Un-edited so please don’t kill me if you find anything wrong, please gently commenting so I can fix it. Thank you.
When Fang Jin and Jiang Jie came, Li Sinian was taking out crab roe in the kitchen.
The Mid-Autumn Festival is not complete without eating crabs. Li Sinian, an American, almost never eats fresh fish, shrimp etc. from the river before. However now he is a Chinese son-in-law, clumsily cutting crab legs with small scissors in the kitchen.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Autumn_Festival
When the doorbell rang, Li Sinian opened the door with crab roe in his hand and sighed helplessly: “I told you many times when you go out, you have to take the key with you…”
He was stupefied.
A middle-aged couple stood outside the door with a bag of crabs, a bag of Euryale-seed* and water chestnuts**. The man’s eyebrows and eyes are a replica of Fang Daichuan however his face is squarer than Daichuan’s. The woman has a straight nose with diamond shaped pale lips.
(T/N : You can read more about the seed and see the picture on the link below. When I Baidu for water chestnuts, it turns out there is 2 versions, red and black so there are 2 pictures.)
He hurriedly moved out the way and stretched out his hand, but instantly he felt that it was inappropriate, seeing that his hand was still full with crab roe.
“Hello, uncle and aunt… Come in quickly, I… I’m a friend of Chuan’er-ge, come here to play for a few days.” He is confused and his right index finger begins to tremble again, even worse than when he faces the bullets rain.
He ran to the kitchen to wash his hands and poured two cups of tea.
“Are you a fellow co-worker, are you also a celebrity?” Fang Jin followed behind him into the kitchen and put the crab and Euryale-seed on the cooking table. Fang Daichuan’s grandmother is from Jiangsu and she loves this stuff. The whole family also likes it. Every autumn, she asks someone to buy and eat it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiangsu
Li Sinian helped to soak the crab into the water and replied, “No, I am a director. I met Chuan’er-ge by accident and was trying to get him to play a role.”
“That’s good news,” Fang Jin smiled. “That means you are Chuan’er’s boss. How can you stay at home and clean up crabs by yourself? Chuan’er is too ignorant! I’ll teach him when he comes back.”
Li Sinian smiled: “It’s okay, we are friends.”
Jiang Jie sat in the living room for a while, somehow feeling that something was wrong.
Out of a female intuition and a mother’s natural understanding of her son, she got up and walked around looking at his son’s apartment.
The living room was spotless, the curtains were replaced with thick dark grey linen, a few bottles of wine were placed on the Bogu shelf* and there was a movable bookshelf in the corner of the room. As the one who gave birth to him, she knows that even if Fang Daichuan’s life depended on it, he couldn’t clean up like this. It’s not that he doesn’t like to be clean and sloppy. He can clean up the room, but it’s clean to the level of “regular” or even “meticulous”. This level of cleaning however, at least in the late stage of obsessive-compulsive disorder.
There was also a strange cat in the corner of the living room. Seeing that someone broke into the room with no warning, it looked at her vigilantly. The cat is not small, it looks like a year old and it doesn’t look like it has just been adopted.
Seeing Li Sinian and Fang Jin chatting in the kitchen, Jiang Jie sneaked into her son’s bedroom.
The original dark blue sheets and quilt covers were replaced with dark grey, two off-white striped pillows were chaotically stacked together and the quilt was messy.
The window was open, and some cool wind blew in. There were two mugs on the bedside table, one black and one white and there were unpacked condoms scattered on the side of the alarm clock.
Jiang Jie’s heart sank.
She hesitated for three seconds before opening the bathroom door.
There are two electric toothbrushes standing on the toothbrush holder and a pair of towels. At this point, she can comfort herself that your son has a girlfriend and he is old enough. The two razors in the corner of the sink however is what gave Jiang Jie a fatal blow.
Her eyes were hot.
“Eh? We have a guest?” Fang Daichuan came in from outside and saw two pairs of shoes at the door.
Jiang Jie lowered her head and wiped her eyes, walked out, pretended that nothing happened: “It is us.”
She didn’t miss the momentary panic in her son’s eyes. Seeing those eyes almost shattered all her psychological construction and after calming down, she smiled and said, “Your uncle sent you some crabs, as well as Euryale-seed, they are still tender. You eat while the shell is wet, don’t let it dry, they’ll get spoiled.”
Fang Daichuan swallowed, his Adam’s apple moved, he carefully glanced into the kitchen, seeing that nothing is happen, he calm down a little, and pulled his mother to sit on the sofa: “Oh, mother, look at you, you came here without making a call, what if I’m not home?”
Jiang Jie turned her face away: “I have the key. If you’re not at home, I will just put your things down and we’ll leave. You haven’t done anything shameful, so why are you closing the door behind our back?” When she said this, in the end, she didn’t manage to restrain herself and the end tone rose a little, there was a faint crying.
Li Sinian’s finger that was currently cutting crabs slipped and the scissors poked into his index finger.
Fang Jin didn’t hear what the two were talking outside. He was chatting with Li Sinian. He looked at Li Sinian’s clumsy action and smiled: “You are not skilled at cooking crabs, you have to practice more.”
Li Sinian nodded and said, “What you said is right, I will practice harder for a few more years.”
“Try my craft at noon!” Fang’s father said proudly, “I’ve been cooking Mid-Autumn Festival cuisine for many years. You however still have to practise. When only men live together, someone has to be able to cook and clean up the house, or else it will be turned upside down.”
Dad skilfully stirred the egg whites and egg yolks separately, poured in the white vinegar and minced ginger, whipped them quickly, sighing: “Chuan’er is just spoiled by his grandfather and can’t do anything. Alas.”
Li Sinian tentatively said: “Fortune Favours Fools*. Maybe Chuan’er-ge will married a wife, who happens to be able to cook.”
(T/N : I just realised that we never read about Chuan’er’s mom’s cooking skill…Guess this paragraph confirms it lol.)
Li Sinian bowed his head and broke the crab legs: “If you like him, you are willing to learn for him.”
Outside, Fang Daichuan pulled his mother to study and closed the door.
“Mom,” Fang Daichuan lowered his head and thought for a long time, “do you know something?”
Jiang Jie’s tears came down all of a sudden. She covered her mouth in a low voice and pressed her forehead against Fang Daichuan’s chest: “What’s the matter with you? I remember you didn’t have this problem before!”
Fang Daichuan hesitantly hugged his mother’s shoulder: “Actually, it has been there for a long time and there are already signs since I was a child.”
“Is it because of me?” Jiang Jie raised her face and looked up at her son’s face. “When you saw me when you were a child, I always wore a police uniform, wielded knives and guns and was a daredevil. Is it related to this?”
Fang Daichuan laughed: “How could that be! Mom! No, it has nothing to do with you, I was just born like this, stop thinking about it.”
Jiang Jie burst into tears: “I gave birth to you, how you can have nothing to do with me!”
Fang Daichuan took a tissue, held up his mother’s face and wiped her tears: “Mom, you gave birth to me and you are my closest relative. I don’t want to hide it from you. He is Li Sinian.”
Jiang Jie closed her eyes.
“His life is very tough. His father died early when he was a child and his mother and grandfather were not good to him. He never enjoyed family warmth and happiness. He is not like others that can come out of the closet. He may not be able to deal with the relationship with you. Therefore, I have never dared to confess to you.” Fang Daichuan hugged his mother gently, looked at the white hair on top of his mother’s head, his eyes were sore, “But I want to get your blessings, I love you and I love him too.”
His pronunciation is very good. When he said the word “love”, it was clear and full of affection, leaving Jiang Jie speechless.
“It’s not that Mom doesn’t want to bless you,” Jiang Jie sorted out her emotions and sniffed, “Mom is scared. Mom can’t accompany you all your life, you have no guarantee you can get married. Can you hold on for a long time? What will people outside think about you? Your job is…everything in the spotlight. Mom is scared.”
Fang Daichuan smiled and looked at his mother with the same eyes as his father: “As long as you don’t object, no matter how big the storm outside, it won’t break me. I’m the son of Jiang Jie, the best criminal police officer.”
During the meal, Jiang Jie didn’t act like she usually does and didn’t say a word. Li Sinian was chatting and laughing with Fang’s father on the surface but the back of his shirt was soaked with sweat.
His and Jiang Jie’s eyes met inadvertently at the dinner table. A mother’s grief and fear, pleading and asking, the gaze were so heavy that Li Sinian could not hold his chopsticks.
“What’s the matter with you today?” Fang Jin smiled and gave his wife a dish using a chopstick, “You don’t like what I cook?”
Jiang Jie looked at her son’s begging puppy eyes and then at the sincere Li Sinian, shook her head slightly and gently put a vegetable dish into Li Sinian’s bowl and said softly, “You should eat more.”
Li Sinian’s eyes reddened and the chopsticks instantly slipped out of his hands.
After sending his parents away, Fang Daichuan slumped on the sofa, pinched Beta’s ears and said with a smile, “I am scared to death.”
Li Sinian sat on the side and poured himself a glass of wine: “I was really scared to death.” His fingers are shaking badly.
Fang Daichuan recalled the report that Li Sinian was addicted to drugs and was moderately depressed, and would suffer from addiction when he was nervous. It’s fine when he doesn’t know. Now that he knows, he can’t watch Li Sinian use alcohol to suppress his drug addiction.
He grabbed the wine glass, raised his head and drank it all.
Li Sinian stared at him in surprise.
“You are not allowed to be addicted to alcohol or drugs in the future,” Fang Daichuan said with a smile as his wine breath gently touched Li Sinian’s lips. “You can only be addicted to sex.”
He said as he unbuttoned Li Sinian’s shirt collar: “Think of me when you’re nervous. Chuan’er-ge will break his back for you.”
With a smile, Li Sinian kissed him, drinking in the lingering scent of the wine from his throat.
====
Author’s word :
That’s all for the Witch’s public extras!
Thank you all for your support and company along the way!
The rest of the extras will be published exclusively over there, but they’re not related to the main story, so they won’t affect your reading experience.
The original inspiration for this book was “Who’s The Murderer”. I saw the case of “Crazy Tulips” half a year ago and I was so excited! The case model in that episode was the original inspiration for witches. Here I solemnly admitted it to everyone! It’s a pity that the third season has not been released yet, which is very sad. When I was in college, I liked Werewolf games. The first half of the writing story was spent watching werewolf shows like crazy, so I was probably a little too influenced and a little out of character, which affected the reading experience of some readers.
(T/N : This is a TV show, link for more info. The case Crazy Tulip is Season 1 episode 6. I myself have watched this up to season 5 so I can say this is a good show. Warning though, this is just entertainment, don’t take it too seriously since you know, there is a culture difference here. Also as of this year, 2022, this show had 7 seasons already and the author wrote this is 2017 so yeah that is the author wrote that the 3rd season hasn’t come out yet.)
There is a classic “And Then There Were None” reference here that everyone can definitely see it. There are also some references to Nabokov, Hrabal and so on, so I will not annotate them one by one.
The translation of the two English songs is translated by myself, I am not an English major. I translate using NetEase Cloud. There may be some mistakes in the translation. Please bear with me~
In short, thank you all for your company. Chuan’er-ge and Nian-ge have lived their little days without shame. All new adventures will be included when the book is published.
Finally, my newest book, “调教绅士”, is ready to read, everyone is welcome to come and read it.
Love you guys. It is my supreme honour to be able to bring you even the slightest touch and love.
See you in the next story~
Last but not least, “Open your eyes”! Open your eyes! Open your eyes!