Chapter 62—Our Lady's Birthday (2)

Before Sasha was born, Anthony. Hopkins often danced with Sasha's mother at dinner, sometimes even before dinner, whenever they wanted, once Catherine jumped on the table, and Hopkins then jumped on it, and they moved among the silver cutlery, candlesticks, crystal glasses, dark napkins, flowers, and the moon in the red sky in the background, and they didn't need music, because all the music was stored in their heads.

The music played, and people moved to the lawn and danced in pairs. Hopkins, now Claude. Straff came out of his memory, and he reached out to Miss Kemira and invited her to dance.

He took the hand of the female trainee, who was tall, about five feet eight inches, with well-developed bones and muscles, and Mr. Stryff placed his other hand on her waist, but soon found that it would stiffen her, so he took another chance to turn around, and instead placed his fingers on her lower back, as if he were gently pushing her—this inevitably brought them a little closer, but avoiding the sensitive lower back, Miss Kemira's muscles finally stopped being so tight, She danced lightly and warmly, with the smell of clean soap coming from her, and Yves Rocher's gardenia, a low-to-mid-range fragrance from France, inexpensive—Striff re-sank into his memory, when Catherine danced with him, they were so close that their knees occasionally bumped together, they would often stop and lazily shake their bodies and hug each other, the husband's head resting on his wife's shoulder, and under his nose was Catherine's soft and plump breasts, Tiny beads of sweat hung on his golden skin, and the high body temperature completely evaporated the perfume made by traditional manual methods, and they tugged at Hopkins's head like a pair of soft tentacles, and he was seduced and coerced by them, and he bent down, closed his eyes, and let his face follow the beating place of Catherine's heart.

The dance music slowly ceased, the people stopped moving, and Mr. Stryff made an interesting discovery, and Miss Kemira was equally deeply immersed in her own thoughts, her expression was melancholy, her movements were slow, and her eyes were fixed on one place, as if a goat's hoof would jump out of the grapes at any moment.

"Are you all right," said Mr. Stryff, "and your face is very bad, and I think you should take a rest." ”

He semi-forcibly led Kemira to a shady, dense shade where a dozen children had gathered, and they clapped their hands to welcome the two teachers.

"Are you playing a game?" Kemira said.

"Just talking, Mr. Kemila." A girl replied shyly, sitting next to the root of the tree, with a small purple flower wrapped around her fingers; "We're talking about food."

"We're talking about the weirdest thing we've ever eaten." A boy interjected and said, "Mom once got the jam and pepper sauce wrong, and my dad and I had the jam steak and pepper sauce pie. ”

"It's not a big deal," says another boy, "and my grandfather and I went to the food festival in Hostika, New Zealand, every March, where we ate smoking eel and worm chocolate candy. ”

The boy from before looked like he wanted to vomit: "You eat that thing too?" Worms are not food at all! ”

"I think we're talking about 'exotic' food," one girl retorted, "of course worms can be eaten, and I've eaten cicadas and bee pupae once." ”

The children all know what cicada and honey pupae are, their biology textbooks have the most detailed explanations and colorful illustrations, and they have personally observed the pupae of these two insects under the guidance of their teachers.

"How's it taste?" It was a boy who was clearly overweight, and he was full of longing, as if he was about to drool at any moment.

The girl shrugged: "The cicada chrysalis is very fragrant, it tastes like overfried shrimp, and the bee chrysalis is a little sweet, in short, it tastes good." ”

"Uh...... What did you eat there...... I mean, are there any other goodies? ”

"Chinatown." The girl was very interested: "My Chinese teacher took me to the night market there, and you would never have imagined that they could create so many delicious things - I have eaten chicken feet, very spicy, but no bones, very delicious, and pig ears, mixed with vinegar and coriander, crispy and tender...... I had always thought it was a treat for puppies...... I also saw the stomach of the cow that was cut into pieces in the steamer, and they called it the leaf of the cow......"

"The Chinese eat everything." The boy who spoke first muttered dissatisfiedly, feeling that he had been left out: "They still eat the fins and nests of fish, and sooner or later they will eat up the whole ...... of the earth"

"Tom!"

The children were taken aback by the stern tone, especially Tom, who did not understand what he had said that had caused Miss Kemira to suddenly become angry.

Miss Camera's beautiful face flushed without warning, and she looked at the confused students in embarrassment, searching for the right sentence to get each other out of the current terrible situation as soon as possible—and it was Claude who came to her aid. Mr. Stereff.

"You are not entirely right, dear Tom," Stleiff politely pointed out, "and this statement is very unfair to the Chinese, because the range of food demarcated by people in other countries is no smaller than that of the Chinese—and even greater if the time is a little earlier—and the people of the Middle Ages would eat every part of the animal with great cherishment, and pigs were very common animals at that time, and the ears, tongue, tail, mouth, and even **, all would be eaten; The intestines, bladder, and stomach are used to make casings, or artificial domes at Easter. The children's eyes widened: "All the birds and animals that have been hunted, swans, peacocks, quails, mountain catfish, storks, red-crowned cranes, larks, among which swans and peacocks are not very tasty, but they are brought to the table with beautiful feathers; Animals include bears, monkeys, wild boars, deer, rabbits...... There are also hedgehogs and porcupines, which can be seen in the fact that they both have pigs in their names; In addition to this, there are also a large number of fish, and at that time fish generally referred to everything that floated on the water, so whales, dolphins, and beavers were also considered a type of fish, and people ate them on Lent. Mr. Stryff thought for a moment and added: "If you push a little further, the Romans' recipes are more curious—they eat dormice, hazel dormice flavored with honey and flax, and black pudding made of pig's blood." ”

Now even Miss Kemira couldn't help but open her mouth.

"Even now, the whole earth is still full of human food, Icelanders eat dried and fermented shark meat, Sardinians use maggots to make their sauce cheeses, many bars in Italy have donkey meat sandwiches that taste like smoked ham, Africans eat ostrich meat and eggs, Norwegians eat cod meat soaked in alkali, there is a dish in the Australian desert where the main ingredient is codling moth larvae, Mexicans eat ant eggs in corn rolls, Korean octopus is still alive when it is served on the table - This dish is so particular that it is best to feel the suckers of the octopus sucking into their mouths and tongue while devouring them. ”

The children covered their mouths as if the octopus was wriggling in their mouths.

"Oh my God," said the little girl who was intoxicated with chicken feet and cow stomach, and her eyes lit up, "Have you eaten them all?" ”

Streiff glanced at her, a kid with a peculiar taste — he knew some people bought chicken feet and cow stomachs in sealed packages from Chinatown — and took it back to joke with his own kids, many of whom would cry because of their odd appearance: "Yes." His acknowledgment was met with a sigh of reverence.

The children naturally asked Mr. Stryff about the strangest food he had ever tasted, and almost all of them thought so.

"Well," Mr. Stryff tilted his head a little confused, and he thought for a moment, then spread his hands; "But for me," he said mildly, "there is no food that can be called peculiar." ”

***

The children were not satisfied with this answer, but out of a certain instinct to avoid evil, they did not continue to ask questions, but turned their attention to Kemira.

"Gizzards." Kemira replied.

"What's that?"

"The stomach of the chicken," replied the female teacher, "a strong muscle, sold in the supermarket, and the heart of the chicken, if you want to try it," she smiled slightly, "slice it, put some chili peppers and fry it together, it tastes good." ”

Stryff could conclude that she wasn't telling the truth.

He observed the new colleague as if he were examining a famous piece of ham or cheese—Kemira's countenance was very commendable, her hair was flaxen, and though not as beautiful as Catherine's, it was fine and smooth; A rare, moss-green pair of eyes, like a witch's cat, people like green eyes, second only to blue, and many writers give their characters a pair of green eyes while giving them great wisdom and commendable courage; The high, straight bridge of the nose, then the lips, which were not as wide and plump as most people, and which might make her kissers uncomfortable, but fit well with her slightly thin face; Her neck was as thin as a swan, but no bones or veins could be seen.

There were two ropes around her neck, one dark red, silk rope, and Striff looked down, the end of which was tied to an emerald green ornament, mostly covered in Kemira's white shirt, and Striff couldn't determine what material and shape it was. The other thing was much easier to confirm, it was a two-inch-long beast tooth perforated at the root of the tooth.

(To be continued)