Infinite Puzzle City

Chapter 103 Dragon Sound
"Fellow villagers, come and have dinner tonight. Lu Cheng's family, the big pot of food is enough for you to eat."

Xiao Ran came out of the grocery store and walked through the village. Every time he saw an elderly person at the door, he would shout towards the door.

As he spoke, he took out a pack of cigarettes he bought from the canteen and handed it to him.

When someone saw that Xiao Ran was unfamiliar, they asked who he was from.

"We are friends of Lu Cheng. We used to be in the same opera troupe. We came to see him this time. We know that he is usually taken care of by our fellow villagers. We will treat everyone to a meal tonight to thank everyone."

Xiao Ran said this and bowed to all the villagers.

When the villagers heard that he was Lu Cheng's friend, they immediately relaxed their vigilance. After all, there are too many scammers these days. Some time ago, someone said he was giving gifts, but many people in the village were cheated out of their money.

"Young men, you need to persuade Lu Cheng not to continue living like this."

"Yes, I used to hear him singing while lying in the field. Hey, he sang really well. If his mother were still alive, she would not want to see him like this."

"Yes, yes, everyone can give some advice tonight. Thank you for taking care of me on weekdays."

As Xiao Ran spoke, he scattered the cigarettes in his hand.

"This village is not big. There are at least a hundred people at night. One pot may not be enough. Do you need help?"

An aunt asked enthusiastically.

"This... shouldn't be necessary."

Xiao Ran didn't know how Wu Man arranged it. In fact, he had no idea either. But the guy looked so confident on the phone that it shouldn't be a problem for him.

After notifying everyone around Lu Cheng's house, Xiao Ran went back to Lu Cheng to see what the situation was.

When he returned, he saw Wu Man playing in the mud in Lu Cheng's yard.

"Where's Lu Cheng?"

"Sleeping in the house." Wu Man kneaded the mud and added some black powder into it.

"What are you doing? Making beggar's chicken?"

Xiao Ran looked at the sky with some worry, thinking that a hundred people would come with bowls and chopsticks in the evening and find that the meal was not ready. By then, everyone's spit would probably drown them.

Wu Man said calmly, "I have to cook on the stove. There will be a lot of people coming tonight. One pot is definitely not enough. I have to cook one pot at a time. How long will it take?"

Wu Man picked up a brick from the corner and said, "Don't just stand there, help me."

Xiao Ran rolled his eyes. He had seen people cramming at the last minute, but he had never heard of anyone building a stove before cooking. But there was no other way at this time. He could only roll up his sleeves and start helping.

Fortunately, there were ready-made bricks in Lu Cheng's yard, and Wu Man worked very quickly. After kneading the mud, he made the prototype of the stove in no time.

But I really can’t praise the appearance of this stove.

It is not the kind of big pot stove that people imagine, but a trapezoidal stove with a total of seven stove openings from top to bottom.

"Are you sure this thing can cook?"

When it comes to cooking, Xiao Ran doesn't know much, but he knows that the more stoves there are, the more dispersed the fire will be. With seven stoves, it would be difficult to boil a pot of water.

"Hey, you don't understand this, this is called a mountain stove. I made it too small. If I made it bigger, it should have ten stoves, which can be used for steaming, stir-frying, deep-frying, boiling, stewing, braising, and the last one can keep warm, which is definitely enough."

Wu Man looked at the stove she had made with satisfaction.

Then he took out seven iron pots from the space and placed them on the stove one by one.

He took out a piece of special solid fuel and threw it into the stove. He then stuffed the firewood and corn cobs in the yard into it in a mess and lit the fire. After a while, a fire started under the stove. The fire grew bigger and bigger, and the stove became more and more stable.

"I added some special black soil to this mud, so no matter how big the fire is, it can't burn it."

As the fire gradually began to stabilize, the fat lady came over from home carrying a large iron pot, which was full of fried meat pieces, many semi-finished products, vegetables, etc.

Xiao Ran took a look at the fat lady and realized that something was wrong with this lady. She seemed to have become dull, but her movements were neater and more efficient than before.

"Don't look at me. I didn't harm her. I just asked her to help me. But I was afraid that she couldn't handle it alone, so I used some tricks. Don't worry, when it's over, I will give her some money as compensation."

Xiao Ran looked at the fat lady carefully, and after confirming that Wu Man had no intention of harming her, she accepted it. As long as she was not as cruel as Xue Hongling, Xiao Ran would not be disgusted by such a small matter.

Of course, I still have to compensate Fatty Sister well afterwards.

Xiao Ran wanted to help wash the vegetables, but Wu Man said, "Think of other ways to entertain the villagers. Don't let everyone just focus on eating. It will be boring if the atmosphere gets cold."

"entertainment??"

Xiao Ran looked at the empty yard in front of him and couldn't think of any entertainment, so he could only turn around and walk into Lu Cheng's house.

As soon as I entered the room, I saw Lu Cheng sitting on the bed in a daze.

He looked completely indifferent towards Xiao Ran and Wu Man who was cooking outside.

The room was in a mess, and even the walls were covered with spider webs.

"Brother Lu..."

Xiao Ran tried to call out to Lu Cheng, but Lu Cheng simply turned his head away, with no intention of paying any attention to him.

Seeing this, Xiao Ran walked in and looked around the room. The wall paint had peeled off, the table was a mess with all kinds of things, there was even a moldy apple.

At this time, Xiao Ran noticed that there were a lot of videotapes on the table next to him. He picked one up and took a look. It was written "Drunken Beating of the Golden Branch"

Don't get me wrong, this is traditional opera, not some special fetish on the Internet.

I picked up another videotape [Passing Five Levels] [Ancient City Meeting]

This is all Guan Yu's play, and it seems that Lu Cheng is indeed the most suitable candidate.

Thinking of this, Xiao Ran's heart moved, and he turned around and scanned the room. When he saw there was another player downstairs, his eyes suddenly lit up: "Brother Lu, can I borrow your player?"

Lu Cheng did not respond, but Xiao Ran could feel that he seemed to glance at her. But it was just a glance.

……

As the sky gradually darkened, the villagers began to walk towards Lu Cheng's home in groups.

I saw Wu Man specially set up a lamp in the yard and moved in several tables and benches. Anyway, Fatty's house was just opposite, so this was the last thing she needed.

The fat lady moved around by herself, and she looked much thinner after a day.

Many villagers smelled a fragrance coming out from the alley of Lu Cheng's house before they even arrived.

They couldn't help but feel hungry, and felt that the aroma of the food was different from what they usually smelled.

“This is a real chef.”

An old man sniffed for a while and couldn't help but give a thumbs up.

The old man is not a cook, but he has not smelled this smell for more than ten years. How should I put it? The smell of the food is very fresh. If you raise your nose to smell the aroma of the meat and the aroma of the vegetables, you can smell that the aroma of the meat and the aroma of the vegetables do not conflict with each other.

If you walk down the street now, the smell in front of restaurants is, to put it bluntly, no different from that of a sewer. As for the dishes, they always taste the same. Many people think they are delicious after the first bite, but the more they take a few bites, the more they get sick of it.

When people arrived at Lu Cheng's house, they saw a strange stove with seven large iron pots on it, and each pot contained different things.

A young man wearing a chef's uniform and a chef's hat was standing in front of the pot, checking the condition inside the pot from time to time.

The most eye-catching thing is the stove. The first pot has more than ten layers of steamers stacked on top. As the fire below grows bigger and bigger, the steamers are like a big chimney, emitting white steam in the dark night.

Seeing that all the villagers had arrived, Xiao Ran hurriedly moved stools and invited them to come in and sit down.

At the same time, turn on the TV.

The 100-inch TV was sponsored by the loving charity of Leek.

Xiao Ran placed the TV outside the yard, connected the player, and after pressing the switch, a Peking Opera "Passing Five Gates" started playing on the TV.

The image on the tape was not particularly clear, but one could see Guan Gong, dressed in a green robe and with a red face, striding out from behind the scenes with a sword in hand, to the sound of gongs and drums.

At first, everyone did not recognize him, and they were just waiting for Guan Gong to speak: "Cao Mengde has been very kind to me, and today I am bidding farewell to him at Baling Bridge..."

"This is Lu Cheng's voice. This is the play that Lu Cheng is singing."

When the villagers heard this, they immediately recognized that the person who played Guan Gong in the video tape was Lu Cheng.

Lu Cheng had a Guan Gong mask painted on his face, his eyes slightly drooped, and he looked intimidating without even getting angry, like a living Guan Gong descended to earth.

Many villagers knew that Lu Cheng had performed with major opera troupes in various places, including in the capital, Shanghai, and even in Singapore and Hong Kong, but no one in the village had ever actually seen Lu Cheng perform.

For a moment, they held their bowls and looked at the food with such relish that they forgot they were here to eat.

"it is good!!"

As soon as the scene showed Guan Gong raising his sword and beheading Kong Xiu, the whole room burst into applause.

Xiao Ran was also surprised by this effect. He just saw those videotapes and wanted to add some entertainment atmosphere to the villagers, but he didn't expect that these videotapes were actually recordings of Lu Cheng's previous stage performances.

Because the troupe came to him last time, the troupe owner brought him here specially, hoping to impress Lu Cheng.

But Lu Cheng didn't even watch them. The videotapes were just thrown on the table without being touched.

Listening to the cheers of the villagers outside the window.

Lu Cheng raised his head woodenly and pricked up his ears to listen to the familiar lines.

His eyes also began to gradually become blurry.

“It’s time to eat!!”

Wu Man opened the lid of the pot and revealed a huge stew, including stewed crispy meat, deep-fried meatballs, stir-fried celery with meat, sliced meat with soup, and stir-fried pork intestines.

The steamer next to it was opened, revealing four-happiness meatballs, steamed tofu, steamed vermicelli, steamed egg custard, steamed buns, and a dish of pork.

The aroma was immediately so fragrant that it made people's appetite surge.

The food was served. The old people took their bowls and chopsticks and ate another big bowl of stew with steamed buns, enjoying it with relish. Some neighbors saw this and hurriedly brought out wine from home. The elderly sat at the table, while the young ones found a seat and sat down to eat.

While eating, people watched Lu Cheng's next song "Baqiao Tiaopao" on TV and gave thumbs up. The whole room was full of joy and cheers. Especially the old people, who could not eat much and were mostly watching the show, fascinated, holding wine glasses in their hands, in a trance. The village had not been so lively and happy for a long time.

“It’s quite lively.”

Xiao Ran held the steamed bun to her mouth with one hand and looked around. She saw a lot of blurry figures looking at her from afar in the shadows, but she didn't know if there was the voice of Lu Cheng's mother among them.

Just when everyone was watching the excitement.

A spark popped out from half of the electrical wire and the picture on the TV suddenly went dim.

"Ugh!"

Xiao Ran and Wu Man were both stunned. They didn't expect to encounter this. Xiao Ran felt unlucky. He didn't expect that there would be a short circuit at this time.

Just when the two of them had a bit of an unpleasant look on their faces, they heard a dragon voice in the dark room, singing the part that was disconnected from the TV series:

"Thinking back to the time when I surrendered to Cao at Tuntu Mountain, I agreed to three things.

The reason is that the emperor’s sister-in-law has nowhere to live.

I killed Yan Liang and Wen Chou, I was serving the country.
Today I went to Hebei to visit my brother.

I will remember the Prime Minister's kindness, and I will spare you when we meet again someday..."

　Note: Longyin is a pronunciation expression of this lyrics in Peking Opera, and it is also a jargon. The characteristic of Longyin is that it is clear and loud.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)