Cuckoo ~ Cuckoo ~

The mountain path winds and twists.

Qin Luo carried a bamboo basket to the mountains to gather pig feed.

Hua Ying carried a bamboo basket and pointed to the bamboo grove not far away. "There are bamboo shoots over there. I'll go dig up a couple. How about we have bamboo shoot and pork rib stew for dinner tonight?"

"OK."

Qin Luo continued walking up the mountain.

Hua Ying carried a bamboo basket to dig for bamboo shoots.

The wild grass at the foot of the mountain is sparse, so if you want to gather pig feed, you have to go to a higher place.

Qin Luo carried a sickle and cut pig feed all the way. Before he knew it, he had reached a high place and saw two low graves.

Both graves were overgrown with weeds, and looked like they hadn't been tended to for a long time. Qin Luo cleaned the graves and added some fresh soil.

"Thank you, Daoist Master."

A cheerful voice rang out from behind.

Qin Luo looked at the tall figure standing under the shade of the tree and said with a smile, "It was just a small thing."

"I also want to thank the Taoist priest for his help to Zhu Xian."

Emperor Wu of the Great Xia Dynasty bowed with his hands clasped.

Qin Luo returned the greeting with a cupped hand, "Senior Emperor Wu, the Zhu family has an ancestral hall, why are you here?"

Emperor Wu of the Great Xia Dynasty said with a wry smile, "Hehe, there is no memorial tablet for me in the ancestral temple, but the scenery here is quite nice."

Qin Luo smiled awkwardly, then suggested, "Senior, you've stayed in the mortal realm for too long, and your spirit has been severely worn down. If you don't want to reincarnate, you can go to the underworld to recuperate first, and come out to take a look when you have time."

"My enmity with the Underworld is not because I fear them, but because I am weary of fighting," said the Great Xia Emperor calmly.

Qin Luo chuckled and said, "After the great battle in the capital, I went to the underworld. Now that King Yama is rebuilding the order of the underworld, he won't cause you any trouble. I have a Yellow Springs Inn in the underworld, where you can stay."

Emperor Wu of the Great Xia Dynasty bowed again, "Thank you, Daoist Master. I have nothing to repay you with. Go and ask Zhu Xian for your reward."

Qin Luo smiled and shook his head, "If you arrive at the Yellow Springs Inn, please tell Yuan Yuan and the little ghost who are staying there that I am fine and that they should not worry."

"good."

"Thank you for your trouble, Taoist priest."

The figure of Emperor Wu of the Great Xia Dynasty slowly disappeared.

Qin Luo carried a bamboo basket full of pig feed down the mountain. He met Hua Ying halfway down the mountain, and the latter showed off the bamboo basket.

Besides bamboo shoots, there were also many mushrooms in the bamboo basket. Hua Ying raised an eyebrow and said, "You're in luck tonight."

Qin Luo smiled and said softly, "What will happen to these livestock after you leave?"

"I'll leave a clone here."

"Um."

Back in the farmhouse courtyard, Qin Luo started chopping pig feed, while Hua Ying washed cured pork chops in the kitchen.

......

evening.

The yard is filled with fragrance.

Hua Ying prepared a sumptuous meal.

On the table were bamboo shoots stewed with cured pork ribs, Kung Pao chicken, stir-fried mushrooms, and cucumber salad. If Qin Luo hadn't stopped her, Hua Ying would have roasted the piglets in the pigsty.

In the orange-red twilight, fallen petals fluttered in the courtyard. Qin Luo picked up a bowl of wine and joked with a smile, "With so many dishes, how can I not have a bowl?"

Hua Ying nodded with a smile, picked up the bowl and drank it all in one gulp. "Eat more vegetables, and don't force yourself if you can't finish them."

Qin Luo ate his food heartily and said with a smile, "Don't worry, I won't stand on ceremony."

The old white dog stood by the table gnawing on a pork bone.

After dinner, Qin Luo volunteered to wash the dishes. Hua Ying put the cured meat from the kitchen into her storage ring. With gentle eyes, she said softly, "Zi Yue and Xiao Tuanzi like to eat meat, so consider this cured meat a gift for them."

"This is a nice gift."

Qin Luo smiled and echoed.

Hua Ying pursed her lips and chuckled to herself. She took out the eggs from the cabinet and put all the edible ones into her storage ring. Qin Luo chuckled and teased, "Leave some for A Zhu."

"She won't starve to death."

Huaying is still picking potatoes.

At night, Hua Ying plucked a strand of purple hair, and then a clone appeared in the courtyard.

When Qin Luo and Hua Ying walked out of the courtyard, the old white dog opened his eyes, his eyes filled with reluctance.

"Woof woof woof!"

Hua Ying turned to look at the old white dog, made a shushing gesture, and whispered, "Watch the house well."

The old white dog stopped talking and watched Qin Luo and Hua Ying walk away. It returned to the yard dejectedly, only to see another "Hua Ying" feeding the pigs.

The old white dog stared wide-eyed as it ran out of the yard and looked into the distance, but Qin Luo and Hua Ying were nowhere to be seen.

......

Leaving Huaxi Village, you are greeted by an endless plain, with a wide gravel road leading into the distance.

Qin Luo walked slowly northward, gazing at the horizon where stars seemed to adorn the plains.

Rice paddies lined both sides of the road, their green waters rippling and reflecting the bright moon. Qin Luo saw a figure moving in the distance; a barefoot boy was catching eels in the paddy. He looked up and saw Qin Luo, paused for a moment, and then took off running.

Did we scare him?

"Maybe."

Hua Ying said softly, "I liked to slack off when I was a child. No, I didn't slack off when I was a child."

Qin Luo said with a smile, "If you want to catch fish, I can go with you to the river right now. If you want to catch eels in the fields, I can go with you too."

Aren't you afraid of trampling the rice seedlings?

"You can recover, right?"

Hua Ying chuckled, "It's a pity I didn't meet you when I was a child, otherwise it would have been very interesting."

"It's never too late to do something you want to do," Qin Luo said with a smile.

"That makes sense."

Hua Ying walked in front of Qin Luo and circled around him. "I want to go back to the Purple Cloud Mountains with you right now."

"Then I should thank you properly." Qin Luo joked, "To travel with a flying immortal, how romantic."

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