The man suddenly turned around and looked coldly at Li Xianglu, his lips curling into a smile: "Which eye of yours saw cut in line, huh? I’ve clearly been in front of you the whole ti."
Speaking, he addressed the person behind Li Xianglu: "Hey, am I right or what?" Then turning to Li Xianglu, he said: "But you, I find it very strange. How did you get behind ? I rember there was a guy behind ."
Having seen shaless people before, Li Xianglu had never encountered soone this shaless. She was utterly astounded and shook her head: "You really surprise . How can you cut in line and then try to fra others?"
That thirty-sothing-year-old man arrived at eight o’clock and was dumbfounded seeing so many people. So he took advantage of the chaos to cut in front of Li Xianglu, the young girl.
Qin Zhen was buying noodles nearby; he was the closest one. At this point, he had already struck up a conversation with the teenager in front of him. When he heard soone bullying Chou Xiang and even trying to cut in line – that was too much. The sunflower seeds and sugar for the New Year celebration were in limited supply. This bastard was trying to steal food right out of his mouth, and if there was one thing Qin Zhen couldn’t stand in his life, it was soone snatching his food.
When tall and burly Qin Zhen stepped forward, his bullish eyes glaring over, the man instantly felt guilty: "You, what do you want to do?"
Qin Zhen twisted his stiff neck that had been stuck in the sa position all night, it cracked loudly: "What do you think I wanna do, huh? You dare to cut in front of my sister-in-law, you’re not looking for trouble, are you?"
The man initially thought that only the girl, Li Xianglu, was there to buy things. When he heard it was a whole family, he was taken aback. Seeing that Qin Zhen wasn’t soone to be trifled with, he promptly clutched at his belongings and retreated toward the back.
Once Qin Zhen saw the man leave, he turned to Li Xianglu: "Chou Xiang, buy more peanuts. Both I and my brother love them."
Li Xianglu’s face flushed at Qin Zhen’s reference to "my sister-in-law," and she rolled her eyes, ignoring him. But indeed, she did ask for more peanuts. The supply of dry goods was all the sa, with grandpa and her combined getting a pound and a half of each kind; how much more or less to get was flexible.
Finally, at nine o’clock, they opened the gates. The wooden boards at the grain window were removed, and everyone quickly moved forward to submit the grain booklets to a side table, registering what grains they wanted. After paying, they were ready to collect their goods.
Qin Zhen was at the front of the line and was the first to squeeze out. Li Xianglu bought oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, peanuts, sunflower seeds, sugar, and even managed to get ten frozen pears; she was thrilled as she squeezed out.
Just after reuniting with Qin Zhen, they saw Qin Xi coming over from the other side, carrying two half sacks of goods, with a fat duck, a fat goose, a chicken, two fish, and over three pounds of pork. Plus a bag half filled with radishes, cabbages, and potatoes – now they were set for a great New Year.
Mr. Li was already approaching from afar, pushing his bicycle. This was planned the day before: the gates would open at nine, and Mr. Li would co to pick them up at ten. It was right on ti, not a minute off. Although Qin Xi had suggested eating at the state-owned canteen, Mr. Li insisted that they had already made food at ho. They had heated up the buns that Li Xianglu stead the day before.
Once back at ho, Qin Xi organized the supplies—the at to be hung up, and neatly arranging the cabbages, potatoes, radishes, and setting the oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar in their proper places before finally washing his hands and sitting down.
The three were exhausted. After eating, the old gentleman imdiately sent them off to bed, then he cleaned up the dishes and chopsticks.
Li Xianglu didn’t refuse either. She indeed felt unbearably sleepy from queuing up since four in the morning. This pattern of queueing was actually a tradition among the people here – she recalled that it was the sa in later tis: queuing up for train tickets, queuing up for hospital registrations, basically queuing up for everything.
Li Xianglu locked the door to her room, stripped off her outer clothes, and wearing her long underwear, she fell asleep in a hazy daze.
Half-asleep and half-awake, she felt herself floating lightly. What was going on?
Li Xianglu heard the familiar sound of water again, the whooshing sound, and then with great effort, she opened her eyes. She then saw the person who had been swimming with her struggling to pull her onto a rubber raft, and then that figure dropped into the water and disappeared.
Li Xianglu clenched a pocket watch in her hand, which was tethered to her precious storage ring, aglow with a silvery white halo.
Li Xianglu exclaid in shock—it turns out this storage ring was given to her by this man. What happened afterward?
Just as Li Xianglu was struggling to rember, a familiar voice called out to her ears: "Xiangxiang, Xiangxiang, wake up quickly."
Li Xianglu felt her eyelids were unbearably heavy, as if sothing was pressing down on them; it took her a great while to finally open her eyes.
It’s Qin Xi. Why is he in her room?
Looking at the girl with rosy cheeks before him, Qin Xi sighed helplessly. She really had caught a cold. They had woken up at noon, but she hadn’t, and even after he knocked on the door for a long ti with no response, he had no choice but to climb in through the small window above the door, luckily it wasn’t locked.
After entering, he saw her flushed face—she had a fever.
She took the dicine without being aware, continuing to sleep soundly.
Qin Xi stayed by her bed the whole afternoon, listening to her nonsensical mutterings. "Hurry up," or "Who are you? Who are you?" Could it be that she was dreaming of soone unknown?
Li Xianglu finally woke up and looked out the window that had darkened, touching her face which was no longer burning with fever: "Brother Qin, why are you here?"
Qin Xi shook his head helplessly: "You had a fever and it was quite severe. How could I not stay by your side? How are you feeling, want to drink so water first?"
Saying so, he helped her sit up a bit, then fed her water. Li Xianglu was terribly thirsty and gulped down a bowl in no ti. Qin Xi didn’t stop her; it’s important to drink plenty of water when you have a cold and a fever.
Li Xianglu glanced at Qin Xi and suddenly rembered sothing: "Brother Qin, where’s your pocket watch? May I see it?"
When Qin Xi heard she wanted to see his pocket watch, he was taken aback for a mont but still took it out from his chest and handed it over.
Li Xianglu reached out from under the covers, holding the pocket watch, opened it, and started examining it from all angles. At last, she saw the chain, seemingly identical to the one in her dream.
With that thought, Li Xianglu turned to look at Qin Xi, blinked her eyes, and said: "Brother Qin, could you turn around for ? I want to see your back."
See his back? Qin Xi wondered if the girl’s fever had fried her brain; such a strange request, but he indulged her anyway.
Li Xianglu compared his back to the one in her dream, feeling at one mont that it was indeed the sa, yet at another, that sothing was off.
When Qin Xi turned around, he saw her with a curious expression, smiled, and touched her forehead: "What’s wrong? Did the fever cook your brain? Have so porridge, there’s millet and date porridge in the pot that Grandpa made for you."
Li Xianglu, unclear about what exactly had happened, obediently nodded her head, thinking there’s still plenty of ti to figure things out.
Reviews
All reviews (0)