"This talisman must be an important item!" Lin Yun said excitedly, "The Taoist priest's words just now sounded very reliable. He can read faces very accurately!"
"Yes." Zhou Kang narrowed his eyes and looked into the distance, "How come the person disappeared all of a sudden?"
Lin Yun also looked into the distance, his eyes jumping from the vegetable market to the road ahead, scanning the passers-by, but he couldn't find the old man who seemed to be everywhere.
If he wanted to stop the other party, he would only have a chance when he was talking to Tang Ning. However, when the ordinary old man suddenly became aggressive, Lin Yun, who was experiencing it all up close, had a blank mind and was stunned, unable to remember anything.
"Well, if this high-level NPC really wanted to hide, we couldn't find it no matter how hard we tried." Lin Yun said with emotion, "It was only because of Tang Ning's card that his charm value was high, and Su Anyun provided the time that we were able to encounter this NPC."
"That's not necessarily true." Zhou Kang calmly spoke to the fishmonger under Lin Yun's suspicious gaze: "Boss, do you know the old man who just bought fish?"
The boss, who had been sitting on the chair playing with his computer, said without even raising his head: "Oh, him, what's wrong?"
"Do you have his contact information?" Zhou Kang asked.
The boss seemed to have experienced this situation more than once. He said calmly, "This is another price."
Zhou Kang opened his wallet.
Lin Yun, who was watching the whole process, applauded Zhou Kang repeatedly, and said to Tang Ning, who was frozen in place, "Hurry up and put this talisman away—" Lin Yun's cheerful tone stopped when he saw Tang Ning's expression.
He saw that the pair of eyes that should have been clear were now filled with misty water, and in a trance it seemed as if tears would drip from those red eyes.
Xiu's fair skin was trembling slightly. Tang Ning grabbed the talisman and slowly turned his head to look at Lin Yun. The sigh-like words "let it go" seemed to echo in his ears.
lay down
How can I let go of this
A tear flowed from Tangning's eyes. Tangning whispered, "Let's go back. I want to cook fish."
"Tangning?" Lin Yun wanted to persuade Tangning with many words, but when he met her eyes, he could not say anything.
If he were to put himself in Tangning's shoes, he might also be struggling like Tangning.
If Tang Ning's family's breaking point was to use the talisman to harm Tang Ning's mother, then
Lin Yun glanced at the absent-minded Tang Ning again. The joy she had just felt from obtaining the mysterious NPC's contact information disappeared without a trace when she saw Tang Ning's performance.
In fact, whether or not there is a talisman is not the most important thing for Tang Ning.
What he really needs is not a talisman that can eliminate ghosts, but a "talisman" that can eliminate the demons in his heart.
On the way back, Lin Yunci tried to persuade Tang Ning, but no matter what he said, Tang Ning did not respond.
Zhou Kang, who was feeding the cat fish, looked at Tangning and tried to persuade her, "Tangning, the things made up in the card world are indeed very realistic. Sometimes I can't tell whether Xiao Mi is real or fake."
"But what is gone is gone. We cannot stay in the past forever and stagnate. In order to survive, we must keep moving forward."
"If she is the real aunt, she should also want you to live—" Zhou Kang stopped halfway.
Because those eyes filled with tears seemed to be begging him, asking him not to say anything.
This look meant that Tang Ning would not listen to anyone's advice now. It was futile to say anything at this time. Zhou Kang's lips moved, and he also fell silent.
No one spoke in the carriage. There was silence. The wind blew past, leaving behind a humming sound.
The vegetable market was not far from home, and the car soon stopped downstairs of Tang's house. Tang Ning got out of the car and said goodbye to everyone in the car.
He looks normal.
He was very clear about what he was doing and what the consequences would be.
But he resolutely got out of the car, left the place bathed in bright sunshine, and walked towards the cold and dilapidated residential building.
From beginning to end, he never looked back.
Tangning walked up the dim corridor step by step. Once upon a time, there was a beautiful woman holding a baby in her arms. Her husband had just died. Her face was pale and she was crying until she was exhausted. Someone wanted to take the child from her, but she shook her head and staggered down the corridor. The child in her arms was crying loudly and tears were streaming down her face.
She took a step forward, bent down and held the hand of the child who looked like a New Year doll. She recited an ancient poem with every word she walked, and the babbling child followed suit in a baby voice. A smile appeared on her face.
They continued to walk upwards. The little boy put on his schoolbag with a failed test paper in it. The little boy, who was as pretty as a child, lowered his head. She scolded him with a stern face, then suddenly picked up the little boy and kissed him hard as he cried silently.
They walked upstairs again. The little boy turned into a boy of about fourteen or fifteen years old, taller than others. But at this time, he was no longer as pretty as before. His figure became stout. He bent over and put an ice patch on his forehead. The child with a high fever and a red face walked on the stairs.
She walked so hard, but in fact, if she had just put the child down, she would have walked much more easily.
But she didn't do it.
Tang Ning walked up the stairs quietly, with the yellow talisman in his pocket and the live fish swimming in his bag.
Suddenly, Tang Ning felt like he was that fish.
Swimming in the narrow bag, he could clearly see his current situation through the bag. If he didn't escape now, he would be ripped open on the chopping board.
But how could he escape
Jump out of the bag and fall on the high steps? Is there really a way for him to escape
Escape from this copy and leave this home forever, and he will never see his mother again.
His mother, who has been dependent on him since childhood, loves him the most and is also his most beloved mother.
Tangning finally stopped walking. He stood in front of the door and stared at it quietly for a long time. He inserted the key into the lock and pushed the door open. The familiar sound of the anti-Japanese war drama floated over. The woman who was watching TV and eating sunflower seeds turned her head and looked at Tangning at the door. She smiled and said, "Come back?"
Tang Ning stared at her in a trance.
She waved at Tangning, "Do you want to eat?"
There was a pile of melon seed shells like a small mountain on the plate, and another pile of melon seed kernels.
Tang Ning looked at the pile of melon seeds. He liked eating melon seeds, but he didn't like peeling them. His mother would always give him the peeled kernels.
Tangning couldn't help but think, life seems to be full of bitterness, with only a little sweetness. If he was destined to die in this game, why couldn't he die in his mother instead of dying in other ghosts? Die in the poison wrapped in honey.
At least this way, he could taste the sweetness he had always dreamed of.
Tangning smiled despite her tear-stained face, "No, Mom, you eat by yourself."
"Speaking of food, let me teach you how to cook tonight." Mom put the plate down and patted it. "How about braised fish?"
"." Tangning nodded.
"I wonder if you can inherit my teachings." The mother smiled as she walked over to Tangning and took the bag of fish from her. "Did An Yun teach you how to kill fish?"
"Teach." Tang Ning said.
"Then you can kill it for me later?" The mother put her hands on Tangning's back and walked into the kitchen with Tangning.
"Oh, time flies. In the blink of an eye, our Ningning has become like this." The mother looked at Tangning, who was wearing an apron and looking very professional. "Well, she has started to learn how to cook. She looks so pretty. Who would have thought that a tiny baby like that could become like this?"
Mom said it with a smile.
Tang Ning's grip on the knife shook and suddenly cut his finger.
He didn't feel anything, but his mother screamed "Ah!" She seemed to reach out instinctively, snatched the knife from Tang Ning, and held Tang Ning's injured hand.
The moment their skin touched, Tangning saw the hand holding him change at a speed visible to the naked eye, from normal skin color to pale blue. Before a corpse spot could vaguely appear, his mother instantly let go of his hand and shouted outside, "An Yun! Band-Aid!!!"
Drops of blood dripped from the wound. Tang Ning raised his eyes in a daze and looked at his mother who was hiding the baby behind her.
"What happened?" Su Anyun walked towards the kitchen. When he saw Tangning's finger, his brows knitted tightly together, his face full of heartache, "How did you get cut?"
"Oh, don't mention it. I was praising him just a second ago, but now he's so troublesome. Hurry, hurry, get him out." Mom urged.
Tangning was pulled out by Su Anyun. He heard his mother muttering, "Really? You're such a troublemaker. You're just a little brat."
This meal was cooked by my mother.
Very delicious.
Tang Ning ate a lot. He ate until his belly was bloated and he put down his bowl and chopsticks only when he could not eat any more.
Seeing how well he ate, his mother was very satisfied. She said to Tangning, "It doesn't matter if you can cook or not, as long as you can make money. When our Ningning becomes a celebrity, we will have enough money to hire a nanny who can cook delicious food."
She always doted on Tang Ning.
Since she was a child, Tang Ning was reluctant to do housework, so much so that after her sudden death, Tang Ning didn't know how to read the electricity meter, where to pay the water bill, how to cook dishes that tasted like her mother's, and how to recreate a home with her mother.
"I want to keep eating my mother's cooking." Tangning suddenly said while sitting at the table.
No dish cooked by someone else can ever replace mother’s, even if that person is his prince.
"What nonsense are you talking about? Do I have to cook for you for the rest of my life? When I'm old and can't move around anymore and can't take care of you, you'll despise me and say that I'm an old woman who is old and useless—"
"I've been cooking for my mom my whole life," Tangning said.
The mother, who was busy cleaning up the dishes, was stunned for a moment. She raised her eyes and looked at Tangning.
Tangning also looked at her straight.
There is seriousness in those red eyes.
So she laughed and said, "Silly boy, you are so young, how do you know how long a lifetime is?"
"As long as you cook a meal for me in this life, I will be satisfied as your mother."