The wind is gentle and the fun is endless

Huanhuan also put the crabapple candied fruit into her mouth and took a bite. It's true that crabapples are often sweet and slightly sour, and making them into candied fruit just enriches its taste. "It tastes really good." Huanhuan praised while tasting the candied fruit. Her mood became very good because of the sweet taste.

Aunt Ye left the room, leaving Xu Qu and the other three chatting and laughing with Uncle Ye. After a while, Aunt Ye brought a few peasant women into the room, each holding a dish in her hand. The peasant women put the dishes on the round table in the main room and then left.

Uncle Ye greeted, "Sir, Madam, this mountain is not like the city of Shanghuai, and there are no special dining rooms. Let's make do with eating here."

After Huanhuan and Xu Qu sat down, Xiaoyu hesitated in panic, not knowing what the rules were in Yonghe Village and whether she should sit down. Seeing Cheng sitting next to Uncle Ye, she sat down next to Huanhuan, sitting between Aunt Ye and Huanhuan.

After everyone was seated, Uncle Ye took out another jar of wine and said, "Young Master, Young Madam, this is the rice wine we brewed ourselves. Come on, everyone try it." After that, he poured a glass for everyone.

Clear rice wine flowed out of the wine jar and slowly flowed into the white jade wine glass. After pouring the wine, Uncle Ye picked up the wine glass and said, "It's rare for you, Mr. Young Madam, Youcheng and Miss Xiaoyu to come to Yonghe Manor. This first glass of wine is to welcome you. I hope you will come to Yonghe Manor often in the future."

Everyone raised their glasses and after everyone drank the first glass of wine and put down their glasses, Uncle Ye began to invite everyone to eat. "Come on, everyone, try these dishes. They are all grown and raised by the farm."

So everyone picked up their chopsticks to taste the dishes again, and Cheng said excitedly, "Yes, that's the taste. The shredded green jade radish and mountain pepper and alfalfa, made by Aunt Ye are better than those in Fanhualou in Shanghuai City."

"Oh, are these the only two dishes cooked well?" Aunt Ye pretended to be dissatisfied and bluffed.

Youcheng hurriedly tried to please Aunt Ye and said, "Of course all the dishes cooked by Aunt Ye are good, but these two dishes are absolutely unique! I am so tired of eating them today that I can't walk." As he said that, he also raised his thumbs, which caused everyone to laugh.

Aunt Ye smiled and said, "You are such a sweet talker. My son, Shi Shi, can't even speak to my heart as well as you can."

Aunt Ye then slowly said, "Young Madam, I wonder if the dishes made by us country women are to your liking? Is there anything here that you usually like to eat?"

Xiaoyu was quick to say, "My lady loves to eat meat the most—ouch!"

Huanhuan saw Xiaoyu open her mouth from the corner of his eye. He knew what she was going to say, so he stepped hard on her foot under the table. Xiaoyu let out an "ouch" but didn't dare to say anything. She could only lower her head and eat the rice in the bowl.

Aunt Ye smiled and said, "The young master has already sent someone to tell the young lady about her preferences in advance. I just don't know if my cooking skills are to your liking?"

Huanhuan was surprised when she heard it: Oh? Xu Qu? He was so thoughtful that he even told Uncle Ye and Aunt Ye what he liked to eat in advance?

Huanhuan couldn't help feeling warm in her heart. She secretly glanced at Xu Qu and saw that he was not looking at her. Naturally, he didn't have any special reaction and just concentrated on eating.

He smiled and said to Aunt Ye, "Aunt Ye's cooking skills are really good. I like all the dishes she makes, especially the lotus-flavored glutinous rice and pork ribs, which are very delicious."

Aunt Ye smiled happily upon hearing this and said, "Okay, as long as the young lady likes it, we can do it again in the future if you like it."

There was a lot of laughter and chatter at the dinner table, and after a few drinks, Uncle Ye became more talkative.

“Young Master, back then, I followed your father and grew up with your parents…” Hearing this, doubts began to grow in his heart. If Uncle Ye might have been a close servant of Xu Qu’s father and grew up with Xu Qu’s father, it was understandable, but why did he say that he also grew up with Xu Qu’s mother?

But before she could think about it, Uncle Ye continued.

"Thinking back then, your parents always had a very good relationship. The couplets in the main hall are poems written by your parents together..." After hearing this, Huan Huan noticed that there were two pillars on both sides of the main hall, on which were engraved a couplet: "A deep affection for the crabapple tree, and the morning and evening of the world."

Uncle Ye kept talking. "You can say that I was closest to your father, and I could see his deep affection for your mother the most. When you were eleven years old, on your mother's death anniversary, I came to Yonghe Village with your father early in the morning. I saw his lonely figure under the crabapple tree. His sadness was so deep that anyone who saw him could see it. Alas, I never thought that it would be the last time he saw this scene that he had been thinking about so much. When your father returned from here..."

Aunt Ye interrupted him hastily when she heard this, saying, "We are talking about this very well, why are you bringing this up?"

Uncle Ye was furious, saying, "What's wrong? It was like that. If it weren't for her, there wouldn't be such a thing as poisoning..." He paused again, sighed, and said, "No more, no more, let's drink!"

She looked at Uncle Ye in confusion, not knowing what stories were hidden in his intermittent words. She also didn't know if Xu Qu understood all the irrelevant words. She looked at Xu Qu, only to see that Xu Qu pursed his lips tightly, didn't say a word, just raised his head and drank the wine in the glass.

Huanhuan and Xiaoyu were confused. Seeing Uncle Ye and Aunt Ye's conversation, they knew that Uncle Ye's words were not happy. Looking at Xu Qu, he was calmly picking up dishes and eating. There was no change compared to before, as if he didn't pay attention to Uncle Ye's words. And Youcheng on the side was out of character. He stopped joking and just ate. Aunt Ye was not as smiling as before. Instead, she restrained her smile and frowned slightly.

Huanhuan and Xiaoyu looked at each other in bewilderment. Although they had many questions in their hearts, they did not dare to ask any more questions. Aunt Ye did not forget to entertain Huanhuan and Xiaoyu, and kept offering dishes to them. "Madam, Miss Xiaoyu, try this, which is a wild vegetable unique to our mountain. Try that..."

Huanhuan and Xiaoyu responded absentmindedly and ate the meal carefully.

After a long meal, Uncle and Aunt Ye arranged for Xu Qu and Huan Huan to rest in the main room, and took Xiao Yu and You Cheng to rest somewhere else. Aunt Ye helped the tipsy Uncle Ye to leave, and before leaving, she told Xu Qu and Huan Huan: If you wake up early during the lunch break, you can go to the backyard to ride horses in the afternoon without saying hello to them.

After entering the room arranged for them by Uncle Ye and Aunt Ye, Huanhuan showed a hint of hesitation, because there was only one bed in this room, unlike the living room of Xu Qu and Huanhuan in Xin Garden, which had a bed and a couch. Usually, Huanhuan slept on the bed and Xu Qu slept on the couch.

How can I sleep like this? Huan Huan secretly glanced at Xu Qu. Xu Qu was quite relaxed. He walked straight to the table, lifted the front of his robe, took a step forward and sat on a square stool. Then he leaned his elbows on the table, clenched his fists to support his head, and closed his eyes to rest.

Seeing this, Huanhuan didn't hesitate and walked to the bed, took off her shoes, and fell on the bed to rest.

After a while, he could not fall asleep. He turned over in bed and faced outside to see Xu Qu resting with his eyes closed. He remembered what Uncle Ye said during the meal and thought: It turns out that Xu Qu's parents - his own parents-in-law have a good relationship. From Uncle Ye's words, it seems that he is a close servant of Xu Qu's father. In a wealthy family, a person of this status should be in charge of the house at his age. Why is Uncle Ye now on the mountain to see the manor?

Huanhuan was thinking, and suddenly she saw Xu Qu opened his eyes. She thought she couldn't sleep anyway, so she sat up. Seeing Xu Qu looking at her, Huanhuan said to Xu Qu, "I can't sleep, why don't I sit at the table and you come to the bed to rest."

Seeing this, Xu Qu said, "I don't want to sleep either. Why don't we go out and walk around the mountain."

Huanhuan's eyes lit up when he heard this, and he agreed without hesitation, "Okay, that's what I was thinking too. Let's go now."

So Xu Qu and Huan Huan went out quietly without disturbing anyone.

Xu Qu first took Huan Huan to the stable in the backyard. He pointed at several horses in the stable and asked Huan Huan, "Which horse would you like to ride, Madam?"

She slowly looked at the horses in the stable. Some were reddish brown, some were white, and some were black. Some were fat and strong, some had shiny fur, and some were thin. She had no idea how to tell the difference between good and bad horses, so she could only tell these differences. She smiled softly and said, "I don't know how to ride a horse, so I don't know how to look at a horse."

"Oh, Madam, you can't ride a horse?" Xu Qu hesitated for a moment after hearing that, and just led out a maroon horse.

Afterwards, Xu Qu led the horse on the right and slowly accompanied him on the left, and the two of them strolled out of the small courtyard of Yonghe Manor.

The stream outside the courtyard gurgled among several weeping willows and flowed into the distance. As it had just rained in the morning, the humidity in the mountains had not yet faded away, and everything was still fresh. I slowly turned my head back to look at the courtyard. The windows of the house in the courtyard were propped up, the curtains were rolled up, and occasionally a swallow flew by. I slowly turned my head back and took a few deep breaths, feeling that the air was mixed with a tranquil atmosphere.

Slowly, Xu Qu and Huanhuan walked on the small path in the mountains. The weeds along the road were full of green, and their length was long enough to cover the horse's hooves. The trees along the road were verdant, and the leaves exuded a fresh fragrance. Birds flew among them, and from time to time they heard a few crisp bird calls. Along the way, they occasionally encountered peach trees and pear trees, with blooming peach and pear flowers embedded in the branches. At this time, the leaves were more luxuriant than the flowers, and there was a hint of late spring.

Along the way, Xu Qu and Huan Huan remained silent, quietly savoring the vitality emanating from the world. This breath can give rise to vitality in people's hearts.