He quickly took off his pants, turned sideways, casually picked up a bath towel handed by his elder brother and wrapped it around, feeling cold for a while, but said nervously: "Brother, I, I'm going to relieve myself."
The eldest brother put a small towel on his shoulder, pointed to the front and said, "Go to the end of the cabinet, and there is a toilet at the corner."
He groaned, and went to the bathroom with his cracked slippers.
"Young man, listen to your accent, Dingjiang brought it, right? Wu Nong speaks softly, and the voice is soft and pleasant." One person asked.
Chu Yaonan turned sideways, an old man stood beside the urinal, and approached him kindly.
He answered a few words hastily, and the old man asked again: "The bathhouses in Dingjiang are more grand than those in Beiping, right? I heard that those are all bathhouses run by foreigners and spray perfume."
He left in a hurry, with a wooden bucket next to him, and a wooden ladle floating there, scooping up water to clean his hands.
A well-meaning person greeted him and said, "Little brother, come, I will help you."
He stretched out his hand, and the cold water drenched him.
Suddenly there was a shout: "Get out of the way!"
A big man came over, Chu Yaonan looked up at him, his head was bald, his face was flushed, and he had a rosy nose, looking funny. He was dismissive of this little snake.
"Yo, you look so strange, I've never seen you before." The big man accosted him.
Chu Yaonan ignored him, turned around and left.
"The plate is quite beautiful, which team is it?" the man asked.
For a moment he didn't understand, he looked at the man in surprise, his eyes full of doubts.
He went out and walked towards the bathtub, and the person behind him grabbed his wrist and asked, "How much does your customer pay you?"
His eyes were extremely bright, like water, the man couldn't help touching his cheek, and asked in a low voice, "Which hall is it from?"
Chu Yaonan felt sick for a while, but he heard the big brother over there calling him: "Little brother, come here."
He stepped on the stagnant water and took a deep breath, disgusted as if he stepped on a fly, and forced himself not to cause trouble.
The man chased after him unwillingly, grinning his big golden teeth like a fly, "Little brother, wait for me. What are you afraid of? If you don't ask me that the nine-headed dragon is here in Beiping, who would dare to mess with it!"
Unexpectedly, big hands rubbed through the bath towel around his waist.
The anger in Chu Yaonan's heart rose up, even a mouse worm came to tease him, pushed him away, wanted to explode, and suddenly laughed.
So he stopped and smiled sweetly at him, his peach blossom eyes sparkled with spring, and he pointed to the pond.
"Let's, over there, go into the water?" The man salivated with a smile.
At the side of the bath, the man yelled to disperse the crowd, and in an instant, Chu Yaonan kicked his leg and let out a scream, the man flew into the air and slapped into the bath, there was a loud bang, and the water splashed everywhere.
There were screams and screams, and a group of people ran away screaming and screaming, like shells exploding in the water.
"Little brother!" Zhuo Mingtao screamed out of the unknown situation, rushed up and pushed him aside, seeing the people running around like headless flies, he was about to take him away, as if protecting a child. He held his hand tightly and refused to let go.
It turned out that the eldest brother never saw clearly what happened.
Chu Yaonan secretly laughed, seeing those people getting up and running away in fright, hugging their clothes, the whole bath was empty.
Only Chu Yaonan looked at those running people inexplicably and asked the big brother in the water: "Brother, they, why are they running?"
The clear sound of dripping water ding dong ding dong rang in my ears, the sound was empty, and the white mist filled the air. The eldest brother looked at him quietly, but he was not in a hurry.
The shopkeeper came over and asked inexplicably, "What's the matter?"
Chu Yaonan shrugged and replied with a smile: "The rest of the bathhouse seems to be only for our brothers."
The shopkeeper smiled awkwardly and said, "The shop is closed."
"Are we short of your money?" Chu Yaonan asked hypocritically, and the shopkeeper had no choice but to back down.
There are only two brothers left in the big bath, very comfortable. Chu Yaonan smiled complacently, and then saw that his elder brother remained silent.
The elder brother rubbed his back, stroked the scars on his back and asked, "Did you fight?"
He shook his head: "The adoptive father beat him. If you are in a bad mood, beat someone."
The hand behind his back hesitated and slid down his waist. He pressed the towel in a panic, but his elder brother revealed his secret. The injury is not very painful, but the hard purlin is still uncomfortable to press on.
"It can be seen how naughty you are." The eldest brother sighed. As if he were an eight-year-old doll. But he didn't blame him for what happened to him today.
He turned his head back and smiled triumphantly: "The little brother only listens to the big brother."
After taking a bath, the eldest brother didn't allow him to wear the clothes he had brought, but only gave him a clean cotton robe, a shirt and underwear that had been washed so that it smelled of soap. He put it on and brought some novelties, which always felt funny. The eldest brother looked him up and down and said, "The length fits well, but it's just a little fatter. Let your sister-in-law change it for you."
On the way back home, he clipped the clothes he had changed, thinking it was ridiculous, and the Yuankou cloth shoes under his feet were a little harsh on the ground.
He suddenly remembered that when he was young, he liked to wear leather shoes, and his father forced him to wear Yuankou cloth shoes. The old man's shoes, which were so dirt that made him laugh, still couldn't escape the shackles after more than ten years.
Little nephew Chunbao barely recognized him, and his sister-in-law couldn't stop laughing when she saw his attire. The cotton robe is heavy, but very warm.
In the main room is the memorial tablet of his father, and the incense from the incense burner is pungent. Chu Yaonan took the incense in the elder brother's hand, bowed three times, inserted it into the incense burner respectfully, pulled up his clothes and knelt down, and kowtowed three times steadily.
When I looked up again, looking at the empty memorial tablet, I remembered the portrait of the general in military uniform seen in the old house of Fengtian Zhuo’s family, and I felt a kind of admiration in my heart. I raised my head awe-inspiringly, looked at the elder brother standing in front of him, and listened to him : "Father, little brother Yaonan has returned to his roots, come to kowtow to say hello to him, and hope that his spirit in the sky will bless the little brother, and also keep the whole family safe."
Zhuo Mingtao memorized the family rules all over and asked Chu Yaonan to recite every line for him. After he had recited it once, Chu Yaonan had already recited the whole chapter, and then said: "Don't worry, brother, younger brother must strictly abide by the family rules and obey the teachings of elder brother."
Then Yaonan kowtowed to his mother and sister-in-law, and his nephew Chunbao came to kowtow to him, obediently calling: "Little uncle."
Chu Yaonan smiled, his eyebrows were as sweet as a picture, he hugged the little guy, hugged him and kissed him again and again.
Dinner was very simple. On the eight immortals table with cracked and cracked black paint, there were yellow, white and black pastry, a plate of kohlrabi silk, and a plate of cabbage hearts. Seeing that his elder brother respectfully handed a white pastry to his mother, Chu Yaonan broke a yellow pastry in half and gave it to Chu Yaonan.
"Nan'er, are you used to eating?" the old lady asked kindly, breaking up her own white dough and handing it to his bowl.
The little nephew watched eagerly from the side, swallowed deeply and said, "Little uncle is not good, white noodles are for grandma."
Chu Yaonan suddenly realized that the white ones are steamed buns made of white flour, the yellow ones should be steamed buns made of corn flour, and what is the black one?
He smiled and put the white noodles into his nephew's bowl and said, "Uncle won't eat this, you eat."
The child blinked his big eyes, put the steamed buns back on the plate and shook his head.
Chu Yaonan took a mouthful of the golden corn noodles, his mouth was hard to swallow, and he drank a big mouthful of vegetable leaf soup before he forced it down his throat.
Looking at sister-in-law and elder brother again, the black pastry in the bowl is more unpalatable than the one in his bowl.
He pretended to be confused and smiled and asked: "What is this big brother eating? I have never seen a black pastry."
Put a piece of yourself in the big brother's bowl, and go to break the big brother's pastry.
"You're not used to it." The eldest brother pressed his hand, "It's black bean noodles."
Chu Yaonan was stunned, he knew black beans, just like he remembered corn.
A few years ago, when he went to play in the Northeast, Young Marshal Hu took him hunting and proudly showed off to him that the Northeast is vast and abundant, and the ground is full of sorghum and corn. The corn is eaten by mules, horses and large animals.
He also joked that the rations of livestock in the north are better than those in the south, and if the animals in the south can eat black beans, their food will be improved. Today, they rely on corn to improve their meals.
The old lady said: "The war is in turmoil, and the price of food is soaring everywhere. Where can I afford white rice and noodles. When the world is peaceful, it will be great."
Chu Yaonan felt astringent in his heart, but the black bean noodles were even harder to swallow.