novelraw Chapter 270 : Backyard Barbecue
Chapter 270 : Backyard Barbecue
The advantage of living in the countryside was that if you had money, you could have a detached villa and garden.
Though it seemed you couldn't build your own buildings anymore these days.
Grandfather's small villa wasn't large. It was open from front to back, with just two rooms per floor. The front yard had no walls, just a flat cement area plus one tree on each side. But the backyard was quite large, all enclosed by red brick walls. Along the walls, a strip of soil had been deliberately left for growing garlic and scallions.
The backyard was also basically all cement, with a few poles and cotton lines set up as clotheslines. When they were little, Lin Nan and the others always liked to use the clotheslines as badminton nets to play ball in the backyard.
But now, Wu Jiaming had deliberately gone to the back mountain to gather a pile of firewood. Unfortunately with the recent continuous rain, this firewood was somewhat damp. After trying to light it for ages, it just wouldn't catch fire.
Although this was the countryside, after getting induction cookers and gas stoves, not many households were willing to burn wood for cooking. Grandfather's kitchen stove hadn't been lit in over a decade, and no one even knows where the firewood was kept, if there was any.
"So we spent all afternoon skewering meat, and now we can't light a fire?"
Lin Nan moved a small stool to sit in the sun, yawning as she watched Wu Jiaming frantically scratching his head.
In front of Wu Jiaming was a small stove temporarily built from bricks. Afraid the cement ground would get burned black and get scolded, he'd deliberately spread thick sand underneath. Liu Xinyi beside him had always had a sharp tongue. While playing games, she followed Lin Nan's lead in putting down Wu Jiaming.
"Exactly, exactly. Cousin, you're so useless."
"If you're so capable, do it then."
"I'm a weak girl." Liu Xinyi immediately shook her head.
If this were ten or twenty years ago it wouldn't be so troublesome. Back then people still regularly sold honeycomb coal. But now forget coal, even that specific type of stove had been thrown away by Grandfather who knows where. Lin Nan had only seen Grandfather use honeycomb coal to boil water when she was four or five years old.
Wu Guodong came out of the house carrying several sweet potatoes. Looking up, he saw they hadn't even lit the fire yet and felt helpless. "If it doesn't work, let's just not eat skewers tonight and switch to fried skewers?"
"Bro, if you hadn't said we'd eat fried skewers tonight, Grandfather wouldn't have only made food for two people." Liu Xinyi continued squeezing in. "If the fire can't be lit, we'll all have to go hungry."
Wu Jiaming turned back to look at the several people waiting for him to start the fire, then looked at Grandfather and Grandmother not far away holding their bowls eating noodles, watching him cheerfully, and immediately felt even more annoyed.
"Wait! Give me ten minutes!"
Lin Nan couldn't be bothered to get involved in this. Mainly because she'd already eaten skewers at Chen Yao's house not long ago.
They'd used charcoal, and Chen Yao's parents were master chefs. They had a grill at home with smokeless carbon. Compared to Wu Jiaming's spur-of-the-moment plan, it was professional beyond measure.
She couldn't control herself again and began checking her phone messages. Unfortunately, since this afternoon when Chen Yao said he was going to eat dinner, he hadn't replied since.
She suddenly thought again of last night's bathtub mistake, and her face immediately turned completely red.
With a long sigh, Lin Nan scooped up Cola who was lying at her feet, burying her head in Cola's fur, pretending to be petting the cat to try to cover her complexion.
However, while she was petting Cola, the other cat became dissatisfied. Sprite bared its teeth and claws, scratching at Lin Nan's shoes while meowing and yowling.
Lin Nan suspected Sprite might already know Cola was its wife.
When did cats get this smart?
The sky had already darkened. The lights in the backyard were turned on by Grandfather, illuminating the entire yard. Wu Jiaming had finally managed to light the fire. Not caring that an open flame would easily char the meat skewers, he hurriedly grabbed a few pork belly skewers and began grilling.
Wu Guodong also threw the sweet potatoes into the fire pile. Liu Xinyi brought over a chair and sat around it, enjoying the winter bonfire while roasting a hot dog sausage.
But Lin Nan still sat glumly in the distance, looking at the increasingly clear moon in the sky, always feeling somewhat restless.
Just then, she suddenly received a message from Lina.
"Be careful."
"Hm?" She frowned in confusion, got up and slipped into the house, trying to call Lina. However, when the call connected, there was only a burst of noisy static.
Lin Nan felt inexplicably panicked.
She furrowed her brow, anxiously pacing several circles inside the house. Then she heard Liu Xinyi calling for her from the backyard, so she temporarily put this matter in the back of her mind.
But if she could receive Lina's message, that meant Lina had indeed returned?
Since she was telling her to be careful, perhaps someone else had come from the other world, and they might very likely mistake her for Lilith again?
Lin Nan had a headache. Walking to the backyard, Liu Xinyi held up a charred black hot dog sausage like presenting a treasure and came over. "Sis, you eat first."
"Why should I eat first? It's obviously burnt, isn't it?" Lin Nan turned her head away in disgust. "Give it to Cola."
Cola, who was lying there, immediately perked up its ears and looked up. But seeing that hot dog was truly frighteningly black, it also disdainfully turned its head aside.
"Even the cat finds it disgusting..." Seeing this, Liu Xinyi immediately lost her mood and casually threw the hot dog into the trash can.
Lin Nan had no talent for grilling. At most she could only cook things through, so she just sat to the side waiting for Wu Jiaming and the others' skewers.
Unfortunately, this group was worse than the last in talent. Either they grilled things black or too tough to chew, or even undercooked.
"I wonder when school will start." Lin Nan muttered, sitting in her previous spot.
Liu Xinyi came over, saying with a grin, "Aren't they saying we'll have online classes? Anyway, my class group chat has already notified us to download the software."
She was a senior high school student. Although she normally didn't study much and was never seen doing homework, she still cared quite a bit about the college entrance exam.
"Why don't I take the exam to get into your school, sis?"
"Forget it, my crappy school isn't worth it."
"My grades aren't very good either..." Liu Xinyi sighed deeply. "With this disruption, my grades will definitely be even worse."
Her family situation wasn't great. Her mother was a full-time housewife and her father was a carpenter. If her grades weren't good, she wouldn't pursue higher education.
She didn't know why, but while other people's parents always felt the more education the better, this circle of Lin Nan's relatives always felt that if you didn't get into a good school, studying was purely a waste of money.
Lin Nan shrugged, not knowing what to say. "Who told you not to review properly during this time?"
"Want to tutor me then?"
Hearing this, Lin Nan shook her head rapidly.
Back before the college entrance exam, that winter break, her mind had been full of studying. Throughout the entire winter break she'd barely played any games.
Unfortunately, that had been the peak of her life. Now she probably couldn't even remember middle school math.
After horsing around, Liu Xinyi grabbed a chicken leg to go grill. Taking advantage of her female status, she loudly scolded Wu Jiaming for charring the meat.
Lin Nan propped her chin on her hands watching the three people in the distance, her thoughts drifting to that day when they'd had a barbecue on Chen Yao's balcony.
If she'd known early on that she'd become Chen Yao's girlfriend, she should have accepted that meeting gift.
Such a huge loss.