Chapter 409: , Wisdom

Lunch was eaten at Principal Sun's house in the first middle school. Li Heng specially bought some gifts to visit the head teacher and subject teachers who had taught him.

After the meal, Mai Sui left, saying she was going to her grandmother's house, near Chengnan Park. Sun Manning personally helped her carry her luggage and sent her home.

Watching the two women leave, Yu Shuheng glanced at Li Heng, then opened the driver's door and sat in.

Li Heng thought for a while and sat in the passenger seat.

When the car started, he suddenly opened his mouth, "Out of the school gate, drive to the right."

Yu Shuheng didn't know the way to the front town, thinking he was pointing the way, so she followed his direction.

It was just that not long after driving out, his voice came again: "Teacher, pull over."

Yu Shuheng looked puzzled, but still stopped.

Opening the car door, Li Heng sprinted up more than 20 stone steps, but the result made him very disappointed; the gate of the Song family was closed, and there was a copper lock on it.

Yu Shuheng also followed, looking at the two-story building, and asked coldly: "Song Yu's house?"

Knowing he couldn't hide it from her, Li Heng didn't deny it: "Yes."

Hearing this, Yu Shuheng looked at him thoughtfully, then walked around the Song house unhurriedly; there were flowers and plants in front of the house, and a vegetable plot behind the house.

Many vegetables were planted in the vegetable plot, obviously someone had lived here a while ago.

Li Heng didn't give up, and after inquiring from the neighbors on the left and right, he learned that Song Shi and Jiang Yue had already returned to Dongting Lake.

Yu Shuheng reached her right hand into the wooden fence, picked a red rose, smelled it at the tip of her nose and said: "Song Yu's mother is a woman with great taste."

Jiang Yue indeed had great taste. Among the three mothers-in-law in his previous life, her personality was the gentlest, she had the fewest things, and her attitude toward Li Heng was the best.

Seeing him silent, Yu Shuheng turned the rose in her hand, "Very beautiful?"

Li Heng knew Yu Laoshi was asking about Song Yu's mother, and answered: "Song Yu mainly inherited her beauty."

Yu Shuheng nodded and walked toward the steps, "Let's go, otherwise it will be dark again when we get to your house."

"This teacher doesn't need to worry, it will be dark 100 percent." Li Heng said behind.

Yu Shuheng smiled, didn't turn her head, didn't reply.

The car started again. This time, under Li Heng's indication, the two took a small road out of the city.

Yu Shuheng asked: "How many years have you stayed in Shaoshi?"

Li Heng answered: "3 years."

Yu Shuheng said: "Teacher has stayed in Hushi for 26 years, and I'm not familiar with many places."

Along the way, the two chatted one sentence after another, and it took an hour to reach Longhui.

Li Heng said at this time: "Teacher, I want to buy some things."

Yu Shuheng didn't say two words, accompanied him to the county town, and when they were on the road again, it was already 2:30 in the afternoon.

Passing Huamen, she asked: "About how long will it take to drive?"

Li Heng knew this route well, "According to this speed, if it's fast, about 160 minutes, if it's slow, 4 hours is possible. The road above is winding, there are many mountains, and you have to climb slopes all the time."

The 160 minutes he mentioned referred to old drivers who specialized in this road. As for Yu Laoshi, whoa, it would be good if she arrived in 4 hours.

As a result, it was about the same as he expected. After passing Liudouzhai, the car speed dropped by more than half instantly. On the left side of the road were high mountains, and on the right were either rivers or cliffs, driving extremely carefully.

He wanted to grab the steering wheel and drive himself many times, but once he thought that he hadn't touched a car since he was reborn, if he suddenly knew how to drive, damn it, many things couldn't be explained at all.

Weighing it, he finally gave up.

After passing Qijiang, Li Heng begged: "Teacher, teach me how to drive when you have time."

Yu Shuheng said: "Teach you when we return to Hushi."

She didn't dare to teach in this terrain, fearing that Li Heng would rush into the ditch if he wasn't steady.

At 6:11 PM, the Mercedes-Benz finally arrived at the front town after seven turns and eight turns.

Now the sun had just set, and the western sky was covered with sunset clouds, reflecting half the sky red, which was very beautiful.

Yu Shuheng lowered the car window glass, driving slowly while observing the surroundings, and finally asked: "Is this the small town that raised you and Xiao Han?"

Li Heng understood her meaning: This small town looks ordinary, how could it give birth to such an exquisite girl as Xiao Han?

How could it cultivate a great writer like Li Heng?

Li Heng pointed to the fork in the road ahead, "Go down that road on the left, and you can reach Xiao Han's old home. Oh, by the way, the former residence of Wei Yuan, who wrote 'Illustrated Treatise on the Maritime Kingdoms', is also in that direction."

Some words are understood as soon as they are heard. This little boy was using a celebrity in history to refute her questioning. Yu Shuheng smiled rarely, "First time seeing your side that reports every grievance."

"No, I've been a master who reports every grievance since I was a child." Li Heng answered this way.

Yu Shuheng was curious: "How so?"

Li Heng recalled: "It's circulating here that revenge shouldn't be separated by a night. When I was a child, fighting was the tenet I followed."

Yu Shuheng had inquired about his fighting in detail before, and there were some bad memories in it. She tactfully changed the subject, "Where is the Qian Yuejin wonton shop you mentioned to Mai Sui?"

"Teacher, are you hungry?"

"Hmm, a little."

"It's right ahead, next to that Shimen station."

Yu Shuheng drove forward as ordered, and arrived at the wonton shop door before long.

Li Heng poked his head out to look, and said happily: "Luck is not bad, there are customers in the shop, it hasn't closed yet."

Yu Shuheng opened the car door, "Let's go down and eat something."

"Eh, okay."

Stepping into the shop one after another, Li Heng shouted skillfully: "Boss lady, two bowls of wontons, one big bowl, forget it, two big bowls, one with chili, add spicy, the other..."

Yu Shuheng took the words: "Mildly spicy."

The charming boss lady felt inexplicably restrained when she saw Yu Shuheng. She secretly said it was hell. In her 40-plus years of life, this was the first time she had encountered such a thing.

The boss lady squeezed a smile at Yu Shuheng and asked Li Heng: "Great writer, did you just come back from summer vacation today?"

"Isn't it, as soon as I arrived in town, I missed your craftsmanship, boss lady, I had to come eat a bowl." Li Heng said with a smile.

Hearing this, the boss lady added 10 more wontons when she cooked them, mainly to let him eat his fill.

They say people's names and trees' shadows. When the boss lady shouted "Great writer," the noisy shop suddenly quieted down. The seven or eight customers inside turned their heads to look at the two at the same time.

At first, these people were all looking at Li Heng.

Not long after, their eyes fell on Yu Shuheng involuntarily.

Yu Shuheng looked back. When these people's eyes came into contact with her, they scattered instantly, as if they had met a nemesis.

Seeing this scene in full, Li Heng teased in a low voice: "Yu Laoshi, your aura is too big, scaring us country folks."

Xiao Han was beautiful, but her smile was very sweet, and she was a local from the small town, so everyone didn't have much fear.

And Yu Shuheng was different. It was fine if she was beautiful, the key was that this rich scholarly temperament was simply a dimensionality reduction strike for people in the mountains who hadn't seen much of the world. Especially the Mercedes-Benz parked at the door, which made Yu Laoshi's identity climb to another height, becoming quite mysterious.

Li Heng whispered: "How is the taste?"

"Worthy of your evaluation, not bad." This was the first time Yu Shuheng had eaten this flavor of wontons, very fresh, and her taste buds opened wide.

Seeing the fiery red soup floating in his bowl, Yu Shuheng asked: "So spicy, can you eat it?"

Li Heng said: "We Xiangnan people generally like spicy, can't live without spicy, the spicier the better."

Saying that, he asked: "Teacher, do you want to try a bite?"

Yu Shuheng hesitated, but finally couldn't resist the surge in her heart, stretched her chopsticks into his bowl and picked up a wonton, then sent it to her mouth and ate it.

Once, twice, when chewing the third time, Yu Shuheng covered her mouth with her right hand, her face twisted slightly, but she tried not to lose her composure.

Li Heng hurriedly got up and bought her a bottle of soda, "Here, drink a few sips of soda to rinse your mouth."

Yu Laoshi grabbed the soda and drank several sips in a row, finally saying: "So spicy, the whole mouth is on fire, how can you eat it."

The boss lady on the side saw this scene in her eyes and joked: "Our place's spicy, many people can't eat it, outsiders' wives don't dare to marry in easily."

Although the wontons tasted good, Yu Shuheng still didn't finish a big bowl. When she left the store and returned to the car, she asked suddenly: "Do your family members also like to eat so spicy?"

Li Heng said: "When in Jingcheng, didn't Yu Laoshi have dinner with my parents?"

Yu Shuheng said: "Different, those two meals, your parents were accommodating me, didn't

Yu Shuheng said, "It's different. For those two meals, your parents were specifically accommodating me, so they didn't use much chili."

Li Heng said, "My mom likes salty, fragrant, and spicy food. My dad is fine; he can eat any flavor and isn't very picky, though to a certain extent, he still prefers spicy food."

Upon hearing this, Yu Shuheng asked with a half-smile, "In that case, will your parents prefer a daughter-in-law who can eat spicy food in the future?"

Hearing these suggestive words, Li Heng was completely stunned. It took him a long while to speak, "Actually, whether or not someone can eat spicy food isn't that important to me."

He was speaking the truth. In his previous life, he had worked in Yangcheng for so many years, alternating between Cantonese, Hunan, and Sichuan cuisines; what he ate for any given meal depended entirely on his mood and convenience.

"Oh?" Yu Laoshi tilted her head and stared at him, her expression full of hidden meaning.

With their eyes meeting, Li Heng couldn't quite handle it, so he shifted his gaze away and urged, "Teacher, it's almost dark, and the mountain road into the village is quite steep. We need to get going."

Yu Shuheng withdrew her gaze, restarted the car, and under his guidance, turned off the main road to follow a small path leading toward a mountain pass in the distance.

After traveling an unknown distance, as they rounded a large hairpin turn on the mountain, Yu Shuheng suddenly asked, "Little boy, are you this timid with other people too?"

Li Heng: "."

He didn't know how to respond to that.

But he wasn't a fool; ever since they left Shaoshi, the woman beside him had been constantly testing his bottom line.

After pondering for a moment, Li Heng asked, "Teacher, what kind of scene do you think would occur if a lion broke into a flock of sheep?"

Yu Shuheng replied, "Eat some sheep, drive some away, and keep some."

Li Heng pressed, "Are the sheep that are kept just rations to be eaten at any time?"

Yu Shuheng gave a refined smile, her mood inexplicably opening up, and she didn't answer his question.

It was about 10 li from the small town to the intersection at Shangwan Village. Because Yu Shuheng was driving quite cautiously, it took a full 17 minutes to reach the village.

"Huh?" Just past the village entrance, she let out a sound of surprise.

Li Heng asked, "What's wrong?"

Yu Shuheng countered, "There are so many people standing on the road at this hour; it's livelier than I imagined. How many people are in your village?"

Li Heng told her, "Over 3,000. It's not the busy farming season now, so after dinner, everyone has nothing to do and usually gathers by the roadside or the grain-drying field to chat."

The Mercedes-Benz was very eye-catching, and the beautiful woman driving it was even more so. Before long, the news that the great writer had brought a woman back spread throughout Shangwan Village as if it had grown wings.

In an instant, many busybodies who had eaten their fill and had nothing to do ran to the intersection to join the excitement, leaving Li Heng in misery.

Damn it, if it goes on like this, it'll be a disaster. If nothing goes wrong, Xiao Han will know within three days that he brought Yu Laoshi back.

Perhaps, perhaps this is the effect Yu Laoshi wanted.

Seeing Yu Shuheng appear at the doorway of the main house in an incredible manner, carrying large and small bags of gifts in both hands, Tian Run'e, who had rushed over from the backyard upon hearing the news, was stunned.

A moment later, Li Jianguo also ran back from a neighbor's house and was equally stunned at the doorway.

The couple thought their son had returned, but they didn't expect their son to bring the old couple such a huge "surprise."

Although the couple had met Yu Shuheng when they were in Jingcheng, Jingcheng and their hometown had different meanings. They were both experienced people and always felt something was not quite right.

As for what wasn't right?

The couple looked at each other and decisively extinguished the raging thoughts that had arisen, tacitly agreeing not to think too deeply. After all, the other party was a university teacher, and after all, their son already had a mountain of emotional debts he couldn't repay. How could they be so greedy?

After the husband and wife adjusted their attitudes through eye contact, Tian Run'e greeted her with a face full of smiles, helping to take the strings of gifts and saying, "Yu Laoshi is here, hurry! Hurry in and sit. You've traveled such a long way, you must be tired. Jianguo, hurry and pour some herbal tea for the teacher."

"Okay." Li Jianguo said, but he was already busy arranging the herbal tea.

Yu Shuheng stepped over the threshold, walked into the house, and said with a smile, "Li Heng said the Xuefeng Mountains are the coolest in the summer, so I was curious and came with him to escape the heat. I hope you don't mind."

It was cool, but had he ever said that? Li Heng grumbled to himself, but he didn't expose her, letting Yu Laoshi improvise freely.

Yu Shuheng's seemingly trivial remark was actually meant to clear up any "misunderstandings" so the couple wouldn't overthink things.

Speaking of being cool, that was one of the few advantages of Shangwan Village. Throughout the summer, it was generally only hot for about half a month during the dog days. The rest of the time, even if the daytime temperature was high, the temperature would drop at night, and there was no need to turn on a fan to sleep, let alone some air conditioner; sometimes, one even needed to cover up with a thin quilt.

This explanation had no flaws, and Tian Run'e and Li Jianguo actually believed it to some extent. It was just that they didn't dare to let their imaginations run wild; they couldn't imagine someone of her status taking a fancy to their own boy.

After Yu Shuheng finished half a cup of tea, Tian Run'e asked enthusiastically, "Yu Laoshi, have you had dinner?"

Yu Shuheng said, "We had wontons in town."

Tian Run'e instructed her husband, "How can wontons be enough? That stuff doesn't keep you full at night. Jianguo, go start the fire; I'll cook a few dishes for them."

Saying this, the couple went into the backyard kitchen, singing in harmony.

Yu Shuheng wanted to say there was no need to go to the trouble, but she was stopped by Li Heng. He said, "This is our local custom for treating guests. When a distinguished guest visits, the first meal must be prepared to entertain them. It doesn't matter how much you eat. Teacher, I'll take you to the bedroom upstairs first. You can take a bath later, and tonight we'll drink some rice wine to relieve the fatigue."

Hearing this, Yu Shuheng understood and went to the second floor with her suitcase.

Upon reaching the second floor, Li Heng pointed to the room on the far right and introduced, "This is the room I stay in, the one next door is where my second sister stays, and this is..."

Seeing that Yu Laoshi wasn't listening to him but was staring unblinkingly at the coffin opposite, he stopped talking. After a while, he said, "The longevity coffins of the elderly here are basically kept on the second floor, mainly to prevent moisture and insects. Teacher, if you're afraid, I'll go call someone to move it to the backyard right now."

Yu Shuheng parted her red lips slightly, "No need. It's said that a longevity coffin shouldn't be moved easily. I'm only staying for a few days, so don't make a big fuss."

There was indeed a saying that a longevity coffin shouldn't be moved easily, because moving it only happened when someone died, followed by encoffining and burial.

However, there were exceptions to everything. For example, last year, when the old Li family built a new house, they had no choice but to move the coffin, and at the time, they just set off a string of celebratory firecrackers to settle the matter according to custom.

Uh, celebratory firecrackers were just regular firecrackers; it was just a different way of saying it to avoid taboos.

There were also those who didn't believe in superstitions and didn't care; they moved the coffin whenever they wanted and still lived to be seventy or eighty. Sometimes many things seemed mysterious, and sometimes, there was absolutely nothing to it.

As the old folks said, this is called "doing things randomly leads to random good results!"

Yu Shuheng asked, "I didn't hear clearly just now, which room do you stay in?"

Li Heng reached out and pointed to the room on the far right.

Yu Shuheng walked straight over, pushed the door open to check, and then said, "Teacher will stay in this room."

Li Heng reminded her, "I've stayed here."

Yu Shuheng said, "This room is the furthest from the coffin."

Li Heng turned his head to glance at it, having nothing to say.

Seeing him speechless, Yu Shuheng smiled and said, "You go wait outside the door; I'm going to find some clothes to change into."

Li Heng didn't say a word, walked out, and closed the door behind him.

A minute or two later, Yu Shuheng came out carrying a bag, passed him, and walked toward the stairwell first. While walking, her eyes would glance at the coffin from time to time; clearly, she was extremely uncomfortable with this kind of rural custom.

Li Heng knew she had been troubled by sleep paralysis for half a year, so he immediately followed closely behind her to keep her from being startled.

When they got to the first floor, he suggested, "Teacher, why don't you stay on the first floor?"

Yu Shuheng asked, "Is there a spare room on the first floor?"

"No, but my grandmother isn't home." His grandmother was currently with his aunt in Lengshuijiang; Li Heng only knew this because his mother had written him a letter.

Yu Shuheng didn't like staying in an elderly person's room; she always felt it was gloomy. At the same time, she had a bit of a clean-freak habit and couldn't accept things others had used. However, someone was an exception.

She shook her head slightly, walked toward the bathroom, and instructed, "You stay outside the door, don't run off far."

"Got it, if you need anything, just give a shout." Li Heng responded, then grabbed a small low stool and sat down.

PS: Posted first, edited later.

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(Counting the chapter from early this morning, 18,000 words have been posted today)

(End of chapter)