The Little Duck 70

Chapter 70

What exactly was the promise she had made?

The Great Duck Spirit wasn’t asking for the swimming pool in the villa’s yard, was it?

Although she wasn’t just talking nonsense, and she really did have this idea in her heart, this was definitely a long-term plan, right?

She couldn’t just be deprived of her nightlife just because she didn’t complete it, right?!

Great Duck Spirit, oh Great Duck Spirit, can we talk about this properly?

You see, with my current financial situation, I can’t get you a big swimming pool in a short period of time!

How about you take another look? I’ll take you to find a place to swim once or twice a week, okay?

Three times is also fine!

Jian Xin tilted her neck back and wailed silently, but she received no further response.

It seemed that the negotiations had failed.

Sigh, this is too heartbreaking.

She looked down at Yan Lu, moved her little butt, and moved in front of her. She felt the warm breath, closed her eyes, and slowly fell asleep.

The night was silent, and she also had a dreamless night.

When she woke up, the first thing she saw was a white and round little duck.

It was sleeping between her and Yan Lu, and it was very close to Yan Lu.

Although she knew that she had been the one to move closer last night, looking at it from another angle, she still felt a little angry.

Jian Xin sat up, and her first reaction was to move this duck off the bed.

But when she reached out to pick up the duck, and the next second she met the duck’s beady eyes, she instantly became a coward.

What is a face-changing master? She is the real face-changing master!

In the blink of an eye, the moment Cauliflower opened its eyes, Jian Xin had already put on a smile that was even more amiable than an old mother’s.

“Little Cauliflower, are you hungry?” she asked, afraid of waking Yan Lu, so she held the duck in front of her and spoke in a breathy voice to the duck head that was curled up in front of her duck chest. “Do you want something to eat? I’ll make it for you.”

Cauliflower glanced at her, then lowered its head to touch the duck diaper on its body with its beak.

Jian Xin understood in a second and quickly helped it to untie the diaper. “You don’t like this, right? It’s fine, it’s fine, I’ll untie it for you right now.”

After untying the diaper, the little duck flapped its wings in Jian Xin’s palm, flapped its wings and flew back to the floor, and waddled to the door. It turned around, tilted its head up, and looked at Jian Xin.

Jian Xin quickly put on her cotton coat and went to open the door for it with great apprehension.

Cauliflower swaggered out, and Jian Changjiang saw it. He was holding some dried mealworms he had gotten from somewhere and was calling out to the duck softly from behind.

The little duck heard its name, stopped, tilted its head back, and seeing someone crouching down and feeding it, it immediately opened its beak and started to eat.

Jian Xin stood at the door, at a loss for words for a moment.

After much thought, she still didn’t dare to say anything.

She just hoped now that when she turned into a duck, her dad would not follow her with mealworms.

Huang He heard the noise, opened the bedroom door, and poked out a messy head of hair with sleepy eyes, and muttered to Jian Changjiang outside, “Didn’t you say that it’s best to feed the duck at a fixed time, otherwise it will poop everywhere?”

Jian Changjiang: “I’ll clean it up.”

Huang He: “Then you clean it up properly,” she said, and closed the bedroom door.

Seeing this, Jian Xin also silently shrank back into her own bedroom.

Xin Xin was sleeping on its back in the cardboard box, and the fluffy cushion was already out of shape.

She crouched down and gently stroked Xin Xin’s soft fur.

Her phone suddenly rang twice.

Jian Xin was startled and quickly turned off the volume, and opened it to take a look—it turned out that the high school dorm group chat, which had been dead for a long time, was active again.

Yang Tian was asking in the group if everyone had returned to Nanjiang, and if they wanted to go out for a meal and a chat.

Everyone was clearly on holiday. They were usually dead, but now they were all revived, and they were replying to messages quite quickly. They didn’t even have to wait, and they were chatting idly.

But Jian Xin was staring at the lively messages in the group in a daze.

When she came back to her senses, she looked back, and Yan Lu had woken up at some point.

After a moment of silence, they smiled at each other.

Jian Xin stood up and shook her phone. “Yang Tian and the others are asking if we want to go out for a meal and a chat.”

Yan Lu rubbed her eyes, as if she were still not fully awake.

Jian Xin: “You don’t have to force yourself if you don’t want to go.”

Yan Lu: “Aren’t they also my roommates?”

Jian Xin took a moment to process, then couldn’t help but smile. “Then I’ll reply.”

Yan Lu: “Go ahead.”

Jian Xin lowered her head and started to reply to the messages.

Everyone in the group was so happy to hear that Yan Lu was coming, and in an instant, they decided that there was no time like the present and arranged to meet at two in the afternoon.

And so, Yan Lu and Jian Xin squeezed into the same bathroom to wash up.

By the time they had finished washing up, Xin Xin had also opened its eyes and was lying in front of the closed door. Perhaps because it hadn’t seen anyone when it opened its eyes, at this moment, its face was full of a look of being abandoned by the whole world, its eyes half-squinted, and it looked listless.

“What’s wrong, Xin Xin?” Yan Lu asked gently.

Xin Xin looked up at her, and its eyes instantly lit up. It wagged its tail and ran over, hopping around Yan Lu.

Yan Lu crouched down and gently rubbed its head. “Does Xin Xin feel isolated? No, Mommy will take you out to play right now, okay?”

“Woof woof woof!” Xin Xin replied happily.

Yan Lu put on Xin Xin’s leash and gently opened the door.

Jian Changjiang sat on the sofa watching TV, and Cauliflower squatted on the coffee table in front of him, as if it were also watching TV—there were also some dried mealworms in front of it, as if they were its little snacks.

Yan Lu greeted Jian Changjiang, then called the two little ones to go out together.

Jian Xin also followed behind, holding the leash for Yan Lu, and was dragged downstairs by the energetic Xin Xin.

There were a few familiar little girls in the community who were playing with firecrackers. When they saw the duck from a distance, they all gathered around curiously.

“A duck, a duck!”

“So cute!” a little girl asked, tilting her head up. “Can I pet the little duck?”

“It’s not very afraid of people, you can try,” Yan Lu said.

The little girl crouched down and reached out to pat the little duck’s head, and also its back feathers.

Cauliflower shook its wings and walked to the side.

There were other little girls on the side, and every one of them curiously crouched down to pet the duck.

Jian Xin was watching on the side, a little gleeful, but the moment her gaze met Cauliflower’s, her smile instantly disappeared.

“Sister, is a duck easy to raise?”

“It’s alright, it just poops a lot.”

“Does a little duck fight with a dog?”

“It does, but it’s usually just playing. They’ll sleep together at night.”

“Can a little duck fly?”

“It can, but not very high, and not very far.”

“If it’s not on a leash, aren’t you afraid it will fly away?”

“It’s possible, but this one of mine is already very used to me. Even if it flies a little far, it will still come back and find me.”

The little girls stopped playing with their firecrackers and just petted the duck and dog in front of them, and curiously asked Yan Lu all sorts of questions.

Yan Lu was also very patient. She crouched down, hugged her knees, and seriously answered their questions, as gentle as a kindergarten teacher.

Jian Xin watched quietly on the side, the corners of her mouth unconsciously lifting slightly.

When the children had dispersed, they walked out of the community and walked slowly along the sidewalk outside the community.

The trees on the side of the road were bare, and there were not many pedestrians.

Jian Xin remembered that back then, she and Yan Lu had also held each other’s hands tightly, and on a cold night, they had run on this long road.

A long time had passed in an instant, and they had both grown so much.

“What are you thinking about?” Yan Lu suddenly said.

Jian Xin came back to her senses, and without hiding anything, she said with a smile, “I was thinking about the time we ran away from home in our second year of high school.”

Yan Lu: “What a coincidence.”

Jian Xin: “You were thinking about it too?”

Yan Lu said “mmm,” looked up at the traffic lights and the overpass in the distance, and said faintly, “It was also this road back then. You were pulling me and running, and it was around the overpass that I was almost out of breath.”

“Actually, I was almost out of breath too,” Jian Xin said with a smile and a shake of her head. “I don’t know how I was so restless back then. Now, I probably would have been exhausted before I even got here.”

Yan Lu: “Your leg isn’t healed yet.”

Jian Xin shrugged and spread her hands. “I wouldn’t be able to run even if it were healed. It has to be back then… it’s so good to be young.”

Yan Lu listened to her sigh and laughed softly, not saying a word.

The past had its good points, and the present also has its good points.

She felt that this moment was very good. They were walking on this familiar street with Xin Xin and Cauliflower, reminiscing about the past, and it also seemed to prove that there was indeed an unbreakable bond between them.

That noon, they ate a bowl of lamb noodles outside.

With extra numbing spice and extra chili, and two dishes of pickles, and then they bought a thin leek and vermicelli pancake at the entrance, one for each, and tore it up and soaked it in the soup. After they finished eating and drinking a few sips of the hot soup, their bodies instantly became warm.

They had loved to eat like this back then. For them, this was the magical attack of Nanjiang, the warmest existence in winter.

After eating their fill, they took the two little ones home.

This little stupid dog, Xin Xin, also didn’t recognize its home. When it came to a new place, it would go through any door.

When they came out of the elevator, the neighbor who had let them climb through the window back then just happened to open their door. If it weren’t for the leash, Xin Xin would have almost rushed in with a wagging tail.

The elderly couple, who were leaning on crutches and supporting each other, had had their eyesight worsen a few years ago, and their reactions were also much slower than before. At this moment, seeing a dog’s shadow trying to get into their home, both of them were stunned in place, and for a long time, they didn’t react to what was happening.

Seeing this, Jian Xin quickly went forward to bow and apologize, and while explaining, she sent them to the elevator entrance.

Finally, she breathed a sigh of relief and pointed to Xin Xin. “You, you!”

Yan Lu didn’t know whether to laugh or cry and shook her head. Cauliflower on the side was laughing with a very rhythmic quack.

Jian Xin took out her keys and opened the door. This time, Xin Xin finally went through the right door, and the moment it entered, it started to bark.

Huang He heard the noise and poked her head out of the kitchen. “You’re back? Want some dumplings?”

Jian Xin: “We ate outside!”

Huang He: “What did you eat?”

Jian Xin: “Lamb noodles!”

“Then I won’t cook dumplings for you,” Huang He said, and went back to the stove.

Jian Xin crouched down to change her shoes and subconsciously said “mmm.” A scent of leek and pork dumplings suddenly wafted to her nose. She thought for a moment, then couldn’t help but tilt her head up and shout, “How about we cook them anyway? We can pan-fry them for dinner!”

Huang He: “Alright!”

Yan Lu: “Greedy.”

Jian Xin: “Then you don’t have to eat.”

Yan Lu: “I want to.”

Jian Xin said with a laugh, “Then that’s that.”

Yan Lu smiled and didn’t say anything more.

The dumplings that Auntie had made were very delicious. When they were cold, they were pan-fried until both sides were golden brown, and they were even more delicious with Auntie’s chili sauce.

She hadn’t had it in many years, and she couldn’t make that taste herself.

That afternoon, everyone from dorm 509 finally gathered together completely.

They found a quieter place, sat and chatted for a long time, and it was still a lot of complaints about the big and small things in life.

After leaving the campus, the relationships between classmates, the gossip of the teachers, and the people that everyone had once liked or disliked were all gradually no longer mentioned.

But fortunately, they were still in contact with each other.

To not get lost this time, everyone called out to pull Yan Lu into this small WeChat group, and they also left each other’s phone numbers.

Yang Tian and Liang Shuangyi knew that Yan Lu was coming today, and they had even specially brought a large bag with several novels in it, which were very heavy, just to get Yan Lu’s signature.

The two of them had even prepared pens, and they had also chosen their favorite colors.

“Great author, this has to be a personalized signature!”

Yan Lu said that she could personalize them, and that in the future, they didn’t have to buy them themselves. If there were any more books, she would just give them to them.

To this, Yang Tian said, “No, we have to support you!”

Liang Shuangyi nodded. “That’s right, that’s right, we just want this kind of ritual of getting the book in front of you and watching you sign it with your own hands!”

Zhao Yiran and Li Zhu, seeing this, also said that they would go and buy books later, and that they also wanted a signature next time!

…

As the sky outside gradually darkened, and the winter wind was bone-chillingly cold, their atmosphere was lively.

The six girls squeezed into one car and ran to the skewer shop they had loved to go to when they were in school.

So many years had passed, and many of the old memories were gone, but this shop had always been open here, neither too popular nor too deserted.

The owner saw the old acquaintances again and came up to chat for a while with a smile.

When asked how this shop could have been open for so long, she smiled and said, “Isn’t there always business? As long as the shop is not closed, there will always be a lot of students from No. 3 High who will pool their money to come and eat.”

Just like them back then.

Yang Tian: “So many people come to eat, do you remember them all?”

The owner: “Of course I remember the regulars.”

Li Zhu couldn’t help but give a thumbs up. “Awesome, boss!”

Sometimes you have to admire the memory of that generation. They can always remember the people they see often very clearly, and even if they haven’t seen them for a long time and their appearance has changed a lot, they can still recognize them at a glance.

This was a skill that the them of now couldn’t compare to, and couldn’t learn at all.

After dinner, they, as before, opened a KTV private room and sang happily until late at night.

At the end of the song, they reluctantly gathered by the roadside to wait for a car and say goodbye, and finally, they each went home.

At home, there were cold dumplings and chili sauce on the dining table.

In the WeChat group, it was a message that Huang He had sent before she went to bed.

—The dumplings and chili are on the table. If you’re hungry, you can pan-fry them yourself. If you’re not, remember to put them in the fridge.

“Are you hungry?” Jian Xin asked Yan Lu in the dark.

“I’m alright.”

“Me too…” Jian Xin said, tilting her head to ask, “Then should we eat?”

“Let’s eat,” Yan Lu replied, and the two of them tiptoed into the kitchen, turned on the light, closed the door, found a pot, and started to pan-fry the fragrant dumplings.

The smell was so fragrant that even Xin Xin couldn’t help but walk over with sleepy eyes.

But it couldn’t eat it, because this thing was not healthy for dogs to eat.

Yan Lu was pan-frying the dumplings, and Jian Xin, seeing that this little one was pitiful, boiled an egg in a small pot, crouched on the floor, and broke it up to feed it.

A short while later, Cauliflower also came.

To not be hated by the Great Duck Spirit, Jian Xin immediately treated them equally and cut up some apple pieces for Cauliflower to eat.

After coaxing the two little gluttons, it was her turn, the big glutton, to start!

She and Yan Lu sat at the dining table, dipped the dumplings in chili sauce, and ate the hot pan-fried dumplings.

This incredibly familiar taste gave a sense of satisfaction in their hearts.

Once a person is full and satisfied, ideas start to pop up in their head.

After washing up, Jian Xin followed behind Yan Lu, and even synchronously got into the bed that had forgotten to turn on the electric blanket.

After playing all day, Yan Lu was a little tired. She closed her eyes, and her breathing slowed down.

Just as Jian Xin was about to say something, a strange voice flashed in her mind.

—The promises you’ve made must be fulfilled!!!

Ahhh ahhh ahhh!!!

Jian Xin took a deep breath, straightened her sleeping posture, and didn’t dare to have any more thoughts as she closed her eyes to sleep.

That night, she had a very terrifying nightmare.

In the dream, Cauliflower had become very, very big, and it was chasing after her butt, quacking something.

As she was running away, she listened carefully.

She found that it was just one sentence, repeating over and over again in the world—the promises you’ve made must be fulfilled, the promises must be fulfilled, fulfilled, oh, oh, oh…

She called out to Yan Lu for help, but found that a very large Cauliflower was blocking the door to her home.

She felt like she was about to cry, but she couldn’t.

Because she had no money, she could only go and steal… ah no, borrow some bricks from her neighbor and personally build a swimming pool for the Great Duck Spirit.

But after the swimming pool was built, Cauliflower still wouldn’t let her go.

—The promises you’ve made must be ful…

“Alright, alright, fulfilled, fulfilled! But can you tell me, which promise exactly do I have to fulfill?”

This mouth of hers, it would usually chatter on and on, and she had said a lot of big words that she didn’t even remember.

Just this one “promise” here, she really couldn’t figure out what she should do!

It can’t be a villa, right? That would probably have to wait a few more years…

Even if the houses have all gone down in price now, a villa is still a villa. With her current financial situation, it’s hard to say if she can even afford the down payment.

She thought with some confusion, and the Great Duck Spirit put its wings on its back and turned to walk in a certain direction.

After a moment of hesitation, she quickly followed.

Everything around her was changing rapidly.

Suddenly, she saw a golden wave, an orange-red sky, and a beach under the sunset.

There was a back, wearing a long dress that was lifted by the wind, standing barefoot on the beach, and her flying hair seemed to be plated with a layer of sunset.

The gaze that was looking into the distance, she didn’t know if it was trying to see through the line where the sea and the sky met, to see a person who had long since been lost in the fleeting years.

She wanted to go forward and take that person’s hand, but everything scattered into specks of starlight, like fireflies, and danced lightly towards the distant night sky.

—When we grow up, let’s go see the sea too?

—It’ll be a long time before we grow up.

—It won’t be long, we’re almost seventeen! It’ll just be a year or two, um… two or three years, three or four years!

In a certain memory that was so distant that it was almost blurry, someone had very certainly said to a certain girl, “It’ll be very soon, time passes very quickly!”

Li Xia and Lin Xiaoshuang in the story had waited a full eight years for the promise of “going to see the sea when we grow up.”

And they, outside the story, had waited a full twelve years for a “going to see the sea when we grow up.”

So it was this…

If it was this, then she had actually always remembered it.

Let’s wait until after the New Year.

After the New Year, she would ask Yan Lu what she thought.

To be honest, she had grown so big, and she had really never seen the sea.

She thought, this is not a task from the Great Duck Spirit.

This is something she had always wanted to do, and whether the Great Duck Spirit urged her or not, it was a part of her life plan.