"Well... well, let me tell you, for a beggar like me who has been despised all my life, if someone suddenly says that I am pretty, I will be very happy in my heart! I wish they would praise me for being pretty!"
"Is it?"
Shu Wuxi's last tone rose, and Lu Xiaochan couldn't figure out his joy.
Or maybe Shu Wuxi has no joy, anger, sorrow, or happiness at all.
"Let's go! Let's go! The one painting the sugar man is right in front!"
Lu Xiaochan pulled the bamboo branch, and Shu Wuxi continued to walk forward without mentioning the matter of plucking people's eyes again, which made Lu Xiaochan breathe a sigh of relief.
A group of children gathered in front of the small stall making sugar figures.
They are all spinning a turntable.
One penny turned each time, and a circle of monkeys, birds, butterflies, dragonflies and the like were drawn on the turntable. When the turntable stopped, old man Chen would scoop a spoonful of syrup and draw something on whatever the pointer pointed to.
Children don’t have spare money every day, so they mostly just watch from the sidelines.
Lu Xiaochan shouted, "Old man Chen! I want to spin the turntable, draw one for me!"
Old man Chen, who was boiling sugar, looked up and saw a young man in a green shirt.
Because Lu Xiaochan had been begging all the time, he was hungry and full all the time, so he looked thinner than other boys of the same age. He looked like he was thirteen or fourteen at the age of sixteen.
He has a pair of big eyes on his fair face, as bright as stars in the sky falling into the mirror lake. His pointed nose looks a bit playful, and the corners of his mouth are raised. It is obviously a smug smile, but it gives off a bit of unbridled innocence.
As soon as I look at him, I want to look at him twice more.
"Hey, where did this young master come from? Are you here in Lushu Town for an outing?"
Lu Xiaochan blinked his eyes, pointed at himself and said, "Old Chen, look carefully again! It's me, the blind little beggar!"
"What?" Old Man Chen rubbed his eyes. "You... do you look like this?"
"Then what should I look like?"
Old man Chen thought, yes... this little beggar has disheveled hair and a dirty face all day long, and no one likes to get close to him, so no one has ever carefully identified what he looks like.
"You are doing fine now... This is... Why are you suddenly like this..."
“So clean now?” Lu Xiaochan said proudly, pulling the bamboo pole beside him. “My family is here to look for me, hahahaha!”
"I see!"
"Let me take a look around, don't lie to me about what it is! I know what butterflies and dragonflies use less syrup! My family is watching!"
"If you can really spin a flying dragon, I will definitely draw it for you!" Old man Chen smiled.
He had tampered with the turntable a long time ago, so that no matter how he spun it, he could only draw birds, butterflies and the like, but not the flying dragon that required a whole spoonful of syrup.
Lu Xiaochan held the turntable with both hands in a serious manner and moved it downwards.
"Did the turntable stop?"
"Not yet." Shu Wuxi replied.
“Has it stopped now?”
"not yet."
"Why don't you stop?"
Old man Chen was stirring the syrup with a spoon. When he looked up, the turntable finally stopped.
Looking at the pointer, the old man almost sprained his waist.
"What am I spinning?"
"Flying dragon." Shu Wuxi replied.
"Great! I got a flying dragon for my penny! Draw it for me!"
Lu Xiaochan was very sure that this time his luck had really turned! With Shu Wuxi by his side, his luck seemed to be particularly good.
Lu Xiaochan supported her chin and squatted in front of Old Man Chen, waiting.
Although Old Man Chen felt sorry for the whole spoonful of sugar, he still drew a flying dragon for Lu Xiaochan.
Lu Xiaochan held it in her hand and shouted, "Shu Wuxi, please pay a penny for me!"
"Yeah." Shu Wuxi stretched out his hand and placed a silver bean in Old Man Chen's hand.
Old man Chen was stunned: "This young man... I am a small business owner and I can't find the money..."
But Shu Wuxi acted as if he heard nothing and followed Lu Xiaochan.
Lu Xiaochan pulled the bamboo stick, turned around and asked in a low voice: "Did you give me one penny?"
"I don't know." Shu Wuxi replied.
When Lu Xiaochan heard this, she almost exploded: "You gave it to me without knowing it? Then how much did you give?"
"A silver bean."
"One... one silver bean?" Lu Xiaochan's eyes almost popped out, "You must have a lot of money!"
"Yes, rich enough to rival a country." Shu Wuxi replied.
"Really?" Lu Xiaochan opened her eyes wide.
"You said that before."
"I said... Are you rich enough to rival a country?"
"Yeah." Shu Wuxi replied indifferently.
Lu Xiaochan swallowed his saliva. It seemed that he was really lucky!
"You... are really rich... Have you lost your concept of money?"
"All I know is that money can't buy your happiness."
This sentence, read out from Shu Wuxi's unique voice, has a heart-thrilling quality.
It was like being frozen in the snow for a long time, and suddenly someone held my hands and pressed them against his chest to warm me.
"You... who taught you to coax people like this?"
"you."
"Me? When did I ever teach you?"
Money can’t buy your happiness and the like... Why does it sound like a rich man coaxing a little woman
"One day, you carried a bag with all the gold beans and leaves in it. I asked you why you took those things with you. You told me that money could not buy your happiness."
Lu Xiaochan choked... Was he a money-grubber in the past
"You won't let me take all your gold beans and gold leaves away just like that, right?" Lu Xiaochan asked.
"Well, you are smiling happily while holding the golden beans."
Lu Xiaochan held his head. Why couldn’t he remember what Shu Wuxi remembered
Since Shu Wuxi is as rich as a country, he certainly wouldn't care if Lu Xiaochan took away a bag of golden beans.
He couldn't remember what happened in the past, but now he had to restore his image in front of Shu Wuxi.
"Well, Shu Wuxi, it's not the golden beans that make me happy."
"What is that?" Shu Wuxi asked.
"It's because you're willing to give up on me."
Lu Xiaochan tried her best to make her expression look serious, determined, and credible.
At that moment, the bamboo branch in Lu Xiaochan's hand trembled slightly.
"Um."
Shu Wuxi responded softly, as if there was nothing unusual about it, but Lu Xiaochan knew that Shu Wuxi liked to hear him say that.
"Let's go! Drink pig blood soup!"
Since Shu Wuxi has money, he should add double the amount of pig blood!
It's a pity that Wang Pozi, who sells pig blood soup, is not open today. The reason is that the butcher in the town did not slaughter the pig today, so there is no pig blood.
Lu Xiaochan sighed regretfully, then smiled again: "It doesn't matter! I'm transferred to Feilong today anyway!"
"Don't you want to eat?" Shu Wuxi asked.
“I want to see more of it.”
"You can't see."
"I just want to hold it like this. It'll be gone when I'm done eating it."
Lu Xiaochan suddenly became quiet.
He suddenly felt a little scared, afraid that Shu Wuxi would melt like a sugar painting, fall to the ground and shatter, or disappear when he woke up from the dream.
He has never been loved by anyone, so he doesn't care whether others are nice to him or not.
But after just a few hours of being together, Shu Wuxi seemed to have given Lu Xiaochan everything that he had occasionally fantasized about.
"Lu Xiaochan, why aren't you talking?" Shu Wuxi asked.
Lu Xiaochan felt strange: "Why do you always ask me to talk? Aren't you annoyed when I keep talking?"
"You keep talking, and I know you're always there."
Shu Wuxi's voice is always calm.
But beneath this calmness lies an imperceptible cautiousness.
Maybe other people couldn’t hear it, but Lu Xiaochan could feel it.
"Then don't be too far away from me. I can smell your scent and know you are here."
"good."
Shu Wuxi brought Lu Xiaochan into Wusi Winery.
The waiter led them to the window and sat them down. Just as Lu Xiaochan was about to touch the chopstick bucket, Shu Wuxi pushed it in front of her.
Lu Xiaochan put Feilong in the chopstick bucket with a smile, took out a pair of chopsticks and handed them to Shu Wuxi. Although it was a flattering expression, it did not make people feel flattering, but rather childish.
Shu Wuxi took the chopsticks.
The waiter said enthusiastically: "Are you two locals? Our most famous place is wine..."
"Waiter! You don't even recognize me! Me! Me! Me!" Lu Xiaochan pointed at herself excitedly.
"Have I seen you before? Your voice sounds familiar..."
"I'm Lu Xiaochan! I'm the beggar who works under the window of your tavern!"
The waiter was stunned and staggered.
"What? You are... You are a little beggar? So this is what you look like?"
"What do I look like?"
"You're so pretty! If I had known earlier you should have cleaned yourself up before begging! Maybe Ren Er Niang would be willing to support you! She treats you like her own baby, how could she bear to let you get beaten on the street!" The waiter lowered his head and whispered to Lu Xiaochan while pretending to wipe the table.
Lu Xiaochan had been looked down upon all his life, but this time even the waiter said he was good-looking, and he felt as if he had been fed with a bowl of honey.
"You said I'm pretty, so I guess I really am pretty!"
All I heard was a "click" sound, as if chopsticks were breaking.
Lu Xiaochan took another pair from the chopstick bucket and handed it to the other party.
"But why did you mention Ren Er Niang for no reason? That crazy woman..."
"I'm telling you, Ren Er Niang was sitting diagonally opposite you! She's been looking at you since you came in! She's been giving you several rounds of flirtatious glances. You're the only one who's blind and didn't see it!"
"I'm blind to begin with... Is Ren Er Niang really that bold? She dares to stare at another man. Won't her husband beat her to pieces?"
At this time, almost all the guests in the tavern noticed that Ren Er Niang was looking at Lu Xiaochan with a lustful look on her face.