Learning to Bark Like Dogs Together
In the afternoon Liu Chang'an and An Nuan strolled around the academy square for quite a while. The recruitment of new members by various clubs was not just about shouting, but also included all sorts of performances and activities. An Nuan won a bag of spicy strips in a golden egg smashing activity, which made her extremely happy. Then she realized that this was just a basic reward, so she thought it was all Liu Chang'an's fault, because if he had smashed the egg, he might have won the first prize.
Because he missed out on the first prize, An Nuan punished him by making him eat half a pack of spicy strips, and she took the rest to class.
Liu Chang'an didn't have any classes in the afternoon. An Nuan originally wanted him to go to class with her, but Liu Chang'an said that being too clingy would cause the relationship to burn out earlier, and he got punched by An Nuan a lot.
Mid-Autumn Festival has passed, and the northwest wind has risen, blowing again and again across various lakes along the north and south coasts. The farmed hairy crabs are gradually getting fatter, and various nets are cast into the lakes and mountains, bringing baskets of plump crabs ashore, which are then shipped to all parts of the country via various express delivery services.
Liu Chang'an wanted to eat crabs. Actually, the most interesting thing about eating is to participate in everything from gathering the ingredients to cooking. That's the real sense of ritual, rather than setting up a few exquisite bowls and chopsticks in a high-end restaurant, taking a few selfies, and then self-satisfied by thinking you're a person who pursues a sense of ritual.
This sense of ritual is essentially no different from setting out plates when commemorating ancestors and spirits.
Where near Junsha could he go crabbing? After thinking about it, Liu Chang'an decided to buy some online, since he wasn't one to pursue elaborate rituals.
The sky was somewhat dimmed by a layer of gray, misty clouds, but there was no sign of rain. The autumn wind had lost its scorching heat and was pleasantly cool. So Liu Chang'an slowed his pace and arrived at the Ziping Street.
I came here once during the rainy season, bought fabric to make a cheongsam, and even met Qin Yanan and "Third Mistress". When I came back in the autumn, the scene of continuous rain seemed like yesterday. When I opened my eyes, I was quite surprised to see that half of the plane trees on the street had turned a bright yellow. Generally speaking, the plane trees in Junsha should not wither so early.
The signs of autumn are so obvious; it's time to make new clothes.
Liu Chang'an arrived at "Explanation," which, like the top brand counters in Baolong Center, was very famous, but it received very few customers. There was only one saleswoman in a bright red suit standing in front of a pot of chamomile.
Upon seeing Liu Chang'an, the shop assistant simply smiled and said "Welcome," without immediately coming over to serve him. It seemed as if she would only approach him if he needed help or asked a question.
Wang Jiangzi came out. Nowadays, Weng Simei usually doesn't come to the shop; usually, only Wang Jiangzi comes to receive VIPs who have made reservations.
She had a vague memory of the boy because on that rainy day, Qin Yanan and the Third Mistress of the Zhu Family had come here. The boy was Qin Yanan's cousin, and he had taken a bolt of cloth that Qin Yanan had reserved.
"Have you used the fabric you bought last time?" Wang Jiangzi smiled gently, unlike the overly enthusiastic or overly familiar manner of ordinary businessmen.
"I used it, it's a very good fabric." Liu Chang'an nodded, looking at the various fabrics stored in the cabinet, which looked exquisite under the light.
"Actually, Professor Liu and I are good friends. I saw the photos of the cheongsam she posted, and I heard that you made it. It's really nice." Wang Jiangzi remembered that Professor Liu called that day to ask if a young man had bought fabric from her. Later on the phone, he mentioned that he had made one and given it to Professor Liu's daughter.
Wang Jiangzi didn't ask many questions at the time, but she still found it hard to believe. There were some details in the photos of the cheongsams that Professor Liu posted. Laymen might just take a look and think that the workmanship was good, but Wang Jiangzi could see more details and secrets. Very few people can master and achieve this level of skill.
"Thank you." Liu Chang'an nodded.
He didn't seem to find Wang Jiangzi's approval particularly gratifying. His composure was probably well-founded; with such skill, he must have had an even more outstanding master, so he naturally took the appreciation of others for granted.
"Did you come here today to buy some more fabric?" Wang Jiangzi didn't ask him directly who his master was. For a moment, she couldn't think of any famous masters in the country who had taken on such a gifted disciple. But the world is vast, and although there aren't as many traditional craftsmen as there are fish crossing a river, there are quite a few nameless artisans with master-level skills but little fame.
"Yes."
"But... we mainly focus on custom orders here, and fabrics are generally only provided to customers who have their clothes made at our shop," Wang Jiangzi said with some difficulty.
"Oh, I see. Sorry to bother you." Liu Chang'an didn't insist and turned to walk out the door. It seemed that Qin Yanan's attempt to share the fabric with him last time was quite a stretch for her. The shop didn't make money by selling fabric; its main source of profit was designing exquisitely patterned fabrics to attract customers to choose custom orders.
"Wait..." Wang Jiangzi hurriedly chased after him. This young man didn't seem to care about discussing things with anyone at all; he was too impulsive.
Liu Chang'an stopped and looked at Wang Jiangzi. "Is something the matter?"
"What I mean is... you can borrow the space and tools in our shop to make clothes. We'll provide the fabric. I just want to see your craftsmanship." Wang Jiangzi understood. This person didn't have the habit of trying to decipher the subtle meanings in other people's words. It was better to be straightforward, lest she try to hide something and the other person simply wouldn't bother to interpret it.
"Okay." Liu Chang'an nodded without hesitation. "You can learn from him too. This shop will eventually depend on you to support it."
Wang Jiangzi smiled calmly. Her words were so considerate and made people very happy!
So Liu Chang'an went upstairs to Wang Jiangzi's private studio. Wang Jiangzi stayed with him for a while, and he was seen using the computer to look up information, mostly about various styles of Lolita fashion.
Wang Jiangzi wasn't in a hurry. She was a shrewd businesswoman and certainly wouldn't be so short-sighted, nor would she rush to verify Liu Chang'an's abilities. She always had that much patience.
Liu Chang'an stayed for a while and then went back. He had only come to visit today; he needed to take a closer look at the little skirt he had borrowed when he got home.
Passing by the market, Liu Chang'an bought scallions, tofu, and river shrimp to take home. He saw Zhou Dongdong and Lu Si'en, who had just finished school, sitting under the sycamore tree.
Zhou Dongdong, carrying a small schoolbag, half-squatted with her left leg, stretched her right leg back, raised her hands behind her back, and held her head high with her neck stiff.
"Awoo..."
"Om... Om... Om..."
"Awoo... Awoo... Awoo..."
"Om... Om..."
"You silly dog, you can't even bark properly." Zhou Dongdong patted Lu Si'en's head. "Try barking with me again... Awoo..."
"Om... Om... Om..." Lu Si'en continued to emit short, sharp sounds like the roar of a supercar engine.
"You're such a silly dog," Zhou Dongdong said patiently. "We..."
"What are you doing?" Liu Chang'an asked.
"I'm teaching Lu Si'en to bark like a dog." Zhou Dongdong looked at Liu Chang'an while maintaining a posture that made it easy for him to bark like a fierce dog.
"Are you teaching a dog to bark?" Liu Chang'an looked at the child in disbelief.
Zhou Dongdong nodded, "Awoo..."
"Even if you want to teach a dog to bark, I've taught you before. Most dogs just bark," Liu Chang'an reminded him, realizing his teaching had been a failure.
"I forgot."
"You can forget this? Woof woof!"
"I didn't copy it many times in a notebook, how could I remember it?"
Liu Chang'an thought about it and decided not to try teaching Zhou Dongdong to bark anymore. Wasn't what he was doing almost the same as her teaching a dog to bark?
That's so stupid.
After realizing his mistake, Liu Chang'an reflected on it for three seconds before going upstairs to cook.
After a while, Zhou Dongdong, smelling the delicious aroma, lost all interest in teaching Lu Si'en to bark like a dog and hurriedly ran upstairs to see what delicious food her brother Chang'an was making.
"Go and call Sister Egg upstairs for dinner." From now on, Liu Chang'an 'll have to lick a pair of chopsticks. Liu Chang'an thought to himself that even though it wouldn't matter if Shangguan Dandan didn't eat, since she used to not eat anything, Liu Chang'an felt that he should still call her after finding out that she could eat. After all, they were all acquaintances and neighbors.
Zhou Dongdong put down her schoolbag, ran downstairs, knocked on the door, and called Shangguan Dandan up.
Liu Chang'an peeled the tofu, cut the large pieces into sixteen even pieces, dried them in a sieve, and then dried them with a hairdryer. He heated lard in a pot until it smoked, then added the tofu, sprinkled it with a little salt, turned the tofu over, added sweet wine, and then added about two hundred river shrimp. After boiling in water, he added soy sauce, boiled it for a while, added sugar, and finally added scallions before taking it off the heat.
This tofu is called Jiang Shilang Tofu. Jiang Ciqi was the second son of Jiang Pu, a Grand Secretary at the time, and served as the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue. Yuan Mei was very famous for his food and had a lot of experience in making tofu. Jiang Shilang said, "You haven't eaten my tofu, have you? Then it's nothing special."
Later, Vice Minister Jiang personally cooked this tofu dish, which impressed Yuan Mei, leading to the story of Yuan Mei three times for a bowl of tofu.
Whether this was actually the case at the time is hard to verify, but the tofu was indeed very delicious... Many of the "good stories" and "beautiful tales" of the ancients are actually similar to the comments on NetEase Cloud Music and the stories about emotional experiences on Zhihu.
After Liu Chang'an finished making the tofu, he called Shangguan Dandan and Zhou Dongdong to eat. The two, one big and one small, were sitting neatly on the sofa watching a documentary about tiger sharks.
Liu Chang'an glanced at it and realized that the documentary's main subject was actually the gullard shark, commonly known as the tiger shark, but it was not the same as the biological tiger shark, and the two belonged to different genera.
"This little tiger shark can dance!" Zhou Dongdong exclaimed, turning her head to watch TV while being drawn to the food. She automatically adjusted her direction and walked to the dining table.
"They might be crazy." Many animals in the animal kingdom appear to be dancing, but this is usually due to a neurological problem causing disordered limb movements.
"Are there no meat buns today?" Shangguan Dandan glanced at Liu Chang'an's dishes.
"Everything Brother Chang'an makes tastes delicious!" Zhou Dongdong went to get some rice.
Shangguan Dandan took the rice bowl handed to her by Zhou Dongdong. She didn't have the intention of serving herself the rice, but after Liu Chang'an was seated, she nodded to the left and right to indicate that everyone could start eating.
Zhou Dongdong ignored Shangguan Dandan's nod, because she had already eaten three shrimp.
"Let's go shopping tonight," Liu Chang'an said to Shangguan Dandan. They had already gone out once before with Shangguan Dandan Zhou Dongdong.
In the past few days, Shangguan Dandan has expanded her activities to the entire community. She has been seen under the grapevines, by the wall, under the sycamore trees, at the garbage dump, by the chicken coop, and next to the vegetable garden.
The people in the neighborhood were quite intrigued by her; after all, she was such a pretty young girl. She didn't talk much, but her expressions were always adorable, making her quite endearing.
Shangguan Dandan took out a rolled-up piece of white paper from her sleeve, unfolded it, smoothed it out on the table, and handed it to Liu Chang'an.
"Is this what you want to buy?"
Shangguan Dandan nodded.
Liu Chang'an didn't look at it much. Shopping is an important experience in today's world, and she can even make lists now, which is great.
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of something and couldn't help but wonder, "A tampon?"
Shangguan Dandan ate her tofu in small bites. She had no problem with the three of them sharing one dish, but did he have any objection to her using sanitary napkins or tampons?
Because they were eating and there were children present, even though the children had entered the barrier, Liu Chang'an didn't want to discuss this issue with Shangguan Dandan.
After dinner, Liu Chang'an and Shangguan Dandan went to Baolong Center and took Zhou Dongdong to the restaurant to do her homework.
The two then went to the supermarket downstairs.
"Do you really get your period?" Despite having bought sanitary napkins for Shangguan Dandan many times, Liu Chang'an was still curious about this question.
Being curious about this question is not vulgar, because it is a research-oriented question about the unknown, just as anyone would be curious about how to prove that all nontrivial zeros of an automorphic L-function lie on the line Re(s) = 1/2 in the complex plane.
Shangguan Dandan's eyes widened. She glanced at the red fire extinguisher, then touched it with great interest before glaring at Liu Chang'an. "Haven't you even read 'On the Primordial Innocence of Antiquity'? A girl's kidney energy is at its peak at seven years old, her hair grows longer, and at fourteen, her menstrual cycle begins."
"I wrote this, how could I not know?" Liu Chang'an continued, "When you were asleep in the coffin, you wouldn't have your period, right? But for a long time after you woke up, until I bought you sanitary napkins, did you have your period during that time? And when you did, how did you deal with it? What did you do with the used sanitary napkins?"
Shangguan Dandan looked around, her puffed-up cheeks flushing red.
Several girls who walked by were looking at Liu Chang'an with the kind of eyes that looked at a pervert.
Liu Chang'an didn't care, but Shangguan Dandan didn't seem to intend to answer his barrage of questions. She left him standing next to the fire extinguisher and went into the supermarket by herself.
She's out there, and she can't just crawl into a coffin whenever she encounters a question she doesn't want to answer or doesn't want to talk.
He followed them.
Shangguan Dandan didn't argue with him for long. As she walked into the supermarket, her eyes were like those of a caged bird, looking around curiously as if being taken for a walk by its owner.
Liu Chang'an saw Shangguan Dandan standing at the fruit weighing station watching others buy fruit.
"What kind of fruit would you like to eat?" The fruit here is relatively expensive, but they have things like Okayama Shine Muscat grapes and Shizuoka Green-veined melons.
"I want this," Shangguan Dandan said, pointing to the weighing and pricing machine.
"Let's go." Liu Chang'an pulled her away. "Let's go with your list, first we'll buy tampons."
Liu Chang'an took her to buy tampons. Since she was definitely a beginner, he chose applicator tampons for her. The instructions were clear and easy to understand, so he figured she wouldn't have any trouble using them.
If I had gone many years earlier, how I would have guided the female protagonist on how to use tampons would have been a plot point that could have filled several chapters in a novel.
"How do you know about this?" Liu Chang'an asked casually.
In novels.
Liu Chang'an nodded in understanding. Shangguan Dandan's understanding of modern society largely came from novels. It seemed she was reading female-oriented novels, since very few women in China use tampons. Few authors of male-oriented novels even knew about tampons, let alone described their function and benefits to persuade Shangguan Dandan to use them instead of sanitary napkins.
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Please vote with recommendation tickets and monthly tickets to comfort the author who regrets not being able to guide the female protagonist in using it.