House Dad's Literary Life

Chapter 429: Exploring the Old Streets of Shanghai with Xixi

This week, Yang Yi and Xixi couldn’t go to the fitness center to practice boxing with Lan Zhoukai and Lan Xin. Although Xixi was very excited when she heard the news, Mo Fei’s concert in Shanghai was going to begin that Saturday, so Yang Yi and Xixi had to go to Shanghai to support Mo Fei’s concert!

For this reason, Yang Yi even asked for two days of leave for Xixi, and on Thursday, he set off with Mo Fei.

This guy was quite bold. He drove directly to the hotel where Mo Fei was staying to drop her off, while he and Xixi had also booked a room on another floor of the hotel.

“This is called hiding in plain sight. The more strictly the entertainment reporters guard a place, the safer it is. In a little while, I’ll take Xixi and swagger out of the hotel. Surely no one will pay any attention to the two of us ordinary people!” Yang Yi raised his eyebrows and said proudly to Mo Fei, who had settled into her own room with Mo Xiaojuan and then secretly come over to visit them.

“Xixi, look, your Papa is bragging. He’s practically blowing his own horn out of proportion!” Mo Fei couldn’t help laughing as she pulled her daughter close.

Xixi believed it to be true. She turned her head around in confusion, looked around, and asked puzzledly, “Where’s the horn?”

This really wasn’t bragging. Yang Yi had this confidence!

That afternoon, Yang Yi took Xixi out to play and walked right past several reporters carrying cameras and long lenses at the hotel entrance. The reporters looked up at Yang Yi, found that they didn’t recognize him, and then lowered their heads again to play with their phones, no longer paying any attention to them.

“Papa, why aren’t we taking Mama with us to play?” Xixi was held in her father’s arms. She looked around curiously at her surroundings and whispered into his ear.

Yang Yi walked past a reporter, his expression as usual, and said calmly, “Because Mama still has to go to work this afternoon! We came here to accompany Mama, not to disturb her work, right?”

Xixi nodded sensibly.

Yang Yi drove Xixi through the streets of Shanghai, but he wasn’t wandering around aimlessly. Before coming, Yang Yi had already asked some travel-loving netizens on a travel forum and found out clearly that the place he was going to take Xixi to explore that day was a very famous old street.

“Yuyuan Road!” After arriving at the destination, Yang Yi parked the car, took Xixi’s hand, pointed to a road sign with a white background and blue border, and said with a smile.

“Yiyuan Road?” Xixi first looked around curiously, then raised her little head and looked in the direction her father was pointing, repeating the name, though her pronunciation wasn’t perfect.

“It’s Yuyuan Road. Yu…” Yang Yi corrected his daughter’s pronunciation with a smile.

“Okay!” Xixi wasn’t interested in that. She had already discovered something new. The little girl jumped up and down a couple of times, took her father’s hand, and looked up excitedly, saying, “Papa, let’s go over there and look! That place is so strange!”

What was so strange about the place?

It turned out that what had caught Xixi’s attention was several old-fashioned buildings, their first floors connected together, somewhat like the walls of Tiananmen, though not nearly as grand, more like a scaled-down version. What stood out instead was a series of seven large arched teakwood gates.

Above them were palace-like buildings. Their yellow glazed tiles shone like gold, casting a brilliant golden glow over the buildings. The layered eaves, upturned eaves, and dougong brackets all marked these buildings’ profound historical heritage.

However, it was not a palace.

“This is Jing’an Temple.” Yang Yi smiled and said to his daughter, “Do you know what a temple means?”

“What does it mean?” Xixi spread out her arms, asking her father to pick her up. The little girl was short, and the vehicles on the road blocked her view, so she couldn’t see anything at all.

Yang Yi picked Xixi up and said gently, “Do you remember the story of ‘Journey to the West’ that Papa told you? Tang Sanzang returned from the Western Heaven after obtaining the Buddhist scriptures, allowing Buddhism to develop better in the Central Plains. And temples are places where monks like Tang Sanzang live.”

“Then, then is Tang Sanzang here?” Xixi’s face immediately lit up with surprise.

“No. There’s no Tang Sanzang in Shanghai. They’re in the north,” Yang Yi said.

“There’s no Tang Sanzang?” Xixi was a little disappointed.

Because there was no Tang Sanzang, Xixi’s anticipation for Jing’an Temple dropped considerably. Moreover, after going inside with her father and taking a look, she found that the temple, with its deep courtyards, quietness, and ethereal atmosphere, was not the type Xixi liked. Before long, the little girl urged  her father to leave.

It didn’t matter. There were still many beautiful sights on Yuyuan Road for the father and daughter to enjoy.

Interestingly, all these sights could only be discovered by turning into different little alleyways. And those deep, narrow lanes, lined with rows of parasol trees putting out tender green new leaves, were themselves a pretty good sight!

Without the noisy traffic and bustle, Xixi was also willing to get down and walk. Yang Yi looked at the innocent and carefree little girl and couldn’t help raising the DSLR in his hands to take several photos of her.

“Stand next to this tree. Yes, smile!” Yang Yi directed her, pressing the shutter from time to time to capture several cute moments of Xixi.

“Hee-hee!” The little girl smiled like a blooming flower. She leaned against a brown gate pillar with diagonally laid brick patterns, resting her hand on the mottled white trunk of a French plane tree. The green shrubs from the neighboring garden poked their heads out, just happening to serve as the little girl’s background.

“Papa, make the photos and put them in my big…that thing.” Xixi had forgotten how to say “photo album,” so she could only gesture as hard as she could.

“Of course!” Yang Yi smiled and nodded at her.

Xixi no longer needed to look, and, satisfied, turned her head and walked forward.

“Papa, look, this building is also so strange!” Not long after, the little girl seemed to have discovered something amazing again and happily turned around to run back to her father, holding his hand and saying.

What Xixi discovered was also one of the sights Yang Yi planned to visit. It was the former residence of a famous person. Of course, Yang Yi was not very familiar with this particular celebrity, but his former residence was quite magnificent—a building in the style of an Italian Gothic castle.

That was how it was described in writing, but Yang Yi himself did not really understand exactly how the architectural style was classified. He was simply appreciating it.

Xixi was appreciating it too. The little girl happily shared her discovery with her father. “Papa, look, look at that!”

“Hmm, what’s wrong with that roof?” Yang Yi squatted down and looked in the direction of his daughter’s finger. There were gray exterior walls, red bricks embedded in the middle, and a blue hipped roof. Amid its simple and elegant appearance, there was also a distinct sense of liveliness.

“There are two of these here, this thing, little houses, just like my building blocks!” The little girl moved her finger back and forth, describing it very seriously.

Yang Yi understood. Xixi was talking about the two dark-blue dormer windows on the roof, a type of evolution of skylights. They looked just like the kind of house-building blocks Xixi played with in kindergarten, very much like miniature houses.

“You observed that very carefully! Papa gives you a thumbs-up!” Yang Yi gave the little girl a thumbs-up.

Xixi then smile happily.

Yuyuan Road was mostly lined with old buildings. However, not all of them were former residences of famous people or historical sites. The street also had quite a few little shops with an artistic atmosphere.

There were mostly coffee shops and tea-and-snack shops. Yang Yi visited several of them, which indeed broadened his horizons. Looking at the arrangements of other people’s coffee shops, Yang Yi suddenly felt that his own coffee shop had been open for more than half a year, yet seemed not to have improved much. Compared with them, it had much less of an artistic atmosphere!

“Perhaps there should be some changes!” Yang Yi thought to himself.

By evening, before the setting sun had gone down, Xixi, who had been exploring all afternoon, was hungry, so Yang Yi took her to eat a strawberry Napoleon at a restaurant on Yuyuan Road called Mr_nice¹(好好先生). It was also a place strongly recommended by a food-loving netizen.

The Napoleon cake mentioned here was actually a misunderstanding in translation. This type of cake was essentially mille-feuille, but compared with ordinary mille-feuille, it was more refined. The puff pastry retained its crisp texture, and the fillings between the pastry layers were also richer, including fresh cream and custard.

Of course, a strawberry Napoleon naturally could not be without bright and tempting pieces of sliced strawberries between the layers!

Yang Yi had eaten this kind of cake before and had also studied how to make it himself, but his skill was still a little lacking. There was nothing else wrong, except for the puff pastry. After spreading it with fresh cream and custard, Yang Yi could no longer guarantee its crispness. Unless it was eaten immediately after the cream and custard were spread on, it would become soft after a few minutes.

But this technique was the chef’s closely guarded secret. Yang Yi had studied it for a long time but still could not find the trick. In his previous life, he had not had time to grab a chef and force him to tell him; in this life, he had even less of a chance… He could only try other people’s craftsmanship when he came across it.

What made Yang Yi feel somewhat regretful was that the strawberry Napoleon at this shop still did not reach the ultimate crispness of the one he had eaten in Europe before. But for Xixi, it was already enough!

The crisp pastry, fragrant and soft cream, and fresh strawberries, with their sweet-and-sour taste, all perfectly suited Xixi’s taste.

“Delicious!” The little girl had cream smeared all over her mouth. After giving a satisfied little burp, she grinned at her father.

Yang Yi wiped his daughter’s mouth with an amused smile and said gently, “Just now, Papa sent Mama a text message. She didn’t even have time to eat dinner and is still busy. Should we pack some cake to take back to her?”

“Mm-hmm! Mama can eat them too! I really like them.” Xixi clapped her little hands and said happily.

“You like them a lot, so Mama will like them too, right?” Yang Yi asked with a smile. “But cake alone isn’t nutritious enough. Let’s buy some other delicious food for Mama too.”