In the summer, the Daci Temple is full of ancient trees and refreshing breezes, but it can never compare to the quiet and beautiful backyard of the Dou family. But for a lady like Dou Pinyi who rarely goes out a few times a year, everywhere is fun and full of fun.

She took Wu Ya's hand and pointed to a fake stone not far away and said, "Look, does it look like a girl waiting to be dressed?"

Wu Ya glanced at it disinterestedly and said, "That's Lingbi stone. Small pieces are fine for decoration, but Taihu stone should be placed next to the bamboo forest!" After saying that, her eyes fell on Dou Zhao and Dou Pinshu who were walking in front of them.

The two of them were whispering to each other, mostly Dou Pinshu was talking and Dou Zhao was listening. Occasionally Dou Zhao answered her, and she giggled like a naive girl of seven or eight years old.

How heartless!

Wu Ya muttered in her heart.

Dou Pinyi was a little unhappy: "Wu Ya, what's wrong with you? You have a stern face all day long, and you always respond coldly to everything I say. If you look down on a rural place like Daci Temple, just say it directly. It's really disappointing that you don't have a single nice word to say!" As he said that, he shook off Wu Ya's hand.

"Hey, I'm not mad at you." Wu Ya hurriedly pulled Dou Pinyi's hand to save her, but she couldn't say that she was jealous of Dou Zhao, so she could only say, "I just think the weather is too hot. Walking around like this makes me sweat through my clothes. It's very uncomfortable."

"Not bad!" Dou Pinyi looked at the lush branches and leaves above her head. "Why do I feel that it is much cooler here than at home?"

"Maybe I'm just too afraid of the heat!" Wu Ya said perfunctorily, and quickly changed the subject, "I met your fifth aunt in Kyoto."

"Really?" Dou Pinyi had always longed for Kyoto. Her father, Dou Guangchang, did not help the family and had no official title, so her chances of going to Kyoto were slim. So when she heard that something happened in Kyoto, she immediately asked with great interest, "How is she?"

"I got married in Hege's hometown, and I met her when I went to the wedding with my mother." Wu Ya said, "She lives in her grandmother's house. She is almost as tall as me, speaks in a delicate voice, and smiles like a pair of pears. She gets along well with the sisters in the He family. When she saw me, she greeted me politely. She seems to be quite nice."

Dou Pinyi was stunned and said, "Isn't my seventh uncle's house in Jing'an Temple Hutong? Why is she living in her grandfather's house? Where is her mother? She doesn't live with her?"

"I heard that Madam Wang likes her very much," Wu Ya said, "and she must keep her by her side. Her mother looks a little haggard and seems to be in poor spirits." Then she whispered to Dou Pinyi, "I heard a lady at the banquet say that she couldn't give birth to a son, and she didn't allow your seventh uncle to take a concubine."

Dou Pinyi was shocked.

Wu Ya hurriedly said: "Don't tell anyone else!"

"I know, I know!" Dou Pinyi nodded repeatedly, "If my mother heard me say such words, she would beat me to death."

Wu Ya breathed a sigh of relief.

Dou Pinyi looked at Dou Zhaohao who was watching bamboo with Dou Pinshu in front of him and hesitated for a while: "Seventh aunt, do you think we should tell Fourth aunt about this?"

"Why tell her?" Wu Ya hurriedly stopped him, "What if she tells your great-grandmother?"

Too.

Dou Pinyi nodded, and when he looked at Dou Zhao again, there was a little more sympathy and pity in his eyes.

Dou Zhao, however, did not notice and chatted with Dou Pinshu along the way while climbing up the small hill where an octagonal pavilion was built behind the Dasi Ci Temple.

Dou Zhengchang and his friends had arrived early. A dozen or so boys aged eight or nine were there, either tidying up the stone tables and benches, or lighting a small red clay stove, or fiddling with pens, ink, paper, and inkstones, or playing Go.

Seeing Dou Zhao dragging Dou Pinshu into the pavilion, Wu Shan looked at Wu Ya and Dou Pinyi, who were being supported by two servants and fell halfway, and smiled as he handed them a lotus leaf cup with azure glaze: "Try it, this is the aged plum blossom snow water collected by the abbot of Daci Temple."

Dou Zhao refused to take it and said with a smile, "You gave it to me to drink. What did you use to make tea?"

Wu Shan turned around to look at Dou Zhengchang and others who were talking together, winked at her, and whispered, "It's just one cup, they don't know."

Dou Zhao tried to hold back his laughter, but Dou Pinshu beside him snatched the lotus leaf cup away from him. She said angrily, "You guys are pushing and shoving each other, and there's someone standing next to you with a grudge!" After that, she drank the snow water in small sips, then took a long breath and said, "It feels so good!"

Wu Shan and Dou Zhao looked at each other and couldn't help laughing.

The laughter startled Dou Qijun, who walked over quickly and asked, "What are you laughing at?"

Wu Shan winked at Dou Pinshu and said, "It's nothing, it's nothing, Sister Shu just told a joke."

Dou Pinshu looked at the empty cup in her hand and grinned at Dou Junqi.

Wu Ya and Dou Pinyi finally climbed up. Wu Ya saw the gentle smile on her brother's face, and her heart was filled with sourness. She called out "brother" coquettishly, "I'm so tired!"

"That's why I told you not to come!" Wu Shan said without mercy, "Fourth sister walks around the East Cross Courtyard several times every day and helps Aunt Cui weed and catch insects. How can you compare to fourth sister?"

Wu Ya was so angry that tears welled up in her eyes.

Dou Zhao stepped out to smooth things over: "We are all thirsty. Isn't the tea ready yet?"

The boy from Wu Shan's family came trotting over with a teacup in his hand: "All right, all right, Fourth Miss, all right!" He looked up and saw Wu Ya and the others, was stunned for a moment, then ran back with the teacup in his hand.

Everyone looked at him in confusion.

He took a few cups of tea and trotted over, saying with sweat on his forehead, "Master, Miss, please have some tea."

Everyone burst into laughter.

The atmosphere became cheerful.

Dou Zhao and several other girls were sitting on bamboo mats in the pavilion drinking tea. Dou Qiguang was painting the hills and forests in the distance. Gradually, Dou Zhengchang, Dou Pinyi and others were attracted over there.

Wu Ya was wondering whether she should go over and take a look when she saw her brother coming over.

"Fourth sister, what have you been doing these days?" He sat next to Wu Ya. "I will go to Kyoto with mother and Ah Qi at the end of this month. We may not be back until after the New Year. Do you have any letters or things for me to bring to Uncle Qi?" His attitude was open and natural.

Dou Zhao smiled and said, "Normally, people from my family often go to Kyoto, and there's nothing special to bring with them."

Wu Shan said, "Is there anything I can bring back? Whenever there are temple fairs at Daxiangguo Temple and Baiyun Temple in Kyoto, people from all over the world gather there, and they sell all kinds of things."

"I can't remember what I'm missing," Dou Zhao said with a smile, "If I remember, it won't be too late to let Fourth Brother Wu take care of it."

Wu Shan asked, "I heard from Aunt Six that you planted lotus in a pot. How do you plant it? Can it survive?"

When talking about his favorite things, Dou Zhao's smile was particularly bright, and his voice became soft and full of patience: "I grow water lilies. Have you seen it? It is very similar to the lotus, but the leaves and flowers of the lotus are exposed above the water, while the water lily floats on the water. It is very common in Jiangnan, but we grow fewer of them here. I just tried to grow it this year..."

"Really?" Wu Shan's eyes widened, "There is such a way to plant flowers..."

Wu Ya, who was sitting between them, suddenly stood up and pointed at Wu Shan and started to talk: "There are two water lilies planted in our backyard, one of which is the White Fairy. Haven't you seen it? You killed the White Fairy, and your grandfather got angry, but your great-grandfather protected you and only let you copy the Three Character Classic ten times. You, you dare to say that you don't know what water lilies are!"

The pavilion was suddenly as quiet as if it had been eternity, with only the sound of wind blowing through clothes.

"I really didn't know that was a water lily!" Wu Shan's eyes were as clear as spring water. "Isn't that the flower you're talking about the Meridian Flower?" He patted his head in a daze and looked at Dou Zhao and said, "Could it be that the water lily you're talking about is the Meridian Flower?"

Dou Zhaoshi couldn't help himself, so he turned around and laughed silently.

Wu Ya's face turned red and white, and she turned around and ran out of the pavilion.

Wu Shan hurriedly chased after her and stopped his sister under a big tree. He asked sternly, "Why do you dislike the fourth sister of the Dou family?"

"I, I..." Wu Ya's tears immediately welled up, "I am your sister!" As she said this, she burst into tears loudly.

Wu Shan was stunned. After a while, he took out a handkerchief to wipe Wu Ya's tears and said softly, "Silly sister, when have you not been my sister? You are not only my sister, but you will always be my good sister and my most beloved sister. But just because you are my sister, I can't be good to you all the time. Think about it, isn't this the truth?" He added, "Look, I'm very happy that you're back. I specially asked someone to bring you a Western-style wall watch from the shop of Ji's family in Zhending Prefecture. I didn't give it to the four brothers of the Dou family. "Sister, buy it for me, right? That's because you like it. The fourth sister of the Dou family likes those pens, ink, paper and inkstone, so I bought a box of white fans for the fourth sister of the Dou family, but I didn't buy any for you, right?" He said, taking off the folding fan hanging from his waist and opening it, "Look, the fourth sister gave me and Zhi'er a folding fan each, but you, I gave you so many good things, but you didn't give me anything!" Then he shouted, "I tell you, if you do this again, I will only give things to the fourth sister in the future, and never give you anything again."

Wu Ya looked at Wu Shan with tears in her eyes: "Really?"

Wu Shan said seriously: "Really!"

Wu Ya lowered her head.

Wu Shan said, "Go and apologize to the fourth sister of the Dou family." He then muttered to himself, "I gave you so many things, but what did you give me? But the fourth sister, when I gave her a small gift, she knew to give me something in return... and she even said that I was not good to you... When you were a child, I always took the blame for your misfortunes! Why are you becoming less and less likable as you grow older..."

Wu Ya glared at her brother fiercely, and thinking about how good his brother had been to her in the past, her growing jealousy towards Dou Zhao was somewhat reduced.

Dou Qijun saw the Wu brothers and sisters coming over and said with a smile, "Okay, okay, don't stand here and watch the fun. Go eat some watermelon. If you don't eat it, it will get as hot as the rocks outside in the sun."

When he left home, Dou Dechang used ice to freeze two watermelons and brought them up the mountain.

Dou Pinyi and Dou Pinshu were still confused, but they didn't think much about it amid the laughter of Dou Dechang and others. They sat at the stone table or on the beauty's chair waiting to eat watermelon.

Wu Ya blushed, walked up to Dou Zhao and whispered, "It's all my fault. I shouldn't have lost my temper."

Dou Zhao looked up in surprise and saw Wu Shan's sparkling eyes.