green grass on the stream

Taking advantage of the fine weather and a considerable pile of firewood at home, Qi Yanfan followed Ji Tingyu to Taohua Village to deliver firewood.The road down the mountain has been taken a lot by them recently, and the outline is gradually showing.

The courtyard door of the first house at the entrance of the village that I had agreed with Chen Shopkeeper was open, so Qi Yanfan stood at the door and called out a few times: "Is anyone there?"

"Here we come—" Not long after, a petite boy of about fifteen or sixteen ran out from the back room.

Qi Yanfan asked him, "Where's your lord?"

The young man looked at the firewood at their feet, showed a cute smile, two small dimples appeared at the corners of his mouth, and said, "Are you here to deliver firewood?"

"Yes, my name is Qi Qiu, and he is Li Jianye."

"I heard my uncle talk about you, my name is Li Xiaogao." The boy said.

"Little Cake?" Qi Yanfan asked.

"Yes, pastry cake. My mother wanted to eat pastries when she gave birth to me, so she named me this." Li Xiaogai explained.

Qi Yanfan thought it was too easy to get the name, but he didn't show it on the surface, so he helped him pile the firewood to the designated place.

It is difficult for Li Xiaogao to meet peers in the village. Most people are unwilling to nest in this ravine. At his age, they will go outside for a break.Therefore, Li Xiaogao was quite enthusiastic towards Qi Yanfan, who was two years older than him, and Qi Qiuqiu kept barking behind him, completely like a noisy little sparrow.

Li Xiaogai is now the only one left to guard the house. He makes fermented bean curd and other food on weekdays, and asks his uncle to take them to the town to sell. Sometimes his uncle will help him wholesale some daily necessities and resell them to subsidize his family.

Qi Yanfan got to know him a little better, and corrected him, "You can just call me Xiao Qi. Do you have laundry soap here?"

Li Xiaogai replied happily: "Yes, yes, hey, this is better soap. The fragrant one can be used for bathing. This is for ordinary clothes washing. There are also these saponins, but it needs to be boiled. Wash it after cooking."

Qi Yanfan looked at the row of soaps, and bought some soap and saponins out of curiosity.

"Are there any clothes makers in the village?" Qi Yanfan asked after putting away his things.

"Yes." Li Xiaogai glanced at Ji Tingyu timidly, as if she was a little afraid of the temperament around him, "I, I told this Brother Li, I told it."

Only then did Qi Yanfan realize that Ji Tingyu had been to Taohua Village a few times, and he should have met Li Xiaogai at the entrance of the village.

Thinking of this, he was inexplicably a little irritable, Li Xiaogao is so cute, if you like men, you have to like Li Xiaogao.He glanced at Ji Tingyu with a bit of anger, and said, "Tingyu, I want to buy some steamers, take me there."

Hearing this, Ji Tingyu got up from the bench, took the things in his hands, nodded to Li Xiaogai, turned sideways, and waited for Qi Yanfan to leave together.Qi Yanfan said goodbye to Li Xiaogao and walked outside.

They went to the clothes maker's house first, and Qi Yanfan was busy getting angry with himself who was not up to date all the way, silently following behind Ji Tingyu without saying a word.

Ji Tingyu gave him a strange look and asked, "What are we going to buy?"

Qi Yanfan hummed: "Ask her if she has any cloth to buy, so I can make some more clothes for you."

Although Ji Tingyu didn't know why he was so dull, he obediently went up to knock on the door.The person who opened the door was a middle-aged woman with a cloth scarf wrapped around her head, about 40 years old, wearing a floral double-breasted jacket, with a thimble in her hand.

Ji Tingyu said: "Is that right, Aunt Xu? We are newcomers in the village. I heard that you can help people sew clothes here?"

"Exactly, but you have to bring the fabric yourself. The processing fee is 10 yuan, and the workmanship is the most exquisite."

"Okay, we didn't bring any fabric this time, so we'll bother you next time."

After walking a few steps, Qi Yanfan tugged at the corner of Ji Tingyu's clothes and said, "It's too expensive to make clothes here, even more expensive than those in the town."

Ji Tingyu said: "The town is offering discounts because we bought his fabrics. If we buy too much fabric next time and don't want to go to the town, we can do it here."

"I don't know if I can negotiate the price, you should call her sister and try..."

"It's not appropriate for me to call it that."

……

While talking, the two went to the old carpenter's house again.The old carpenter also worked as a carpenter in the town when he was young. When he was old, his legs and feet were inconvenient, so he stayed at home to make some small objects and sold them to the people in the village.

Qi Yanfan bought a steaming rack and a few small steamers, thinking that he can steam and order dishes while cooking, which is fast and convenient.He bought two more wooden barrels, planning to carry water in one and pour slop in the other.

He squatted in the yard with his cheeks resting on his back, thinking carefully about what else he needed, wishing he could buy them all.

Ji Tingyu found it funny seeing his pouting and frowning, bent over and whispered in his ear, "Yan Fan, you're home."

Qi Yanfan thought he had misheard, so he looked up at Ji Tingyu with wide eyes.

Ji Tingyu repeated again: "It's time for us to go home."

Ji Tingyu called his name, and he said "go home", back to their "home".In an instant, all the little emotions just now turned into clouds of smoke and disappeared, Qi Yanfan stood up awkwardly, immediately paid the money and followed Ji Tingyu back home.

On the way back, Qi Yanfan turned around to look at the place where he picked up the wild duck eggs last time, and sure enough, there were several fresh duck eggs in the grass nest.Just like last time, Qi Yanfan picked up the duck eggs and packed them in a straw-lined wooden barrel to take home.

Coincidentally, he found several Chinese toon trees along the way. The last time they passed by, these trees hadn't sprouted yet, so Qi Yanfan didn't know what kind of tree they were. A handful.

Back home, Qi Yanfan immediately washed the Chinese toon, rinsed it with water, cut it into small pieces, beat two duck eggs in it and stirred it evenly.Then pour the egg mixture into the pot together.

"Slow down the fire." Qi Yanfan said.

"Okay." Ji Tingyu replied.

Seeing Ji Tingyu's white and slender hands taking out some firewood with tongs, Qi Yanfan felt a strange sense of satisfaction in his heart, as if only he could let this person do such a thing.

The toon wrapped in the egg liquid was sizzling in the pot, slowly congealed, Qi Yanfan pressed a few times with a spatula and turned it over, and soon a fragrant toon omelette was ready.

He took out the extra scallion pancakes he made in the morning and warmed them up in the pan, and he had a simple lunch.

Speaking of these strangely shaped scallion pancakes, Qi Yanfan was deeply embarrassed.Chopped shallots are wrapped in bread, and then fried in hot oil, the scallions are immediately fragrant.But because there was no rolling pin, Qi Yanfan pressed it all out with his hands.

The scallion pancakes were not big, about the size of a palm, but they had different shapes, and some even had Qi Yanfan's obvious finger prints on them.Every time Ji Tingyu stuffed such cakes into his mouth, he was too ashamed to open his eyes to look.

After lunch, after a break, he would wake up and take a nap, Qi Yanfan drove the chickens around the clearing that had been mowed in front of the house.Ji Tingyu didn't know what he was doing by the stream, and he didn't care.Holding a long branch in his hand, Qi Yanfan drove back the chick who had run away from time to time, figuring out the to-do list one by one in his head.

"Yan Fan."

"Ah?" Ji Tingyu's voice brought Qi Yanfan who was in a daze back to his senses.

"Do you think this is okay?" Ji Tingyu asked.

Following his movements, Ji Tingyu saw that the road leading from the door to the stream was paved with flat stones, big and small, round and square, arranged closely together. I don't know where he found it. There are so many suitable stones, but how do they spread them evenly?

"Come and step on it."

Qi Yanfan walked over obediently.

"I see that sometimes you are in a hurry to cook, and the muddy floor is easy to slip."

"Ah."

The breeze made Qi Yanfan's heart fluffy.

He thought, or try it.

Just try it.

In those years of living in modern society, I gradually passed the age of late marriage and late childbearing.In their circle, people are judged by their appearance, Qi Yanfan's face is gentle but has no distinctive features, as dull as a bowl of boiled water.Having been alone for so many years, he also longed for someone to protect him and love him, at least to have dinner with him.

Cooking one person's meal is the most difficult, and if you are not careful, you will burn too much.It’s a pity to throw it away, and it’s too much to eat after eating it. It’s put in the refrigerator, but you basically don’t have any appetite to eat it after the next meal.

At this time, he thought, if there is such a person, even if he can't empathize with his hardships, just sharing every meal together can satisfy him.It's a pity that happiness belongs to others, but he has nothing.Just like the saying on the Internet, "No one stands with me at dusk, no one asks me how to warm the porridge", this little bit of loneliness accumulates over time, biting his thin soul.And now—

"What's wrong?" Ji Tingyu asked him.

"No, I want to cook something delicious for you."