"Brother Qingfeng, you can sit in my sedan chair." Song Jiao had been riding in a sedan chair up the mountain, not caring that the mountain road was difficult. She didn't want to walk or be carried, so she insisted on riding in the sedan chair. Now, feeling sorry for Tie Qingfeng, she insisted on giving him the sedan chair.
"No need. The mountain road is steep. I'm afraid the sedan chair carriers might lose their balance and the sedan chair could tip over from the mountain to the bottom. If that happens, I'll be in big trouble." Tie Qingfeng said calmly, clinging to the servant's back, before taking a few sips of water from the water bag handed to him by the maid.
Song Jiao kindly offered to give up her sedan chair, but unexpectedly she was lectured instead. Feeling wronged, she pouted and was on the verge of crying.
"Don't cry, or I'll have someone send you back," Tie Qingfeng said in a low voice, pinching his brow.
Song Jiao knew that "sending her back" meant sending her back to the old house in the county, not the Song family mansion in Yegou Village. She wanted to stay with Brother Qingfeng and didn't want to go back to the old house, so she held back her tears and remained silent, pursing her lips.
The guards were afraid of encountering any danger, so they dared not go too far. There was a relatively flat area halfway up the mountain, so they told everyone to stop there. Then they instructed the servants to spread out the deck chairs, set up a small table, and put various pastries and fruits on the small table.
"The young masters of wealthy families have it so easy. They're surrounded by servants when they go up the mountain, like they're living like gods." Zhou Erfu exclaimed in amazement. Perhaps he was just naive, but he guessed that this was the kind of entourage that young masters and ladies of wealthy families always had when they went out.
Despite his complaints, Zhou Erfu remembered his promise and ignored Tie Qingfeng and Song Jiao, the two delicate young masters and willful young ladies, and went off with the other brothers to get some mountain produce.
Erfu went to pick bayberries and, while he was at it, looked for bird nests to raid. Zhou Sifu, with a hoe, dug and dug at the entrance of a hole. It was a bamboo rat burrow, and he dug very hard.
Zhou Wufu carried a hoe and searched everywhere for medicinal herbs, while Zhou Dafu and Zhou Sanfu led Xingxing and Ruru to pick reed leaves. The Dragon Boat Festival was approaching, and the family was going to make zongzi (sticky rice dumplings) this year. They needed to pick more reed leaves to take back. In previous years, the family hadn't had enough to eat and couldn't afford to make zongzi. They had to make more this year.
"Big brother, third brother, Xingxing has also picked bamboo leaves!" Xingxing called out in her childish voice, holding up several bamboo leaves.
“Sister, those aren’t reed leaves, those are bamboo leaves. You can also wrap zongzi with them, but zongzi wrapped in bamboo leaves don’t taste as good as those wrapped in reed leaves. Zongzi wrapped in reed leaves have a special, refreshing aroma,” Zhou Dafu explained with a gentle and patient smile.
Xingxing was confused and didn't realize that there were so many intricacies to the bamboo leaves used for making zongzi. After thinking for a moment, she raised her voice and said, "I know! Bamboo leaves are just like bamboo tubes. Rice cooked in bamboo tubes is more fragrant and delicious than rice cooked in a big iron pot."
Zhou Dafu rubbed her fluffy head. "Yes, Xingxing is so smart, you even noticed that."
"Star has always been very smart." Little Star proudly tilted her chin up.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
