Chapter 53

The roasted sweet potatoes were nine-tenths cooked, with the core still a little raw. The roasted eggs had a naturally salty and savory flavor, and with the addition of instant noodle seasoning, they tasted just like barbecue. The chicken wings were overcooked, with the entire skin turning black and tasting bitter.

Ah Le fell asleep on the way home.

Mu Zhengxi nervously showed it to Jiang Jiawei, speaking in a breathy voice with a pained expression, "Lin Jiale is drooling!"

Jiang Jiawei chuckled to herself, called out "A-Le" softly twice, and then tugged at the mineral water bottle in A-Le's hand. A-Le was asleep, but still clutching the bottle tightly.

"She's really asleep, let me hold her."

Mu Zhengxi numbly felt the dampness on his shoulder, but didn't let go. "We're almost home. Don't wake her up."

Grandma was watching TV in the living room waiting for them to come home. When she heard the noise, she got up and went outside. "Is Ah Le asleep?"

Mu Zhengxi smiled and agreed.

Grandma quickly took Ale from Mu Zhengxi's arms. The little pig was fast asleep and hadn't woken up at all. "Oh dear, you've been carrying him all the way. Your arms must be so sore."

Ah Le dropped the bottle in his hand, and Jiang Jiawei picked it up, went outside, and released the fireflies inside.

"No, no, it'll only be a little while." Mu Zhengxi had originally wanted to shake his sore and numb arms, but he quickly stopped when he heard this.

Jiang Jia glanced at the person, leaned to the side and whispered mischievously, "You're in for a rough time starting tomorrow."

Mu Zhengxi: "?"

Grandma pulled over the two younger brothers, whose smudged hands and faces immediately revealed their true nature. "You two went to roast sweet potatoes again, didn't you? Look at the mess on your clothes. Go upstairs and change your clothes. Go to bed."

Jiang Jiawei sleeps in a room downstairs, her two twin brothers share a room, and Mu Zhengxi and Jiang Jiayi share a room. The 1.5-meter bed is not big enough for both of them, so their grandmother makes them makeshift beds on the floor.

the next day.

Mu Zhengxi finally understood what Jiang Jiayi meant by "there's something to suffer for." After a night of escalating feelings, Lin Jiale had completely become his accessory.

The old saying is true; children are very good at reading people's expressions, and it's really true.

"Brother, hug me."

The little boy with his outstretched hand has such a charmingly curved eye that it's impossible to resist him.

Mu Zhengxi resignedly bent down and grabbed the man.

Lin Jiale stuffed a Want Want Little Bun into Mu Zhengxi's mouth to seal it, and she was very fair, giving each of them one each time.

Jiang Jiawei was delighted with this, as having a free nanny meant she could help her grandmother with more things.

Three-year-old Lin Jiale isn't very interested in toys or games. She has an elderly artistic soul inside her and likes to stay in her grandmother's room listening to Nanyin music. In the past, she would have Jiang Jiawei sit with her to listen, but now the choice has changed.

Mu Zhengxi couldn't understand the Nanyin music. As soon as he sat down, his eyelids started to droop within minutes, and he fell asleep on the sofa in less than ten minutes.

At midday, the sun scorched the earth, the village was quiet, there were few people in the fields, and the gates of every house were ajar.

The noisy sounds upstairs quieted down, leaving only the rhythmic, intermittent sound of Grandma's sewing machine in the downstairs room—sewing zippers, five cents a piece. Jiang Jiawei sat beside her, reading a book, and helped her tidy up and bundle up the piles of books she had collected.

The aroma of mung bean soup simmering in the kitchen wafted over.

"Jiajia, go and turn the fire down a bit."

"good."

Startled awake in his sleep, Mu Zhengxi felt a sensation of stepping into thin air and his calf twitched involuntarily. He suddenly opened his eyes and woke up, as if he had had a very long dream, but when he checked the time, he realized it had only been a little over an hour.

A floral quilt was draped over Ah Le's hands, and Ah Le covered him up, drool dripping onto half of his clothes, while he held a half-eaten apple in his hand.

The scent of camphor and mint filled his nose. He raised his arm, and his grandmother applied mentholatum to the mosquito bites on his arm. The smell actually helped clear his throbbing head. He pressed his fingers to the corners of his eyes, and Mu Zhengxi carefully supported Ale's head, slowly standing up. His stiff limbs seemed newly installed. He gently placed Ale on the bed, as if placing a fragile piece of glass. He pulled out the quilt and put it back on Ale's stomach. Looking at the apple in her hand, he weighed the pros and cons and decided not to take it away. It would be troublesome if she woke up.

Lifting the curtain, I saw Grandma peeling peanuts. Jiang Jiayi was sitting on the sofa in the living room, absentmindedly munching on an ice pop. Hearing the sound, she glanced over and asked, "Want some?"

Mu Zhengxi bent down and asked, "Where's your sister?"

"Are you looking for your mother? You keep calling me 'my sister' all the time."

Mu Zhengxi retorted, "If you're so capable, then don't ask."

Jiang Jia choked for a moment, then silently rolled her eyes.

Coincidentally, Lin Kaijie, rubbing his eyes after waking up, said his first words were, "I want an ice cream too," and his second question was the same: "Where's my sister?"

Jiang Jiayi: "...I don't know."

Grandma said, both amused and exasperated, "When we go to Xiaofang's house next door, everyone wants to see the older sister."

Mu Zhengxi instinctively wanted to retort, "But I'm looking for my sister," but he pursed his lips and went upstairs to change his clothes.

The peanuts added to the mung bean soup were cooked until soft and the shells came off. Grandma turned off the heat, scooped out a bowl of the soup, took out the pure milk that the children had put in the freezer, cut it open with scissors, poured out the frozen milk, and added it in. The ice melted quickly. After stirring it, the homemade mung bean milk ice was ready.

The sun is no longer so intense.

Jiang Jiayi: "Changed clothes again??" She had a strong opinion.

“Ah Le drooled all over me.”

"Then why don't you just bear with it?"

"Then why didn't you bear it last time!"

"We'll know we're dead when we run out of clothes."

Jiang Jiayi got a shove from her grandmother.

"Don't talk nonsense about dying or anything like that."

Jiang Jiayi covered her head in frustration.

Mu Zhengxi gloated and echoed, "Did you hear that? Speak properly."

“That’s right.” Grandma served Mu Zhengxi a bowl of mung bean soup, saying it was a secret recipe.

Mu Zhengxi gave the chef a thumbs up in a very cooperative manner, giving him a huge emotional boost.

Xiaofang's family had a peach tree in their backyard. After her younger brother picked some peaches for them to eat, he took them to the longan tree by the roadside.

"Your brother and the others are here."

Xiaofang patted Jiang Jiawei's arm.

The four men occupied the width of the road, looking like a gang of thugs about to start a fight, with the two leaders being tall and burly.

Jiang Jiawei looked around, "Where's A-Le?"

Jiang Jiayi consciously passed the question to Mu Zhengxi, who had been a full-time player for the past few days.

"Sleeping."

"Why are you still sleeping?"

Mu Zhengxi said matter-of-factly, "If someone wants to sleep, they can sleep." He reached out and grabbed the longan from Jiang Jiawei's hand, peeling off the thin skin with one hand.

It's quite sweet.

"Sister, I want some too."

Jiang Jiawei gave the bunch of longan in her hand to her two younger brothers.

Before long, the two of them, like monkeys, climbed up as well. Jiang Jiayi wanted to but didn't dare, as her sensitive skin was too fragile.

Mu Zhengxi stretched out his hand and could easily grab the branches from places that weren't too high, taking advantage of his height to pick them. When he handed them to Jiang Jiawei, he was caught off guard and received a slap on the cheek, leaving him stunned.

Jiang Jiawei spat out the seed and quickly showed him the corpse in her palm, "A mosquito with flower-legged legs, it bit your face and it swelled up after a while."

"You'd better stand up and move away; you attract mosquitoes."

Mu Zhengxi obediently followed her pulling force and retreated.

*Smack*

Another one.

Jiang Jiayi followed suit, exclaiming, "There are mosquitoes!"

Mu Zhengxi gave a cold laugh.

"There are mosquitoes, right??? Jiang Jiayi, I think you're itching for a beating."

The two started chasing each other on the road.

Xiaofang shook her head, crossed her arms, pursed her lips, and commented with an air of maturity, "Men are just childish."

Jiang Jiawei found it hilarious.

Xiaofang was speechless. "What's so funny?"

Jiang Jiawei, still smiling, straightened up, leaning on her shoulder.

Xiaofang suggested, "Hey, let's go pick some donkeys on the back hill, it's not so hot now."

"OK."

Each called to their younger brother to set off.

Mu Zhengxi asked Jiang Jiayi, "What is Doni?"

"Hmm...it's a kind of wild fruit. You'll see when you get there."

"oh."

Along the way, Mu Zhengxi began to see elders heading out to do farm work. He greeted them as he passed by. He realized that he didn't actually know all of them, but everyone would nod and say hello when they met. During mealtimes, they would ask if he had eaten, and outside of mealtimes, they would mostly ask where he was going.

The same question for adults and children alike, a simple greeting as pure as the growth of crops.

As we passed by someone's land, an aunt wearing a straw hat and hoeing the ground asked us if we wanted some cucumbers.

I pulled up some cucumbers from the vine and also picked a few tomatoes.

The back mountain is not a barren mountain; it has been cultivated into fields. Jiang Jiayi said there is also a reservoir halfway up the mountain. His grandfather used to go there to catch fish, but it has been abandoned now.

Mu Zhengxi was relieved, "Luckily, Lin Jiale didn't come."

Although the mountain is not high, it is still a mountain.

Just thinking about it made Mu Zhengxi subconsciously feel his arm go numb.

Jiang Jiawei, who was walking behind him, laughed when she heard this.

Mu Zhengxi slowed his pace and walked beside Jiang Jiawei.

Jiang Jiawei asked him, "When you told me last time that you went hiking with your classmates, was this how you climbed mountains?"

"Pretty much, but we went into a more primitive forest, and we brought a guide. The trees there are so tall you can't see the tops."

Are there many mosquitoes?

"I was wearing a protective suit, which covered my entire body from head to toe, so I didn't feel anything."

Will there be snakes?

"We haven't met yet, maybe next time—"

"Oh my god, oh my god!!!! Sister, sister, sister!!!!"

In the blink of an eye, Jiang Jia, who was originally at the front, turned around and clung to Jiang Jiawei, shouting, "Snake snake snake!!!!"

The people behind him were so frightened by his exaggerated and excited reaction that they all stepped back. Mu Zhengxi and Jiang Jiawei, on the other hand, remained much calmer. The small green snake, no bigger than a palm, did not move at all.

Mu Zhengxi gently hooked the toy snake that someone had mischievously thrown on the road with a twig he had picked up.

Mu Zhengxi said, "It's not a real snake, it's a toy."

Several people curiously gathered around to take a look.

Taking the opportunity, Mu Zhengxi teased the still-shaken Jiang Jiayi, "You're such a coward, Jiang Jiayi."

The person who glared at him clutched their rapidly beating heart; thank goodness, they almost lost their soul.

Jiang Jia turned her head and, like a kindergarten child, complained, "My sister said I'm a coward."

Mu Zhengxi looked up, his eyes showing a hint of provocation. He twisted his neck and grabbed the person, saying, "You're not a coward? Who's the one who screams at the sight of a toy snake???"

Jiang Jiawei silently covered her ears and walked quickly forward.

Three seconds left.

"sister!!!"

"Jiang Jiawei!!"

Here we go again, it's started again.

She could be the judge eight hundred times a day; even Bao Zheng (the upright judge in Chinese history) didn't have as many cases as her.