Chapter 846 - Hatred Of Two (Part 2) (2/2)
Seconds later, a man in servant uniform from the Divine Palace walked to the shop. He asked the old man, “Is this really a one-thousand-year-old shop?”
Ning Que didn't care much when seeing the ordinary carriage outside the shop. Only the two girls in white reminded him of his little dark skinned maid.
The old man squinted and said, “It was my grandpa's grandpa's grandpa's…”
Ning Que stopped the pedigree reciting, and he said, “I'll have three.”
The old man said, “My sweet potatoes are bigger than usual, three would be too much for one person.”
Ning Que said three subconsciously. One for the Headmaster, one for himself, and one for Sangsang. He didn't realize it until he heard what the old man said, then he replied, “Give me two then.”
The old man picked up the sweet potatoes with his bare hands, and handed them to him. Then, he accepted the copper, and immediately resumed his drinking.
The Headmaster once noted that potatoes should be eaten when it was hot in summer, like eating ice in winter so as to find the extreme in the extreme, and to feel the stimulation out of the stimulus.
Ning Que wasn't a purely filial student, and he had forgotten many of the Headmaster's words, but he had never forgotten a single word the Headmaster said about food. Therefore, he insisted that the t.i.tle “the greatest gourmet in the world” suited the Headmaster better than “the greatest man in the world”.
He held the sweet potatoes and sat on the threshold. He pinched and slightly tore the potato skin with his fingers, then the yellow and soft flesh was revealed, steamy and sweet. The sweet fragrance spread all around him.
He ignored the heat and started on the flesh. The flesh was so hot that he couldn't help sticking out his tongue at times.
Sangsang looked at the man eating potatoes on the threshold through the curtain. She was still expressionless and cold, too cold to notice that she had crumbled the sweet potatoes in her hand.
She frowned in disgust, and lifted her hands to take a bite of the steamy potato. She kept eating, and she didn't feel any of the heat.
The small town was so sultry but so quiet in midsummer. Cicadas were chirping on the trees behind the yard, celebrating their reunion after the half-an-hour separation during the afternoon nap.
He was eating sweet potatoes on the threshold.
She was eating sweet potatoes in the carriage.
With the thin curtain in between.
The sweet potato shop was quiet. After a few cups of wine and some peanuts, the old man was tipsy and he started humming, with his dusty fingers. .h.i.tting the bucket as the beat.
Ning Que sat on the threshold and listened to the humming. As simple as the melody was, it was touching, especially the meaningful lyrics. Ning Que was gradually absorbed.
“With the chopper in hand I move forward, in fear of awakening the mountain ghost. Rain pattered on the banana leaves, washed down the cicada slough falling on the shoes. On the vines high into the clouds, monkeys are mocking. The long unused pottery mould under the rotten leaves were covered with dirt. The swan landed in the winter land, their prints were the burden of the snow. On the sky, the past dispersed like smoke and clouds.”
Ning Que was holding the sweet potatoes, saying, “That's interesting.”
The old man turned prouder after he heard the praise. The humming grew louder, but the key turned peaceful all of a sudden, as if people in the countryside were talking.
“Chop firewood as the fence, three peach trees planted inside. Harvest crops for rice, then making two jars of light wine. Pick flowers for the color, painted the middle spot of the bride's eyebrows. In resounding firecrackers, crying of new babies pleased the old house. In the deer's calling, the maid picked up plums and warmed wine. n.o.body threw the wine cups away when recalling childhood lovers.”
Ning Que remembered last summer when he was in front of the shop, with the Headmaster and her beside him. Now he was all on his own. He couldn't help feeling sad.
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