Chapter 31 Childish
"Two ladies, stop making trouble, or we'll overturn the table." After watching the two of them making a fuss for a while, Chen Mo spoke with a smile.

Xu Hongdou and Chen Nanxing stopped after hearing this.

"It's not that exaggerated. I'm just a weak woman, okay?" Chen Nanxing said in a deliberately coquettish tone.

Xu Hongdou also gave Chen Mo a nice eye roll.

"Haha, good, weak woman." Chen Mo couldn't help but laugh.

"Don't worry, I've taken note of the sugar-mixed tomatoes, green peppers and red peppers, and garlic sprouts and meat you mentioned. I'll make sure to make them next time."

"You two! You all said it was Snowy Volcano, The Two Heroes, and Zhu Bajie beaten to death with sticks." Chen Nanxing said indignantly.

"Okay, okay, what is that?" Chen Mo forgot what he was saying as he really couldn't remember the fancy name.

"You" made Chen Nanxing so anxious that he didn't know what to say.

This scene made Xu Hongdou tremble with laughter.

"Don't worry, I've taken note of it and I won't forget it." Chen Mo promised.

"You can't even remember the names of the dishes, so you can't cook the soul of these dishes at all." Chen Nanxing complained.

"I remember it." Chen Mo denied.

"Then tell me again?"

"I remember it anyway."

"."Chen Nanxing.

"As long as the food tastes good, it's fine. The name doesn't matter." Jiang Congwen also said.

"Wrong! Absolutely wrong!" Chen Nanxing said righteously.

"As the captain of the food team, it seems that I have an obligation to let you know the importance of the name of a dish." Chen Nanxing looked around at the three people at the table and said seriously.

"I'm all ears." Chen Mo nodded.

"I'd like to hear the details." Jiang Congwen gestured with his hand.

"Please start your performance." Xu Hongdou raised her chin slightly.

"Cough~~" Chen Nanxing cleared his throat.

"First of all, a nice-sounding name can make a dish taste better. There is a special term for this in linguistics, called synesthesia."

“Oh~~” The three people present felt something was wrong.

Chen Nanxing was very satisfied with the reactions of the three people and continued:

“Synesthesia is associated with the continuity and smoothness of articulation.”

"Just like when you write lyrics, you are used to using rhyme and parallelism, which makes the lyrics sound more rhythmic and pleasant to the ears."

Chen Nanxing looked at Chen Mo and Jiang Congwen.

“It’s the words that affect people’s different senses.”

"When we see swear words, we subconsciously frown and feel unhappy, and when we see beautiful articles and poems, we feel happy."

“That’s the power of words.”

“So a good name is crucial to a dish.”

"A good dish name can attract people's attention, arouse their curiosity, and to some extent stimulate their appetite."

After Chen Nanxing finished speaking, Chen Mo and the other two applauded.

"I didn't realize you had something special as a captain." Xu Hongdou was a little surprised.

"That's it!" Chen Nanxing said proudly.

"I always thought the names of dishes were just to make them more expensive," said Chen Mo.

"Me too." Jiang Congwen also nodded.

"Well... Actually, this is the main reason most of the time." Chen Nanxing said weakly.

"For the same dish, the longer the name, the more expensive it is."

"It's like the milk cap of a cup of milk tea, written as 'whipped cream and sea salt cheese'. The name sounds complicated and high-end, so the price is naturally much higher."

"No wonder, I was wondering why lemon tea and bubble milk tea are now called 'hand-beaten lemon tea' and 'soft and chewy bubble milk tea'."

"The taste is not much different from before, but the price is much higher," said Jiang Congwen.

"So, actually, Coca-Cola didn't seem to be called this name at first. It seemed to be called something like 'Tadpole Gnawing Wax'." Chen Mo said after thinking for a while.

"Why is it called such a weird name?" Xu Hongdou asked.

"It should be a direct translation from the English name." Chen Mo explained.

“So in the beginning, not many people bought Coca-Cola in China. It only became popular after it was renamed to its current name.”

"That's right, so we have to respect the name of the dish!" Chen Nanxing made the final summary.

"I understand." Xu Hongdou.

"Respect." Jiang Congwen.

"But I really can't remember." Chen Mo.

"."Chen Nanxing.

"If you can't remember it, I'll post it in the group later. You'll remember it after reading it a few times." Chen Nanxing could only compromise.

"By the way, are you all from the capital?" Chen Nanxing asked.

"No, I just went to college here and then stayed here to work," said Jiang Congwen.

"I grew up here, but my hometown is Guangdong Province," said Chen Mo.

"Then can you speak Cantonese?" Xu Hongdou asked curiously. She quite liked listening to Cantonese songs.

"Yes, I lived with my grandparents for a while when I was a kid, and I would go back to play during school holidays."

"what about you?"

"We all came here to go to college and work," said Xu Hongdou.

"Then why don't you speak with a BJ accent?" Chen Nanxing asked Chen Mo.

"I can speak it, but my mom has corrected my pronunciation since I was learning music in elementary school. But sometimes I still say some colloquialisms out of habit because they come to my mind naturally," Chen Mo explained.

"What do you think the BJ accent is like?" Xu Hongdou was a little curious.

"Uh" Chen Mo was thinking about saying something when a melody sounded in his mind.

"I remember you bought a sanxian before?"

Chen Mo remembered that he had seen Jiang Congwen when he was packing up yesterday.

"Yes, what's wrong?" Jiang Congwen asked.

"Help me get it here, I'll play a piece for you."

"Huh?!" The three of them became interested when they heard Chen Mo's words.

"Okay, wait."

Jiang Congwen got up and went to the room, and soon brought out a peculiarly shaped musical instrument.

The head of the shamisen is hoe-shaped, the neck is more than one meter long, and the body is slightly square.

"What instrument is this?" Xu Hongdou asked curiously.

"Sanxian is a relatively ancient musical instrument. It originated in the Qin Dynasty. At that time, it was called tao. It was not until the Tang Dynasty that it was called sanxian. However, it really became popular in the Yuan Dynasty."

"Sanxian is divided into big sanxian and small sanxian. The main difference is the length of the neck. The neck of the guitar in my hand is 122 cm, which is a big sanxian."

"The neck of a small sanxian is usually 95 centimeters."

Chen Mo briefly introduced the two of them, moved his chair back, and placed the sanxian on his right leg.

"Here I come." Chen Mo said after preparing himself.

Then Chen Mo played the sanxian, and the smell of old Beijing Hutong came to us. Chen Mo began to sing:
【The bond between BJ and the

It's cloudy for a while, then sunny for a while
The Forbidden City

Sir, you are all looking at me.

It’s all about appearance.

Hearing Chen Mo singing this line, Xu Hongdou and the other two all laughed, making them feel like they were listening to a song in a teahouse.

Although Xu Hongdou and Chen Nanxing did not know how to play the sanxian before Chen Mo played it, the sound of the sanxian made them feel familiar and they liked it from the bottom of their hearts.

Perhaps this is something that is engraved in the bones of the Chinese people. They always unconsciously feel close to things with strong Chinese cultural colors and have an inexplicable sense of intimacy.

[Ding-ge-long-dong evening drum and morning bell

Hehe, we all understand

The rise and fall of the imperial capital over the past 800 years

Add a pot of muddy wine to celebrate the reunion]

Everyone seemed to see a storyteller in a teahouse, joking about past events of past dynasties.

In the Forbidden City, at the feet of the emperor, there are so many talented men and beautiful women, so many anecdotes.

So many things from ancient times to modern times are now just a joke.

[Flowers bloom and fade, red leaves of Xiangshan
People come and go and make their debut
Lama Temple to the south, Dashilan to the north

Let's row our oars, white tower and red wall

It's OK, it's up to you
Quiet, quiet, quiet, quiet
A walk along Dongshishi Street

After passing Zhushikou, we arrived at Hufangqiao.

It was as if I saw an old man in the alley, strolling in the morning, humming a little tune and greeting his neighbors.

"Uncle, have you eaten?"

"Uncle, where are you going?"

[Wandering around in the vastness

Why hometown?

Whoever is who, do whatever they want
Not necessarily Huangliang

My Old Story in South City
All in my heart

Lugou under the moon in Dream of Red Mansions
A Young Man in the World

Xu Hongdou and the other two were listening to the song, and it seemed as if they were listening to Chen Mo introducing BJ in his eyes.

"Good." Chen Nanxing led the applause.

"It sounds nice." Xu Hongdou also praised.

"That's great." Jiang Congwen was also impressed. He was the only one present who knew how difficult it was to learn the sanxian.

"Sorry for the poor performance." Chen Mo thanked him. "You sound really like a BJ." Chen Nanxing imitated the BJ accent and gave a thumbs up.

"Thank you then." Chen Mo also replied.

"The erhua pronunciation of BJ is indeed quite interesting." Xu Hongdou also said happily.

"Is it easy to learn to play the sanxian?" Chen Nanxing asked.

"There's a saying in this industry: You can play the pipa for a thousand days and the zheng for a hundred days, but you can never learn the sanxian in your lifetime," said Chen Mo.

"Why?" Xu Hongdou was also very curious.

Chen Mo was not surprised by their curiosity.

In fact, this is true for people who have never studied music. When they see someone playing a musical instrument in a very handsome and cool way, they suddenly want to learn it.

But this kind of interest often only lasts for three minutes, and you may lose interest once you actually get started.

Because no matter what skills you learn, the learning process is boring.

What makes people persist in doing something, besides the passion from the heart, is more likely the pressure of life that forces you to do it.

"Because the sanxian is a fretless instrument, it has no fixed pitch."

"Unlike other instruments, there are 'grids' that let you know where each note is."

"To play the sanxian, you can only rely on feel and a lot of practice to find the correct position of each tone on the strings," Chen Mo explained.

"Is it so difficult?" Chen Nanxing said.

"Of course it's difficult. I haven't even learned this thing." Jiang Congwen said.

"Isn't this sanxian yours? You don't even know how to play it?" Chen Nanxing asked in surprise.

"It's mine." Jiang Congwen shrugged.

"I saw Chen Mo playing it in the dormitory at the beginning, so I was determined to learn it and bought it on impulse."

"I bought it and played with it a few times before giving up. Now I just put it there as a decoration." Jiang Congwen shook his head and said.

"But aren't you studying music?"

"It's impossible for me to learn everything about music. I can play guitar and piano, but not the other ones."

"Chen Mo can play a lot of musical instruments. He was so busy playing these instruments when he was in college that he didn't even have time to fall in love." Jiang Congwen said with a smile.

"Are you so obsessed with it that you don't even want to talk about love?" Chen Nanxing looked like he was looking at some exotic animal.

"Before college, I had to balance my academic performance, so my family controlled me." Chen Mo explained helplessly.

"My mother was afraid that I would bite off more than I could chew and would fail at whatever I learned, so she wouldn't give me money to buy some new and weird musical instruments."

"When I was in college, I finally had no one to worry about me, so of course I wanted to have fun, and I became a little obsessed with it."

"It's mainly because I haven't come across anything suitable."

"For someone like you who has the conditions, you will be a rich bachelor even if you don't get married," said Chen Nanxing.

"Hey, hey, hey, don't curse me." Chen Mo was unhappy.

Chen Mo felt that if he dared to dream of becoming a wealthy bachelor, Fang Shuyun would not even let him into the house.

"What about you two? Why are you still single when you are so beautiful?" Jiang Congwen took the opportunity to ask.

Wingman is online.

"Busy working, busy making money."

"It's a pity that after so many years, I can't even hope to buy a house in BJ. If I want to buy a car, I can't even get a license plate." Chen Nanxing complained.

"It's true. It's the sadness of the people who have come to Beijing to work. One more person is gone." Jiang Congwen raised his beer.

Xu Hongdou also raised the drink in her hand and clinked glasses with the two of them.

"Hey, you three wait for me." Chen Mo also wanted to raise his glass.

"You don't deserve it, you are a native." Chen Nanxing said.

Xu Hongdou and Jiang Congwen also nodded.

"."Chen Mo.

"How can I be a native? I grew up in BJ because my parents work in BJ. It's not even three generations." Chen Mo defended.

"You don't understand the helplessness of us workers." Xu Hongdou said.

"That's right." Jiang Congwen nodded in agreement.

"."Chen Mo.

"Then you three drink, and I'll sing you another song."

As Chen Mo spoke, he took the sanxian back to the room and took out a guitar.

"What do you want to sing?" Xu Hongdou asked.

Jiang Congwen and Chen Nanxing also looked at Chen Mo curiously.

"I was infected by your emotions and suddenly got some inspiration."

Chen Mo tuned up his guitar, plucked the chords and sang:

[Standing on a tall building every day
Looking at the little ants on the ground
Their heads are huge
Their legs are thin.
They hold Apple phones
They wear Nike and Adidas
I'm going to be late for work.

They are very anxious.

"." Jiang Congwen.

"."Chen Nanxing.

"."Xu Hongdou.

Listening to the lyrics, all three of them felt offended.

Evil capitalist!

[Year after year flies by
Or that little bit of savings

A lot of things I like
Still can't afford it

Life is always full of troubles
I'm still not used to it
They say money is a bastard

But she looks really good.]

Listening to the truest portrayal of the inner world of these working people, Jiang Congwen and Chen Nanxing drank in silence.

Xu Hongdou also picked up the can in her hand and took a sip. After finding out that it was coconut milk, she put it down speechlessly.

Alas, there was not even any wine to drink, which made Xu Hongdou even more sad.

[Hurried and hurried

Why is life always like this?
Is it my ideal?

This is how I spend my life
Be neither humble nor overbearing, neither hurried nor hurried
Maybe life should be like this
Does it mean that after the age of sixty
Go find the freedom I want again]

Yes.

When I was little I thought it would be fine when I grew up.

When I was studying, I thought everything would be fine after I started working.

After having a child, I thought I just needed to raise him or her.

Now I have to look forward to retirement.

But it seems that life is always busy, there are always things to do, and when one thing is completed, there is another.

Can you really be free after you turn sixty?
In fact, I often say to myself
People should learn to be content and always happy

But everything is just a smile
What else does it mean?】

After singing, Chen Mo, who felt a little depressed, picked up the drink on the table and took a sip. He felt the sweetness in the mouth and put it down immediately.

At times like this, you should drink bitter wine, because life lies in wine.

Xu Hongdou smiled secretly as she watched Chen Mo making the same movements as she did just now.

"Is there any more wine?" Chen Nanxing asked, shaking the empty bottle in his hand.

"Yes, I'll get it." Chen Mo said.

"Take two more cans." Jiang Congwen said, he also finished drinking.

"I want one too." Xu Hongdou shouted to Chen Mo.

Chen Mo quickly came back with a few cans of beer and a cup.

As soon as Chen Mo put the wine down, Xu Hongdou reached out to take it, but Chen Mo gently patted the back of her hand.

"What are you doing?" Xu Hongdou asked with a frown.

Chen Mo didn't answer. He just opened a can of beer and poured it into a glass.

"I want to drink too." Xu Hongdou stared at Chen Mo and said again
Chen Mo handed the poured cup to Xu Hongdou.

"Just drink a little."

Chen Mo said this and drank the rest of the can himself.

Xu Hongdou picked up the cup and took a sip. Seeing Chen Mo also drank, she couldn't help but ask:
"Aren't you going to drive?"

"Just call a designated driver."

"It's just a can of beer, why are you so stingy?" Xu Hongdou said deliberately as she wanted to share the less than full can of beer with two people.

"Just stingy." Chen Mo nodded.

"."Xu Hongdou.

"Childish." Xu Hongdou said.

"Mutual." Chen Mo replied.

After Chen Mo finished speaking, he wanted to clink glasses with Xu Hongdou.

"Don't touch it." Xu Hongdou dodged.

"Stingy." Chen Mo took his hand back and drank it himself.

"I'm just stingy." Xu Hongdou also drank by herself.

"Childish." Chen Mo said.

"Mutual." Xu Hongdou replied.

The two of them drank their own drinks, both as childish as kindergarten kids.

Looking at the two people who seemed to be sulking next to them, Jiang Congwen and Chen Nanxing looked at each other, smiled in tacit understanding, and clinked their glasses.

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　　Thanks to Dingguagua, Once Entered Calligraphy, lzeng3379, Book Friend 20170223224543552, Looking at the Mountain Tops with Hands Behind Back, Yunshisan, Tingfengnianjiuyan, JJJXXXYYY, It's Him Again, A Kaige, Cloud Floating in the Clouds, Book Friend 20201129183433706, and Book Friend 20220630235800589 for their monthly tickets.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)