Re-engraving the Spring - Chapter 28
Chi Qiu never could believe that he had bitten his tongue at such a critical moment——stuttering. It was clearly in a very ambiguous atmosphere, and what Chi Qiu felt was surprisingly overwhelmingly awkward.
He was stunned and instantly confused.
To be honest, if conditions permitted, Chi Qiu wanted to dig three feet into the ground on the spot and bury himself decisively into the earth. To be more exaggerated, he wanted to live on another planet.
Chi Qiu’s entire face was hot, and even his head seemed to be smoking. He couldn’t care less about being ashamed and explained loudly: “What I said was ‘do’,1做 (zuo). What he said earlier is zhuo (table) it’s the ‘do’ of ‘do’ things!” He anxiously tried to remedy the situation, but the more he said, the more confused he became.
Lu Ming obviously understood what Chi Qiu was talking about.
It was just a mispronunciation, he didn’t think it was a ‘fatal embarrassment’ at all.
Lu Ming’s complexion was flat; looking at his blushing partner in front of him, there were no ripples in his heart. He calculated the time in his heart, the two of them had not been intimate for about three months. As a normal pair of newlywed partners, it was indeed a bit long.
Although Lu Ming’s body was very healthy, due to his lack of feelings, Lu Ming had never been positive on this matter.
If it weren’t for Chi Qiu’s meaning, he would hardly mention it. Every time he saw Chi Qiu who was confused and distracted, Lu Ming always concealed his actions to the best of his abilities to avoid suspicion from the other party.
Anyway, Chi Qiu couldn’t see. Even if his face showed no interest, it wouldn’t be a big problem.
Listening to Chi Qiu’s endless explanations, Lu Ming seemed a little tired. He bowed his head and kissed Chi Qiu again. His voice came to an abrupt end.
As soon as the kiss ended, Lu Ming carefully helped Chi Qiu rearrange his collar: “Okay.”
…………
After half an hour.
Chi Qiu, who was sitting in the passenger side of the car, touched his face with his hands, trying to cool the temperature down a bit. Lu Ming, who was driving, thought he was hot and asked him to take off his coat.
Chi Qiu stammered: “No, not hot.” He pressed down the window a little, “The car is too stuffy, I’ll get some air.”
The familiar street entrance, the park in Xingxi City was full of blooming apricot flowers. Chi Qiu smelled the scent of flowers in the wind and ‘looked’ at the window like a child, as if he could see it.
The spring breeze was slightly cool, gradually blowing away the heat on his face. Chi Qiu felt a lot more comfortable, thinking silently in his heart that he would forget the embarrassment of today and just leave the happiness between the two people.
By the time he closed the window again, they had already arrived at the restaurant recommended by Lu Ming.
Lu Ming drove the car into a place that looked like a garden. He followed the instructions and parked under the green shade on one side. There were not many cars around. Compared with other restaurants in Xinghua City, this restaurant named ‘Qu Yuan Nanfeng’ had a relatively quiet environment.
Lu Ming got out of the car and led Chi Qiu to a dark brown gate.
The two had just taken a step when a waiter wearing a black and gold peony cheongsam greeted them and politely asked if they had a reservation.
Lu Ming showed the reservation code. The waitress took the small device in her hand and scanned the code. After determining which box they were in, she nodded slightly with an elegant demeanor: “This way, please, two gentlemen.”
Usually, whenever Chi Qiu went out, he would bring his cane along.
But today, he left his cane in the car because he was too excited.
Lu Ming saw it, but didn’t remind him. He asked Chi Qiu to hold his arm all the way, and Lu Ming would remind him in advance when he reached a place with steps. After discovering that Chi Qiu was blind, the waiter deliberately slowed down her pace of leading the way.
Qu Yuan Nanfeng’s private rooms were located in different courtyards of the garden, each with a different viewing point.
Lu Ming actually wanted to book the ‘Bamboo’ box, but this was too impromptu, only one ‘Lotus’ was left.
Soon, through the corridors, they arrived at ‘Lotus’.
The wooden carved door was pushed open from the outside towards the inside. What they saw was a spacious and exquisite low wooden teahouse with neatly placed pens, ink, paper and inkstones, and the wall was hung with lotus-themed paintings and calligraphy. Outside a window, there was a large lake with water lily leaves that had not yet bloomed.
The waitress said in a warm voice, “Please be careful of the threshold.”
She led the two inside and lifted a beaded curtain on the right: “Please take your seats.”
There was only one long, narrow table, which was just suitable for two people to sit against each other. The soft cushions were spread on the hard wooden chairs and there was no trace of dust on the dining table.
Chi Qiu turned sideways and squinted, “Is there a window here?”
“Yes, sir.” the waiter replied.
If it were usual, she definitely would have to explain; if you come to this box from June to September, you can watch the lotus blooming in the lake when you look out from here.
But because Chi Qiu was blind, she did not mention it, only asked: “Today the sky is clear and there is a little wind, do you want to open the window, or close it?”
Chi Qiu was already in the seat with Lu Ming’s help. He was in a good mood, smiling at the light outside and saying, “Open it, ba.”
The waitress answered, and two more waitresses in light-colored lotus-print cheongsam came in at the door. One brought tea and the other handed over two menus.
Chi Qiu did not make the extra effort to flip the menu, he heard Lu Ming say, “I asked her to quote you all the dishes, so you can see what you want to eat.”
Chi Qiu shook his head: “No, it’s good to have scallion fish. You can order the rest. I love everything you order.”
Lu Ming knew that Chi Qiu was not a picky eater.
Seeing that Chi Qiu had said this, he went through the menu. Within a few minutes, the dishes were ordered.
Two of the three waiters went out. One was waiting by his side. She could be regarded as the person in charge of this box, ready to pour tea and water for the two of them. Lu Ming didn’t like to have strangers around for private meals, so he specially asked her to go out.
Only then did Chi Qiu ask: “You ordered food very quickly just now, do you come here often?”
“En.” Lu Ming took a sip of tea, it was a fragrant lotus leaf tea. “Sometimes when I have an appointment with a client, I will book the ‘Peony Room’ in advance.”
Peony room was the most luxuriously decorated of all the private rooms, more suitable for businessmen to meet and discuss business. Naturally, the price was also the most expensive.
“Does Secretary Xu look for this place?” Chi Qiu was curious about everything about Lu Ming.
Lu Ming held the tea cup and put it down safely: “My mother used to love to come here.”
That scallion fish that separated the fish from the scallion sauce was what Lu Ming had tasted here.
His mother, Lu You, grew up as a young wealthy lady; her ten fingers had never touched the spring water.2十指不沾阳春水: an idiom. Basically means someone having a pampered life She could not cook at all. The family’s meals were all made by the nanny.
Occasionally, she would bring Lu Ming to this restaurant for dinner and order some special dishes. Scallion fish was a dish that the mother and son must order every time they came here.
This almost became Lu Ming’s special taste memory of his mother when he was a child.
Lu Ming said: “She would order scallion fish every time.”
When Chi Qiu first heard Lu Ming mention his mother, he instantly understood why Lu Ming liked scallion fish so much.
Anyone could have a childhood taste of their mother that they couldn’t forget. For example, Chi Qiu, the most difficult thing for him to forget was that when he returned to illness, Chi Lanyan personally cooked the scallion egg drop soup for him.
Chi Qiu pursed the corner of his mouth, and said shamelessly: “I also like scallion fish as much as mom.” He naturally called Lu You ‘mom’, in an intimate tone, as if the two were in a good relationship.
Lu Ming was startled.
Clearly Chi Qiu was his partner, and the two were obviously married. But at this moment, when Chi Qiu yelled the word ‘mom’, Lu Ming suddenly became unaccustomed to it.
If the family was an empty house, then Lu Ming was the one who had been standing alone in this empty house, and Chi Qiu was the one who was standing outside the door.
Today, Chi Qiu seemed to have knocked on the door.
Lu Ming’s empty heart reverberated with the sound of ‘thump thump’, and the lingering sound lasted for a long time.
Chi Qiu held up the tea, and took a little sip. The temperature of the tea was just right. Chi Qiu was in a good mood and talked more. “Lu Ming, besides scallion fish, did mom have other favorite dishes? Today is a rare occasion to go out, can I try them all?”
Maybe, after eating this meal, he could better understand Lu Ming’s childhood.
As a result, Lu Ming did not follow his words to continue, only hastily ended it: “After her death, I don’t remember many things.”
While Lu Ming packed up and hid the dark memories, he accidentally buried a lot of happy memories. His deliberate evasion made him surprisingly unable to remember. Besides this scallion fish, what else did Lu You like to eat?
Regarding the topic of Lu You, Lu Ming didn’t want to talk more about it with Chi Qiu, it made him uncomfortable.
He got up: “I’ll go to the bathroom.”
Before Chi Qiu could react, Lu Ming had already entered the bathroom on the other side of the curtain.
“Lu…” Chi Qiu said. Before he finished shouting his name, he accidentally knocked over the tea cup on the table, and the cup, which was made into a fat round shape, rolled towards the edge of the table.
Chi Qiu panicked. He quickly reached out to the place where the cup fell and steadily caught the cup.
At this time, the little waiter who came in with the first dish looked at him in surprise.
Chi Qiu also ‘looked’ at her, then slowly put the cup back on the table, his eyes were as dull and helpless as ever. He said embarrassingly: “Sorry, I can’t see, I accidentally knocked over the water cup, can you help me clean it up?”
“Yes, wait a moment.” The waitress quietly glanced at him a few times and found that Chi Qiu’s demeanor was indeed blind.
She tilted her head, thinking that she must have misread the situation.
After all, many blind people could judge the location of objects by sound.
T/N: hi everyone, due to my busy schedule, I’ll update only a chapter on Sunday, but if I have some free time, I’ll try to update on other days too.
