separate
The cicadas chirped, and the children in the town looked worried. They didn't have much time to play outside, as school was about to start, and they could only do their homework carefully, like hens incubating their eggs.
Lin Shaocheng carefully counted the medicinal herbs he had collected over the past few months, his face gloomy, lacking the joy of returning home. His cousin, Li Xiangxi, was excited and said, "Finally, we can go home! We've been eating like crazy here. We want to drink soy milk and eat fried liver."
Lin Shaocheng bent down to sort out the local specialties he needed to take back: bamboo shoots, wild black fungus, wild mushrooms, loquats, and piles of them into different gift boxes.
Li Xiangxi frowned and said, "No matter how much you prepare, your family will only fawn over your brother. Why waste that money?" Lin Shaocheng gave him a cold look, and Li Xiangxi shut up and went back into the house, not daring to provoke his cousin.
Lin Shaocheng rode his bicycle, put the things he had bought on it, and wanted to see Li Guorong before leaving.
Hidden deep in the mountains, Mengshan Village is like a pearl nurtured by a scallop in the deep sea. From afar, one can feel the call of the primitive and wild.
Lin Shaocheng stood at the village entrance, gazing at this bright pearl for a long time. Perhaps it would have been better for him to leave without saying goodbye. Next time he was going to a more dangerous place, and not seeing him would have been a better farewell.
A child saw the stylish older brother at the door with a bicycle beside him and said to Li Guoliang, "Is that your brother-in-law?" Li Guoliang used his excellent farsightedness to observe carefully. He was so fashionable that he was definitely not a human trafficker. He was definitely his brother-in-law. He ran over, grabbed Lin Shaocheng's long legs, and screamed, "Brother-in-law, I want to ride the bicycle."
Lin Shaocheng couldn't help but smile. She really had the demeanor of an older sister. Her voice was so sweet that it could be heard from miles away. Then his smile faded. He had originally wanted to sneak away.
Several children were still watching with wide eyes, surrounding them. Lin Shaocheng had no choice but to take the pastry gift box off the back and let Li Guoliang hold it, saying, "I'll leave after I get you home. You can eat these pastries yourself." Li Guoliang opened the honey-glazed pastry and ate them one after another. The envious looks from the children below made him puff out his chest, and he couldn't hear what Lin Shaocheng was saying in Mandarin.
About 20 meters from the Li family's house, Lin Shaocheng helped Li Guoliang down and let him go back by himself, then got into his car and prepared to leave.
Li Guoliang grabbed Lin Shaocheng's long legs and shouted, "Second Sister, your boyfriend is running away!" His voice was so loud that it startled a flock of birds flying behind the mountain.
Li Guorong strode out of the house, carrying a bamboo stick, rambling on and on, preparing to give Li Guoliang a good beating with bamboo shoots and pork.
Lin Shaocheng's forehead was slightly sweaty, and he kept pulling his legs up, but he dared not use too much force and hurt Li Guoliang.
Li Guorong ran over. The younger brother's mouth was covered in sugar stains, and his dirty hands had stained Lin Shaocheng's pants. Lin Shaocheng had cigarettes, alcohol, several packets of snacks, and fabric and yarn hanging in front of him. Li Guorong blushed. Why was he in such a hurry? For the past two weeks, Lin Shaocheng had asked her out to the park, the movies, restaurants, and shopping malls, and his behavior had satisfied her. But he hadn't confessed his feelings to her yet. He hadn't come to her door to propose marriage, which she refused.
Hearing the commotion in the courtyard, Li Guojian quickly came out. The things in Lin Shaocheng's car caught his eye: a pack of Hongtashan cigarettes, a pack of Daqianmen cigarettes, a bottle of Luzhou Laojiao liquor, a bottle of Wuliangye liquor, and canned tea that looked very expensive. There were also four boxes of snacks in the back, one of which was still in his younger brother's mouth. In the cloth bag next to him were a batch of dark blue and a batch of floral Dacron fabric, as well as eight bundles of yarn, all in shades of pink.
Lin Shaocheng was pulled back by Li Guorong, looking embarrassed. He had wanted to sneak away, but Li Guoliang's shout had attracted everyone, making it even harder for him to leave. The neighbors around him came out to watch the commotion, and at this point, they couldn't refuse Li Guorong.
Lin Shaocheng parked the car, grabbed the snacks and gifts, and quickly followed Li Guoliang into the house. Li Guoliang closed the door, keeping his friends out. Onlookers paced back and forth at the door, hoping to hear even the slightest bit of news.
Upon entering the room, one is greeted by a somewhat old but still clean portrait of Chairman Mao. In the center of the room stands a square table, its paint slightly chipped but wiped clean. At the head of the table sits Wu Cuihua, her hair neatly styled and her posture ramrod straight, belying her height of less than 1.5 meters. To her left, Li Guoqiang stares intently at the wine on the table, lost in thought. Li Guolan looks at Li Guorong with a mixture of envy and worry. Li Guojian sits to the right, his smile revealing his teeth but not his eyes. Li Guoliang sits on a small stool nearby, licking the outer shell of a honey-glazed pastry.
Lin Shaocheng stood calmly in front of the table, completely unfazed by his earlier embarrassment. Li Guorong secretly glanced at her mother's expression. This was progressing quite quickly, much slower than her previous life when she had only gone on one blind date with Ye Fan before getting married. The engagement gifts on the table were at least three times more than Ye Fan's. Li Guorong smiled and straightened Lin Shaocheng's hem.
Wu Cuihua gave a forced smile. There was no matchmaker coming to propose marriage directly; it was rather impolite.
Lin Shaocheng said, "Since this is my first visit, I didn't know what to bring, so I only brought a small gift. I hope Auntie won't mind."
Li Guojian was taken aback. Such a generous gift was either for a marriage proposal or a casual visit.
Li Guorong asked in a low voice, "Who told you to buy it this way?"
Lin Shaocheng leaned closer and said, "I asked Old Li, and he told me how to buy it. Also, I have something to tell you."
Li Guorong gave an awkward smile and said, "Mom, that shop assistant was just trying to sell him something. We have something to discuss." Li Guorong then pulled Lin Shaocheng and ran to the back of the house.
The people in the room looked at each other. Li Guoliang pointed at the pastries on the table with his little finger and shouted, "I want to eat peach shortbread! I want to eat peach shortbread!" Li Guojian had already been swallowing hard. He took a honey pastry from his younger brother's hand, and the sweet taste spread from his mouth to his heart. He carefully looked at Wu Cuihua's face and muttered, "What are you eating? You're asking for a beating." Seeing his mother's expression, Li Guoliang didn't dare to make a fuss and obediently ate the pastry in his hand.
The stream flows downstream with a tinkling sound. The source of this stream is snowmelt from the Tianshan Mountains. The snowmelt melts in the summer, and the river enters its high-water season, when fish and shrimp are plentiful. In the winter, the river enters its low-water season, during which some small tributaries may even dry up.
Lin Shaocheng looked down at Li Guorong's crown of hair. He had heard that people with two crowns of hair were stubborn. His voice was faint and distant, not like his own. He said, "I'm going home."
Li Guorong looked up with delight, then his expression turned to astonishment, and he shouted, "What did you say?"
Lin Shaocheng spoke coldly again: "I'm going home. I may never come back here again."
Li Guorong raised his eyebrows and cursed, "You son of a bitch, you dare to play me for fools! When I asked you if you wanted to be my girlfriend, you agreed. Now you just dump me as soon as you get home."
Lin Shaocheng's thin lips parted slightly. "Dating" meant being in a romantic relationship? He only found out now. If he had known a day earlier, he wouldn't have agreed to his family's request. "I..."
Lin Shaocheng's face was pale, his lips were tightly pressed together, and his body swayed slightly, making it seem as if he was the one being bullied.
Li Guorong was furious when she saw this. Lin Shaocheng's appearance reminded her of Ye Fan in her past life, who couldn't even utter a fart. She slapped him and yelled, "What do you want to say?"
Lin Shaocheng's cheeks flushed slightly as he said, "I'm sorry, consider it my fault for letting you down."
He strode confidently, rode his bicycle away from the mountain village without looking back.
Li Guorong initially chased after him for a couple of steps, but eventually couldn't catch up and returned home. Li Guoliang ate his snacks until his teeth were almost invisible, and a strange anger welled up inside him. He slapped his younger brother on the head and angrily scolded, "All you do is eat, eat, eat! Maybe you've put some rat poison in there."
Seeing that her daughter was upset, Wu Cuihua quickly pulled Li Guorong into the house, closed the door tightly, and asked in a low voice, "What's wrong? Why didn't that young man come with us?"
Li Guorong couldn't help but burst into tears, "Mom, I was dumped. That pretty boy played with my feelings. He was my boyfriend for half a month, and then he said he was going home."
Wu Cuihua asked in a low voice, "You didn't do 'that' with him, did you?"
Li Guorong stopped crying and turned to look at his mother in astonishment. "Mom, in your heart am I really that shameless, sleeping with someone after only half a month?"
Wu Cuihua was relieved and said to Li Guorong, "Take this to him. We don't need these things. Mom will find you a better one in the village."
Li Guorong had no time to care about trivial matters; her mind was filled with the memory of Lin Shaocheng saving her under the moon, and all the little things that had happened in the past two weeks. She had no time to think about anyone else, so she turned around and went back to her room to lie down, not wanting to talk to anyone.
Wu Cuihua had no choice but to go out and ask Li Guoqiang and Li Guojian to return the items. Li Guoqiang looked reluctant, and Li Guojian was even more unwilling to return them. His younger sister had been dumped, and these compensations were what his family deserved. However, he couldn't fight against the powerful, so he had no choice but to take the items out.
Li Guoqiang stroked the bottles of cigarettes and alcohol. If these cigarettes and alcohol belonged to his family, he could go to Liu Hong's house to propose marriage. He sighed deeply.
Li Guojian's eyes darted around. Something was off with his older brother. He was usually never greedy for these things and would do whatever his mother said. Why was he so eager for them today? He couldn't help but ask curiously, "Brother, I think that kid doesn't want them anymore. Why don't we secretly hide them for him in our room?"
Li Guoqiang's eyes lit up at first, then he looked worried. He had always listened to his parents and dared not disobey them. But when he thought of Liu Hong's expectant eyes and the fact that he was already so old and still hadn't found a wife, he couldn't resist the temptation.
Li Guojian smiled ambiguously, "Big brother, you don't have someone you like, do you?"
Li Guoqiang's face turned red at first, then he pretended to be stern and said, "Don't talk about this to others. There was a girl, Liu Hong, whom we used to play with when we were little. Don't you remember her? She sprained her ankle that day, and I took her home. She said she would wait for me, but our family is not well-off. When I saw these things, I thought it would be good if we could keep them."
Li Guojian was overjoyed. His older brother was settled, so it was his turn. He raised his hands and feet to show his support. He said, "I think that kid must be rich. He's not from around here. He might have already left by now. Let's stay. We can just say that we bought these things with the money we earned from selling bamboo rats."
Li Guoqiang hesitated, his pace slowing down. He glanced at the grass-edged bracelet on his wrist and made up his mind, "Keep it."
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