Free Web NovelWhen he reached his own door, Su Mi finally caught up with Lu Yibei, who was running like the wind. After catching his breath for a moment, he began to complain.
"I remember when we were kids, we used to run wild everywhere, and we went to plenty of haunted places! Weren't you having a blast back then? Why have you become such a coward now?" ƒгeewebnovёl.com
"Besides, even if you run! Carrying such a heavy iron lump, aren't you tired? This looks like a hot-selling Taobao item for warding off evil, right? But everyone else's are only palm-sized, why is yours so big? Is it a customized one?"
As he spoke, Su Mi reached out to touch the mingwang statue, but Lu Yibei pushed him away mercilessly.
"Get lost! This is my savior! Your dirty hands are not allowed to defile it!"
Su Mi withdrew his hand sullenly, leaning against the doorframe and sizing up the mingwang statue. "You talk as if it's real. Even if your iron lump is several times bigger than others, can it really ward off evil?"
"Tsk, who knows?" Lu Yibei shrugged expressionlessly.
Whether it can protect a home is uncertain, but in terms of its exorcism effect, it's quite effective!
Do I have to tell a fatso like you that I just smashed a Weird tale to death with it last night?
"Forget it, I'm too lazy to bother with you!" Seeing Lu Yibei's protective 'mother hen' demeanor, Su Mi waved his hand and said, "It's not impossible for me to take you in tonight, but..."
At this point, a lewd smile appeared on his face, and his dark eyes greedily roamed over Lu Yibei's body, as if the person standing in front of him wasn't a stoic weirdo, but a beautiful JK girl.
Lu Yibei protectively covered her chest with both hands and said sternly, "What are you doing? I consider you a brother, and you actually want me to pay with my body?"
"Bullshit! You? Even if you were washed, stripped, and thrown onto my bed, I wouldn't be interested!" Su Mi chuckled slyly, licking the glistening liquid that spilled from the corner of his mouth. "But since you're back, can you help me improve my meals? Ever since my mom went back to her hometown, I've been eating takeout that's worse than pig slop every day, and I've lost weight."
Like Lu Yibei, Su Mi grew up in a single-parent family. The difference was that his mother, apart from dealing with needlework, hardly lifted a finger in the kitchen. So, ever since he was little, half of his meals were eaten at Lu Yibei's house.
However, ever since something happened to Lu Yibei and her father, he hadn't eaten a meal from Lu Yibei's house for two whole years. It was these two years that made him truly realize the huge difference between ordinary small restaurant takeout and Lu Yibei's family cooking!
"I haven't eaten your family's food in ages, I'm so craving it! I don't need much, just some boiled fish slices, spicy blood curd, Mapo tofu, garlic pork slices, eggplant and bean casserole, stir-fried pork kidney..."
"Stop, stop! Are you listing a menu?" Lu Yibei interrupted impatiently, "I can cook, but you have to pay for the ingredients!"
"Of course, of course, as long as you're willing to cook, money isn't a problem at all!" Su Mi patted his chest and said.
"Tsk, just wait! I'll go buy some groceries first!" Lu Yibei rolled her eyes and said, "I bet since your aunt left, your house probably doesn't have any ingredients other than frozen food!"
Hearing this, Su Mi's face broke into a fawning smile. He took out his wallet and handed it to Lu Yibei, saying, "You know my cooking skills; I can poison everyone on the street with my dishes. Stocking up on ingredients would be a waste!"
"Not so fast!" Lu Yibei said, her gaze sweeping around the Shu embroidery shop as she spoke, finally landing on the guitar next to the cash register. "Give me your guitar case!"
Su Mi scratched his head, puzzled. "Why do you need that thing to buy groceries?"
"Thump! Thump!"
Lu Yibei patted the mingwang statue beside her, her expression blank. "Carry it!"
Su Mi, "..." This kid used to seem quite smart! Now he's so foolish, even believing in such obvious intelligence tax?
...
Leaving Peony Street, walking less than a kilometer east, and then passing through a small alley surrounded by old buildings, one arrives at the entrance of the market. Even before entering, one can hear the noisy haggling from within the market from afar.
This farmers' market has quite a history; at least since Lu Yibei can remember, it has been located here. Too much time has passed, and the sign above the rusty iron gate has long faded. People have forgotten its original name, only remembering that it was built in 1996, so everyone calls it the 96 Cai Market.
Passing through the gate, the air suddenly became murky, mixed with the smell of rotten vegetable leaves and raw meat. The alleyway, wide enough for two or three people to walk abreast, was not overflowing with sewage or littered with debris, but it was stained with dirt.
"Buns, steamed buns, steamed sponge cakes! Fresh out of the oven!"
"Grass carp, crucian carp! Grass carp, crucian carp just pulled from the reservoir this morning!"
"Homegrown greens! Want some, young man? They're super fresh, pure farm fertilizer, no pollution, look, there's even some manure on the leaves... Hey! Young man, don't leave, young man!"
"Bone-setting liniment, powerful pills! Help you be a true man again!"
...
It was noon, and various shouts of hawkers filled the market. Pedestrians hurried by, occasionally stopping to select ingredients, or impatiently waving their hands and walking on.
When she was little, her father would buy ingredients here, and Lu Yibei would often follow him, her bright eyes curiously looking around, seeing the vegetables, chickens, ducks, fish, and crabs, as if she had entered a huge botanical and zoological garden.
Therefore, being in this somewhat dirty and noisy environment, Lu Yibei did not show the slightest discomfort; on the contrary, she felt a strange sense of familiarity.
However, this sense of familiarity lasted only for a brief moment.
Accompanying a slight burning sensation in her eyes, Lu Yibei's brows immediately furrowed.
In the air, turbid gray auras flowed.
The fish and shrimp in the pond were conversing secretly in a strange language, and from the distant chicken and duck slaughtering point came unsettling, ear-piercing shrieks.
Around the pig legs hanging on iron hooks, a mass of grayish-black thick fog, or perhaps a gelatinous substance, condensed into the shape of a pig, subtly emitting low murmurs, as if pleading for something.
...
Lu Yibei, "..." Here we go again! It was one thing to be startled before, but has it now progressed to the point of not letting people eat in peace?
How am I supposed to eat this? I'd feel guilty eating it, okay!
"Young man, young man! Want some beef or lamb? Fresh, just slaughtered this morning!"
The enthusiastic words of the seller came from behind her. Lu Yibei turned around and saw that the lamb and beef on the stall behind her were also entangled with the same mist as on the pig legs.
That's right! It was also pork!
Lu Yibei looked expressionlessly at the boss who was smiling enthusiastically at her, then looked at the meat on the stall, and said coldly, "Sorry, I don't need any!"
I'll believe your nonsense! Using specially treated pork to impersonate beef and lamb, doesn't your conscience hurt?
Lu Yibei thought, then turned around, her gaze inadvertently sweeping over a shop selling frozen meats, and then she froze in place.
It was a small storefront facing the street. The cold white light of the incandescent lamp illuminated the entire shop. The thin, hunched, and sallow-skinned owner leaned back in a reclining chair, fanning himself with a palm-leaf fan, eyes closed in repose.
The old upright freezer hummed softly as it operated. Through the thin layer of frost on the glass, one could vaguely see clusters of mist floating inside, much thinner than those at the fresh meat stall.
The shapes of those mists included chickens and ducks, cattle and sheep, and also...
Half a person!
Half a person, split from top to bottom, from the middle, the cross-section looked as if it had been cut with a blunt knife, jagged and with an exceptionally clear outline!
The half-person's facial features were a black void, lying face up on the edge of the freezer, its messy black long hair hanging down to the floor. Every time a passerby walked by, its mouth would emit indistinct, strange guttural sounds.
"Not... not... not the other half..."
Staring at the humanoid smoke, Lu Yibei's stomach felt as if something had stirred it, and it began to twitch uncontrollably. She closed her eyes and took several deep breaths before she managed to suppress the urge to vomit. Covering her mouth, she ran away.
...
On Peony Street, in front of Gujin Handmade Shu Embroidery, after Lu Yibei left, Su Mi picked up his phone and made calls non-stop, spreading the news of her return to the neighbors who had been missing the Lu family's cooking.
"Hey! Old Liu! Yes, yes, Lu Yibei is back! What shop are you looking at, hurry over for dinner!"
"Uncle Zhang, do you want to eat the Lu family's pickled pepper pork liver? If you do, come over at noon! Of course, Lu Yibei is cooking! How could it be me!"
"Lili, it's me, Su Mi! No, no, I'm not confessing this time, don't hang up yet! I wanted to tell you that Lu Yibei is cooking at my place this noon, would you do me the honor of coming for a meal?"
...
When Lu Yibei rushed back, several people were already sitting on small stools in front of the Gujin Shu Embroidery shop. When they saw her appear, they all looked at her with anticipation, but when they saw her empty-handed, that hope faded.
Seeing this, Su Mi stepped forward, poked Lu Yibei, and whispered, "Why did you come back without buying anything? You wouldn't have known I called everyone, and now you want to be lazy and quit, would you?"
"Whoosh—whoosh—!" Lu Yibei's chest heaved violently. She rolled her eyes at Su Mi. "I, I'm not that petty. I'm... I'm..."
As soon as she thought of the humanoid mist she had just seen, Lu Yibei's face turned pale again. She hurriedly took out Su Mi's wallet and handed it back to him. "Forget it, you wouldn't believe me even if I told you! In short, if you want to eat my cooking, go buy the ingredients yourself!"
Su Mi scratched the back of his head, looked at the group of "eagerly awaiting" neighbors, then at Lu Yibei's reddened eyes, and mumbled, "If I have to buy it, I'll buy it. Why are you crying?" As he spoke, he took the wallet.
Su Mi had barely walked a few steps when Lu Yibei called him back.
"Wait!"
"What now?"
"Don't buy frozen meat!" Lu Yibei said with a serious expression.
Su Mi waved his hand with his back to Lu Yibei, "Got it! I'll {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} get the freshest for Chef Lu!"
"Also, don't buy beef or lamb from stall number 37!"
Su Mi stopped, crossed his thick arms over his chest, and tilted his head, looking at Lu Yibei. "Anything else?" frёewebηovel.cѳm
"That's it." Lu Yibei said expressionlessly.
