This is unrelated to the main text!

——————————————————

Today is the Dragon Boat Festival.

Early in the morning, Qin An was dragged out of bed by Shu Lan. "Today is the Dragon Boat Festival. Didn't you say you wanted to eat zongzi yesterday? Get up and come with me to pick zongzi leaves, or you won't get to eat any!"

Upon hearing the word "zongzi" (rice dumpling), Qin An snapped awake. "I can't miss the zongzi my master made!" Qin An thought to himself, quickly jumping out of bed.

Qin An quickly dressed, changed his shoes, and after a quick wash, went out with his master to pick zongzi leaves.

Shu Lan looked at Qin An's impatient expression and shook her head with a light laugh, "I knew you wanted to eat zongzi. Don't worry, you'll get plenty!"

Qin An chuckled foolishly, offering no reply, but staring intently at his master brother.

"Look at you, so pathetic!" Shu Lan rolled her eyes at him helplessly. "Come on, let's go pick some bamboo leaves!"

Qin An quickly jogged to catch up.

Shu Lan led Qin An to the back mountain, where everything was lush and green, with clumps of bamboo leaves growing everywhere.

"Master, how come there are so many zongzi leaves?!" Qin An asked in surprise, his mouth agape.

"I planted the bamboo leaves, how could there be so many?" Shu Lan smiled slightly and explained, "Because I like to eat zongzi, I planted a patch of bamboo leaves. Every year during the Dragon Boat Festival, I pick some bamboo leaves to take home and make zongzi and zongzi cakes."

As Shu Lan spoke, she picked up a bamboo leaf with her hand.

"It smells so good!" Qin An smelled the faint aroma of bamboo leaves floating in the air and felt it was quite magical.

"Of course, because the bamboo leaves are fragrant, the rice dumplings made from them are also fragrant!" Shu Lan said as she began to pick bamboo leaves.

After picking one leaf, Shulan continued picking another.

It took the two of them a full half hour to pick enough for a large basket.

Shu Lan looked at his basket full of bamboo leaves and smiled with satisfaction. He turned to Qin An and said, "Xiao An, we've picked enough bamboo leaves. Now we can go pick some dates!"

Why are you picking dates?

"Silly! Dates can be used to make sweet rice dumplings." Shu Lan gently tapped Qin An's little head with her hand.

"Oh, I see. Is Zaozi on the back hill too?" Qin An touched his forehead where he had been tapped and chuckled.

"Yes, it's in the woods behind the mountain. Let's go pick some together!" Shu Lan said, leading the way into the woods.

"Yes, yes, I'm going to pick dates with my master!" Qin An nodded in agreement.

After walking for a few minutes, Shu Lan stopped. "Xiao An, the jujube grove is just ahead. Let's pack up our things first before we go!"

"Okay!" Qin An nodded in agreement, then put a basket of zongzi leaves into his storage bag. Next, he took out a basket from the storage bag.

Seeing this, Shu Lan looked at Qin An with some surprise: "Oh, Xiao An is quite well prepared, he even brought a bamboo basket to carry things!"

Qin An scratched his head a little embarrassedly, "I was just taking precautions, wasn't I? I thought I wouldn't need it since my master brother brought a basket, but it's come in handy now."

Upon hearing this, Shu Lan laughed heartily, "Xiao An is so clever!"

As they talked, they arrived at the jujube grove.

"Master, look, there are so many dates on that jujube tree! Let's go over there!" Qin An said, pointing to a jujube tree not far away.

"Okay!" Shu Lan nodded in response, and then walked towards the jujube tree with Qin An.

As the two approached, Qin An was greeted by a rich aroma of jujubes, making him involuntarily swallow. Qin An couldn't help but take a deep breath, and immediately felt lightheaded.

Seeing this, Shu Lan smiled slightly, then reached out and picked a bright red jujube from the branch and handed it to Qin An.

"Xiao An, try it!"

Qin An eagerly took the date and took a bite.

"Um……"

Qin An closed his eyes, savoring the wonderful feeling of this moment.

"Xiao An, how do these dates taste?" Shu Lan asked, looking at his blissful expression.

"Sweet, delicious!" Qin An opened his eyes, grinned at Shu Lan, and then took another bite.

"Hehe, as long as it tastes good. If it's good, pick more."

With that, Shu Lan flipped herself up the tree and began picking dates.

"Xiao An, you catch it down here!"

"Oh!" Qin An quickly pointed the basket in the direction of his master brother.

Shu Lan aimed the dates at the basket on her back and threw them all down one by one.

"Master, why don't we fly up and pick the dates?" Qin An asked, somewhat puzzled.

“Climbing trees is fun too! If we just fly up to pick dates, we won’t experience that fun.” Shu Lan laughed as she threw dates down.

"Oh, Master Brother, I want to try climbing a tree later too!"

"OK!"

And so, Shu Lan and Qin An took turns climbing the tree to pick dates, and after a while, they filled a basket with dates.

"Alright, we've picked almost all of them. Let's go back and wrap some zongzi!" Shu Lan looked at her full basket and felt very fulfilled.

"Great!" Qin An couldn't wait and ran towards the courtyard where he and his master lived.

"Slow down, no one's going to take your zongzi!" Shu Lan looked at Qin An's anxious appearance and couldn't help but laugh.

After returning to the courtyard, Shu Lan first washed the bamboo leaves, then mixed the glutinous rice. He made two kinds of fillings: one was a sweet rice dumpling with red dates, and the other was a savory rice dumpling with cured meat.

This chapter is not finished, please click the next page to continue reading!