The Girl and the Cicadas

The steamed pork with rice flour is cooked and its aroma is irresistible. The color of the rice flour paste and the sauce is very appetizing. With a gentle bite, the meat inside is tender and delicate, and the fatty parts melt in your mouth. Every taste bud is filled with the joy of a delicious meal.

Liu Chang'an ate one bowl, Qin Yanan one bowl, and Zhou Dongdong, who believed that eating a lot would make him grow up quickly, ate two bowls.

The reason she didn't feed her three bowls was that Zhou Shuling thought Liu Chang'an always treated Zhou Dongdong like a pig. What if a child is too fat from a young age and can't lose weight during puberty?

Zhou Dongdong is chubby and cute now. She's over ten years old and still so chubby. I'm afraid that Brother Chang'an will become the original sin that ruins Zhou Dongdong's beautiful teenage years.

Then I'll have two bowls.

After finishing breakfast, Zhou Dongdong, carrying several bowls, walked to the sink and let go, causing the bowls to fall into the sink with a splash.

"If my bowl breaks again, you're in trouble," Liu Chang'an said without turning his head.

"No!" Zhou Dongdong exclaimed loudly, "Do you want me to help you wash the dishes?"

"No."

"Do you want me to sweep the floor for you?"

"No."

With nothing to do, the hardworking and friendly Zhou Dongdong found a small hoe and went to dig up the plastic chicks she had buried by the wall.

It was a yellow toy chicken with a long body, a red mouth shaped like an "O", and it would make an unpleasant, piercing squawk when its belly was pressed. Zhou Dongdong liked it very much.

"In ten years, Zhou Dongdong will be a slender young woman," Qin Yanan said, watching the small figure digging in the corner.

"People have to grow up eventually." Liu Chang'an nodded.

"Little girls often admire the older brother next door who grew up with them, and there are many stories of young girls falling in love with the older brother next door when they grow up." Qin Yanan looked at Liu Chang'an.

Liu Chang'an looked at Qin Yanan with displeasure.

"I'm referring to a phenomenon." Qin Yanan looked back at Liu Chang'an without flinching.

"The relationship between an older brother and a little girl is a perfect one, why bring in all this stuff you're saying?" Liu Chang'an shook his head. "People these days lack genuine emotion, or are stingy with their feelings, so they like to toy with pure emotions, like the bond between men—the passion, the touching stories, the willingness to die for a friend—yet many bored people describe it as 'bromance' or something like that. It's often women who do this; women find it hard to understand this kind of brotherhood... Don't insult men who would risk their lives for their friends. They're definitely not doing it for the other person's pleasure. These women seem to only know how to drag everything into the realm of 'bromance' and 'love'... Understand? Stop talking nonsense."

"Someone who talks nonsense all day is actually lecturing me on not talking nonsense." Although Liu Chang'an's tone was a bit harsh, Qin Yanan wasn't particularly offended, nor did she intend to argue with him; she simply smiled.

"You go back first. I have some things to do during the day, I'll come over tonight." Liu Chang'an waved his hand.

"Okay."

After watching Qin Yanan leave, Liu Chang'an turned around and called Zhou Dongdong, who was washing a plastic chick under the tap.

Zhou Dongdong was wondering why no centipedes came to eat her chicks, even though she had buried them many times and wondered about it many times.

"Let's go catch cicada nymphs," Liu Chang'an said to Zhou Dongdong.

What kind of monkey is a cicada nymph?

"It's a cicada."

What is a cicada?

"It's delicious."

Let's catch as many, many more as possible!

Liu Chang'an borrowed a fishing rod from Old Man Qin and found a lump of gel slime in Zhou Dongdong's schoolbag. It was the kind of slime she usually threw at the wall and it would stick. A big lump of it could be bought for a few yuan.

After attaching the gel slime to the top of the fishing rod, Liu Chang'an took Zhou Dongdong to catch cicadas. Zhou Dongdong was eager to catch them herself, but failed repeatedly. In order not to affect the catch of more delicious food, Zhou Dongdong had to suppress her desire to play and obediently followed behind Liu Chang'an with the net for collecting cicadas.

Seeing Liu Chang'an and Zhou Dongdong going in and out, wondering what they were up to, Zhou Shuling couldn't help but smile slightly. She was most happy to see Liu Chang'an and Zhou Dongdong together; it always gave her a warm and comforting feeling. Liu Chang'an, who got along well with both the elderly and children, could have a lot of positive influence on the children.

At noon, Liu Chang'an stir-fried a large plate of cicadas, asked Zhou Dongdong to deliver a portion to Zhou Shuling, and then ate the rest with Zhou Dongdong.

"So insects taste so good!" Zhou Dongdong leaned back in her small chair, tilting her head back to look at the sycamore tree above her. From that moment on, the image of insects changed in Zhou Dongdong's eyes.

"Not all insects taste good," Liu Chang'an warned cautiously, "Especially not raw."

Can you eat spiders?

"Cannot!"

Where are the mosquitoes?

"Cannot!"

Where are the flies?

"You might as well just go eat shit!"

"I don't want to!"

In the afternoon, Liu Chang'an read books while painting on a fan. After letting it dry, he applied tung oil. He worked on it all afternoon, making repairs and meticulously crafting the paper umbrella. A passable oiled paper umbrella was finally born.

It's passable, of course, that's Liu Chang'an's taste when giving gifts. But if judged solely by the standards of a collector, it's a work of art with exceptional artistic merit.

Liu Chang'an texted An Nuan and arranged to meet on the evening of Qixi Festival.

An Nuan told him that he could look forward to Qixi Festival, but he shouldn't have too high expectations.

It's not that you can't, it's that you're not allowed to. Liu Chang'an smiled, thinking how interesting girls' minds were.

Bai Hui sent me a video, saying it was a dance she planned to upload to the website for Qixi Festival (Chinese Valentine's Day).

Liu Chang'an didn't open the message, but simply replied, "A single dog on Qixi Festival is jumping around," which angered Bai Hui so much that she stopped replying to his messages.

Zhong Qing also sent a message expressing his gratitude. His words were well-chosen, polite, and sincere. Liu Chang'an replied with "read".

Liu Chang'an often doesn't reply to messages, but occasionally he replies to them all at once; these messages are not all received at the same time.

Read.

When Zhong Qing saw this reply, she was somewhat amused and exasperated. Liu Chang'an never seemed to play by the rules. Was he implying that he neither cared about nor felt it necessary to express his gratitude?

"Recently, after Liu Chang'an connected the power cord to the transport vehicle, he hasn't been frequently entering the transport vehicle, or delivering food in as before, or giving lectures in it all night, right?" The Third Mistress was still standing in front of the hotel's floor-to-ceiling window, gently stroking the exquisite telescope.

"Yes."

"I've already listened to Xiao Tang and Qin Yanan's recordings. They only need to record when they're alone together... Xiao Tang's singing and reading are really noisy and unpleasant to listen to."

"Clear."

The Third Mistress nodded, looked down at Liu Chang'an through the binoculars as he left the residential area, and then turned the angle to look at the transport truck.

Qin Yanan and Zhu Juntang's belief that Liu Chang'an was Ye Chenyu was not without reason... This information shocked the Third Mistress. Different sources of information and different perspectives led to wildly different conclusions.