Wen Zhan opened his eyes dazedly, unable to react.
He didn't know why, but he had gradually gotten used to sleeping recently. Those days when he never slept were gone, and the countless days and nights when he stared into the darkness with his eyes open seemed like just a dream.
He sat up from the bed. Lu Yunchu didn't know when he got up. The bedside was empty.
Wen Zhan lazily supported his upper body with his arms, relaxed, shook off the sleepiness and prepared to get up.
As soon as I lifted the quilt, Lu Yunchu ran in holding a large bowl.
He subconsciously turned his head to look out the window, wondering if he had slept too long, otherwise why did he have to eat breakfast so early today.
Lu Yunchu was a little disappointed when he saw that he was already awake. He had originally wanted to say "Happy Birthday" to him while pushing him awake, which would have been very ceremonial.
He put the bowl on the table and walked to the bed, looking very excited.
Lu Yunchu seemed particularly happy today. Wen Zhan was puzzled for a moment, then suddenly remembered that today was the Lantern Festival.
Someone who loves the Chinese New Year so much must also like the Lantern Festival.
He turned over and got out of bed. Before he had time to put on his coat, he picked up the paper and pen on the bedside table, wrote a word on it, and handed it to Lu Yunchu.
When Lu Yun first saw him like this, he thought he had something important and urgent to tell him. He looked down and found a line of elegant handwriting on the paper:
—Happy Lantern Festival.
I was stunned for a moment, not knowing whether to laugh or cry for a long time. What was going on
Wen Zhan saw that he looked strange and thought that he was being too clever. He remembered that he had said "Happy New Year" during the New Year, so he thought that he should not say such a sentence during the Lantern Festival. It turned out that he had done something wrong.
He shrank back into his notebook in embarrassment, not knowing what to do.
Lu Yunchu grabbed his wrist and pressed the first three words on the notebook: "Not Happy Lantern Festival."
Sure enough, he said it wrong. Wen Zhan looked down helplessly, but he heard her continue, "It's happy birthday."
… Happy birthday
He looked up in surprise, and his first reaction was to think that today was Lu Yunchu's birthday.
Lu Yunchu pulled him by the wrist and brought him to the table. He pointed at the longevity noodles on the table and said to him, "Happy birthday! Go wash up and come over to eat longevity noodles."
It was not until this moment that he realized that today was his birthday.
He could not describe the feeling at the moment, as if something in his control had knocked him weak for no reason, and his heart suddenly felt sore, so sour that it felt soft and seemed to melt into the soft clouds.
The large bowl on the table was filled with white noodles with a fried egg on top, the color was very plain. On the noodles were four crooked words with missing arms and legs, vaguely recognizable as "Happy Birthday".
Lu Yunchu smiled sheepishly: "I can't find any other vegetables with good colors and easy to carve, so I can only use rouge radish."
Wen Zhan felt a pain in his chest. He turned his head away, not daring to look at her for a moment.
Seeing him standing there motionless, Lu Yunchu urged him, "Hurry up and put on some clothes, or you'll be cold."
Wen Zhan nodded randomly, left in a hurry, and dressed and washed much faster than usual.
After cleaning up, he sat back at the table, feeling a little nervous for some reason.
Lu Yunchu sat down opposite him and said, "There's only one longevity noodle, try not to break it before eating." He added, "The taste may not be very good, so I kneaded it coarsely to prevent the noodles from breaking."
Wen Zhan was not staring at the food with sparkling eyes like before. Today, he was particularly silent. Although the word "silent" was not quite appropriate to describe him, after all, he had always been silent, but Lu Yunchu could feel that his mood did not seem to be as light-hearted and cheerful as before, but something heavy was in his heart.
He picked up his chopsticks and started eating noodles.
In order to match the longevity noodles, Lu Yunchu specially chose a large bowl, so when he buried his head, his entire face was almost covered by the edge of the bowl.
He ate very slowly, taking bites at a time, chewing slowly, without looking up at me. He ate so carefully that I felt a little uneasy.
"Is it unpalatable?" Lu Yunchu whispered, "If it doesn't taste good, just eat it. It's just for good luck."
Hearing this, Wen Zhan quickly shook his head, but still buried his head tightly, not daring to let others see his expression.
Although Wen Zhan behaved a little strangely, Lu Yunchu was still relieved.
sat down opposite Wen Zhan and tilted his head to look at him.
The noodle soup is made from crucian carp soup, with green chopped green onions floating on the milky white soup. Although the color is plain, the taste is not bland at all. The noodles are kneaded tightly enough so that they will not get stuck in the soup. When you pick them up, they can wrap up the rich soup. Every bite is pure and fresh. A little pepper is sprinkled on the noodle soup, and the freshness brings a unique warmth. After a mouthful of the noodle soup, the whole body is filled with a soothing warmth.
This bowl of noodles may seem simple, but Lu Yunchu has put a lot of thought into it. Because he was afraid that the noodles would be too thick and tasteless, Lu Yunchu specially added fish paste into the flour.
The fish meat is salted and slowly pounded into a soft and delicate minced meat, which is sticky and a little bit elastic and moist, just right for kneading with flour. The taste is more elastic and smooth than ordinary noodles. When you bite it, the sweet and tender fish flavor blooms on the tip of your tongue, but it is different from the taste of fish meat, which is very novel.
Wen Zhan buried his head in eating noodles, and he looked as if he was about to gnaw the edge of the bowl. It was a bit funny and particularly cute to look at.
After finishing his bowl of noodles and drinking the soup, he picked up the four Chinese characters for radish that were placed at the bottom of the bowl as decoration.
Lu Yunchu quickly stopped him: "Don't eat that, it tastes weird."
Wen Zhan didn't listen and swallowed the four words "Happy Birthday".
The rouge radish has a refreshing taste, tender and crispy flesh, with a slightly astringent spicy flavor. It does seem strange to eat it with fish soup, but Wen Zhan did not react too much. He carefully finished all the food in the bowl before finally putting down his chopsticks.
Lu Yunchu misunderstood and sighed, "Why are you so hungry?"
Wen Zhan smiled but didn't explain.
She patted her back and stood up: "There is still birthday cake. Although we should eat it at night, we are going out at night, so let's eat it in the morning." In the evening, the male and female protagonists will have a Lantern Festival party, and as the vicious female supporting role, she will naturally have a part. Since we can go out, let's take Wen Zhan with us to visit the Lantern Festival and have a good birthday.
A simple version of the cake was brought from the kitchen. The cake base was fried in a small pan, which was different from the modern cakes that add baking powder and are baked in the oven. The filling was thicker and lacked the fluffy texture of the cake, but relatively speaking, it tasted moister and had a stronger egg flavor.
In today's world where there is a dessert shop every 10 steps, this old-fashioned cake has long been eliminated. It would take another ten years before you could see a cart selling egg cakes at the corner of the alley on the way home from school. Compared to the soft milky fragrance produced by baking, the fragrance of the old-fashioned egg cake is less lingering and more warm, filling the street and lingering for a long time.
The lavender taro paste is smooth and fluffy, and is mashed finely. It is piled on the golden cake base like a taro paste cloud.
The birthday candles were very simple. The red candles were shaved short and carved with some patterns, and the ends were wrapped with egg rolls and inserted into the taro paste, which barely imitated the shape of birthday candles.
But Wen Zhan didn't know how luxurious a real birthday cake should be, he just felt it was extremely novel. He had never experienced a day like this before, he had been pleasantly surprised since he woke up early in the morning, as if all the light in the world shone into this room, this feeling of being surrounded and cared for was really too overwhelming.
He was afraid of making mistakes, but he also wanted to try the cake, so he raised his eyebrows to look at Lu Yunchu for instructions. When he raised his eyebrows, the corners of his eyes went up, making him look a little rounder.
Lu Yunchu chuckled and said, "Close your eyes and make three wishes. After making your wishes, blow out the candles and your wishes will come true." He kept talking nonsense, "Today is your birthday. God will definitely bless you."
It is not so easy to make a wish come true, but Wen Zhan heard his words so confidently that he actually had the delusion that he might be blessed by God.
"Think quickly about what you want and make a wish. The candle is still dripping oil." Lu Yunchu urged.
Wen Zhan was stunned. Wish? He didn't seem to have any wish.
Lu Yunchu thought that he had not come around yet, so he reminded him, "Please state everything you want and everything you wish for. You can be a little greedy today."
The smile in Wen Zhan's eyes was gradually replaced by confusion. He frowned and thought hard.
He had never imagined what fate could give him, but it had come. Perhaps it was just a short stay, or perhaps it was a dream in his chaotic state, but it had definitely appeared, breaking the stagnant darkness that had lasted for a long time.
He shook his head and wrote in the book: I ask for nothing.
After writing it, he was worried that Lu Yunchu would be unhappy, so he specially added at the end: Why don’t you make a wish
Lu Yunchu was amused by him: "How can there be such a saying?" It seemed that he was really frightened by himself and was afraid of wasting the opportunity to ask God for a wish.
Offer suggestions: "Then make the simplest wish: health, happiness, and peace."
Wen Zhan nodded, closed his eyes, held his breath, and silently recited his wish in his heart.
He was afraid that he was too greedy, so he only wished that Lu Yunchu would be healthy and well.
After making the wish, he opened his eyes and, following Lu Yunchu's instructions, tentatively blew out the candle.
"Okay." Lu Yunchu quickly took down the melting candle and said, "Eat cake."
The cake was divided into two, and they each took half.
Each layer of egg cake is filled with thick taro paste. There is very little sugar in the taro paste, and adding milk makes it more delicate. With a light pinch, the smooth taro paste like mousse is squeezed out. A layer of moist and mellow egg cake, a layer of fragrant and simple taro paste, layered together, the subtle taste is infinitely magnified.
Wen Zhan really likes taro paste. He still wasn't satisfied after eating it and stared at the empty plate with a lingering feeling.
Lu Yunchu quickly said, "You ate a big bowl of noodles and cake this morning. You ate enough."
Wen Zhan nodded, retracted his gaze and smiled. When he smiled, his head was half lowered, the corners of his mouth were drawn inward, slightly curled, as if he was embarrassed and a little timid.
He really knows how to capture people's hearts. Who can resist a beautiful woman as cold as snow smiling at you with hidden timidity
Lu Yunchu felt that Wen Zhan had turned bad.
He pretended to be angry and said, "Don't laugh like that."
Wen Zhan stopped smiling and looked at him blankly.
His eyes were clear, without a trace of impurities. Lu Yunchu suddenly felt that he had wronged him and muttered, "Forget it, you're the birthday boy, it's okay to eat one more bite."
She tore off a piece of cake from her own pocket and handed it to him, a piece with a lot of taro paste.
Wen Zhan quickly took it.
Then, when he wasn't looking at her, she covered her lips with the cake and raised the corners of her mouth to smile.