Liuxiang

20 years time.

Seven thousand three hundred days.

17 two hundred hours.

When we met again, the three-year-old had grown to be 23 years old, and he himself entered middle age from youth.

Dong En blinked slowly.

Thousands of threads were twisted into a mess in her heart, and she couldn't untie them.

It was like this 20 years ago, and it will still be like this 20 years later.

She looked hesitantly at the child a few steps away.

From head to toe, from eyebrows to body shape.The thing that has been imagined in the deepest part of my heart finally broke out of the cocoon. It is no longer a virtual image that only exists in the bottom of my heart, but has become a living existence standing in front of my eyes.

He is better than expected.

Much better.

Her father, his grandfather, has taken good care of the child for so many years.

As it should be.

Baitang was originally her father's chosen successor.

Then they left.

From waiting to leaving.

Dong En could see clearly.

But the legs seemed to be poured with lead water first, and then entangled by invisible vines.

When she left due to resentment, she left quickly; but when she was about to come back, it seemed that it was not enough to press all the courage built up by so many years of hard work.

Until this time, watching the closest distance in the past 20 years being pulled away step by step, and then pulled away step by step, the longing that had been deeply buried suddenly revived.

She thought she had given up everything in the past.

Including husband, father, son.

Until now.

Until they actually meet again.

Yi Baitang and Shang Huaiyan got into the car together.

The atmosphere in the carriage was silent.

Shang Huaiyan drove the car, while waiting for the red light, he picked up his mobile phone and pressed it for a while, and quickly found today's flight information.

He looked at it for a while, then said to Yi Baitang: "Auntie Dong's lateness was not intentional."

Yi Baitang raised his eyes.

Shang Huaiyan lightly touched the screen of the mobile phone, pointed to Yi Baitang to read a line of information, then turned his eyes to the front and focused on driving: "The plane from her to Beijing today was delayed by several hours, Just landed an hour ago. It's a good time to come here from the airport."

Yi Baitang: "I thought you didn't like me seeing my mother very much."

Shang Huaiyan laughed: "How come? That's your mother. But..." He shrugged, "I do have a subtle feeling that you are going to be snatched away. You have discovered this little bit of jealousy."

Yi Baitang: "You don't understand." His face was full of displeasure, "I am not happy that my mother is late. She has been late for 20 years, and there is no problem if she is two hours late; what I am not happy about is that 20 years She couldn't say a word before, and she still can't say a word 20 years later."

Shang Huaiyan translated: "So you are not happy that your mother treats you badly, but you are unhappy that your mother treats you badly?"

Yi Baitang's displeased eyes turned to Shang Huaiyan, and he emphasized: "I'm not happy that she still can't take responsibility for her actions!"

Shang Huaiyan smiled and said, "Okay, okay——"

Yi Baitang continued to look at Shang Huaiyan with displeasure, and after a while, he suddenly turned his eyes to look forward: "Huaiyan."

Shang Huaiyan shook: "You...you are so serious, what do you want to say?"

Yi Baitang remained expressionless: "I'm already 23."

Shang Huaiyan was melancholy: "Much younger than me."

Yi Baitang turned a deaf ear: "Neither of my parents appeared in my growing up. I actually don't care what their attitude is towards me, because it's hard for me to have a different attitude towards them."

Shang Huaiyan let out a "hmm".

There was a gap in the window.

The night wind was blowing softly, maybe it was because of this that Shang Huaiyan's low voice had a unique gentleness.

Yi Baitang exhaled a bit bored: "I just think they should have chosen a path they still like."

Shang Huaiyan smiled.

"But few of us know what it is that we really want—" he said.

After a moment of silence in the carriage, Yi Baitang's cell phone rang.

Yi Baitang answered the phone: "Hello?"

"Little brother." Brother Jiang's voice came from the other end of the phone.On the phone, Brother Jiang's voice was extremely serious, and he criticized at the very first moment of the call, "Little brother, you made a big mess!"

Yi Baitang said lazily, "What basket?"

Shang Huaiyan, who was driving, pricked up his ears.

Brother Jiang: "You cooked a dish today..."

Yi Baitang: "Then?"

Brother Jiang scolded: "At the end of this game, the whole venue is in chaos, isn't it?"

Shang Huaiyan, who was driving, suddenly remembered the scene of chaos.

Yi Baitang raised his voice: "Is this also my fault?!"

Brother Jiang coughed quickly, and lowered his voice to comfort him: "Of course I can't really blame you, it's because the contestants and judges at the competition site were too unsteady, but junior brother, you have to be considerate of my work. This kind of game scene is videotaped, and the top down to check the video, this kind of chaotic scene is not good-looking, but also makes people worry to a certain extent, doesn’t it?”

Yi Baitang: "Hmph."

Senior Brother Jiang had no choice but to cut a long story short, directly expressing the opinion of the main committee of the Chef King Contest: "So they sent me to call you, just to give you a breath, you are a person who will destroy the regular competition You don’t need to participate in the ordinary Chef King Competition, just participate in the additional round of the Chef King Competition—”

Yi Baitang: "Oh."

Brother Jiang: "Then it's settled?"

Yi Baitang said lazily, "I have a question."

Brother Jiang: "What's the problem?"

Yi Baitang: "The registration deadline for the play-offs is June, and I haven't settled the last gourmet yet. Youkeshu Restaurant is not yet eligible to directly participate in the play-offs."

Brother Jiang couldn't believe it: "Didn't you say this earlier?"

Yi Baitang lightly accused: "Originally, everything was under control. But you have deviated from the script."

Brother Jiang: "..."

Enough is enough, brat.

It's all right now, if you want to send him up by helicopter, you still can't go up.

This fucking is sitting on wax...

Brother Jiang hung up the phone worriedly.

As soon as he turned around, he received the gazes of the other eight chief judges of the main committee of the Chef King Competition at the round table.

He said helplessly: "He has no opinion on the direct promotion play-offs, but he is not qualified for direct promotion."

The rest: "..."

The old man with the good nose is here now.Based on the fact that he failed to suppress the scene and took the lead in disrupting the normal order of the game, he felt a little guilty and suggested: "According to the strength of this contestant, he does have the conditions to advance directly to the play-offs. Don't forget that when we formulated the competition The implicit condition of the rules. Anyway, there is only one recommendation from a gourmet, or we can draw a line in the middle?"

The judge sitting next to him said: "This is not good. We interfered too much, even if we have a clear conscience, if someone stabs it out later, we will be accused of having a lot of inside stories."

Brother Jiang also pondered: "I also think it's not very good. Our main judges have to be distinguished from the contestants. At most, we can only inform him that he is indeed qualified now, and we can't give him too much direct convenience." He tried his best to be objective and fair. "Besides, I told him the matter. Anyway, he has to find a way to solve the problem of the last food judge, and he will find... as soon as possible..."

Speaking of later, Brother Jiang was not sure either.

He has to admit that there is a small gap in three years and a big gap in five years. The generation gap between him and his junior is as deep as the Mariana Trench.

Brother Jiang with a guilty conscience moved the topic elsewhere: "Aside from Yi Baitang this time, are there any other contestants worth noting?"

The main judges: "There are a few more."

A few thin sheets of information were thrown in the middle of the table, and the white papers fluttered down like butterflies, scattered in all directions.

Several main judges began to cross-screen the materials in the round table. Among the nearly ten materials, those who were over 30 years old were eliminated first, and there was an inconspicuous one in the preliminaries and official competitions, which was then eliminated. Even if it was outstanding, it did not shine again. remove.

In the end, two documents were left behind.

One is a tall and beautiful girl of 25 years old, and the other is a white, tender and fat man who is also in his twenties.

These two documents were kept together with Yi Baitang's.

Two more judges who presided over their competition personally called them to propose direct promotion to the play-offs.

But after a short conversation, the two judges returned with strange expressions.

The girl in charge said first: "The girl said that she was not in a hurry to go to the play-offs. She thought the topic of our Chef King Competition this time was interesting, and she wanted to participate in two more competitions..."

The person in charge of the little fat man also said: "That fat man is also unwilling to participate in the play-offs. His reason is... you can try a hundred or so dishes in the normal competitions, but you can only taste two or three dishes at once if you participate in the play-offs. It's ready."

Everyone looked at each other.

Why the fuck is he a careless guy!

According to the normal trend, shouldn't we suggest that they are immediately moved and inexplicably feel that they are valued? !

"Then... do you want them to break the discipline of the game one by one?"

"I have an idea." Brother Jiang said suddenly.

"Say it quickly." The rest of the judges said quickly.

"Anyway, this group of people likes to disrupt the order of the game, so let's just extract their information and arrange them in the same competition venue, and artificially divide a special area for them to have a big fight."

"Great idea!" The rest of the judges praised this good idea, "Come on, let's put the seeds we picked earlier, and there are about thirteen or four people in total."

"But there are almost 100 people in each field in the second round. There are more than 80 people, how to choose..." A judge suddenly raised this question.

Everyone looked at each other again.

"The rest will be randomized by the machine as stipulated at the beginning." Brother Jiang who proposed this idea added.

"That's true," everyone laughed together, "After all, luck is also a very important strength..."

As for the ordinary contestants who were really unlucky and were drawn to that round...

That picture is so beautiful, I dare not think about it.

Not long after the meeting ended, Brother Jiang called Yi Baitang again, intending to tell the younger brother to quickly recommend the last gourmet item to the implementation, otherwise, if the competition for the king of chefs is over, he has not yet received the bonus The qualifications for the competition really laughed at Master's big teeth.

But this time, the phone didn't connect.

What is the other party doing?

Brother Jiang put away his phone in puzzlement, shook his head, and went home.

Yi Baitang was not doing anything.

He just left his cell phone on the second floor, heard the doorbell a second before the cell phone rang, and went to open the door.

The door opened, and Yuan Hui appeared in front of Yi Baitang.

The two looked at each other, and Yuan Hui became nervous: "Um... is Shang Huaiyan here?"

Yi Baitang: "He's taking a bath." He paused, looking like he didn't want Yuan Hui to come in, "Are you looking for him?"

Yuan Hui: "No, no, actually, I'm here to find you."

Yi Baitang: "Oh."

Yuan Hui: "Don't invite me in?"

Yi Baitang: "Speak."

Yuan Hui was helpless: "Well, if you don't go in, you don't go in. Actually, it's not a big deal. I remember the last time you were looking for recommendation qualifications for gourmets? Do you still lack qualifications?"

Yi Baitang raised his eyebrows.

Yuan Hui explained, but under Yi Baitang's expressionless gaze, his voice became smaller and smaller: "I just happen to know a person who is still qualified to recommend, do you want to try..."

Yi Baitang: "The gourmet is my mother, and she has the recommended spot?"

Yuan Hui was vague: "Well, that's about it..."

With a "bang", the door closed in front of his eyes.

Yuan Hui: "..."

Ten minutes later, the door opened again, and Shang Huaiyan, who was covered in steam, opened the door, and stood leaning against the door frame whether to smile or not: "Would you like to come in and have a seat?"

Yuan Hui sighed, "Sit, sit, sit."

When he entered the door, he couldn't help but ask, "How do you know I'm outside?"

Looking at Yi Baitang, it doesn't look like he would tell Shang Huaiyan on purpose!

Shang Huaiyan pressed his fingers on his slightly swollen, slightly sore lips: "Because my Baitang is unhappy again."

As soon as he stepped out of the bathroom door, he was dragged and kissed for a long time.

In fact, this kind of unhappiness, he doesn't mind coming a few more times.

Thinking about it, Shang Huaiyan raised his hand to catch the kerchief thrown by Yi Baitang on the sofa, and said to Yi Baitang and Yuan Hui: "Sit down, everyone have a patient chat."