Chapter Thirty-Seven: White Jade Snail

  It was already noon, just in time for lunch.

  The braised food store is bustling with people coming and going, some are taking out, some are eating in, crowded together.

  At this time, a car came outside, and a group of people got out, laughing and chatting as they walked straight into the braised food shop.

  "There are quite a few people."

  "Every day is like this, our Nan state's braised flavor is the most authentic."

  "It's settled for today, but you're paying."

  "Huh, when did I say that."

  "What's wrong with you? Just because you got drunk last night, you don't want to take responsibility?"

  "Did I say anything? Did I say anything?"

  "I've told you, don't believe me? Go ask them then?"

  "We've said it before, we all remember."

  "Never mind, I'll treat you, let's go upstairs to a private room, there are no seats left downstairs."

  "Alright, let's go to the private room upstairs. Anyway, someone is treating us, so we should make the most of it."

  "Don't be like that, at least leave me some dowry."

  "Alright, with your current body, you still want to marry a wife? Lose weight first."

  A group of people walked and chatted while slowly climbing the stairs up to the next floor.

  One of the young men glanced into the store and saw a familiar figure inside, so he said to the person going upstairs: "I think I see my brother, you go up first, I'll come over later."

  "Ask him to come up and eat together."

  "I'll go take a look and then say."

  After finishing speaking, the young man walked down the stairs and went into the store.

  "Coming over to Song Wen's side, he took a look and asked in surprise: "Ah Wen, when did you come back?"

  Song Wen Zheng was attacking a duck wing with his head down when he heard someone calling, he lifted his head to see the person coming and quickly put down the duck wing.

  "Older brother."

  Song Wen didn't expect to run into Song Long here.

  Song Long is the son of his uncle Song Yuanzhi. Since his uncle became an official in the city, the two families gradually lost contact. Especially after he went out to work, except for returning home during Chinese New Year to pay respects to their ancestors and gathering together to eat and drink, they basically never saw each other at any other time.

  "When did you come back?" Song Long asked again.

  He remembers that his younger brother likes to wander around, and every year except for the ancestor worship, he is not seen at other times. I didn't expect him to come back so early this year, it's really strange. It's probably also because Grandpa passed away and was called back by family members, otherwise he would still be wandering outside.

  When his grandfather passed away, Song Long just happened to have a business trip outside, so he didn't see Song Wen.

  "Come back for a while, come and sit." Song Wen stood up and gave him a seat.

  "Not going, there are still friends waiting for me upstairs, when are you leaving?" Song Long asked with a wave of his hand.

  "This time I'm back, I won't go out again, I plan to stay at home and enjoy my old age." Song Wen replied honestly.

  "Huh? Are you retired?"

  Song Long playfully glanced at Song Wen and shook his head, saying: "As long as Third Uncle doesn't object, you can raise it however you want. You eat, I still have friends waiting."

  After finishing speaking, Song Long was about to leave, but suddenly remembered something and turned back to say: "Don't forget to come home for dinner tonight?"

  "It's too late and there's no car to go back, let's do it another day!"

  "Alright, but next time when you come into town, you must come home for dinner. Otherwise, if your mother finds out, she won't let you off without a lecture."

  "Got it."

  When Song Long walked up, Song Wen continued eating.

  From start to finish, the old man buried his head and ate. When Song Long came, he didn't even glance at him, as if nothing else could arouse his interest except for the flavors in front of him.

  The two large plates of braised food on the table were quickly finished by the two, and after finishing, Song Wen still had some lingering thoughts, so he ordered another bowl of boiled pig's trotters to eat. Only then did he rub his round belly and let out a satisfied belch.

  "I didn't expect you to look so thin, but you can eat so much?"

  The old man's eyes were wide with wonder.

  "My mom says 'being able to eat is a blessing', but I think it's 'thin fields absorb water well' (thin people can eat more)." Song Wen said jokingly.

  The old man heard him say something interesting and laughed.

  After finishing their meal, the two of them sat down to rest for a bit and chatted casually.

  After resting, Song Wen looked up at the sky and said to the old man, "I think you've just arrived in Nanzhou too. Would you like me to take you around? It's a good way to digest your food. As the saying goes, 'Take a walk after meals, live to be 99'."

  The old man had some relatives in the south, but the blood relationship was already very thin and they no longer kept in touch. So every time he came back, he would just wander around by himself, feeling quite bored. Now hearing Song Wen say this, he nodded his head.

  Then Song Wen went forward to pay, and then took the old man walking towards the front of the old street.

  They walked through streets and alleys, leaving the old man bewildered. Even with his familiarity with Nanzhou, he had no idea where Song Wen was taking him.

  "Hey kid, where are you taking me? You're not thinking of selling out this old man, are you?"

  After walking for a while longer, the old man finally couldn't help but ask.

  "Don't worry! If you want to sell it, find a beautiful girl to sell it. With an old ugly man like you, even if you put it on the street, no one would dare to touch you."

  After listening to Song Wen's teasing, the old man was so angry that he stared straight ahead, but there was nothing he could do about it.

  After a while, walking into the garden of a large building, Song Wen said: "Walking over here is the Dragon River. Now the government has set up a riverside corridor, with goose egg stones paved on the ground, flowers and grasses surrounding it, and there are also several newly renovated old buildings next to it, which look pretty good, and the air is also good. I guess you haven't been here before, so I'll take you over for a walk."

  In a room on the top floor of a building, a 17 or 18-year-old girl in her blossoming years wore headphones and grasped a game controller, playing Cool Kart against the large LCD screen on the wall.

  Next to the sofa, there was a girl hugging a big fluffy dog bear, reclining on the sofa, watching TV and eating snacks.

  On the windowsill, a baby fist-sized white jade snail slowly crawled outwards, and accidentally crawled onto the stainless steel anti-theft net on the windowsill. It lost its balance and fell headfirst.

  The girl eating snacks happened to see it, and suddenly screamed, then quickly shouted to the girl playing karting on one side: "Baby, your little love has fallen off."

  Who knew that the baby was wearing sealed headphones and was so engrossed in playing that she couldn't hear any outside sounds. The girl quickly ran over to remove her headphones.

  The baby saw his headphones being pulled down and suddenly became furious. He yelled loudly at the girl who was eating snacks, regardless of anything else.

  "Sparrow, are you looking for death?! I was about to win this round and now it's all ruined because of you!"

  "Those can wait, baby, your pacifier has fallen off." Sparrow said hastily.

  "Fall down, where did it fall?" The baby's eyes widened as soon as he heard it.

  "Over there." The sparrow pointed towards the window and said.

  The baby rushed to the windowsill.

  Lying on the windowsill, looking down, the distance of more than a dozen floors makes people dizzy.

  "Didn't I ask you to help take care of it?" The baby turned his head angrily and said to the sparrow.

  "That thing is sticky and weird, people are afraid of it! So they put it in a bucket and cover it up, but who knows it crawled out by itself and even crawled onto the anti-theft net"

  The sparrow hung its head and didn't dare look up, saying in a low voice.

  The baby heard this and almost got angry to death, hurriedly ran out the door, and finally didn't forget to turn back and say: "Sparrow, if anything happens to Xia Ai'ai, I will definitely settle accounts with you!"

  The sparrow hurriedly followed and ran over.

  "And besides, by the river, not only can you enjoy the scenery, but also have something to eat. Now is the time when fishermen come ashore to sell fish, later on, if you like, you can buy some, next to it there are snack stalls that help people make them, very cheap"

  Song Wen Zheng was explaining the situation by the river to the old man, when he suddenly felt something falling from above. He wanted to dodge, but before he could react, the object had already fallen onto the grass beside him with a "thud".

  "It's unknown who is so vicious, throwing things from such a high place, and not even afraid of killing people. This is aerial littering, which can be taken to court."

  Song Wen looked down at the ground and found that what had fallen was a baby fist-sized white jade snail.

  The white jade snail shell was yellow and black, with a pair of snow-white feet, smooth and tender. It fell from such a high place without any problem, stretched out its head to look around, and was about to crawl away when Song Wen picked it up. Most white jade snails are only the size of an egg, and it's not easy for them to grow this big.

  He picked up the white jade snail and took a closer look, discovering that there was still a line of small words engraved on it: "Baby's little love". It seemed to be a girl's pet. However, he didn't care about this; since it had almost hit him, he naturally wanted to confiscate it. So, he picked up the white jade snail and walked out of the garden.

  "How about returning things to their owners?" said the old man.

  "Besides, I almost got smashed by it. This thing is a piece of criminal evidence and needs to be presented as proof. I'll take care of it first, lest it gets lost." Song Wen said with a straight face.

  The old man listened, smiled, and didn't care about him, just followed him out together.