Chapter 72: A Gentle Kiss Picnic, Shrine and Catfish Dumplings...

The warm spring sun is like melted honey, lazily melting in the courtyard.

With the arrival of spring, Ye Wan's courtyard finally came to life. She and You An buried a lot of flower seeds in the yard. Now there are many small, green sprouts growing in the yard.

Maybe next year, bright red tomatoes, fresh potatoes and herbs will grow here.

After Ye Wan finished tidying the garden, he went to wash his hands eagerly. You An had already prepared his bag: "We're almost done, we can go now."

The day before yesterday, they received an invitation from Anne to a picnic, and Ye Wan happily replied to Anne using a signal bird.

"I'd love to go. I haven't been to Green Dune Farm for a long time. This time I want to pick some fresh milk. It will definitely be great for making cream squares." Ye Wan was very happy.

Today she wore a dark green dress with puff sleeves and cute bows on both sides of the sleeves. The hem of the skirt was about knee-length. She wore a pair of black leather shoes and a straw hat to protect herself from the sun.

She was very cute, and Youan was walking beside her, carrying a huge brown luggage bag.

"We'll just go for one day, there's no need to carry so much stuff," she said.

But Youan insisted on bringing a suitcase: "Because whenever you go out, there will always be problems of one kind or another."

"There will definitely be no problem this time, just trust me." Ye Wan said confidently.

Maybe it was the off-season, so there were not many people on the train. You An bought a newspaper from the train attendant, while Ye Wan asked for a bag of licorice candy.

Pancake loved to eat this. The candy was very long. He held the candy and pulled it hard. With such force, he rolled backwards twice.

Ye Wan laughed while holding the licorice candy.

"Is there any interesting news recently?" Ye Wan asked.

Euan finished flipping through a newspaper and shook his head. "Only Lord Croft's widow has issued a notice to leave the family."

"Boring, I don't know anyone."

You An raised the corner of his lips: "You know him." He handed the newspaper to Ye Wan.

Ye Wan took it. A photo took up most of the space on the newspaper.

It was Liya whom I had met on Cupid's Day. Although she was old, she still had a lot of elegance. In the photo, she looked very happy, walking out of the magnificent villa with a suitcase in her hand in a relaxed manner.

After Cupid's Day, Ye Wan and Youan went to Old Tom's Western restaurant again. He looked radiant and ten years younger. He happily said that he would sell the restaurant to someone else and take Liya to travel around the world.

And he gave all the ingredients of the main dish to Ye Wan.

Among them, there was a spinach lasagna that looked delicious. Ye Wan tried making it and it received unanimous praise from the diners.

"That's great." Ye Wan nodded at the newspaper.

The train climbed slowly through the mountains and forests. Sunlight filtered through the gaps between the layers of leaves, turning into tiny spots of light that danced around the carriage.

The sound of the wheels hitting the rails was monotonous and steady. When it passed a clear stream, Ye Wan had already fallen asleep on Youan's shoulder.

She was sleeping soundly, her head swaying gently with the rocking of the train. Muffin had eaten most of the licorice candy and was also fast asleep on the gift bag.

Only You An was awake. He had no choice but to help Ye Wan adjust his sleeping position, and then went back to reading his book.

The penguin wearing a small uniform hat came over again with a cart of iced pumpkin juice: "Sir, would you like..."

Before it could finish its words, it was stopped by Youan.

He made a gesture to silence and then tilted his head to the side.

Penguin glanced at the sleeping Ye Wan, nodded hurriedly, and pushed the food cart away.

Ye Wan was not affected at all and was still sleeping.

After the train went down a slope in the mountains, it entered a dark cave. The bright spring light outside was instantly taken away, leaving only the pitch-black darkness of the cave and the slight hum of the carriage.

Ye Wan just woke up to see the pitch black. She was still immersed in sleep and her mind was a little confused: "It's over. Am I blind?"

A slightly cool hand gently covered her eyes. There were light calluses between the slender fingers, and the palm was slightly cool and soft, blocking out all the light.

Then she felt someone's breath approaching, with a faint scent of cedar, and a kiss lightly landed on the corner of her lips.

The kiss was lighter than a feather and softer than the spring breeze, as if afraid of disturbing this brief, dark secret place that belonged only to the two of them.

Ye Wan: “?”

Soon the train came out of the cave. Ye Wan stood up quickly and hit his head against the luggage rack. The sleeping muffin flew directly to the ceiling.

She quickly reached out to take it: "Sorry, muffin."

Muffin also hit its head on the ceiling, and the whole mouse collapsed in her hands, dizzy.

Ye Wan quickly sat down and rubbed its little forehead, then turned around and looked at Youan quietly. He was still reading the newspaper.

"I said..." she said softly.

"Hmm?" You An sat upright, holding the newspaper, looking very elegant and calm.

"You're holding the newspaper upside down." Ye Wan said.

He turned the newspaper around in frustration.

Ye Wan was trying to hold back his laughter and was about to say something when the train suddenly stopped on the tracks.

The penguin conductor fluttered his wings and ran back and forth: "Dear passengers, don't panic, it's just a minor accident! Wait a moment, we will be leaving soon!"

But after waiting for an hour, the train still didn't leave.

The conductor had no choice but to use the loudspeaker to announce, "Dear customers, the train won't be repaired for a while. There's a skytrain platform about a kilometer from here. You can go there to return to the capital. We'll have an announcement about compensation measures later. Sorry for the inconvenience!"

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone on the train cursed and got off with their luggage. Ye Wan was not willing to wait any longer: "I don't know how long it will take to repair it, let's go."

Youan stood up, took the oversized luggage bag and put it on his shoulder: "Let's go."

It was already quite hot in Calmette in March. Ye Wan wiped the sweat off his face as he walked: "Oh my God, why are even the trains so unreliable?"

Muffin sat on her shoulder, looking rather limp as well.

"Would you like some water, muffin?" Ye Wan asked.

Muffin shook his head, and the next second, his stomach growled.

"I was hungry too. I ate a bag of licorice candy on the way out after breakfast..."

"You An, you must be hungry too. Let's take a break."

They walked through the valley, through a dense forest of balsam fir, and the air was fragrant and sweet with the scent of lilies, violets, pinks, and magnolias.

Finally they chose a huge apple tree and sat down in the shade. In front of them was a clear stream with dark and clear water that flowed all the way to the distant mountains and forests.

Ye Wan went to rummage through the huge gift bag, which contained a small pot: "Oh yeah, I said I wanted to go camping with Annie and show her my skills.

Ye Wan first released the signal bird to deliver a message to Annie, then took out a kettle and went to the stream to fetch water. The stream was very shallow and clear, and one could even see the round, colorful pebbles at the bottom.

Ye Wan even saw a few fat catfish sliding by.

“Oh there are catfish.”

"Hey Youan, do you want to try catfish dumplings?" She turned to look at Youan, her eyes bright and expectant.

The latter sighed, stood up resignedly and rolled up his sleeves.

"Catfish are very slippery and difficult to catch, so you have to be careful." Ye Wan encouraged him, took out flour from his luggage bag, and rolled out the dumpling wrappers together with the pancakes.

Youan rolled up his sleeves, revealing the sharp lines of his forearm muscles. He lowered his head and stared closely at the school of fish swimming among the rocks in the water, then quietly moved closer.

Quickly he thrust his wrist out of the water and accurately caught a slippery catfish. The fish slapped its tail violently, splashing water that wet his clothes.

He quickly threw the fish onto the shore. Ye Wan simply piled up stones to make a small pool and put the fish in it.

Youan came out of the water and put his shoes back on.

"Thank you for your hard work. You can eat fish soup dumplings soon." Ye Wan lowered his head to scrape the scales and bones of the catfish, and put the head and tail into the pot first.

Under the pot was firewood that Pancake had collected from everywhere.

"But catfish has a strong earthy smell..." She turned to pick some herbs from the bushes, then threw them into the pot: "This can effectively remove the fishy smell of catfish."

The fish meat was chopped into fine minced fish paste and mixed with chopped ginger and wild onions. As Ye Wan stirred the minced fish paste, he said, "If you pour a spoonful of hot oil on it, it will lock in the freshness of the fish and make it even more delicious. But in the valley, we don't care so much."

Youan wiped the water droplets off his arms and picked up the dumpling wrappers to wrap the fillings. He had obviously mastered the technique of making dumplings. He just pinched the edge of the dough and pushed it towards the middle, and the folds on both sides were folded up.

The fish soup in the pot had been stewed into a rich milky white color. Ye Wan slid the dumplings into the boiling soup one by one, and soon the fresh aroma of the fish soup wafted out.

Pancake was already holding his stomach and drooling.

When the dumplings were cooked until they were plump and white and floated to the surface of the soup, Ye Wan quickly turned off the fire.

"You can eat now."

They didn't have bowls or chopsticks, so Youan used a knife to chop a few branches and slowly ground them into thornless sticks.

First take a sip of the fish soup, which is rich and delicious from the catfish bones. The dumpling skin is rolled out very chewy. Gently bite open the thin skin of the dumpling, and the boiling hot soup will flow out first.

The catfish filling was very delicate, mixed with the fresh fragrance of green onions and ginger. As the two of them had hardly eaten anything today, they silently finished the whole pot of fish soup dumplings and drank up every drop of the soup.

"Much more comfortable." Ye Wan breathed a sigh of relief and began to clean up the kitchen waste with You An.

"It's not far from the station. I'm going to take a nice bath when I get home," she said.

They set out on their journey home again. After passing an amber sand dune, Ye Wan saw...

An abandoned shrine.

"Why is there an abandoned shrine here?" Ye Wan was shocked.

Wild grass spread over the huge torii gate, and most of the vermilion paint on the torii gate had peeled off, revealing a grayish-white base. The stone lanterns in the courtyard were covered with moss.

The trees here are lush, and the sunlight can only shine through the branches to cast a faint shadow. Only unknown birds are circling low among the trees, bringing some vitality to the shrine.

In the corner stands a plastic civet cat figurine, its chubby body exuding a simple and honest look. It wears a straw hat, its cheeks are light brown, and its round eyes are bright. Apart from the dust accumulated on them, it looks very cute.

There were a few pieces of malt candy placed in front of it. The candy seemed to be a bit old and had almost melted.

The muffin was eager to get those candies.

Ye Wan said seriously, "We may have accidentally stepped into a certain barrier and entered a fantasy world."

She looked at the pancake seriously and said, "Don't touch any of the food here, or you might turn into a pig like Chihiro's parents."

muffin:"?"