jdhmnovel Chapter 328 Spicy Hot Pot
Chapter 328 Spicy Hot Pot
In the scorching heat of July, the cicadas' chirping echoed among the roadside trees throughout the city.
Gu Liuli stood in front of the mall's revolving door, gazing at her reflection in the glass curtain wall—
Having shed her elaborate wedding attire, she felt somewhat uncomfortable in a simple white shirt and denim shorts.
My phone vibrated in my palm. Jia Xiaoyan sent me a message: "Come over when you see that exaggerated internet celebrity bear at the elevator entrance on the second floor!"
As she walked through the bustling crowd, Gu Liuli spotted Jia Xiaoyan standing next to the pink teddy bear.
She was wearing black overalls, her hair casually tied in a high ponytail, and the silver earrings on her earlobes swayed gently with her movements.
This is consistent with the custom of wearing silver bells during the Xijing Kingdom period.
"I've been waiting for you!"
Jia Xiaoyan quickly came up to her and familiarly took her arm, "Let's make it clear first, we have to have extra spicy beef tallow hot pot today!"
The air conditioning in the mall carried a cloying, sweet perfume scent.
They first strolled into a traditional Chinese jewelry store, where the dazzling array of hairpins and hair ornaments on the shelves captivated them.
"If this jade hairpin were made in Nanzhao, it would definitely be accepted into the Imperial Palace Bureau."
Gu Liuli picked up a hairpin with a lotus pattern and examined it closely in the sunlight.
Jia Xiaoyan then gestured with the tassel earrings in front of the mirror: "If Jiang Mingyuan saw me wearing these, he would probably say it's 'indecent' again."
After they finished speaking, the two looked at each other and smiled. Their laughter startled a little girl next door who was picking out sachets, and she looked over curiously.
As they passed by a game merchandise store, the "Nanzhao Kingdom" themed figurines in the window caught their attention.
The chibi version of Xiao Qicheng is holding a mechanical beast, Su Mingyue is holding a scroll, and even the Nine-Tails has been made into a plush keychain.
"If Qi'er sees this, he'll definitely beg to take one back to the palace."
Gu Liuli's fingertips gently brushed against the glass, as if she could touch the little figure in her memory who had been chasing after her, wanting to learn mechanical arts.
Jia Xiaoyan suddenly pointed to the corner: "Look! There's a planetarium model just like the one Jiang Liushen has!"
As you approach the food area, the steaming heat and rich aroma of beef tallow from the hot pot restaurant hit you in the face.
The waiter led them to a seat by the window, and Jia Xiaoyan ordered with practiced ease: "Three portions each of tripe and beef aorta, dried bamboo shoots, duck blood..."
Gu Liuli smiled and stopped her: "There are only two of us!" "We've come all this way, of course we have to eat our fill!" Jia Xiaoyan blinked.
"We've been craving this for ages, since we've only been eating light medicinal cuisine in Xijing Kingdom!"
As the copper pot was served, the moment the red broth bubbled, Gu Liuli was transported back to a winter night in the Nanzhao Kingdom. There, she and Su Mingyue sat around a stove, brewing tea, the charcoal fire reflecting in the snowy night; while Jia Xiaoyan was always in the military camp, sharing stew with Jiang Liushen from a rough earthenware bowl. "Try this!" Jia Xiaoyan picked up a piece of tripe coated in sesame oil and minced garlic. "Seven dips and eight lifts, it's so tender!" Gu Liuli took a bite, the numbing spiciness exploding on her tongue, making her eyes burn.
“To be honest,” Jia Xiaoyan sprinkled some chopped green onions into the sesame oil dish, “when I first came back, I always felt like this modern world was a dream. I would spend ages studying the seasoning packet before eating instant noodles, and I would get so scared of elevators that my legs would go weak.” She scooped up a spoonful of duck blood and put it into the pot. “It wasn’t until the archaeological team discovered artifacts similar to those of the Xijing Kingdom that I realized those years really existed.”
Gu Liuli stirred the red soup, which was covered with Sichuan peppercorns: "Me too. Once, I saw a book called 'A Study of Ancient Mechanical Arts' in a bookstore. I subconsciously wanted to check for errors, but the clerk thought I was nitpicking." She recalled how Xiao Jingchuan taught the children in Nanzhao to make mechanical birds. "Now, I still habitually adjust my skirt occasionally, only to realize that I don't actually have a long, flowing skirt."
The conversation shifted to Xiao Qicheng and the Nanzhao Kingdom, and the two opened up completely. Jia Xiaoyan imitated Qicheng's embarrassing moment when he misremembered a poem as a child, and Gu Liuli recounted his proud expression when he first successfully made a flying kite. "I wonder how Nanzhao is doing now," Jia Xiaoyan suddenly fell silent, poking at the cilantro in her bowl with her chopsticks. "Qi'er should have grown into a wise and benevolent ruler by now, right?"
The steam from the hotpot blurred the glass windows, and the neon lights outside shimmered like colorful sunset clouds. Gu Liuli placed a piece of well-cooked beef on Jia Xiaoyan's plate: "Nine Foxes once said that when longing is strong enough, even time and space will yield. Maybe one day, we'll see them again." She raised her chilled plum juice, "Come, for Nanzhao, and for our reunion!"
The clinking of glasses was crisp and clear. Jia Xiaoyan tilted her head back and finished her drink, then suddenly smiled slyly: "Speaking of which, if Xiao Jingchuan saw you wearing jeans now, would he blush?" Gu Liuli's ears turned red, and she grabbed a tissue box as if to smash it: "Oh, so you've learned to tease me now! Back in Xijing, who was it that was secretly happy all day after Jiang Liushen praised their 'improved swordsmanship'?"
Amidst the laughter, diners at the next table frequently glanced at them. But they didn't seem to care, continuing to share their amusing stories of returning to modern times: Jia Xiaoyan mistook an archaeological site for a battlefield in Xijing and set up traps, only to be mistaken for performance art by her colleagues; Gu Liuli taught the aunties at the senior university to dance the Nanzhao court dance, unexpectedly becoming a local celebrity.
As dusk deepened, the two walked out of the hot pot restaurant, their bellies full. Jia Xiaoyan insisted on buying two skewers of candied hawthorns; the hawthorns, coated in glistening sugar, shimmered warmly under the streetlights. "Let's go to the beach next time?" she said, biting into a hawthorn. "Xijing Kingdom is landlocked, and Nanzhao is mountainous; neither of us has ever seen a real sea." Gu Liuli gazed at the crescent moon in the sky, nodding and smiling softly.
The chirping of cicadas drifted in through the half-open French windows of the summer night. Xiao Jingchuan leaned back on the beanbag chair in his study, the cold light from his phone screen illuminating his slightly furrowed brows. On the screen was a PDF file that Jiang Liushen had just sent—"An Interdisciplinary Study of Ancient Mechanisms and Modern Mechanical Engineering"—the dense formulas and illustrations making his temples throb.
“That old Jiang, he insists on comparing the mortise and tenon structure of Nanzhao with modern gears,” he muttered, zooming in on a cross-section of a bronze crossbow on the screen. A sudden video call request startled him; in the video, Jiang Liushen was wearing a wrinkled plaid shirt, with bookshelves behind him piled high with ancient books and mechanical parts, resembling a eclectic laboratory.
"Old Xiao, look at this!" Jiang Liushen held up a miniature mechanical lock, its metal surface gleaming coldly. "I used 3D printing to recreate the Nine-Linked Rings of Xijing Kingdom, and I discovered..." He suddenly leaned closer to the camera, his eyes behind his glasses shining, "...that it's actually compatible with the Luban Lock you improved in Nanzhao!"
Xiao Jingchuan sat up straight and grabbed a draft paper from the coffee table. On it were crookedly drawn design sketches of a mechanical bird, labeled "Inherited Improved Version." "What a coincidence," he said, shoving the drawing in front of the camera, "I'm researching how to mount modern sensors on this mechanical bird so it can automatically avoid obstacles. What do you think, infrared or ultrasonic sensors?"
Their discussion quickly reached a fever pitch. Jiang Liushen frantically typed on the keyboard on the other side of the screen, bringing up a bunch of motion trajectory diagrams for the robotic arm; Xiao Jingchuan, on the other hand, pulled out an electronic version of "Tiangong Kaiwu" (The Exploitation of the Works of Nature), his fingers switching back and forth between the ancient text and modern academic papers. Outside the window, the moon quietly climbed high in the sky, the hum of the air conditioner mingling with their arguments.
"Wait!" Xiao Jingchuan suddenly pressed his forehead. "Have we fallen into a trap? The mechanical arts of Nanzhao emphasize 'using qi to control tools,' while modern technology relies on electricity..." He grabbed a pencil from the table and drew a tai chi symbol on a blueprint. "What if we combine the two, using new energy sources to simulate the flow of 'qi'?"
Jiang Liushen's eyes lit up instantly. He turned and rummaged through the bookshelf, pulling out a copy of "Introduction to Quantum Mechanics": "Look at this! The principle of quantum entanglement might explain those 'mind-controlled' mechanisms in Nanzhao!" He held up a homemade device; several gears were slowly turning without external force. "I made a miniature perpetual motion structure using nanomaterials, inspired by the astronomical instrument from Xijing Kingdom!"
Just as the two were arguing heatedly, Gu Liuli's voice came from the kitchen: "Xiao Jingchuan! If you don't come for midnight snack soon, the ice jelly will melt!" At the same time, Jia Xiaoyan's angry roar came from Jiang Liushen's direction: "Jiang Liushen! You spilled engine oil on my 'Xijing Local Customs' again?!"
On the screen, the two men exchanged a glance, both revealing guilty smiles. Xiao Jingchuan quickly pushed the blueprints aside: "Um... shall we eat first?" Jiang Liushen suddenly became serious: "Old Xiao, I'm serious. Once Jia Xiaoyan calms down, we'll have an online seminar to organize these ideas. Maybe..." He lowered his voice, "we can build a bridge between Nanzhao and the modern world."
After hanging up the video call, Xiao Jingchuan went to the balcony. The city's neon lights outlined a cold silhouette against the night sky, and the lights of the distant high-rises flickered, vaguely resembling the palace lanterns of the Nanzhao royal palace. His phone vibrated again; it was a message from Jiang Liushen: "Attached is the blueprint for my improved mechanical beast. Send it to that kid Qicheng for a look?"
Xiao Jingchuan smiled and opened the long-sealed encrypted folder. Inside were countless photos of Nanzhao—Qi Cheng's radiant smile as he held up the mechanical kite, Su Mingyue's gentle profile as she taught at the girls' school, and Jiu Li Mao yawning while perched on the palace wall. He dragged Jiang Liushen's blueprints into the folder and created a new subdirectory named "Future".
Back in his study, he turned on his computer and began writing a new research report. The cursor blinked below the title bar: "On the Possibility of the Coexistence of Ancient Wisdom and Modern Technology." Amidst the clatter of the keyboard, the moon outside the window quietly moved westward. Meanwhile, on the other side of the city, Jiang Liushen was also deep in thought, staring at a table piled high with computer parts. The desk lamp cast a long shadow of him, gradually overlapping with the figure from his memory—the one who studied star charts late at night in Xijing Kingdom.
The next morning, Gu Liuli entered the study and found Xiao Jingchuan asleep at the keyboard, the document on the screen still lit. She gently draped a blanket over him, her gaze sweeping over the screen full of formulas and sketches, finally settling on a small line of text at the end of the document: "May this wisdom, transcending time, ultimately illuminate the path to the future."