The oil sizzled, slipped from the thin skewers, dripped into the flames, and splashed with bright yellow fireworks.
Lorraine Hill was sitting by the campfire, writing recent events in the open thick book. Some of them she received from the organization "Fire-Eyed Warbler", some she learned about herself, and some of them were through letters.
Sent from the Carites Chamber of Commerce.
Iena took off the grilled meat skewers, placed them on a hot wooden plate aside, and handed them over.
"Sister Mecia." She called the blond girl's name.
"Okay, wait a minute." The girl raised her head in the firelight, packed up the books, put them on the stone aside, then took the barbecue slices from Iena and ate them in small bites.
"It's delicious." The meat is roasted hot, and it gives you a burning pleasure when you eat it.
Hearing the girl's praise, Iena laughed, feeling that she was of some use.
"Let me cook some more wheat porridge. Drinking some will keep you warm at night." Iena said, standing up, finding some ground oatmeal from the carriage, putting it into a small iron can, and cooking it.
Lorraine Hill looked at the bland wheat porridge, then took out a sugar bowl, poured a little white sugar into the wheat porridge, and an alluring sweetness wafted out.
"Is it sugar? It's so expensive." Iena looked at the white sugar with a bit of reluctance.
"Yes, but don't worry, because this product is produced in my hometown, so it won't be very expensive." The girl comforted, and then sat down with Iena again.
"Did you rarely eat sweets before?" Lorraine Hill asked the girl next to him.
"Very few, because they are too expensive. Only during the winter festival every year, my father will bring back a small jar of honey."
"In winter, I can occasionally eat meat. My brother is responsible for roasting it. I will brush a little honey on the side. It will be very sweet."
"This is the happiest time of the year, because there is no need to go out to work, and my father and mother will be at home."
"It's just that my father occasionally lectures my brother. It's wrong to think this way, because if winter lasts for a long time, there will be no food at home, so I don't like winter very much."
"This is what life is like..." Lorraine Hill listened to the girl beside her, while stirring the wheat porridge, scenes from her past life occasionally drifted through her mind.
It seems that there was a period of time when she was alone in a rented house, sitting by the induction cooker, cooking noodles with the vegetables and eggs she bought. It was not for anything else but to save money. At that time, it was snowing outside the window, and it was already snowing.
It’s almost the Spring Festival, but I can’t go home because of work.
Ordinary life, a touch of loneliness, a bit unsatisfactory and sentimental.
The words on the phone were familiar yet distant, and the friends of the same age who had passed by were gradually becoming strangers. When they met, they were speechless, with only a few polite words left.
As I get older, I become more and more aware of the difficulties and complexities of society, and I become less and less able to tolerate tragedies because I am easily moved by the scene. In the end, I only like lighthearted and happy stories.
Sometimes I give up thinking about things that are too complicated, because it is very tiring. It is tiring to understand others, and even more tiring to let others understand, so I remain silent and walk alone on the way to and from get off work.
I have also hoped that the world will become a better place, but I am afraid to think about it carefully, how can I call it a good place? Everyone has different wishes, and in the end I can only give up in despair.
"The porridge is ready." Iena's voice rang in her ears, bringing Lorraine Hill back to reality.
Lorraine Hill hummed softly, and then asked Iena to bring a wooden bowl to serve the cooked wheat porridge.
The delicate wheat porridge is like milk, rich and exuding a slight sweet aroma. After drinking it, your body feels slightly warmer, like a small stove flowing quietly in your chest, dispelling the cold winter.
Looking at Lorraine Hill's dazed look, Iena turned her head slightly.
"Is Sister Mecia thinking about something?"
"Yes, I'm thinking about people I knew before."
"Sister Mecia can also be sad..." The girl sighed a little. In her heart, the girl who rescued her was so strong and determined, and this scene was something she had never expected.
"Yes, I will cry even more." Lorraine Hill smiled.
"Before you become an adult, you are also a child." The girl recalled the things in her memory.
"I used to think that my parents were perfect and powerful. This thought lasted for a long time. It wasn't until I returned to my hometown that I learned about my parents' past from others." Looking at the stars in the sky, Lorraine Hill said
Talking to Iena about what happened when I was a child.
"When I was a child, my mother often blamed me for not studying hard and not being good at taking the initiative to do things. This made me feel guilty and ashamed, but there was nothing I could do."
"Until that day, I met an aunt in my hometown. She used to be my mother's classmate. She told me about my mother's childhood."
"It turns out that when my mother was in school, she was also a child who was afraid of learning. Sometimes she even avoided the teacher and couldn't read."
"Then the perfect and sacred image in the memory collapsed, and everything suddenly became clear and returned to reality."
"They will also be afraid and tired of things, but these are perfectly hidden in life."
"If you don't like to eat bitter melon, they will say that it is very nutritious and must be eaten, and they will not buy the vegetable they hate at all." The girl said with a smile beside the fire, her hair falling from her shoulders.
"When you say that studying is tiring and annoying, they will talk about how they were in those days. In fact, they complained about it in the past, but at that time it was not as intense as it is now."
"Since then, I have known that I can no longer rely on adults. Because the myths have dissipated, they are just mortals with their own likes, dislikes and weaknesses."
Under the starry sky of winter night, in the cold dark night, the bonfire burned quietly, and Iena's face was illuminated by the firelight and swayed slightly.
In those dark, jewel-like eyes, the voice of the girl in front of him flowed slowly in his heart like clear water.
She didn't understand what being moved meant, and she didn't know what she wanted to express, but her heart had never been so peaceful and calm. Perhaps the words she heard today would soon be forgotten.
But one day, maybe at a special time, or when a change that is hard to remember happens, I will think about it again in my mind.
If adults are just grown-up children, then whose advice should I listen to, and how should I face this strange world?
Who speaks the truth, who will I do it for, who will be my partner, and where will I end it all.
Maybe there are still no answers to some questions, but I finally admit the imperfection of myself and the world, bow my head and embrace this incomplete and beautiful reality.
The night was getting darker, the remaining bonfire was emitting a faint dark red light, and the two people sitting next to it had already fallen asleep.
Under the vast Milky Way night sky, small sparks flicker slightly.
