When Song Minghui returned home, the sun had already set. The last bits of deep blue on the horizon were slowly fading, and a few faint stars hung on the distant peaks of the mountains. It wasn't completely dark all around, the street lights weren't on yet, and everything was a blurred outline.

When he opened the door of his house, he saw his mother Song Yun kneeling in front of a shrine and kowtowing, chanting words in her mouth.

A middle-aged man in a dressing gown sits on a couch reading a newspaper. Hearing the sound of the door knocking, she glanced up at him.

The babysitter at home is busy going back and forth between the dining table and the kitchen, constantly placing dishes on the table.

He took off his sunglasses and hat, rolled them up with his long coat, threw them on the couch to the side, and walked to the table.

"Xiaohui is back!" The middle-aged man put down the newspaper, greeted Song Minghui who had just entered the door with a smile, and picked up the clothes he threw on the sofa and shook them a few times, and hung them on the hanger on the side.

As if he hadn't seen the man, Song Minghui walked straight past him without even turning his eyes. Instead, he walked over and turned his back to him with a sarcastic sneer.

Song Yun, who was kneeling beside the shrine, chattered louder again, she closed her eyes tightly, folded her hands and kept kowtowing, and each time she made a clear muffled sound.

Song Minghui sat down at the dining table with a big move, raised his hand and touched the waist of the nanny who was only eighteen or nineteen years old next to him, and said to her with a smile: "Go and get a pair of chopsticks for Brother Hui first." ”

The nanny glanced at the middle-aged woman who was still kowtowing, and looked down at Song Minghui and winked. Jiao Sheng said: "Okay, Brother Hui, you wait." ”

Song Minghui stared at the swaying back of the nanny and smiled crookedly.

The middle-aged man looked up from the newspaper. glanced at Song Minghui's expression, shook his head helplessly and sighed, and then turned his gaze back to the newspaper again.

"Brother Hui......" The nanny trotted from the kitchen to Song Minghui's side, holding a pair of chopsticks in both hands and handing it to him, "Give you chopsticks, do you want me to serve me a bowl of rice first?" ”

Song Minghui nodded, raised his chopsticks and stretched out to a plate of beef on the table.

"Xiaohui!" Song Yun seemed to have eyes behind her back, and shouted loudly without looking back: "I haven't knelt down to the Great Immortal yet." Why don't you move your chopsticks first, hurry up and kowtow. ”

"!" Song Minghui scolded angrily, and glared at his mother fiercely. He threw his chopsticks on the table, stood up, and strode towards the corner of the wall where the shrine was placed.

The nanny poked her head out of the kitchen door with a bowl of rice, glanced at them, and quickly put the rice next to Song Minghui's chopsticks. It quickly shrank back again.

Song Minghui knelt crookedly on the kneeling mat. Looking at the wooden shrine in front of him, he rolled his eyes.

In front of the shrine was a small incense burner. The azure porcelain, the surface is covered with dense ice cracks, shimmering with crystal clear light. Three long incense sticks were inserted into the incense burner, and thin smoke floated out of the tip of the incense, floating in the air, smoky the small space in front of the shrine.

Instead of the usual Bodhisattva Buddha statue, the shrine is dedicated to a crimson wooden tablet. On the tablet is a line of cursive writing of dragons flying and phoenixes dancing. I can't see what the specific words are, but they have a bit of a compelling momentum. One can feel the instinct that this thing should be pretty powerful.

"Immortals. Our child is not sensible, don't be surprised, I'll let him kowtow to you and apologize......" Song Yun stood beside Song Minghui, muttered quietly for a while, and suddenly reached out and pressed Song Minghui's head hard.

Song Minghui was forced to kowtow nine times at the tablet in the shrine, and when he raised his head again, his face was ugly, as if he was about to burst out and kill at any moment.

Song Yun said a few words to the tablet in the shrine, "Ask for the blessing of the immortals", "Don't be surprised", "Great immortals, you eat well", and then poked Song Minghui's forehead viciously, turned around and walked towards the dining table.

"Where's the rice!" She screamed at the kitchen, "It's been so long, and you haven't even served the rice, do you still want to do it!" ”

The man who had been sitting on the sofa reading the newspaper raised his head, folded the newspaper and put it on the coffee table, and put his glasses in the glasses case. Slowly stood up and walked towards the table. He pulled out a chair, sat down next to Song Yun, and whispered, "The little girl is just doing things slowly, don't be angry." ”

The nanny came out of the kitchen with two bowls of rice and respectfully placed them in front of Song Yun and the man. He placed a pair of chopsticks next to each of the bowls of the two of them, nodded at Song Yun, turned around and walked towards the kitchen again.

As soon as she turned around, she rolled her eyes, moved her mouth, and scolded silently: "Old shrew!" ”

"Xiaohui, what are you doing!" Song Yun picked up the chopsticks, turned around and shouted to Song Minghui, who was still kneeling next to the shrine, "Hurry up and eat." ”

Song Minghui didn't have the appearance of being able to explode at any time just now, but he looked very calm. He straightened up, knelt in front of the shrine, and smiled at the tablet inside.

"You know what? Your master is coming to an end. He smiled and said gently: "Don't look at you now being offered by my mother like an ancestor, wait for your master to die, you see how I will slowly clean you up!" ”

As he spoke, he suddenly pulled the corners of his mouth, and showed a hideous smile at the tablet, before turning around and shouting to Song Yun at the table, "Aren't I chatting with the immortals." ”

"Yes!" Song Yun clapped her hands happily and shouted at Song Minghui: "That's right, it should have been so okay to talk to the immortals." But now it's time to eat, you just don't have to say a few words, and come over for dinner after chatting. ”

After she said this, she turned her head to look at the man next to her, bumped his waist with her elbow under the table, flew over, and said ostentatiously: "Look at our son now, how sensible he is!" ”

The man nodded, looked at a plate of fried shrimp balls on the table, and smiled without saying a word.

Song Minghui sent Song Yun away, and said to the tablet in the shrine: "You can't blame me for this. If you want to blame it, blame your master for being too ignorant of lifting. I spoke well, asked her to help me, she didn't help, said don't need her, and she opened her mouth to me again. I can't help it. After all, she knows too much about me, so I can only clean her up. ”

He glanced back at Song Yun again, turned his head and shrugged at the tablet, with a helpless expression on his face, and got up from the kneeling mat.

"Oh, yes." He took two steps and then remembered something, and turned back to the shrine and gestured at it. said silently: "Don't worry, your master is so upright, I will definitely make the best use of her before disposing of her." Otherwise, what a waste! ”

The tablet in the shrine stood quietly, like an ordinary piece of wood, unresponsive.

Song Minghui made a boring "cut" sound, shook his head and said, "It's a pity." I'm actually quite reluctant! ”

He finished. strode back to the dining table, sat opposite Song Yun, picked up the chopsticks, picked up the bowl and began to bow his head to pick up the rice.

At some point, the nanny came up to him again, picked up a small bowl and gave him a bowl of soup, and put it in his hand.

"Brother Hui, you try this soup." She whispered into Song Minghui's ear and said, "I've been cooking all afternoon, but it's fragrant." ”

Song Minghui gave a vague "um". waved at her, and without raising his head, he took a piece of meat and put it in his mouth.

Song Yun glared fiercely at the nanny beside Song Minghui. Raising her chin in the direction of the kitchen, she motioned for her to get back to work.

The nanny glanced at Song Minghui aggrievedly, and saw that he didn't react, so she had to twist her waist and turn around and go back to the kitchen.

"Xiaohui! Eat slowly, don't choke. Song Yun looked at Song Minghui on the other side of the table gently, and asked softly, "Tell Mom, what did you say to Daxian just now!" ”

"It's nothing." Song Minghui said vaguely, put down the bowl in his hand, and swallowed all the rice in his mouth before continuing: "Didn't I eat first when I first came back, I was hungry at that time, and when I went to kowtow, I remembered that this matter was quite disrespectful to Daxian, so I went to apologize to him just now...... Mom, Daxian will forgive me, right? ”

"Of course it will, Daxian has a good temper, otherwise how can I save you." Song Yun said as she spoke, and her eyes flashed with a little water, "You don't know, my mother didn't eat well and sleep well every day at that time, so I was worried that if I didn't see you one day, you would be gone." Fortunately, with the blessing of Daxian and Miss Ming, she came to help...... You must thank Daxian well, remember to incense him every day, you know? ”

"Don't worry, I'll remember." Song Minghui said happily, raised his hand and patted Song Yun's shoulder, and comforted her: "Mom, don't be sad, aren't I fine...... You should be happy to be able to eat with you! ”

"I'm not sad, I'm happy, I'm very happy, really." Song Yun quickly wiped the corners of her eyes, hurriedly sandwiched a chicken leg into Song Minghui's bowl, and urged him: "You eat more, eat chicken legs." This chicken is a native chicken given to your uncle by someone else, but it is nutritious, you should eat more. ”

Song Minghui nodded with a smile, looking at the shiny chicken thighs in the bowl, a trace of disgust flashed in his eyes.

But he struggled for a while, and finally met Song Yun's expectant eyes, he still picked up the chicken leg and gnawed it down.

"You can eat something good, don't just look at your son." The middle-aged man smiled and said to Song Yun: "My son can take whatever he wants, and he is not a child." If you are so used to him and let him eat well every day, he will become a fat man in a few days. ”

"If you want to take care of it, I'm used to loving my son, can't I?" Song Yun waved her hand and patted it lightly on the man's arm, and said coquettishly.

"Okay, okay, you can say anything......" The man looked at Song Minghui who was picking up the bowl of rice again, with a doting smile on his face, "Xiaohui, I heard what your mother said, eat more meat." ”

Song Minghui "snorted" from his nose, and he didn't even bother to give the man a look.

The man was not annoyed, and still watched Song Minghui eat with a smile.

"Ah, yes." He looked at Song Minghui for a while, and suddenly remembered something, turned his head to Song Yun and asked, "Speaking of which, that Miss Ming doesn't seem to have come to the house to chat with you much during this time." ”

"yes, I called yesterday and she didn't answer." Song Yun frowned when she heard this, thought for a while, and finally sighed, "Why don't I go to her house tomorrow to have a look, I just want to ask her about something else." ”

"What do you want to ask?" The man smiled evilly and glanced at Song Yun, "It's not like I want to ask what the next daughter-in-law looks like." ”

Song Yun snorted, turned her head and made an angry expression, not looking at the man.

"You don't care what I ask, just do your job."

The man raised his eyebrows at Song Minghui and gestured to Song Yun beside him with his eyes.

"Don't go, Sister Ming may be very busy." Song Minghui put down the bowl and said to Song Yun: "I heard her mention it when I called two days ago, and she seems to have something else to do recently, and she is not often at home." ”

"Really?" Song Yun hurriedly asked, "What did you say to Miss Ming, she didn't say what it was, how long will it take to finish?" ”

"Then how can she tell me!" Song Minghui said irritably: "Anyway, don't disturb others." Think about it, even if people are not busy, you can run to other people's houses if you have nothing to do, and ask this and that, won't people be annoyed? ”

"Why bother, Miss Ming is so good, it was after she was busy at the beginning, you can wake up! Do you think that everyone is like you used to be, and you get angry when you say two words! Song Yun sternly educated Song Minghui, looked down at the small half bowl of rice left in the bowl, and frowned, "But what you said is right, if she is busy, it is not good to always go to her, I will go to her after a while." ”

"It's best not to go to someone." Song Minghui sneered and said, "Miss Ming has a lot of things to do even if she usually does, so don't bother her if you have nothing to do." Besides, people like them don't often have to stay alone and ...... Is that something communicative? Maybe you look like she's idle at home, but someone else might be ......."

He didn't finish saying this, he just turned his head and motioned for Song Yun to take a look at the shrine in the corner, and the meaning he wanted to express was quite clear.

Song Yun didn't understand the irony implied in Song Minghui's words, but nodded solemnly, and said approvingly to Song Minghui: "Or son, you want to be thoughtful, why did I never think of these things?" According to you, I used to be ......."

Song Minghui pursed his lips, pushed the empty bowl forward, stood up and stretched.

"I'm done eating, I'll go upstairs first." He nodded at Song Yun and the man beside her, and smiled meaninglessly, "You two eat slowly, Mom, and ...... Uncle Zhao. ”

He deliberately accentuated the pronunciation of the three words "Uncle Zhao", and his tone sounded oily and smooth, with a little weirdness, which made people who heard it only feel unhappy in their hearts.

"Uncle Zhao"'s face immediately became much more ugly.

Song Minghui was angry with the "Uncle Zhao", and then turned around and went upstairs satisfied.

"Uncle Zhao" put the chopsticks on the table, glared angrily, and was about to say something.

"I'm full, you can help me eat." Song Yun said as she raised her hand and pushed the half bowl of rice in her hand in front of "Uncle Zhao", and comforted him softly: "Xiaohui is still young and ignorant, don't take it to heart...... He's your son anyway, you say no. ”

"Uncle Zhao" gritted his teeth and nodded, took Song Yun's bowl, and poured the half bowl of rice into his own bowl.

The two middle-aged men continued to mumble over dinner, occasionally playing with each other a few times.

Song Yun also often let out a shrill laugh.

No one noticed that a breeze suddenly rose in front of the shrine in the corner, blowing the hazy smoke away.

The half-burned incense sticks in the incense burner suddenly went out, and the fine crumbs of incense ash fell into the incense burner, quickly merging with the incense ash below.

A white shadow flickered in the dark night outside the window. (To be continued.) )