Linfengchun

Kapitel 63

"Okay, inform Shanglin. I estimate she'll arrive the day after tomorrow, and I'll pick her up when she gets there."

"Okay. Don't worry, I'll take good care of you."

I put down the phone and exhaled silently.

Li Changsheng, Li Changsheng, you really are... (bitter smile) Audacious!

Shanglin and Xialin did not travel alone. Qiu Jianguo was busy, but someone from the food company happened to be in Shanghai on a business trip, so he asked them to take care of the two children, which at least comforted Zhang Hongwei—although she was so busy that she had long forgotten about the children's first trip away from home.

The food company's salesman's pager vibrated a few times. After reading it, he hesitated whether to wake Qiu Shanglin, who was fast asleep in the upper bunk.

She woke up with a start and leaned down to ask, "What's wrong?"

The other person handed her the pager, indicating that they wanted to look at it themselves.

In the dim light of the sleeper car, I saw a line of text: "Brother Hua has picked up Changsheng in Shanghai. Don't worry."

She felt the train carriage jolt, jolting her heart, which had been hanging in suspense, back to its original place.

Tears welled up in my eyes. Oh my god, I love trains, I love slow trains, I love old-fashioned green trains. After all these days of worry, I'm finally home today, and I can finally get a good night's sleep...

Li Changsheng felt that he and Qiu Shanglin had been separated for two hundred years, but the moment he saw her, it felt as if they had just met yesterday. He felt that his feelings were not reliable. If she hadn't come to twist his ear, Li Changsheng thought, if you had pounced on me in public and twisted my ear, I might have missed you more.

"You've got some skills, you've even managed to run away! You've come all the way from Shantou to Shanghai, all through swindling and cheating, haven't you? Tell me, did anyone steal anything from you on the street?" He grabbed his ear, ignoring the crowds in the hotel lobby and the receptionist's astonishment.

You made us worry for so long, and you think you can just dismiss us with a simple "You're here"?

He wanted to break free, but was afraid of hurting her by using too much force. While struggling, he impatiently tried to push away Qiu Xialin, the koala who mistook him for a palm tree: "Let me go."

Xia Lin hugged him, tears streaming down her face: "Brother, brother, I thought you'd been taken away by the kidnappers!"

"I'd rather be the one filming them!" Changsheng said irritably.

Xia Lin sobbed, her arms tightly wrapped around Chang Sheng's waist: "My sister said you might have been kidnapped by a theft ring, or you might have been sold to a mountain village to be a child husband."

She had been impatiently prying Lin's fingers off, but stopped when she heard this. She turned to look at Qiu Shanglin, who was pulling Changsheng's ear and sneering. Hearing her brother's complaints, she didn't know whether to sneer or appease him. She wanted to teach him a lesson, but she also felt that what she had said was indeed excessive. She was stuck in a stalemate, unable to laugh or not.

The three of them stared at each other like they were cross-eyed.

Hua Zi half-covered his face with his right hand, pretending not to know them ever since they started huddling together, and sat idly on the opposite sofa. Seeing the situation escalating, even in the early morning, guests kept checking out and having breakfast, the quiet lobby was filled only with the sounds of crying, cursing, and arguing in this corner. Realizing he could no longer pretend, he had no choice but to get up and come over to mediate:

"Let's talk in the room." He looked around nervously and nodded apologetically to the others.

Shanglin suddenly realized what was happening, quickly put her hand down, straightened her clothes, combed her hair with her fingers, put away her shrewish demeanor, and pretended to be a lady.

Qiu Xialin didn't care about anything else, he just held onto Li Changsheng and wouldn't let go, wiping his snot and tears on his clothes. Changsheng struggled with him for a long time but couldn't break free, so he could only pretend that he didn't exist, dragging his heavy steps all the way back to the room.

Hua had booked their rooms in advance, reserving two adjacent suites. One has to admire the quality of hotel staff these days; when the receptionist heard that only three people were staying in the two rooms, she kindly advised Hua to book a suite and squeeze in; or rather, one double room and one single room, which would save a lot of money.

Hua Ge just smiled and didn't say anything.

Should we let Qiu Shanglin squeeze in? I can't say for sure.

She was never one to settle for less. She didn't seek the best in terms of food, clothing, or lodging, but rather the finest. She called me from the platform to tell me to book two rooms. At that time, Li Changsheng's whereabouts were still unknown, and the rooms were only for her and Xia Lin.

At this time, Shanghai was already taking shape as a metropolis, but it was far from the prosperity it would later become. The Jing'an Hotel was considered a high-end hotel, but upon entering Shanglin, a damp smell wafted through the air. Hua Ge explained that it was currently the plum rain season in the south, with torrential rains for the past few days, which had only gradually subsided the day before yesterday. Today was the first time in over ten days that the sun had been seen.

Although she wasn't satisfied, the room was clean and well-equipped. After being on the train for seven or eight days, she felt sticky and dirty all over. She put down her luggage and went straight to the bathroom, lathered herself with soap four times, and soaked her skin in hot water until it wrinkled before feeling refreshed and going next door to have breakfast.

Changsheng and Xialin shared a room. Xialin was in a stable mood. After wiping away her tears and washing her face, she whispered to Li Changsheng about what she had eaten and drunk recently, what fun things she had done, what new decorations and items had been added to the house, how her sister had acquired several ancient books that she treasured and wouldn't allow anyone to touch, what the exam questions were, how her sister seemed to have done poorly, how the boy with the slicked-back hair had written to her sister again, how her sister had visited his house and what gifts she had brought back, how she was going to build a vegetable greenhouse, how she was going to take back the family's rented-out plot of land and hire people to use it as an experimental field, and so on. She was almost reporting how many times Qiu Shanglin had gone to the toilet in a day.

Changsheng held the large bag he had carried all the way from Guangzhou, stroking it intermittently, glancing at the door from time to time, and giving Xia Lin a perfunctory reply. It wasn't until Shang Lin entered that he perked up, looking at her with a hesitant expression.

She ordered room service, and breakfast was delivered to the room a while ago. It was slightly cold, so she tried it. It didn't taste the same as the one at home. Although it was a bit cold, she had been traveling a long way and hadn't been eating or sleeping well, so she was really craving it. Even seeing a fried egg made her feel a sense of familiarity.

While stuffing food into his mouth, he called out to the two of them, "Stop chatting, eat first."

There are still many things to do after dinner.

Perhaps it was because he was starving, and seeing a living creature with his own eyes, unlike on the train where he was anxious even though he had heard the news, fearing that it would disappear in the blink of an eye, this was a living, warm creature in his hand, that would cry out in pain and know how to resist. Shang Lin felt relieved and his appetite returned.

Changsheng was a bit dazed, clutching the bag tightly and refusing to let go, no matter how much Xia Lin begged him to show it. It wasn't until Shang Lin wolfed down his food and put down his chopsticks that Changsheng put down his chopsticks as well, handed it over, and said with a slight embarrassment, "Here, have some."

Shinohara snatched it away and struggled to open it next to her sister.

The nylon bag was wrapped with many layers of thick tape, and he tried to tear it off for a long time without success. He looked at Shanglin pitifully.

She chuckled and patted Lin's head: "Go get a pair of scissors."

Xia Lin dashed off in a flash, reminding him before she left, "Wait for me to come back so we can watch it together. Don't watch it by yourself!"

She weighed the bag in her hand, wondering, "What's in it?"

Changsheng kept his mouth tightly shut and bent down to pick up peanuts.

Nothing much. A head of cabbage, which is hard to find in the north, a durian from Guangzhou, and a few lychees. It's hot, so I don't know if the lychees have gone bad.

Qiu Shanglin once read a travelogue about foreign countries. The book mentioned durian. She showed pictures to Xia Lin and Changsheng and said that durian smells very bad, but it is said to taste delicious. She was full of longing in her words. Changsheng kept it in mind from then on. It smells bad, but tastes delicious - probably the same as stinky tofu.

He likes stinky tofu, and he probably likes durian too.

When I mentioned it once in Shantou, my mother also bought it for him, but Changsheng stubbornly refused to enjoy it alone.

I'm in cahoots with Shanglin and Xialin. We share the good times and the bad. If there's something delicious, of course we'll share it too. How could I eat it first?

So, before fleeing, he decided to buy a durian to take back to Zifang Town. Who knew Shantou was too small to sell them? Luckily, he found some in Guangzhou… He licked his lips; it must taste delicious…

The bag was wrapped tightly; it was almost completely torn apart before a purple ball rolled out. Xia Lin tried to grab it but missed, watching helplessly as it spun and rolled down Shang Lin's knees, all the way under the table. He was stunned: "What is this?"

It looks a bit like the cabbage we often eat at home, but cabbage is green, and I've never seen it this dark purple before.

Shang Lin laughed: "Purple cabbage?"

Changsheng shook his head, picked it up, and played with it in his palm: "People in Shantou call it cabbage."

"It's purple cabbage, also called purple cauliflower. It's in the same family as our turnip, just a different variety." She was quite certain that, thanks to the convenient transportation in her previous life, this was not uncommon.

Xia Lin snatched it, curiously pressed it, pinched a finger, smelled it, and opened his mouth to take a bite, but Shang Lin quickly stopped him: "Don't eat it raw."

Think about it and say, "Let the kitchen make it: stir-fried beef tenderloin with cabbage."

He rummaged through the bag again, his hand covered in sticky juice. He poured it out and saw it was from several lychees that had gone bad over time; the juice had seeped into the inner bag and was giving off a sour, rancid smell. Changsheng scratched the back of his head: "They really have gone bad."

Li Jiao had reminded him, but he couldn't bear to eat them all. He'd forgotten that it was June, and lychees only last three to five days in the refrigerator, especially in the sweltering heat of the south, especially after being jostled and bumped around. He was somewhat annoyed; he'd carefully protected them all the way, but they still couldn't be eaten. Although Shanghai also had lychees, would they taste the same as those in Guangzhou?

Shang Lin was somewhat touched. Even while fleeing, he hadn't forgotten to bring them southern food; his thoughtfulness was commendable.

When she finally saw the durian after going through tremendous effort, Shanglin forgot to be moved, forgot to be grateful, and forgot to be angry.

She was helpless.

Traveling all that way, all wrapped up tightly, just for this durian?

At least the durian hadn't gone bad. Li Changsheng said smugly, "See? I told you I'd brought you some good food, I wasn't lying!"

Xia Lin was an impatient person and couldn't wait to cut it open. He pinched his nose and said, "Ugh, it smells awful—brother, you've been tricked! It's a bad guy!"

Chang Sheng slapped him on the back of the head: "Nonsense, this is called durian. It smells bad, but it tastes delicious."

Xia Lin pouted, disagreeing: "I won't eat it. It's obviously spoiled. It would be a problem if I got diarrhea."

Changsheng tried to force it into his mouth, and Xia Lin dodged around.

Watching the two brothers playfully bickering, Shanglin suddenly felt that living like this for the rest of his life might not be so bad.

Hua Qianshan's ambition