Corpse Recovery Diver-Chapter 19 - 4-4

"By the way, Brother Yuanhou, have you been to The Forbidden City?"

"Uh-huh, I've been."

"I want to go there in the future too."

"Sure, just call me and I'll take you."

"Really? You're not fooling me, are you?"

"I wouldn't fool you, I'm very familiar with The Forbidden City."

In Li Zhiyuan's memory, there was a period of time when Li Lan worked in The Forbidden City, and he was left to play there by himself. Sometimes, he would sit on the side steps, holding an orange cat in his arms, watching tourists continuously entering from the main gate, often for an entire afternoon.

"By the way, Brother Yuanhou, have you ever had soybean juice?"

"Uh..."

"Have you drunk it?" Cui Cui curiously looked at him with wide eyes.

"I have."

"Is it tasty? What does soybean juice taste like?"

What does it taste like?

Li Zhiyuan's mind flashed back to last week when Cui Guiying was washing out the spoiled pickle jar at home.

"Some like it, some don't."

"Is that so? I must try it when I go to Beijing."

"Mm."

"Brother Yuanhou, look, that's my house."

Following the direction Cui Cui was pointing, Li Zhiyuan saw a two-story house beyond a piece of farmland.

"Your family lives in a two-story house."

In the village, there were all styles of houses—most were brick-tile bungalows, a few financially challenged families still lived in mud houses, and similarly, a few well-off families had already taken the lead in building two-story houses.

Walking up to Cui Cui's yard and into the living room on the first floor, Liu Jinxia was clutching a cigarette in her mouth and playing bridge.

Her card partners were two old ladies and an old man who came to play cards with Liu Jinxia and could mooch a meal at her place. The fare was quite good, with meat and wine, so Liu Jinxia never lacked card partners, and she was willing to spend a bit to "buy" company for entertainment.

The card table was indeed a magical place; Liu Jinxia, despite having poor eyesight due to cataracts, played cards with surprising speed.

"Grandma, I brought Brother Yuanhou over to play."

"Grandma Liu." Li Zhiyuan called out.

"Mm, go and play," Liu Jinxia responded while focusing on her cards, "Pong!"

Just now, the card players were still talking about something happening at Big Beard's house, Liu Jinxia casually responded while blowing out smoke rings. Hearing her granddaughter bring Li Zhiyuan in, she was a bit taken aback, narrowing her eyes through the smoke.

That kid got cursed yesterday, and just this morning, Big Beard and his son ended up floating in the fishpond.

If there wasn't something fishy going on, Liu Jinxia would never believe it.

But she didn't stop her granddaughter from playing with Li Zhiyuan, scoffing to herself, it's all bad luck, why fuss over who is shunned.

Cui Cui led Li Zhiyuan through the hall to the inner room where Li Juxiang was sitting on a stool picking vegetables. Seeing her daughter bring someone home, she was surprised at first, but her face lit up with a smile when she saw it was Li Zhiyuan.

This reminded her of her own childhood when Li Lan used to play with her.

Li Juxiang immediately stood up and wiped her hands on her apron, "Sit down, Little Yuanhou."

She then quickly went in to bring out a variety of snacks to serve, Liu Jinxia's family was indeed well-off, especially since Cui Cui was their only child, allowing her the treat privileges that other village kids envied.

Li Juxiang also opened two bottles of lemon sour soda, handing one each to Li Zhiyuan and Cui Cui.

This type of beverage, shaped like a beer bottle and carbonated, was cheap and popular. The children would lazily drink directly from the bottle, mimicking the hearty drinking style of adults.

"Little Yuanhou, how's your mom?"

"She's good, Auntie."

"I heard that your mom she separated..." Li Juxiang suddenly realized it was inappropriate to ask a child this and quickly changed her words, "I used to play a lot with your mom when we were kids, we were very close."

"Yeah, Mom has mentioned you before, Aunt Xiang Hou."

Normally the suffix "Hou" is used among elders and peers, not by the younger generation.

But Li Juxiang certainly wouldn't get upset over this; on the contrary, she was delighted. She could imagine the scenario where Li Lan talked about her using the nickname "Xiang Hou," proving she hadn't forgotten her.

"Your mom was very smart back then, with good grades, unlike me, who gets a headache just looking at books," Li Juxiang adjusted her hair behind her ears, "When will your mom come home to visit?"

"My mom is busy with work; she says she'll come to get me once she's free."

Cui Cui spoke up, "Mom, I'm taking Brother Yuanhou upstairs to play."

"Mm, go on, take good care of Little Yuanhou."

Cui Cui pulled Li Zhiyuan to the stairwell where she skillfully took off her shoes and slipped on a pair of slippers; seeing this, Li Zhiyuan also started to remove his shoes.

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"No, Brother Yuanhou, just come up."

Li Zhiyuan still took off his shoes, planning to go barefoot, so Cui Cui had to hand him her mother's slippers to wear.

Wearing oversized slippers, Li Zhiyuan followed Cui Cui to the second floor, into her room which had a black-and-white TV set.

Liu Jinxia's family had bought a TV quite early but didn't make a fuss about it. Since the villagers were indifferent towards her family, she was too lazy to invite people over to watch TV.

Cui Cui turned on a standing fan, but the blades didn't move: "Huh, is there a power outage?"

Li Zhiyuan: "The plug isn't in."

"Hey, right." Cui Cui bent down, picked up the plug, and plugged it into the wall socket:

"Buzz...buzz...buzz-buzz...buzzing—"

The heavy fan blades slowly started rotating, emitting sounds that could blow the heat of midsummer away.

"Brother Yuanhou, do you want to watch TV?"

"Either's fine."

Cui Cui turned on the TV, then adjusted the tuner; after a full turn, there were only a few channels, half of which were just static.