The first volume of pearl curtains rolls up the western mountain rain at dusk Chapter 93: Can Meat Be Added to Noodles?
Li Diudiu was like being struck by lightning. It was not just a strike, but a bolt of lightning that went straight to his head without going anywhere else... One, two, three, four, two, two, three, four, change position, and be struck again...
Just split the brain.
pain.
Mrs. Sun left happily. In the early autumn, her husband planted a seed in her belly, and this seed soon bore a godfather.
The corners of Yan Qingzhi's mouth twitched. If he didn't feel that he had to always maintain the demeanor of a teacher in this academy, he might have fallen to the ground and pounded his fists with laughter.
"During the Zhou Dynasty, there was a child prodigy who became prime minister at the age of twelve. Today, there is Li Chi, who became a father at the age of twelve."
Li Diudiu glared at Yan Qingzhi: "You did it, you did it!"
Yan Qingzhi hummed: "Yeah, I did it."
Li Diudiu sat down on the steps at the door in a depressed mood, staring at the cloud in the sky in a daze. He didn't know why, but the thick white cloud suddenly turned into a baby's face, grinning at him adorably, and while smiling, it called out "Dad".
Li Diudiu was startled.
He looked at Yan Qingzhi and said, "Manager Sun is already forty, right? Madam Sun is not that old, but she is already thirty-something... My parents were roughly this age when they were alive."
Yan Qingzhi said: "I think your father is not as old as Manager Sun."
Li Diudiu: “…”
Yan Qingzhi patted Li Diudiu on the shoulder and advised him like a truly kind elder: "You are already a father, and the burden on your shoulders will be heavier in the future. Now, you are also a person with elderly parents and young children. Don't act and speak so childishly, okay?"
Li Diudiu: "If I hit the instructor, will I be fired?"
Yan Qingzhi said: "No, he will be beaten and then fired."
Li Diudiu sighed, "It feels like I have lost my innocence all of a sudden for no apparent reason."
Yan Qingzhi said: "Have you ever had that thing?"
Li Diudiu asked, "Sir, can you act like a serious gentleman?"
Yan Qing said: "You want me to be a serious teacher, first you have to be a serious student. Before you entered the academy, I was always a very rigid and serious teacher. Don't you feel guilty about the way I am now?"
Li Diudiu asked, "Three cups as punishment?"
Yan Qingzhi sighed: "I shouldn't have come to Jiazitang to learn to be a teacher."
Li Diudiu chuckled and said, "Sir, I would like to ask for leave."
"You just missed so many days of classes, and I haven't forgiven you yet, and the rules of the academy haven't forgiven you yet, and you actually want to take a leave again?"
"It's not time for class, it's time for sword training at night."
"That's not OK!"
"My...Master said that today is my birthday."
Yan Qing was startled.
Neither of them spoke again. After a long while, Li Diudiu lowered his head and said softly, "I don't think birthdays are a big deal. It's just that every year on this day, Master would find ways to get me a bowl of noodles. He actually didn't know the exact date of my birthday, so he wrote down the day he picked me up as my birthday."
Li Diudiu raised his head and looked at Yan Qingzhi: "It doesn't really matter whether it's my birthday or not. What's important is that I have to be with Master on this day, otherwise he will feel uncomfortable."
Yan Qing said: "Don't tell me this. How many days have you missed your studies? It's easy to go from hard work to laziness, but it's hard to go from laziness to hard work. If you miss it once , you will miss it countless times."
He stood up and looked down at Li Diudiu, seeming quite disappointed. He turned and left. After walking a few steps, he said to himself, "But I really don't have time to supervise your practice tonight. Dean Gao asked me to go over and give a lecture to Gao Xining."
Li Diudiu hummed and let out a long breath.
Li Diudiu packed up his things after returning to his residence. He had received a large sum of money from Laihu County this time, and he had given it all to his master. He guessed that his master would be very busy in the next few days, so he ran around the streets and alleys of Jizhou City with great anticipation, looking for a suitable house.
Having a home, a real home, is an unimaginable yet constantly imagined beauty for both Li Diudiu and Changmei Taoist.
Now this beauty is within reach.
After Li Diudiu packed up, he left the academy. He knew that what he said today had made Mr. Yan unhappy, but he was even more unwilling to make his master sad.
Every year on this day, no matter where he is or how hard his life is, the master will try his best to get a bowl of noodles. And no matter how Li Diudiu persuades him, the master will not eat a single bite of this bowl of noodles.
The master said, that is your longevity noodles. If you eat it all by yourself and don’t leave any bite, you will live a hundred years.
When Li Diudiu walked out of the academy, he looked at the sunset and took a deep breath. He didn't want to disappoint others' expectations and trust in him, but people cannot take everything into consideration.
Walking along the street, Li Diudiu looked at his shadow leading the way for him. The shadow was so long, like a black giant clearing the way through mountains and building bridges over rivers.
That's not the giant, that's himself.
When he arrived at the inn where his master lived and asked around, he was told that Taoist Changmei had gone out early in the morning and had not returned yet. Li Diudiu felt something was wrong. No matter how busy his master was, even if he had gone to see a house, he would have calculated the time well. He would definitely be waiting for Li Diudiu at the inn after school.
Li Diudiu sat on the steps at the entrance of the inn, holding the peach pastry he had bought for his master on the way. The sunlight passed by him little by little, and the light that could have illuminated his entire face had retreated to one side. One half of his face was bright, and the other half was dark.
Li Diudiu really wanted to find his master, but he didn't know where his master had gone, or even which direction he had gone. He was also worried that his master would come back after he left, and both of them would be anxious.
Sit, sit, sit...
Li Diudiu looked up at the sky, and the stars were faintly visible.
The night watchman walked past him shouting, lighting up the night lights on the street as he went. Once the light from the lantern was on, the night was not so scary.
When people were playing music and telling stories in the Yunzhai Teahouse, it was very lively and bustling with people, but Li Diudiu felt that he was not in the same world as those people.
At this moment, the master did not come back, and he felt that he and everything he saw were not in the same world.
Li Diudiu lowered his head and saw a pair of tattered cloth shoes on the ground in front of him. They had been patched countless times, and the dust on the shoes made the stitches look a bit old, which looked very fitting.
A new pair of shoes will look inappropriate if they are covered in dust.
"Diu'er...you must be getting impatient."
Li Diudiu heard his master's voice.
He raised his head, not realizing that his eyes were a little wet.
The master bent down and rubbed his head, just like when he was a child, his hands were rough but extremely gentle.
"I'm going to find you a birthday present."
Master squatted down in front of Li Diudiu. The sun had gone and the stars took over the world, but Master's face was full of sunshine.
"Gift."
Taoist Changmei opened the wooden box that he had been holding tightly in his arms while running, carefully as if he was opening the door to a treasure trove.
"look."
Taoist Changmei handed the opened box to Li Diudiu.
Li Diudiu snorted and curled his lips.
Taoist Long Eyebrows coaxed him: "Look, look quickly, since the day you returned to Jizhou City, Master has been looking for this thing as a birthday present for you, and finally found it, take a look, look quickly."
Li Diudiu pretended to be reluctant and took the box. There was only a piece of brown paper He took it out, opened it and looked at it, then his eyes suddenly widened.
"House?!"
The Taoist with long eyebrows chuckled, his face full of pride as to how awesome his master was.
"The government is really too slow. I agreed with the landlord to go to the government office early in the morning, but when we got there, no one paid any attention to us. They asked us to wait. In the no one paid any attention to me. Those people were sitting in the government office drinking tea and chatting. When I asked them when they would do it, they just rolled their eyes and said, "Can't you see we are busy?"
Changmei said, "I just realized it and stuffed ten taels of silver into his pocket. I felt bad, but it was really useful. I stuffed ten taels of silver into his pocket and it was done immediately... After I got the deed, I ran all the way back, but it was still too late no matter how hard I tried."
He rubbed Li Diudiu's head again: "Do you blame the master?"
Li Diudiu looked at the deed and pointed at the name on it: "Why is it my name?"
Taoist Changmei said as a matter of course: "Of course it's yours. Everything I have is yours."
Li Diudiu bit his lip.
Taoist Changmei pulled Li Diudiu and said, "Come on, Master will take you to eat noodles. I specifically asked around two days ago about which noodle shop has the best food nearby. About a mile away, there's a noodle shop owned by someone from Western Xinjiang. He said their oil-splashed noodles are the best in Jizhou."
Li Diudiu raised his hand and wiped his eyes, still pretending to be indifferent.
"Oil-splashed noodles, is there meat in the noodles?"
"I do not know."
Taoist Long Eyebrow shook his head: "I haven't eaten it yet."
Li Diudiu asked, "You said his noodles are the best in Jizhou, but you haven't tried them yet ?"
Taoist Long Eyebrows hummed and said, "It's not cheap. Why would I go to eat noodles if I have nothing else to do? I can be full with two steamed buns. The money for a bowl of noodles can buy twenty steamed buns..."
Changmei paused for a moment, as if realizing something, and said quickly, "I've been eating a lot of meat and fish every day lately, and I'm a little tired of it."
Li Diudiu let out a long breath, still looking indifferent. This was the greatest comfort he could give. His master should feel better when he looked so indifferent.
As he walked, he asked, "We won't eat oil-splashed noodles if we can't add meat to it."
Taoist Long Eyebrow nodded and said, "Of course. We are so rich and powerful that eating noodles without meat is not worthy of our status."
As the two of them were talking, they started swaying as they walked. The old man and the young man swayed in the same way, which made them look a bit arrogant.
"Master."
"Um?"
"We are all wealthy, so can't we force him to add meat to the noodles? We should have the awareness of being wealthy."
"That makes sense, but what if they don't give it?"
“Spend money.”
"Really?"
Li Diudiu said: "Stop talking nonsense. You don't know what my family's conditions are like, and you're still asking if it's real or fake..."
The master thought for a moment, then said, "If you really want to eat it, you can really smash it. The master still has a lot of money left."
Li Diudiu curled his lips.
The master raised his hand and placed it on his head. Before, when they were walking side by side, his hand was hanging down on Li Diudiu’s head. Now, when they were walking side by side and placed his hand on Li Diudiu’s head, his hand was raised.
But it's not awkward.
It never will be awkward.
Master's hand didn't move, so Li Diudiu rubbed his head against Master's hand, and it felt really good.
