Tropical Highway

When returning to the village from the viewing platform, the blue of the sky gradually deepened, almost black.

Zeren Tenzin waited for them by the side of the road. The boy was carrying a basket on his back with a smile on his face, showing You Zhen and Zhai Lan what he had harvested today as if showing off: "I sold some, and I still have some left over. Tomorrow Cook and eat!"

"Okay." You Zhen grabbed his hair, "Take out your Motuo stone pot and make stone pot chicken."

Tenzin pretended to be displeased: "You just want to eat those chickens."

You Zhen: "How can it be called 'several'? I can eat at most one, and it's not like you won't be on the table."

Tenzin rolled his huge eyes, and then he laughed again.

Perhaps playing around with his friends made him feel a little less heavy about leaving his hometown. Zhai Lan watched a big and a small one fighting half a step ahead, and smiled unconsciously.

In the evening, I simply ate some steamed stuffed buns at Tenzin's house. Li Feimu was delivering something to Tenzin, and happened to meet Zhai Lan, so the male mother asked all kinds of things, and succeeded in making Zhai Lan irritable.The originally soft mood due to the sunshine shining on Jinshan was fleeting, and in the end, he impatiently covered his ears.

"I care about you?" Li Fei laughed angrily, "Zhai Lan, if you don't want to hear it, you can just say it."

Zhai Lan stiffened his neck and remained silent.

Instead, You Zhen smoothed things over: "I'm exhausted today, he may not be in a good mood."

The left and right people came back safely. After all, Li Feimu was not Zhai Lan's guardian, so he quickly figured this out, and then ignored Zhai Lan, and just told him to remember to say hello to him wherever he went.

"Leave a sentence of 'going to see the peach blossoms' and lose contact for one afternoon and one night. The phone can't be reached, and the WeChat message can't be answered. You have a heart attack!" Li Feimu finally said.

Zhai Lan's hands were still covering her ears: "Mmm, yes, yes, yes, yes."

Li Feimu: "..."

You Zhen: "Alright, alright, I will watch him."

Not knowing which word was hit by this sentence, Li Feimu said naturally: "But you won't be able to see him for the rest of your life... Oh no, no... Damn, you shouldn't have said that..."

You Zhen smiled: "It's okay, it's okay."

Zhai Lan: "...I'm still here! What a mess!"

The next day I thought it would be a rare calm, but Zhai Lan was arrested by Li Feimu early in the morning to teach mathematics to a group of elementary school students.The words of his refusal came to his lips, but Li Feimu gave him a reason that he could not refuse.

"I have to go to the town to go through the formalities for Tenzin. If it's late, it will be too late." Li Feimu spoke on the phone as fast as beans, crackling, and furiously, "It must be done today, and Yang Jin will find him in Chengdu. You Zhen and the others have to go back this weekend in order to borrow classes."

Zhai Lan was taken aback for a moment, then looked down at the time on the watch, it was already Thursday.

The time spent together was suddenly compressed, and he didn't even have time to hear the latest arrangement from You Zhen.Although You Zhen has no obligation to tell him, or wants to say goodbye to him after the dust settles, Zhai Lan begins to feel sad again.

Just recognized the feelings, did not get any response and then quickly separated.

For him, it was almost a death sentence.

Whether it's pretending not to care or trying to be independent, only at this time will Zhai Lan feel that he really has no experience, is too young and naive, and is immediately at a loss when he encounters a relationship.

He couldn't find anyone to ask, he just waited helplessly for You Zhen to come and go, and he knew that the closest they were was only a few centimeters away.

My heart was in a mess, and I was out of shape in math class.

The children in the classroom are not very studious, they prefer to listen to Zhai Lan talk about their school days rather than boring exercises.After Zhai Lan finished his homework, he simply told them about the city thousands of miles away.

In the early years when Dad was not so busy, Zhai Lan was taken to many places by him, and he left many memories.There was no screen projection in the classroom, so Zhai Lan used his mobile phone to show them the videos and photos he took during his travels in Qingdao, Hong Kong, Xiamen, and Kashgar. The scenery from all over the world was reflected in those clear eyes, and Zhai Lan also felt that he had gained some peace.

In the end, he left his contact information to the group of students, saying: "If you have a chance to play with me in the future."

Although they all know that the probability of this opportunity coming is not very high.

When You Zhen went to the village primary school to pick up students, the bell had just rang for the end of get out of class, but the students still surrounded Zhai Lan, wanting to see the ice sculptures he took in Harbin.He walked to the back door of the classroom and saw such a scene.

Waited patiently for a long time until someone noticed, a certain student screamed strangely, and then everyone dispersed.

Zhai Lan was the only one left, holding the slightly hot phone and looking at him with straight eyebrows.

"I just came back." You Zhen said, unable to describe why he chose such a sentence as the opening line, "It's just... everything is done, so—"

"You want to say goodbye to me?"

When Zhai Lan asked him back, he still smiled a little, and the ending sound rose briskly, like an innocuous joke.

But You Zhen felt inexplicably that Zhai Lan was not very happy.

"You went to bed too early last night, plus... you were tired during the day, this matter, anyway... I plan to discuss it with you, but it doesn't feel right..." You Zhen has always been cheerful, with a bright tongue Lianhua, at this moment, was at a loss, "You, you in a few days... Do you want to go back to Chengdu with me and Tenzin?"

"what?"

It never occurred to me.

Outside the window on one side of the classroom is an endless mountain. The air is fresh after the rain, and the smell of the soil is slightly bitter.

You Zhen licked his dry lower lip for a while: "I've always wanted to ask you, but I didn't find the right time. Because I remember you said you came from Chengdu, you've been to Zone, and you don't go to school now..."

"I still have to wait for Brother Fei, and it's coming soon anyway. And he said that if I'm here, I can help with math and Chinese classes, and their teachers can set aside more time for other work. At that time, I promised well, I also agree with these arrangements." Zhai Lan shook his head, "You can't just keep your promises."

You Zhen paused: "Ah, yes."

"You can ask me that, I'm actually quite happy." Zhai Lan said quickly, "Thank you, You Zhen."

He thanked him solemnly and sincerely, which made You Zhen even more at a loss as to how to react.He arranged his hairstyle unnaturally, and covered the redness behind his ears with the dark black hair that had grown out.

"We can meet again when you go back. What's the matter..." He looked at Zhai Lan, "Go to eat? I'll do it."

Zhai Lan threw away the chalk: "Let's go!"

The stone pot chicken was stewed by Youzhen before he went to the village elementary school to find Zhai Lan. After coming and going, he prepared other dishes. When the sun went down, the clouds and mists gathered on the top of Nanga Bawa Mountain again, and the small courtyard was full of aromas. overflow.

At the small table, there was Li Feimu, who was eating and drinking.He often came to Tenzin's house to take care of him, like a half-master, seeing You Zhen busy himself, he hurried over to help.It's a pity that Mr. Li is a gentleman far away from the kitchen, so he almost didn't order the kitchen, but You Zhen couldn't bear it and pushed him out to sit in a row with Zhai Lan.

The two kitchen wastes were waiting to be eaten on the spot, and Zhai Lan was fine, but the other who was a teacher was ruthlessly ridiculed by an 11-year-old boy: "Mr. Li, so there are things you don't know!"

"Everyone has their own strengths." Li Feimu said eloquently, "You will understand when you grow up."

Tenzin let out a "tow" and turned to go to the kitchen to help with the dishes.

Because he ate stone pot chicken, Tenzin made a special trip to ask his neighbors to help him make a firepit.The sense of ceremony is full, as if they are saying goodbye to this small village.

The fire pit is burning hot, and the chicken soup in the stone pot made of natural soapstone is fragrant. Because of the addition of wolfberry ginseng slices and red dates, a faint medicinal smell adds more layers.The color of the chicken is light yellow, and it is almost glowing slightly when it is roasted by the fire.Picking up a piece, I immediately found that it had been stewed until it was completely soft and rotten. It melted as soon as I sipped it in the mouth. It was incredibly tender, and even the chicken breast was thin and not sticky.

Turn over the chicken with chopsticks, and there is a layer of various mushrooms on the bottom, and they are all cut neatly. At a glance, you can tell that it was done by someone with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

The mushrooms were picked by Tenzin in the past two days, plus gifts from neighbors, porcini mushrooms, morels, shiitake mushrooms and matsutake, some are crispy and some are smooth, with different flavors, but they are equally delicious.

Eating it without a stutter, it is a smell of meat mixed with fungus, and the aftertaste is sweet and long-lasting.If you add Youzhen's unique dipping sauce, bean paste, spicy millet, and a little bit of fried garlic, the spiciness mixed with the original flavor of the ingredients will stimulate the tip of the tongue, but satisfy the stomach.

Li Feimu opened a bottle of rice wine and made an exception to allow Zhai Lan and Tenzin to drink a glass.

Then it started to rant.

Hearing that he has just arrived, because a student will be forced by his parents to take him home overnight for a home visit, You Zhen picked up a piece of chicken leg and put it in Zhai Lan's dipping dish calmly.

Zhai Lan gave a "hmm" and looked at him suspiciously.

"Eat." You Zhen said, his eyes were bent, and he smiled softly and casually, "Is the taste okay?"

Zhai Lan proved with his actions that he really liked it very much.

The chicken and mushrooms are almost eaten, and fresh anchovies are added, the vegetables are full of soup, the leaves are waxy and tender, but the stems still retain the raw taste in the center, as if even breathing has become very close to nature.

What's more, Youzhen added a dish for him at the end, hand-rolled noodles, a surprise hidden at the end, boiled with the chicken soup that has been cooked, with matsutake and chicken as toppings, a big bowl, even in April in the Yajiang Valley , the spring is still cold, and Zhai Lan's whole body is warming up rapidly.

"You know I like to eat this?" He asked You Zhen in surprise.

You Zhen rested his chin on one hand and looked at him from across the table: "Last time you seemed to eat a lot, so I did it again today."

It can't be said that he likes to be remembered and feels comforted, or simply because You Zhen makes a bowl of noodles for him is enough to make his heart beat, Zhai Lan pressed his chest, lowered his head and smiled: "Oh, I am indeed a carbohydrate lover."

"Carb lovers..." You Zhen repeated the new word in a low voice.

Then secretly remember it.

Zhai Lan felt that he could eat the soup in a simple pot until the sky was dark.

It's a pity that the amount of food and stomach capacity are limited. After drinking three bowls of soup, the stamina of the rice wine rushed straight to the temples, and the body became lighter.Zhai Lan fell back, half-raised her chin, and listened to Li Feimu introduce the ancestral stone pot of Dan Zeng's family.

"...That's why they usually call him Motuo stone pot."

Hearing that name, Zhai Lan couldn't help looking at You Zhen, and she heard him say: "Meduo, I wanted to go on foot before. Then... now I am not so obsessed."

"Why?" Li Feimu asked.

You Zhen said naturally: "Because there is a road."

Zhai Lan laughed out loud: "What, don't make excuses, you must be lazy."

"The joy of hiking is beyond your imagination." You Zhense said.

Di Lan almost suppressed his final voice and quickly said: "Then let's go together next time."

No doubt, not asking for opinions, Zhai Lan's expression made this unknown itinerary written in the calendar in a few words, just waiting to find a suitable time, and then set off immediately.

You Zhen was stunned, his eyes were slightly calm, for a while, he didn't know what to think, and there was light in his eyes reflecting the color of fire.

"Okay."

Zhai Lan put down her chopsticks contentedly, and took pictures with her mobile phone.

Curious, You Zhen couldn't help asking: "I've almost eaten, what's the use of taking pictures now?"

"Show off to a mysterious friend." Zhai Lan said, giving You Zhen a meaningful look.

The author says:

more tomorrow