh? Xu Cheng, what's wrong with you? Are you feeling uncomfortable?"
"It's okay, my calf suddenly hurts a little, it's an old problem for men, it will be fine after a while, you should redeem your prize quickly, Lin Wanzhou."
"oh."
The girl finally remembered that she had to redeem the prize.
"By the way, Xu Cheng, I haven't asked you yet, how many tens of thousands of dollars did I win?"
"One of us."
Xu Cheng quickly emphasized, and the girl was not happy.
"I was the one who got shot. What does it have to do with you?"
"Haven't you heard the story of Liu Chan's seven ins and outs at Changbanpo?"
“…”
The girl rolled her eyes at him and said, "Don't be so joking. How much money did you win?"
"Just tell me what kind of ice cream you're going to treat me to later."
The girl realized something was wrong. She carefully picked up the scratch ticket paper and looked at the rules, then looked at the number she had scratched out. She checked it three times before looking up in frustration.
"Two dollars!"
Woo... I got fooled...
She thought it would be at least tens of thousands of dollars.
After taking the two one-yuan coins given by the boss, Lin Wanzhou felt bored, because for the two yuan, she also gave Xu Cheng a hug for free.
What a loss.
She poked Xu Cheng's arm in dissatisfaction.
"Why didn't you tell me earlier!"
"Ah? Tell you what?"
" I only won two dollars."
"Harmful."
Xu Cheng scratched his head, "Why are you talking about that? Treat me to ice cream first. You said you would treat me if you won the prize. I didn't expect that you are so pregnant."
The girl was furious and stuffed two coins into his face.
"Does this count?!"
"Just tell me whether you hit it or not."
“…”
The girl muttered something like "Why eat ice cream in the middle of winter..." and ran to buy two 5-yuan cones.
"Mango or strawberry, which one do you want?"
Xu Cheng looked at the two ice cream cones in and reached for the strawberry flavor one. The girl hummed like a puppy, so he changed his hand to take the mango flavor one.
"If you want to eat strawberries, why not just buy two strawberry flavored ones?"
“Because I want to try other flavors.”
She took Xu Cheng's hand and ate the tip of his ice cream.
"Mmm...very sweet."
Xu Cheng also went to her side, "Lin Wanzhou, I want to eat yours too."
The girl immediately shook her head.
"No, but you can have this crispy cone later. I remember you love it very much."
"I love this? How come I didn't know that?"
"There was one time when my ice cream fell on the ground and you gave me yours. I wanted to share it with you, but you said no, you just wanted to eat the crispy cone. You just liked this place..."
At the end of her speech, the girl's voice became smaller and smaller, and she herself was stunned.
It turns out he doesn’t like eating here…he’s just taking care of her!
She suddenly understood it now, just like many things that she took for granted as a child, she suddenly figured them out at some point after growing up, such as the magic that no matter where she fell asleep, she would wake up in her own bed the next day.
The moment the romantic fairy tale is shattered, you will not feel lost. Instead, you will cherish the person who drew your dream, because he must be particularly fond of you to do that.
Lin Wanzhou suddenly felt that the rich mango-flavored ice cream in her mouth was particularly sweet. She rubbed her feet wrapped in the transparent black stockings in her shoes, and her tone of voice was full of happiness and sweetness.
She was very generous and handed her strawberry ice cream to Xu Cheng.
"Xu Cheng, this time I give you special permission to eat my tip."
Xu Cheng was surprised.
"Are you really willing to give it to me?"
"She...de...oh, eat quickly~", Lin Wanzhou urged, she didn't want to be noticed by too many people.
Looking at the girl in front of him, Xu Cheng felt that she looked many times sweeter than ice cream at this moment.
"Can I eat here?"
It looked like a question, but he didn't even wait for Lin Wanzhou's response.
After all, for girls, it doesn't matter whether she is okay or not, unless she really is not okay that day. But since Lin Wanzhou was eating ice cream, Xu Cheng just assumed that she was okay.
He put his fingers to the girl's mouth. Her lips were pink and tender, with a lustrous sheen and felt soft to the touch.
A lot of cream accidentally got on her lips. Xu Cheng carefully scraped it off with his fingers, and then put the finger into his mouth to taste it in front of her.
"Mmm~ delicious."
"Pervert, pervert, shameless...100000199211151711."
Lin Wanzhou blushed as he made a series of personal insults and even read out Xu Cheng's ID number.
"Why are you reading my ID number?"
"I'm afraid you don't know I'm talking about you."
"…It's cruel enough. I like it."
"snort."
The girl pouted, "Who asked you to like it?"
They went to buy some cute takoyaki and didn't forget to go to the old lady's shop to buy clam noodles. The clams were very generous and the two of them could cook a whole table. Xu Cheng even added several servings of noodles, which made Lin Wanzhou laugh at him and said he was a pig for eating so much.
"By the way, your mother asked me to go to your house for dinner. Should I bring any gifts?"
"It's not your first time visiting my house. I've never seen you prepare gifts before. What's wrong? Are you nervous about meeting your mother-in-law?"
"What nonsense are you talking about... what mother-in-law..."
Lin Wanzhou felt that this was not acceptable. She had been calling Aunt He for fifteen... no, almost sixteen years, and what if she was suddenly asked to call her by something else?
My mouth feels hot just thinking about it!
Hotter than clam powder!
It was getting late, so the two hurried to the station to catch the last bus back home.
They had so much fun that they stumbled on the way back as if they were drunk. The girl was short, and her tender shoulders bumped against Xu Cheng's arm from time to time.
After finding a seat on the bus, Lin Wanzhou closed his eyes, covered his mouth with his little hands and yawned.
“So sleepy.”
Xu Cheng looked down and he had to admit that the moment the girl closed her eyes lazily, his heart was melted by her cuteness.
"Go to sleep. I'll call you when we get there."
"oh."
Lin Wanzhou closed her eyes, but felt Xu Cheng pulling her sleeve, so she opened her eyes again and looked at him.
"What?"
"I can lend you my shoulder to lean on."
“…”
The girl complained quietly, "How can you ask for it like that?"
She was so tired and didn't want to argue with him anymore, so she hugged his arm and rubbed her head against his shoulder.
It was so peaceful, so peaceful that the girl could fall into a deep sleep in the next second.
When Xu Cheng felt her approaching, he dared not move. He clenched his hands into fists, and then a cold little hand, like a fish, slipped into his palm.
"Lin Wanzhou, there are fireworks outside."
The girl closed her eyes and hummed softly.
"What color?"
"It's light pink, very pretty."
"Is it the kind that disappears in a flash, or the kind that explodes in the sky?"
“It will explode.”
She listened quietly to Xu Cheng's soft voice, and then at a certain moment, she rubbed her head against his arm obediently.
"Stop talking, I'm sleepy."
Xu Cheng didn't say anything. The girl giggled and rubbed him again, enjoying the comfort of snuggling up to him for a second.
Even through a thick down jacket, Xu Cheng could still feel her softness. He couldn't help but tentatively put his chin on the top of the girl's head. She didn't say anything.
He looked out the window and saw the round fireworks that suddenly exploded in the night sky, just like the growth rings of a tree, one circle after another. He then recalled that the next year would be the tenth year since he met Lin Wanzhou after his rebirth.
So he withdrew his gaze and looked at the person next to him. He could see the tip of her small nose and the soft light on both sides of her nose.
He suddenly remembered the romantic poem written by Liu Cixin in The Three-Body Problem in the style of a science and engineering man: "I saw my love, I flew to her side, and I held out a gift for her, which was a small piece of frozen time."
She snuggled into his arms and didn't lose it this time.
They will always be together.
Not just this decade...
