The salty life in Life of Pi

Chapter 40 Eating and Drinking
"What are you talking about? We are not Qian Sanyi or Deng Xiaoqi. What I mean is that there is a shop that sells baked cakes. They are very delicious and fragrant. There are a group of people waiting for them before they are even out of the oven."

Wu Xianyu looked at Lin Miaomiao with a strange smile on his face, and tried hard to suppress the corners of his mouth to prevent himself from laughing.

Realizing that she had been tricked again, Lin Miaomiao wanted to poke Wu Xianyu with the wooden stick in her hand, but she held back and raised her fist and said viciously:
"I'll trust you this time. If it doesn't taste good, just wait for me."

Pulling Jiang Tianhao up, Wu Xianyu took the lead and walked towards the alley. As for Qian Sanyi and Deng Xiaoqi, there was no need to worry about them. They were just looking for a cover, so just don't disturb them.

Following the path he remembered, Wu Xianyu came to the door of a shop without a sign. There were already groups of people standing there. Judging from the way they were chatting, they were probably locals.

Seeing Wu Xianyu and his group, those people stopped talking, looked at them, and said something in Wu dialect. Wu Xianyu understood, probably because they had never seen those people before.

Lin Miaomiao stared at the big stove at the door. She could already smell the aroma of bread and sesame seeds. She couldn't help but ask the elderly lady behind the stove:

"Grandma, how long will it take to get it out of the pot?"

In the end, the old lady waved her hand and said nothing. Seeing this scene, the locals smiled evilly. Wu Xianyu turned to Lin Miaomiao and said
"You speak Wu dialect, the elderly can't understand Mandarin"

"Hey, wow, there's a lot of idiots."

Lin Miaomiao said it again in Wu dialect, and this time the old lady responded, but it was not very clear. Wu Xianyu told the confused Lin Miaomiao

"It means it's almost time. The pancakes are 1.5 yuan each. How many do you want to buy?"

"Hmm? Are you from Jiangzhou or am I from Jiangzhou? Why don't I understand?"

Lin Miaomiao looked at Wu Xianyu with disbelief. At this time, a local man nearby spoke up.
"What the young man said is pretty much correct, but I don't know how he knew it. We couldn't quite understand what the old woman said."

How did Wu Xianyu know this? It was because of his obsession with food. In his previous life, when he was in college, he passed by here and was attracted by the aroma. After eating two cakes, he would come here every time he went out. At first, it was the old lady who sold cakes, and later it was the old lady’s eldest daughter who came to sell. When chatting, he learned from the old lady’s daughter what the old lady meant.

But the old lady seemed to have not survived the epidemic. Later, the old lady’s daughter stopped selling cakes because many people said that her cakes were not as delicious as the old lady’s. Wu Xianyu was a little excited that he could still eat it this time. After he graduated in his previous life, he missed this cake countless times in the rental house. Sometimes he would even wonder if the old lady had put some contraband in it. But so many years have passed, and the fact that nothing happened has proved that there is no problem.

As the fragrance became stronger, more locals came over. Seeing that they were students, they all said that Wu Xianyu and his friends should come first. Lin Miaomiao directly ordered five pancakes, Wu Xianyu asked for two, and Jiang Tianhao seemed to be attracted by the fragrance and asked for two as well. The two people behind him each asked for one.

Lin Miaomiao and Wu Xianyu squatted on the other side and watched how the locals bought cakes. They saw that they would start with ten cakes.

The pancake is not big, about the size of a palm, covered with white sesame seeds, with a cavity in the middle, sometimes filled with sugar and sometimes with green onions.

After eating the cake, Wu Xianyu had an urge to cry. He hadn't eaten it for too long. After graduation, he realized how carefree he was in school. Those student unions and messy activities were all bullshit. Once you enter society, society will naturally teach you how to behave.

After finishing two pancakes, the old lady's stove was empty, and she began to slowly knead the dough and make the filling. It seemed like she would have to wait a while for the next batch.

Wu Xianyu underestimated his appetite this time. In the past, two pancakes were enough for him, but this time, after eating until he was 70% full, two pancakes were still not enough. He turned around to look at the pancake in Lin Miaomiao's hand, and happened to meet Lin Miaomiao's gaze. Her mouth was full, and her eyes were shining. She was looking at Wu Xianyu, as if she was very grateful.

But when she saw Wu Xianyu was staring at the cakes in her hand, she quickly swallowed the cake in her mouth, and then quickly took a bite of each cake to declare her sovereignty.

Looking at Lin Miaomiao's useless look, Wu Xianyu hesitated for a moment and still didn't grab it.

The local man squatted beside Wu Xianyu and handed him a piece of cake.

"Young man, have you been here before? And more than once, right? Many locals don't know about this place, and you know all the old woman's habits."

"To be precise, a friend of mine has been here before. He works at Soochow University. Every time he goes out, he has to take a detour here to buy two cakes before going to his destination."

"Ha, no wonder, actually the old woman sells cakes just for us. You can tell from the location that the old woman is not short of money, but we kids have been eating these cakes since we were young. Later, after the house was demolished, the old woman didn't want to sell them anymore, so we begged and pleaded with all our might to persuade her to come out. Now we come here to eat some when we have nothing to do."

The local man looked to be in his thirties or early forties. He had probably heard about Wu Xianyu’s friend’s story and shared his own.

Lin Miaomiao, who was standing by, heard this story and reached out her hand to shake hands with the man out of gratitude.

"Brother, thank you so much, it is because of you that we can eat such delicious cakes"

The eldest brother was amused by Lin Miaomiao

"Haha, the little girl's words are so funny. It seems that you are here to play. Come and eat some cakes if you have the chance. I wonder how long the old woman can last. Her children don't want to make cakes. She doesn't want to teach us if we go to learn. Sigh."

At the end, the eldest brother felt a little sad. He could now clearly feel that the cakes were getting less and less as he ate them. Wu Xianyu knew even more clearly when he would not be able to eat cakes. It wasn't long before the old lady stopped making cakes about 19 years ago as far as he could remember. Later, she was gone.

Sometimes, Wu Xianyu also wondered if there was another him in this world, and if one of them would disappear when they met. But he had no way to verify it, and he didn't take this idea to heart. Wu Xianyu clapped his hands, stood up, moved around, and said to the old lady:

"Let's go"

Without waiting for a response, he walked out of the alley.

Several people followed behind her. Lin Miaomiao looked back from time to time and finally asked Wu Xianyu

"Salted fish, let's make another pot."

"That's too much. We have to go somewhere else. We can't stay here forever."

Lin Miaomiao also knew this, but the fragrance of the cake was really unforgettable.

At this time, Jiang Tianhao on the side spoke up, and he seemed to be in a much better state.

"How about going to the Humble Administrator's Garden? I think it's quite close."

“I think I’d better not go.”

Wu Xianyu rejected this proposal and turned to look at Jiang Tianhao
"Guess why the school arranged the hotel nearby? It's because it's close to the Humble Administrator's Garden and the museum. I guess the school will take us around tomorrow. During our free time, I think we should go to places the school won't take us to."

"Then where did you say you were going?"

Lin Miaomiao tilted her head and looked at Wu Xianyu, Wu Xianyu squinted his eyes and curved his mouth.

"Take you students from the Wu dialect area to listen to the real Wu dialect"

Pingjiang Road.

Looking at the appointment card in her hand, Lin Miaomiao read the words on it:

"Pipa Language Pingtan Hall, performance time 3:30, is this good?"

“I personally think it sounds good.”

Wu Xianyu made no guarantees, after all, everyone has different preferences.

After getting the appointment card, Wu Xianyu went to the entrance while there were not many people around, wrote down his and Lin Miaomiao's names and handed them to the old man at the door.

Not long after, Lin Miaomiao liked the bookmark very much. On her bookmark, there were two "Miao" characters shaped like cat's paw prints, and the "Lin" character looked like two trees. There was no figure of a cat as a whole, but the presence of a cat was revealed everywhere.

Wu Xianyu's bookmark appears to be free and unrestrained, with fonts like white clouds and gentle breeze, which is very consistent with his personality.

Lin Miaomiao carefully put away the bookmark and looked at Wu Xianyu with a smile, "You are too familiar with this. It seems that your friend has told you a lot about Gusu."

"Yes, he went to college here for four years."

Without further explanation, Wu Xianyu put away his bookmark and waited for Jiang Tianhao to get his bookmark.

Not long after, Jiang Tianhao came over, but he had an unhappy expression on his face.

"What's wrong? Don't you like what I wrote?"

Wu Xianyu looked at the expression on his face and thought that he didn't like the bookmark written by the old man, but Jiang Tianhao shook his head.
"No, I just felt a little unhappy when I heard Qian Sanyi asked me to design a couple's pair for them. Why don't we just leave them here? I really don't want to see them anymore."

"Oh, this is the transition from sadness to anger. That's good, it's better than being depressed."

Seeing Jiang Tianhao say so much at once, Wu Xianyu guessed that Jiang Tianhao should have come out of those emotions.

"We can't just leave it here. If something goes wrong, we will also be held jointly responsible."

After taking a look, the two men happily followed, and Wu Xianyu led a few people to the next stop.

. . . . . .

Sitting in the cabin, hugging her knees with her hands, Lin Miaomiao looked at the people on the shore and felt very happy.
"This is the first time I've sat on a boat like this since I was a kid."

Wu Xianyu and Lin Miaomiao stood side by side, one leg bent and the other flat, with both hands on their bent knees, explaining.
“This place is actually very beautiful at night, especially when the lights come on, it feels like you’ve returned to ancient times.”

“Oh, I forgot to take a picture.”

When Wu Xianyu said they were good-looking, Lin Miaomiao suddenly remembered something and took out her phone to take a photo of the two of them. When she looked at the photo carefully, she saw Jiang Tianhao's resentful look behind them. Lin Miaomiao couldn't help laughing out loud.

"Hahaha, look at Haozi, he's like a nagging woman."

Wu Xianyu turned around and winked at Jiang Tianhao, which made Jiang Tianhao angry and scolded the two of them.

"Dogs and bitches"

"Ha, Miaomiao and I are man and woman, so what are you, a dog?"

Jiang Tianhao covered his face with a slap and regretted taking the same boat with them. How could he win the argument against them?

After taking a rowboat, we returned to Pingjiang Road just as the concert was about to begin.

Several people returned to the Pingtan Hall and the performance began soon. When Lin Miaomiao heard the voices coming from the stage, she shuddered all over and quickly relaxed, her face full of intoxication.
"Ah, this is what a woman is. Wang Shengnan can only be called a Yaksha."

Wu Xianyu, who was drinking tea, almost choked. How did this involve Wang Shengnan?

Jiang Tianhao, who was standing by, was also fascinated by the conversation, and even the sadness in his heart was swept away. After the conversation, he asked Deng Xiaoqi if she wanted to drink something, which made Qian Sanyi frown.

After leaving the theater, Wu Xianyu looked at the two people around him
"How is it, not bad, right?"

"It doesn't feel like a needle prick, it feels like I've taken a hot bath, my whole body feels numb. This is the first time I've heard such soft Wu dialect."

Lin Miaomiao was obviously very satisfied with the theater, and no one knew what she had been through over the years.

The weather was pretty good now, and Wu Xianyu had originally wanted to take a few people to Big Pants, but after searching on his phone, it seemed that it had not officially opened yet, so he had to give up.

Wu Xianyu thought the school would definitely arrange for other places, so he didn't take everyone there. After thinking about it, he asked everyone.
"Why not go to Shantang Street? It has a similar style to Pingjiang Road, and the fun is similar."

Qian Sanyi and Deng Xiaoqi were the first to express that they didn't want to go, and Jiang Tianhao didn't know what he was thinking, so he didn't go either.

Finally, Wu Xianyu looked at Lin Miaomiao, feeling somewhat helpless.

"Why don't you go back? There's no rush to eat the pig's trotters today."

"No, I have to eat it today. I've been craving it for a long time."

Lin Miaomiao insisted on going, so Wu Xianyu looked at the other three people.

"Then go back, you can find the way."

"Yes, you are not children anymore, go and play."

Jiang Tianhao put his hands in his trouser pockets, turned around and walked away coolly. Qian Sanyi and Deng Xiaoqi followed him towards the hotel.

"Then let's go and take the subway. We'll probably be there in time for the lights to turn on."

"I listen to you"

Obviously, after a day of sightseeing, Lin Miaomiao had already gained confidence in Wu Xianyu's ability as a tour guide.

Along the way, although there were no other people around, the two were still very restrained, just like ordinary classmates, but both of them smiled a lot more often.

Finally arriving at the store mentioned before, Wu Xianyu looked up at the sign, a little unsure if it was this one. He didn't seem to remember it being this name.

But Lin Miaomiao couldn't wait to walk in. Since today was a weekday, there were not many people in the store. As soon as the two of them entered, someone came to greet them.

"What would you like to eat? Try our signature roasted pig's trotters."

"Okay, two servings first, just for the pig's trotters."

Lin Miaomiao waved her hand and ordered two servings of pig's trotters. Wu Xianyu also suppressed his uncertainty. When the pig's trotters were served, he took a bite and found that they were even more delicious than he remembered.

The two of them finished eating a portion of pig's trotters one after the other, looked at each other, and said in unison:
"Boss, another serving please"

"Boss, another serving please"

"Okay, haha, can't you just shout by yourself?"

The boss was very happy that his cooking skills were recognized, and he roasted pig's trotters for the two of them with a smile.

Walking on Shantang Street at night, Lin Miaomiao looked at the Jiangnan water town, which was different from the steel city. She felt that it was worth it. She took a sip of the caramel macchiato in her hand, and her facial features wrinkled up immediately. She looked at the coffee in her hand.
"This is what Starbucks sells, and it doesn't taste good, so why is it so famous?"

"Because it's from abroad, it will become popular if more people follow the trend."

Wu Xianyu had the foresight to order no coffee but a cup of iced lemon tea instead.

Lin Miaomiao looked at the thing in Wu Xianyu's hand that was different from his own and licked her lips.

(End of this chapter)