Gluttonous canteen

Chapter 18. Root

"It's not that I don't want to go out, but that I can't go out." Li Zi approached Li Chuo mysteriously, squinting his eyes, the eyelids flickering to create a strange atmosphere.

"The flashlight is free, let's talk about the main point." Li Chuo slapped the boy's flashlight on his chin, and said to himself that the top beam is not right, and the bottom beam is crooked. There are as many managers as there are unreliable CEOs. .

"The point is..."

Li Zi squatted on the ground and picked up the flashlight and put it in his butt pocket. He lowered his voice and said mysteriously: "Because people who order takeaway can never get up! Dump!"

Li Chuo was taken aback by the sound effect of the little guy, and couldn't help but shudder and stared at him. Although he really wanted to slap him out of the cave, he held back his curiosity driven by curiosity. impulse.

"What do you mean never being able to get up? Does he have any sick people in his family, the paralyzed ones?"

Because Zhang Tao’s restaurant is located in an alley in the old city, there are not many young people around, and most of them are old people who have retired at home. When Li Chuo walks in the alley, he often sees some grandparents with silvery hair on their temples. People use wheelchairs to push their wives out to get some air. In some families, only the one in the wheelchair is left after a while. The children or aunts who do housework push them out for a walk, and they haven’t seen each other for a while. The family is gone.

Birth, old age, sickness and death are changes in the cycle of life. Li Chuo doesn't feel sad, but when he thinks that he will be paralyzed in bed due to aging in the future, he always feels that Zhang Tao will not despise him, but he may be drilled because he can't move. What a free time, so the children have been active in morning exercises, and sometimes go to see the square dance at night.

"Not really."

Li Zi shook his index finger inscrutablely, with the look on his face that adults show when they tell stories to children, you don’t know anything but I know everything in your mind, but the boy’s small face It quickly froze, as if gradually immersed in some terrible memories.

He still remembers that in those years when there was a war between warlords and warlords, many big families stayed behind closed doors, letting the boys and girls in the family come out to order food, or simply buying and selling food boxes at the restaurants he ate well. Although the years were withered, The business of large and small restaurants has improved instead.

For a period of time, Zhang Tao’s Erhu shop simply stopped doing dine-in food, and basically changed it to take-out food boxes.A man with a gun is the king of grass, and no one knows if there will be soldiers breaking in tomorrow to eat and drink for free.

Zhang Tao didn't care much about encountering hooligans, but several times Lizi was bullied so that his tail was exposed. After scaring a few soldiers crazy, Zhang Tao was afraid of provoking the arrangement of tabloid reporters, so he decided to close his business first to avoid the limelight.

The old Yang’s family in Daliushu Hutong is one of the regular customers of Zhang Tao’s Erhuo shop. There is always a special little girl to pick up the takeaway food boxes. Of course, a young guy like him who has no status and status can't enter the screen wall of a big family. He is sent to the concierge every time. If he is lucky, the concierge will give him a bowl of high broken tea.

In those few years, Li Zi thought it was strange, and I didn’t see anyone from this family going out for business. In those days, Mr. De and Mr. Sai were almost popular. Once the hardcore crops fell, there were fewer freeloaders. No one from a family came out. Workers are really rare, even if they are named directors, they always have to come out to socialize and have a meal. I have never seen a family like Lao Yang's, where only servants come in and out, and the car at the door never leaves.

However, as a boy with no right to speak, Li Zi didn't take this matter seriously. It was the rule of life for the working people at the bottom of the era that the working people at the bottom had nothing to do with it. Fighting broke out outside the imperial capital, and the entire city was almost besieged. When many residents fled to the countryside to seek refuge, the young man finally discovered the secret of the old Yang family.

At that time, many restaurants and theaters installed telephones in order to attract customers. Originally, Zhang Tao’s small shop was not up to the level of installing telephones, but because of Wang Dun’s good hands and eyes, he actually got them a free phone. The line, since the takeaway business is booming, it has helped a lot.

Gradually, the old Yang family no longer sent people to pick up the meals. Lizi went there a few times with the food box, but his house was locked, and even the porter ran away without a trace. Zhang Tao and the others thought that this family He also went out of the city to flee, until one day, Li Zi received a strange call.

On the other end of the phone was a woman's voice, because of the hoarseness, it sounded a bit old, and I don't know if it was because of age or weakness. The woman said that she wanted to order a food box, and her tone was quite cautious, probably because there were always threats of plane bombing overhead. Not many restaurants are willing to deliver meals.

Li Zi didn't think much about it, he wrote down the address and made an appointment, and when it was time to deliver it, he realized that the house number was the house that he used to accompany his little girl to.

The strange thing is that when the appointed time came, the door of Lao Yang's house was still locked, and no porter came to pick up the meal like a few days ago.

Li Zi knocked on the door knocker for a while, but still no one came to answer the door, stretched out his hand and pushed, the door was bolted from the inside, and the corner door next to it was locked from the outside, Li Zi saw that there was no one around, so he jumped on the spot. After entering the room, he turned into the courtyard lightly and skillfully.

"Is anyone there? The food box from Erhu Shop!" The boy greeted twice, but no one responded when he entered the huge courtyard three times.

"It shouldn't be, I made it clear on the phone just now." Li Zi remembered the fact that their master never showed up, and thought to himself that it must be because there are sick people at home who are afraid of the wind so they don't go out.

The young man strolled around, sat down in the three halls, east, wing, east, and side rooms, and wandered around, but he didn't see a single person. In a few of the lower rooms, there were leftover corn-bread pickles from the servants, and the green hairs on them were long. Standing tall, it looked like a pot of garlic sprouts from a distance. It seemed that the family left in a hurry, and even had time to clean up the dishes for the last meal.

Could it be that the servants of this family were too conscientious to leave the old client who was paralyzed in bed, and went out of the city to escape?Suspicious in his heart, Li Zi continued to walk towards the second yard, but as soon as he turned around the corner gate, he smelled an indescribable aura.

He couldn't tell what kind of smell it was, it was a bit like a kind of earthy smell, mixed with some rotten smell, if he had to say it, it was a bit like every time he and Zhang Tao went down When Dou'er was digging the grave, he felt a heavy death.

"Is there... is there anyone?" Li Zi saw that the door of the main room in the second courtyard was not latched, and a thick cotton curtain was hanging from the eaves. Could it be that the owner of the house deliberately arranged the area outside the screen wall as here already in order to avoid the chaos of war? Desolation illusion?

"Ai."

A slight sigh suddenly floated from behind the cotton curtain, startling the carp, and retracting its paws as if electrocuted, hesitating at the door.

"Ma'am, what's the matter." Li Zi listened for a long time, the answer seemed to be a woman's voice, maybe it was the woman who called to order food, she sounded about 50 years old, she might be the woman from the gate of this mansion Master, he called madam.

"come in."

The people inside seemed to have heard Li Zi's voice, and the tone was still speaking slowly.

"Excuse me." Li Zi opened the curtain lightly and walked in the door, and looked around. There is a table and two chairs in the front hall, both of which are made of pears, and the carving is quite good. I know this restaurant has a good foundation, but then again, the takeaways that have been ordered for so many years are all exquisite dishes, and it may not be able to cope without some real products at home.

Carp sniffed lightly, the smell in the room became stronger, and the strong earthy smell was mixed with a decaying smell, which made people feel that there was something hidden in the corner of the room that had been dead for a long time No kittens or puppies were found.

He took a look twice, and found that one side of the warm pavilions on both sides was covered with bead curtains, while the other side was empty. The young man secretly moved to the other side, and glanced inside. At first glance, he thought it was a thief. Only some heavy wooden utensils that cannot be moved for a while are scattered, and all the remaining boxes and cabinets have been turned over. If it is not a foreign ghost, it must be a house thief.

The little guy moved closer to the warm pavilion on the other side, and there seemed to be a slight sound inside, like the sound of breathing, and the sound was continuous, not like a weak middle-aged woman could make it.

"Man, come in, it's really inconvenient for me to come out and continue."

Sure enough, the weak female voice rang out again, but Li Zi really didn't dare to go in rashly. After all, with the hearing of a refined animal before the founding of the People's Republic of China, he could accurately feel that there must be more than one person in the room. Well, it can't be the kind of fairy dance, right? I went in with my front foot, and my back foot was "coincidentally" caught by my husband who came back late, asking him for money or his life.

"Mom, I'm hungry."

Just as Li Zi walked Liu Er at the door, a childish voice sounded in the warm pavilion. It sounded like a teenager, and it should be a girl. There was still milk in the voice that hadn't faded away. It sounded amazing. Distressed.

"Mom, I'm hungry too." Another voice, higher than that of the girl just now, but full of breath, seemed to be uttered by a boy whose voice hadn't changed in his age.

What, it turned out to be orphans and widowed mothers, no wonder there are so many panting people in the room, the smell is probably caused by the wives and grandmas at the gate of the mansion who haven't changed their diapers, and the maids and boys who helped the house ran back to the village outside the city. , the hostess of this house is not involved in production.Li Zi thought to himself, gathered himself together, opened the curtain and got in, raised his eyes, and saw a scene he would never forget.