Chapter 29: A long stream of water

The courtyard finally looks a little better.

Each room was slightly renovated, the windows were covered with paper, and there were beds, stools, and clothes hangers.

The second young master and the second young mistress shared a room, Madam Wen and Wen Zhirou shared a room, Wen Zhiheng had a separate room, and Chen Shiyi still lived in the small woodshed.

All the sundries were placed in a small room separated by wooden boards near the west compartment.

Chen Shiyi had nothing to do, so he went to the stream and picked up a lot of pebbles. He paved a few paths in the courtyard and moved an apricot tree to the corner of the wall. Under the apricot tree was the bamboo swing that the second young master had built for Rui'er.

She filled a broken clay pot with water left by the previous owner near a row of ditches near the clear spring. She saw some wild water lilies in a pond in the wild and moved over.

Flowers, trees, water, people...

Wen Zhirou was sewing clothes in the corridor, holding the embroidery needle in her right hand, watching Chen Shiyi busy with everything. She felt that such a leisurely and peaceful life in the countryside was much more reassuring than attending various banquets, competing with each other, vying for favors, and all kinds of scheming.

I never thought that the days of exile would be like this.

Chen Shiyi likes the bamboo forest very much. The rustling sound of the bamboos when the breeze blows through the forest is very pleasant.

She now has a lot of free time. She doesn't have to go to the mountains to chop firewood every day. Wen Zhiheng and Wen Zhiyuan will bring it back, chop the firewood as they go, and stack it neatly under the eaves.

What she does every day is to prepare meals, clean the house, do laundry, and water the vegetable garden. The rest of the time is hers.

When it rains, the mountain becomes slippery and the road to the bamboo forest is very muddy.

She cut some bamboos, built a bridge leading to the bamboo forest, and asked the second young master to build a small pavilion.

Sitting in the bamboo forest on the mountain, feeling the breeze, helps to relieve the summer heat.

The wound on her shoulder had long since healed, except that it itched occasionally.

There are too many days like this and I get a little bored.

She is a person who can't sit still. She always thinks about food when she has nothing to do at home.

Once, she sent a bundle of bamboo shoots to Brother Zheng's house and ate a bowl of cold, crystal clear fruit noodles at his house.

They said it was white cool powder, made from a green fruit growing on a vine, which looked a bit like a flattened lantern. When the skin was cut open, there were many light yellow seeds inside. Take them out, dry them in the sun, and then rub them with mountain spring water. After two hours, they would solidify into transparent cool powder.

Chen Shiyi prepared it as instructed, and lavishly added brown sugar water and dried osmanthus flowers. It was truly a great dish to cool off in the summer.

I didn’t expect that the eldest master liked this more than Rui’er.

Every time, he would drink two big bowls.

Just like Ruier, like a child.

After two months of good days, Chen Shiyi felt that his face seemed to be rounder. He didn't know if it was because of the climate and soil here, but he was sweating all day long, and his originally waxy yellow face gradually became whiter due to the sunburn.

But the good times didn't last long, as a severe storm turned all this into nothing.

Lightning as thick as a baby's arm split the dark sky. The thin clouds reflected the spider webs, illuminating the entire night.

Dark clouds gathered, the air pressure was getting lower and lower, a violent hurricane swirled between heaven and earth, and several roofs in the courtyard that had been repaired later were blown off, and no one knew where they flew to.

The apricot tree was uprooted and Rui'er's swing was blown into pieces. Rui'er was so sad that he cried loudly when he saw it.

There was a torrential rain, accompanied by egg-sized white hail, which hit the ground all over.

Fortunately, the kitchen, which had not collapsed, had become their only place to hide.

Wen Zhiheng, Wen Zhiyuan, and Chen Shiyi are trying to rescue their daily necessities.

Bedding, clothes, and everything you see are moved into the kitchen.

Wen Zhiheng was picking up bedding in the room against the wind and rain, his whole body soaked by the heavy rain.

"careful!"

Suddenly he was pushed away by a huge force and fell to the ground instantly, with Chen Shiyi lying on top of him.

One side of the compartment collapsed and fell not far from them. Behind the collapsed wall, mud and water rolled out. The clear spring water from the bamboo tube that had been connected before was completely destroyed, and all the hard work was in vain.

"Are you okay?"

"not…"

Fortunately, Chen Shiyi pushed him away, otherwise he would not only be seriously injured, but his life might be in danger.

Hailstones from the sky kept hitting down. Chen Shiyi blocked it with his hands, but the hailstones were so painful.

She quickly climbed up from Wen Zhiheng.

In the midst of the chaos, Wen Zhiheng suddenly screamed in pain.

Chen Shiyi, where are you pressing your hands?

It hurts so much!

After a lot of effort, they moved the important items to the kitchen. Chen Shiyi noticed that Wen Zhiheng's face looked a little pale.

"Were you hit by the hail?"

Wen Zhiheng looked at her with gloomy eyes, and closed his eyes helplessly.

What can he say?

The atmosphere in the kitchen was not very good.

Several female relatives were secretly wiping away tears, especially Wen Zhirou, who was sobbing softly, with her head buried tightly between her legs and her shoulders shaking constantly.

"Nothing is left. We have nothing left again."

Wen Zhiheng has slowed down.

He comforted everyone.

"If the things are gone, I can buy them. Fortunately, I am still alive."

There was a fire burning in the middle of the kitchen, and people gathered around it, slowly drying their clothes.

Chen Shiyi just ran very hard, so he will be a little tired.

She leaned against the legs of the table that had been moved in and fell asleep peacefully.

As soon as she fell asleep, she fell to one side, woke up, and then went back to sleep.

Wen Zhiheng found it really funny, so he sat beside her, let her lean on his shoulder, put his arm around her thin shoulders, and quietly watched her sleeping soundly.

The wind and rain outside finally died down, and the people inside gradually fell asleep.

Wen Zhirou couldn't sleep while sitting by the fire. She looked up and saw in the dark where the fire was flickering. Her elder brother was holding the frail Chen Shiyi in his arms and kissing him lightly on the forehead.

She turned around and saw her mother's slightly closed eyes with a complicated expression.

The next day, the courtyard was in a mess. The house, which had been washed away by the wind and rain, no longer had any trace of being habitable.

Yellow mud was flowing freely in the courtyard, the collapsed room had become a pile of rotten wood, the courtyard wall was collapsed by the mud flow rushing down from the back mountain, and high piles of mud were piled up behind the wall.

Wen Zhiheng and Wen Zhiyuan went to work, leaving only one sentence behind.

"I'll clean it up when I get back."

Chen Shiyi looked at the courtyard that was almost razed to the ground and thought about cleaning it up, but he didn't know how to start.

Wen Zhirou asked softly from behind.

"What do you want me to do?"

"Miss, please find a rack to dry the bedding. I can take care of the rest myself."

Yesterday the wind was raging, today the sun is shining brightly, God's face changes in an instant.

The yellow mud washed down from the mountain, exposed to the sun, took on an indescribable smell of decay.

Chen Shiyi decided to start with the pile of rotten yellow mud.

I found a wooden shovel and two baskets, and prepared to carry the yellow mud to the bamboo forest.

Before she could make a move, the sound of chaotic footsteps could be heard at the gate of the courtyard.

Madam Wen, the Second Young Lady, and Rui'er were so frightened that they quickly ran into the kitchen. Wen Zhirou quickly dragged Chen Shiyi in.

Outside the door, a familiar and crazy voice was heard.

“Huh…”

Chen Shiyi looked up and found Cui Yongan and seven or eight other people walking into the courtyard one after another.

She smiled.

"Brother Cui, long time no see, what are you doing here?"

Cui Yongan glanced around the courtyard and replied nonchalantly.

"I came to see if you were dead."