The Romance of a Young Painter

As Meng Xing said, the next task was indeed very strange. Before dawn the next day, Aunt Li asked them to get up and go to the small river ditch at the head of the village to catch a few fish and touch half a bucket of snails.

"Aunt Li, it's already winter, are there any snails?" Zhou Nianjiu asked suspiciously. He had noticed when he was sketching before that there were only some fish in the river in winter, and he couldn't see anything else.

Aunt Li acted like you were really ignorant, and said, "How can there be none? They are all hidden in the mud. Rural people used to not be able to eat meat in winter, so they relied on fish and snails to improve their food."

With the previous experience of gathering firewood and chasing chickens, Zhou Nianjiu learned how to behave this time, and asked, "Is it in the mud by the river? How can I find it?"

Aunt Li looked a little impatient, but she still taught him how to find the snail cave, and finally gave him a pair of long rubber boots and a small shovel, and said, "Be gentle with the shovel, because the shell of this thing is brittle. If you do, you can’t have it.”

Zhou Nianjiu agreed, took his things and walked to the village with Meng Xing.

"Zhou Nianjiu, why are you here?" Chen Yi's voice came from above.

Zhou Nianjiu looked up, and saw Chen Yi wrapped in a down jacket standing on the second-floor balcony of a house, waving at him.

After Chen Yi went back yesterday, the team leader changed her to this house. This house is a clean and small building, and the conditions are not a bit better than Aunt Li's house. Moreover, this family is very polite to her. After half a day yesterday, they simply let her It was very easy to do some housework, sweep the floor and clean the table, but in a different environment, she didn't sleep well at night, and got up early in the morning. When she was upstairs looking down, she happened to see Zhou Nianjiu and Meng Xing. .

"To catch fish and touch snails." Zhou Nianjiu said.

"You guys are asked to do this in such a cold day?" Chen Yi asked in disbelief as she hugged her arms tightly.

Zhou Nianjiu raised the boots and shovel in his hand and said, "There are tools."

Chen Yi couldn't help shivering, and said: "It's cold too, it's only the first month, it's too embarrassing to go into the water and freeze to death. Hey, Zhou Nianjiu, the owner of this house is very nice, why don't you go and talk to me?" Talk to the team leader and switch to this family too." She didn't like Meng Xing who didn't give her a good face, but she had a good impression of Zhou Nianjiu.

Zhou Nianjiu thanked her for her kindness and said, "No need, it's only seven days, it will pass soon."

Meng Xing, who had been deliberately ignored by Chen Yi, said to Zhou Nianjiu, "How long do you plan to chat? Why don't you just stay here."

"Let's go now." Zhou Nianjiu waved to Chen Yi embarrassedly.

Seeing him leaving, Chen Yi quickly entered the house as it was cold and boring outside.

Zhou Nianjiu followed Meng Xing to the edge of the small river. He reached out to test the water temperature, and it was icy cold. However, at this temperature, some fish could still be seen. The backs, which were slightly darker than the river bottom, were like thin lines. Stop in areas with dense aquatic plants.

"Catch the fish first. You were the one who did the most work yesterday. This time I'll do it." Zhou Nianjiu said.

"Whatever." Meng Xing said.

Zhou Nianjiu had gone fishing with Wenmingyuan before, and he knew that he needed to lure the fish over first, so before going out, he found some leftovers from the kitchen, put his boots on his feet, found a place to stand in the shallow water, and waited. When the water surface became calm, he threw a small handful of leftovers tentatively. After a while, a small fish came swimming over. He took the bucket he brought over and fished the fish. Unexpectedly, the fish moved faster than him. Just turned around and swam away.Zhou Nianjiu didn't expect that it would be so difficult to catch a fish at close range, so he couldn't help but feel embarrassed, but he didn't lose heart, he tried several times and finally caught one.

Meng Xing watched from the sidelines, and waited for Zhou Nianjiu to throw the fish to the river before he put the fish into another bucket filled with water—Aunt Li said it would be alive.

After working for a long time, Zhou Nianjiu finally caught the amount that Aunt Li wanted.He had been concentrating on catching fish before, and didn't pay much attention to his feet soaked in the water. When he walked to the shore, he realized that his feet were numb from the cold. He didn't care about Meng Xing beside him, so he just sat down on the ground and took off his feet. Boots, took off the down jacket on his body and wrapped it around his feet, and rubbed his hands vigorously with gloves on.

While Zhou Nianjiu was warming his hands and feet, Meng Xing said flatly: "Although that little girl is not smart, she is right in saying something, which is clearly embarrassing. It's only the second day, and with your physical fitness, you can't bear it." Change places as soon as possible."

Zhou Nianjiu had received a lot of sarcastic remarks from Meng Xing in the past six months, and now that he was looked down upon, he couldn't help but lose his temper and said, "Who says I can't stand it. Meng Xing, you are really good, but just because you are good doesn't mean others can't do it. "

Meng Xing looked at the embarrassed Zhou Nianjiu with a half-smile, and said, "Is that how you are?" His cold eyes were slightly narrowed, and the slightly long eye tails were slightly raised, showing a hint of cynicism in his coldness.

These eyes are so distinctive, Zhou Nianjiu would have thought about how to draw them before, but this time he looked back without hesitation, and said, "Yes, that's just me." After finishing speaking, he Put the boots on again, stomped on the bank, took the shovel and went down the river to look for snails as Aunt Li said.

Meng Xing glanced at Zhou Nianjiu's down jacket and gloves thrown aside, and looked playfully at Zhou Nianjiu's bent and busy figure.

After working for almost a whole morning, Zhou Nianjiu managed to collect enough snails that Aunt Li asked for. Meng Xing watched the whole process, neither helping nor showing any intention of leaving first.

The first thing Zhou Nianjiu did when he returned to Aunt Li's house was to soak his feet with half a bucket of hot water. Aunt Li also boiled a big bowl of thick ginger soup and said, "Young man, drink this to get rid of the cold."

"Thank you Aunt Li."

"You brought all these back by yourself?" Aunt Li didn't shy away from Meng Xing who was next to her, and asked directly.

"No, we have a division of labor." Although Zhou Nianjiu was dissatisfied with Meng Xing, he didn't want to demolish him in front of outsiders.

Aunt Li looked at his hands and feet that were frozen red, and said impatiently: "You are all delicate and expensive, don't get sick here, I, a country woman, can't afford to find the big shots over there." This responsibility."

Different from her indifferent words, Zhou Nianjiu noticed the flash of concern in her eyes. He found that Aunt Li might have a cold face and warm heart. Although he didn't know why Aunt Li wanted to torment him and Meng Xing like this, but There should be no malice.

"Understood, I will try not to get sick." Zhou Nianjiu lowered his head and drank a bowl of ginger soup. After soaking his feet in hot water and adding the ginger soup, he was sweating all over his body.

At lunch, Aunt Li cooked two fish. The river fish in winter tastes very delicious. This is the first time for Zhou Nianjiu to eat the fish he caught himself. Aunt Li prepared meals for him alone and sent them to the room.

After noon, Aunt Li arranged a new task, saying that she had to clean the chicken coop and collect the chicken manure inside and pile it into the biogas digester. After the task was done, she said to Zhou Nianjiu, "You don't need to go."

Zhou Nianjiu glanced at Meng Xing who was already looking for tools nearby, shook his head and said: "This is also my job, and more people help, the work is always faster." It hasn't gone away yet, but he knows that as long as he contacts Meng Xing, this kind of conflict is inevitable.

After getting along for such a long time, Zhou Nianjiu has already understood Meng Xing's personality - he doesn't care about anyone, thinks everything has a purpose, and doesn't want to have unnecessary entanglements with others, typical cold-faced and indifferent Heart, it was a kind of coldness engraved in his bones, and he couldn't melt it unless he covered it with heat. He knew that Meng Xing was not good, but he didn't have the idea of ​​saving other people's three views. In his eyes, Meng Xing was just a special person. For a little bit of painting objects, what he wants to do is to observe and record this specialness at close range, and he is not interested in interfering or trying to change other people's lives.

The chicken shed was in a mess, and it hadn't been cleaned for an unknown period of time. The chicken manure was everywhere, exuding a strong smell, which was the source of the smell of the whole yard. Zhou Nianjiu and Meng Xing took a shovel and began to shovel the manure.The work is actually not tedious, the point is that it is too smelly, Zhou Nianjiu felt that his nose was not his own after staying for a while, and his whole body was so smoked that he was dizzy, Meng Xing's side was not much better, he was frowning all the time during the work Head, neither of them spoke.

When the last load of chicken manure was transported to the biogas digester, Zhou Nianjiu couldn't care less about admiring the success of his labor just now, he just wanted to take a good bath to get rid of the smell on his body.He did exactly that. After learning how to use an earthen stove to make a fire with Aunt Li, he boiled two large pots of hot water by himself, took a bath three times, and finally changed all the clothes on his body. The body was clean, Meng Xing was not as exaggerated as him, but the bathing time was longer than the day before, and all the clothes were changed when he came out.

Aunt Li saw it, and babbled for a while about people in the city being more particular. Zhou Nianjiu knew that she didn't mean anything, so she didn't take it to heart.However, he found that Meng Xing's reaction was a bit abnormal. In the past, when he encountered people like Aunt Li who offended him, he would always make them suffer, but this time he did not fight back.Zhou Nianjiu didn't think that Meng Xing would make an exception for Aunt Li because of the winter camp scores, he was faintly worried.

At night, Zhou Nianjiu, who had been busy for a whole day, didn't have much energy, so he went to bed after washing up.

Meng Xing went out for a walk as usual, and Zhou Nianjiu was already asleep when he came back, which also avoided the embarrassment of sharing the same bed like last night. He turned off the light and went to bed, and the simple wooden boards creaked. It didn't wake up the sleeping people.

Meng Xing couldn't help but sneered, in a completely unfamiliar place, and there was a person with whom he didn't have a good relationship, it was really comforting to be able to sleep without any precautions.Then Shen Guangji took him to the hotel on the night when he was deliberately thrown away last time. At that time, two people who liked each other were in the same room. Did anything happen between them?

Meng Xing looked at this sleeping face. He knew that Zhou Nianjiu was good-looking, but to him, it was just good-looking. He always thought that Zhou Nianjiu was a weak person, a spoiled guy who knew nothing but painting. But a person can afford to do these dirty jobs and stay in such icy river for a whole morning, even if such things may damage his most precious hands.Even if this kind of behavior is just for anger, this kind of Zhou Nianjiu is different from the Zhou Nianjiu he learned through investigation, and also different from the Zhou Nianjiu in his dream who lives only for art.

The night was hazy, and the light of the moon shone into the room. Meng Xing stared at this familiar face for a long time, and suddenly had the illusion that Zhou Nianjiu was seen blushing.Soon he realized that it was not his illusion, the other party was really blushing, and his breathing became heavier. At first, he thought that Zhou Nianjiu had woken up, and was planning to take advantage of this situation to tease the other party, and then he It turned out that the other party hadn't actually woken up.

Zhou Nianjiu has a fever.