Chapter 67
Shu Wanxiu carried all the things she had bought and went into the kitchen with her head down.
As she stepped into the kitchen, her shoulders relaxed.
Last winter, after a period of heavy snow around the winter solstice, there were a few more snowfalls, but not many, and there was basically no snow accumulation.
So she often went into the mountains to collect firewood later on.
There has always been an ample supply of firewood, and the walls of the kitchen, which were built with stacked firewood, have remained exactly as they were last winter because no one wanted to tear them down.
It can both shield her from the wind and rain, as it does now, and also block a large part of her view.
She put everything down with a clatter, then took out the fatty meat and pork bones and placed them on the stove.
The remaining cloth and grass seeds should be placed in the bedroom and the main room respectively.
She looked up and glanced quickly into the woods outside, but couldn't see anything clearly. She gritted her teeth and decided not to go out.
"Shouyi, your aunt is giving you the key to the room. Take this to the bedroom and put this in the main room."
"Okay!" Shu Shouyi patted his chest and assured her, "Don't worry, Auntie, I'll definitely get it done!"
This is the tone of voice I often use when speaking to Pang Changle from Aunt Chen's family.
That child is quite cheerful and outgoing. Lately, Shu Wanxiu often goes down the mountain to look at the water and often lets Shu Shouyi play with him.
Gradually, the honest and taciturn Shu Shouyi also developed a more cheerful demeanor in his actions and speech.
That bag of grass seeds was quite heavy for someone of his small stature, but he didn't flinch when he picked it up. Instead, he gripped it tightly with both hands, taking a few steps and then resting as he carried it out.
Farm children have to learn to do all sorts of things from a young age. Although Shu Wanxiu loved Shu Shouyi dearly, she didn't want to spoil him.
Seeing that he wasn't completely exhausted, they didn't let him stop.
On one side of the stove were pieces of fatty meat, and on the other side were pieces of pork bones.
Shu Wanxiu looked around, rolled up her sleeves, tucked a stray strand of hair that had fallen beside her cheek behind her ear, picked up the bone that had been chopped into several pieces, washed it, and soaked it in a large bowl.
To make soup from bones, first soak them to remove the blood foam.
After that, she picked through the fatty parts and poured them all into another bowl.
The fat is cut by the butcher right before my eyes, and I pick through it to remove any pig hair that might have accidentally gotten mixed in, not because I'm worried that the butcher has replaced the good fat.
After selecting the pig hair, she quickly rinsed the fatty meat with several ladles of water.
The pot had been washed clean beforehand. The fatty meat was put directly into the pot, along with a small half-bowl of water.
Then, Shu Wanxiu squatted down, approached the stove, added firewood, and started a fire.
The fire was blazing, the moisture in the pot slowly evaporated, and the oil from the fatty meat was rendered out.
This method of rendering oil is very simple. You just need to control the heat afterward to prevent the fat from drying out and burning too quickly.
Just as the oil was about to be rendered, Shu Wanxiu instructed, "Shouyi, go and pick a few scallions from the field. Your aunt will use them to make soup later."
"good!"
Without saying a word, Shu Shouyi stood up and ran out.
Auntie's making soup!
His mind was filled with happiness.
The vegetable garden is right at my doorstep, making it easy to pick vegetables.
He aimed at the scallions and went straight to the field.
Onions are drought-resistant, but since it hasn't rained lately and my aunt hasn't watered them much, they're really hard to pull up.
He practically broke off every single one he pulled out.
Actually, some families always cut scallions by pinching them off, only taking the part above the soil.
But my aunt said that the plump white part of the scallion smells really good, so her family always tries to pull out the whole scallion when they eat it.
The vegetable gardens in front of the Shu family's house were spacious and well-lit, and Shu Shouyi soon broke out in a sweat.
Just as he raised his sleeve to wipe his sun-kissed forehead, a series of birdsongs suddenly rang out from the woods.
"Chirp chirp chirp!"
"Cuckoo, cuckoo!"
"Coo coo coo! Chirp chirp!"
The mountains and forests are never short of birdsong, but this series of birdsongs, of all kinds, was clearly not the usual rhythm.
Shu Shouyi looked curiously up at the top of the tree.
"Coo coo coo! Chirp chirp chirp!"
The birdsong suddenly grew louder, and his gaze instinctively slid towards the source of the sound.
He didn't see the bird, but he saw Uncle Xun.
Xun Yi held a bamboo leaf to his lips, and the various bird calls were produced by blowing through the bamboo leaf.
Even after Shu Shouyi looked over, he didn't stop; instead, he worked even harder to imitate all the bird sounds he could.
Shu Shouyi's eyes widened as if he had discovered something extraordinary, and he hopped and skipped over from the vegetables.
"Uncle Xun—um—"
With a swift movement of his long arm, Xun Yi narrowly intercepted the words that were about to spill from his mouth.
"Shh!"
"Don't speak loudly."
Shu Shouyi looked at him blankly and nodded.
After confirming that Shu Shouyi wouldn't speak loudly, Xun Yi released his hand from Shu Shouyi's mouth.
“Uncle Xun”
This time, Shu Shouyi greeted him in a whisper.
Xun Yi nodded, then turned Shu Shouyi around and hid himself behind a tree. "Alright, you can speak a little louder now."
Shu Shouyi had no idea why he had to speak softer than usual, but he was very respectful of people.
He lowered his voice to a tone similar to Xun Yi's and pointed to the bamboo leaf in Xun Yi's hand, saying, "Uncle, how come you can play this?"
I learned it when I was a child.
More than knowing the origin of his ability to play this instrument, Xun Yi believed that Shu Shouyi was more interested in whether he would be willing to teach him to play it.
But he couldn't just rush over there himself.
"Want to take a look?"
He had racked his brains and sweated profusely before coming up with the idea, but he acted as if nothing was wrong, calmly handing the bamboo leaf in his hand to Shu Shouyi.
"want!"
Shu Shouyi took the bamboo leaf almost immediately after he reached out his hand.
He turned the bamboo leaf over and over in his little hands and looked at it many times, but no matter how he looked at it, it seemed to be just an ordinary bamboo leaf.
Under Xun Yi's expectant gaze, he finally asked the question: "Uncle Xun, how did you play that?"
Xun Yi took the leaf and blew a tune on it for Shu Shouyi at close range.
"That's how you blow it, want to learn?"
Shu Shouyi nodded vigorously, "Of course I want to!"
"If you do your uncle a favor, your uncle will teach you."
"No, I will definitely teach you."
What little boy could refuse this?
Shu Shouyi jumped up on the spot, but before he could say "agree," he changed his mind, "But I can't—"
Xun Yi understood and assured him, "I won't let you do anything bad."
Shu Shouyi then nodded abruptly.
Xun Yi beckoned him closer and whispered in his ear, "Go..."
...
"Upholding righteousness?"
"Upholding righteousness?!"
Beside the stove, Shu Wanxiu poured all the rendered oil into a small earthenware jar, wondering why Shu Shouyi hadn't returned after so long, even though he had only gone to pick a few scallions.
However, no sooner had she finished speaking than Shu Shouyi appeared in her field of vision, clutching a few scallions and sweating profusely.
"Auntie, I'm back!"
"Why did you take so long?" Shu Wanxiu wet her face towel and went to him to wipe his sweat.
Shu Shouyi just kept grinning foolishly, without saying a word.
He closed his eyes and let Shu Wanxiu wipe his face with a towel.
Then, after she wiped her sweat, she suddenly asked, "Auntie, are you happy now?"
That's a completely nonsensical question.
Shu Wanxiu looked at him suspiciously.
"Hehe, Auntie, we're going to have soup later, will you be happy?"
That's a good question.
Shu Wanxiu took it as a way of coaxing him and replied perfunctorily, "Yes, yes, yes."
Shu Shouyi tilted his head and smiled, then crawled under her arm and took over the spot for tending the fire.
"I'll start the fire, Auntie, you hurry up and make the soup."
Shu Wanxiu wanted to say that she hadn't wiped the sweat off her back yet, but there was nothing she could do about it. She shook her head and put the bones that had been soaking for a while into the pot.
Because she had just finished rendering the oil, there was still a lot of oil left on the side of the pot that she couldn't scrape off no matter how hard she tried. So she didn't wash the pot, put the bones in it, added about half a pot of water, a few slices of spicy seasoning, and then covered the pot to stew.
Shu Shouyi added firewood vigorously, puffing out his cheeks and blowing air to help it burn.
Seeing that sweat had reappeared on his face that he had just wiped dry, Shu Wanxiu used a palm-leaf fan to fan him.
"It's too hot by the fire. What if we get sick from the heat? Auntie, please tend the fire."
I don't know what kind of spell Shu Shouyi had taken, but he just wouldn't budge.
About fifteen minutes later, the water in the pot had boiled.
After skimming off the foam from the pot, Shu Wanxiu removed two pieces of firewood and let the soup simmer slowly.
Shu Shouyi remained by his side.
This strange sight made Shu Wanxiu crane her neck to look into the woods.
She remembered the spot where she had met Xun Yi before, and after looking carefully, she found no one there.
Logically, it would be better if there was no one there at first glance.
But there was really no one there, and I felt a little empty inside.
Why did this emotion arise again?
After questioning himself, he tightened his grip on the palm-leaf fan handle little by little.
This slight, yet noticeable, foreign sensation effectively suppressed the delusions that had recently begun to stir within me.
The soup in the pot was bubbling away. After about half an hour, the lid was lifted and a handful of chopped green onions were sprinkled in.
The aroma is wonderful.
Shu Shouyi stared intently as Shu Wanxiu ladled out the soup. This time, his eyes held more than just a longing for food.
He behaved himself until the soup was placed on the table and until Shu Wanxiu took a sip of the soup right under his nose.
This was clearly a signal; upon receiving it, he instantly recited the words he had memorized perfectly.
"aunt!"
"Uncle Xun said that there's a rumor circulating in the village about him that's been going around for a while now. He doesn't know if you've heard it, but he's worried you might have, so just in case, he wants to explain it to you! If you're willing to listen to his explanation, then let's go to the grove!"
The words came suddenly, the soup was scalding hot, and Shu Wanxiu only half understood what she was hearing, the soup in her mouth, she was about to spit it out.
"When did you hear Uncle Xun tell you this?"
"When pulling up scallions."
That was a little over an hour ago.
Should we go? Or should we not go?
Is he still in the woods right now?
Shu Wanxiu felt her heart pounding wildly.
The wooden spoon stirred the soup in circles along the bottom of the bowl. After conveying all his words, Shu Shouyi, who was sitting opposite him, picked up the bowl without any worries and began to drink the soup along the rim.
Shu Wanxiu took a sip from her own bowl, and after seeing Shu Shouyi finish his bowl, she immediately stood up, took his bowl to the stove, and got another one.
She walked slowly, her body exposed where there was no firewood to shield her from view, her gaze fixed on the woods.
At first glance, there was no one in sight among the trees.
Before any feelings of disappointment could arise, in the blink of an eye, Xun Yi appeared in the onion field.
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Author's Note: Shu Shouyi
The words Uncle Xun taught me were a bit difficult to pronounce, but imitating birdsong with bamboo leaves was really interesting! [Pity][Pity]
Forget it! I, Shu Shouyi, have already accepted this order.
So, I'll memorize this line even if it's scalding hot! [Sunglasses][Sunglasses][Sunglasses]
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