Chuzhou was lively and noisy at noon. The guards took the Liu family's widow and her son to the inn to settle their carriages and horses. The old man and Zhu Yunxi led others to stroll leisurely on the street.
The prosperity of this place is different from that of the capital city, but it is more lively. The shops and vendors on the street are like attending a big fair, and the sounds of hawking and bargaining can be heard one after another.
"Grandpa Huang!" Zhu Yunxi whispered to the old man, "There is a restaurant over there that looks good. Let's sit there?"
The old man stretched his neck to look over there and shook his head slightly, "What's the point of a restaurant? It's boring!" As he said that, his eyes fell on a crowded place in the market and he smiled, "That's good!"
Zhu Yunxi took a closer look, but it was a stall selling noodles.
The stall is not big, with only a few stools and low tables, but there are a lot of diners around. There are not enough stools for there are too many people, so some people simply squat on the ground with bowls as big as their heads, slurping the noodles in their hands.
Standing on the noodle table next to the stove was a man with a fleshy face. He kneaded the noodles viciously with his big hands, then stretched them hard a few times to turn them into long and thin noodles, and threw them into the pot of boiling water.
The proprietress, whose waist is like a bucket, takes out the cooked noodles and scoops out a few spoonfuls of thick oily red sauce from the large pot next to it, then adds some sugar and garlic to the diners.
"That's it!" The old man agreed with a smile.
Zhu Yunxi was a little hesitant. The man with the face stretched out his face had mud in his fingernails, and the busy city was full of dust...
"If you don't eat it, you won't get sick!" The old man seemed to know what he was thinking, and said with a smile, "After we leave the palace, we are farmers. There are so many things to do, so let's go!"
Zhu Yunxi followed the old man and glanced at Li Jinglong next to him.
The latter rushed over directly. After checking that there was really no empty space around the stall, he rushed to the tea stall next to it and grabbed tables, chairs and benches at random.
"Hey, what are you doing with my stool?" Naturally the tea seller refused.
With a bang, a few copper coins were thrown on the table, spinning around.
Suddenly, the owner of the tea stall smiled brightly and asked, "Sir, would you like some tea?"
"I'll lend you the tables and chairs, and bring over some pots of herbal tea!"
Li Jinglong said something, then wiped the oil-stained Mahua table surface with his sleeves, smiled and said to the old man who was coming, "Old man, please slow down, it's cool here with the wind!"
"Okay, this is good!" The old man smiled and sat down, shouting from the opposite stall, "Shopkeeper, put the noodles on everyone's head!"
"Okay!" the landlady agreed and replied crisply, "What kind of braised food would you like, old man? There are diced eggplant meat, soybean meat sauce, cucumber, egg and shrimp skin, and hot pot soup with rotten meat...
..”
"Hot soup with rotten pork noodles!" The old man agreed again.
"It's so hot to eat this on a cold day!" Li Jinglong started to smile, but then he suddenly stopped laughing.
There is a table and four benches. The father and I sit on two, and Guo Ying and Cao Zhen each sit on one. Where should he sit?
Just then, a person stood up behind him and went to the stove to add marinade.
Li Jinglong took the opportunity to sit under his butt when no one was paying attention. When the man came back, he looked around with a bowl in his hands and cursed, "Who took away my stool? What a bastard!"
The people eating in these market places are all rough men, so naturally they won't say anything nice when they open their mouths.
But Li Jinglong was cheerful as if he hadn't heard anything, and the man turned around several times angrily.
But the next second, a leg suddenly appeared under his feet.
With a plop, the man who was walking and eating noodles with his head lowered his head fell straight to the ground.
"Hahaha!" The people around burst into laughter.
Li Jinglong took back the leg that tripped the person and said, "Why isn't this man more careful?"
"My noodles!" The man stood up and looked at the noodles all over the floor with regret on his face.
The old man glared at Li Jinglong and said, "Young man, go and add a bowl of noodles, and we will be blamed for it!"
"I have a good bowl of noodles!" The man stood up with a sad face. Not sure if he heard the old man's words, he pulled the noodles on the ground into a bowl, then walked to the bucket of the stall and filled it with the clear water inside.
I washed the muddy noodles, asked for a spoonful of marinade, squatted beside me and ate it, staring at Li Jinglong with bulging eyes.
"Did you see it?" The old man said with a bluster, "People live their lives without wasting any food!" He said, looking at Li Jinglong, "What are you doing!"
"What the old man is teaching you is that you are at fault!" Li Jinglong quickly stood up and said to the man, "I accidentally tripped you just now. I have to apologize to you." After saying that, he took out a handful of copper coins from his sleeve and stuffed it.
Go over and say, "Take it, go back tonight and buy some wine and meat for your family!"
However, the man didn't answer the question. Instead, he looked stern and said, "How rich are you? Do you believe that I can stick a bowl of noodles on your head?"
Immediately, he looked at the copper coins in Li Jinglong's hand, grabbed them fiercely, and said, "Forget my old temper, I'll beat you up!" Then he swallowed the bowl of noodles and walked away.
"Hahaha!" The old man laughed beside him.
Seeing Li Jinglong's embarrassment, Zhu Yunxi smiled and said, "Go and look around. There is no one selling dog meat around. The old man wants this!"
Li Jinglong didn't dare to neglect and went quickly.
"Fourth brother, look at it, he still has money!" Cao Zhen muttered.
Guo Ying nodded, "I haven't searched them all!"
Not long after, several hot bowls of large meat-soup pot noodles were brought to the table. The advantage of a small place is that it is affordable and the portions are large. The bowl with soup and noodles weighed two to three kilograms.
The old man blew the hot soup inside, took a sip of the noodle soup, and then slurred, "Damn it, the cook in the palace deserves to be killed!"
Cao Zhen put the garlic in his left hand and the right hand into his mouth and said, "This bowl of noodles is better than anything else!"
At this time, Li Jinglong also trotted back, opened the oil paper bag in his hand, and said with a smile, "Old man, you can try the freshly cut dog legs!"
The old man picked up a piece, dipped it in the hot noodles, and said with a smile, "If the dog meat rolls three times, the gods will not be able to stand still!"
"I couldn't even imagine these days when I was a kid!" Guo Ying also laughed, "It's time for the Chinese New Year!"
The old man looked at the bustling crowd around him and said, "What a great year!" After saying that, he looked at Guo Ying and Cao Zhen and said thoughtfully, "You are all heroes!"
Meat and noodles are not just available today.
Now that the world is peaceful and prosperous, and everyone can work hard to earn money, it appears on the people's dining table.
And behind this peace and prosperity is the blood of countless people.
No matter what their original intention was, in short, they built this country and cherished it carefully and protected it. Only then can we have peace today.
A few people were eating noodles here when suddenly a group of children ran past the market shouting happily, shouting, "Let's go eat wedding candies!"
The old man took a look and asked the landlady, "Is there any happy event in the city?"
"Are you guys from out of town?" the noodle stall proprietress said with a smile, "No wonder you don't know that our Marquis Zhang from Chuzhou is getting married, and we have been handing out sweets and doing favors at the gate of the Marquis's mansion these days!"
"Who?" Cao Zhen stopped his chopsticks and said, "Master Zhang?"
"Is this Fengxiang Hou Zhang Long?" the old man also asked.
"Besides him, there is also Mr. Zhang!" the landlady said with a smile.
The old man put down the bowl and asked Guo Ying, "We remember that he seems to be about the same age as us."
"Two years older than you!" Guo Ying said.
"The earth is buried in your neck, why should you marry his mother?" the old man scolded. "Is he still okay?"
This chapter has been completed!