On the second day of the mahjong night, Luo Binhan slept until nearly noon before getting up. They actually didn't play at the card table for long, because Hannah and Yu Xiaorong still had to go to class, but he had insomnia because of his nervousness. At three o'clock in the morning, he was still tossing and turning in bed, secretly calculating how often Zhou Yu, who was sleeping on the floor, turned over. What worried him a little was that Zhou Yu's sleep was as deep as a coma, with no murmurs and almost no movement of his limbs. For a while, Luo Binhan even felt that the only sound in the room was his own breathing. He had to close his eyes and look carefully in the darkness to realize that there were other living things in this space.
Maybe some people do sleep more peacefully, but Luo Binhan believes that this kind of coma-like sleep should be classified as unhealthy. He didn't know if it was a medical condition because he had only heard that people who snored heavily were at risk of suffocating in their sleep. But if a person sleeps too quietly, it may also be a sign of overdraft.
He continued to lie there in vain for a while, feeling that it was becoming increasingly difficult for him to follow a healthy routine. The room was too quiet, the air was too dry, the mattress was too soft...every little thing was preventing him from sleeping peacefully. It was a curse that he never suffered from sleeplessness while on the Silence - even though there was no real day and night schedule for him to follow - and now, those old habits that had plagued him in the past were back with a vengeance. His body became extremely concrete and impotent, with problems everywhere, and even a pea under the sheets could cause trouble. He sighed and slipped out of the room quietly, going to the kitchen to find some water.
The night was extremely quiet, as if the flowers and woods embracing the town had fallen asleep. But when Luo Binhan walked into the front yard with a water glass, he found that the lights on the second floor of the house opposite were still on. Maybe Anti-Pierre was used to sleeping with the light on, he thought as he drank water, or maybe she was a nocturnal creature.
Everyone has the right to decide how much they want to pay for electricity, so instead of staring at other people's bedroom windows, he looks up and admires the stars. The thin but colorful Milky Way is looming behind the thin clouds, and the stars cast an icy cold light in the distance. Their beauty appears inanimate, like pearls and diamonds. He supposed that was why people in the past had said it was the palace of the gods, rather than a burning ball of fire or a place filled with dirt and grime like the earth.
Now he knew that wasn't the case. That dazzling and confusing light strip had been given more meanings, although he could be said to be ignorant of these meanings. Are the stars he is looking at at this moment really just huge rocks, dust and frost? Or maybe some of them—even those that his naked eyes couldn't capture—were alive, made of flesh and blood, like a sun as bright as a painting surrounded by swords, flowers, and wheels. Now it's hard for him to believe that everything on Tianlun Star really happened. The beauty of this starry sky was so empty, so indifferent, and so unreal. It would be arrogant and ridiculous to believe that there were creatures with similar faces and thoughts to him living in it.
He almost doubted himself again. But he couldn't immediately go back to the guest room to wake Zhou Yu up and ask him if he knew Jing Huang. He also wanted to send a text message to Momolo to talk to him about the first time they met, so as to make sure that he had indeed been on that ship. But he left the phone in the house. He really should have gone to sleep, but he continued to stand in the yard, seeing the sky turning a little white.
A dog barked. The sound wasn't very close, it seemed like it was coming from across the street. Luo Binhan looked outside the fence, and his eyes fell under the streetlight at the end of the road, where a vague shadow was lingering.
The barking continued, and more dogs were awakened and joined in the commotion. Lights came on in the windows of distant houses. Luo Binhan subconsciously glanced at the second floor of the house opposite, wondering if Anti-Pierre was awake. He didn't see anyone moving behind the window, and when he looked for the shadow at the end of the street, there was nothing there either. The water cup in his hand gave off a chill and soaked his fingers. Luo Binhan thought the cup was leaking water, but when he lowered his head to check, he found that it was in good condition. He looked at his fingers, and there were no traces of water on them.
Behind him, the lights on the second floor came on. A head poked out of the window, then retracted into the room after a few seconds, and then Yu Xiaorong, wearing pajamas with a head full of messy hair, walked out of the room. She looked at him suspiciously, but didn't ask why he was standing here.
"I heard a dog barking," she said bluntly.
Luo Binhan pointed to the street in the distance, indicating that he didn't know more than her. They all craned their necks to look outside the fence, but the barking of the dogs had stopped, and no one came out to check on the situation.
"A few are in heat." Luo Binhan guessed.
"I know what kind of dogs are raised there," Yu Xiaorong said, "Heranses has been neutered. And at this point they should all be kept in the yard."
"Maybe they got a new dog."
"A dog in estrus will bark all day long, if it really wants to bark." Yu Xiaorong put his hand on the fence, "I remember this happened yesterday, no, the evening before yesterday. This kind of thing is not common. Dogs A commotion...usually there is one leader, and then the others will follow."
She eagerly wanted to go to the corner of the street to take a closer look, but Luo Binhan escorted her into the house and reminded her that she would have to get up and get ready for school in two hours. After she reluctantly entered the bedroom, he returned to the front yard and looked at the movement on the street corner. He wasn't sure if he had actually seen anything alive wandering there, maybe just the wind blowing the shadows of the trees, or a cat that had wandered out of the yard. He continued to stand in the yard until the sky gradually became brighter, and nothing strange happened.
He finally went back inside to sleep. He tossed and turned on the pillow again, having a few confusing dreams intermittently. When he woke up, it was time for lunch. Zhou Yu was not in the room, and Yu Qingshu at the dining table rarely said anything. He just asked him if he would like to go shopping with him in the afternoon, or if he needed her to bring him something. Luo Binhan thought for a while and felt that he had nothing important to do in the afternoon.
"I'll go with you," he said. "Where's Mal?"
"He went down to the woods to check on how his old studio was doing."
Luo Binhan frowned. He remembered that Yu Xiaorong had told him that there were wild beasts in the woods. But Malcolm is a veteran of wandering in the wild. From the mountainous areas where bears are infested to the streets where gangs are fighting, it seems that he can make a living anywhere. When he was considering whether to mention the attack on tourists, Yu Qingshu continued: "Zhou Yu also went with him, and we will go to the mall in the afternoon."
"Him? Following Mal? What's he doing there?"
"Go and see the scenery. It's time for Zhou Yu to go out and exercise more. Look at his haggard state. He is so lack of energy at such a young age. He drank so much coffee last night and is still so sleepy. This is not A person who is thirty years old! You should also persuade him——"
Yu Qingshu began to criticize Zhou Yu's many bad habits. In order to prevent himself from being involved, Luo Binhan wisely kept his mouth shut and nodded in agreement from time to time to express unconditional agreement. While he continued to criticize Zhou Yu's numerous crimes, he found paper and pen and handed them to Yu Qingshu, and then asked her what she wanted to buy. Sure enough, she forgot how Zhou Yu had frivolously squandered his youth and health, lowered his head and started writing a shopping list.
Luo Binhan was quite proud of his little trick. "You'd better tell Mal and ask him and Zhou Yu to be careful in the woods."
"They are all past the age of getting lost." Yu Qingshu said without raising his head.
"Tourists have been bitten to death by animals in the past few days. I think there may be some ferocious beasts running out of the mountains."
The tip of the pen paused, and Yu Qingshu raised his head and glanced at him: "When did it happen?"
"Just these few days? I don't know the specific time."
"No one was bitten to death by wild animals." Yu Qingshu said without argument, "A tourist died in the woods, but he was not bitten to death by wild animals."
"Is that a sudden illness?"
Yu Qingshu flicked his wrist impatiently: "Murdered."
Luo Binhan retracted his finger that teased Leo. He stared at Yu Qingshu with a somewhat unnatural smile.
"What's all the fuss about?" Yu Qingshu checked the list she made, "People die every day in this world."
"Not every death is a murder." Luo Binhan asked himself gently, "How did this happen?"
He wasn't asking about the dead man, but his mother didn't know who had lied to him. "It must have been murder," she said simply. "The death was unnatural. It wasn't a gun or a common knife."
"Who is dead?"
"A tourist from out of town. The police are still checking his social connections, but it doesn't seem to be going well."
Luo Binhan did not ask Yu Qingshu how he knew these details. In most people's lives, a recent murder is still breaking news, especially in a closed place like Regenberg. This kind of news will spread like wildfire, not to mention that his mother has another secret. A set of information channels for work.
He didn't think Yu Qingshu would make such a mistake, so the information Yu Xiaorong told him the day before yesterday was wrong. And this kind of mistake, he could almost conclude, would not be an honest mistake. Yu Xiaorong lied to him about a murder, which was not a reassuring good sign.
Yu Qingshu finished checking the shopping list she made and added a few items at the end. Then he raised his head with satisfaction and asked him: "What are you going to buy?"
There was a slight change in her expression, and Luo Binhan immediately knew that he must not have concealed it well enough.
"I can't stand seeing murders every day," he complained. "And does this mean you have to work overtime again?"
"Don't say stupid things." His mother said accusingly, "Have you thought about what you want to buy?"
"Mom," Luo Binhan pointed out seriously, "someone died."
"First, people die every day." Yu Qingshu said calmly, "Second, I want to take annual leave. Third, stop pretending to me."
She grabbed Luo Binhan's ear and went out to the garage. Luo Binhan pretended to cry out in pain, so Yu Qingshu quickly let go. Once she turned on the car radio, the tragic murder in the woods was completely forgotten. Luo Binhan was sitting alone in the back seat, and the reflection on the car window frowned at him.
They had missed the traditional weekly farmer's market in the town, and instead of going to the few old shops, they went straight to the largest shopping street in the city. Yu Qingshu tore off the second half of her list, which was specially written in Chinese, and asked Luo Binhan to pick fruits and vegetables as required. He did a pretty good job, but made a small mistake in identifying rhubarb and gooseberries.
"Gooseberries," he muttered unconvincingly, "I was wondering when you soaked chestnuts in vinegar."
Yu Qingshu knocked on his forehead: "You ate it when you were a child."
"Yes, but at that time you called it a lantern fruit." Luo Binhan defended, "It doesn't look like a chestnut at all!"
His views failed to gain traction. His mother personally picked out two large bags of gooseberries, so many that Luo Binhan wondered if they were a waste. The fruit didn't taste that good in his memory.
"This is the amount Mal asked for." Yu Qingshu carefully picked the fruit, "He uses it to make desserts and jam. Your sister also likes to eat this."
"I found that both she and Mal like to eat cold and sour things." Luo Binhan concluded with confusion, "Sour berries, ice lemon slices, cold yogurt... Why? They never feel uncomfortable in their stomachs?"
"do not ask me."
"Let's buy some chili powder and mix it into the jam." Luo Binhan suggested sinisterly, "Let's see how they react."
Yu Qingshu slapped him on the forehead again, but then they actually went to the Asian supermarket to buy some spices and sauces. Luo Binhan could see that this was probably prepared for a family hot pot feast - the extremely strange situation was that Yu Xiaorong did not object to hot pot, and she would eat all the food taken out of the hot pot with ice cubes or smoothies - maybe It must have been the night before he left Regenberg. He had missed New Year or Christmas several times. Especially when Yu Qingshu asked him what he wanted to eat, Luo Binhan suddenly felt embarrassed, as if he was suddenly treated as a seven or eight-year-old child again.
"Don't we have a shopping list?" he said, pretending to be calm. "Is there anything missing?"
Yu Qingshu said nothing more. She studied his features carefully, her eyes filled with unspoken words. She didn't need to say it, but Luo Binhan seemed to have heard her say: You look really alike. Many people say so. Nan Mingguang said it. Zhou Yu also said it.
"It's time for us to go," he said. "Anything else to buy?"
For a short while, Yu Qingshu seemed not to hear him, but was immersed in the memories of the past. She seemed a little strange, someone that Luo Binhan didn't understand. But soon she pulled the list from her pocket and checked each item.
"That's almost it. Let's go buy some clothes for you."
"I already have enough clothes."
Yu Qingshu looked at the jungle flower shirt he was wearing with disdain. This teasing has a double meaning, because although the clothes are worn by Luo Binhan, the printed pattern is designed by Malcolm.
Someone shared the shame so that Luo Binhan would not blush at this moment, but he still argued that he had decent clothes. He mostly has suits or more serious casual clothes, and there is no need to go to an old-fashioned shop to have them tailor-made. In the end, Yu Qingshu gave up the idea and only picked out two socks for him to wear with his leather shoes.
"No one will look at my socks." Luo Binhan made ineffective resistance, "They may not even know what kind of pants I am wearing."
"They just didn't mention it to you openly." Yu Qingshu asked with a sneer, "If you found that your boss's pants were unzipped, would you tell him in front of a bunch of people?"
This is a damning question. During the rest of the trip, Luo Binhan began to think about whether any employee had hinted at him with unusual eyes. And when they walked out onto the street, he had to restrain himself from looking at the zippers of other people's pants.
"At least I'm the boss." He comforted himself, "No one dares to laugh at me."
"Didn't you see how Liu Ling and I laughed at Stiegler?" Yu Qingshu pointedly revealed, "There is no employee who doesn't talk about the boss."
Luo Binhan looked at her sadly, wanting some more positive encouragement. Yu Qingshu just told him that sugar cane is not as sweet as both ends, and then gave him a few gooseberries from the bag. This action reminded Luo Binhan that he had been ill once in elementary school. When Yu Qingshu came to pick him up and take him to the hospital, he also took out a few colorful candies from the bag like this. But it wasn't actually sugar, it was some kind of drug. He couldn't remember how he knew it, maybe Zhou Yu said it. Zhou Yu seems to have understood a lot of medical knowledge that his peers did not understand since he was a child.
He mentioned this matter to Yu Qingshu and asked: "What is that medicine called?"
"Bago sugar, used to deworm. You had roundworms in your stomach at that time."
"I want to buy some more to try." Luo Binhan murmured. He himself didn't know why he had this idea. And just as he thought, Yu Qingshu scolded him gently: "If you're not sick, take any medicine!"
"But it seems to taste good. Are there no candies without the drug ingredients?"
"It's just the most common powdered sugar." Yu Qingshu said, "At that time, there were few varieties of candies on the market, and I was afraid that you would get tooth decay if you ate too many sweets. Who still eats this now? If you want to eat sweets, wait a minute. Let’s go buy some ice cream.”
"That makes sense." Luo Binhan said, pouring a few gooseberries from his palm into his mouth. He imagined and recalled himself in elementary school, following Yu Qingshu and happily stuffing the deworming medicine wrapped in sugar into his mouth. However, the sweetness had dissipated over time, and all that lingered in his mouth was the sour aftertaste of gooseberries.
