Hesha was surprised to find that after a while, all kinds of vegetables in Meili's vegetable garden had grown strong and lush, and the vines were entwined around the wooden frame, forming a green tent.
The round cabbages are like green flower buds, neatly arranged in the vegetable field; the long green turnip leaves are a little crowded because they are planted too densely...
As beautiful as her garden.
"When I came to see them some time ago, these vegetables were not looking very good. How did you do it?" Hesha exclaimed.
She was busy all through the Plantagenet Month, and seldom came to see her friends, and only came to play with them when her affairs at home were done.
Mei Li's amber eyes looked a little guilty, but her tone was calm: "I burned some wood ash to make fertilizer."
Hesha believed it easily, and was still muttering about why her family had done the same thing before but the results were not very good.
After seeing Hesha off at dusk, Meili had dinner and took advantage of the light to walk to the small lake near the forest. It was hot recently, so she would go there to swim. The water there was clean and she could take a bath there.
It was not dark yet, so she was not afraid to go there alone.
And lately, the swamp monster has been hanging around here.
Sinking to the bottom of the lake, the light from the water surface could penetrate directly through. Mei Li held his breath for a while, then swung his legs easily and emerged from the water like a fish.
With water still dripping from her eyelashes, she squinted her eyes and saw a blurry figure appear in front of her.
I leaned back in fear and saw clearly that it was a swamp monster.
"Which mud puddle have you spent the whole day in today?" Mei Li greeted him and saw a small grass growing on his shoulder, with a small white flower blooming and swaying in the wind.
She wrung her hair dry, climbed up, suddenly walked quickly to the swamp monster, jumped up, picked the flower, turned around and ran away.
She turned around and laughed, "This is for me!"
It suddenly rained heavily in the evening. Mei Li hurriedly got up to close the window. While standing by the window, he saw from afar a slowly moving figure in the rain slowly walking towards him.
He walked across the wilderness, up the hill, and into her yard.
Mei Li: “???”
She stood by the window and looked down, ignoring the rain outside and sticking her head out.
"Why did you come here suddenly?" she whispered.
Thinking of the ghost of Mrs. Peg next door, she always felt inexplicably guilty. After all, she was now Mrs. Peg's daughter, and now this scene, once it was separated from the atmosphere of a horror movie, seemed to have changed and turned into a scene of a secret rendezvous.
The swamp monster raised his long arm, just reaching to the second-floor window. In his hand he held a purple iris flower.
Mei Li was stunned when he looked at the purple iris flowers.
The faint fragrance of the calamus flowers has long been washed away by the rain, leaving only the fragrance of water vapor and earth.
Mei Li took the flower, feeling the coolness of rain in her hands.
Before she could say anything else, the swamp creature turned and walked away, as suddenly and silently as he had come.
After standing in front of the window for a while, Mei Li closed it. Crystal clear water drops rolled on the petals of the purple iris in her hand. She had held it all the way here, and it was hit by the rain and looked pitiful.
Mei Li suddenly realized that this was the first time that the swamp monster had taken the initiative to give her flowers without her deliberately provoking him first.
The calamus had been in the vase for a few days and was about to wither. When Hesha came to play, she saw it and asked casually, "Did you go to the big pond in the west?"
Mei Li: "What?"
Hesha pointed at the purple iris and said, "Only the big pond in the west grows this kind of purple iris. It's blooming recently. Didn't you pick this one there?"
Mei Li: “…I found this on the roadside.”
Hesha had been free recently and was thinking about taking her friends out to play. She suggested, "Let's go to the big pond and take a look! You can pick some new iris flowers. Yours are all dead."
Mei Li agreed, and Hesha led the way. She memorized the route and had almost memorized all the surrounding paths and small forests.
She had never been to the big pond in the west, so this time she was exploring a new area. It was particularly far from her home, and it took them a long time to get there.
Before reaching the place, I could see from afar some green clumps by the pond, with some purple flowers among them.
"There are a lot of wild duck eggs here. I used to come here to pick them up when I was a child. Unfortunately, there are fewer of them in the past two years..." Hesha walked in front, as talkative as ever.
When they were about to reach the iris bush, Mei Li suddenly took two steps forward, picked up Hesha by the waist, and carried her two steps lightly. Hesha staggered to her feet and looked back at her in confusion.
Mei Li pointed to the bushes that Hesha had almost stepped on and said seriously, "There was a snake there just now."
Hersha: "Ah! Snake! Where is it!"
Mei Li: "It has already run into the water."
As she spoke, she glanced down at her feet out of the corner of her eye.
There, Hesha couldn't see, but she could see.
The swamp monster that hadn't been seen for three days had half of its body submerged in the pond, with its arms and head drooping in the grass by the roadside. It looked so melancholy and autistic.
Hesha almost stepped on his arm just now.
Although Hesha couldn't touch him at all and it didn't matter if she stepped on him, by the time she reacted, she had already taken action.
This behavior is too stupid.
Hesha went to pick flowers, while Meili stayed where she was, pretending to pick two irises. Seeing that Hesha didn't pay attention to them, she quickly squatted down and touched the swamp monster's head.
He had been washed clean before, but after a while, he turned into that wet plaster potted plant again, with moss and grass growing on his body. Perhaps he had stayed here too long this time, and a few thin vines had climbed onto his back.
Mei Li moved his head, pushed aside his wet gray hair, and looked into his lifeless gray eyes.
"If you lie down here, people passing by will step on you."
Without caring whether he reacted or not, she pushed his arm that was on the side of the road into the pond, and pushed half of his body that was pressed on the grass down as well.
"Mei Li, what are you doing?" Hesha came over and asked curiously.
Mei Li stood up subconsciously and smiled, "I just saw a beautiful bug in the bushes and wanted to catch it, but it ran away."
With a light kick as if by accident, the swamp monster's head, which was still resting on the side of the path, also fell into the pond.
There is less water at the edge of the pond, mostly silt and aquatic plants. As long as it is not a clean, clear area like a lake without much mud, Mei Li does not worry about being accidentally washed away by the swamp monster again.
After concentrating on dealing with Hesha for a while, she turned back and found the swamp monster standing beside the calamus bushes with its body bent into a U shape.
Mei Li: “…” What’s wrong with him? Is he in a bad mood
"Meli, let's go!"
"I'm coming." Mei Li caught up with Hesha, holding a bunch of irises, and looked back unconsciously frequently on the way.
"What's wrong? Did you leave anything behind?" Hesha asked.
"No... I just think the big bush of irises here is really pretty." Mei Li replied.
"I think it's beautiful, too. It's a pity that the iris only grows in the big pond here and not anywhere else."
It is said that the purple iris does not grow in other places, but after a while, Mei Li saw it in the water near the small lake where he took a bath.
In the middle of a small bunch of green calamus leaves, a few flower buds have just sprouted, revealing a little purple tip.
The swamp monster bent over and buried itself quietly beside the newly grown calamus.
I have made progress, at least this time I didn't plant the flowers on myself.
Faced with this strange scene and twisted body, Mei Li reached out her hand without any psychological burden and touched his arched back.
When I brushed my wet and cold back, my palm could clearly feel the bulges of the bones inside.
…Isn’t he made of mud? Where do his bones come from
"Have you been busy planting flowers recently?" Mei Li knelt on the shore and forcibly pulled up his head that was buried in the water.
The swamp monster was like a man who was sleeping soundly and was suddenly woken up by his girlfriend to chat. His eyes were dull and his reaction was slow.
Mei Li didn't make things difficult for him. After he finished speaking, he pushed his head back into the mud. It could be said that he was very considerate.
The swamp monster only sent her flowers without any reason once. Mei Li gradually stopped thinking about what considerations he had in mind when he took the initiative to send her iris flowers, because she found that the swamp monster seemed to have no consideration at all.
In the autumn, she stockpiled some food and went around with Hesha, collecting a lot of dried fruits and mushrooms.
Before winter came, all the vegetables in her vegetable garden were harvested, which was much better than she had initially expected.
It took her two days to finish cleaning up. Except for some vegetables that could survive the winter, she put everything else away and stored it in the house. There were four full baskets of potatoes and turnips alone.
The weather was fine and after finishing the work in the vegetable garden, Mei Li began to clean up and prepare to clean the whole house.
She swept out some dust and cobwebs, then walked up and down the stairs twice with the water in her hand, wiping the railings, stairs and several windows.
While mopping the floor, Mei Li's eyes blurred and she suddenly saw a small grey-fur animal running past her feet. It looked like a mouse in shape and size.
"Jade! There's a mouse in the house!" She went to question the pet cat at home with a mop in hand, but the cat, who was busy basking in the sun, glanced at her and ignored her. The expression on the cat's face clearly said, "What does a mouse have to do with me?"
Mei Li had no choice but to roll up her sleeves, pick up a long pole and a broom, and go to punish the rats herself. She searched the first floor like a carpet, even under each cupboard and in every corner.
But the mouse seemed to have disappeared out of thin air, and she couldn't find it no matter how hard she tried.
Although the mouse was not found, Mei Li accidentally discovered a basement during the search.
Just below the west wall, a small cupboard was removed and there was a small door in the floor that could be pulled outwards.
"Knock knock—" It was empty underneath, and it seemed quite spacious.
Mei Li looked at it for a while, then pulled the door knocker above and was about to lift it up.
Suddenly, someone behind me said, "Don't move."
The sudden sound startled her, and her grip loosened, causing the door, which had been opened a little, to fall back. She turned around in panic and stepped on the door.
Mrs. Peg, who had been staying in the dark room, came downstairs for some reason and stood there looking at her coldly.
Mei Li curled her lips and said, "I just think the basement is more suitable for storing vegetables. I harvested a lot of vegetables these two days..."
Mrs. Peg repeated, "Don't touch that door."
Mei Li felt a chill creeping up her ankles. She nodded and said okay without saying anything else. She quickly moved the cabinet that she had moved away earlier back to its original place.
Mrs. Peg then went back upstairs.
Mei Li looked at her back and suddenly realized that her red hair had become much duller recently and was not as bright as it was at the beginning.