Corpse Recovery Diver-Chapter 21 - 4_6

He began to feel some panic because he didn't know how long he had to stay in this dream.

He opened the door leading from the bedroom to the balcony, the second-floor balcony of this building was connected, adorned with red and white ceramic tiles.

Gazing into the distance, aside from some haphazard graffiti vaguely suggesting farmland near the houses, the majority of the view was a desolate blankness.

Looking up, what should be the position of the sun was reduced to a glowing halo of white, looking very much like an eraser that could fall at any moment and wipe away everything here.

"Excuse me, is this Nanny Liu's home?"

A voice came from the dam below, sounding so abrupt at this moment, even grating.

Standing on the second floor, Li Zhiyuan looked down and saw a man around fifty, carrying an old lady on his back.

The old lady was very thin, her protruding bones barely covered by wrinkled skin from the sleeves, her hair long and unkempt, spreading over her back.

"Excuse me, is this Nanny Liu's home?"

The man asked again, anxiously circling on the spot with his mother on his back.

Li Zhiyuan didn't know whether he should respond.

Just then,

The old lady who had been lying on the man's back suddenly raised her head, her face directly meeting Li Zhiyuan's gaze on the second floor.

Although both were images sketched with charcoal, the old lady's eyes possessed a refined quality that surpassed the limits of the drawing style.

It was anger, malice, resentment!

The next moment, Li Zhiyuan found everything around him beginning to spin and distort, as if a vortex appeared from nowhere, tearing and drawing in everything around it, including himself.

...

"Brother Yuanhou?"

Li Zhiyuan opened his eyes and saw Cui Cui's concerned face.

"Brother Yuanhou, did you have a dream?"

"Mm." Li Zhiyuan sat up and replied, "How long have I slept?"

"Not long, about two hours. Brother Yuanhou, let's go down to eat."

"No, I'll go home to eat."

"Oh, don't be so polite, Brother Yuanhou." Cui Cui took Li Zhiyuan's hand, leading him downstairs, "Mom, Brother Yuanhou is awake."

At this moment, Liu Jinxia and her three card-playing friends had already finished lunch and started their afternoon game.

Li Juxiang smiled and lifted the red lid on the kitchen table, revealing the meal specifically saved: "Little Yuanhou, come eat, I'll heat up the soup for you."

"Auntie, I'm going home to eat."

"Don't be shy, be obedient; I never stood on ceremony with your mother, and besides, Cui Cui was specially waiting for you to wake up to eat together."

"Thank you, Auntie."

"Brother Yuanhou, sit here." Cui Cui sat down first, and Li Zhiyuan went to the opposite countertop to help fetch bowls and chopsticks.

"Go on, sit down. Auntie will get them."

"Okay, Auntie."

Li Zhiyuan returned to his seat, and very soon, Li Juxiang put his chopsticks and a bowl of rice in front of him.

The table, while serving dishes in small ordinary bowls with not much quantity, had enough for two children to eat, two meat and two vegetable dishes, particularly a bowl of potato braised pork, where the few pieces of potato merely garnished the predominance of meat, clearly specially reserved.

Li Juxiang brought over a bowl of mixed fish soup, topped with sesame oil and a splash of vinegar, deliciously aromatic and tempting.

In addition, she opened a can of mixed fruit salad, pouring a bowl for each child in front of them.

One could say, in the village, this was truly a lavish feast.

"Little Yuanhou, stay for dinner tonight too, I'll make some more delicious food for you," Li Juxiang said with a smile.

Li Zhiyuan put down his chopsticks and addressed Li Juxiang: "It's already plenty, thank you for the effort, Auntie."

"Hehe, don't put down your chopsticks, eat up."

Li Juxiang patted Li Zhiyuan's head, secretly envying Li Lan for how she raised her son, finding that well-behaved, polite children were easily liked everywhere.

"Little Yuanhou, does your mother cook for you at home?"

Li Zhiyuan shook his head, placed his chopsticks on the bowl, and answered, "Mom doesn't know how."

"Is it because your mother is busy with work?"

"Yes, she's very busy."

"What about your grandparents' place? Don't they cook for you?"

"I don't go there often."

"Then where do you usually eat meals?"

"At neighbors' homes."

Typically, after school, the grandparents who finished teaching or retired would willingly come to fetch their own children and bring them to their homes for meals.

"Ah, such a pitiful child." Li Juxiang did not inquire further. After commanding the children to eat by themselves, she took a thermos to refill water for the card table.

Just then, a shout came from outside:

"Excuse me, is this Nanny Liu's home?"

Hearing this voice, the chopsticks Li Zhiyuan had just picked up fell from his hand onto the floor.

"Clatter!"

...

In the living room, Liu Jinxia threw her playing cards onto the table and clapped her hands: "Game over."

The three card-playing friends nodded, getting up to end the game, clearly accustomed to such interruptions.

However, before leaving the living room, they each went to a basin in the corner to wash their hands.

The basin was filled with banana leaves, rubbing the leaves on their hands during washing, then shaking off the water, and finally drying with a towel on the rack.

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This practice was meant to dispel bad luck, something that Liu Jinxia had personally arranged. Not only was she indifferent to the villagers' attitudes towards her family, she deliberately set up some rituals to add to her own mystique.

Li Zhiyuan and Cui Cui walked into the living room; Liu Jinxia also stood up from her chair, asking, "Have you eaten?"

"We were eating, just came out to have a look," said Cui Cui.

"There's nothing to see, forget it. Little Cuihou, help grandma collect the cards."

"Okay, Nanny."

Having given instructions, Liu Jinxia wandered off by herself into the interior, towards a room shrouded in shadow, her office.