Winter Time Rendering

Chapter 33: Chapter 11: "Want Want Breakfast Sausage

Lu Qinglian had never eaten an Oreo, but she could tell Zhang Shutong was messing with her.

She frowned. "What I really want to know is, why are they stuck together with that white stuff? Are you supposed to separate them to eat them?"

Amazingly, Zhang Shutong understood what she meant.

’By "they," she probably means the two black chocolate cookies on either side;’

’and the white stuff... she must be talking about the cream filling in the middle.’

’But how else would a sandwich cookie stay together if not with cream? Through the power of love?’

Zhang Shutong also noticed something else. Whenever Lu Qinglian frowned, it was a prelude to her "transformation."

’But could she please not ask such a clueless question with that mature, dignified tone of hers?’

Zhang Shutong had no choice but to explain patiently,

"Just eat it however you like."

But Lu Qinglian said seriously,

"I’ve bought something similar before, but it only had the black cookies."

"Uh... what do you mean?"

"Exactly what I said. It didn’t have this white layer."

"Are you sure you bought Oreos?"

"Mhm, it was in a blue package."

"Where did you buy it?"

"The little shop at the foot of the mountain."

"Oh, that place," Zhang Shutong said, nodding in sudden understanding. "Then it’s no surprise. You probably bought a knock-off."

That little shop at the foot of the mountain was a tourist trap. A bottle of water cost three yuan there. The prices were bad enough, but they also sold counterfeit goods.

One time, his dad sent him out to buy cigarettes. He happened to be playing nearby, so he just bought them there. His dad took one puff and immediately spat it out.

From then on, Zhang Shutong blacklisted the place.

’But how did a local like you get scammed? Isn’t the foot of the mountain your turf?’

"Are you saying what I bought before was fake?" Lu Qinglian wasn’t slow; she caught on immediately.

"Yeah. Don’t go there anymore."

"So this white stuff is edible too?"

"Of course, that’s cream." Zhang Shutong wasn’t sure if he needed to explain what cream was. Besides, the question was just too strange. "Why would you get the wrong idea... I mean, why would you think you can’t eat it?"

"I also bought a type of sausage from there once. It had chili smeared on it, but it was actually smeared on the outside of a plastic wrapper." She seemed to still be holding a grudge about it. "Does that description make sense to you?"

"I get it. I’ve fallen for that one too." Zhang Shutong was suddenly at a loss for words. "So you thought the cream in the middle of the cookie was the same as that plastic wrapper?"

"Mhm. Those are the only two times I’ve ever bought snacks."

’So in her mind, snacks were things that needed to be dismantled before they could be eaten.’

"You should probably check out a bigger supermarket next time."

"It’s fine. That was a long time ago."

As she said this, Lu Qinglian was taking small bites of the cookie. Although her expression was still neutral, she seemed to find the cookie delicious. Her brow smoothed out, and she didn’t forget to offer a critique.

"It’s just too sweet."

"I told you to twist it open before eating."

"Is that what ’twist’ means?"

"What else would it mean?"

Zhang Shutong was suddenly reminded of an old, corny joke about some country bumpkin eating an Oreo for the first time. The bumpkin saw the slogan on the package and started wiggling his butt while eating the cookie...

"You must have seen the TV commercial for it. It’s a classic."

Lu Qinglian just nodded without speaking, seeming to be completely lost in the taste of the cookie.

No wonder she could be so focused while drinking an ordinary carton of strawberry milk. Zhang Shutong used to like it too, but looking back now, the artificial flavoring was so strong it was overpowering.

But for Lu Qinglian, who had barely ever eaten snacks—and had been miserably scammed on the only two occasions she had—it was no wonder she couldn’t let it go.

Besides, they didn’t grow strawberries on the island, and places like fresh fruit bars weren’t a thing yet. When people talked about eating fruit, it just meant buying a few apples or oranges from the supermarket. Even tasteless Red Delicious apples only appeared during holidays. She might have always thought that strawberries just tasted like the ones in school milk cartons.

Zhang Shutong was a man of few words, but he knew when he ought to speak up.

"Hang on, I’ll go get some more from Ruoping."

He was about to get up, but Lu Qinglian shook her head. She was surprisingly easy to satisfy.

"No need. One is enough."

So Zhang Shutong just nodded and said no more.

His silence had nothing to do with Du Kang or Lu Qinglian. It was just his personality. No matter who he was talking to, the conversation would easily turn awkward and die down.

It wasn’t that he was slow-witted. For instance, he knew that saying something like, "Still on a diet?" would make a girl laugh. He even had a special version for Lu Qinglian: "Oh, right, I forgot you’re a cultivator." These lines were amusing enough, but in his eyes, they weren’t necessary to say.

In the silence, Lu Qinglian answered his earlier question.

"There’s no television in the temple. I don’t know the commercial you’re talking about."

"You live in the temple full-time?"

"Mhm."

"..."

’Alright, I should probably say something else.’

"A few of us went playing in the mountains once... isn’t there a big tree behind the temple?"

"A Fringetree. It doesn’t bloom until next March. A lot of people come to see the flowers," the young woman explained.

In truth, Zhang Shutong didn’t know much about the temple itself. His family were outsiders; his parents were both researchers of some sort and weren’t very superstitious. They didn’t have the habit of burning incense. For his high school entrance exam, the most they did was have him eat an extra youtiao.

He himself had never visited the temple either. He thought about telling her the story of when he tried to climb the wall during a festival and ended up falling down the mountain, but that had happened after graduation.

"I heard there’s a rack where you can hang wishing plaques?"

"It wasn’t there in the early years. It was originally a rack for drying clothes. Then one morning, a few plaques appeared on it, and it just grew from there."

Zhang Shutong nodded.

"It was probably something that got popular online. It’s all young people and students, or tourists who come specifically for that."