Chapter 86
Shu Wanxiu was shy and said she wasn't thirsty. Xun Yi didn't want to argue with her, but seeing her sweating profusely under the blazing sun, he felt sorry for her.
"It's too hot. Wait another quarter of an hour and then go home with Shouyi. Be careful of heatstroke."
Thinking of how cautiously she was observing the outside world, she gently comforted her, "As for the aunts' teasing, it doesn't matter."
Shu Wanxiu drew strength from Xun Yi's soft words, and the high temperature on her face, which had been rising after being teased by Lin Xinghua and the others, dropped a little.
As for his advice to go home early...
If she simply went home, wouldn't all the work in the fields be left to Xun Yi? Shu Wanxiu was unwilling to do that.
"I'm not that delicate. It's still early. I can stay for another half an hour and go home to cook."
Xun Yi frowned, about to offer further advice, but Shu Wanxiu had already understood his thoughts through his expression.
She was unwilling to argue with Xun Yi and always opposed his proposals, which always embarrassed him.
Almost instantly, before the mind could even process it, the body had already instinctively reacted.
She subtly raised her right hand and quietly hooked it around Xun Yi's little finger.
"Please stop talking."
"I don't want to."
Her voice, which sounded both coquettish and reproachful, with a trembling tone, left Xun Yi speechless while simultaneously arousing a surge of irritation.
This kind of contact is inappropriate... Please pull your hand away!
Remove it!
Reason told Xun Yi this.
But his body was completely out of his control at that moment.
Not only did it not follow its brain's instructions to pull its hand away, but it also trembled slightly and almost flipped over to grab Shu Wanxiu's hand completely, holding it tightly and entangled it!
His eyes were somewhat unfocused, his mind was in turmoil, and his mouth was becoming increasingly dry.
Shu Wanxiu was annoyed by his distraction, so she loosened her grip on his little finger and slid it down from completely enveloping his entire little finger until she was only gently holding the last joint of his little finger.
As if something was about to slip through his fingers, Xun Yi's fingers trembled again, and he suddenly snapped out of his daze.
Shu Wanxiu met his gaze, grabbed his pinky finger and shook it playfully.
His mind was a complete mess, like mush. Xun Yi's throat bobbed, and he could only vaguely remember that Shu Wanxiu seemed to be asking him to agree to something.
He simply couldn't think, nor did he have the time to think.
"...As you wish."
Before the echo had even faded, the fingers suddenly loosened.
—The pinky finger that had been held was completely released.
Shu Wanxiu pressed her flushed cheeks with the back of her hand and got up without any hesitation.
Xun Yi was wearing short clothes, and her exposed arms were brushed against by the soft, starched linen hem of her clothes, and a unique fragrance wafted into Xun Yi's nose.
After she had walked two steps away, Xun Yi heard her say, "Brother Xun, why don't you take a rest? I'll go put the bowls away!"
Xun Yi, left behind, felt a sense of loss, a slight annoyance, and even more so, an overwhelming, uncontrollable desire that frightened even himself.
That night, he took a bath, but even pouring three buckets of ice-cold well water on his body couldn't extinguish the fire within him. He tossed and turned all night, unable to sleep. The next morning, he discovered that four or five sores had suddenly appeared in his mouth, making it painful to even drink water.
The culprit, on the other hand, slept soundly all night and woke up a little later than usual.
"This is terrible! I was going to make some herbal tea last night, but I got up so late, I'm afraid I won't be able to make it now." Shu Wanxiu patted her forehead in self-reproach.
In May and June, when honeysuckle blooms, the village elders all say that honeysuckle is a good thing, so she followed suit and picked some honeysuckle in the mountains, dried it, and stored it, but she never ate it.
Yesterday, Xun Yi reminded her not to catch a heatstroke, and she suddenly remembered that she could use honeysuckle to make herbal tea to relieve the heat.
Yesterday, after finishing her work, she specially picked some wild mint by the stream.
I was really looking forward to brewing a pot of herbal tea with honeysuckle today, but unexpectedly...
Now the Shu family has a lot of surplus grain, and Xun Yi is helping them with the work, so they eat all three meals a day together at the Shu family's house.
While muttering that she had overslept and didn't have time to brew herbal tea, Shu Wanxiu scooped up a lot of rice and cooked a pot of thick vegetable and egg porridge.
Xun Yi went up the mountain at the same time as the previous two days. Just as he was at the door of the kitchen, he heard her say that there was no time to make herbal tea. He looked at her with a melancholy expression and sighed inwardly.
When drinking porridge, Xun Yi ate slowly and deliberately, unlike the hearty meals he had enjoyed the previous two mornings.
For Shu Wanxiu and Shu Shouyi, the egg porridge was already a very good meal. Seeing Xun Yi eating so slowly, Shu Wanxiu couldn't help but worry.
"Brother Xun, are you tired of eating vegetable porridge every day?"
Ignoring the pain, Xun Yi quickly swallowed the porridge in his mouth. "How could it be greasy?"
He pointed to both cheeks.
"I have a few sores in my mouth, which makes it difficult for me to eat."
"I see!" Shu Wanxiu knew what it felt like to have mouth ulcers; it was indeed very uncomfortable.
"Then I'll brew some herbal tea, and you can drink more of it."
Xun Yi nodded, "There's no rush. The weather is cool now, so you can go do some work for a while. Once the sun rises, you can go home and make herbal tea."
Shu Wanxiu smiled and said, "Okay!"
Xun Yi's speed in harvesting rice was as fast as the sickle he forged.
With his help, the Shu family's two acres of land were harvested and threshed in four days.
He filled baskets with the threshed rice and pushed a cart, transporting it to the threshing ground.
The Shu family had little land, but with Xun Yi's help, their grain was the first to be harvested in the entire village this year.
Winter wheat fields can only be flooded after all the rice in the fields has been harvested.
While everyone else is busy, Shu Wanxiu can't stay idle.
Since she was at the threshing ground, she helped everyone turn and dry the grain.
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