The Sweet Little Fulang

   After the orange peel was squeezed out, the fragrance was more obvious, and it felt refreshing.

    Lu Gu had only heard about oranges before, and he had never eaten them. Hearing Shen Xuanqing laughing at him, he was a little embarrassed, and lowered his eyes and pretended to peel the oranges to ease the embarrassment.

    Shen Xuanqing smiled, knowing that her fulang was shy by nature, he felt awkward after a little teasing, so he quickly took two pieces of oranges and handed them over to Lu Gu.

    With the cool orange next to his lips, Lu Gu raised his eyes to look at Shen Xuanqing, under the gaze of such beautiful star eyes, his ears turned red and he opened his mouth to bite.

    "Eat and then bite them." Shen Xuanqing stuffed two pieces of oranges into his mouth.

    Lu Gu did as he said, and after biting them in his mouth, the sweet, sour juice of the orange gushed out, like a clear mountain spring overflowing his mouth.

    It turned out that orange was so delicious.

    He looked up at Shen Xuanqing, his surprise could be seen without saying a word.

    Shen Xuanqing also ate a piece of orange, and the sour taste came out after the first bite, and the sweetness soon came. The orange was a bit cold in cold weather, but it tasted very good.

    Seeing that Lu Gu was surprised and happy, he smiled again, and gave Lu Gu the rest of the orange. After hesitating for a moment, he took out another thing wrapped in red cloth from his bosom.

    "For you." Shen Xuanqing seemed a little embarrassed, and slightly pursed his lower lip, but the smile in her eyes didn’t dissipate.

    Holding the oranges in both hands, Lu Gu first put the oranges on the chopping board, took the red cloth and opened it carefully, inside was a brand new silver hairpin with rice leaves and ears carved on the end.

[Lu Gu, 谷 gǔ: grain;]

    The leaves of the rice were distinct, even the grains on the ears were very clear. There were two ears of rice, one was straight and the other was bent downwards.

    Shen Xuanqing fell in love with this hairpin right away at Jinyinxuan. Because the grain ears were carved realistically and meticulously, the price was a bit more expensive, but he still bought it.

    He didn't know why, but when he saw the hairpin, he felt happy, put it in his arms and hurried back, forgetting about buying the wooden ladle, and only remembered it when he got home.

    Lu Gu had never seen such an expensive silver hairpin, let alone wearing it, and when he got married, he had only a wooden hairpin on his head.

    "For me?" He raised his head and asked Shen Xuanqing in a low voice, with expectant and apprehensive eyes.

    "Well, it's for you." Shen Xuanqing nodded.

    Ear of grain was grain. When he was a child, his mother told him so when she embroidered grain ear patterns on his sleeves and collar.

[谷穗   gǔ suì: ear of grain; 谷子 gǔ zi: grain ]

    Lu Gu tightly held the silver hairpin in his hand, his eyes gradually became slightly wet.

    Shen Xuanqing didn't know what was wrong with him, he scratched his head, he was at a loss, and asked in a low voice: "Do you not like it?"

    No one liked a crybaby, Lu Gu blinked his eyes twice to force back the wetness, shook his head with a nasal sound. He said in low voice: "No, I like it very much."

    He smiled again while talking, the smile was shallow but bright, Shen Xuanqing was too tall, standing in front of him prevented him from seeing other people and things.

    "That's good." Shen Xuanqing also laughed, the fire was still burning at the bottom of the stove, Shen Yan went to eat oranges, he said, "I'll light the fire."

    "Yeah." Lu Gu wrapped the silver hairpin in a red cloth, tucked it into his bosom close to his body, the smile on his face never faded all day long.

    The sun was cloudy, but luckily there was no snow or wind. The early winter was here, and everyone in any village was preparing to stock up on food and firewood for the winter. Every family had prepared a lot of rice, noodles, pickles, cabbage, chinese cabbage, and radishes. In recent days, many people had been chopping firewood on the mountain.

    The people at the foot of the mountain were farther away from the town, but it was convenient to cut firewood in winter. There were trees everywhere, and the mountain forest was fairly dense. If you cut it this year, it would still grow next year, and new trees would grow up in two or three years.

    The second room of the Shen family was no exception. Cutting trees and firewood was mostly done by men, but Lu Gu and the others could also help to carry the firewood back. Ji Qiuyue was left at home to cook and boil water, so they could eat and drink when they were hungry or thirsty.

    Tied two bundles of firewood with hemp rope, hang them on a strong long branch, Lu Gu picked them up and walked home.

    With a sound of "Wow", the puppy sprang out from the nearby forest. He didn't know how wild he was in the forest, with dead leaves hanging on his body.

    Lu Gu didn't care about him, as long as he didn't run far away, he was used to running wild on the mountain before, so it was not good to be too restrained when he came back.

    It could be said that there was no road on the mountain. Trees and stones blocked the way, and the journey was rough and bumpy. Ordinary people would rather walk in the mountain with bamboo baskets on their backs than pull a cart since it was a very laborious task.

    In the past two days, Shen Xuanqing and Shen Yaoqing were chopping and chopping with long axes and machetes. They had no time to pull a cart, and the three of them, women, shuang’er, and children, had no use for a cart.

Shen Yan was young and she still carried a bundle of firewood. Their house was the closest to the mountain in the village, and the front mountain was not too far away, so the woodshed was gradually filled up after running back and forth.

    Of course, what Lu Gu and the others picked were mostly thin branches, and the remaining trunks were piled up together. Most of the trees that were cut down were thicker than the mouth of a bowl. Trees that were too thick and heavy were not easy to cut down. Even so, It was troublesome to use a saw to saw the wood on the mountain. When the time came, if you had cut enough, took a bundle of hemp rope, if it was too heavy, tied a few less, and find a few men in the village to carry it back together.

    Every family in the village had to prepare firewood. Today, Shen Xuanqing and Shen Yaoqing would help the Shen family to carry the wood. It was a mutual favor.

    As soon as Lu Gu entered the courtyard, Ji Qiuyue put down the needle and thread in her hand and said, "Is Guzi thirsty? This honey water is warm enough to drink."

    "Go and put the firewood, and I'll get it for you." She didn't wait for Lu Gu’s answer and hurriedly went to the kitchen.

    "Okay." Lu Gu was a step behind her but still agreed, and went to the woodshed to untie the two bundles of firewood and pile them neatly with the others.

    Ji Qiuyue took a bowl and came to the woodshed, she looked inside and said, "There are quite a lot, and we can take a rest after another day and a half." 

 The more firewood the warmer it would be in the winter. You didn’t have to be brave to cut firewood on the mountain in the severe winter. Seeing so many firewood, Lu Gu felt very at ease in his heart. He nodded and said, "Well, soon."