Huang Jingping and her classmate had arranged to meet at a roundabout in the city centre under a high light. Feng Yiping drove her there first, then drove in a big circle before finding a parking space.
The centre of the city is always noisy. It's the weekend, and all the shops are trying especially hard to attract customers, so they all turn on their loudspeakers and shout. And as is usually the case, the first sentence has to be repeated twice, for example, 'Dear customers, dear customers, our shop...' or 'Great news, great news, our shop...',
but the concept of a pedestrian street had not yet become popular, and there were impatient cars honking in the middle of the road.
Amidst all this noise, Feng Yiping was attracted by a crisp knocking sound. It came from an old man wearing a straw hat and faded blue washed-out Mao suit, carrying a load on a pole. He walked slowly through the crowd, resting one hand on the pole and the other on an iron block. He knocked every few steps. On top of the load was a shallow sieve covered with transparent plastic, revealing the long white squares underneath.
The scientific name for this is probably maltose. When I was a child, the sound of the hammering on the iron block would be followed by a shout, 'Sugar for sale!' The children would all come to life, dragging their mothers along, and holding toothpaste tins, worn-out plastic basins, or the soles of their shoes, which they had prepared in advance, they would run towards the load.
The person selling sugar weighed the sugar and used the iron to knock off a piece of varying length from the long strip of sugar. It seemed to have been dipped in flour, leaving a white mark on the hand. The children couldn't wait to put it in their mouths , leaving white marks around the mouth and on the lips. When you bite down hard on a piece, the sugar sticks to your teeth, but it's already sweet enough to go straight to your heart, so sweet that it makes you close your eyes. Even though your eyes are closed, you can clearly feel that the world is full of colour.
If I had been able to express myself fully at that time, I would have probably said, 'The moment the candy entered my mouth, I suddenly felt that the world was beautiful and life was happy.'
But toothpaste tubes, worn-out rubber soles and broken plastic basins are not always available, so sometimes I could only stand by and watch other children enjoy themselves. As a result, there were many spoiled brats who, in order to eat candy more often, squeezed out the toothpaste before they had used it all, or broke the basins. The most extreme case was when they used scissors to cut up their parents' still- wearable liberation shoes. But such things could not be hidden from the mother, who knew every stitch in the family, so most of the time the result was that they didn't get to eat the candy, they got a good spanking on the bottom, and they got a reputation for being "good eaters".
In fact, you can also trade wheat for it, but in the countryside when they were young, food and other things were equivalent to hard currency and were the most valuable things in every farmhouse. The elderly people said that wasting food would be punished by lightning, so the children didn't dare to open their mouths lightly.
At this time, looking at the old man trading sugar, he still looked similar to the sugar traders when he was a child, with the same attire, the same burden, and the same tools. Feng Yiping wondered if the old man had walked on the mountain path ten years ago, and then suddenly appeared in the bustling city street.
'Uncle,' Feng Yiping hurried up and said, 'Give me two taels, no, half a catty.'
'Okay,' the old man said, and set down his load on the roadside. He gave him half a catty, and carefully chopped it into smaller pieces, which he put into a plastic bag and handed over. Feng Yiping thought to himself that when he was a child, plastic bags were not yet commonplace, so if he had collected some at the time, he could have exchanged them for some candy.
He took a piece and threw it into his mouth. It was still sticky, but it was still that sweet, with the aroma of wheat, and it made him want to close his eyes and savor it again.
Although it was sweet, it was also a little greasy, but this greasy feeling was not the greasy chemical taste of the big cotton candy sold on the street later, which was unbearable once it entered the mouth. This greasy feeling was very natural.
He kept eating while reminiscing. When it was time to turn the plate, there were not two girls next to Huang Jingping, but three. Seeing him by the roadside, Huang Jingping brought the three of them over. 'What have you been doing? I was going to look for you!'
Feng Yiping proudly held up the bag in his hands, 'This, no one sells it back home, I just happened to come across it, come try it!'
The girls all shook their heads modestly, "Look at you," Huang Jingping took out a tissue from her bag and wiped his mouth for him, "like a little kid." Feng Yiping then casually put the bits and pieces in his pockets, wallet, keys, etc. into her bag, and then took the bag over.
'This is my classmate, Xiao Su, Xiao Qing, and Xiao Zhi.'
As she introduced them, Feng Yiping greeted each one, and when he got to the last one, he paused slightly. This little anomaly had obviously been captured by the other party, and it was probably taken as another meaning. She smiled happily and greeted Feng Yiping, 'Hello!'
Feng Yiping was overcome with emotion. The world is really small. He knew this girl, and he even knew her name was Fang Yingzhi. Later, this girl would become a major obstacle in Xiao Zhijie's life. They loved and hated each other, and their love and hatred intertwined for a period of time. Vaguely, I heard that in the end, things between them were a bit unclear.
Yes, I remember, she was also studying at the city's Finance College, and then was recruited to the company more than a year after them. On the day she reported to the Finance Department, she was bumped into by Xiao Zhijie, who had just returned from a client. They fell in love at first sight, and after some inquiries, they found out that they were from the same hometown. They immediately launched a relentless and fierce attack. After a period of stability, Xiao Zhijie was preparing to buy a second-hand house.
The rest of the story is very cliche and stereotypical. The others in the company saw Fang Yingzhi and another man on the pedestrian street, arm in arm, walking hand in hand intimately into and out of the jewellery shop. Two days later, Xiao Zhijie, with a pale face, dragged Feng Yiping and Wang Changning out for a drink, saying that they had split up and Fang Yingzhi had admitted it. The man's father, who had a factory at home, had done what he should have done and what he shouldn't have done.
Xiao Zhijie's subsequent determination to make money may not be unrelated to this incident, so the first thing Feng Yiping saw when he met Fang Yingzhi was relief that Xiao Zhijie was not there.
Fang Yingzhi took Feng Yiping's initial shock as a sign of her stunning beauty, and was inevitably a little pleased with herself. She affectionately took Huang Jingping's hand and said, 'This is your husband? He's quite handsome!' Then she gave Feng Yiping a smiling glance.
Feng Yiping quickly took a step back. He couldn't handle a woman like this.
To be honest, Miss Fang is quite pretty. Otherwise, she wouldn't have charmed the monkey-like Xiao Zhijie. To describe her briefly, she has a bit of the charm of the beautiful woman Rosamund Kwan.
However, there are many pretty girls, and Feng Yiping consciously stays away from girls like her who treat their bodies like a gold mine or those big advertising light boxes next to major thoroughfares.
When girls go shopping together, the content is roughly the same. In the name of buying clothes, they form a group to flirt with the owners of the clothing stores one after the other. They try on several pieces and negotiate the price. Still, with a slight regret, they say, 'I still don't really like it. I'll look around some more and come back later.'
Of course, when they say "come back later," it means the same thing as "research" in an office, just a polite way of saying they'll be back.
Feng Yiping acted very awkwardly, speaking little and rarely. Maltose became his best prop, as if he had been eating it all afternoon. When Huang Jingping came across a piece of clothing she liked and asked for his opinion, he would always smile and shake his head or nod. Fang Yingzhi also asked a few times, and Feng Yiping always said, 'It looks good!' Although it was very perfunctory, his attitude was sincere, so no one could find fault with him.
They then moved on to Jinwu Xilu, where the girls, bags in hand, looked for somewhere to eat.
To be honest, Feng Yiping has been in the city for two or three years, and the number of times he has gone out to eat is counted on one hand. The main reason is that he was scared by the overwhelming amount of gutter oil that came later. In the past, to save trouble, most of the time he always made his signature dish 'Feng's Air, Land and Sea Fusion Stir-Fry', and the two of them, Huang Jingping, always ate at home. It seems that he has never had a proper meal alone outside, so when it comes to dinner, asking their opinions, there really isn't much to say.
In the end, the three girls discussed it and went to a fish restaurant by the river.
Then they walked together to Feng Yiping's car, and the three girls all looked at the domineering logo in front of them at the same time, and they all said, 'This car is pretty good!'
But they couldn't say specifically what was so good about it. Feng Yiping understood this situation very well. It was like when male fans saw Zhou Hui or Brother Chun, they would also say, "Wow, you're so beautiful!" If you took it seriously and asked a question, it would be awkward for both sides.
Fang Yingzhi, on the other hand, managed to blurt out, 'This car is so tall,' when she got in the car. This comment was quite fair.
The four girls were very lively, and they took out the clothes they bought to share in the car. Alas, the friendship between girls is so superficial and not deep.
This fish restaurant is located opposite Jiangxinzhou Park, and is therefore called Jiangxinzhou Fish Restaurant. It has the appearance of a farmhouse courtyard, but the interior is decorated like a hotel, with private rooms. They arrived early and managed to grab a private room by the river.
The view from the private room was very good, with the mighty Yangtze not far away. To be honest, the water in the Yangtze here looks very murky and not as beautiful as imagined, but this is the mother river, so what's not to like?
Besides, being right by the river, eating river fish has a special kind of charm.
The main course was two fish weighing more than two catties each, which were prepared in three different ways, and then I ordered two catties of fish balls on the side. It was complemented by a variety of vegetables, and I must say, it was really quite good.
To be fair, Fang Yingzhi's overall quality is really good. Although Feng Yiping wasn't very cooperative today, she was really good at regulating the atmosphere during the meal.
No wonder the boss charges 50 yuan for the private room. The scenery here really comes to life at night. The river flows with a rushing sound, but you can't see its murky appearance, giving you room to imagine and embellish. The sound of the riverboat's whistle also makes you feel less annoyed. Not far away, the lights on Jiangxinzhou have been turned on, and they have a different kind of charm than they did during the day.
When they returned to the city, Xiaoqing still felt like singing, and Huang Jingping sensed that Feng Yiping was not in the mood, so she said she was a little tired and they could do it another time.
When they were alone in the car, she asked Feng Yiping, 'What's wrong? Are you not happy to be with us?'
'No, I had a great time today, I just thought of something afterwards.'