The mountains and forests were quiet, with only the occasional giggles of a woman and the responses of a man.
Xu Nuo lay on Li Xian's back, using her hand as an umbrella to shield him from the scorching sun in front of his brow bone.
Li Xian walked steadily and tilted his head back slightly: "Nuonuo, I'm not afraid of the sun, you don't need to shield me from it."
"Hmm~ I'll shield you from the sun." Her chin rested on his shoulder, and she wore a small sun hat on her head. Because her head was small, the hat was also smaller than usual.
Her little face under the straw hat was smiling sweetly, like honey.
Li Xian was fast on his feet and arrived in no time.
Unlike its initial state of disrepair, Li Xian's home has undergone significant changes.
The courtyard is filled with the fragrance of flowers and fruits, and the trees are lush and the flowers are vibrant.
The left side, against the mountain wall, is used to grow flowers and vegetables. All kinds of squash, pumpkin, and loofah are crowded on a row of trellises, growing in a frightening and peculiar way. The pumpkin vines climb from the innermost part to the outermost loofah trellis, and the round, yellow ones are piled together.
Moreover, they come in all sizes, from as small as a small ball to as big as a washbasin.
Xu Nuo ran over and poked a small pumpkin that had just grown that day with her fingertip. This one was the smallest, only the size of her two fists.
She exclaimed in surprise, "Wow, pumpkins can grow so fast!"
"Yes, pumpkins grow the fastest."
Li Xian was behind her, and his voice came from above.
Xu Nuo, who had never gone hungry, had no sense of cherishing food. Pointing to the round little pumpkin, she said, "I want to pick this one and play with it."
"Okay." Li Xian reached out his large hand, gently twisted it, and a round pumpkin appeared in his palm. He rolled it around in his palm, carefully pinched off the stem so it wouldn't prick him, and then placed it in Xu Nuo's hand, asking her, "What do you want to eat today?"
Xu Nuo casually pointed to a vegetable, and Li Xian rolled up his sleeves: "Okay, I'll go pick it."
The leafy greens were right next to the pumpkin trellis. Li Xianren was tall and skillful, and he accurately grabbed the tender heart of the greens in the middle, twisted it with his hand and picked it off, the tender shoots still covered with green juice.
Xu Nuo felt a warmth in her heart. Before, she would only pick out the tender shoots from the middle of the vegetables to eat, but now Li Xian was picking out the tender shoots for her to eat. Her gaze was quickly drawn to other things.
Under the pumpkin trellis lay a plump, round pumpkin, almost half the size of a table. Li Xian turned his head and glanced at the tiny person squatting there, who was smaller than the pumpkin. His eyes were full of smiles: "Nuonuo, there's an even bigger one."
She looked up blankly, her eyes wide: "Huh?"
Li Xian's lips curled up slightly, and his eyes seemed to hold a curved rainbow. He quickened his movements and said to her, "I'll take you to see it later."
"Okay." Xu Nuo stood up, holding the pumpkin, her little feet fidgeting uncontrollably, looking eager to see it.
Seeing this, Li Xian stopped what he was doing, clenched his fist with his fingertips stained with vegetable juice, and extended his wrist toward her: "Let's go."
Xu Nuo immediately hooked her arm around his and excitedly dragged him inside: "Hurry up, hurry up, I want to see the big pumpkin."
The yard was piled high with pumpkins, the bright orange ones almost forming a pumpkin wall, with the largest one taking up a whole corner.
Not only are they large, but they are also perfectly round, with carrot-red skin and bright green stems on top.
It has a pumpkin aroma.
It's not uncommon for pumpkins to grow to half a person's height. There are giant pumpkins in the United States, and the one grown by Swedish farmers is known as the world's largest, weighing 953 kilograms, which is much larger than a person.
But Li Xian planted ordinary small-sized pumpkins, which at most grew to the size of a basketball.
This pumpkin, which is half a person tall, would astound anyone who saw it.
So Li Xian moved the pumpkin to the yard, but hadn't figured out what to do with it.
Pumpkins grew the fastest, followed by fruit trees. After watering them with herbal water twice, the fruit tree dug up from the mountain seemed to have been injected with ripening agents, its branches and trunks grew wildly, and the fruit grew big and sweet.
Another advantage of growing fruits with herbal water is that they don't rot easily. Li Xian harvests a batch of melons every two or three days and piles them in the corner of the yard, and they don't show any signs of rotting.
Next to the pile of pumpkins was a pile of green apples.
Li Xian washed the largest one with cold water, and Xu Nuo took it, took a bite, and squinted her round eyes: "Sweet."
The apple tree was dug up from the mountains by Li Xian. Although the fruit it bore was edible, it was small, less sweet, and more sour.
The fruit nowadays is not only twice the size, but also crisper and sweeter, completely comparable to the apples sold in agricultural and sideline product stores. Plus, it doesn't require food coupons. If these were sold in the market, they would definitely be more popular than those in agricultural and sideline product stores.
"Li Xian, let's take them to the market and sell them."
Li Xian moved a chair over, lifted the person squatting on the ground onto the chair, and helped her remove her crooked little straw hat. Her hair was a little messy from the hat, and he patiently straightened it for her little by little.
"The pumpkins and fruits grow very quickly, and they might spoil if left to grow, so I've already had Duan San process a batch."
"Has Duan San come to our house?" she asked, looking up at him.
Li Xian paused, somewhat stunned.
She just said "home," not "your home." Doesn't that mean she already considers this her home?
Li Xian suddenly felt the sunlight was a bit too bright, blinked, and pressed her head down so she wouldn't look at him.
He lowered his voice and said, "Yes, Duan San came by."
Xu Nuo raised her head again, her face full of anticipation: "Did Duan San see what we planted?"
"I saw it."
Xu Nuo couldn't sit still any longer. She leaned her head back completely, resting it against him, and asked excitedly, "How was it? Did he find it amazing? Was he surprised? Was he delighted?"
Li Xian held her head, affectionately tapped the tip of her nose, and nodded with a smile: "Yes."
Duan San was more than just surprised.
He was both shocked and frightened.
That day, Li Xian asked him to come and help harvest the fruit. Duan San was afraid of being late for work, so he came early in the morning. However, instead of seeing Li Xian's bare and dilapidated house, he saw a paradise with abundant fruits and vegetables.
Pumpkins and loofahs grow in heaps, leafy greens are tall and green, and the worst part is...
Duan San rubbed his eyes.
Upon closer inspection, it was indeed a pumpkin about half a person's height, huddled together with the other pumpkins, and she cried out in alarm, "A pumpkin spirit!"
There's a long-standing rumor in the village that there are mountain spirits that grab doors, snatch people, and eat them, so almost no one dares to go into the mountains. Duan San went there a few times after following Li Xian, and now he thinks he's accidentally stumbled into the lair of some mountain demon.
"Old Immortal, Old Immortal, your disciple Duan Baiyun is kind-hearted, hardworking, and obedient to the Party... I've mistakenly entered your home, Old Immortal. I'll leave right now, I'll leave right now! Please spare my life, Old Immortal, I'll..."
The courtyard gate opened, and a tall man came out.
Duan San almost cried: "Brother Li."
Later, Duan San also chopped down the pumpkin that was half a person's height. He gritted his teeth and swung his sickle, saying, "You scared grandpa! You scared grandpa to death..."
Xu Nuo imagined Duan San's embarrassing moment and laughed so hard she bent over: "Duan San is actually called Duan Baiyun, hahaha, a grown man like him, and he's called Baiyun, hahahahaha."
Li Xian had known Duan San's name since childhood and didn't think there was anything wrong with it. Now, seeing Xu Nuo smiling like this, he also smiled and squatted down to support her.
Xu Nuo laughed until she was tired, then snuggled into his arms and wrapped her arms around his neck: "Li Xian, let's go to the mountains sometime and look for some good stuff."
Li Xian glanced at her and said cautiously, "I'll go, but you're not."
The memory of Xu Nuo getting lost in the mountains was still weighing heavily on Li Xian's mind.
Seeing that he disagreed, Xu Nuo shook his neck with a pained expression, her big, watery eyes looking at him sadly, on the verge of tears, and she used her coquettish skills to the fullest: "No, please take me with you, I really want to go, Li Xian~ take me, take me with you."
In the end, whatever Xu Nuo said went.
Xu Nuo happily gave him the remaining half, and he didn't mind that she had already eaten it, so he held it up to his hand and took a big bite.
...
Soak the bones to remove the blood, then put them in a pot of cold water to simmer.
Once the foam rises to the surface, skim it off completely with a spoon.
The resulting soup is rich and flavorful, without any gamey or fishy smell from the meat.
While Li Xian was looking after the soup, Xu Nuo was like a little butterfly, busy in the yard with water mixed with flower and grass. After watering for a while, she would hop over to the kitchen to take a look.
Li Xian grabbed her and touched Xu Nuo's forehead. Her smooth forehead was covered in a little sweat, and her fragrance was even stronger.
Li Xian said softly, "Are you tired? Come and have some water."
Xu Nuo came in to get water. She still had a patch of flowers to water. Slightly out of breath, she shook her head and said, "I'm not tired, I haven't finished yet."
The sun was blazing, and Li Xian helped her, who was suffering from heatstroke. He took a towel and wiped her sweat, saying, "I'll go water her later. You should rest for a bit. You've been running for half an hour."
The delicate girl, who usually gets breathless and complains of foot pain after walking just a few steps, was like she'd taken some kind of stimulant today, getting watered seven or eight times.
Xu Nuo smiled and opened her arms to hug Li Xian's waist, saying softly, "Okay, then I'll stay here with you."
He stroked her soft hair: "Okay."
Steam rose from the kitchen. Li Xian cut the washed loofah into small pieces and glanced at the person reading at the dining table.
The soft light from outside spilled onto her dark hair, most of which fell behind her, with a few strands occasionally slipping down her cheek.
Xu Nuo had just used her rubber band to tie the pumpkin stems, so now she could only leave it loose.
She reached up and tucked her hair behind her ear; the strands fell over her jade-like ear and then soon fell back down.
Before Xu Nuo could even move her hand, a pair of long, strong hands had already lifted the strands of hair by her cheek, their fingertips nimbly weaving through her hair.
Xu Nuo looked up and saw Li Xian with his eyes lowered, his face serious and focused.
Li Xian finished arranging her hair and looked at her. Her round almond-shaped eyes were shimmering with water, and her cheeks were adorned with three parts coquettishness and seven parts prettyness.
He was completely mesmerized.
A small, weak hand grabbed his collar and easily pulled him down.
The warm breath of Rulan landed on Li Xian's nose, a light, fleeting kiss, which should have been given in the warm midday sun.
His eyes were like burning coals, radiating heat.
He gently held the back of her head and deepened the kiss with tenderness and devotion.
.
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