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But Eri didn't ask him what he was doing at Hongjing that day, and he wouldn't ask Eri what she wanted to do at the river.
After reaching the river bank, Lu Mingfei discovered that the river lanterns were floating and the sandbank was full of boys and girls who came out to collect folk songs at night.
They leaned against the carved railing, Eri murmured low admiration beside him.
There are actually some river lanterns in Tokyo, but Eri has never seen one before.
She probably found out from the Internet that there would be such activities on this river at night, so she asked Lu Mingfei to come here.
There was a merchant selling those small boats by the river, and Lu Mingfei saw that Eri seemed to want one very much, so he went to buy one.
Eri excitedly lit the candle and gently pushed the small wooden boat into the undulating river surface, and the breeze carried it to the other side.
Lu Mingfei raised his eyes and looked, only to see that although wave after wave of waves were pushed over and all the boats were overturned, Huili's river lantern was still shining.
At this time, the thin singing voice suddenly rose up in the blowing wind, turning gently several times and flying into the sky along with the wind.
Lu Mingfei looked down and saw Eri standing on the sandbank, looking at the river lanterns and softly singing a Japanese song that he could not quite understand.
The wind blew up her skirt and hair. She stood on tiptoe with her hands behind her back, as if she would fly away with the wind at any time.
Lu Mingfei never knew that Eri could sing, and her voice was so beautiful, like the wind blowing through the pipes of a pan flute, melodious and light.
Chapter 358: Old Dreams with Eri (3)
A gust of wind pushed the small boats to the other side, causing them to capsize in large numbers. The river surface where the candlelight was floating seemed to become dim all of a sudden. Finally, even Eri's wooden boat, which was obviously stronger than the other small boats, was overturned.
Eri showed a regretful expression on her face. The middle-aged man who was selling the boats just now told her that there is a saying in this area that if you write your wishes on river lanterns, the farther the lanterns float, the more likely your wishes will come true.
Just like some places like to write the name of their loved one on a Kongming lantern. When the lantern flies up to the sky, it will be seen by the gods in the sky. The white-bearded old man in charge of marriage will tie the two people together with a red string according to the name on the lantern.
Most men disdain to do such petty things, or are ashamed to express the delicate feelings hidden in their hearts. Boys of this era still have the dream of traveling the world with swords, so how can a martial arts hero be tripped up by such a trivial matter as love?
Girls will also write the names of their loved ones on the river lanterns. In fact, although their thoughts are ups and downs, they are very simple. They just want to be with the person next to them forever, forever...
"What did you write on it?" Lu Mingfei asked curiously. He actually already had some answers in his mind, but he still wanted to ask.
"I hope you can always be by my side." Eri wrinkled her nose.
"There's no need to feel regretful. Didn't the boss say that the farther the boat goes, the more likely it is that our wishes will come true? Look, our boat has reached the middle of the water, and no one has gone farther than us." Lu Mingfei looked at the waves going from upstream to downstream, the wind ruffling his hair, and his eyes were as deep as the abyss at night.
They leaned against the guardrail and watched for a while, then people gradually dispersed. Rows of jeeps were parked outside the sandbank, and men carrying fishing gear found a place to sit on a small bench, made a nest, put bait on the bait, cast their rods, and waited quietly for the greedy river fish to take the bait at night.
Eiry stretched her neck to look at the fishermen who had been fishing without making any movement for a long time. After a while, she felt a little bored. She yawned, rubbed her eyes, frowned slightly, and arched her shoulder on Lu Mingfei.
"Can they catch any fish?" The little girl probably didn't really care about the boat lights. She blinked her big eyes and looked at Lu Mingfei to ask the question.
Lu Mingfei shrugged. “I don’t think it’s certain,” he said.
This area was indeed a good place to catch a lot of fish before it was developed. When Lu Mingfei was in high school, he and Chen Wenwen came to the sandbank to pick dandelions to make bookmarks and specimens. The surface of the river was densely packed with big fish poking their mouths out of the water to eat small insects, leaving ripples as they did so.
However, in recent years, factories have begun to move into the upstream industrial parks, industrial wastewater discharge has become serious, the number of fish has begun to decrease, but the number of anglers has become more and more, and now it has become a situation where there are more wolves than meat.
"It's boring." Eri said, "Miss Sakura once caught a black sea bream this big in the Sumida River. My brother brought it back and made fish soup for me. It was so delicious."
As she spoke, she used one hand to measure the size of the fish, from her left hand side to Lu Mingfei's right hand side. Judging from this, it was probably a super-evolved mutant black sea bream, nearly two meters long and weighing at least three hundred kilograms. Ying probably didn't fish it out, but jumped into the water, tied it up tightly with a wire and then threw it ashore.
Lu Mingfei didn't take it seriously, just as he was listening to a story. He found two strips of malt candy with the words "Sweet" written on the packages from Eri's purse, tore them open, put them in his mouth and sucked them, as if he was holding an unlit cigarette.
"No fish in China's rivers can grow that big," he said. "Foreigners say we are natural gluttons who can't wait for the fish to grow up before putting them on the table."
This is not bragging. Carp is definitely a common visitor in this river, but it is rare to see someone catch one weighing more than two kilograms.
But the largest individuals found in the Great Lakes in the past two years have even reached 1.2 meters and weighed more than 50 kilograms. When they swam densely in the water, it was a bit scary. Lu Mingfei once caught a net when he was sailing with the Dragon Blood Society's brothers in Lake Michigan, but it turned out that it was completely inedible. The smell of earth and rust was mixed, and the internal organs were all black. In the end, they were all thrown into the incinerator for harmless disposal.
While chatting, Lu Mingfei held Eri's hand and walked aimlessly on the sandbank, and then they turned to the sidewalk.
At the intersection of the sand embankment and the long street extending to the CBD area stand brand new solar street lights, with advertising signs on the street lights reading city slogans such as "Hefei Welcomes You".
The sidewalk is at this intersection. The ground is paved with carved and hollow fired bricks. On both sides are rectangular wooden flower beds that separate the long street from the sandbank. Small trees of various kinds are planted in the flower beds. Behind the small trees on one side, the wind whistles as vehicles pass by, while behind the small trees on the other side, the wind whistles as the sandbank faces the empty space at night.
The shadows of the trees swayed, and the girl's hair swayed too.
The flickering street lights cast flowing light and shadows on Lu Mingfei and Huili. Huili had the scent of sandalwood, and Lu Mingfei had the scent of beech.
When Eri thought about this, she felt that she and the boy beside her, who had become talkative after returning to this city, were like two plants with legs that wandered around.
It's inexplicably funny.
Such a peaceful night should have been the last night before the holiday when I was in high school many years ago. Boys and girls in school uniforms carried huge schoolbags and walked in such peaceful floating light, each with heavy thoughts for the teenagers at that time.
As he was talking, Lu Mingfei started talking about Shilan Middle School, Chen Wenwen, and how he had a crush on that girl who liked to wear white skirts a long time ago. But now when he thought about it again, he could only remember her plain white cotton skirt and her plain white ankles that were so delicate that they could be grasped with one hand.
Eri pricked up her ears and thought to herself, oh, so Lu Mingfei likes white cotton skirts. As for those ankles... Eri is really confident in herself.
Lu Mingfei used the light from the top of the lamp post to look at the shadows of two people cuddling together on the floor tiles, which kept lengthening and shortening. In the shadow, Eri still looked delicate and graceful even though she was shrouded in a sweater.
From the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of the white skin on the girl's pretty face, which seemed to be reflecting light in the night.
"It's a bit late. Aunt Su now lives in a community on the other side of the city. Let's wait two days before visiting her." Lu Mingfei rolled up his sleeves and tapped the dial. He was still wearing the Vacheron Constantin Tour de I'lle Watch worth three million dollars on his wrist. Before leaving, Her Royal Highness the Princess said that they should avoid using electronic devices on the way. A quartz watch that can always be calibrated to the second is very necessary for Lu Mingfei, so she gave him this expensive toy.
It is said that it is the most difficult to accept the favor of a beautiful woman, but fortunately Lu Mingfei felt that he would not live long, so the worst that could happen was that he would work like a slave for Ling in the next life to repay the favor of this life.
"Okay." Eri's expression was serious, "I want to eat crayfish."
Lu Mingfei was stunned.
"I want to eat crayfish." Eri repeated.
“Are you the ancient Greek god in charge of crayfish?” Lu Mingfei was helpless and took out his cell phone from his pocket to find the number to order takeout.
EVA is still on his side for the time being, so Lu Mingfei and Eri have lived a relatively comfortable life in the past few months. However, the academy will sooner or later discover that something is wrong. The board of directors will always find a way to conquer the underlying logic of this computer, and then the whole world will become Lu Mingfei's enemy.
Maybe a year from now he and Eri will have to survive in the wilderness. He doesn't know whether the wilderness knowledge he learned from Bear Grylls will be useful, such as the fact that the protein content of giant caterpillars is seven times that of beef.
I guess Eri can't eat the giant caterpillars, so maybe I can give her the fish I catch from the river?
As Lu Mingfei thought about it, his thoughts flew away.
"Is there also a god of crayfish in ancient Greece? I thought there was only Athena and the Gold Saint of Burning Hope." Eri's eyes lit up, and she obviously felt that she had learned new knowledge from Lu Mingfei.
“I don’t know, maybe there is.” Lu Mingfei shrugged and ordered spicy crayfish and garlic crayfish on the takeaway platform. He also sent a message to the auntie who always stayed up until midnight at the supermarket downstairs from his uncle’s house, asking her to freeze a bottle of beer for him and he could come down to get it.
Now that she had found the crayfish and beer, the little monster no longer had the heart to continue wandering outside. She held Lu Mingfei's arm and asked the man to tell her about the things that happened to her when she was a teenager, some sad, some happy, some nonsensical, and even some humiliating things. She listened to everything very carefully and with great relish.
It seemed that in this way she had a slight sense of participation in Lu Mingfei's childhood, which she had missed.
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With his left hand holding a five-pound bag of crayfish in the food box and his right hand holding a copy of Brave the World under his armpit, Lu Mingfei kicked open the door of his uncle's house after fingerprint recognition. Eiry skipped back to the room to turn on the air conditioner, then skipped into her white lace pajamas and threw all the messy things on the dining table onto the chair.
"My brother never let me eat spicy food before, and even the amount of wasabi I could eat was strictly limited." Eri had some resentment towards Genjiro, but I imagine that if the tortoise knew that this girl had now gotten rid of the curse in her blood, it would still laugh heartily.
"In the past, my family relied on my uncle to earn money, and we lived a tight life. We didn't eat crayfish very often." Lu Mingfei said, "The first time was at my senior brother's house. Aunt Su saw that I didn't know how to peel the shrimp shells, so she helped me. While peeling, she praised me for being a well-behaved child like Zihang in their family, and told me to visit my senior brother's house often in the future, saying that children should move around more often."
Eiry put on disposable gloves and giggled when she heard what Lu Mingfei said. Her eyes were sparkling. She sat obediently opposite Lu Mingfei like a ragdoll cat.
Perhaps in her heart, although Lu Mingfei is indeed the most perfect man in the world, he should not be associated with the word "obedient".
Over the years, Lu Mingfei has eaten crayfish from Hefei to Tianjin, from Tianjin to the Three Gorges, from the Three Gorges to Shanghai, and from all over the world. In short, domestic crayfish all taste the same, with heavy oil and color, and some vegetables such as cucumbers underneath to relieve the greasiness.
As for Chicago...
The crayfish was not eaten much, but Boluo and Lanlong followed Caesar and ate and drank everywhere, and a lot of it went into Lu Mingfei's stomach.
The screen window was open, and Lu Mingfei was peeling crayfish for Eri while looking out the window. He used to like looking in that direction when he was on the rooftop. There was the CBD in the distance, and the lights were gathering there, like a tide rushing towards him.
"You eat too." Eiry leaned forward cautiously, pinched the shrimp meat with two fingers and put it into Lu Mingfei's mouth. Lu Mingfei suddenly saw the whiteness of the spring mountains and the seductive ravines, and his heart was slightly moved.
He stood on the beer box and drank one glass after another. After drinking, he took out a cigarette from his pocket, put it in his mouth, hesitated for a moment, and then put it back.
"Let's go to the old site of Universal Group tomorrow. My sister said that my brother's father might have left some clues. We need a clue if we want to find the box." Lu Mingfei said while drinking. There was red oil on the corner of Eri's mouth, and sweat broke out on her forehead due to the spiciness.
It turns out that crayfish is a lady-killer. No matter you are a Hollywood porn star or the queen of Thailand, as long as you sit at a food stall and order crayfish, you have to put down your airs and show your heroic side.
"Okay, I'll go with you." Eri said.
Lu Mingfei did not refuse. The girl’s bloodline advantage might even be above his. Not only was she smart, but she was also very good at beating people up. She could also be taken care of if anything unexpected happened.
They drank, ate crayfish and watched TV until the early morning. After Lu Mingfei cleaned up the scene, he took a shower in the bathroom outside, put on his pajamas, pushed the door into the room, and found Huili still taking a shower.
She still has many habits that have not changed. For example, taking a bath is actually a very important matter that Eri takes seriously. After calming down, she will spend nearly an hour on this matter.
Lu Mingfei sat in front of the computer desk looking for news materials from five years ago. Chu Zihang's father had an accident in Odin's Nibelungen in 06. Maybe he could find some useful clues in the news at that time.
Unfortunately, Nuonuo is not here. Senior Sister and Constantine stayed in the academy and are going to help Lu Mingfei complete a task in Oslo.
Moreover, Lu Mingfei also needs some people in the academy who can provide him with information.
The light and shadow from the computer screen flowed across Lu Mingfei's face, and for a few moments his eyes showed fatigue and weakness.
His QQ was still hanging in the lower right corner of the window, and at the top of the chat list was a Rilakkuma avatar, but it was not flashing and was black and white.
There are some things that you should still do even if you are so tired that you feel like collapsing, otherwise you will regret it so much that you will want to kill yourself.
Xia Mi said he could find her, as long as he could get the box, as long as he could...
But all this seems like a dream far away in the horizon, and who knows what the end of the dream is.
What if after defeating the BOSS, they get the box and find that there is nothing Lu Mingfei wants in it, but only a legendary title of "Super Dragon Slayer"?
At this time, the sound of water in the bathroom behind me stopped, and a few minutes later the door was pushed open from the inside.
Lu Mingfei turned his head far away and saw the girl wrapped in a bath towel standing naked in the diffuse white steam, with her long straight hair without any decoration cascading down like a waterfall.
Lu Mingfei was stunned. No matter how many times he looked at her, he still looked stunned. Everything about the girl was perfect, like the brushstrokes left by God on earth: her straight and slender calves, white and slender ankles, delicate collarbones and exquisite figure.
Eri tilted her head and looked up and down with her dark red eyes at the guy who was staring at her. After a few seconds, a blush appeared on her face and she burst into laughter.
"Help me blow dry my hair." said Eri.
She sat obediently next to Lu Mingfei with her back to him.
The bath towel was not big enough and could only barely cover the chest, leaving a large area of jade-smooth and white skin exposed from behind.
Lu Mingfei didn't say anything. He picked up the hair dryer beside him and turned on the hot air to help the girl dry her red hair.
"Are you thinking about Sister Xia Mi?" Eri asked suddenly.
Lu Mingfei was silent for two seconds. "Yeah," he said, "Sometimes I worry that if we don't succeed, she will never come back."
"No, Sakura can do anything." Eri was very confident in Lu Mingfei. Even Lu Mingfei himself didn't know that he was such an awesome guy.
I can do everything in the world...
That sounds really cool.