Chapter 11 Chapter 11 Good Sleep
Gong Zhili transported bundles of bark, bamboo poles, branches and trunks across the lake in several batches. There was only a trace of afterglow on the horizon. The waves pushed the boat, and ripples appeared on the lake. Each wave crest flashed with golden light. Occasionally, a fish jumped past the boat, and inky ripples rose from the bottom of the lake. When the last ray of light sank into the mountains, the lake also calmed down and embraced the inky blue sky.
Even with the help of the lake and the mountains, Gong Zhili was already sweating all over after unloading the last bundle of bamboo poles onto the dock at his doorstep.
It’s hard to say which is more painful, physical fatigue or mental fatigue. In any case, the sweat all over her body made her very uncomfortable.
The high intensity of labor in a short period of time reduced the effectiveness of the land in regulating her temperature.
She drank a large glass of cold water and felt extremely disheveled. She was dirty all over, with dead branches and leaves mixed in her hair. The feeling of short pine branches falling on the back of her neck made her want to jump into the water and wash herself from head to toe.
She couldn't cook, so she said to her two children, "I'm going to take a shower first. You go wash the rice and cook it first, then we can prepare the mushrooms."
Mimiko quickly ran to the bedroom and got her pajamas from the bed.
I have to cook later... Forget it, I'll just make something light and low in oil in the evening. After all, it's the child's kindness, and it doesn't matter if I cook in my pajamas at home.
She went into the bathroom to take a shower, thinking about the dinner menu in her head.
Although she really wanted to eat shepherd's purse dumplings, she just wanted to make something simple to eat. After drying her hair, she put on her old clothes that she had worn to work and washed before, and went into the kitchen.
She first sliced the pine mushrooms and blanched them in water, chopped the dandelion leaves, beat the wild duck eggs with salt, and mixed them directly into the mushroom slices and dandelion pieces. Then she poured oil and egg liquid into a hot pan, fried the bottom until it was shaped, then slowly rolled it into an omelet with a spatula, and cut it into several pieces after taking it out of the pan.
After the first dish came out of the pot, she still wanted to try shepherd's purse, so she simply cut up the wild carrots, shepherd's purse, and soaked ground spinach separately. She blanched the ground spinach in boiling water, then sautéed the wild carrot slices with wild garlic until fragrant. She added the shepherd's purse and ground spinach. Everything had gone smoothly so far, and the pot was filled with the rich aroma of wild vegetables meeting the hot oil. But how should she add seasoning? Just adding salt felt flavorless. Gong Zhili hesitated for a few seconds, choosing between vinegar and sugar. After adding a little sugar, she tentatively added a little soy sauce.
She didn't even taste the second dish and asked the children to take it away. Then she beat a wild duck egg, added dandelions and the remaining wild vegetables, and made a bowl of "Hibiscus Wild Vegetable Soup".
To relieve fatigue, she also brewed a large pot of wild chrysanthemum tea. The children didn’t like the taste, so she squeezed wild pear juice for them - a juicer, what a great and civilized thing!
The stir-fried wild vegetables did not go bad, which made Gong Zhili reaffirm his idea: as long as the ingredients are fresh, the seasoning is normal, and the heat is appropriate, the dish will not be too bad!
The two children were also very supportive. They finished all the dishes and soup, and sat on the balcony to digest the food. They brought some dried reed stalks and pestered her to learn how to make reed flutes.
Gong Zhili found a sewing kit, first broke the reed stem, scraped the knots repeatedly to remove the outer membrane, pressed the stem with his index finger and rotated it a few times, then carved an oblique cut on the top of the reed section with his fingernail, then poked a few holes with uneven spacing with the tip of a needle, and then pinched the tail end to gently bend it into an arc.
She wiped the reed stem, brought it to her lips, and blew. The sound was like the rough paper film stuck to candy wrappers when you tear it open. It started with a leaky "hiss," then suddenly turned into a short "chirp," occasionally getting stuck on a broken note, which was very funny and abrupt. The sound made Gong Zhili laugh. She put down the simple reed flute and asked, "The sound is not very accurate. Do you want to make it for fun?"
The two children were so fascinated by the voice that they said in unison, "Yes!"
The two children made a lot of reed flutes with reed stalks. They blew one and then the other, and compared whose one sounded better.
Gong Zhilixiang: I still need to make more toys...I'll make some when I have free time this month. When her crops grow, she can sell them and buy some with the money she earns.
Gong Zhili watched them play and took some reed stalks to weave a mat. This was more complicated than a straw hat, and the twins couldn't learn it, so they just happily played the reed flute beside her.
The mat was half a meter long. They were tired from playing and their eyelids were drooping. Gong Zhili picked them up one in each hand and put them on the bed to sleep.
She was wearing pajamas, picked up the unfinished chrysanthemum tea and went to the balcony, enjoying the night breeze and admiring the starry sky.
The September night breeze blew scattered bamboo leaves across the eaves. Gong Zhili swung her legs and sat on the railing. She liked this angle—she could see the sky clearly, and the moonlight wasn't blocked by the eaves.
Suddenly, tiny stardust fell on the surface of the village barrier.
The moment a white figure tore through the night, Gong Zhili sensed danger. Like a crane caught in a gust of wind, it descended mid-air in a horrifically contorted position. Moonlight outlined his upside-down form, his white hair floating upward against gravity, a pale blue light seeping from beneath his black eye mask.
"Good evening~" The frivolous ending sounded like smooth silk. Gojo Satoru held up an invisible barrier with one hand, and the cursed energy bursting from his fingertips burned scorch marks in the air. "Can I ask for directions? Is there a group of people in this village..."
The voice stopped abruptly.
Miya Chiri rolled back onto the balcony, gently placing the teacup on the floor. She knelt, her hands on the floor, her gaze fixed on the tall, uninvited guest. Gojo Satoru narrowed his eyes, observing the pale blue aura surging around her. It wasn't cursed energy or a reversal technique, but more like... moonlight taking form. He suddenly thrust his hand between the girl's eyebrows, stopping 0.01 millimeters from her skin. The limitless technique confirmed the temperature of her flesh and blood. It was human.
Gong Zhili tutted, "Tell me what you want, or I won't be polite."
"What a shame! I thought I'd run into Miss Mountain Demon." He rolled over and landed on the railing, the hem of his high school uniform stained with suspicious blood. The moment his toes touched the wood grain, a sudden suction force like the abyss came from the ground.
Gojo Satoru whistled, the cursed energy surging through his body draining away at a terrifying rate. It reminded him of the feeling of being sealed within the Prison Gate in his previous life. The difference was that this time, he could clearly hear the earth swallowing—like it was sucking, a creepy, inhuman sound.
"I suggest you don't move." Gong Zhili's eyes were calm, but she didn't dare to lift her hands from the ground. This person gave her a sense of danger. If it weren't for her rationality suppressing the instinctive alarm that made her hair stand on end, she would have called on the power of the entire village to help her. Even now, a large amount of cursed energy was transferred from this person to her own body, and her back still felt the pain of the blade cutting her, which made her words pale. "This land is very sensitive to abnormal forces."
"Abnormal?" Gojo Satoru deliberately stepped harder, causing the floor to vibrate with pleasure. "I'm obviously the most normal one..." He suddenly stopped, his nerves that hadn't slept for four days and three nights finally snapped. The image from his six eyes automatically analyzing the structure of the barrier began to double, and the world before his eyes began to change drastically.
Gong Zhili looked at the man covering his forehead. She noticed that there was an interested and twisted smile on the corner of his mouth, and the handsome face that was not covered by the blindfold was stained with madness.
"Hey," Gojo Satoru's voice suddenly came from very close, and the scent of mint candy brushed past her ears, "You are obviously a human, and your cursed power is ordinary, but the taste is--" His six eyes honestly reflected the moonlight flowing around the girl's body-cleaner than any human soul. After this glance, the six eyes stopped analyzing, and the world revealed another side in front of him.
The moment his six eyes stopped functioning, the world suddenly went haywire. Gojo Satoru blinked his aching right eye. The nanometer-precise particle analysis screens dimmed like a power-off screen. He removed his eyepatch and, for the first time, saw the person before him with normal vision—the night breeze whipped the girl's chestnut curls, and the moonlight shone across her pale green irises, creating ripples.
Gojo Satoru chuckled and leaned back. From this angle, he could clearly see the shadows cast by her eyelashes on her cheeks, like butterfly whiskers covered in gold powder.
Gojo Satoru allowed his vision to drift away, the last thing he could see was the dark pattern on the girl's pajamas—very similar to the pattern on Jie's yukata. This association made his stomach twist, and the bitter, sweet taste of the Kikufuku he had swallowed not long ago rose in his throat.
"Hey," he used his last bit of strength to pull away the wet hair stuck to his forehead, "the color of your eyes..." The night wind swept away the second half of the words. Before the darkness swallowed his consciousness, Gojo Satoru vaguely saw ripples like a moon halo appearing in the bottom of her eyes, like a clear pond with raindrops falling in the courtyard.
The earth sighed with a full stomach. Gojo Satoru was about to fall to the ground in the next second.
The gardenia tree outside the balcony suddenly made a sound. Although it had clearly passed its flowering period, white light like a galaxy poured down from its branches. The branches, as thick as bowls, immediately formed a hammock, and when it caught Gojo Satoru, dozens of double-petaled gardenias fell down, and the snow-white petals fell all over his chest.
The moonlight solidified between the branches, and Gojo Satoru's drooping wrists were gently wrapped around by the glowing flower vines. Gong Zhili looked at this very strong but also inexplicable man trapped in the sea of flowers. His tall figure was unexpectedly thin against the wildly growing branches and leaves. New branches emerged from under the bark and wrapped around Gojo Satoru's waist, and the flowers that bloomed were more dazzling than snow.
There was no way Gong Zhili would let him into her house. Having absorbed a large amount of magical energy, she felt that her memory was beginning to loosen. Tonight was a crucial night, so she could only use branches and flowers as a cage to trap him - in short, let's get some sleep first.
After all, she is the stronger person now.
"But gardenias...are so fragrant." Gong Zhili sneezed and closed the balcony door mercilessly.
The author has something to say:
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I'm gradually finding the feel for it! I can do this!
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