I heard that they were going to the mountain to make bamboo tube rice, so the kitchen prepared the ingredients early and sent them to the bamboo forest on the top of the mountain. After Su Yi and the others got up, they could set off directly.
They did not take the main road, but chose an ancient road paved with bluestone slabs. The road was quite old and meandered to the top of the mountain. There were towering trees on both sides, and it was remote and quiet.
Because there were children and pregnant women in the team, they did not move very fast. The person leading the way was a young man, the nephew of the gatekeeper Lao Li. People in the old house called him Xiao Li.
The young man was careful in his work. He had a hatchet in his hand. Whenever he encountered branches and thorns sticking out of the road, he would push them back to the side of the road with force. If he couldn't push them back, he would use the hatchet to chop them away to clear the way for the people behind him.
The two children followed Xiao Li skipping and jumping, each carrying a small backpack containing their own water and snacks.
Before setting off, Sui told them that if they could carry the snacks in the bag to the top of the mountain by themselves, they could eat them. If they didn't want to do their own work and wanted others to help them, they would have to give the snacks to others.
With this bait in front of them, the two children now climbed particularly vigorously.
Mother Qin walked beside Lin Luoluo and behind the two children, watching carefully and helping the pregnant woman if necessary.
This is Lin Luoluo’s second child. She has always been in good health, and her belly is not particularly big now. If she stays at home all day, it will be detrimental to her delivery. Originally, she didn’t plan to come along today for fear of troubling others. Later, even Ms. Xu persuaded her to come out for some fresh air.
The last ones to fall behind were Su Yi and Sheng Yunzhou, who walked side by side.
In the quiet woods beside the road, the melodious chirping of birds can be heard from time to time. Although it is midsummer, the shadows of the trees perfectly block the scorching sun, leaving only coolness.
"Are you tired?" Sheng Yunzhou asked her.
Not long after they left the house, the two children and the pregnant woman did not complain of being tired, but Sheng Yunzhou asked her. Su Yi felt looked down upon, raised her chin, and said, "Don't look down on me, I'm in good physical condition."
Sheng Yunzhou smiled and asked again: "How did you sleep last night?"
He still had the nerve to ask this. The Great Devil, who had been struggling for a long time last night, suspected that this person did it on purpose, so he said, "Anyway, I slept better than you."
Sheng Yunzhou didn't expect that she was still quite vindictive. Hearing these words that seemed to be spoken in anger, he laughed dumbly, then reached out and stroked her head, lowering his voice slightly and said, "It's my fault, Miss Yi Yi, calm down."
"I'm not a child." Sue said seriously, "You can't keep touching my head."
"I don't treat you as a child." Sheng Yunzhou said.
"Then why are you touching my head?" Su Yi asked back.
Sheng Yunzhou paused for a moment. He touched her head, just following his heart. He liked her like this and couldn't help wanting to touch her. It was an emotional fluctuation from the bottom of his heart. However, it was too abrupt to say this in public, so he could only whisper, "I'll explain it to you in detail when we get back, okay?"
His eyes were too focused and gentle. Under such a gaze, Su Yi felt a little uncomfortable. He pretended to be generous and said, "Then I'll give you some time."
Sheng Yunzhou chuckled.
A few steps away from the two of them, Qin's mother held Lin Luoluo's hand, winking at her, with an unconcealable smile on her face.
Lin Luoluo felt embarrassed. At such a short distance, she could hear the conversation between her uncle and Su Yi clearly even if she didn't listen on purpose.
She had always known that her uncle was a kind, mature and steady person, but this was the first time she knew that he acted like this in front of the person he really loved.
It was no longer a mask-like gentleness, but real tenderness and love. The cherishment could be heard just from the voice, and the indulgence was so full that it almost overflowed.
She thought, no wonder Su Yi said that her uncle treated her like a child. With such a gentle tone and such a cherishing attitude, how could one not think so
Suddenly a bird flew over not far above their heads, dragging its long tail, with an elegant and nimble figure, and landed gently on the treetop.
"Wow... What kind of bird is that? Its tail is so long!" The two children tilted their heads back in amazement.
"Watch the road and don't roll down." Su Yi reminded them as he saw them standing on the stone steps with their heads tilted back.
Sheng Hengrong asked excitedly: "Aunt Su, is that a peacock?"
Without waiting for Su Yi to answer, Su Li'an retorted: "The peacock is much bigger than it."
"But the peacock has a long tail, and it also has a long tail. The peacock is blue, and it is also blue. Maybe it is a baby peacock that has not grown up yet." Sheng Hengrong shook his head and said, which actually made sense.
Su Li'an insisted: "It's not a peacock anyway."
"Then what do you call it?" Sheng Hengrong asked.
"Uh..." Su Liyan was stuck and looked at Su Yi for help.
Lin Luoluo smiled and said, "An An is right, it is indeed not a peacock." But she didn't know what it was called specifically. Just as she was about to ask Qin's mother, she heard Su Yi say, "That is a blue magpie, also called the long-tailed mountain girl."
Su Li'an looked at Sheng Hengrong with his chest puffed out as if in victory, "Look, it's not a peacock."
"You don't know, it was Aunt Su who said it." Sheng Hengrong was not convinced.
"When I grow up, I'll know as much as my mother does."
"You haven't grown up yet!"
Seeing the two of them starting to argue, Su Yi urged them, "If you don't hurry up, you won't be able to reach the top of the mountain by dark. Uncle Xiao Li has already walked so far. Let's see who can catch up with him."
When the two little guys heard this, they immediately put aside their previous argument, grabbed the straps and rushed forward, "Uncle Li, wait for us!"
"Run slower and don't fall!" Qin's mother was worried.
Su Yi was very calm. The stone road was not slippery and there was grass on both sides. Even if she fell, she would only get some scratches at most.
She never thought that it was a good thing to restrict children too strictly. It is the nature of children to jump around, chase and play.
Finally we reached the top of the mountain, which was a sea of bamboo that stretched from halfway up the mountain, like a hat stuck on the mountain.
Xiao Li led them to find the spring. The food that their family had sent in advance was placed next to the clear spring water, and there were even a few freshly cut bamboo tubes.
The two children were a little tired, so they sat down on the ground and couldn't wait to take food out of their bags.
The adults divided the work among themselves. Xiao Li and Sheng Yunzhou were responsible for setting up the stove, Su Yi was collecting firewood nearby, and Qin Ma and Lin Luoluo were washing rice and seasoning the rice, bacon, bamboo shoots and other ingredients.
There were a lot of bamboo leaves and dried bamboo shoots in the bamboo forest. Su Yi picked up a lot of them in a short while and put them next to the makeshift "stove". She was about to start lighting a fire to cook, but was stopped by Qin's mother.
"Leave these things to me. Miss Su, just sit next to me or walk around nearby." As she spoke, she winked at Sheng Yunzhou.
She followed him out today not only to take care of Lin Luoluo, but also for another purpose, which was to create an opportunity for their Third Master. Otherwise, looking at his hesitant attitude, how could there be such a good opportunity once Miss Su returned home tomorrow
Her movements were so obvious that no one present could fail to notice them except the two children.
Lin Luoluo looked at her nose and her heart, pretending not to know. She now understood why Sheng Yanchuan said before that they should not care about the affairs of the elders. Being caught in the middle was indeed uncomfortable.
Sheng Yunzhou just smiled. If Su Yi wanted to go for a walk with him, he would go naturally, not because of an opportunity created by others.
Although his family was doing this for his own good, he didn't want Su Yi to feel that it was too deliberate or going against her wishes.
So the few of them did not disperse and walk around, but all sat under the shade of the trees. The two little guys crunched potato chips and clinked glasses with yogurt, making them look like those people eating at a food stall and drinking beer.
Su Yi was chatting with Lin Luoluo and she casually pulled two pieces of grass to weave. Sheng Yunzhou was sitting next to her watching. Suddenly, she felt someone pulling the hem of her clothes. She turned her head and saw it was Su Lian.
He didn't know when he had finished eating the potato chips. Seeing him turn around, he leaned over and whispered, "Uncle Sheng, can I talk to you?"
Sheng Yunzhou was a little surprised. Seeing the serious look on the little guy's face, it seemed that he was ready to have a serious talk with him.
He did not ignore Su Lian's importance just because he was young. He said something to Sui Yi and, under the pretext of taking the child to wash his hands, the two of them walked alone to the downstream of the spring.
Su Lian looked back as he walked, and only stopped when he was sure he was far enough.
Sheng Yunzhou squatted down, looked him in the eye, and said gently, "What do you want to say to uncle?"
A child of this age was lucky enough to know how to whisper to others without being noticed. He didn't know how to be polite and asked right away, "Are you going to be my dad?"
Although Sheng Yunzhou knew that the topic might be related to him and Su Yi, he did not expect that he would be so direct right from the start. He was stunned for a moment by a five-year-old child for the first time, and then he smiled and said, "I want to do this, but I still need your and your mother's consent."
He paused and asked, "Do you think I'm qualified?"
Su Li'an touched his chin like a little adult, looked around him from top to bottom, and said uncertainly: "I think he should be qualified? Do I need to take the exam?"
Sheng Yunzhou laughed, "No need to take the test, but you can make demands on me. If I do it, I will pass."
When the child heard this, his eyes lit up and he asked hurriedly, "Will you come to the kindergarten to pick me up after school? Sheng Hengrong said that his father usually picks him up."
Sheng Yunzhou asked back: "Don't you like your mother answering the phone?"
Su Li'an pouted and said, "Of course I like my mother. I like her the most, but I hope that my parents can come to pick me up together."
Sheng Yunzhou patted his shoulder and nodded, "Okay, I'd love to pick you up."
Su Li'an grinned and asked, "Will you buy me lots of toys?"
"Okay." Sheng Yunzhou nodded.
"Take me out to play every day?"
Sheng Yunzhou raised his eyebrows slightly, "You can't go every day, you can only go on weekends, and you need your mother's consent."
"Okay." The child pouted, "Then can I have lots and lots of ice cream?"
Sheng Yunzhou shook his head: "You should ask your mother about this, and you can't eat too much."
“A lot of chips?”
"Ask your mother."
"Drink three bottles of yogurt in one go?"
"Your mother has the final say."
Su Li'an's face fell when he heard this. "Why do you need mom's approval for everything? So you have to listen to mom too?"
Sheng Yunzhou nodded and said with a smile: "Yes, from now on your mother will have the final say and we all have to listen to her."
"Okay, okay..." The child looked very disappointed and muttered to himself, "It turns out that I'm not the only one who is afraid of my mother. Uncle Sheng is also afraid of her. Did my mother also say that if he doesn't behave well, he will be spanked?"
As a result, Sui's image in the children's minds became more and more majestic.