Chapter 138 She Cares About Me
Shen Lie was indeed happy, and the smile on his face never faded.
When I returned to my cave, I could see from afar the small vegetable patch that was surrounded by a wooden fence, and I could vaguely see dots of green inside.
The chickens and ducks were pacing back and forth outside the fence, looking very comfortable.
"You made the fence?"
"Well, I just planted some vegetables in the field, and I'm afraid the chickens and ducks will cause damage, so I built a fence right under the tree so it won't be too conspicuous."
She put the basket on the open space next to the vegetable patch that was used as a drying area, waved her hand to drive away a few furry creatures that were coming towards the wild vegetables, turned back to the cave, and took out a ceramic basin from the shelf under the wooden table next to the stove, ready to pick the wild vegetables and mushrooms.
He looked at Chen Lie again, hesitated for a moment, and said, "Let me boil some water so you can wash up, change clothes and rest, okay?"
I've been outside for eleven days, and the food I'm carrying is not light, so I must be very tired.
Chen Lie nodded. He was not tired, but he felt that he was very dirty. He couldn't be very particular in the wild, but he still had to be careful when he returned home. Sang Luo liked cleanliness.
"Just cold water will do. I'll fetch it myself." He put the small basket down and turned around to pick up the bucket to get water.
"Take a cold shower?" Sang Luo was stunned.
Chen Lie smiled: "If there is a puddle or lake outside, just wash there. I'm used to it. It's not that cold now, so it doesn't matter."
As they were talking, several children ran over here. They were Shen An, Shen Ning, and the Xu family siblings.
I was studying with a group of children at the innermost part of the valley. When I saw Chen Dashan from afar, I realized that the people carrying grain had returned. The children stopped studying and ran home.
Fortunately, it was almost time for feeding. Chen An and Shen Ning usually went home to help with picking vegetables, washing vegetables, and making firewood before Sang Luo made dinner, so they usually went home at about this time. Today, they were just a little earlier.
As soon as Shen An and Shen Ning called their eldest brother, Xu Wenbo asked anxiously, "Brother Shen Lie, did my father send us a message?"
Shen Lie smiled: "Yes, your uncle took it back first, go home and take a look."
Not only did he deliver a message, but he also hid a small bag in the cave for Wei Qinghe to carry back.
Xu Wenbo and Xu Wenyin thanked Chen Lie, pulled Wang Yunzheng and ran towards their own cave.
…
When Chen Lie came back with two buckets of water, Sang Luo had already asked Chen An to light the stove and directly asked him to add water to the pot to boil.
"I don't care about anything else, but if you wash your hair, you should use some hot water, otherwise you will get a headache in the future."
Sang Luo suffered a lot from illness in her previous life, so she pays extra attention to this aspect.
Chen Lie was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said, "Okay."
Shen An and Shen Ning smiled at each other. As expected, the eldest brother did not hesitate to agree to what the eldest sister-in-law said.
While waiting for the water to boil, Chen Lie simply helped to pick the vegetables. Except for mushrooms which were particularly picky about the growing environment, he dug up the rest with the roots when he picked them. He kept the roots of those that could be kept and asked if there was any empty space on the wall of Sangluo Mountain and planted the roots there.
Wild vegetables have strong vitality and can provide a variety of dishes if they can grow up.
While we were busy here, Old Mrs. Xu came over with a package for Sang Luo.
"I heard from my Yuanchang that you are literate, Luo. The inkstone and brush are not for practicing calligraphy. We live in the mountains and cannot afford to be so particular. They are for delivering letters, so half of them are for your family. Apart from other things, if you need to send a message in the future, it is better to have them carved on bamboo slips."
Shopkeeper Xu's real name was Xu Yuanchang. Sang Luo knew this after reading the letter that Chen Lie brought back.
Originally she thought that pen, ink, paper and inkstone were too expensive and she was not prepared to take them. But when she heard that it was for delivering a letter, she thought about it. Although she also had pen and ink among the things she brought with her, if she really wanted to deliver a letter, she could write on bamboo slips, and there was no need to carve them. But on the one hand, bamboo slips were not as convenient as paper. The letter sent by Manager Xu was folded into a small roll and stuffed into a bamboo tube, which was much more convenient. On the other hand, she only had one piece of ink, which was not much, and she would not dare to use it easily in daily life. So Sang Luo thanked Mrs. Xu and took it.
After Mrs. Xu left, the water was almost boiled. Chen An took out two wooden basins from the bottom shelf in the cave like treasures and called Chen Lie.
Pointing to the marks carved by Sang Luo on the outside of the wooden basin, he said that this one was for everyone to wash their hair, and that one was for him and his eldest brother to use for bathing.
Only then did Chen Lie realize that Sang Luo had also chiseled out a few washbasins.
Looking at the basins, he seemed to be thinking about something, but didn't say anything. He took the basin and washed his hair. He was in no hurry to take a shower and went to Chen's house next door without even drying his hair.
Not long after, Chen Dashan, Chen Youtian and Old Man Chen followed him out. Some took saws, some took axes, and they called on several other families. Seven or eight people in total, cut down a very old tree in the valley.
Why do you say it's very old? The trunk of the tree is really thick.
Sang Luo dried the wild vegetables that needed to be dried, blanched them, and soaked them. When she finished her work, she heard the sound of a tree falling and ran over to see. Chen Youtian and Shen Lie were already sawing wood.
Because the tree trunk was too thick, Chen Youtian's saw was not very big, so it was not easy to cut it all the way through. He had to adjust the angle after cutting a section.
Many women and children gathered to watch the fun. Sang Luo went over to ask, and the eldest daughter-in-law of Zhou Cunzheng's family laughed and said, "To make a bathtub, the tree we cut before was not so thick. According to your method, we can only carve out a washbasin, not a bathtub. So you picked a tree with a good age to cut down. Now we can take a bath comfortably."
Zhou Erlang's wife came close to Sang Luo and praised her quietly with a smile: "Your Chen Lie is really good. I think he is very considerate and treats you well. This time he came back, he started to buy things for the family again. The things he bought are all the most important and practical."
Sang Luo went to bed early. Even the Chen family members stayed a day later, not to mention their families. For example, in their Zhou family, the three brothers had to rush out to clear out the bed that their parents-in-law slept in before going out. Zhou Dalang had a three-year-old child who slept in the bed with his grandparents. The two sisters-in-law were still sleeping on the bed board.
Sang Luo raised the corners of her lips, her eyes also showed some smile, and she nodded: "It's very careful."
…
It was not necessary to talk about dinner, as every family was late. Sang Luo waited until Chen Lie and Chen Dashan came back carrying a long piece of wood before she started preparing the food.
He put the wood down, said hello to Sang Luo, said he would help the Xu family carry some back, and then turned back with Chen Dashan.
Wei Qinghe was weak, and after walking back and forth through the mountains and forests, he was almost exhausted. He lay down as soon as he returned to the cave. It was Old Lady Xu who ran over to see what was going on, and they couldn't let the old lady do it alone, so Chen Lie and Chen Youtian from the Xu family helped to saw the wood, and then they and Chen Dashan helped to carry it back.
Sang Luo leaned over to take a look. It was a long piece of wood, about one meter long? Was it going to make two round bathtubs?
She didn't pay much attention to it, thinking maybe it had other uses, and focused on making food.
When Chen Lie came back, he saw that the food had already been placed on the wooden table, including a dish of cold-mixed sky-green radish, a dish of fried bracken with bacon, and a big bowl of Houttuynia cordata and egg soup.
After a hot meal, Chen Lie took the axe from home and went out to work.
Only then did Sang Luo realize that he was not going to make two round bathtubs, but a rectangular bathtub.
Sang Luo used an axe to do the rough chisel and a chisel to refine it, and slowly the outline of the work began to take shape.
It is very similar to the bathtub used in modern small apartments. People can sit in it and take a bath. If you add enough water, it can reach the chest. Of course, you don't have to fill it so full.
Sang Luo didn't expect that she could use this to escape danger. She was a little stunned. After a while, she asked, "Where are you going to put this?"
The cave is not big, so there is no room for this. Most importantly, she can't pour the water...
Chen Lie smiled and pointed at the clean room: "Clean room, I'll have time to chisel the rock a little deeper and it will be put down. This trip is more than half a day's journey from here. In addition to yellow clay, we also found some shale. Tomorrow morning, I will go out with Dashan and a few others to get some back. I will then lay the clean room for you with a piece of shale. I will also make a water outlet and a wooden plug under the bathtub so that pouring water will not be tiring. You and Aning can use this."
As for him and Shen An, they just needed to get some water to the cleansing room and wash themselves. With shale laid and drainage ditches dug along the mountain wall, it was no problem to take a shower in the cleansing room. There was no need to worry about the mountain wall collapsing.
…
On the first day Chen Lie came back, he dug a bathtub for Sang Luo and Shen Ning until the moon was almost at its zenith. Of course, this thing cannot be put into the purification room now, because the wall of the purification room has not been expanded yet. After it is completed, it can only be moved into the cave first.
Chen Lie took a bath in the bathroom, changed into clean clothes and went into the cave. Sang Luo was helping him spread out the mattress, pillow and quilt. Before this, she had tied these things up and put them on a wooden shelf.
When Chen Lie came back and saw Sang Luo helping him make the bed and spread out the quilt, his heart skipped a beat and his steps paused.
Sang Luo didn't think much about it. She asked the two children if they were going to the bathroom. After hearing that they had already been there, she asked Chen Lie to close the door, put Chen Lie's pillow in order, and then went back to her bed.
Turning around, he saw Chen Lie still standing there stiffly. He gave him a puzzled look, and then Chen Lie remembered that Sang Luo asked him to close the door, so he turned around and went to put the door up.
Sang Luo took off her coat with her back to him and got into the quilt. Then she hugged the quilt and waited for Chen Lie to come back after closing the door. She said, "Make your own bed when you have time. Other things don't matter. It's not good to keep sleeping like this and let moisture enter your body."
Such obvious concern would have made the corners of his lips curl up under normal circumstances, but today he didn't.
It was as if something gently hit the softest part of my heart.
This feeling was not unfamiliar. Sang Luo had felt the same way in the past when she cared about him, such as when his shoes got wet, when he bought winter clothes for him, when she made clothes for him, and when he taught her to draw the bow.
But no matter how many times it happened, I still couldn't resist the palpitations that made me feel as if all my strength had been drained away and my bones and muscles became weak.
Well, I don't want to resist.
It’s because of what Sang Luo said. Anyway, I like it very much.
With such a shock in my heart, I even forgot to be happy, and just nodded stupidly: "Yeah, oh, okay."
You may not even be clear about what you said.
Sang Luo didn't notice anything wrong with him. She smiled and said, "Then turn off the lights. You've been tired all day. Go to bed early."
Then he lay down.
Chen Lie waited until Sang Luo lay down, then he pinched his right ear and went to the wall lampstand to blow out the oil lamp. The whole cave became dark, and he put his left hand to his heart.
Only then did he raise the corners of his lips and curved his eyebrows.
It seems like she doesn't care about him at all and does show concern for him.
When she left last time, Sang Luo didn't seem to be reluctant to leave, so Chen Lie felt a little disappointed.
At this moment, all the disappointment was swept away. He felt that if he worked harder and was worthy of her, Sang Luo would like him too, right?
Chen Lie opened the quilt and lay down on the bed. When the quilt was covered, he could still smell the unique fragrance after being exposed to the sun. The corners of his lips raised higher, and he pulled the quilt up to cover half of his face. He laughed in the dark for a long time.
Thinking that I would have to go out early the next morning to get yellow clay and shale, I forced myself to go to bed quickly. I was in a very good mood and my eyes were curved even in my sleep.
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