Moonshine & Valentine: His Excellency’s First Love (Love Knot) - Chapter 16

In the afternoon, while the director was out for an interview, Pippi asked a colleague to borrow one hundred yuan and slipped out of the work unit and entered the Chinese pharmacy across the street.

The pharmacy guy is wearing a white coat, a little like a doctor in the hall: “What medicine do you want, Miss?”

“Two realgars.”

“Is there a prescription?”

“No. I’m a reporter from the opposite newspaper.” She showed him her badge. Of course, there are other newspapers in City C, but when it comes to subscription and advertising revenue, only the evening newspaper is the biggest one, and businesses dare not offend them. The man went to weigh the medicine wittily. After the weighing, he folded the orange-red powder with a piece of white paper, and slowly shook it into the glass bottle: “Miss knows how to use this powder?”

“I don’t know, just ask for advice.”

“Realgar controls cold and heat, kills worms, and cures malignant sores, dead muscles, scabies, syphilis, and all bites from snakes, insects, dogs and animals. You can use sesame oil for external application or take a small amount of powder.”

After listening, Pippi simply wanted it, and felt that the main function of realgar was to kill insects and detoxify.

“Then its main ingredient is—?”

“This is an ore containing sulfur and arsenic. After heating and oxidation, it is arsenic trioxide.”

“Three what and two what?” Pippi didn’t hear clearly.

“Arsenic trioxide.” The man cleared his throat. “It also has a popular name, Arsenic.”

“What?” Pippi was startled, “Arsenic?”

“That is the thing Pan Jinlian used to poison Wu Dalang.” The man was half joking.

“Why are you looking at me like that, I just want to buy some medicine because I feel sick.” Pippi said.

“I advise the young lady to use it with caution. Realgar must not be heated, it will be highly toxic. If you have carbuncle swelling, I suggest you use bezoar detoxification tablets, which also contain realgar.” He took out one from the counter. Box samples.

“Bezoar detoxification tablets?” The name is familiar. Pipi remembered that her grandmother had herpes on her body, and she often ate bezoar tablets. I also ate long bags when I was young.

“Well. Niuhuang Jiedu tablets each contains 50 mg of realgar, four tablets a day. Do not take it for a long time, long-term use will cause chronic arsenic poisoning.”

“Thank you, please bring me five boxes.”

“Do you want realgar powder?”

“I want it. I want both.”

With the hot juice sold by the roadside, Pippi swallowed two slices of bezoar into his belly, and then went to the newsstand on the corner.

The beautiful middle-aged man was still there, listening to the radio while sitting by the stove roasting sweet potatoes. Seeing Pippi, he stood up quickly.

“This is the five dollars I owe you in the morning, thank you.” She stuffed the money into his hands and turned to leave when the man suddenly stopped her: “Miss.”

“what’s up?”

“Miss is going to see the priest now?”

“Any questions?”

The man’s white face turned blue: “You have realgar on your body.”

“Yes. I just bought it, what’s the matter?”

Thinking it was just an accident, listening to Pippi’s tone seemed deliberate, the man’s face turned white, he involuntarily took a step back, and whispered: “Your priest would be very disgusted. You shouldn’t have deliberately provoke the priest. Your lord is angry?”

“Is the priest easy to get angry? If you are angry, will you eat me?” Pippi stared at him with wide eyes.

“…”

The man looked up at her, then stopped talking. Suddenly picked up a cloth bag from the table, hurriedly stuffed the key and money bag into it, and even before the stall had time to clean up, he made the appearance of leaving.

Unexpectedly, his reaction was so intense, Pippi quickly apologized: “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it. You don’t have to avoid it, I will leave immediately.”

“My practice is really limited, please forgive me for not being able to accompany you.” The man said, and in the blink of an eye he had rushed to ten meters away from her and disappeared into the vast crowd in the opposite park.

“Hey-don’t go! Your sweet potatoes are still in the stove!”

Pippi received a call on the way after get off work. A neighbor who hadn’t seen her for a long time asked her to look at her cat because she was going abroad for two months. The neighbor lives in the same subway station as Helan Jingting, but one goes east and the other goes west.

The neighbor is a woman named Xie, who is very close to Pippi’s grandma. Grandma calls her Xiaoqiu, and Pippi also calls her like that. Xie’s family is also one of the objects for grandma to give Doubanjiang. Later, Xiaoqiu got married and moved away, and lived in an expensive community in the west of the city, and invited their family to play. During the holidays, as long as they heard that they were in the city, grandma would make Doubanjiang and call them to get them. The cherries grown in her family were ripe, and she did not forget to pick them and send them to Pippi’s family for fresh taste. However, after a careful calculation, I haven’t had any contact with them for a whole year or two. The skinny grandma likes them very much, and she always mentions them when she talks, which makes people feel like they are there every day.

Of course, there are more substantial reasons why grandma likes Xiaoqiu. Before Pippi’s college entrance examination, Xiaoqiu helped her with English tutoring for a while, and then she was too busy. The last two classes were taught by her husband. With the couple’s surprise tuition for nearly two months, Pippi’s English test scored an unexpectedly high, third in the whole year, otherwise she would not be able to reach the lowest undergraduate level. Xiao Qiu’s husband was named Wang, in a strict sense, he was the most handsome man Pippi had ever seen. And it is the kind of handsome Chinese women like, not Yushu Linfeng, not romantic and suave, but a little innocent in the calm and fortitude, noble and reserved with a half-point warm and friendly. That face that can be used as a model, every woman I have seen, whether young or old, will have a red heartbeat. Pippi’s resistance is limited, and naturally is no exception. The two times Mr. Wang came to tuition, she just stayed in a daze, what Did not listen. Later, when I met Jia Lin and asked her how she was doing tutoring, she blushed for a long time.

After many years, Pippi’s impression of Mr. Wang has gradually blurred. I just remember that he was handsome, his legs were bad, he walked a little lame, and he was often sick. Every time I go to Xiaoqiu’s house, it is Xiaoqiu who is busy before and after. He basically sits all the time and talks very little, but his attitude is very warm. If the chat is late, he will insist on driving the family home.

From a distance, the white half-mountain villa where Xiao Qiu lived was very eye-catching and could be found at a glance. In order to save money for the car, Pippi trudged up the mountain in the freezing cold wind, and his hands were frozen at the door.

It took a long time to ring the doorbell before the door opened, but it was Mr. Wang, leaning on a cane, probably washing the dishes, and a waterproof apron over his shirt.

“Hi, Pippi.” He was a little surprised. “Come in, it’s cold outside.”

Pippi took off her jacket, and Mr. Wang quickly picked it up to help her hang it up: “Why did you come here by yourself? Your grandma didn’t tell you that I would drive Mia to you.” Home?”

“Oh? She didn’t say. My grandmother’s ears, I guess I didn’t hear her clearly.”

“I’m sorry, I’m bathing the child, you sit for a while.”

“Do you want me to help? Mr. Wang?” Seeing his inconvenient action, Pippi followed.

“Xiao Qiu is here, don’t worry. By the way, did you come when Xiao Qiu was pregnant?”

“No.”

Mr. Wang smiled gently: “Then come and see my two darlings.”

There was the sound of babies babbling. Pippi looked in the direction of the bathroom, only to find that the sound was coming from the kitchen. The sink has two sinks, and a baby girl about one year old is sitting on one side, playing with water happily. The babies had angelic faces, and they must be identical twins, exactly the same, indistinguishable.

Mr. Wang pointed to the one on the left: “This is An’an.” He pointed to the one on the right: “This is Ningning.”

Xiao Qiu on the side laughed scornfully: “It’s wrong, it just happened to fall.”

“Yes. Unless you change positions.”

“You didn’t change positions, you just called the wrong one, and I didn’t bother to correct you.”

Mr. Wang smiled without arguing, and said to Pippi: “Then, this is Ningning, and the other is An’an.” After that, he took one of the babies out of the water, wrapped it in a bath towel, and hugged it. In the arms. After drying his body, he skillfully sprinkled a layer of talcum powder on the baby’s buttocks. When he was about to pack a diaper, he suddenly pointed to a piece of Qingji on the baby’s **** and said, “Look, I’m right, this It’s An An.”

Xiao Qiu looked down and took a closer look: “Well, you are right.”

Mr. Wang proudly dressed the baby.

Xiao Qiu took another baby out of the pool, and while dressing, he said, “Pippi, you came just right. We just made an FBI. You must like it.”

“FBI?”

“It’s FriedBanana Ice-cream. It’s just fried, you have to eat it hot. What kind of ice cream do you like? I have vanilla, mango, green tea, and chocolate here.”

“Mango.”

“You sit down first, I’ll go and prepare.” Xiao Qiu was about to put the baby in his hand in the baby seat, and Mr. Wang said, “You can’t do it, let me do it.”

As a result, both of them went to Liulitai. One took ice cream, the other took fried bananas, and Pipi faced the two babies in the baby seat, not knowing what to do. Ning Ning and An An were quiet, biting a bottle and sucking intently. Pippi remembered a detail now. She used to come to Xiaoqiu’s house to learn English. When it was time for dinner, the couple was busy at the stove. It is as close as playing volleyball. On another occasion, they actually cut a cucumber together with two of them, while cutting, while talking in a low voice, being close to each other, it was really enviable and intimate, and they were not afraid to show it to outsiders. Pippi also said that Mr. Wang is Swiss and foreign, and she can’t see if she can’t spoil a woman.

In fact, Pippi felt that Xiaoqiu’s family couldn’t be more ordinary, and the husband and wife are affectionate, isn’t it like this? Of course, when she thinks of love and marriage, she naturally thinks of the monk Jialin and the appearance of Jialin cutting cucumbers with herself. Only Jia Lin can give her this kind of knowing happiness. Since childhood, apart from Jia Lin, she never thought that she would cut cucumbers with a second person.

After eating the ice cream, Pippi refused to stay long, and Mr. Wang insisted on driving her home.

The road was slippery. Mr. Wang drove very cautiously. After a few words of greeting, Pippi told him that he was still learning English, and he also applied for a TOEFL class. Mr. Wang asked, “Pippi, are you planning to go abroad?”

“It’s not me, it’s my boyfriend. He is applying for a scholarship to an American university.”

“What did your boyfriend study?”

“economic.”

“This is not very easy to apply. The professional competition abroad is fierce.”

“Yes, but he has very good grades, very promising.”

Mr. Wang thought for a while, then asked, “What about you? What are you going to study abroad?”

Pippi said frustratedly: “I don’t want to go abroad at all. I don’t like English, and I didn’t study it seriously in college. Now it’s very difficult to pick it up.”

“Actually, if you just go to a general school, the admission requirements are not very high.”

“Well, I’m thinking, if I really can’t apply to the school, I will wait for him in China. He will be a PhD student, which is four to five years. I can wait.”

This is Pippi’s worst plan about Jialin’s going abroad. She even felt that if Jia Lin could take her abroad, she could temporarily stop studying, work part-time, and learn English while saving money. Or just get married and have a child, and when the child is older, she will study and find a job. Pippi is ambitious at work, but as soon as he sticks to Jialin, he loses the bottom line and has no ambitions. As long as you are with him, you can do anything. Besides, both mother and grandma are housewives, and Pippi doesn’t think there is anything wrong with being a family wife. I heard that this is also a common phenomenon abroad.

The car went down the mountain and drove into the city. Mr. Wang has been silent, and suddenly said to her: “Pippi, I have some connections abroad. If your boyfriend or you have trouble applying for the school, I am willing to support you.”

Pippi listened, and his heart thumped: “Mr. Wang, depending on my English level, can you apply?”

“Aren’t you in a TOEFL class? As far as I know, the domestic TOEFL training is very effective.”

“Well, I recite vocabulary every day, and quietly applied for the TOEFL test in June this year. I dare not tell Jialin, for fear that he will laugh at me.”

“Well, if your boyfriend has trouble contacting the school, please call me. As for your school, when you finish the TOEFL test, I will contact you to make sure you have books. My father used to be a university professor. Many friends work in college. I can still help with this little help.”

“Mr. Wang – thank you!” Pippi was about to tears into his eyes.

When the car arrived, Mr. Wang pulled the car door, took his cat from the back seat, sent her to the door, and handed her a business card, saying: “If you love each other very much, don’t wait and try to be together. Waiting is a very painful thing, and there are many variables in life. It is necessary for two people to tide over the difficulties together, understand?”

Pippi took the business card, looked at him silently, and nodded vigorously.