Everyone’s grown-ups now, so Manbao and the others naturally don’t worry about where they’re going. As soon as they’re out, they happily go about playing.
Liu Huan leads them to pick sweet lons, "There are other fruits on the mountains too, peaches are particularly delicious."
Yin Huo wears a hat that suits him perfectly. It’s one he specially asked Longevity to buy after going ho that day.
The sweet lons are at the foot of the mountain, and at this ti, they’re almost done harvesting. Maybe it’s because of the good sunshine, the skin looks yellowish, seeming very sweet.
Manbao asks Keke to help find the sweetest one, and she rushes up to pick it.
Keke also discovers for the first ti it can be used for such assessnts. Unfortunately, the sweet lons have already been docunted, so even if it finds the sweetest one, it’s of no benefit to it.
Bai Shan and the others are fine, they’ve been to the fields enough, the fun in picking lons is in eating them after picking or giving them away.
Whether eaten or gifted, there’s a limit, so just picking a few is enough fun.
So after Bai Shan and the others cuddle several lons using their clothing, they want to go up the mountain to eat under the fruit trees. But Liu Huan and Yin Huo, who are new to the fields, are reluctant to go.
Especially Yin Huo.
He’s never been like this to the fields on the estate.
But the limit of his garnts ans after picking five lons, he can’t fit more and decides to go find Bai Shan and the others.
The group walks for a while on the mountain, finds a lush peach tree, sits under it, and takes out their sweet lons.
The servants hurriedly offer tea and fan them. Seeing them sitting on the ground, the estate manager can’t help but bend over and suggest, "Young Master, shall I get so mats for you?"
Liu Huan looks at Bai Shan and asks, "Where do you want to have lunch?"
Bai Shan says, "We’re easy-going, where do you want to have it?"
Yin Huo suggests, "Then let’s have it outdoors."
"What outdoors?" Feng Zongping and Bai Dalang, Yi Ziyang co over, shade the sun with fans, then sit in the shadow of the tree, saying, "The sun is really big, lucky you had the foresight to prepare hats."
Yi Ziyang glances at their hats and says disdainfully, "I’d rather wear a curtain than such a hat."
Feng Zongping also finds the hat ugly, but since the wearers are won now, he doesn’t want to wear similar ones. So, he says, "I’ll just shade with a fan."
The three sit and seeing many sweet lons in front, they can’t resist craning their necks to look at the lon field. Seeing such good sunshine, they imdiately decide not to pick lons and focus on the lons in front of them.
Manbao and the others are very generous, she pulls the one Keke identified as highest in sugar content to herself, and rolls the rest to the center, letting them pick freely without reservation.
Bai Shan and the others are similarly very generous.
Feng Zongping and Yi Ziyang glance at the lon Zhou Man rolled out, realizing her picked lons aren’t as attractive or large as others. They turn to pick from Bai Shan and the others.
Bai Dalang doesn’t hesitate, he picks one from the remaining lons of Manbao and asks, "Is it sweet?"
Manbao nods vigorously and says, "Definitely sweet."
A servant brings over a knife. Manbao takes it and starts cutting while talking to Liu Huan, "Sweet lons outside are expensive now, can I pick more to take ho for my siblings and nieces and nephews to taste?"
Liu Huan generously waves and says, "We’ve switched to eating winter lons, and my family has had enough sweet lons, feel free to pick as many as you wish."
Feng Zongping and Yi Ziyang hear this and imdiately say they want to pick so to take ho too.
Feng Zongping wipes a lon clean while splitting it, saying, "Your estate’s location is good, unlike mine with only a small plot and not very fertile soil, so the fruits aren’t tasty."
Manbao, having passed by Feng’s land earlier, says, "You’re being too modest, your land is fertile, perfect for growing wheat."
Bai Shan adds, "Growing rice will also be better than others, your land is fertile, what’s not to be happy about?"
Feng Zongping looks surprised at them, "So my land is good?"
The two and Bai Erlang nod; following Old Zhou’s family and the teacher, they’ve learned and understood the fields, with Old Zhou aid not to let them suffer losses, and the teacher not wanting them to be ignorant officials, explaining these.
Feng Zongping’s soil is visibly fertile.
"Then why can’t they grow tasty fruits?"
Manbao thinks for a while and says, "Your soil is fertile, but drainage is poor, thus not suitable for fruits. But why grow fruits on such good fields when they’re so cheap?"
"Exactly, our village fruits are grown on mountains or dry lands," Bai Shan says, "Wheat is better."
Feng Zongping replies, "We have other lands, no shortage of wheat here, land near the capital is ant for growing vegetables and fruits for ourselves."
Manbao suddenly feels upset and doesn’t want to talk to him. Bai Shan feels the sa and takes a slice from Manbao, saying, "You’re not well, eat less."
Upon said, aside from the Bai brothers, everyone else looks at the two in disbelief.
Bai Shan and Manbao about to eat lon look back puzzled, "What’s wrong?"
Feng Zongping points at Zhou Man and asks, "She’s not well?"
Bai Shan nods, "Is there a problem?"
Manbao also puzzled says, "I’m not well."
Others look at Zhou Man’s rosy complexion and say nothing.
Bai Dalang cuts a lon and smiles looking around, "You guys don’t know, as a child Manbao wasn’t well, her family put in a lot of effort to raise her."
Bai Shan recalls and senses sothing wrong, turns to Manbao, "Always heard you weren’t well, but as a child, you often fought us, never noticed any weakness."
It’s true, Bai Erlang nods heavily.
Manbao hasn’t yet defended herself when Bai Dalang laughs, "She was already better then. I rember she often got sick, once she had a fever at midnight, but heavy rain trapped them in. They braved the rain to our house, took dicine from us to brew."
Bai Erlang confusedly asks, "How co I don’t rember?"
Manbao adds, "I have no recollection."
Bai Dalang laughs, "Of course you don’t, you weren’t even a year old then, what could you rember? Erlang was barely talking, perhaps just over two."
Their family had moved to Qili Village less than a year, and suddenly the Zhou Family had a child.
It felt normal back then; he rarely went to the village, but in retrospect, it was shortly after Zhou Yin returned ho.
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