Wen Xi answered without the slightest hesitation.
“The Wen family’s Ultimate Art of Acting Cute!”
Then, deliberately, she burrowed her head into her grandmother’s arms, squirming around like a spoiled little child until she made Grandma burst into laughter.
Lunch was stir-fried potatoes with cured pork.
The aroma was so irresistible that Wen Xi, who was tending the fire, kept swallowing saliva. She gulped once, then again and again.
And when she finally sat down at the table, she ate until the delicious flavor lingered in every corner of her mouth.
“Grandma, the moment I came, you brought out meat and eggs to treat me. I almost don’t dare stay too long because I’m afraid I’ll eat you out of house and home. Hahaha.”
Her words successfully made Grandma laugh.
“You little girl, how much could you possibly eat?”
“Besides, your parents and your uncle’s family give me enough living expenses. Even if I ate meat and eggs every day, I wouldn’t go broke.”
Wen Xi believed her and wanted to show off her own determination.
“Then I’ll become an agricultural scientist as soon as possible, get myself a government salary, and give Grandma some living expenses too.”
“Good! Then Grandma will look forward to collecting living expenses from Xiaoxi. Hahaha.”
Once again, Wen Xi managed to claim the right to wash the dishes.
Grandma had gotten up early, so Wen Xi sent her off for an afternoon nap to catch up on her sleep.
To keep the sound of washing dishes from disturbing her grandmother, Wen Xi not only closed the kitchen door but also deliberately lightened her movements.
Fortunately, the kitchen had been built beneath several large trees and beside a small bamboo grove, so it wasn’t particularly hot or stuffy.
After cleaning up the kitchen, Wen Xi didn’t go take a nap herself.
Instead, she went to the woodshed, brought out some of the raw materials for fertilizer, and began tinkering with them.
Once she started working, Wen Xi completely forgot about maintaining her appearance.
As a result, when Grandma woke from her short nap about an hour later, she was greeted by a dusty, gray-faced granddaughter.
“Xiaoxi, how did you manage to get yourself so dirty? Come here. Grandma will wipe you off.”
Wen Xi kept working and called back loudly,
“Grandma, I’m almost done! I’ll wash up in a minute. I don’t want to dirty your handkerchief.”
A few minutes later, Wen Xi finally finished.
She stood up and was about to draw some water from the large water jar to wash herself when she noticed that Grandma had already brought out a small basin of warm water.
“Young girls shouldn’t wash with cold water too often. Don’t choose convenience or coolness for the moment and end up making yourself sick.”
Wen Xi’s eyes immediately began to sting again.
No one had ever cared about her so carefully.
In her previous life, when she had lived in the mountains in the modern era, she had sometimes washed with cold water even in winter, let alone summer.
That was probably why she always suffered terrible stomach cramps whenever her period came.
Not wanting to cry, Wen Xi immediately forced her eyes into a smile and swallowed the sudden ache in her heart.
“Grandma, love you~”
Grandma’s eyes crinkled with amusement, and even her words carried a smile.
“A young lady like you, and you’re not even embarrassed to say things like that.”
After their playful exchange, grandmother and granddaughter returned to the main room and sat together.
The two red cloth bundles of snacks were spread open on the table.
Wen Xi chatted with Grandma about all sorts of things that had happened in Haishi while the two of them happily dug up all kinds of embarrassing stories about Wen Xi’s parents.
Before they knew it, time had slipped away.
It wasn’t until someone called from outside that they realized how late it had become.
“Teacher Li! Want to come sit under the locust tree and have a chat?”
Grandma glanced at Wen Xi and was just about to refuse when Wen Xi stopped her.
First, she turned her head toward the person outside and called out,
“Coming, coming!”
Then she turned back to Grandma.
“Grandma, take me with you to meet your old friends, okay? I want to hear you ladies chat too.”
Grandma tried to decline.
“It’s nothing but gossip about whose family did what and whose family did that. You’ll probably get bored after a few minutes.”
“I just want to learn more about you, Grandma. Take me with you.”
The moment Wen Xi stepped outside, the elderly woman waiting at the door immediately showered her with enthusiastic praise.
“Oh my, is this Teacher Li’s granddaughter? Look how big she’s gotten!”
“What a beautiful girl! Unlike that little rascal of mine. She’s practically a mischievous monkey. Hahaha.”
Faced with such enthusiasm, Wen Xi didn’t quite know how to respond and could only keep smiling.
Fortunately, Grandma was there to take over the conversation.
“Sister Zhang, what are you saying? Your Zhang Xiulan is healthy, tall, lively, and cheerful. She’s an excellent girl.”
From the moment Grandma Zhang had seen Wen Xi, the smile on her face hadn’t disappeared.
Now that she heard Grandma praising her granddaughter, she was grinning so widely that nearly all her teeth showed.
“Teacher Li, if my little girl heard you praising her like that, her tail would be sticking straight up in the air! Hahaha.”
“The other ladies are already under the locust tree. We can take our time getting there.”
The three women walked together.
Along the way, Grandma Zhang noticed that Wen Xi had obediently linked arms with Teacher Li the entire time.
She jokingly said that tomorrow she would bring her own granddaughter along too.
The locust tree was more than a hundred years old.
Its branches and leaves were so dense that they formed a massive natural canopy, providing shade across an area within an eight-meter radius of its trunk.
Several groups of village women were already gathered beneath it, chatting away.
There were also several little children, barely a meter tall, running around and playing beneath the tree.
When they saw Wen Xi, a stranger to them, they all smiled at her kindly.
After Grandma introduced her, several women who had children around Wen Xi’s age invited her to come over to their homes and play sometime.
Before long, however, the women returned to their usual rhythm of chatting beneath the tree.
“Zhang Dashu’s mother…”
“I heard Zhang Dafa’s wife is pregnant again…”
“Zhang Danian’s youngest son seems to be in poor health…”
“Zhang Dachun’s eldest son apparently managed to get himself a job at the county steel mill…”
The older women really were talking about nothing but family gossip.
But Wen Xi didn’t find it boring at all.
She treated it all as gossip.
Surely there couldn’t be anyone in the world who didn’t enjoy listening to gossip, right?
Wen Xi was listening so intently that she suddenly felt someone tug twice at the hem of her clothes.
She turned around.
Standing there were two little children, a boy and a girl, neither of whom was even as tall as her thigh.
They were obviously twins.
They looked remarkably alike.
It was the little girl who had tugged on Wen Xi’s clothes.
Afraid of frightening her, Wen Xi deliberately softened her voice.
“What is it? Did you want to ask Big Sister something?”
The little girl’s face turned bright red, but she couldn’t get a single word out.
The little boy was a little braver.
Although he stumbled over his words, his little face was still flushed red.
“We… want you to play… eagle catches chicks with us. Can you be the… mother hen and protect us?”
Wen Xi froze for a moment.
Her mind immediately wandered.
So the game of Eagle Catches Chicks really is universal across the whole country, passed down from generation to generation?
An older woman nearby saw that Wen Xi hadn’t answered right away and told the children to go play by themselves.
“Big Sister has things to do. Go on, go play.”
Only then did Wen Xi snap back to reality.
She smiled at the woman who had spoken for her.
“Thank you, Auntie. It’s okay. I can play.”
And just like that, five little turnip heads ended up following behind Wen Xi in a single line.
With Wen Xi joining them, the children became even more excited.
Wen Xi got completely caught up in the game too.
She dodged left and right, doing her best to protect the five little “chicks” trailing behind her.
The “eagle” was certainly experienced, but against Wen Xi, who was considerably taller than the children and acting as their protector, it had a hard time.
They played for a long time, yet the eagle still couldn’t catch even one of the little “chicks.”
Under the locust tree, Wen Xi led a whole group of children in a lively game, their laughter ringing out again and again.
Nearby, the elderly women sitting on stones and wooden stools watched the children playing Eagle Catches Chicks with warm, affectionate smiles.
The sun gradually began to sink toward the west.
Golden rays filtered through the leaves of the old locust tree and fell gently upon everyone beneath it, as though nature itself had casually painted a peaceful and harmonious scene.