Yokai grocery store

The setting sun is slanting to the west, and the afterglow is pulsed.

The young man with a backpack walked briskly through the streets and alleys, holding a bag of half-eaten candied fruit in his hand, humming a little tune happily, looking around casually, looking for any other shops selling food.

The old street is an ancient street that has not yet been fully modernized. There are long stone slabs. If you look around, there are mostly two-story small buildings with blue bricks and white tiles. The eaves are slightly raised. Sitting unknown stone beast.

There are tall bronze-coloured pillars lined on both sides of the street, with red lanterns on the top of the pillars.As the sky darkened, the red lanterns lit up one by one. The breeze swayed slightly, emitting a warm orange light.

When the time came, the residents of the old street began to kindly persuade the tourists to leave - this place is not open around the clock, it only sells [-] tickets every day, first come, first served, and the tour time is from [-]:[-] am to [-]:[-] pm.

The tourists left in twos and threes, but what surprised Xiang Xiaocheng, the young man, was that the residents all bypassed him by coincidence, and greeted him warmly instead of saying a word about his stay.

Xiang Xiaocheng scratched his head and returned a silly smile.

Speaking of which, he would come to Lao Cai just to eat.More than half a year ago, he once ate a pack of dried meat bought in Laojie from a friend.

No one persuaded him to leave, and Xiang Xiaocheng decided to let himself go after being confused for a while-whatever!What a treasure this old street is!He ate a lot of food here today, and everything was delicious!He simply wants to stay here for a few days and nights until he has enough to eat!

Just as he was thinking, a scent wafted over, and Xiang Xiaocheng's eyes lit up. He followed the scent and found that it was a wonton shop.

When he sat down, there were already four guests in the shop, obviously all residents of the old street, chatting familiarly around a table.He poked his head and looked in, and saw the mellow and snow-white soup in a steaming cauldron, bubbling and exuding a mouth-watering aroma.

"Brother Tu, it's the same! Four bowls of wontons with spicy food! Four bowls with no spicy food!" The customer at the next table boldly ordered.

The shop is small and there are no waiters.Xiang Xiaocheng thought for a while, and shouted inside: "I want a bowl too! It's not spicy!"

"Hey—good!" There was a hearty reply from inside, and the young man in an apron ran out with a smile on his face, skillfully scooped out wontons, and brought out bowls after bowls of wontons.

When serving it to Xiang Xiaocheng, he paused, smiled, and showed his big teeth like a rabbit: "Hey, new customer!" He put down the wonton, looked at Xiang Xiaocheng again, and said enthusiastically: "Eat, eat!" Let's go! It's delicious!"

The aroma is really attractive, the white and fat wontons are floating in the snow-white broth, with green onion, Xiang Xiaocheng, who has been eating and eating all day, suddenly feels hungry again, and has no time to think about the young man With a meaningful look in his eyes, he picked up the spoon and couldn't wait to take a bite.

"Ah, it's hot!"

Seeing that he scalded his mouth and was still reluctant to spit it out, the young man smiled, turned around and went into the shop without saying anything.

Such a large bowl of delicious wontons costs only 15 yuan.After Xiang Xiaocheng finished this bowl, he still felt unsatisfied, so he ordered another bowl with spicy food.

This hot sauce is probably homemade by the store. It is spicy but not choking, making people unable to stop after one bite.After Xiang Xiaocheng finished eating two large bowls, he felt his stomach was rounded and he was so full that he couldn't move, so he took a long break before reaching for his wallet.

It just so happened that the people at the next table were also paying the bill. They ate eight bowls in total, and they were also belching with satisfaction at this time, and handed out a few coins.

Xiang Xiaocheng flipped through his wallet, only found a few dollars, so he could only hand over Grandpa Mao.

The young man took the money and grinned at him: "Customer, wait a minute, I'll give you some change!" Then he ran into the shop.

——Obviously he has a lot of change in his hand, why did he go to look for it?

Xiang Xiaocheng's doubts only lasted for a while, and the young man ran out quickly again, holding a few banknotes, a little embarrassed: "This money is a bit old...but it can still be used!"

Xiang Xiaocheng took the banknotes in his hand, the banknotes were fairly clean, and there was nothing tattered about them, it was just an old version.He didn't care, just thought the boss didn't like the old version, nodded, got up and left.

Seeing him walk away, the young man scratched his head and sighed: "The last time I met such a customer was decades ago...Fortunately, I still have these few coins left."

"Oh, it's all right." The few guests who hadn't left comforted, "The coins over there are rarely changed."

……

It was completely dark.

Xiang Xiaocheng ate too much and felt full, so he planned to walk slowly for a while to digest.

It was meal time, there were no people on the street, and every house was brightly lit. Listening carefully, there were laughter and laughter.As Xiang Xiaocheng walked and listened, he unconsciously sketched a picture of a happy family gathering together in his mind, and suddenly felt homesick.

He went to other provinces to work after graduating from university.Although the work income is good, but has been very busy, rarely go home.At this time, walking alone in a foreign land like this, I suddenly miss my family members who are thousands of miles away... Ah, it will be the Mid-Autumn Festival in a few days. Go home for a few days!

After Xiang Xiaocheng made up his mind, he stepped up and was ready to leave the old street and go back to the hotel to rest.

He walked along the main road of Long Street, but for some reason, he didn't see the intersection he came in this morning after walking for a long time.Looking at the seemingly endless road in front of him, he fell into deep thought.

——This street obviously has only one main road, and the side roads are full of residential buildings and small shops, so it is impossible for him to go wrong!

But it's been a long time since I've been walking, I guess it's been an hour, even if I started walking from the end of the street, I should have gone out long ago.Xiang Xiaocheng took out his mobile phone and wanted to navigate, but the phone had already run out of battery and turned off.

In the night of early autumn, the cool breeze blew him up, and he couldn't help but think of many mysterious stories that happened in the ancient streets of the ancient city... A shiver suddenly occurred.

Fortunately, the light from those lanterns somewhat dispelled his fear.Xiang Xiaocheng turned his head in disbelief.This time he quickened his pace, and he reached the end of the street in a short time—well, this time he was sure he was going the wrong way.

There is only one small building at the end of the street, standing silently at the end of the old street. Although it occupies a very large area, it is only two short floors.There is a door plaque hanging under the eaves.Xiang Xiaocheng identified it carefully, and recognized that it was the word "Chang'an", in traditional cursive script, with wild handwriting, every bit of it was full of arrogance.

The wooden door is split, covered with scratches, and each of the two copper handles is hung with a string of copper bells, which move slightly when the wind blows, making a not-so-clear ding-dong sound.

The jingle of the bell seemed to ring in Xiang Xiaocheng's mind, breaking his thoughts suddenly.He originally planned to turn back and leave the same way, but after the bell rang, he somehow changed his mind and reached out his hand to knock on the door in a daze.

It was only when his knuckles touched the door that he came back to his senses, and felt a little guilty—would he be taken as a fool if he knocked on someone's door for no reason at night?

He was about to slip away quietly, as if nothing happened, but a gentle and clear male voice came from the room: "Please wait a moment."

This voice is very nice, this is Xiang Xiaocheng's first thought.

When the door was opened, and the slender man showed his handsome face, his second thought was, this owner is too pretty!

Xiang Xiaocheng is an out-and-out science student. He has never passed Chinese since he was a child. He doesn't know what good words to use to describe the man in front of him. All he knows is that he is wearing a vintage wide-sleeved robe with a snow-white lapel. Embroidered with dark golden cloud patterns, her face is handsome but not feminine, and her whole body has a gentle temperament.

Xiang Xiaocheng racked his brains for a while, and finally managed to recall a line of classical Chinese that he had learned... Out of the mud but not stained, clean and clear but not demonic.

It was the first time he had seen such a handsome man.

For some reason, Xiang Xiaocheng, who had always been carefree, suddenly became embarrassed: "You... hello..."

The young man stared at him for a moment, smiled, let go of the doorknob, and turned to him as a gesture of invitation: "Please come in."

……

After holding a cup of hot tea in his palm, Xiang Xiaocheng entered the room without even thinking about why he was so dazed.He obviously only intended to pretend to ask for directions, to cover up his impolite behavior of knocking on the door for no reason!

He took a sip of the tea, it was fragrant and sweet. Although he didn't know what kind of tea it was, it must be good tea.

Xiang Xiaocheng seldom drinks tea, but he has no resistance to delicious food, so he silently took another sip, and another sip... Well, the tea cup is small, so he took two sips , see the bottom.

He forcefully put down the teacup calmly.

The young man filled his glass again.

Xiang Xiaocheng coughed a little embarrassedly: "Thank you... I'm really sorry for interrupting you so late, but I seem to... lost my way."

He himself felt blush when he said that, obviously there is only one road in this old street... He must have been tired from walking just now to have the illusion that this street is endless!

The young man was perhaps considerate, and didn't say anything to expose him, he just smiled lightly, with a hint of leisure in his tone: "It's very late, it's not safe to walk at night, if you don't mind, maybe you can come with me Take a rest for the night."

Xiang Xiaocheng's eyes widened slightly, could this be considered as being handed a pillow just after dozing off?In the afternoon, he was still thinking that it would be great if he could stay here for a few days and nights and eat delicious food, and at night...but it's not good to bother others like this.

He felt a little regretful, but when he raised his eyes, he bumped into the young man's eyes that were as bright as black stones, and suddenly he was dazed, the words of refusal wrapped around the tip of his tongue, and when he spit it out, he changed his appearance: "Then ...then bother you."