The Northern Stories of Chef Lao Tan

Chapter 591 Shulan Died

After the management meeting, Gu Yi, Sister Wang and Qiao Shan were going to take Lao Tan to Shanghai to eat braised pork. They said that a restaurant made so good braised pork that people had to queue up to eat it.

Lao Tan didn't have the heart to go, and he didn't want to disturb the interest of the three of them, so he was a little embarrassed.

At this time, the mobile phone rang, and a bad news came——Wang Shulan was in a car accident and was dying.

So the four of them changed their itinerary and boarded a passenger plane to Beijing.

It's just that the car accident was too serious, and [-] hours of rescue failed to save her, so Wang Shulan still left.

On the second night after the funeral, Lao Tan found a small tavern by himself, ordered four dishes and a bottle of wine to drink by himself.

The sudden departure of old friends, confidante, and business partners made him very sad. He seemed to have aged a lot all of a sudden, and felt the impermanence of life even more.

Lao Tan drank wine, his expression was calm, neither sad nor happy, but his heart was very sad.The scenes with Wang Shulan flashed in front of his eyes chaotically, making him stunned like a statue.

No one wants to recall all kinds of things after a person dies, but everything in the past is like a movie uncontrollably popping up in the mind and deep in the memory, just like the voices and smiles of the past seem to be in front of my eyes.

The pain of life and death can only be understood by those who have experienced it.

The cigarette in his hand went out, and he refilled another one. After the smoke rose, he took a sip of the wine, and the wine was gone, and the four dishes on the table hardly moved.

"Waiter, another bottle of wine."

The waiter came over and looked suspiciously at the dishes on the table and the drinkers, and asked tentatively, "Can I have another bottle?"

"Well, let's have a bottle and settle the bill by the way."

I heard that the waiter was relieved after paying the bill. She was really afraid that Lao Tan would not pay the bill after drinking too much, or that he had no money to pay the bill.This may happen to Lao Tan's image—the stubble of hair on his head is all white, his beard is scraggly, his face is full of sorrow and his body is in a state of desperation.

The front desk service is always to see people order dishes, and it is common to judge people by their appearance.

After paying the bill, the waiter left, Lao Tan opened the wine and filled the glass.

The door of the tavern was pushed open, and a gust of cold wind blew in.It was Yanhua. She came in and went straight to Lao Tan's desk and sat down.

"Your house is locked, I think you have come out," Yanhua said.

"Come out and have some wine," Old Tan said.

Yanhua picked up the wine bottle and poured herself a glass, saying, "I want to drink something too, I went to find you."

Lao Tan picked up his cup as a signal, and Yanhua picked up the cup afterward, and the two of them took a sip without touching or making a sound.

"I've booked a flight ticket for tomorrow," Yanhua said.

"Oh, good."

"At noon, arrive at the provincial capital at three o'clock in the afternoon."

"it is good."

Yanhua picked up the cigarette case from the table and took out a cigarette, lit it, took a puff, looked at Lao Tan's head, and said, "It's time to shave your head."

"Well—" Old Tan touched his head, "It's all white——"

"My hair is also gray, always dyed—"

"You're okay, you're not old."

"You've been old for two days—"

"It's noisy, plus I'm feeling uncomfortable—Xiaomei and the others are leaving?"

"Leaving. Mulan, Yanzi, Huang Lijuan and the others left in the afternoon. Cao Jiadong just got out of the hospital and couldn't do without someone. Zhang Li, Li Shuang, Zhongqing and the others left in the morning, and I told you when they left."

"Well, tell me—"

Lao Tan took a sip of his wine, and Yanhua also took a sip.

"I'm fine, I'm just in a bad mood and come out to drink some wine. It's not like that when you look decadent, you should know."

"I know." Yanhua took a puff of cigarette and said, "I talked with Sister Wang's son this afternoon. He meant to keep doing it, and he had no intention of not doing it. It was mainly his father who told him to sell the store. I did it, saying that the epidemic does not make money."

"Oh, come and go freely, as they like."

"It was like this years ago."

The two of you finished a bottle of wine one by one, then got up and walked out of the tavern.

The night is very cold, the body is very hot, and the cold air makes people wake up involuntarily.

But his stomach was weak, he didn't eat anything, the alcohol was overwhelming inside, and Lao Tan vomited within a few steps.Throwing up so badly, the stomach convulsed and squeezed out what was there until there was nothing left to vomit.

He straightened up with snot and tears, took the tissue from Yanhua, wiped his nose and threw it away.Yanhua handed over another one, and he wiped away the choked tears.

Yanhua supported him to walk, but he pushed away, took two staggered steps, then supported a tree and continued to vomit.

Nothing comes out, just gastric juices.

This time he took the initiative to put his arm on Yanhua's shoulder, half leaning, staggering, talking nonsense and going back to the hotel.When I arrived at the hotel, I filled my stomach with water first, and my head was slightly awake. While awake, I washed my face, took off my clothes, and then lay down on the bed and fell asleep.

He sleeps like a child, maybe he is dreaming, raving, his hands clutching the corner of the quilt tightly, tears streaming down his face.

Yanhua wiped away the tears on his face with his hand, he grabbed Yanhua's hand, as if grasping a support, and squeezed it tightly——
After a while he fell asleep, Yanhua gently withdrew his hand, then turned off the light and walked out of the room.

In the morning, Yanhua ordered breakfast and went to Lao Tan's room after washing up.

Old Tan woke up, leaning against the bed and smoking a cigarette. There was brewed tea on the bedside table, his head was shiny, and his scraggly beard was gone.

"Get up." Yanhua said.

"Ah."

"I ordered early, and it will be delivered later."

"Okay, I'm a little hungry."

"Yesterday you didn't eat anything and drank a lot of wine."

Old Tan squeezed the corner of his mouth, put out the cigarette and said: "It's broken, I know when you go, I don't know how it came out, how it came back——"

"Drink less in the future."

"Um--"

Someone knocked on the door, and the waiter brought breakfast.Lao Tan and Yanhua ate breakfast, and there was still some time before noon. They drank tea and talked while avoiding Wang Shulan on purpose.

Yanhua said: "Xiaofeng is doing well now, she is younger than before."

Old Tan said, "Yes."

"Zhang Yu is honest."

"Would it be dishonest to buy a lesson with 1 million?"

"The main reason is that there is no profit this year, and it seems too little to only take wages. I want to earn more."

"How much is too much? It's enough to spend, if you don't bring it with you when you die—"

"I think it's pretty good. I'm back to working part-time, earning wages, and I'm looking forward to the day when I start the salary every month."

"A person is contented, contented and happy—" Old Tan let out a long breath, and continued: "No one knows when he will die, and he has to find his own happiness in life, or else his life will be in vain.

It’s useless to think too much, eat one more bite to not be full, eat one less bite to not be hungry, just have more than enough and less than the next. "

"I heard Erdun talking about you picking up another pair of mother and child?"

"Well, it looks like Xiaohui and her mother at first glance, it looks pitiful---the matter of multiple bowls and multiple pairs of chopsticks---"

"It's all caused by the epidemic."

"Well, no more. People have to be self-reliant at any time, and they have to support themselves. Life is inherently full of joys and sorrows. There are good conditions and poor conditions. The good ones are easier, and the bad ones are more difficult. .

But if you don't die, you have to live, my mother used to say that. "

(End of this chapter)