Yu Xiaorong's surprise reaction after returning home triggered Leo's second wave of barking. The whole house was filled with its noise and Malcolm's laughter. When he picked up Yu Xiaorong and spun him around, Yu Qingshu shouted sharply: "She's not five years old anymore, Mal!"
Malcolm put Yu Xiaorong back on the ground and admitted that he could no longer hold the big girl. But in addition to the tricks they used to play when they were kids, he also prepared new tricks in the extra heavy suitcase. As if by magic, he took out small and exotic objects: a bar of olive oil handmade soap, a pair of lifelike bull and matador ornaments, a carved folding fan with pomegranate flowers and a red-skirted dancer, and finally... There is a thick photo album.
Nothing attracts Yu Xiaorong more than a photo album, and Yu Qingshu picked up the gorgeous and exquisite folding fan and looked at Luo Binhan with a half-smile.
"What's the matter," Luo Binhan said, pretending to be innocent, "There's room for two fans in this room, right? Besides, the one I brought is an ink painting."
Yu Qingshu was critical, but not very harsh: "You just buy such flashy things."
In order to prove that the souvenirs he bought were not useless, Malcolm quickly held a folding fan, pretended to be wearing a gorgeous dress, performed a flamenco dance in style, and wowed the audience with his silky eyes. Everyone laughed.
"I heard that Spanish women have a way of expressing their meanings by using fans," Hannah, who was coming to stay overnight again, asked, "So is the fan language real?"
Malcolm immediately began to perform the fanning again. He unfolded his fan to cover the lower half of his face and blinked fiercely at Yu Qingshu, sometimes opening and closing it. When Luo Binhan deliberately asked him if he felt too hot, he pretended to be annoyed and shook the folding fan fiercely.
"This must be driving us away," Hannah said with a giggle.
Malcolm threw the fan on the table, jumped over and put his arms around Yu Qingshu's shoulders, but the latter pushed him away and said, "I also have something to show you."
"What is it?"
"The seafood in the refrigerator is waiting for you to deal with." Yu Qingshu said pleasantly, "Go ahead, dear, I still have some work to do."
Malcolm went to the refrigerator a little disappointed, but soon became more motivated to fight for the seafood in it. This scene reminded Luo Binhan of the bet he once made with Yu Xiaorong. "Is the one in the basement still alive?"
Yu Xiaorong held his head high, pretending to be cold but unable to conceal his pride, telling him that the lobster was still alive and well. This was her moment of victory. It wasn't until Luo Binhan asked her with a smile if she still wanted to do homework with Hannah tonight that she walked into the kitchen fiercely and said she wanted to help Malcolm cook lobster.
Luo Binhan didn't really want to annoy her on this wonderful day of reunion. He also knew that Yu Xiaorong must have a lot to say to Malcolm. He got up and returned to the guest room, asking Zhou Yu to go for a walk with him, only to see Hannah Zahn sitting in the room with her innocent and charming smile, speaking to Zhou Yu in a very endearing and respectful tone. Ask questions.
"Are you a medical student?" she asked. "Is a medical career interesting? I think your exam must be difficult. What animals have you dissected?"
Zhou Yu answered her questions one by one. He answered every question, but very briefly, as if he was filling in the blanks with very short lines. But this doesn't worry Hannah at all, because she can always find a natural topic in even a one-word reply.
"I think people who study medicine are very courageous," she looked down at her hands. "I can't bring myself to dissect animals. It must feel very strange, to dismantle a living whole into many... part."
"Just get used to it."
"But haven't you ever thought about it this way? A living thing is of course higher than a dead thing. It is a living thing with thoughts and emotions, not an object made of fat, flesh and blood. But one day , you find that it is so easy to switch between the two, and you may feel that life is nothing special, just like a magic trick whose principle has been exposed..."
Luo Binhan tiptoed behind her and put his hand on her shoulder unexpectedly: "Maybe you think this thing is more special. After all, it can make the fake become real."
Hannah jumped out of her chair. She was indeed frightened by Luo Binhan, but she still had a smile in her eyes and exposed the shallow dimples on her cheeks to Luo Binhan without any precautions. That made her resemble Momolo in some ways, so much so that Luo Binhan couldn't be seriously angry, even though he was sure she was preparing to play some tricks.
"The fake show came true." She said happily as usual, "Then who is the magician? It is not easy to make a good show with these parts on our body! Do you believe this is just Is it a magic trick? Or is this a magician playing tricks on us? Do we have something beyond our physical body?"
Luo Binhan maintained a reserved and ambiguous smile. He didn't know whether religious belief had a place in Hannah's spiritual life - considering that she was Yu Xiaorong's close friend, he also doubted her piety - but it was better not to discuss such issues explicitly. . Regardless of whether they truly believe in the immortality of the soul, in the end most residents of Regenberg will be buried in the graves around the church.
"I believe it would be more useful for us to focus on this life rather than the afterlife," he replied with this infallible phrase, knowing that his mother was also using it to deal with her neighbors who believed in an eternal afterlife. He quickly invited Hannah out politely on the pretext that he wanted to discuss private matters with Zhou Yu.
"Weird," he closed the door, "Why did she come to you?"
"Just came to chat for a few words."
"Did she ask you about me?"
He asked Zhou Yu to retell the topics Hannah had chatted with him. From the meaning of Zhou Yu's name to his career, it was completely aimless chatting. As expected, it had nothing to do with Luo Binhan's trip to Africa. This left Luo Binhan completely clueless. He just felt that this little girl would not be innocent.
Zhou Yu looked at him slightly confused, and asked with the ignorant tone of an outsider: "She is just a middle school student. What do you think of her?"
"Fox." Luo Binhan muttered at a volume that only he could hear, "...Fox and hound are good friends forever."
When he and Zhou Yu took Leo out to go out, the images of foxes with sharp mouths, dangling eyes, and sinister expressions from old animations were still in their minds. He also knew that there was a cartoon called "The Fox and the Hound", but he couldn't remember whether he had seen it. He made up his mind that if Hannah came to chat with Zhou Yu again tonight, he would drag her and Zhou Yu to watch the movie together.
By the time they returned from the town square, the sun had already touched the spiers of the woods. The sofas and low stools in the living room were filled with visiting neighbors. Many painted balloons and flower baskets were placed in front of the table and on the cabinets, which made Luo Binhan suspect that he had entered the wrong door. But when he saw the Vanderlyns out and about, he wasn't too surprised as to how these ostentatious trinkets had come to be.
He quietly took Zhou Yu around to the backyard, slipped into the guest room in the least noticeable way, and then went out alone to chat with the guests. There were two or three acquaintances living nearby who came to see Malcolm, so Luo Binhan got away quickly. He went to the kitchen to inspect again and saw that Malcolm was very busy. Yu Xiaorong might have gone back upstairs to do her homework, and Yu Qingshu took her place to help. She shuttled between the living room and the kitchen, frowning as she cut a ball of onions and said, "We should go out and book a restaurant..."
"Come on, little rabbit, this is my first day back." Malcolm said happily, "I have a lot of new skills I want to show you -"
Luo Binhan retracted his head quietly. Malcolm had never had a concept of "elderness" or "property." Sometimes he wonders in private whether Yu Xiaorong will become like this in the future. What a bizarre scene it would be, in a house similar to this one, Yu Xiaorong calls her husband "my little bear" while chopping vegetables.
In order not to let anyone see his strange expression, he walked into the backyard as if nothing had happened. Leo was busy digging holes in the white sand beside the pool. When Luo Binhan came closer to see its secret treasure, it turned around very alertly, kicked the sand pit flat with its hind legs, and bared its teeth at Luo Binhan.
"Don't be so stingy," Luo Binhan said after deliberation, "Just let me take a look?"
Leo's ears twitched wildly from the barking. Until Luo Binhan retreated to the farthest willow tree, it remained suspicious of him. Luo Binhan grabbed a willow branch with resentment and shook it until it rustled. The long, green leaves were dancing, reminding him of how rare it was in Regenberg. He remembered that this was also a birth gift for Yu Xiaorong, from his mother's friend. The old saying came to his mind: A willow tree in front of the door brings gold and silver treasures home.
But his mother didn't plant the tree in front of her door. For some unknown reason, she planted it in the backyard. According to traditional standards, it was actually not a very suitable location. He felt that Yu Qingshu must have heard the old saying about planting willows in the backyard. Then he thought that of course his mother didn't care about traditions. She had been challenging traditions almost all her life.
He grasped the willow branch in ecstasy until Zhou Yu came and asked him to come in. The darkness that shrouded the surrounding area suddenly woke him up, and he let go of the wicker that he almost broke. It drooped listlessly among the green leaves, like a dying snake. The scene was, if not ominous, at least disappointing. Luo Binhan couldn't help but frown, hesitating whether to cut off the branch directly, but he felt that maybe it would grow back. His thoughts were revealed on his face, so Zhou Yu asked him: "Won't you break it off?"
He responded vaguely, delaying the moment of making a decision. Before he did anything, Zhou Yu seemed to break off the wicker without thinking and inserted it into the ground next to him. "Auntie asked you to come in for dinner." He said to Luo Binhan naturally, and turned back to the house. Luo Binhan was left alone, still staring at the willow planted on the ground in wonder, doubting whether it would really take root. . Can cuttings be such a random thing? It couldn't really grow into a sapling. Maybe Leo would dig it out of the ground after dinner. But in the end he let it stand, because it was Zhou Yu who did it anyway.
The neighbors who came to visit Malcolm did not stay for dinner. They were just here to arrange a more suitable date for a formal welcome party or to go fishing with Malcolm. The only foreign guests remaining at the dining table were Zhou Yu and Hannah.
There was never a silent rule at the Yu Xiaorong family's dinner table, and Malcolm's presence always made the room more lively. He would discuss with Hannah who was the best villain in fantasy movies, and then turn to ask Zhou Yu if he had experienced anything strange in the hospital. "I heard a particularly scary ghost story from a country doctor, and he assured me that it was all true." He said enthusiastically, "It was about a farmer's little daughter who had a high fever and a man who suddenly broke into the house. The police are coming..."
"Mar." Yu Qingshu said kindly but clearly.
Malcolm wisely stopped and turned the conversation to flamenco and country dances. Hannah held her chin in regret as she watched Yu Xiaorong struggle with the minced onions stuck to the lobster meat. In such an atmosphere, Luo Binhan almost fell asleep due to excessive relaxation and boredom. He pretended to look sideways at a pot of flowers on the windowsill, but his eyes slowly closed. He could still smell the aroma of seafood and fat, and hear the equally bright laughter of Malcolm and Hannah, but he couldn't understand what they were saying at all. How Spanish dancers swim in the deep sea, or are planted in the soil. These meaningless words were like waves that came and went, jolting his mind, which was overwhelmed by sleepiness. But he had been trapped by sleep and security, trapped in this dark and closed cabin. At this moment, the sounds and colors of the outside world are just thin phantoms without any clear shape.
How quiet, he thought half asleep, this island-like silence brings peace of mind. His left hand let go and dropped, touching the cold water waves. The waves are also so silent, as smooth as silk, like the dark eyes and black hair of a witch. She was still looking at him, with disdain or resentment. You are a man who has slept on a boat your whole life—
Luo Binhan opened his eyes. He put down his left hand behind his ear and looked at the palm of his hand. Of course there is nothing. It turned out that what woke him up was not the waves, but the sound of other people standing up and clearing the table. Zhou Yu was staring at him, having noticed that he had just fallen asleep. Luo Binhan made a face at him, telling him not to hurt Malcolm's feelings - how could he fall asleep in front of Malcolm's carefully prepared meal? It must be because the atmosphere in Regenberg is too easy to induce laziness.
While helping Yu Xiaorong clear away the tableware, Hannah asked, "So, do you all know how to play mahjong?"
This is a weird question. He almost thought he heard wrongly until Yu Qingshu brought a boxed pair of melamine mahjong from upstairs. Luo Binhan recognized this mahjong table because Liu Ling, who promoted his mother, was a good player at the mahjong table. Every New Year, she would always bring her family over and play with Yu Qingshu for a whole afternoon, showing off her unique skills in picking out the suits of cards. A skill well worth watching as she almost never gets it wrong. But when Liu Ling is away, the family doesn't play mahjong very much. There are never enough people willing to participate.
Luo Binhan glanced at Zhou Yu, wondering what happened while he was napping. Zhou Yu noticed his look and said nothing, but tilted his head slightly towards Hannah's shoulder, hinting to him whose idea it was.
"I've always wanted to learn how to play mahjong." Hannah admitted generously. "I like the sound the little cubes make when they hit each other. The clattering sound is crisper and sweeter than playing cards. It sounds very pleasant. Isn’t it?”
"How's your homework?" Luo Binhan asked, imitating his mother's kind tone. But this time he was doomed to fail, because Hannah Zahn was not the school bully Yu Xiaorong, and she had done all her homework early. His mother and Malcolm were also in high spirits. Only Yu Xiaorong was lying on the sofa looking at his mobile phone out of boredom. She and Zhou Yu were the last two people in the room who neither knew how to play mahjong nor had any interest in getting to know each other. . Whenever Liu Ling and Yu Qingshu sit at the mahjong table to welcome the New Year, her most active action is just to serve tea and water, and wait for an opportunity to earn a big tip. Luo Binhan estimated that it would not be a small sum, because Liu Ling loved this restless little girl very much and always secretly stuffed her with extra banknotes in addition to the winnings, but Yu Qingshu couldn't do it every time. Discover.
It's hard to guess whether there is some kind of conspiracy here, but they actually played mahjong. Yu Qingshu took the throne, while Hannah occupied his subordinate family. At first Luo Binhan thought they were going to play Liu Ling's favorite Sichuan Mahjong, but Yu Qingshu chose the national standard Mahjong instead. She explained the rules to Hannah, who seemed to find the symbols on each card hilarious.
"A terrible eye." She touched the suits on the card, remembering their respective characteristics, "circles and circles of eyes."
"Oh, no," Malcolm explained enthusiastically, "that's a 'barrel.' It means a musket, because it looks like a cross-section of a musket barrel."
Hannah thought this was hilarious. She picked out all the "barrels" and counted the circles on them: "We have so many muskets!"
"It's used to shoot sparrows." Malcolm said, "Look, the card in my hand is 'Sparrow'. This game originated from ancient people who used to hunt sparrows that slipped into granaries."
Luo Binhan squinted at the pattern on the Yaoji card. It had a pair of emerald green wings, a bright red crown and tail feathers, but it looked nothing like a sparrow. The first thing he thought of was Jing Huang, and then he called out softly. Everyone turned to look at him.
"Nothing," he shrugged, "I remembered that Zhou Yu had a parrot at home."
He turned around to look for Zhou Yu, who was sitting on the sofa, holding a coffee cup in both hands, and had fallen asleep quietly. Somehow, he looked more tired now than when he was awake, and no one with any sense of conscience would have the nerve to wake him up just to find out where a parrot was.
"He probably found someone to foster him." Luo Binhan explained to himself and put the matter behind him.
If this was indeed Hannah's first introduction to the rules of mahjong, the speed at which she mastered the game was astonishing. As she wished, she played the cards played by Luo Binhan again and again, making these cute and charming little squares clatter endlessly. Luo Binhan didn't mean to act clumsy, but his mind always drifted to the Yaoji card. Don’t think about this now, right? he tried to say to himself. What a wonderful and warm night of reunion. In such a small town surrounded by forests and flowers, the most important people in his life almost all stayed in this comfortable and warm room, playing games together or doing their own favorite things.
"Six of a kind!" said Malcolm, making a small post in front of his hand. Luo Binhan took a look at the card in his hand and thought it was even more hopeless than the tank of blood parrot fish he once kept at the front desk of his startup company. He leaned back in his chair and announced lazily that he was done.
"Don't be shameless." Yu Qingshu urged, "How could you admit defeat after a fight like this?"
Luo Binhan pushed out a card in self-exile.
"Hongzhong!" Hannah happily took away his discarded items, "Boom!"
"This is not called a bang." Luo Binhan corrected lazily, "This is called a 'bang'."
"But I shot the sparrow." Hannah said, "I got the red one, which means 'hit', right? Boom boom!"
She gestured and pretended to shoot Luo Binhan, but suddenly turned to Yu Xiaorong on the sofa. Yu Xiaorong dropped the phone neatly, turned over and covered himself with a pillow, and then returned the favor to Hannah. This movement also woke up Zhou Yu on the other side of the sofa. He stood up in a daze, took half a step forward, and happened to be in the middle of the two cold-blooded gunmen dueling.
"It's broken." Luo Binhan told him, "You were shot to death."
Zhou Yu looked down at his chest confusedly but rigorously. He hesitated for a moment, slowly put down the cup, then sat back on the sofa, hanging his head like a man who was shot to death and fell asleep.
"Is he really dead?" Luo Binhan asked in disbelief. But Zhou Yu went back to dreaming wholeheartedly. Hannah blew on the tips of her fingers: "I'm sorry that my dispute with the vicious dog Jania implicated your friend."
"Dongfeng." Yu Qingshu said, "Mar, it's your turn."
"Bump," said Malcolm. "What a tragedy!"
"That's nonsense." Luo Binhan said, throwing away the 60,000 yuan he just got.
Hannah took a deep breath. Her green eyes suddenly widened with incredible surprise. Then she stood up solemnly and pushed down all the cards in her hand.
"What a fool!" she declared excitedly. Yu Xiaorong gave her a victory sign from a distance on the sofa.
Luo Binhan believed that this was purely a novice's luck, and it had nothing to do with whether he was a bad chess bag who fed cards to his players.
"I want to avenge my best friend." He said, quickly wiping out the cards in his hand, and stretched out his finger towards Hannah who was cheering: "Boom!"
6k two-in-one offer.
(End of chapter)
