Melon Field Shoes
The two dogs barked and barked non-stop.
The children passing by in the village stared curiously at the dogs chattering by the pond. Turning around, they found that two old men were confronting each other not far away.
The summer in Xiaohe Village is so lively!
The village chief was sitting in the Gui family's courtyard, blowing his mustache with a serious expression.
"Gui, this young general from the Ren family will be staying in Xiaohe Village for a few more days. You have to give me a definite answer. Our Xiaohe Village is already home to the legendary Gui family, and we dare not delay other families."
Uncle: "Boss Huang, you don't treat our Gui family as human beings."
The village chief opened his mouth and took a bite of the watermelon.
"You know the reason best. Back then, General Ren came to our village for a short stay and taught my son some self-defense techniques, then tricked him into going to the border defense." Fifty-year-old Village Chief Huang was furious, his attitude towards the capture of Xigua being the same as towards the Ren family. "I don't care. When I see General Ren's face, I think of his father, and when I think of his father, I think of my son."
"Hey." My uncle held his forehead and said, "But why do I feel that you are actually very satisfied with this, this son-in-law of our family?"
Whoever makes the proposal must provide evidence.
Let me first talk about the day when a pitch-black horse emerged from the clouds. Ren Beixi held the reins with one hand and held Guiyao against his heart with the other hand. This scared his aunt who was still looking for mushrooms on the other side of the mountain, and she hurriedly took the horse back home.
Besides, Ren Beixi had asked his subordinates to help plant rice in Xiaohe Village these days, which accelerated the farming progress of Xiaohe Village by at least half a month and saved the villagers from being sunburned during the hot summer.
"The watermelon you're talking about was brought from Xianyu City by his order," said my uncle, smiling. "Not to mention that General Ren is taking much better care of my daughter Yaoyao now than you did back then."
The village chief took another bite.
"You're talking like there's no watermelon in anyone's house... And, which eye of yours saw that I didn't love Guiyao?"
He turned his head and saw two dogs, one black and one yellow, coming back with their tails wagging. His own dog, the yellow one, had light red watermelon juice in its mouth.
Da Huang: "Woof woof! Woof woof woof woof!! Woof woof! Woof woof woof woof?"
Village Chief: "...What are you talking about?"
Uncle: "Oh, even dogs know. When Guiyao was seventeen years old, she was sitting on the stone bridge at the entrance of the village early in the morning and scared you. Then you thought she was a ghost and shoveled her into the water with a broom. If it weren't for little Dahuang coming to tell us in time, she would have been sick for ten days or half a month."
Village chief: "Come to think of it, I haven't seen Guiyao since she came back. Haha, I'll go see her."
Now? No way!
So Dahuang took the village chief away.
On the way home, the village chief touched the dog's head and walked forward with his back straight. After walking a few steps, he turned his head and saw Dahuang looking at him. After walking a few steps, he felt that Dahuang was looking at him again. He felt a little annoyed by the stare, so he had to pant, straighten the wooden crutch, and walk slowly.
It was only when I got to the door that I saw a dead pigeon.
Da Huang nodded with his thick claws, and the village chief had no choice but to bury the pigeon again. In the summer, who knows how many flying birds will die in the heat, and who knows how many this silly dog will bring back.
Dogs don't understand human language.
He always felt that it was useless to talk too much to the dog.
The old man is gone, his wife is gone, his son is gone, and it seems that the only relatives left by him are the villagers of Xiaohe Village and this silly dog named Huang.
The village chief suddenly recalled the appearance of the young lady from the Gui family. When she was older, she was always thin and weak, sitting alone somewhere in the village.
By the pond, next to the big tree.
Everyone in the village kept an eye on her, and it was their common secret that they wholeheartedly protected the young lady of the Gui family.
When Dahuang was still a puppy, Guiyao often came to his house to play. Sometimes the village chief was busy and would turn around to see the pretty girl sitting on his chair and eating a pancake.
She couldn't speak and her eyes seemed to be without light.
The village chief had seen people who had been mentally retarded since childhood, but this was the first time he had seen someone as quiet as Gui Yao.
When news of General Ren's death reached the village, everyone was in a state of bewilderment. The village chief was also surprised that his own son, Dalang, who had followed General Ren into the army, had returned.
My own Dalang is visibly strong.
He told me that after he went to the north, he was appreciated by General Ren and had made several military achievements. Now he was returning with Captain Zheng from the army to visit his relatives in Xiaohe Village.
When he came back, he saw the dog his father had adopted and couldn't help laughing: "Dad, how could such a well-behaved dog be responsible for protecting the village?"
same.
He also learned that the young lady Gui in the village had finally woken up from her dream.
The night is long like a star.
Gui Yao sat in the yard, holding a piece of watermelon that was bigger than her face and started to eat it.
She learned from her uncle that the village chief had been there, and she also remembered the person she had met once.
At that time, she had just traveled to Xiaohe Village and was unfamiliar with everything, yet curious about everything.
She knew that someone in the village had returned from the war, so she leaned over to take a look from afar, but she couldn't see what the man looked like. However, she didn't sleep well at night, so she climbed out the window in the middle of the night and saw a young man standing in the melon field on a moonlit night.
She was startled.
The boy seemed to recognize her and waved at her.
Gui Yao had no choice but to walk over reluctantly. The temperature difference was quite large on a summer night. Her original intention was to come out to get some water to drink, so she just put on a thin shirt and came out.
"Don't you recognize me?" The boy bent down and looked at her with a smile.
Gui Yao shook her head, paused, and nodded: "Are you the eldest son of the village chief? The one who came back from the north?"
"It's me, my name is Huang Shiyu." He curled his eyes.
The city is full of catkins, and it rains when the plums are yellow.
Gui Yao read it out subconsciously and looked up at him: "It's a nice name. I didn't expect the village chief to have such a literary side."
Huang Shiyu's smile widened: "My mother gave it to me."
"Your name was also given by your mother." He stopped talking after that, as if waiting for Gui Yao to ask him.
Gui Yao felt a little helpless and bit her lower lip lightly: "Sorry, I can't remember what happened before."
She sat quietly on the swing under the tree, stretched her legs and swung, looking up at the crescent moon in the sky with a somewhat unnatural look, as if wondering, is the modern moon like this at this moment? The wind lifted her up, and she swung a little tiredly, and she didn't think about it anymore.
"I'm leaving Xiaohe Village tomorrow."
Gui Yao looked up, somewhat puzzled.
"Why?"
Huang Shiyu squatted down, lifted the fat Tusong dog from the melon field and showed it to Guiyao.
"Do you recognize it?"
Guiyao: "Dahuang, I recognize him."
Huang Shiyu smiled and told her a story. He said that the north was much colder than here, and there would still be snow even in summer. There were also grasslands and mountains there.
"I know."
Gui Yao suddenly shut her mouth, as if she shouldn't know.
Dahuang was circling around the swing. The underage little Tusong had soft fur and looked like a big caramel-colored marshmallow. Huang Shiyu noticed her gaze and called Dahuang back.
"I'm leaving Xiaohe Village tomorrow."
He looked at Guiyao and repeated it again.
The swing slowly stopped, and Guiyao stood up and said seriously, "It's bitterly cold in the north, take care."
Huang Shiyu smiled. He was only in his twenties, but he had also experienced the epidemic when he was young and was protected by the Gui family.
Now it seems that he has only forgotten that glance. The little girl Gui who secretly followed him to beg for melons has grown up to this age.
The young man suddenly remembered something: "Do you know the young general of the Ren family?"
Guiyao shook her head again.
"General Ren died in battle. Now I am serving under General Ren. General Ren followed my father into battle when he was just a young man. I admire him."
After Huang Shiyu finished speaking, he casually opened a watermelon from the ground and handed it to Guiyao. Guiyao wanted to say something to him, but he drove her away, saying that it was too late and he would not feel at ease until he saw her return to her room. She had no choice but to return to the yard with the watermelon.
Water is unpredictable, flowers are ephemeral, but we will meet again.
But life grows in separation.
Guiyao recalled that year, under the moon, Huang Shiyu described Ren Beixi like this:
"As solitary and reserved as a righteous man."
Under the same moon, she ate a piece of melon, feeling depressed. Ren Beixi, who was sitting next to her, seemed to have sensed something and put away the last curve of his pen.
The pigeon flew away with the ciphertext on the letter.
Gui Yao: "After the great victory in the North, will the soldiers be sent home? It's been almost three months. Did they leave some soldiers to guard the border?"
Ren Beixi: "The garrison troops will remain to guard the north, and those with families will be sent back home in batches. The elite troops will be counted in the war."
She looked at the melon rind.
Finally, I looked at the crescent moon in the sky.
History always records very few side stories. In her previous life, Gui Yao was born in a prosperous motherland, which gave her the opportunity to glimpse the ups and downs of the great journey over the past three thousand years through various books and records.
Same skin, same text.
The two worlds are very similar.
She often forgets that this is a completely imaginary dynasty, where systems can be created and where she can understand the thoughts of small animals, although it seems that she is the only one who possesses these.
Now, the side quest of Xiaohe Village has been unlocked, but the system's voice no longer appears in irrelevant places.
What is Guiyao’s main mission now?
She doesn't understand.
"Unhappy?"
Ren Beixi's voice was light.
He saw Gui Yao changed her sitting position to hug her knees, her slender wrists turned a little red due to his actions, and she just nodded.
Guiyao suddenly began to sing: "A small fan brings a gentle coolness, the long summer days stretch on, the clear stream rushes fast, no matter the green mountains in the way, the bright moon, the green wind, I, my hometown, has no such sounds."
The girl's voice is sweet.
Because it comes from the heart, it is not boring.
Ren Beixi put away the paper and inkstone, lowered his eyes and extinguished the candle in the yard. Only endless stars and moths flying into the flame in front of someone's door remained.
He thought of the soldiers in the army. Most of them were garrison troops in the north with the Ren family, and the rest were conscripts during the bitter battle three years ago. He remembered that a fellow townsman from Xianyucheng who he could call by name once talked to him and said that the most beautiful homesickness poem he had ever heard was written by the elder brother of the Ren family.
Ren Beixi didn't miss home in the north.
But suddenly I understood why others missed home so much.
Perhaps it was the distant relatives who were conveying his longing, or perhaps it was thinking of his young wife at home who was quietly singing a song of longing as she saw him off.
Guiyao stopped singing.
She couldn't remember many poems about homesickness, and she knew it was strange that she still missed her hometown even though she was there.
She secretly turned her head and glanced back.
She saw the man looking at her with his back straight. The things on the table had been put away long ago. He just stared at her intently with cold eyes, which made her face hot.
"You're not going to sing anymore?"
"You still want to hear?"
Gui Yao turned the stool around and looked at Ren Beixi with her back. The man's Adam's apple rolled: "Then take a rest."
Thinking of the man's big hand holding her small hand and rubbing it in the afternoon, Guiyao's ears turned red as if they were about to bleed. But at this moment, she was picked up by the man, so she could only struggle to look upwards with misty eyes, and her moist red lips unconsciously opened slightly.
Let me go...
Guiyao struggled again. The village was quiet and she didn't dare to make any noise. It was also troublesome to get water. It was late at night. She tried to persuade for a long time but it was useless. She bit her lip and didn't want to pay attention to anyone.
"Who said they would treat me well?"
Ren Beixi said in a deep voice: "It's me."
The next morning, Ren Beixi went to see the village chief and discussed the matter of building a house in the mountains. There was a waterfall and a wild hot spring there, but because the mountains and forests were quite dangerous, the villagers rarely set foot there.
Village chief: "Didn't you say you wanted to go back to the city?"
Ren Beixi: “Yeah.”
Ren Beixi: "I won't go back for now."
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