Chapter 24 Visiting a Guesthouse: Welcome to My Home

Recently, there have been more people in the park, and it's become much more lively.

It seems we've entered an era of consumption downgrade. Free parks that people used to disdain have suddenly become incredibly popular, turning into new leisure and entertainment destinations.

Avoiding the crowd, Ning Jia, carrying a large bamboo basket, and the dog stealthily made their way to the settlement of the little people deep in the woods.

She looked around and quickly breathed a sigh of relief, "Thankfully, this place hasn't been taken over by those people yet."

Wow, Ning Jia, you're here so early!

He Meng nimbly jumped down from the lush tree and landed right on Ning Jia's shoulder.

Ning Jia felt a weight on her shoulder, turned her head to look at the energetic He Meng, and smiled:

"I haven't been here for a few days. Is everyone doing well here?"

"It's alright."

He Meng plopped down on Ning Jia's shoulder, swinging her legs as she said:

"The environment here is quite nice, but lately... giants keep appearing. Although it's only one or two at a time, it's still given everyone quite a fright."

As He Meng sat on Ning Jia's shoulder, grumbling incessantly, Bai Su appeared on a branch of the tree at some point, and with a light leap, landed steadily on Ning Jia's other shoulder.

Bai Su looked at Ning Jia's snow-white T-shirt, reached out her small hand to brush off the (non-existent) dust from her grass skirt, and then slowly sat down.

She had barely sat down when she interrupted He Meng's complaints, exposing them:

"Lord Ningjia, don't listen to her nonsense. Giants have only come here once or twice. It's still very safe for now."

"If you ask me, He Meng is the dangerous one."

"Last time, a giantess brought a rabbit to graze. The rabbit was actually quite docile, but He Meng insisted on coming out to tease it. In the end, she angered the rabbit, and it stopped eating the grass and kept chasing her, ruining all the wildflowers over there and almost exposing the rest of her tribe..."

He Meng blushed, but her mouth refused to admit defeat:

"I was trying to protect my people and lure the rabbit away, but who knew that rabbit had such poor eyesight!"

Bai Su: I don't believe you for a second...

Watching the two little ones bicker as usual, He Meng was once again infuriated by Bai Su. Ning Jia, who was silently watching the show, was quite certain that Bai Su's fungus poisoning should be completely cured.

Seeing that it was getting late, Ning Jia quickly got to the point, "Is Chief Canglan still busy? When can we all set off for my house?"

“Oh right,” He Meng scratched her head, as if she had just remembered this, “Ning Jia, the clan leader asked me to tell you that there are many people in the clan, and it would be quite troublesome for them all to go at once. Why don’t you take a few people with you this time?”

As he spoke, he winked at Ning Jia.

Ning Jia completely missed He Meng's "signal" and laughed, "It's okay, I've already thought about this issue."

He then squatted down and pointed to the large bamboo basket placed to the side, "Look, this is the new carriage I prepared for you. It's big, sturdy, and breathable. It should be enough for you to sit in."

"Wow, that's amazing! Let me sit first! Let me sit first!"

Upon hearing this, He Meng eagerly stood up, quickly slid down Ning Jia's arm, and jumped right into the bamboo basket.

The little one stood and sat in the bamboo basket for a while, and even did a few somersaults. Finally, he simply lay down, touched the bottom of the basket with his little hands, and commented in a serious manner, "Hmm, it's okay, but it's a little hard."

Bai Su, her face flushed like a peach, watched He Meng finish her antics, then stepped onto Ning Jia's arm and hopped down into the bamboo basket. She patted the basket with her little feet, nodded, and said:

"It is a bit hard, but it's okay, we can just put some leaves on it."

Seeing how seriously the little ones were doing their evaluations, Ning Jia smiled slightly, "Anyway, it's still early, so let's optimize the carriage environment first."

She picked up some clean green leaves from the grass and put them in the bamboo basket. The two little people then laid the leaves one by one at the bottom of the basket, and soon a light and soft "leaf carpet" was made.

Wow, well done!

Ning Jia gave them a thumbs up, but quickly pointed out a shortcoming, "But if the basket moves, won't these leaves become a mess?"

Bai Su paused for a moment, then said confidently, "We can string these leaves together with rope, like making a wreath."

"After all that talk, can you actually do it?" He Meng asked knowingly from the side.

"Uh, I don't know how to do it..."

Bai Su was rarely speechless because of what she said. Her face turned red before she said, "Why don't we just let someone in the clan who knows how to do it do it?"

The three of them made quite a commotion under the tree, and soon other little people appeared one after another.

With everyone's concerted efforts, the inside of the bamboo basket was finally lined with leaves strung with straw rope. The leaf carpet 2.0 was very sturdy, and now no matter how the bamboo basket moved, the carpet would not fall apart.

"Isn't it a bit monotonous to just have leaves?"

Xingxing and Guoguo couldn't resist picking a few small flowers and placing them among the leaves as decoration, which did make the room look even prettier.

Seeing this, others also went to pick various wildflowers. The pure green carpet of leaves was quickly upgraded to version 3.0 of a carpet of flowers and leaves, colorful and beautiful, like a painting.

Even Ning Jia was envious. "Oh my god, how happy I would be if I had such a beautiful carpet at home."

The little figures looked smug and said, "What's so difficult about that? We'll make one for you next time!"

Ning Jia quickly waved her hand, "I was just exaggerating. If I really put this kind of leaf carpet in my house, I'd probably trample it to pieces in less than a day. Let's not waste such a wonderful thing."

But a thought vaguely flashed through her mind: given the aesthetic sense of petty people, it was entirely possible to do that kind of thing...

Before Ning Jia could think about it, the clan leader Cang Lan arrived late, appearing at her feet.

Canglan's words interrupted her thoughts, "Lord Ningjia, the sun is already high in the sky. I think we should set off sooner rather than later."

"Chieftain, Chieftain, we've just decorated a new carriage!" a little person boasted.

Canglan looked at the bamboo basket and then asked about something else, "Is your electric scooter able to carry such a heavy and large basket?"

Ning Jia smiled mysteriously at her, "No problem, I'm riding a tricycle today."

"Okay, please board the bus in an orderly manner and keep quiet once you're on board..."

The little ones filed in, sat down in the basket, chattered noisily for a while, and then quieted down.

"Attention everyone, the train is about to start moving."

Ning Jia stretched out her arm and lifted the large bamboo basket full of little figures. She immediately felt her arm become heavy and almost fell off the spot again.

The bamboo basket swayed a few times, and the little people in the carriage immediately let out a chorus of "Ooh-ooh~"

Ning Jia quickly put the large bamboo basket down again.

Although she has been carrying the little figures back and forth to pick flowers recently, which has effectively strengthened her arm muscles, this is the first time she has loaded so many passengers at once, and the carriage is much heavier than she expected.

She rolled her eyes, and seeing that no one was at the door, she simply put the basket on the ground, bent down and pushed it forward with her hands, heave-ho!—the speed was indeed much faster.

However, this made a bit too much noise and almost alerted the old man sitting in the guardhouse.

Fortunately, the bamboo basket was covered with a floral sheet, which covered it completely. The old man assumed that Ning Jia had come to dig up soil to plant flowers. After glancing at her, he continued to look at his phone.

Ning Jia placed the large bamboo basket filled with little figures onto the tricycle, said "Let's go," and slowly rode the tricycle towards the courtyard.

To make the large bamboo basket less conspicuous, Ning Jia also put a lot of miscellaneous items on the tricycle as a disguise.

Perhaps her disguise was too successful, because while she was riding her bike, people would often inexplicably come up to her and ask:

"Hello, do you still collect recyclables?"

Collecting recyclables? Ning Jia glanced down at her sweat-soaked white T-shirt (priced at 19.9 yuan) and her 29.9 yuan sandals, then flashed a grin at the passerby:

"Sorry, I'm full for today. You can contact this gentleman surnamed Liu; his phone number is xxxx..."

Ning Jia rode leisurely all the way, and before she even got home, she had already helped the old man who collected recyclables get several orders.

After taking twice as long as usual, the slow train of the little people finally arrived at its destination.

After Ning Jia parked the tricycle under the shed in the courtyard, she wiped the sweat from her face, quickly took the bamboo basket off the tricycle, lifted the floral cloth covering it, and invited the guests to get off:

"Passengers, please note that we have arrived at our final stop, No. 58 Xinglong Lane. Please disembark in an orderly manner."

Today's train was probably a slow-moving tricycle driven by hand. In addition, the carriage was comfortable and beautiful, and the little people were full of energy. None of them got carsick and jumped out of the bamboo basket one after another.

"Wow—what a huge tree hole!" "Idiot, this isn't a tree hole, it's a giant's house!" "Oh, the giant's house is so big!"

Each little figure, upon alighting from the car, widened their eyes and exclaimed in amazement, "Wow!" Standing in the courtyard, which seemed incredibly spacious to them, they quickly began chattering excitedly.

Ning Jia then realized that what was just a slightly spacious house to her was almost the size of a royal palace to the Lilliputians.

Her original plan was to lead the people directly into the living room to entertain them, but seeing this, she changed her mind at the last minute:

"Welcome to my new home, everyone. I will now give you a tour."

As he spoke, he actually adopted the demeanor of a tour guide, making the children gather around him, and then squatted down to begin his introduction from the courtyard:

"We are currently in my yard, which is approximately xx square meters in size. It is sunny and well-lit, and there are two persimmon trees that are about thirty or forty years old..."

With a wave of her hand, she pointed to two lush persimmon trees in the yard, "Please follow me here to see these two persimmon trees up close."

Compared to the towering trees in the park, the persimmon tree in the yard seemed rather ordinary. The children glanced at it with little interest, and one of them muttered, "What's so interesting about this?"

Seeing that the little ones weren't interested in the fact that she had a tree in her yard, Ning Jia was a little disappointed. She raised her voice and emphasized:

"You may not know this, but you can't usually grow trees in a giant's house. Even if you do, they're rarely this tall."

The little people suddenly realized something, and exclaimed a series of exclamations: "Wow, Ning Jia, you're so amazing!" "Ning Jia is amazing!" "Amazing!"...

"Moreover," Ning Jia added, "although it's not obvious now, when autumn comes, this persimmon tree will bear lots and lots of persimmons, as beautiful as little lanterns, and they taste delicious!"

As she spoke, Ning Jia's gaze swept over the children's bewildered faces, and she suddenly realized something, "...You guys, have you never eaten persimmons before?"

The little people all nodded.

Xingxing tugged at her little braids and innocently asked, "Sister Ningjia, what is a persimmon? Is it something you can eat?"

"Of course you can eat it! It's a really delicious fruit, sweet and juicy with delicate flesh that melts in your mouth! It's also very tasty when made into dried persimmons!"

Ning Jia was practically drooling as she talked, but seeing the little ones staring at her blankly, looking completely bewildered, she quickly took out her phone and searched for pictures of persimmons to show them:

"Look, this round, golden-yellow fruit is a persimmon. Don't be fooled by how small it looks in the picture; this one persimmon is bigger than your heads!"

"Wow--"

This time, the children's exclamations were much more genuine, and they eagerly asked:

"Is this persimmon really that delicious?" "How long until we can eat it?" "Can I have one when it's ready?" "I want to eat a sweet persimmon!"

Ning Jia smiled smugly, "Don't worry, everyone. When the persimmon trees bear fruit in the fall, you'll all have a good time eating them."