Around

Tuk, tuk.Tuk, tuk.

The sound of bamboo clappers echoed in the empty alley in the middle of the night. Shen Tucheng woke up, carefully pulled out the arm that was under Gu Panhao's body, got up and walked to the window.He turned off the air conditioner, opened the window, and the midsummer breath rushed in, with a bit of sticky moisture.

The summer wind blew into the room slowly, carrying a strong smell of meat, Shen Tucheng rubbed his stomach, and tapped his finger on the window sill twice.The bearer happened to pass by the window, she raised her head, and faced Shentucheng with a wrinkled face: "Do you want wontons?"

Shen Tucheng didn't speak, but just looked at the grandma standing under the window - her silver hair was neatly combed behind her head, and the low bun was covered with a black hairnet.He was neatly dressed in gray-black coarse cloth clothes, and there was an air of meticulousness all over his body.

"Would you like wontons?" Grandma asked again, her voice was slightly clear.

Shentu City was condescending, and it was easy to see the things on both ends of the burden—the stove, pot, wooden barrel, etc. hanging in the front, and a small cabinet and a bundle of firewood in the back.He withdrew his gaze from the small cupboard, paused, and was about to speak when he saw a person poking his head out from behind and said with a smile, "I want two bowls."

Shentucheng turned around and touched Gu Panhao's face: "Are you awake?"

"En." Gu Pan watched with great interest as Grandma served wontons, "I'm hungry."

"It's really rare." Shen Tucheng surrounded Gu Panhao, and kissed the back of his neck.

"Well……"

The small cabinet is divided into several layers. Grandma counts the wontons from the top layer and puts them in the pot, and then brings out seaweed, egg shreds, chopped green onion and other ingredients on the lower layer, and quickly puts the seasonings into the two porcelain bowls.

Gu Panhao blinked and said, "Put more vinegar."

Grandma looked up at him, and poured more vinegar into one of the bowls as she said.At this time, the wontons were also cooked. Grandma scooped the soup into two bowls, and then put the wontons in. The aroma immediately spread.

"Do you want it spicy?" Grandma asked as she sprinkled ingredients into the bowl.

"No." Gu Panhao said, "Well, I don't want green onions."

Grandma looked up at Gu Panhao again, but quickly lowered her head again. "Okay," she whispered.

"Well, wait." Gu Panhao took the money and ran downstairs, Shen Tucheng frowned at the slippers on Gu Panhao's feet, and followed.

Grandma took out the money from her pocket to return it, but Gu Pan finally didn't pick it up. "Well, we also bought these two bowls." His tone was extremely gentle, but his hands were tightly gripping the porcelain bowls.

At this time, Shentucheng came out of the building, took the bowl in Gu Panhao's hand, and looked at grandma without saying a word.It wasn't until he got closer that he could see clearly that those on Grandma's face were not wrinkles, but scars.Looking at it now, "Grandma" is actually not too old, her skin without scars is smooth, and her fingers are unimaginably slender and delicate.

Why does such a woman in her thirties at most have gray hair all over her head?Shen Tucheng was puzzled, but he didn't show his face, he just said very gracefully: "Sorry, we don't have any bowls at home... Or tell me your home address, and I'll deliver it tomorrow."

The woman looked at the two separately for a while, her eyes were as sharp as a knife.In the end, she didn't say anything, and left with her burden.

Gu Panhao watched the woman's back disappear into the alley, and reached out to take the bowl in Shentucheng's hand.

Shen Tucheng raised his hand to avoid it: "It's hot."

"It's okay." Gu Pan smiled amusedly, took the bowl and held it in his hand to look carefully.Due to the delay for a while, the wonton wrappers were already a little swollen. Gu Panhao picked up the wonton wrappers with chopsticks, revealing the fresh meat filling.Gu Panhao sniffed, sighed, squatted down and poured out the soup in the bowl.

He carefully picked out the seaweed and egg shreds in the bowl, dug a shallow hole in the ground with chopsticks, poured the wontons into it and buried it.Finally, he turned the porcelain bowl upside down on the pit, and inserted the chopsticks in front of the porcelain bowl.

Shen Tucheng silently watched Gu Panhao finish all this, and went up to take him back upstairs.

Taking a hot towel to wipe Gu Panhao's feet, Shen Tucheng scratched the soles of Gu Panhao's feet and said, "From now on, you are not allowed to go downstairs in slippers."

Gu Pan smiled and avoided: "It doesn't matter in summer."

"The air here is very strong." The house where the two lived was in an ancient alley in the old city. Even in the hot summer, the alley was still shady at night.

Gu Panhao nodded obediently: "En." Then he rubbed his stomach again: "I'm hungry."

Shen Tucheng kissed Gu Panhao on the face: "Wait, I'll go down for you."

"Don't put onions..."

"Understood." Shen Tucheng replied, halfway through the walk, he told him worriedly, "It's too cold on the ground, don't go down."

Gu Panhao curled up on the sofa and watched TV without raising his head: "Enen."

Gu Panhao has always had a regular schedule, so when Shentucheng came over with two bowls of noodles, Gu Panhao was already yawning.Shen Tucheng hugged Gu Panhao in his arms: "Sleepy, huh?"

Gu Panhao blinked his eyes.

Shen Tucheng sighed: "Don't eat it, it will hurt your stomach if you can't digest it...go to sleep?"

"En..." Gu Panhao voluntarily leaned on Shentucheng.

Shen Tucheng picked up Gu Pan and went back to the bedroom, and when the settled man returned to the living room, the noodles had already risen.Shen Tucheng stared at the swollen noodles, and suddenly thought of the two bowls of wontons that Gu Panhao threw away—he didn’t ask Gu Panhao why he did that, or it could be said that he felt something—that He smelled blood as the woman stood under the window.But that smell was not like the disgusting stench he had smelled before, instead it was a little sweet, which made Shentucheng immediately think of the word "pure".

The smell of blood came from the small cabinet, and later Shen Tucheng also noticed that the woman hadn't opened the bottom drawer during the process of cooking the wontons.

Shen Tucheng was indifferent by nature, although he found it strange, he didn't want to bother.What surprised him was that Gu Panhao would stop that woman.And when Gu Pan picked up the wonton wrapper, Shen Tucheng finally understood a little bit - the meat has a milky aroma.He looked at the little ball of fresh meat, and somehow thought of the baby's belly.

He dealt with it and went back to the bedroom, Gu Pan was already in a deep sleep, but the corners of his mouth were still raised slightly, forming a seductive arc.In Shentucheng's view, this is undoubtedly a great temptation. He has never wronged himself, so he naturally bent down to leave one soft kiss after another on Gu Panhao's mouth.

However, at this moment, a baby's cry suddenly exploded downstairs, the sound was extremely shrill, and it made one's skin crawl.The crying intensified, Gu Panhao moved his lips, as if he was about to be woken up.With a low curse, Shen Tucheng rushed to the living room to rummage through the boxes, and finally found the leftover wedding candles from the wedding day.He came again to the place where Gu Pan had buried the wontons, pulled out his chopsticks, plugged in the candles, lit the fire and said in a low voice, "Only this, don't make any noise." After that, he went upstairs without looking back.

When Shen Tucheng returned to the room, the crying had gradually subsided. He half-kneeled beside the bed to look at Gu Panhao worriedly, only to see that Gu Panhao's slightly frowning brows slowly loosened, and he relaxed. With a sigh of relief, he rolled onto the bed, hugged Gu Pan, and fell into a deep sleep.

……

The next day, when Gu Panhao woke up, he said, "I heard a child's voice when I was sleeping yesterday."

While washing his face, Shen Tucheng asked, "Did it bother you?"

"No, it's a baby's laughter, very soft."

"En." Shen Tucheng kissed Gu Panhao, "I'll take you out for breakfast later."

"Well, I want to eat small wontons, not green onions."

"understood……"