Gu Mang frowned and observed the tablet several moments.
The handwriting was neat, the wood was meticulous, and the arrangement was reasonable.
Everything was normal. But he just felt uncomfortable, and the more he looked, the more uncomfortable he was.
He didn't miss it when he looked at it a fifth time. Gu Mang suddenly had a flash of lightning and fire in his head, and his heart thumped! He knew what was wrong with the tablet!
It was dust.
This finely carved card was covered with a thin layer of ash. It looked as if someone hadn't taken care of it for many days.
Normal people would pray to the memorial tablet and brush it all the time…
Gu Mang stared blankly, and at this moment, the movement of the bamboo curtain was suddenly coming from the door. A light and gentle voice with a smile sounded behind him, "What are you looking at?"
Gu Mang was in a cold sweat behind him. He looked back suddenly. He had a strong sense of fear in his heart. He was very flustered. He raised his hand and said, "I… I'll take the nine color thread."
Jiang Yexue sat at the door and didn't come in. He looked at him with a smile against the light. "Is the nine color thread so hard to find? I didn't put it in a good place?"
At this time, Gu Mang slowed down a bit. In fact, what he found was not something remarkable, but something strange. He didn't know why he suddenly felt so creepy. Maybe because Jiang Yexue suddenly spoke behind him and scared him.
Gu Mang said, "It's not that… I just saw my sister-in-law's memorial tablet and… thought of praying... "
Jiang Yexue's spring river eyes gazed at him for a while, then gently said, "Thank you very much. If you have this heart, then the spirit of Jin'er in heaven can know it and will be very happy."
Gu Mang licked his lips and didn't speak.
From Jiang Yexue's appellation, he could hear his intimacy to his dead wife, which was no surprise. Jiang Yexue was famous for being a man who was soft outside but hard inside, and always loved to recognize the truth of death. At that time, he insisted on marrying Qin Mujin. Later, Miss Qin had been gone for many years, and Jiang Yexue didn't mean to renew the string any more. He thought that he had identified the person of his lifetime.
It was just such a deep feeling, with the tablet collecting dust, that he just found it was…. really weird
He thought maybe Jiang Yexue was too busy recently, so he was careless.
"Xiao Lan'er has wrapped up a zongzi outside. She's waiting for your silk thread. If you want to talk with Jin'er about the past, she will be in a hurry." Jiang Yexue raised his hand to lift the bamboo curtain and said with a smile, "Come out." "... Ok."
As soon as the reed leaves and glutinous rice were ready, they showed what it is called "a hero who can't defeat a corn." Xiao Lan'er liked to help her father in his daily life. She was smart and handy, and the fastest. Jiang Yexue and Gu Mang were two people. One was a craftsman. The other as a child used to be a slave in Wangshu mansion. Although their zongzi was no better than Xiao Lan's, they could make do with it.
Yue Chenqing was more funny. He was greedy and has a small pillow zongzi in the shape of four corners. He had stuffed eight fillings into it, namely, white fruit, fresh meat, ham, chestnut, egg yolk, kidney beans, chicken, and peanuts, and stuffed it to the brim. Jiang Yexue smiled at the sight and said, "It will surely disperse."
"No! This is called Babao zongzi, which is made by Yue mansion every year."
"Babao zongzi can only be wrapped by a cook," Jiang Yexue persuaded patiently. "It's the best to pack a white glutinous rice sweet dumpling when you are at school."
"I'll try. No one knows."
As a result, the rice dumplings were tied four or five times. Either the leaves were broken, or the meat was lost. At last, the rice dumplings were split at all four corners.
"Yue Dage was too greedy to cook it," said Xiao Lan'er while crunching hers. All of them laughed. Yue Chenqing was carrying his pillow zongzi, and touched his nose with embarrassment.
When the water boiled, the first batch of zongzi were put into the pot to boil. Zongzi should be cooked at a certain temperature. It cannot be stewed with fire, but simmered with a gentle fire.
During the waiting period, they wrapped the remaining rice and leaves into a variety of zongzi. In addition to pillow zongzi, they also wrapped Niujiao zongzi and Meimei zongzi. They even made some of the most traditional bamboo dumplings. But it was a tedious job. Yue Chenqing was a little bored with it.
He couldn't help but stretch out his head to see. "When will those in the pot be cooked?"
Jiang Yexue said with a smile, "It's still early. You can't sit down?"
"... Not yet. "
"Make a dumpling, and then take it back to my brother-in-law for a taste."
Yue Chenqing was very excited at first. His eyes were bright. But after a while, he let out his anger again. "My fourth uncle and my father are quarreling. Recently, he saw no one willing to take care of him. Forget it."
"Another fight?" Jiang Yexue murmured with a sigh, "This temper of his..."
Shaking his head, he did not go on.
The rest of the dumplings were wrapped quickly, and there were more than they could eat. Jiang Yexue said, "It's better for you to share it with the neighbors. There are many orphans and elders here. Most of their children have died in the years of war with Liaoguo. The elderly are not in good health. They won't take care of themselves during the Spring Festival. Since we have made so much, let them taste some too."
Yue Chenqing said, "Dage, you are very kind."
Xiao Lan'er said timidly and softly, "Sir, I want to go too. Can I go with Yue Dage?"
Jiang Yexue then took two bamboo baskets and put a clean cloth inside. He was very careful and chose small dumplings with plain stuffing, which was easier for the elderly to eat.
"These were just made by Xiao Lan'er and filled with honey beans and white glutinous rice. These were just made by me." Jiang Yexue carefully placed the zongzi, while selecting them. His white and long fingers stopped for a moment in front of a bunch of miserable zongzi, and finally moved away. He coughed a few times in embarrassment.
"Chenqing, yours… and Xihe Jun's are very good, just a little… They're not very suitable for sending to people. I won't let them go."
Yue Chenqing: "..."
Mo Xi: "..."
And then he looked down to picked a few more and saw Gu Mang's zongzi. Just when he put some in the basket, Gu Mang took them out.
"Don't put mine in either," Gu Mang said with a smile. "Let's eat them by ourselves, and don't make a fool of me."
Jiang Yexue was stunned. Gu Mang wrapped the dumplings tightly and beautifully. How could he say that he would be made a fool?
He didn't understand, but Mo Xi immediately responded - Gu Mang was ashamed and worried that some of those who lost their flesh and blood that had been killed by him.
No matter for what reason, Gu Mang has always felt uneasy about the blood he had touched.
Mo Xi was silent for a moment. He long legs took a step and walked to Jiang Yexue's side. He took the bamboo basket from his hand. "Gu Mang and I will also go for a trip to send a lot of zongzi."
He left and pulled Gu Mang's wrist as he said, "Let's go."
Gu Mang: "Yey? Wait - wait!"
Where would Mo Xi listen to him? This man was strong, stubborn, and like a gourd with a sawed mouth. Gu Mang was dragged by him, so he had to pull out a silver mask from his spatial bag and put it on his face before going out.
"What do you have to take me for?"
Mo Xi: "..."
The area where Jiang Yexue's courtyard was located was mostly some old houses and narrow streets, with twists and turns and deep lanes. He placed the zongzi in the spatial bag, and then dragged Gu Mang out of several streets. No matter what Gu Mang said along the way, he did not let go and said nothing.
When he was far away from Jiang's house, and there was no one in the deep lane, he released Gu Mang. Before Gu Mang moved, he propped up his arm on the blue brick wall of the narrow lane and looked down at each him.
"I'll tell you again."
Gu Mang blue eyes turned uneasily. "Tell me what."
"Chonghua will have such people, not because of you, but because of Liaoguo. You wrote all the letters you could report and the killings you could avoid over the years," Mo Xi said, grabbing Gu Mang's hand. He felt that Gu Mang's fingertips moved gently in his palm, so he held them more closely, and their ten fingers connected.
"Don't feel like you're covered blood, will you?"
He spoke, holding Gu Mang's hand and kissing him gently on the back of his hand. Gu Mang's back stretched taut little by little from his long eyelashes.
Gu Mang licked his lips. He seemed to want to say something, but he didn't know how to say it. He just said, "But I --"
"Not you."
"But -"
"No, but."
"I -"
Mo Xi finally sighed and covered his mouth. Mo Xi looked down at his eyes with both heartache and helplessness, as well as the sadness he thought he was hiding.
"You are the best," he murmured, "all the time."
Gu Mang's blue eyes blinked, then shook his head.
"..." Mo Xi raised his other hand and pressed it on the top of his hair, forcing him to nod.
Gu Mang felt angry and funny, but some green and sour juice flowed from his old heart, and it scattered along the blood stream of his body. Then he licked the Mo Xi's palm.
Mo Xi was caught off guard. Instinctively, he let go of his hand, and turned away from Gu Mang. Instead, he jumped up and pressed Mo Xi on the wall. But Mo Xi was too tall for him. When Mo Xi propped his arm on the wall and pressed him, his momentum and posture were correct. But once he turned around, Gu Mang looked up at him slightly, and his height was weaker.
In this way, it was not like repression, but rather…
Acting like a spoiled child.
Gu Mang's mouth twitched because of his terrible association, but when he looked at Mo Xi, his face didn't change color and his heart didn't jump. He looked at his eyes and seemed to be silently asking him "What are you going to do?" Looking like this, he could not help but be extremely frustrated. He felt it was impossible to clean up. So he jumped up and hit him with a covered iron head.
He was extremely frustrated and felt that he couldn't do without cleaning up. So he abruptly jumped up and hit his iron head.
A muffled "dong" sound
Gu Mang said complacently, "How about that? Does it hurt?"
Mo Xi: "..."
"The pain is right. Your Gu Mang gege will teach you today who is older brother and who is younger brother."
In response to him, Mo Xi put his hands on him and brought him to his arms. Then he took off the mask and pushed the silver covering to the side with his other big hand.
The face behind the mask was once soft and bright, but now it was pretty and pale. It had long and gentle eyes, a smooth jaw, a fine curved bridge of the nose, and sweet red lips like berries. There were blue eyes deeper than rivers, lakes, and seas under the long soft eyelashes.
Mo Xi's thumb covered like a thin cocoon and gently rubbed on Gu Mang's lip.
He looked up from his lips, then bathed in the two pools of deep blue.
"En. I've been taught."
"..."
"Please teach me more, Shixiong."
He said, bent over and kissed——
But at this time, he heard a whirling noise around the corner. How sharp was Mo Ji. He immediately raised his hand and lowered Gu Mang's cover. The man who stood in his arms snapped, "Who!?"
A little cultivator dressed as a northern army moved out of the corner tremblingly. He was obviously just buying vegetables and going home. He had a basket of watery green vegetables and radishes and a bundle of cattail leaves in his arms. At this time, his face was white with fright. He turned out shivering, and said in a trembling voice, "Behind, behind, behind, behind… Stepfather!"
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The author has something to say: Although Mu has come to the comment area recently to play, Wo Wo Wo! I wish I could have a good time. I've said it three hundred times. I want to say it three hundred and one more time: if only there were 48 hours in a day!!! Beat the chest!!!