paddock

The small nest is almost the size of a one-dollar coin, and the inside is white, like felt. It seems that the fine fluff of plants is densely woven together, and it looks warm and soft.On the outside of the felt are moss-covered twigs, bound together by very tiny filaments. The white inside and the blue outside are in harmony with each other, like a beautiful work of art.

Yuan Ning and Zhang Xiuming squatted beside the little bird's nest curiously, looked at it carefully for a long time, and thought it was really cute.

Teacher Qi was also attracted by them. She recognized the beautiful bird's nest when she saw it: "This is the nest of a hummingbird. I didn't expect to see it here. Some travelers must have brought it here. It is said that hummingbirds are only distributed in the Americas, and we can’t find them here. Hummingbirds are the smallest birds found so far!”

Yuan Ning said, "Then it came to us alone?"

Teacher Qi nodded and said, "Very likely." She sighed, "It's not suitable for them to live here. Despite their small size, they actually need to suck a lot of nectar to survive-but the climate here It's warm, the flowers are blooming well, and maybe it's living happily."

Yuan Ning stared at the beautiful bird's nest for a long time, then turned to look at Zhang Xiuming, and said, "Fourth brother, are you also like this? Even when you are far away alone, you still work hard to make that place a place. own home."

Zhang Xiuming looked into Yuan Ning's earnest eyes, and replied earnestly: "I didn't think so much, I just thought that since life is life, why don't I let myself live better?"

He doesn't care if it's his home or not, he doesn't care if it's his family. If someone treats him well, he treats the other person well, and if someone treats him badly, he won't make the other person feel better.

Of course, the feeling of coming home is still different.

Yuan Ning said, "It's like this!" He looked at the hummingbird's nest again, carefully remembering its appearance, "But this hummingbird is really brave and strong!"

Yuan Ning felt that if it was him, he would definitely cry when he went to other places alone.Just like after arriving at Zhang's house, if the elder brother didn't love him so much, he would definitely become very crying.

Zhang Xiuming knew that Yuan Ning was careful and prone to overthinking, so he reached out and rubbed Yuan Ning's head: "Let's go on looking for another lair."

Yuan Ning obediently followed him.

With Teacher Qi leading the way, they found many and quickly.Seeing that the sun was about to set, Teacher Qi led them back to the tent, where they prepared dinner with other groups.

The steamed buns, rice, and broth Cheng Zhong asked someone to prepare them. They only needed to prepare some things that could be served with rice.They camped near the gate of the ranch, and looking out from the camp, they could see pale white smoke rising in the distance.

The smell of food floated in the air, attracting the birds hovering in the air to look down frequently.Yuan Ning is considered the best "cooking skill" among so many people. He is very proficient in handling ingredients and baking food, and can also help in cooking. Others can't help but look at him more and follow him silently Learn to help around.

When the food was almost ready, Luo Yuanliang came over.

Luo Yuanliang has grown very tall, and is no longer the black and thin boy he was at the beginning—he is now about 1.8 meters tall, with a little flesh filling on his face and body, not fat, but strong.He was carrying a clean sack, which was dripping with water.

Yuan Ning greeted Luo Yuanliang happily: "Luo Yuanliang, what are you memorizing?"

"Wild fruit." Luo Yuanliang put down the sack and opened the knot on the mouth, revealing the round, bright red wild fruit inside.After autumn, the fruit begins to bear fruit. It turns red after eating enough autumn frost and autumn dew. The surrounding leaves rustle and fall, only it is still becoming mature day by day.This is the most delicious fruit in autumn.Luo Yuanliang succinctly stated his conclusion after tasting, "It's very sweet and not poisonous."

Yuan Ning understood that Luo Yuanliang was going to give them wild fruits to eat.The things Luo Yuanliang found were naturally the best, and Yuan Ning introduced Luo Yuanliang to Hao Xiaolan and Song Xingchen, and then proudly praised Luo Yuanliang: "Luo Yuanliang is very familiar with the mountains and can find everything. Two years ago, Luo Yuanliang found some ginseng seeds for me, and I grew a very cute baby ginseng! Dr. Sun praised Luo Yuanliang for being amazing!"

Anyone who is familiar with Yuan Ning knows who Dr. Sun is. He is the family doctor of the Zhang family.Being able to be the exclusive doctor for a family like Zhang's family is naturally of a very high standard.

Teacher Qi said: "I heard that Dr. Sun has found a lot of good medicinal materials in the past two years, which has made many old Chinese doctors jealous. When people asked how Dr. Sun found them, Dr. Sun laughed and didn't answer. I want to hide my secrets!" Thinking of Yuan Ning's mention of "ginseng seeds", Teacher Qi had a bold guess in his heart, "Could it be that your friend Ning Ning helped you?"

Yuan Ning looked at Luo Yuanliang.

Luo Yuanliang nodded, as an admission.

Teacher Qi, who was still a little suspicious about this strange wild fruit, immediately felt relieved.

Yuan Ning and Song Xingchen talked about Luo Yuanliang's "brilliant deeds", such as collecting herbs in the mountains, adopting flying ducks, and helping newborn wild boars.

They are all eight or nine-year-old children, the age that loves to hear this kind of story.Hearing Yuan Ning talk about those vivid and interesting things, the eyes of the others looking at Luo Yuanliang suddenly changed, full of admiration and longing.Although it is impossible for them to go to the mountains in the dark, and it is impossible for them to raise ducks and wild boars at home, this does not prevent them from yearning for such a life.

Luo Yuanliang was dragged by Yuan Ning to sit aside, eating fruit while listening to Yuan Ning talking with others.

It was obviously an ordinary day, but after what Yuan Ning said, it seemed to be particularly attractive.Looking at the shining eyes of those children, it seemed that something was flowing gently in Luo Yuanliang's heart.

Do people always envy other people's lives?Sometimes he envied Yuan Ning and the others for their carefree, but Yuan Ning and his classmates all envied him for his colorful life.

Colorful?

Luo Yuanliang paused.In fact, he could have lived a better life a long time ago, but he was too lazy to distinguish and fight with others.

Living alone, life is good and bad, so why bother?

But at some point, he began to notice that he was not neatly dressed, whether his nails were trimmed short enough, whether his hands were washed well—whether he smelled of livestock manure.

It should have started from that day.

Yuan Ning, who was still very young, came to the ranch that day.It was the first time he saw such a clean and lovely child, so well-behaved and obedient, completely different from the children he met who hated ghosts.

Yuan Ning took out a small bag of biscuits from his pocket, carefully handed it over to him, and offered him an olive branch of friendship.

He looked at his hands, and suddenly felt that they were not clean enough, and the nails were too long, making it easy to hide dirt.

Sometimes people are so strange, when they don't notice something, even if it dangles in front of their eyes every day, they will turn a blind eye.When you suddenly notice it one day, you will find that it is so ubiquitous that there is no way to ignore it.

How did he let himself live like this?

How could he hide in his heart all the embarrassments and exclusions he should not have encountered?

From then on, he wanted to improve himself and take care of his life so that the child would never look at him with disgust or sympathy.

Luo Yuanliang stared at Yuan Ning.

Yuan Ning turned to look at Luo Yuanliang, and handed him a freshly grilled barbecue.

Luo Yuanliang said, "Thank you."

Yuan Ning said: "Thank you, you picked so many wild fruits for us!"

Luo Yuanliang took a bite of the crispy and delicious barbecue, but didn't speak, let alone let Yuan Ning know what he was thanking.

Some things don't need to be said, as long as you keep everything in your heart.

Early the next morning, Luo Yuanliang came to take Yuan Ning and Zhang Xiuming for a morning jog.Or run around the ranch, go out the gate and come back by the east gate, which is the route Yuan Ning is very familiar with.

Autumn is in full swing, the original trees are either bare or golden, only the distant mountains are still planted with thick blue pines.

There are a lot of corn stalks that have not been disposed of piled up in the field, as high as a hill, and they seem to be ready to be burned directly.The winter wheat is ripe in May and June, and corn will be planted here soon. The corn they boiled just now is the last batch of autumn, which is already very late.By the end of September and the beginning of October, the winter wheat has to be planted, and let the thick winter snow cover them.

The sky had just dawned, and smoke was already rising from the villages in the distance.People in rural areas go to bed early, wake up early, and feel energetic throughout the day.Yuan Ning breathed the fresh air outside the ranch, and felt his entire chest was opened.

Running to the east gate, Yuan Ning saw the carpenter again.He greeted the carpenter: "Mr. Carpenter!"

The carpenter nodded at him and smiled.Yuan Ning introduced to the carpenter: "Mr. Carpenter, do you still remember? This is my fourth brother, Zhang Xiuming, everyone calls him Ming Ming!"

Zhang Xiuming couldn't help but argue: "Ning Ning, I'm going to be ten years old soon, I can't shout like that anymore."

Yuan Ning said: "But I will soon be ten years old." They still call him Ning Ning!

The carpenter couldn't help but smile.It's interesting to hear these kids argue and argue once in a while.He asked: "It was so lively yesterday, did your classmates come here together?"

Yuan Ning said, "That's right! Even Mr. Carpenter heard it!"

The carpenter smiled and nodded.

Yuan Ning said goodbye to the carpenter, and went to see the ivory with Luo Yuanliang.

Luo Yuanliang paused slightly, and gave Yuan Ning a vaccination: "Except for the best-growing flower, the others are slowly withering. It seems that it won't be able to survive this winter."

As soon as Yuan Ning heard it, he knew that the best-growing flower was ivory.Yuan Ning was very sad when he heard Luo Yuanliang say that other flowers could not survive this winter.Although the other flowers don't talk to him much, they are all Ivory's friends!

Yuan Ning ran in the direction where the ivory was.

Autumn is here, and the leaves of the flowers have fallen a lot.They seem to prefer the fresh air on the pasture side to the greenhouse in the garden store, and they don't seem at all upset that their branches are going bare.

After seeing Yuan Ning, the flowers were very happy, and they waved their branches to greet Yuan Ning.

Yuan Ning felt sore, and told the truth to the flowers: "Luo Yuanliang said that you might not survive this winter."

The flowers were not surprised when they heard this.One of the flowers said happily: "We have lived for a long time. Even if we live until next year, we will not be able to bloom. Anyway, I like this place very much. If I can be buried in this place, I will be very happy." Satisfied." The words of this flower got the approval of all the flowers.

Ivory didn't say a word, but looked up at the clouds in the sky.

"And the ivory will definitely survive." The name of the ivory has been known to all the flowers, and even the birch forest next to it curiously sent a few leaves to carefully identify the appearance of the ivory, wondering how long the flower with the name grew. what kind.The flowers said, "Ivory is different from us. It has been different from us since childhood. It has its own name! If the ivory is still there, it can help us see what it will look like next spring!"

Yuan Ning looked at Ivory.

Ivory finally stopped looking at the clouds in the sky.It turned to look at Yuan Ning: "Is that big dog not here? Did something happen?"

Zhaofu tried to bring out the spring water but failed, and somehow failed to enter the "dream".Ivory and Zhaofu have not met many times in the past two years, and they can only meet after Zhaofu comes to the ranch.

Yuan Ning said: "Zhaofu is in good health, but a bit listless! Because Grandpa Xie broke his leg, Zhaofu has been very worried."

Ivory sighed and said, "Is the spring water really useless?"

Watching its companions wither day by day, it knows that the spring water is not a panacea for bringing the dead back to life.Even if the pollutants in its companions have been removed, the damage caused by the pollution cannot be repaired.

But this is normal, right?If there is really something in this world that can change life and death, how can everything be reincarnated?Everything should change all the time, just like the clouds in the sky will turn into rain, and the water on the ground will turn into clouds. No one should let them stop.

Ivory cheered up: "Those big guys on the mountain often sneak in to see me, you have to tell them well, don't let them be caught and slaughtered."

Yuan Ning said, "It's the little wild boars!"

Ivory said: "Yes, they are those idiots. But they have grown so big, they can't be called little wild boars anymore, they should be called big wild boars."

Yuan Ning said: "I will tell them!"

Both Luo Yuanliang and Zhang Xiuming couldn't hear Ivory's words, and Yuan Ning couldn't stay in front of Ivory for too long.Anyway, we could meet each other in the "dream", Yuan Ning waved and bid farewell to Ivory.

Luo Yuanliang said that he had work to do, so he went to the shed area, and Yuan Ning had to go back to the camp with Zhang Xiuming.

After breakfast, the students all chose locations near the camp to sketch in twos and threes. Yuan Ning was not in a hurry to draw new works, but wrote a letter to Zhang Xiuyan earnestly.The letters he wrote were very trivial, and he wrote down the autumn outing in great detail. From time to time, he drew a simple sentence next to it, and restored the picture on the letter paper—about the hummingbird nest, about the red wild fruit, about He wrote all about the corn stalks in his letter.

Yuan Ning finished writing the letter before Cheng Zhong drove to the town to buy, and asked Cheng Zhong to help post the letter.

Cheng Zhong weighed the heavy letter, reckoning that he would have to send a small parcel to send it.He nodded and joked, "Don't worry, I will let your elder brother receive the letter as soon as possible."

Yuan Ning's ears turned red, and he said embarrassingly: "I wrote so much before I knew it. But I didn't write it on the same day. I saved it for many days!"

Cheng Zhong left, Yuan Ning also ran back to the tent to sketch.

We spent two days in this autumn tour, and there was no accident. Everyone was attracted by the beauty of the ranch, and they didn't control or make trouble at all.When it was time to go back at noon, everyone was reluctant to part with them and begged Teacher Qi to arrange the activity for summer vacation next time, so that they could come here for a whole month.

For children who grew up in the city, the attraction of the ranch is huge-you must know that they only see the autumn of the ranch, but not the spring and summer of the ranch!

Yuan Ning came many times, and knew that he would definitely come again in the future, so the reluctance in his heart was not as intense as others.But after getting on the school bus, he saw a few black heads poking out of the bushes in the mountain, and when he looked carefully, it wasn't the little wild boars who it was!

The little wild boars are not too small now, they are almost as tall as Zhaofu, and they are all covered with majestic bristles.They hid in the bushes and howled a few times, bidding farewell to Yuan Ning.

Yuan Ning lay on the car window and watched them, feeling extremely happy.They've all grown up nicely!

The journey was a bit long, and Yuan Ning was a little sleepy after playing for two days. After driving, he leaned back in his chair and fell asleep soon.

Zhang Xiuming glanced at Yuan Ning's little head bit by bit, and couldn't help raising his hand to put the little head on his shoulder, letting Yuan Ning sleep on his own.The car drove forward unsteadily, and Zhang Xiuming soon fell asleep.

Yuan Ning's "dream" still has ivory them.Since getting those five lotus seeds, Yu'er has become restless, and Yuan Ning has to come in every day to comfort her.In the end, I had no choice but to bring in lotus seeds and plant them in the pond.

Yuan Ning didn't know if it was right to plant the lotus seeds, but after the lotus seeds were planted, the fish calmed down and leaned against the "wall" surrounded by black silk threads every day to look at the place where the lotus seeds were.

But more than a month has passed, but there is no movement in the pond, even the water waves are less, and it is so quiet that it seems lifeless.Yuan Ning was worried, fearing that he planted lotus seeds in the wrong way, wasting such good lotus seeds!

This time, as soon as Yuan Ning fell into a dream, the voice of ivory rang out: "Look at the other side of the pond, in the middle! There are green, sharp little horns there!"

Yuan Ning has very good eyesight. Looking in the direction Ivory said, I saw a small horn emerge from the water. It is still green, tender and cute. It looks so delicate, as if it will disappear when the wind blows. .But it still grows out!

Yuan Ning looked down carefully and found a long green stem under the water.Is it harder for a lotus seed to emerge from the water than for flowers to emerge from the soil?It has to grow up for a long, long time before it can come out of the water and breathe the fresh air on the water.

Yuan Ning happily announced the good news to Yu'er: "Yu'er, Yuer, the lotus seeds have grown!"

As if in response to his words, several other sharp corners drilled out of the water one after another, causing ripples to appear on the water.The spring water was originally clear, but as the small lotus stems drilled upwards, the bright water quality seemed to have changed a little.The wind blew over from nowhere, and the sharp corners swayed.They are still greedily breathing the surrounding air, and the curly sharp corners slowly unfurl, turning into pieces of slim green lotus leaves.

Obviously the fragrance of the lotus leaf is very faint, and you can't usually smell it, but Yuan Ning feels the fragrance of the lotus leaf wafting to her nose.

Originally, Yuan Ning thought that this "dream" was already quite bright, but as the fragrance drifted away, everything in front of her eyes seemed to be brighter again, and the gray feeling of the sky had dissipated a lot, as if there was light shining from above , dispelling the darkness above the open space a lot.

The ginseng babies pulled their legs out of the soil and ran happily to the open space. A flower popped out of their heads and scattered the seeds on the vast open space.Countless ginseng seedlings immediately drilled out of the ground.

The ginseng babies ran over and surrounded Yuan Ning and said in unison, "Here you are! I'll sell you money!" They told Yuan Ning their usefulness, "Bring the seeds, we'll plant them!"

Yuan Ning was surprised.In the past, the baby ginseng had never learned to speak, and could only squeak and shake its branches and leaves, but now it can suddenly speak!

Yuan Ning said: "My money is enough to spend, you don't have to work so hard!"

The ginseng babies drooped their heads in frustration: "Then we can't help anything, it's useless at all."

Yuan Ning was taken aback for a moment.He also often has the feeling that he is useless because he can't help.That kind of taste is really uncomfortable!Yuan Ning changed his words seriously: "Okay, I'll bring some seeds in later and ask you to help plant them."

The ginseng babies were very excited when they heard this, and happily circled around Yuan Ning.

Yuan Ning looked at the lotus leaves standing upright in the pond, and became very curious about the five lotus seeds.Generally speaking, things planted here will grow fast and well, but it took a full month for the five lotus seeds to grow out of the water.And after they grow out, the baby ginseng seems to have grown from a "baby state" to a "child state" all of a sudden, can talk and think - and even have vivid feelings!

Is this the new vitality brought by those five lotus seeds?

Before Yuan Ning had time to think deeply, he felt someone pushing him beside him.Yuan Ning woke up quietly, opened his eyes, and saw Zhang Xiuming beside him.Zhang Xiuming said, "Ningning, we're home, let's get out of the car!"

Yuan Ning quickly took all his things, said goodbye to Teacher Qi and the others, and got out of the car with Zhang Xiuming.

Before he reached the gate of Zhang's house, Yuan Ning saw Zhao Fu running towards him in a hurry.Yuan Ning's heart skipped a beat, and he also ran over, and asked Zhao Fu with concern: "What's wrong? Is something wrong with Grandpa Xie?"

Zhao Fu didn't say anything, just glanced at Yuan Ning quietly, turned around and ran back.

Yuan Ning dropped what he was holding and chased after him.