Chen Wang was lost in thought and couldn't help but drift into a daze.
After Qingyin and Madam Lin finished discussing the rent, they saw the young master who had been following her blankly standing in the courtyard.
He raised an eyebrow slightly. "Brother Chen?"
The boy didn't react. Qingyin walked to his side, pressed her lips to his ear, and asked:
"Is Brother Chen unhappy because I raised the rent?"
Warm breath pressed against his ear, a ticklish sensation arose, but Chen Wang turned his head away in a flustered and embarrassed manner.
Did Ayin just say something? He hadn't heard it at all. Should he ask Ayin again? Chen Wang thought frantically.
Qingyin raised an eyebrow and chuckled. It was quite fun to tease the puppy when you were bored. When he smiled, there was a hint of flirtatiousness in the boy's eyes, which made Chen Wang even more afraid to look at him.
"So, Brother Chen, are you angry because I raised the rent?"
His tone was somewhat somber, as if he were heartbroken.
"Ah, no, of course not." This time Chen Wang heard clearly, but he was extremely flustered and hurriedly explained without caring about his previous emotions.
"I... I just saw that there were quite a lot of walnuts on that walnut tree, and I wanted to pick some to try later."
"Besides, Mrs. Lin is an ordinary citizen, and it's not easy for her to earn money. We should pay whatever we owe, which is good for her and for me as well."
Seeing Chen Wang almost crying from fright as he explained, Qingyin took pity on him and let him go.
"Oh, I see."
Qingyin smiled and said, "There happens to be a tool for cracking walnuts in the corner of the yard. Brother Chen, you can give it a try."
"Okay." Chen Wang was captivated by her smile and walked foolishly to the long pole that looked like a tool for cracking walnuts.
Having never seen the tools used by ordinary people before, the young master carefully examined the object in his hands behind Qingyin's back. How do you pick walnuts with this stick? Do you just hit them?
The bewildered young master's mind was blank, but looking at Qingyin behind him, Chen Wang gritted his teeth and decided to give it a try.
The first time, the young master, holding a long stick to hit walnuts, swung it directly at Qingyin, and the target and the small walnuts perfectly missed each other.
Chen Wang blushed.
Qingyin didn't laugh, afraid of burning the proud young master's face.
The second time, Chen Wang studied the position of the walnut, aimed at the fruit, and hit it, but with too much force. The walnut fell into the opposite yard in the direction the stick came from.
Chen Wang was dumbfounded.
Is it really so difficult for young master Chen to pick a walnut?
Chen Wang got angry and studied the tools in his hand and the position of the walnuts even more carefully.
Qingyin watched the young master intently working with the walnut-picking tool and decided not to disturb him any further.
She planned to tidy up the bedroom first, and put in the bedding she had bought.
Qingyin went inside; there wasn't much food in the kitchen yet.
Today's meal is destined to be eaten out with the young master.
Qingyin thought for a moment, then walked out of the house.
Just then, Chen Wang came down with more than a dozen fruits. "Ayin, look!"
The young master, with his rosy lips and white teeth, wore a brocade robe that was stained with leaves and dirt, while the hem of the robe held dozens of walnuts that he had painstakingly harvested.
Like a puppy seeking encouragement from its owner for making progress.
"Hmm, impressive." Qingyin smiled; the young master was indeed very hardworking.
Upon receiving Qingyin's praise, Chen Wang was overjoyed, radiating a sense of happiness. The pain in his hands from being rubbed by the stick disappeared, and his eyes stopped blurring. To put it bluntly, he was like a little puppy blinded by encouragement.
"Ah Yin, are you hungry? I see there's still water in the tub. I'll wash up first and bring it to you."
Qingyin nodded: "Okay."
You can eat a walnut first.
However, Qingyin did not expect that the first thing the young master did after washing the walnuts was to open his mouth and take a bite. Her attempts to stop him were unsuccessful.
"etc……"
"Ah!" The young master, his mouth full of bitterness, covered his mouth in pain and quickly spat it out.
Qingyin had just finished saying what she hadn't finished earlier: "You can't eat the walnuts yet. The walnut is actually the flesh inside the fruit. You have to remove the outer skin before you can eat the walnut inside."
"So, Brother Chen, you don't know this is a walnut?"
The young master looked at Qingyin with a puzzled expression and said aggrievedly, "I thought this was also a kind of fruit called walnut, which can be eaten directly."
Qingyin chuckled and took out a dagger from her sleeve. It was given to her by Hongniang for self-defense. She lowered her head, her slender fingers holding a green walnut in her hand, which made her fingers look even whiter. She made a few light cuts with the dagger and twisted her fingers to reveal the walnut hidden inside.
Chen Wang then saw that the walnuts inside looked similar to those at home. His face flushed red from his earlier foolish act, but his eyes were unconsciously fixed on Qingyin's hand.
Ah Yin, everything about you is so beautiful, and your fingers are so pretty too, but they're so small, they feel like they're half the size of his hands.
As Chen Wang drifted off into thought, a sense of unease crept in as Qing Yin continued to speak.
Qingyin tapped the walnut in her hand, revealing the kernel inside. She gently peeled off the thin skin with her fingers, revealing the snow-white walnut meat. "Brother Chen, when you eat walnuts, you should also be careful to peel off this outer skin. These fresh walnuts haven't been dried, so the skin is bitter. You can peel off this skin before eating."
As she spoke, Qingyin handed the dagger in her hand to Chen Wang.
"Oh, okay." Chen Wang tried hard to look away from Ayin's fingers and picked up the dagger to crack open his walnuts.
But the young master, who had never learned martial arts, was obviously not as skilled as Qingyin. He easily cracked the walnuts. Qingyin looked at his hand, which was ninety percent likely to be injured, sighed, and took the walnuts and dagger from his hand.
"Brother Chen, let me open it for you."
My finger accidentally touched Chen Wang's finger. Chen Wang answered blankly, but the spot that had just been touched felt like it was on fire, burning hot, and his heart was beating faster.
While Qingyin was cracking open the walnuts, Chen Wang hurriedly turned around, lowered his head and sniffed lightly. The spot that Ayin had touched seemed to have also been tainted by its owner's fragrance, a faint scent of wood and grass, as warm as the afternoon sun shining on the grass and trees, and very fragrant.
A hint of infatuation flashed in Chen Wang's eyes.
But the next second, he reverted to his innocent and naive young master persona in front of Qingyin.
"Thank you, Ain."
"It's alright." Qingyin placed the cracked walnuts into his palm.
The small, clean, white walnuts were adorably small in Chen Wang's hand, but he had no desire to eat them and only wanted to secretly hide them away.
This was the first thing Ah Yin had ever given him, and he couldn't bear to eat it just like that.
Qingyin looked at Chen Wang, who hadn't moved for a long time, with a puzzled expression: "Aren't you going to eat?"
"Eat, it's delicious." Chen Wang grinned, revealing eight clean white teeth, and took a walnut into his mouth. He chewed it seven or eight times before swallowing it, and then licked his lips in lingering enjoyment.
"Ayin is so nice."
Qingyin glanced at Chen Wang, who was smiling happily, and said, "Brother Chen is very good too."
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