Luo Binhan and Yu Xiaorong had some different opinions on how to handle lobsters. Sure enough, they dug out a half-person-high water tank and a matching air pump in the basement, as well as several bags of leftover sea salt, a salinity meter, and a temperature gun. The chiller seems to be broken, but more ice might help.
Luo Binhan didn't think about this set of equipment at first. It wasn't until Yu Xiaorong called him down to help carry it that he remembered that he had indeed seen them before. At that time, Yu Xiaorong was just a little older and running around like a puppy. Malcolm placed a fish tank in the living room with more than a dozen moon jellyfish. For several late nights, Luo Binhan wandered in the living room, and then sat down to watch these jellyfish wandering around, like a group of small blue lonely souls, quietly and hesitantly looking for a way out of the dark night cage.
This feeling only occurs at night. During the day, peach pink or goose-yellow lights make them appear lazy, unfocused and dull, and Malcolm jokes that they are a reflection of his lifestyle. He could no longer say that soon. Perhaps it was a problem with the tank, water quality or salinity, but the lifespan of the jellyfish did not even exceed two months. What did you keep in the tank after that? Luo Binhan didn't know that he didn't stay in Regenberg all year round after all. But at this moment, he at least knew its ending: a body forgotten in the deepest part of the basement, covered in dust, cobwebs, and insects, and filled with similarly unused heavy debris.
He and Yu Xiaorong emptied the fish tank together - he sternly asked Yu Xiaorong to put one of the rusty small chain saws in the farthest and most remote corner - and then wiped the inside and outside of the bathtub with a wet cloth. Read it again. The whole process made them both miserable, and Luo Binhan didn't forget to pretend to be out of breath and exhausted. He offered that they didn't need to move the tank because that would involve moving at least two additional display racks filled with clutter.
Yu Xiaorong raised her hands in agreement, and at the same time raised her feet - she was slumped on a pile of paint buckets, her face was gray, and there was a ball of broken spider webs above her head. Luo Binhan didn't even bother to reach out to help her catch it. Anyway, they both must take a thorough bath tonight.
"We should raise something more." Yu Xiaorong said weakly, "It's such a waste."
"Don't make trouble. You wouldn't want to change the water in a tank like this every once in a while."
Yu Xiaorong pursed his lips slightly, and Luo Binhan immediately knew that he had said the wrong thing. It is true that her patience and carefulness are selective, sometimes they are good and sometimes they are bad, but her competitive spirit seems to be copied from Yu Qingshu, without missing a single bit. If he doubted any of her qualities or abilities, she had to do it.
"I don't think these things can raise lobsters," he said, changing the subject. "Water, salt, oxygen, temperature...the difference is far away. Who knows what problems may arise, we haven't even raised ornamental shrimps."
"We only need to keep the lobster alive for three to five days."
"They'll probably be inside out tomorrow morning. I think it's better to kill them all now and freeze them in the freezer. Let Mal see how to cook them when he gets back."
"Then they are not new." Yu Xiaorong protested, "And we have already spent so long dealing with this tank!"
"We can still make something with it." Luo Binhan suggested friendly, "How about pickling sauerkraut?"
Regardless of whether this suggestion is feasible or not, it does not please Yu Xiaorong anyway. She obviously still resented Luo Binhan's doubts about her breeding ability, insisting that she could raise an Australian lobster that had been out of the water for a long time until Malcolm returned. Luo Binhan was very pessimistic about this. He once chatted very closely with the receptionist of a startup company and watched her diligently take care of the bright red and eye-catching blood parrot fish in the tank at the door. It can be said that she is not working hard. She feeds the fish according to the amount every day and changes the water on time every week. Unfortunately, the manpower is insufficient, so the company still changes the fish in batches every month. Every time Luo Binhan walked in as an investor representative, he tried hard to pretend not to notice it, lest he finally couldn't help but say something bad that connected the "poor and short-lived fortune fish" with the company's operating conditions. joke. He really didn't want to say it, because after all, the entrepreneurial team treated him sincerely, but it was difficult to raise gorgeous and gorgeous fish, and it was also difficult to do an innocent and romantic business.
"Things in the water are difficult to grow." He said to Yu Xiaorong seriously.
Yu Xiaorong raised her legs provocatively: "How difficult is it?"
"It's definitely harder than freezing it in the refrigerator, right?" Luo Binhan said, "Don't argue, Velvet. I know frozen lobsters aren't that fresh, but if they die in the tank at night and we don't find out until the morning, I won't I’m sure the lobsters that have been dead for so long are still edible.”
"I can feed you."
"Are you really sure?"
He looked directly at Yu Xiaorong. Raising food - even for short periods of time - is valued in this family. Yu Qingshu never liked furry pets in his childhood memories, let alone energetic hunting dogs, but he adopted Leo in Regenberg. He once thought it was to resist loneliness or increase his sense of security. It wasn't until he realized that Leo was actually being taken care of by Yu Xiaorong that he understood what it was all for. His mother changed her preferences just to let her daughter know what it feels like to be responsible for a life. Of course she would come up with such an idea if she found out that her last child didn't even learn to take responsibility for his own life.
"I'm sure I can keep it alive until Mal comes back."
He heard Yu Xiaorong's answer, with a stubbornness in his voice, as if he was trying to snatch the lobster out of the arms of death. This makes the scene a little weird, because sooner or later the lobsters will be finished, just to satisfy their appetite. But now that Yu Xiaorong has said so, he can't make her desire to win disappear out of thin air.
"Ah..." he drawled, "Anyway, we have two lobsters... let's make a bet?"
Yu Xiaorong understood immediately.
“I’ll pick one,” she said, “and put the other one in the refrigerator. When Mal comes back, mine will be fresher—which means it’ll stay alive, and that’s a win for me. "
"I took advantage." Luo Binhan reminded, "You have to take care of the tank all the time, but I don't need to take care of it when I put it in the refrigerator."
"So you can't do anything." Yu Xiaorong said, "The decision of winning or losing is in my hands. I think this is fair."
"You always have some weird ideas."
“What do I get when I win?”
This question made Luo Binhan think about it. Naturally, he doesn't mind buying something for Yu Xiaorong. Although she is not the kind of girl who is particularly keen on fashion, she can at least use electronic products and sports equipment. A latest tablet or a pair of professional sneakers would be useful, but don’t rule out a drone or a skateboard. However, a drone with aerial photography may be a bit too much, and this requires Yu Qingshu’s consent.
"What do you want?" He asked bluntly, knowing that Yu Xiaorong would never be polite to him. She would always reach out when she wanted something, "Running shoes? Or a new computer?"
"I haven't thought about it yet." Yu Xiaorong said, "But we can make a note of this first."
"It has to be something I can afford, and your mother has to agree."
Yu Xiaorong kicked up his feet. Luo Binhan knew that she agreed - she was just unhappy that everything they did had to be approved by her mother.
He just thought she answered loudly "Okay", and then asked with a smile: "Then what if I win? What are you going to give me?"
"what do you want?"
Luo Binhan wanted to say that he had nothing to want, but he knew that this was not an answer that would satisfy Yu Xiaorong. His sister valued fairness, but he couldn't really let Yu Xiaorong buy him things with the pocket money he earned from doing housework.
"Hmm...please call me brother, please?"
Exactly as he guessed, Yu Xiaorong immediately gave him a big eye roll. She never called him "brother" after she was six years old, but she almost never called Malcolm "dad", so Luo Binhan thought this was fair. However, Yu Xiaorong didn't even call him by his name, maybe he thought it was too difficult to pronounce. He hadn't considered what Yu Xiaorong called him behind his back.
"Hanhan!" They heard Yu Qingshu shouting in the living room.
Luo Binhan jumped up as if he was electrocuted. He gave Yu Xiaorong, who had a proud face, a hard look.
"If you lose, call me good brother three times." He said threateningly, "The one who knows how to record."
Yu Xiaorong held her chest in her hands and pretended to be vomiting.
"Hanhan!"
"If you call me again, I will commit suicide." Luo Binhan said painfully. He rushed towards the stairs to the basement exit, leaving Yu Xiaorong to deal with the installation of the fish tank and the preparation of salt water. If she really wanted to win the bet, she had a busy night ahead.
He rushed from the basement into the living room within five seconds, without giving Yu Qingshu a chance to call him a third time. This unusual swiftness made the latter look suspicious.
"What are you in a hurry for?" his mother asked, handing him a thick black plastic bag.
"Nothing." Luo Binhan said. He glanced into the plastic bag, which contained several oysters and sea clams.
"Give these to Pierre," Yu Qingshu said, "Anti Pierre. She lives in the old Gerges house, which is opposite the main entrance of our house."
"Don't let Yu Xiaorong go?"
"You just go and say hello to her. She's been taking good care of Rongrong during this period."
"Then why don't you wait a few days to invite her to our house for dinner?"
"If you and Rongrong haven't killed all the shrimps and clams by then, I will invite her to dinner - but I think it's better to give her a few while they're fresh. Don't waste good things."
This is another difference between mother and daughter. Luo Binhan thought in his heart. Yu Qingshu will put her eggs in several baskets, and she will also pursue doing things best, but only if the risks are minimized. In terms of risk aversion, he, not Yu Xiaorong, inherited more. But why does this matter? This is Yu Xiaorong’s home.
He shook the bag in his hand: "I heard that she ate the bouquets raw. Are you sure she won't chew the shells raw?"
His words actually made Yu Qingshu chuckle. The well-known local lawyer who is over fifty years old covered his mouth with his palms and looked as if he was a seventeen or eighteen-year-old girl.
"You boys," she said with a mixture of affection and sarcasm, "can't you figure it out? She's not really stupid. She's actually very smart and knows exactly what you're thinking. Listen, she's very good-looking. She is beautiful and will be unforgettable once you see her. But you must not be interested in her, she will not fall in love with any man in this town. Let me tell you this. "
Luo Binhan went out with confusion. He had no idea what Yu Qingshu was hinting to him. It seemed to mean one thing and another. This is really inappropriate - isn't he the person who knows the most secrets and has the most truth in this entire town? At least when it came to Anti-Pierre, he felt that he should be the one who behaved enigmatically. It is impossible for Yu Qingshu to understand Anti-Pierre better than him. This is the truth. But now he wasn't so sure. His mother showed real compassion for her idiot son. This situation is really unsettling.
He knocked on Anti-Pierre's door, trying to look as confident as possible. This time he noticed a house number in the shape of a black cat on the wall, with the number 16 and Pierre's last name written on it. He always felt that Pierre should be a French surname. It would not be too out of place in Regenberg, but it was probably not Anti-Pierre's real surname. Does she really have a "last name"? When Chen Wei mentioned her, she only called her "Anti".
The door opened. Anti-Pierre appeared behind the door looking much more normal than yesterday. She tied her hair up with a dark brown spider-patterned ribbon, the satin edge was covered with gold leaf-like tassels, and the bun was piled messily on her shoulders.
Wearing a thin dark red silk robe, the piping from the collar to the hem was filled with abstract colorful flower and leaf embroidery. This was supposed to be a rather gorgeous summer pajamas, but it made Luo Binhan feel like he was standing in front of a Middle Eastern girl who was about to dance in front of a bonfire.
He glanced at the pair of bare feet exposed under the robe. The dark insteps were embedded with pale and purple toenails, which looked like the giant clam he was holding in his hand. There was no longer any doubt that Anti-Pierre never wore shoes at home. The secret of how she keeps the floor so neat and clean while staying at home every day must be of great appeal to Yu Qingshu. Thinking of this, Luo Binhan shrugged his shoulders and handed over the plastic bag in his hand.
"Given to you," he said in Chinese, "They are all shellfish."
The other party reached out and took it naturally, without even a smile to express his gratitude. Luo Binhan hesitated for a moment, because common sense told him that some words were destined to be rude, but he really felt that Anti-Pierre didn't care.
"Well, Anti." He tried to say, "I'll just call you Anti. Is that okay? Do you understand how to eat these things?"
Onti slung the bag around her wrist and made a gesture of breaking open the shell, indicating that at least she would not try to chew the shell. Just in case, Luo Binhan added: "It has to be cooked before eating."
He was going to go back and watch the battle between Yu Xiaorong and Lobster. But Antiy stared at him and gave way to the house, a straightforward invitation. Luo Binhan stood for a few seconds in surprise, then turned to look behind him. No one seemed to be peeping behind the living room window of No. 15, so he continued to face Anti.
"Ah, okay." He said, "Actually, I also want to talk to you alone."
He walked into the room and wanted to sit down in the living room, but Antiy threw the seafood on the table, took his hand, and trotted upstairs. The layout of this house is roughly similar to that of Yu Xiaorong's house, except that Angti seems to have placed her bedroom in the opposite direction to Yu Xiaorong's. Luo Binhan could only say "it seems" because he couldn't even find a bed in this room covered with southern flower wallpaper. The entire floor is covered with a thick purple-gray plush carpet. It is so wide that it will make a household washing machine helpless, and it is so soft that it will make the sweeping robot sink to death. It is exactly the one that will appear at the finale of Yu Qingshu's housekeeping-themed nightmare. One.
Maybe Angie changed the carpet every three months, maybe she really cast some kind of cleaning magic like the witch in the story, anyway, she just fell down on the carpet under Luo Binhan's glare, and then walked away from the wall. From the piles of pillows and mats beside him, he pulled out a children's magnetic doodle drawing board. She concentrated on painting, while Luo Binhan stood blankly at the door of the room, wondering whether he had been fooled.
"...Can I come in?" he asked awkwardly, lowering his head to check whether his socks were clean. Antique looked up at him, as if wondering why he asked this. She was lying on her side on the blanket, with the flap sliding down to her lower shoulders, and her thighs were exposed from the side opening of the silk nightgown. It was hard not to arouse people's imagination, but Luo Binhan found that he had not misunderstood anything, because the beautiful girl in front of him not only did not behave like a living person, but she also looked at him as if she did not take him seriously. A living person, perhaps more like a sparrow that wandered in accidentally.
That's easy to tell. He dared to say that anyone who knew a little bit about winks would not mistake the difference. She was beautiful, but with a beauty that was tolerant of harmless little animals. Even if such a person walked into his bedroom naked, there would never be any unsettling associations. And this reminded Luo Binhan of the little love story about poor Philip Colon. It's so funny, some part of him whispered, so boring and ignorant - how could anyone fall in love with a foreign object in the skin of a beautiful woman, like a painting or a sculpture? ? To actually believe that such a confession can be successful is undoubtedly an illusion born of self-aggrandizement and abundant imagination. Listen, his mother's snickering was as close to his ears as it was wandering in the shadows of the corners and curtains.
Onti stopped painting. Her neck suddenly turned around, facing him with a blank and calm face. Luo Binhan took half a step back, as if to avoid some invisible detection. An unfamiliar fear suddenly struck his heart. He lowered his head and looked at his chest. What could he see? What is actually there is an ordinary and boring human male body. He stopped thinking and strode into Antiy's bedroom.
"Anti," he said straight to the point, "I've always wanted to ask you about yesterday. The painting of the water monster, and the stone you took away..."
Antiy turned the drawing board in her arms over. The moment she made this move—probably less than half a second—what flashed across Luo Binhan's eyes was the image of Asabam when he finally left him behind, when the shadow witch held the When the Book of Destiny was turned over to him, showing him the unrecognizable illustration, his posture almost overlapped with Ondy's in front of him. The muscles in his back spasmed instinctively, and with resentment and rejection, he quickly escaped from that memory.
He has left that land shrouded in the sun forever. At this moment, what appeared on Anti's drawing board was neither what he wanted to escape from nor what he wanted to inquire about. The rough lines formed by magnetic powder form a sketch of a girl with a high ponytail. The style is very cartoony, but has the charm of a real person. She also has a pair of strange eyes ingeniously added to her: the eye child is made up of complex and detailed geometric figures, which looks like the two eye holes are covered with spider webs, and also looks like they are covered with spider webs from the eye sockets. With a pair of diamonds.
Luo Binhan started to laugh. He couldn't tell exactly what was funny about it. This painting was not realistic at all, but he understood it at a glance.
"Chen Wei." He said confidently, "The one you drew is Chen Wei, your master. She is doing well now and knows you are here... Oh, you want me to tell you in detail about her current situation?"
A bright smile appeared on Anti's face. Her ruthless and innocent eyes suddenly became hot and moving, just like a wild cat looking up at the sparrows perched on the branches.
