Chapter 10

Li Xin was a very handsome guy. He had long, well-proportioned limbs and was a bit taller than Chen Qing. Because of his relatively good family background, he exuded confidence, something Chen Qing could never have in his life.

Li Xin is still unmarried, not because he hasn't married, but because he is too well-off in Luohe Village. Too many people come to propose marriage, but Li Xin's father doesn't approve of any of them. So he simply had his wife take Li Xin to stay at his father-in-law's house for a while, hoping to find a marriage partner there. That's why they stayed there for so long.

Li Xin wiped the water off her face: "But I really don't want to get married. I wish I could be like you."

Chen Qing quickly said, "Don't talk nonsense, how can I be alright like this?"

Li Xin realized that what he said was not quite right, so he changed the subject: "I heard that person built his house next to yours. Have you seen him?"

Chen Qing threw his clothes into the water: "I've met him, he's a good man."

Li Xin looked at Chen Qing and nudged him to the side: "Chen Qing, something's wrong with you."

Chen Qing suddenly raised his head, then lowered it again somewhat guiltily: "What nonsense are you talking about? Hurry up and do the laundry."

Li Xin thought he knew Chen Qing very well. He never commented on anyone in the village, for fear that his comments about others behind their backs would be found out. So why did he blurt out that his neighbor was a good person today?

Knowing Chen Qing's temperament, he was like a gourd with its mouth sawed off; there was no way to get anything out of him. So he went about washing his clothes.

Chen Qing didn't have many clothes, so after he finished washing them, he helped Li Xin wash them. He and his mother had been away for so long, and all the bed sheets and blankets had to be taken apart and washed, which was a considerable amount of work.

"If it weren't for you, how long would I have been washing today?" Li Xin and Chen Qing each took one end of the sheet and wrung it out, squeezing out all the remaining water.

After finally finishing washing the clothes, Li Xin didn't rush back. He took off his shoes, sat by the river, and soaked his feet in the water. The instant coolness rushed to his head. He pulled Chen Qing to sit down next to him and asked, "Aren't you going to soak your feet?"

Chen Qing shook his head: "I'm fine now, I'm too scared to go into the water, and I don't want to take any more medicine." The main problem is that the medicine is expensive.

Li Xin stopped trying to persuade him, and he sighed, "Why do people have to get married when they grow up?"

Chen Qing subconsciously wanted to say that marriage is about having someone to rely on, but when he thought about his own marriage, it didn't seem very convincing.

Li Xin knew that Chen Qing was not talkative. When they used to play together, he was always the one who talked a lot, and Chen Qing would just listen quietly. Chen Qing had only asked him about Meng Tao once, but Li Xin was not familiar with Meng Tao and they were not friends, so he was unable to help Chen Qing.

He only had a vague impression of Meng Tao, that Meng Tao was very strong and a bit dark-skinned, and that was all he remembered.

Chen Qing wasn't too disappointed after hearing about it, and never asked again.

After soaking in the water for a while, Chen Qing decided to go home and hang the clothes up to dry early in the sun.

Li Xin was putting on her shoes, and Chen Qing was putting away the clothes they had washed. But they didn't expect that before they left, another person came from the other side of the Luo River.

The men in the village don't wash their own clothes; their wives or sisters usually do it for them. Li Xin doesn't tolerate this. His mother is in poor health, so washing clothes is Li Xin's job. But his six-year-old brother, under Li Xin's strict discipline since childhood, has already learned to wash his own clothes.

Upon seeing Zhou Yuan, Li Xin nudged Chen Qing with her elbow: "This guy does his own laundry?"

Chen Qing turned to look at Li Xin: "If he's all alone and doesn't do his own laundry, what else can he do?"

Li Xin felt increasingly that something was wrong with Chen Qing, but he didn't say anything. He just told Chen Qing, "Let's go dig some ponds by the river later."

The two parted ways at a fork in the road. Chen Qing's steps became lighter. When he returned home, Grandma Sun helped him hang the clothes to dry.

Chen Qing said, "Li Xin is back."

"I knew it, people are much happier after washing clothes." Aunt Sun told him to go and rest, and then hung the clothes up to dry.

"Li Xin said she's going to dig some ponds by the river later." Chen Qing took a sip of water.

"Go ahead," said Aunt Sun after hanging up the laundry. "She doesn't eat properly, but she loves wild fruits."

Chen Qing smiled and said, "It's delicious."

After a simple lunch, Chen Qing sat at home waiting for Li Xin to come and find him. Grandma Sun found it amusing to see him sitting obediently at the entrance of the main room, glancing at the doorway from time to time. He was just like a child, waiting for his friend to come and play with him.

"If we find too many, should we send some to the neighbors next door?"

Chen Qing was stunned for a moment: "Huh?"

"We may not have money, but we should still reciprocate the gift of wild fruit they sent us last time, shouldn't we?"

Chen Qing nodded, a blush creeping up the tips of his ears: "Okay, I understand."

"If you don't want to go, bring him back and I'll deliver him."

"good."

Li Xin arrived at their door shortly after. After greeting Aunt Sun, she led Chen Qing toward the river.

He kept talking the whole way: "I saw that house, a brick house, not bad."

Chen Qing responded with an "oh".

Li Xin added, "I took a peek at him from afar at noon, and he was incredibly strong. I heard from the villagers that he had even killed someone."

Chen Qing felt it was inappropriate to talk about these things behind someone's back, so he tugged at Li Xin's hand and said, "Don't say it."

"Oh dear, it's just the two of us." Li Xin stuck out his tongue, and seeing Chen Qing's serious expression, he added, "Okay, I won't say anything more."

They arrived at the riverbank. Most of the seedlings of the ground ivy grow on the ridges near the water. It was almost the end of their season, and the leaves were no longer all green. Some leaves had already withered and turned yellow under the scorching sun.

Chen Qing and Li Xin lay on the edge of the field, feeling their way forward inch by inch. Finally, they found the first one. As the saying goes, everything is difficult at the beginning. After the first one was found, the rest appeared in droves. They almost circled the river and filled a basket with their search. Of course, they ate as they searched.

The ground berries are only the size of a fingertip, with a soft texture, but the tiny seeds inside the fruit add to the flavor. They are sweet and sour, which Chen Qing likes very much. There are no such fruits in his hometown.

"You picked up so much?" They walked to a big tree and prepared to rest for a while. Both of them were covered in sweat, and Chen Qing wiped it off with his sleeve.

In the distance was the shallowest part of the Luo River. In the summer, some village children would sneak into the water naked to cool off. In previous years, there had been cases of children drowning in Luohe Village, so Li Xin quickly shouted a few times to send the children home.

Chen Qing grabbed a handful of wild rhizomes and gave them to Li Xin: "Have some."

Li Xin took it, and without caring whether it was dirty or not, she fed it to her mouth: "These little rascals, what if they really drown?"

Speaking of children, Li Xin frowned again: "It's so annoying, my dad is going to find a matchmaker today!"

Chen Qing choked while eating: "Did Aunt Hua go to propose marriage?"

“How could we let a matchmaker come knocking on our door? That would make us look like we’re begging for a ride! My dad said he just asked her to sound out their opinion.” Li Xin showed no shyness or joy; he was just annoyed. “I haven’t been in the village for the past few months, could you tell me what happened?”

"Huh? How should I put it?" Chen Qing felt a tightness in his chest, as if a wad of cotton had been stuffed inside.

“I don’t like that type,” Li Xin said. “Tall and strong, like a small mountain, and he’s killed people.”

Li Xin really didn't like that kind of man. He preferred a more delicate and slender man because his father was a blacksmith who spent his days shirtless forging iron. He had seen too much of that, and he still felt that a more slender man was more to his liking.

Chen Qing curled his lip: "But he doesn't kill innocent people indiscriminately. On the battlefield, it's either him killing people or people killing him."

“That’s true, but I just don’t like this type.” Li Xin scratched her head.

“You can talk to your uncle properly,” Chen Qing said. “I believe they will discuss it with you.” He knew that Li Xin’s father treated him very well and would not force him to do things he didn’t like.

“My dad thinks he’s a hot commodity,” Li Xin sighed. “My dad says many families want to marry their daughters and sons to him, but I don’t want to join in the fun at all.”

Chen Qing had no say in the matter; he could only listen to Li Xin's complaints.

They didn't start walking back until the sun was setting. Chen Qing shared half of the wild raspberries in his basket with Li Xin, who had a younger brother who was craving them.

Li Xin didn't stand on ceremony with him, took some things and left, then invited him to go sightseeing in town the next day.

Back home, Aunt Sun was preparing dinner when she saw Chen Qing bring back a bunch of ground lilies: "So many?"

"It seems like no one picked them this year." Chen Qing washed all the wild berries in the basket with water, picked out the small ones, the ones that weren't red and were wilted, grabbed a handful of the good ones and gave them to Aunt Sun, and then handed the basket to Aunt Sun.

Aunt Sun knew what he meant. After she finished eating, she picked up her basket and said, "Keep an eye on the fire in the pot."

Chen Qing nodded and watched Sun Da Niang leave with bated breath. Only after she was out of sight did he go into the kitchen, take over Sun Da Niang's hands, and start cooking.

Zhou Yuan stared at the basket of wild fruits for a long time after receiving it before tasting one. It was sweet and sour, and tasted similar to the fruits he had brought back from the mountains last time.

His family used to be poor. Their area didn't have the rich mountains and rivers of Luohe Village. When they were extremely poor, his grandmother could only take him to the endless wasteland to dig up grass roots to fill their stomachs.

He knew the imperial court was conscripting soldiers, and for the one or two taels of silver that was conscripted at that time, and just to have a bite to eat, he resolutely went. Later, he was even able to send some money home to his grandmother.

But his grandmother never got to see him return home. When he did, she had already turned to dust. Only then did he learn that the money and letters he had sent back had been taken by his uncle's family, who had long since severed ties with their family. His grandmother had never received a single penny before she died, which shows how miserable she had been in life. Even her lonely grave was hastily dug.

With his grandmother gone, that place was no longer his home. Remembering his grandmother's words that she wanted to live in a place with mountains and water, he brought a handful of yellow soil from his grandmother's grave and her memorial tablet to Luohe Village.

Zhou Yuan snapped out of his thoughts and looked at the bright red, festive little fruits. He thought that Chen Qing could go into the water and spend an afternoon searching for wild fruits in such hot weather, so he must be fully recovered.

Zhou Yuan put the fruit away and prepared to cook something to eat. He had no cooking skills and had been eating with Aunt Sun and her family for some time. Now that he was alone, he just cooked whatever was available in the pot to fill his stomach.

He chopped up a pumpkin and threw it into the pot. Just then, a sound came from outside the door. Zhou Yuan went out and saw Aunt Hua, whom he had driven before, standing in front of his house in a bright red outfit.

Zhou Yuan had already anticipated her purpose and was somewhat reluctant to open the door, but since she was already at his doorstep, he had no choice but to welcome her in.

Zhou Yuan twitched the corner of his mouth, feigning ignorance: "Auntie, is there something you need at this hour?"