"Wow! So many chickens and ducks!" Brother Nan exclaimed softly.
"There are quails too," Zhou Li said.
"Wow! And cows!"
"She's been raising them for many years."
"Wow, so many fruit trees! Peaches, these are plums, right? And also nectarines, loquats... It must be amazing when they bear fruit!"
"How did you recognize them?"
"Swallow nests! Hey, we have swallow nests at my house too!"
Zhou Li doubted Brother Nan could hear him speak.
"Wow, you actually grow baby bok choy! I love baby bok choy; it's great in hot pot!"
"We'll cook hot pot tomorrow," Zheng Zhilan whispered.
"Tomorrow, I..." Brother Nan hesitated for a moment. "I have to leave in the afternoon. It's my uncle's New Year gathering."
"We'll eat at noon then."
"Okay!"
"You can also use it to wrap roasted meat or roasted mushrooms, but only a little," Zheng Zhilan spoke softly. "In summer and autumn, you can use pumpkin leaves to wrap and roast."
"Right, right, right! I used to roast things with pumpkin leaves, like the leftover meat from making sausages," Brother Nan nodded repeatedly.
"Too bad there are no pumpkins in winter."
"You can also use bamboo tubes."
"Let's go to the mountain across from us for a barbecue tomorrow afternoon."
"Then I'll eat before I leave..." Brother Nan said, then suddenly asked, "But why do we need to go to the mountain across from here to barbecue?"
"It feels more special if we go a bit farther."
"Huh..."
This perspective indeed made Brother Nan feel intrigued.
Zhou Li tugged at her sleeve and said, "Little Zheng's house also has a Demon called Qinghe. Qinghe cannot manifest his form voluntarily, so don't be all boisterous and careless and bump into him."
Upon hearing this, Brother Nan immediately raised her eyebrows. Her whole body was motionless, her head still; only her eyeballs moved.
To the left, they darted.
To the right, they darted.
Then she asked Zheng Zhilan quietly, "Where is he?"
Zheng Zhilan replied, "He's not here. He went fishing this morning and hasn't come back yet."
After a pause, she added, "Don't worry, he'll avoid you. He reacts quickly, so you won't bump into him."
"Fishing? Where?"
"Over there in the creek pool." Zheng Zhilan peeked at Brother Nan's expression, thought for a moment, then said, "It's getting late. We should probably call him back, or he might not return until nighttime."
"Does he like fishing that much?"
"He probably hasn't caught anything and is too embarrassed to come back," Zheng Zhilan said, covering her mouth as she spoke. She usually saw through things but didn't point them out.
"Are you going to call him?"
"Yes."
"I'll go take a look too," Brother Nan immediately said.
"I'll go too," Zhou Li added.
BANG!
So the three of them set off together, with the Yin Yang Temple Dog Gang dispatching half of their canine members to protect them along the way.
Exiting the courtyard and turning right led back the way Zhou Li and Brother Nan had come earlier. The creek was to the left, the direction Zhou Li and Zheng Zhilan had gone to pick Red Bubbles. It was another narrow path clinging to the cliff's edge—looking dangerous from afar, but not so much up close.
Brother Nan quietly sized up Zheng Zhilan.
Zheng Zhilan also walked very steadily.
What was interesting were Zheng Zhilan's Border Collie and German Shepherd. They kept a tight watch on the three humans. Yet Brother Nan, unable to keep her hands to herself, would dally and fall behind Zheng Zhilan and Zhou Li. The two dogs would then hurriedly run over to urge Brother Nan to keep up and not get lost.
The path was narrow here. Even when it widened, the two dogs would make the three of them walk together, not allowing them to separate.
"Wow! So many sheep!"
"And they're actual sheep, huh! Sheep taste good. In our countryside, we only raise goats! Can you eat this many?"
Brother Nan started to marvel again.
Walking into the forest ahead, they could already hear the babbling stream. A little closer, and the endlessly flowing creek came into view.
In the middle was a creek pool.
The creek water flowed down from above, pooled, and then continued downstream.
Qinghe was dressed in a wide cloth garment and held a bamboo pole. He sat on a moss-covered stone, as still as someone in deep meditation, undisturbed by the wind, the rustling leaves, or Huai Xu's attempts to bother him. He focused solely on the rippling water.
Some dead leaves floated on the water's surface, also wavering incessantly.
A bucket was placed beside him.
Zhou Li leaned over to look. The bucket held only three fish, the largest barely three fingers wide.
This was a pool in the creek, not a river or a pond, and fish in such creeks rarely grew large. Zhou Li guessed that in previous years, they had only caught fish this small, merely for the auspicious symbolism of 'surplus year after year.' This year, however, likely because he and Brother Nan were visiting, Qinghe and Zheng Zhilan wanted to catch some larger ones for the meal.
Brother Nan, afraid of bumping into Qinghe, obediently followed behind Zhou Li, glancing at the pool and then at the stream flowing into it.
"It's not easy to fish here!" she exclaimed.
"Small ones are fine; we can't eat much anyway," Zheng Zhilan said to Qinghe. "Let's head back, shall we?"
"Let me do it!"
SHING!
A small dagger suddenly appeared in front of Huai Xu, spinning gently. As he pointed forward, the dagger swiftly plunged into the water. When it flew out, a fish three fingers wide was impaled on the blade.
"Fishing is so inefficient. You sit for half a day, and it still depends on the fish's intelligence," Huai Xu boasted. "My method is way more efficient!"
PLOP! PLOP!
The fish was still struggling after landing in the bucket.
By the bucket, Qinghe merely turned his head to glance faintly at Huai Xu, then resumed watching the water.
Huai Xu also continued to observe, his gaze seemingly able to penetrate the creek water.
SWISH!
SWISH!
Two more fish were caught in quick succession.
Qinghe silently reeled in his line, stood up, picked up the bucket, and walked away.
Huai Xu grinned cheekily.
Zheng Zhilan, following behind Qinghe, also snickered.
Only Brother Nan stood there, her expression dazed as she watched Qinghe, muttering, "A fishing rod and a swaying bucket floating in mid-air…"
「Back at the small courtyard.」
Brother Nan was still marveling endlessly. "This place has such a great environment, even better than our village! Can we catch bamboo worms in the bamboo forest here in the summer to play with?"
Zhou Li couldn't hear anymore.
Only Zheng Zhilan was still patiently answering her, "Yes, you can, but I've never caught them. Mantou loves to catch them; it's always bringing some insects back to play with. But I do dig up a lot of bamboo shoots every year to eat or to make pickles."
"How wonderfully relaxing!"
"Do you like crispy rice?"
"I love it! I absolutely love crispy rice!"
"And Zhou Li?" Zheng Zhilan asked.
"I'm okay with it," Zhou Li replied.
"Qinghe has recently fallen in love with crispy rice. So, I'll make a special crispy rice pot for dinner tonight."
"I'll be your assistant!" Brother Nan said excitedly.
"I'll tend the fire," Zhou Li offered.
"I caught the fish," Huai Xu declared.
"…"
"What's with that look?" Huai Xu asked Zhou Li, annoyed. "Did you really volunteer to tend the fire just to be helpful?"
"…"
Point taken.
Sitting before the earthen stove, his back against the wall, Zhou Li felt an odd sense of security. The cramped space was mostly filled with stacked firewood, making even the fire tongs awkward to handle.
This time, he successfully started the fire. He felt a small surge of pride.
As the flames roared, a wave of warmth washed over his face, making it feel quite hot. This heat, in stark contrast to the cold outside, created a peculiar sense of comfort.
"Make some room!"
Brother Nan somehow produced a few small, raw sweet potatoes and placed them near the stove's opening, saying, "Put them in there to roast."
"I don't know how," Zhou Li confessed, being a novice.
"Just place them on the sides to roast," Brother Nan instructed him.
"Won't they get scorched?" Zhou Li worried.
"They won't! I'll take care of it!"
"Is this right?" Zhou Li deftly placed the sweet potatoes inside the stove, away from the direct flames, then said to Brother Nan, who was peering in, "See? Aren't I roasting these well?"
"What?"
"Look at my firewood; I've arranged it into a pyramid." Zhou Li paused, then added, "This helps it burn better. Maybe."
"...You're nuts," Brother Nan pronounced her diagnosis.
"…" Zhou Li fell silent.
Zheng Zhilan started laughing again.
Zhou Li didn't mind. In his view, Brother Nan was just an unusual person. Wasn't it perfectly normal for an unusual person to not understand the thinking of a normal person like himself?