mesbooks Chapter 2 Mengmeng, Welcome to the Zhang Family
Chapter 2 Mengmeng, Welcome to the Zhang Family
Chen Feng was holding Mengmeng when the guest room door opened quietly.
Grandma Liu stood awkwardly at the door, clutching an apron she used to wipe her hands, her eyes red-rimmed.
"Mr. Chen, I heard everything at the door just now..."
Grandma Liu's voice trembled slightly, "Are you really leaving?"
Chen Feng put Mengmeng down, stood up, and spoke in a very sincere tone:
"Aunt Liu, thank you for all your hard work."
"You raised Mengmeng, and I know you'll miss her terribly, just as Mengmeng will miss you terribly."
Mengmeng, who was holding Chen Feng's hand tightly, turned her head to look at Grandma Liu.
Her lips moved, and tears began to well up in her eyes again.
She ran over, grabbed Aunt Liu's leg, and buried her face in her apron.
"Grandma Liu, aren't you coming with us to eat steamed buns?"
Aunt Liu knelt down, her rough hands stroking Mengmeng's hair, her voice choked with emotion:
"Grandma is old and can't walk anymore."
"Mengmeng, when you go over there, you must listen to your dad. Don't kick off the covers at night, your little tummy gets cold easily, remember?"
Mengmeng nodded vigorously, then shook her head, her nose bright red.
Chen Feng took out a wad of cash and a pre-written letter of recommendation from his pocket and stuffed them into Aunt Liu's hand:
"Aunt Liu, this is a small token of my appreciation."
Keep this letter. If you want to work for another company in the future, the reviews here will be a great help.
Let's sleep with Mengmeng one last time tonight. We'll leave first thing tomorrow morning.
Aunt Liu couldn't refuse, so she could only nod while wiping away her tears.
The apartment was unusually quiet that night.
Only Chen Feng was preparing what he would need for the journey tomorrow.
Outside the window, the city of Beijing was brightly lit, and he was also drawing a final line to this fifteen-year period of prosperity.
At six o'clock in the morning, the entire apartment building was still asleep.
Chen Feng carried the last two large suitcases out of the elevator, while Mengmeng carried her little backpack and clung tightly to the old, molting rag doll in her arms.
Grandma Liu stood at the entrance of the hall and escorted them all the way to their car.
"Mr. Chen, please drive carefully on the road."
"Mengmeng, remember to video call Grandma." Grandma Liu waved her hand, her voice trembling with tears.
"Goodbye, Grandma..." Mengmeng leaned against the car window, and even after the black sedan turned the corner, she kept staring at the rearview mirror.
Chen Feng gripped the steering wheel, sensing a somewhat heavy atmosphere in the car.
He freed one hand and gently pinched the cute little face: "What's wrong? Still thinking about Grandma Liu?"
"Daddy, are we never going to come back again?" Mengmeng asked softly.
"I won't be coming back for now." Chen Feng stepped on the gas, and the car drove onto the ring road.
"Let's go to a place where we can see the sun every day and smell the aroma of food."
"Mengmeng will sleep for a while when she gets sleepy, and we'll leave the city when she wakes up."
I don't know how much time has passed.
Mengmeng woke up, looking out the window at the barren green belt rushing past. She seemed to suddenly remember something.
He asked, "Dad, shouldn't we wait for Grandpa and Grandma to come back before we go?"
Chen Feng gripped the steering wheel, a slight smile playing on his lips: "Grandpa and Grandma are really busy now."
Just a few days ago, your grandfather posted on his WeChat Moments that they were in a small town in Turkey.
"I've been in that town for two or three days now, searching for a special cheese that's said to be able to stretch two meters long."
"Two meters long?" Mengmeng blinked, her previously gloomy mood lifted by this touch of absurd amusement.
"Is he taller than Mengmeng?"
"Taller than two Mengmengs combined."
Grandpa said on the phone that if they couldn't find that kind of cheese, they wouldn't go to the next stop.
Chen Feng shook his head, his tone tinged with helplessness and envy.
"Your grandma is even more outrageous."
In the video, she said that when she went to the Mediterranean before, although the local seafood was fresh, it still lacked the authentic local flavor of her hometown.
However, she decided to try all the fish soup in that area first.
"Grandpa and Grandma are amazing! Don't they have to go to work?"
"They've been working for thirty years, and now they're 'traveling the world on paid leave'."
Chen Feng glanced at his daughter in the rearview mirror, his eyes softening.
"So, now it's just the two of us looking after that old house in our hometown."
At noon, the car entered a huge highway service area.
As soon as you open the car door, a mixture of smells of gasoline, instant noodles, and the sweltering heat of the crowd hits you.
Mengmeng asked softly, "Daddy, are we going to eat in that big house?"
Chen Feng glanced at the crowded fast food restaurant in the distance, then at Mengmeng's slightly pale face, and took a folding table out of the trunk.
"We're not going to eat there. Dad will get you something hot by the car."
Chen Feng skillfully set up the portable gas stove, the blue flames leaping in the autumn wind and reflected in his focused pupils.
He didn't use many kitchen utensils, but simply took out a small Yukihira pan and poured in half a bottle of mineral water.
"Dad, won't cooking by the roadside make the food dirty?"
Mengmeng squatted down beside her, her two little hands supporting her chin, like a curious kitten.
"If your mind is calm, your food won't be dirty."
Chen Feng took a small, transparent box out of the insulated box. Inside were several rolls of almost transparent, white dried noodles and two washed, tender cabbage hearts.
"This is an old recipe that your grandma taught me. She said that you shouldn't let your stomach suffer on the road."
Chen Feng waved his finger over the small pot to check the water temperature.
As the water just began to bubble with tiny, fine crackles like crab eyes, he sprinkled in a little salt, and the noodles, once in the water, unfurled like white silk in the boiling water.
While the noodles were bubbling in the small pot, Chen Feng was not idle.
He took out a porcelain jar and scooped out a spoonful of glistening white lard, placing it at the bottom of the bowl.
The lard was rendered by him last night after he decided to go back to his hometown. It took him three hours to render, and there were a few pieces of burnt fat residue inside.
"Sizzle—"
Chen Feng scooped a spoonful of boiling noodle soup into the bowl, and the solidified lard instantly melted.
A pure, rich aroma, carrying the fragrance of meat and scallion oil, instantly and domineeringly overwhelmed all the other smells in the service area.
Several passersby who were eating bread nearby couldn't help but stop and crane their necks to look in their direction.
"Wow, this smells...it smells so good!"
A passing truck driver swallowed hard, looked at the cold roujiamo in his hand, and then at Chen Feng.
"That's really meticulous."
Chen Feng ignored the stares of those around him.
He used chopsticks to pick up the noodles and put them into the bowl, his movements as light and quick as if he were embroidering.
Finally, he placed a soft-boiled egg, which had been cooked by the residual heat, in the center of the noodles.
After it cooled down a bit, Chen Feng handed over the small bowl and fork. "Mengmeng, try it, but be careful it's hot."
Mengmeng held the small bowl and carefully took a sip of soup.
The warmth of the lard and the sweetness of the broth slid down my throat and into my stomach, and the little guy's eyes, which had been dull due to motion sickness, suddenly lit up.
"Dad, this soup tastes like stars!"
Mengmeng slurped her noodles with gusto, fine beads of sweat appearing on the tip of her nose.
After a good meal and rest, the car continued south, and the scenery on both sides gradually became moist and lush.
Mengmeng, sitting in the back row, seemed much better. She pointed to a bamboo grove flashing past the window and turned to ask Chen Feng:
"Dad, Grandpa and Grandma are abroad. Do they miss the gardenias from their hometown?"
"Yes, I will." Chen Feng gripped the steering wheel, his voice drawn out.
"Every time your grandma drinks espresso abroad, she misses the cool water from the well back home."
She said that all the Michelin-starred restaurants in the world combined couldn't compare to the smell of firewood smoke from the stove in her hometown.
That's why they made me promise before they left that no matter how well or poorly I did outside, I had to go back and see that sign.
"Shop sign?"
"Yes, that was written by your great-grandfather himself. It's called 'Human Fireworks'."
He said, "As long as the fire in the stove doesn't go out, this home will remain."
Chen Feng lowered the car window slightly. They had already entered southern China, and the wind carried the moist, earthy fragrance of the soil.
He glanced at his phone; there were still thirty kilometers to go to the place called "Qingshi Town".
As dusk fell, the car slowly drove onto a somewhat old cobblestone road.
The old wooden houses on both sides exude an old and peaceful atmosphere.
The pace of life here is very slow. There are old men fanning themselves with palm-leaf fans by the roadside, and big yellow dogs dozing off on the steps.
The car stopped in front of a somewhat dilapidated two-story building facing the street.
Chen Feng turned off the engine but did not get out of the car immediately.
He looked at the tightly closed wooden door and the pair of stone lions at the entrance, their faces blurred by wind and rain, a complex emotion flashing in his eyes.
"We're here, Mengmeng."
Mengmeng jumped off the car, stepping onto the cracks in the moss-covered stone slabs, and somewhat awkwardly grabbed Chen Feng's clothes.
She looked at the large door with a black iron lock and asked softly:
"Dad, is this... the place Grandpa and Grandma said had a smell?"
Chen Feng took a copper key out of his pocket.
"Yes. This is our new home."
"It's also where my dad grew up."
The key was inserted into the lock, making a crisp "click" sound.
Chen Feng twisted the door hard, and with a sour metallic scraping sound, the door that had been sealed for a long time slowly opened.
The last rays of the setting sun streamed into the room, casting countless golden specks of light amidst the dense dust.
Chen Feng took Mengmeng's hand and stepped over the high wooden threshold.
"Mengmeng, welcome home."