Chapter 122: If We Grow Old

Shen Yu and Asaba Li Xiang were the last to come out of the room, Zhao Yage and the others had already packed their bags and were waiting for them in the living room.

When they saw the two coming out, everyone's eyes naturally shot over in a slightly ambiguous manner.

Li Xiang followed Shen Yu with her backpack, her head slightly bowed, her face still scarlet and not walking very fast, she followed him in small steps.

Shen Yu looks a little more haggard than yesterday, and although he had a refreshing morning nap, he is still not in the best of spirits, so he must have not slept well last night.

Everyone knew enough not to press the issue.

Also in bad shape are Ke Liangji and Zhao Yage.

They both went to bed at about 2am last night, and Zhao Yage stayed up all night threatening Ke Liangji to tell her about the 'empty bottle of oxygen' girl. Ke Liangji spoke with trepidation all night, not knowing how she could be so gossipy, but feeling that if she didn't, she might not see the sun this morning.

Jiang Ningle and her boyfriend Li Jing were in the best shape, both looking quite flushed and moving much more intimately with each other.

"Let's go, let's go, let's go for breakfast!"

"Didn't leave anything behind, did you? Did you bring your room card?"

"Brought up with ......"

The check-out was quick and the deposit was refunded after the card was taken back and we wished everyone a pleasant stay.

After coming out, a few people went to town for morning tea, and at this hour they all took it as lunch.

There are a number of teahouses inside the old town, and from afar you can feel the bustle inside, as well as the young men dressed in ancient costumes, busily serving tea to customers.

"I'll make you some tea!"

A few people were more elegant and ordered a pot of tea, boiling their own water and making their own tea, Li Xiang knew the tea ceremony and took the initiative to make tea for everyone.

From washing the pot, brewing, dividing the cups and serving the tea, she appeared to be very adept at all the procedures, and Shen Yu was aware of her skills, but Jiang Ningle and the others looked shocked.

"Li Xiang, you are too good at it!"

"Looking so virtuous!"

"Master, please have some tea~"

Seeing the shocked look of the crowd, Shen Yu felt vaguely proud again, sitting upright with his cup of tea.

Although he usually says Li Xiang is silly, no one else can say that about her.

The six of them sit in pairs, occasionally talking about something that we can all relate to, but more often than not, it's Jiang Ningle and Li Jing talking, Zhao Yage and Ke Liangji bickering, and Shen Yu having no choice but to talk to Li Xiang.

"Shen Yu, this dried radish is delicious, try it."

Li Xiang put some dried radish into Shen Yu's bowl and he ate it with the white porridge, which was very salty and tasty.

"Do you want the shrimp dumplings?" Shen Yu asked her.

"Mmm!"

The tea portions were very small, but there were many dishes ordered, and there were only four shrimp dumplings, so Shen Yu took the remaining one and gave it to Li Xiang.

He didn't feel it himself, and it seemed to be coming more and more naturally when he was doing it.

For example, when ordering food, they will try to consider her taste, not to order spicy and greasy food, but to order something that looks good, and when they eat something delicious, they will also ask her to try it.

"When we go back, buy some radishes and I'll make dried radishes for you to eat, okay?"

"Will you do it."

"It shouldn't be too hard, I'll learn it and I'll get it."

Shen Yu doesn't know how to cook, but I did read some anecdotes before about pickling radishes, pickles and the like, where you step on the water out of the radish with your bare feet so that it tastes best when pickled.

Just thinking about it brings to his mind the image of Li Xiang stomping on a radish with his bare feet, and just thinking about it makes the radish taste good.

If Li Xiang is stomping on it with his feet, then Shen Yu will definitely not eat it, so whoever likes will eat it.

The two of them were overheard by Jiang Ningle and the rest of the group were very interested in the dried radish that Li Xiang had made himself.

"Li Xiang, if you make it yourself, it must be delicious! Can you share some with me then? I can't eat anything in the morning and I feel like dried radish would be good with white porridge!"

"I haven't made it yet, I don't know if it's going to be bad ......"

Shen Yu said, "I'm sure it's awful, it's no good to give away, we'll just eat it ourselves."

Jiang Ningle and others bemoaned, "You just want to eat it yourself!"

After the morning tea, the outing was over. After all, the weather was not good, and just after coming out of the teahouse, it was raining again.

"Didn't bring an umbrella. ......"

"I didn't bring one either, it seemed to be raining all last night and I thought it was over and my umbrella was still in the car ......"

"Buy a few umbrellas."

Jiang Ningle bought an umbrella to use with Li Jing, Zhao Yage also bought one, and Ke Liangji wanted to buy one, but she scolded him for being afraid of me, so he went to the same umbrella as her.

Shen Yu also bought an umbrella, but turned around to see Li Xiang following him, with no intention of buying one.

"You're not afraid to get wet?"

"Shen Yu didn't buy it."

She said it with a straight face, as if he had bought the umbrella and was bound to hold it with her.

"I'm holding my own."

"What about me? What about me?"

Li Xiang looked at him with a bitter face, clutching the corner of his coat and looking at him with big, pitiful eyes.

"Can we hold it together? I already have an umbrella, it's a waste to buy another one! It's not raining too hard and our car isn't far away ......"

When he didn't say anything, Li Xiang's little hand grabbed the corner of his coat and pulled it again.

After the rain, the temperature dropped a lot, the town felt foggy, and the stone pavement was wet, and occasionally when a cool breeze blew in the face, the moisture was mixed with cold air and blown into the body through the cracks in the clothes.

Shen Yu opened his umbrella with a clatter, and the young girl beside him leapt to follow him, clinging to his side, and a warmth came over him, with the scent of her hair in the air.

Li Xiang is most afraid of the cold.

Although the ambition is to get my hands under Shen Yu's clothes to keep them warm before winter arrives, unfortunately this is not possible yet.

Her little hands were tucked into her sleeves, showing only her two little fingers. The wind was blowing from the right, and she was just to Shen Yu's left, reaching out with her right hand and wrapping it around his waist, and hugging him a little harder, even trying to hug him with both arms together.

Shen Yu's waist tensed up immediately and he gave the guy a blank stare as there were many pedestrians around.

"Well, isn't that how I hold you when I'm in the electric car ......"

"Can that be the same?"

"What's the difference ......"

Shen Yu couldn't answer, and even thought her answer made sense. After all, when she was riding in the electric car, she was holding both hands together, but now she was holding with one hand, so the math really tightened up.

Probably because he was still thinking about whether he was being taken advantage of, Li Xiang looked up at him and said, " Shen Yu, you can hug me too, then we'll be even."

"Do you think I wouldn't dare?"

"Then, then you try ......"

Shen Yu was holding the umbrella with her right hand, when her left hand suddenly came around behind her, resting her palm on her slender shoulder and wrapping it hard in her direction, then retracting her hand like lightning, feeling as if her brain had short-circuited.

Li Xiang has finally behaved himself.

She blushed and said nothing, looking down at her toes as she followed him woodenly.

For a moment there, she didn't even think Shen Yu would dare to hug her, her skin still tingling from his hand on her left shoulder, her body red with shyness under her jumper, like a boiled prawn.

It wasn't cold at all now, and she was breathing a little faster, the gas coming out of her nostrils forming a white mist in the cold. She peeked up at Shen Yu and saw him staring ahead, his head moving as if frozen, except that his nose was puffing and puffing like hers, and his heartbeat was so loud that she could faintly hear it, like a broken engine.

"Shen Yu ...... is so sick ......" she hummed a small voice.

"You're the sickest, you keep your mouth shut."

It was only after he had calmed down that Shen Yu began to be shocked by his own reaction.

After just one night with her, he was a little panicked to find that he was not at all averse to intimacy with her, and even had a vague anticipation of it, his mind telling him to stay away from her, but his body honestly enjoying being close to her.

It's hard to describe the feeling, like a person on a diet who refuses to eat chocolate, but when it's shoved into his mouth, while saying 'I don't want it' and 'it's so good', the sweetness tingles the taste buds and all the cells in his body are jumping for joy, poor The poor, humble brain is defenceless.

Even now, when he has the idea of breaking the small hand around his waist, Li Xiang only needs to hold it a little tighter, and the thought in his mind is as fragile as ashes from a burning flame, and a little breeze will blow it away.

"What's happening to me?"

"Is this getting worse and worse?"

When Shen Yu was in self-doubt, Li Xiang whispered to him, " Shen Yu, you are so nice."

"Your umbrella is moving to my side, your shoulders are getting wet, and then you're helping me block the wind ......"

Shen Yu froze, had he not gotten worse, but better?

Gradually, the inner voice of self-doubt grew quieter and then quieted, and Shen Yu was at peace with himself.

The two of us walked together under umbrellas, so naturally we couldn't go very fast, and the old town of Jiang Nan in the rain was actually quite a sight to behold.

There are also old men in straw hats and straw coats fishing by the river, using small, ordinary bamboo poles, which are not good for fishing at this time of year.

It was not long before another young man came over and shouted to the old grandfather to go home for dinner, and helped him carry the bucket and the small bench, while the grandfather and grandson talked and laughed.

Li Xiang looked at the scene and inexplicably felt harmonious and warm, so he asked Shen Yu: " What would Shen Yu do if he were as old as this old man?"

"I don't know."

Shen Yu doesn't really know yet. Given his current abundance of life, it's hard for him to imagine what he'll be like in his old age, but what he can imagine is that his memory will decline, that he'll forget many, many people and many, many things, that he'll no longer be able to move well, that he'll take a long time to walk a distance, and that he'll feel more at home with his grandchildren, fishing and playing chess like this old grandfather.

"What about you?"

"I'll cook at home, clean, and wait for my husband and children to come home and eat with me. I'll have a lot of time when I'm old, I guess, and I'd like to grow some more vegetables myself, so I'll eat my own vegetables usually, and then I'll make dried turnips, which I think are delicious."

"You've lost all your teeth and you can still bite into dried turnips?"

Shen Yu has a vision of a little old lady who is so afraid of the cold that when winter arrives, she has to drag the little old man with her to warm herself in front of the fire.

"In our place, little old ladies still have to learn to play cards, and you're so silly you must have lost all your meal money."

"Then teach me, didn't we both win many, many times last night!"

"That's me being there, if I wasn't there, would you win for life."

Li Xiang was silent for a moment, lifted her eyes to look at him and said with certainty.

"I can win for life!"