The first volume of pearl curtains rolls up the western mountain rain at dusk Chapter 94: Can I?
The owner of the noodle shop came from Western Xinjiang. He said he was from Xizhou and his favorite food in his hometown was pasta, especially various kinds of noodles, which were all delicious.
More than 20 years ago, their family was on a business trip and encountered a disaster when they arrived in Jizhou. Their father fell ill and was unable to return, so their mother took them and their two siblings to settle down in Jizhou City.
My mother said that my father was buried here, and it was impossible for there to be no one to burn paper every year. People are always lazy.
Li Diudiu listened to the shopkeeper's idle chatter and couldn't help but ask, "What does this have to do with laziness?"
The shopkeeper took a puff of his pipe and exhaled a thick puff of smoke. His accent still had a slight flavor of Western Province, but it seemed very friendly.
"Sir, think about it."
The shopkeeper said, "I have come a long way to go home. I have a business there, so I can live a more comfortable life. But people may come a long way to visit my father's grave in the first year, but what about the second, third, and fourth year?"
He looked at Li Diudiu and said, "It takes half a year to go back and forth, and later on it became too much trouble, so I just gave up... At that time, my mother said that our family of three should settle down in Jizhou. I don't care whether you two brothers and sisters will return to Xizhou in the future. When I go there, I will be buried with your father."
The shopkeeper smiled, without any sadness. Twenty years had passed and the sadness had long since dissipated.
He said calmly, "My mother passed away ten years ago. I buried her together with my father according to her wishes. The two old people can finally live together again. I still remember that they were shameless when they were young and always flirted with each other, hehe..."
"My mother said that she doesn't care about us siblings. We can go back to Xizhou if we want. But she is afraid that my father will be lonely if she goes back. Am I not afraid that they will be lonely if we leave?"
The shopkeeper knocked his pipe on the ground, stood up and said, "I'll go get you some noodles. They should be ready."
Now it is his son and daughter-in-law who are cooking noodles in the kitchen. More than 20 years ago, his mother brought them and their two siblings to stay in Jizhou. They don’t know how to do business, and they think that the noodles in Xizhou are so delicious, so why not make a living from it?
Who would have thought that this bowl of noodles fed their entire family.
Twenty years later, of the four most popular noodle shops in Jizhou City, two were passed down from him, and the other two were run by his sister. His sister married in Jizhou City, and they have been very close over the years.
The shopkeeper also has a son and a daughter. His son has taken over the noodle shop. He could have been idle but he doesn't want to. Every day he walks back and forth between the two noodle shops run by his son and son-in-law respectively, repeating the same words every day.
Remember, the people of Jizhou feed us, so in every bowl of noodles, not a single noodle must be missing, and the ingredients must not be reduced at all.
It is said that the people in the western border of Great Chu are tough, but in fact they are also very honest. When they are determined in something, they will not change it.
Li Diudiu asked for more meat. The shopkeeper asked his son to scoop two spoonfuls of stewed meat that was supposed to be put in the sliced noodles without saying a word, and the meat was piled up to the top.
Li Diudiu and Taoist Changmei thanked the shopkeeper, who smiled and said, "Why thank me? The meat is not free."
Taoist Changmei looked at the three bowls of noodles in front of Li Diudiu, and suddenly his nose felt a little sour.
He sighed and said, "When you followed me before, I didn't know you could eat so much. I thought half a cake could fill your little stomach."
Li Diudiu was busy eating noodles. His mouth was swollen and his answer was unclear.
"I didn't eat much back then. I only ate more when I got to Jizhou."
The master made a "Puh" sound and didn't want to say anything sad that day, so he lowered his head to eat noodles. The old and the young ate without slurping.
When the two of them were eating noodles with their heads down, a person stopped beside Li Diudiu. Li Diudiu subconsciously raised his head and looked, then saw Yan Qingzhi looking down at him. Li Diudiu was stunned.
Mr. Yan put the things in his hand on the table. He looked a little tired, with beads of sweat on his forehead.
"I went to four noodle shops before I found you."
Mr. Yan patted the things on the table and said, "I bought you a new set of clothes."
After he finished speaking, he pulled a stool and sat down, then looked at the Taoist priest with long eyebrows: "I also bought you a set of clothes and shoes."
The master and the disciple were both stunned. The old man and the young man still had noodles in their mouths. They just stood there stiffly, motionless like sculptures.
Yan Qingzhi turned around and shouted to the shopkeeper: "Give me a bowl of noodles, the kind they eat, with meat."
Li Diudiu quickly pushed his two untouched bowls of noodles to Yan Qingzhi and said, "Sir, these two bowls have not been touched yet . Eat these two first and don't wait."
Mr. Yan smiled and said, "This is your longevity noodles. Eat it yourself. Eat it all and you will live a long life."
These words were so familiar, as if something suddenly hit Li Diudiu's heart, making his nose suddenly sore and the corners of his eyes slightly wet.
The shopkeeper came over, smiled and greeted us, then asked, "You want this kind of noodles too? How many bowls?"
Yan Qingzhi said: "One bowl."
The shopkeeper said, "Isn't it here? Eat it first, I'll go cook it later, it won't delay us."
Yan Qingzhi shook his head: "I won't eat his. Today is his birthday. This is his longevity noodles."
The shopkeeper laughed and said, "Okay, I'll ask the kitchen to cook it right away. You look so lucky, young master. Others live a hundred years with one bowl of longevity noodles, but you can live at least three hundred years with three bowls in one go."
The shopkeeper was good at talking, and Li Diudiu chuckled.
Yan Qingzhi said: "If he eats your bowl to his heart's content, he might live to be seven hundred years old..."
The shopkeeper said, "Don't make a fuss. Young master, three bowls of noodles is enough for you. Don't even mention seven. If you can eat five bowls, it'll be my treat. I won't break my promise."
At this moment, the eyes of Li Diudiu, Taoist Changmei, and Mr. Yan all lit up.
Li Diudiu raised his head and said seriously: "Then give me four more bowls..."
Taoist Long Eyebrows: "Maybe, I can still eat another bowl."
Yan Qingzhi said: "I'll add another bowl too."
The shopkeeper has been doing business for so many years and has never made a mistake. He is very confident that he will not make a mistake. But why does he have a vague feeling that he might fall into a trap this time?
However, the people from the northwest kept their words and asked their son to cook a few more bowls of noodles with oil and meat.
Just as the noodles arrived, Xiahou Zhuo, who was panting, came in with Ruan Chen and a few others. At a glance, he saw Li Diudiu and the others sitting there, and a table full of noodles.
"Finally found it."
Xiahou Zhuo pointed to the table next to him and said, "Pull it over here and put together a table."
Ruan Chen and Ruan Mu moved the table over and joined it with Li Diudiu's table. Xiahou Zhuo looked at the noodles on the table, wiped the corner of his mouth and said, "I'm really a little hungry. Boss, just like this, give us five people two bowls each."
Yan Qingzhi said: "Aren't you supposed to be inedible?"
Xiahou Zhuo said: "Mr. Yan, it depends on what you are asking. If you ask me... I can't explain it."
Originally, there were no other guests except Li Diudiu's table. In fact, it was already past dinner time, so there were not many people. Xiahou Zhuo came in with four people, and the room suddenly became lively.
The noodles hadn't come up yet when a group of people came in from outside. They were all wearing green clothes and there were about 20 to 30 of them.
Xiahou Zhuo looked back and said with a smile: "Why are you standing there? Come in and have some noodles."
This large group of men in blue clothes came in and filled the noodle shop. Each of them ordered two bowls of noodles, and they also wanted the kind with oil-splashed noodles and meat.
Fortunately, this noodle shop has sufficient ingredients, otherwise it would not be enough.
As the noodles came up one by one, Xiahou Zhuo looked at the shopkeeper and asked, "Do you have any wine?"
The shopkeeper quickly said yes. Seeing so many men in blue, he had already guessed the identities of the visitors and did not dare to neglect them.
"Not too much, one bowl per person."
Xiahou Zhuo said: "Everyone should drink a bowl today."
The shopkeeper's son came out to help, holding a wine jar and pouring wine for each person. When the jar was full, Xiahou Zhuo stood up, holding the wine bowl and said loudly: "For my brother Li Chishou!"
All the men in blue stood up and held up their wine bowls in an orderly manner.
"Happy birthday to brother Li Chi!"
Xiahou Zhuo said loudly: "Done!"
"Dry!"
More than thirty people drank all the wine in one gulp.
Xiahou Zhuo wiped the corner of his mouth, looked at Li Chi and said, "By this time next year, I should be in the northern border army, so I won't be able to celebrate your birthday with you, but you see..."
He pointed at the men in blue and said, "These brothers will definitely be here next year. Remember what each of them looks like. Come on!"
He shouted, "Tell me what your names are, brothers!"
Those men stood up and reported their names one by one. Some were from Jizhou, some from Youzhou, some from Daizhou, and some from Xinzhou. These brothers all looked at Li Chi, and none of them treated him as a child.
"I!"
Li Chi had just not had time to drink the bowl of wine, but now he picked up the bowl and said loudly: "Jizhou, Li Chi!"
A bowl of wine, drank it in one gulp.
Xiahou Zhuo laughed and said, "It doesn't matter if you can't remember their names, just remember that they are all brothers. The brothers in blue are not gangsters. Those who call themselves brothers will share life and death together."
Yan Qingzhi was originally a little unhappy to see Xiahou Zhuo bringing so many people in green clothes to see Li Diudiu. He didn't want Li Diudiu to get too close to these people in the secret passage. If he didn't know that Xiahou Zhuo really regarded Li Chi as a brother, he would still advise Li Chi to stay away from Xiahou Zhuo.
But at that moment Yan Qingzhi suddenly realized that this was the birthday gift Xiahou Zhuo gave to Li Chi.
Xiahou Zhuo will leave Jizhou next year, and these brothers are the ones Xiahou Zhuo left behind to protect Li Chi. Yan Qingzhi knows that Xiahou Zhuo is determined to go to the northern border, and he will not take any of these people with him, just because he wants to stay in Jizhou to be Li Chi's backer.
Just as he thought of this, Xiahou Zhuo suddenly turned around and bowed to Li Chi.
"I introduce the brothers to you not only to let you get to know each other and take care of each other, but also to entrust you with something."
Seeing Xiahou Zhuo's seriousness, Li Chi also stood up and said, "You go ahead."
Xiahou Zhuo said, "I wanted to join the Qingyi formation only because of my mother. She is stubborn and aloof, and she doesn't want to enter the palace. I haven't dared to tell her about my trip to the Northern Frontier, and I don't plan to tell her. After I leave Jizhou , without my mother by her side, some bastards will definitely bully my mother. Li Chi..."
Xiahou Zhuo clasped his fists and said, "Can you help me protect her?"
Li Chi shouted loudly: "Yes!"
More than 30 brothers in blue clothes lined up in formation and shouted at the same time: "Yes!"
Even Yan Qingzhi and Changmei Taoist didn't know what was going on, and they both said softly... Yes.
