Day 2.

In the silent pavilion, there were bursts of clear and pleasant string sounds, and a man in white was playing the piano on the stone table in the pavilion.

"Here you are, sir." Hokuzen came to the pavilion with a bamboo basket and sat down beside him.

Ji Changkong stopped playing, his fingers pressed on the still vibrating strings, and the sound of the piano stopped abruptly. He put the piano aside and asked, "Why are you here, aren't you going to pick lotus pods with Chu Wang?" ”

Beiran hung his head and was dejected: "If you don't go, you can't go, that guy has a bad stomach at noon, and now he can't get up from bed." With that, he took out the contents of the basket and put them on the table.

Seeing the things on the table, Ji Changkong was puzzled: "What are you doing with so many walnuts?" ”

Bei Ran said: "Of course it's the stuffing for making cakes, my mother said that she would make some Wuren shortbread for Chu Wang to take back, and his father and mother haven't eaten the shortbread made by my mother for a long time." ”

Ji Changkong nodded. Bei Ran took out two walnuts from the basket, put them in the palm of his hand and squeezed them hard, the walnut shell clicked and shattered a few cracks, then peeled off the shell, took out the flesh and threw it into a jar. She is very fluent in this set of movements, and it seems that she usually does this thing.

"Did you use to knock walnuts a lot?"

Hearing Ji Changkong ask her, Bei Ran pinched the gap in the walnut and raised his head to answer him, "It's not very often, usually my mother knocks it herself." But this time, my mother prepared too many things and couldn't be busy, so she asked me to give her a hand. And ......"

Halfway through, she stopped talking again and pouted, as if a little unhappy.

Ji Changkong asked, "And what?" ”

"And my dad said that I only had this walnut peeled decently. If you go to do something individual, maybe the eggs in the eggs have hatched, and the eggs haven't been cooked yet. ”

Ji Changkong smiled softly, this Beizhai master is a ruthless person, and every time he fights, he is always so right.

Seeing that Ji Changkong also laughed at her, Bei Ran snorted secretly, and then stopped talking and honestly did the work in his hands.

Ji Changkong on the side watched intently how she successfully got the walnut meat out of the shell, although he looked carefully, but only he knew how much he understood.

Seeing that he was idle, Bei Ran poured out all the walnuts in the basket, counted them and divided them into two equal parts, one for her, and one for Ji Changkong. suggested: "Sir, you have nothing to do anyway, why don't you help me knock walnuts together, so much I have to knock for a long time alone, and my mother is still waiting to use it." ”

For the first time, there was a hint of hesitation on Ji Changkong's always calm face: "Me? ”

Kitazan said, "Hmm. This one is very simple, I'll teach you, and we'll knock it faster than anyone else. ”

She took out two walnuts to demonstrate to Ji Changkong like Fang Cai: "Just like this, put the two together, and then pinch them hard...... The shell is broken, and the flesh is taken out,...... Pay attention, don't break the flesh when you take it, the more complete the better. This time it was very successful, the whole flesh was intact, and Bei Ran said: "How about it, I'm amazing." ”

Ji Changkong nodded in approval, and then picked up two of them to knead the walnuts according to the method she taught, while Bei Ran stared at his hand with his head on the side.

He took a deep breath, then exerted force in his hand, and after a dull sound, his brow tightened and he stopped.

Bei Ran urged: "Hurry up, see how you pinch it." ”

Ji Changkong refused to open his hand: "Maybe...... Not so good. ”

Beiran said: "It's okay, let's take a look first." But he still didn't move, and Beiran had no choice but to pull his fingers, and as soon as he pulled a finger away, many debris fell down the cracks between his fingers. Ji Changkong spread his hand, and after seeing it clearly, Bei Ran was silent.

The things in his hand could no longer distinguish which was the shell and which was the fruit, and after he pinched it, it was all shattered into pieces, and lay quietly in his palm.

After being surprised, Bei Ran analyzed: "It should be that you used too much force, you should be a little lighter." ”

Ji Changkong nodded, and took two more in his hand, this time he pinched it gently, but the thing in his hand did not move at all, Bei Dye said again: "You are a little heavier, a little bit is good......" Then he heard a crisp sound, and the walnuts were pinched into powder by him again.

At this time, Beiran gave up, took out a small hammer from the basket, handed it to him, and said: "Don't pinch it, you can use this, and then pinch it I am worried that this is not walnut kernel but walnut powder." ”

Then she picked up another hammer and taught him: "Look, pinch the walnut, aim the hammer at the target, and knock ...... If one hit is not enough, knock twice until the shell cracks all around. Without raising her eyes, she tossed the peeled peach to the side, and it jumped into the jar with unmistakable accuracy.

To make him see clearly, she knocked another one, and then tossed again, and the walnut kernel fell into the jar again impartially.

When it was Ji Changkong's turn to make a move, he trembled and picked up the hammer and knocked it like her. The hammer hit the ground, the walnut was not broken, but Bei Dye heard a muffled snort.

She asked, "What's wrong?" ”

Ji Changkong frowned, then quickly unfolded again, and said, "It's okay." ”

Then he adjusted the position of the walnut and swung the hammer again, this time Beiran clearly heard a painful groan from the people around him, and noticed that something was wrong, she hurriedly grabbed Ji Changkong's hand to check.

This look is incredible. The index and middle fingers of his left hand were now very red and swollen, and they were slightly bruised. This dare is that the two hammers just now were all smashed firmly on his hands!

Ji Changkong hurriedly withdrew his hand, hid it in his sleeve, and said, "I'm fine." ”

Looking at him like this, Bei Ran was angry and funny, and said: "Otherwise, don't use a hammer, just use the pinching method I taught you just now, you have a good grasp of the strength, and it will be much more convenient to pinch than to knock." ”

Ji Changkong meekly responded: "Okay." ”

He stretched out his still intact right hand, picked up two walnuts, pinched ......, then two, and then ......, and after half a moment, Bei Ran looked at the miserable walnut powder, and the corners of his mouth twitched. And Ji Changkong was still happily destroying the few walnuts in front of him.

Bei Ran silently lifted the bamboo basket from the ground, first swept all the pile in front of him into the basket, and then secretly reached out and touched the one in front of Ji Changkong a few times.

When there were less than ten left on the table, she carried the basket behind her back and said to Ji Changkong: "Sir, you ...... You play slowly by yourself, I'll go first, my mother is still waiting for me. ”

After speaking, without waiting for Ji Changkong to reply, she ran away in a blink of an eye as if she had smeared oil under her feet, as if she was afraid that if she was slow for another second, Ji Changkong would rush over and snatch her basket, and then pinch all the poor walnuts into powder.

Ji Changkong watched Bei Ran flee in a hurry, and then looked back at the pile of his masterpieces in front of him, and couldn't help but smile bitterly: Tens of thousands of years have passed, but he can't learn how to knock walnuts.