Zhou Chenyu looked in the direction from which the pebbles had been thrown, but did not see the mischievous child. Instead, he saw Chen Tongsheng squatting on the bank, leaning on the basket, and laughing in their direction.
He was the one who threw the stone just now!
Zhou Wanqiu looked at him and exclaimed happily, "It's Brother Chen!"
"Late autumn, it's been a long time since we last met." Chen Tongsheng sat down and slowly fanned himself with his hat.
Zhou Wanqiu counted the days since she last ate roast chicken, her eyes crinkling into crescent moons as she smiled, "It's been almost a month."
Chen Tongsheng and Zhou Wanqiu chatted happily, showing no sign of regret whatsoever.
Zhou Chenyu wiped the water droplets from her face, straightened her back, glared angrily, and shouted, "If you've got the guts, get down here!"
Her shout made Chen Tongsheng laugh even harder. He had heard about Qian Rushan destroying the dessert shop, but he had been busy picking fruit in the orchard recently and hadn't had time to visit Zhoujia Village.
Seeing them picking river clams here, he was seized by a playful impulse and threw a pebble into the water.
Chen Tongsheng laughed and said, "Chenyu, I wanted to ask about your foot injury, but your voice sounds so strong, it seems I was overthinking it."
Zhou Chenyu scoffed, found a rock to sit on, soaked her feet, and said sullenly, "My foot injury is healed, but all the ways I finally found to make money have been blocked."
Seeing her worried expression, Chen Tongsheng frowned. "Qian Rushan is a real beast!"
He sat down among the bushes and said in a deep voice, "Chenyu, from now on, when you set up a stall at the market, feel free to tell me. I'll keep watch over you whenever I have a spare moment. With me there, let's see if Qian Rushan still dares to cause trouble. If he dares to touch a hair on your head or Baoyu's head, I'll deal with him!"
Chen Tongsheng was tall and muscular, and the muscles on his arms, exposed to the sun, looked so strong that he could kill Qian Rushan and his henchmen with a single punch.
Zhou Chenyu smiled, her anger subsiding. "With Brother Chen protecting me, I doubt Qian Rushan would dare to do anything to me. However, that was originally just a personal grudge between me and Qian Rushan, and it has nothing to do with you. If I drag you into it, it's hard to guarantee that Qian Rushan won't target you in the future."
“Others may fear money like a mountain, but I don’t. Since we’ve become sworn siblings, protecting you is what I should do. Besides, I always have to go to the market to sell fruit, so if we stay together, we can look after each other.”
Chen Tongsheng frowned, speaking with a serious expression.
Chen Tongsheng is a man of his word, and Zhou Chenyu believes that if he says it, he will definitely do it.
But money is like a stubborn plaster; once it sticks, you can't get rid of it. She didn't dare take the risk; debts of gratitude are the hardest things to repay.
She blinked and smiled gently, "Oh, autumn will be here soon. Once it gets cold, who will want to drink my sweet soup? I appreciate your kindness, brother."
Chen Tongsheng knew that Zhou Chenyu was always a girl with her own ideas and a strong sense of right and wrong. Since she didn't need him by her side, he didn't insist anymore.
Zhou Wanqiu sat on a rock, her toes dangling in the stream, her bright eyes wide open, listening quietly to the two talking without interrupting.
Chen Tongsheng glanced at her, thought for a moment, and said, "I see you two are so idle that you're picking river clams here. The plums in my orchard are all ripe. Do you want to come to my orchard to pick plums tomorrow?"
Plum?
Just hearing that made her envious, Zhou Chenyu couldn't help but swallow hard. "Do you want to go?"
"Yes." Zhou Wanqiu looked at the man on the shore with a big smile. "The plums are ripe this season. They'll taste both sour and sweet. They must be delicious."
Chen Tongsheng nodded happily, "Yes, if you get tired of eating plums, you can make plum wine. Put it in a jar for a few months, and in winter, you can stew the plum wine with free-range chicken. It tastes great, with a strong aroma of wine."
Seeing Zhou Wanqiu's unusually excited expression, Zhou Chenyu looked up at Chen Tongsheng and said shamelessly, "I made it clear beforehand that you invited us to pick the plums, so I'm not paying for them."
Chen Tongsheng glared and scolded, "You're my sister, how much silver could a few plums cost? I'll be waiting for you at the fruit tree hut first thing tomorrow morning."
"It's a deal!"
After collecting the river clams, it was nearly sunset. Zhou Chenyu and Zhou Wan carried their heavy baskets and went home separately.
The river clams we picked up still had dirt and mud on them, so they couldn't be eaten directly. They had to be soaked in clean water for a day or two.
These past few days, with Baoyu away from home, the mother and daughter have been eating little. They simply made some stir-fried eggs with chives and hot and sour cabbage. Zhou Chenyu told Li Xiuju about going to pick plums the next day, and the two chatted about everyday things for a while before going to bed.
The next morning, after having breakfast, Zhou Wanqiu took a basket and came early to meet up with Zhou Chenyu.
This time, they didn't need to go up the mountain to pick summer mushrooms, so they didn't need to cross mountains and ridges. Instead, they took a detour to the country road outside the village entrance, walked straight in the opposite direction to the market, climbed up a slope, and then turned onto the mountain road on the right. They could reach the fruit tree house by walking straight in.
At this time of year, most people are busy working in the fields, and very few people go into the mountains. Occasionally, you might encounter a few men scraping rosin along a stretch of road.
They stood shirtless under the pine tree, scraping the trunk. The surface of the trunk was scraped into striped V-shapes with a knife, and a bamboo tube was hung underneath with bamboo strips.
The areas where the knife had cut oozed out a sticky, yellowish-brown resin that flowed along the surface lines into the bamboo tubes. Once the tubes were full, they could be transported to the market to be sold and then made into tinderboxes or window screens.
The pine needles piled up under the trees are a valuable fuel because they are covered with resin and pine needles. When villagers go up the mountain to cut firewood, they will take a cloth bag full of them and bring it home.
Zhou Chenyu remembered that there wasn't much pine shavings left in the kitchen, and she thought to herself, "When the weather gets cooler, I can come here to collect some more pine shavings."
Zhou Wanqiu nodded in agreement, "Sister Chenyu, call me, I'll go with you."
Looking at her younger sister, Zhou Chenyu noticed she was starting to resemble a little shadow. Compared to Baoyu, that mischievous boy, she was much better off with a well-behaved and sensible younger sister. She smiled willingly and said, "Okay, I'll call you along, we'll go together."
"good!"
They followed the scent of pine resin to Chen Tongsheng's fruit tree hut. Chen Tongsheng heard the black dog barking wildly and knew that they had arrived. He quickly went out to greet them, saying, "We've been waiting for you!"
Zhou Chenyu patted the basket on his back and raised an eyebrow, teasingly saying, "Brother Chen, in order to make this trip worthwhile, I'm definitely going to come back with a full load. Don't go back on your word then."
"I'm not worried about you leaving with a full load of plums, I'm just afraid you won't be able to pick them all," Chen Tongsheng said with a smile, then led the way ahead, "Come with me quickly."
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