Female lead: No, it's me again??

Xuan Li swallowed hard and quietly tightened his arms around Feng Siyue's neck. "Feng Siyue, I'm a little scared."

Is it so scary?

Feng Siyue also felt a chill run down her spine, but she suppressed her unease and tentatively asked, "Grandma Hua, don't you remember us?"

The old man in front of him paused slightly, "How do you know my surname?"

I really don't remember anything about it.

Feng Siyue made up an excuse, "I heard from outsiders that Granny Hua's Prosperous Flower Village is all bare."

Upon hearing the word "outsider," Granny Hua didn't ask any further questions. She explained to them, "You've come too late. The flowering season in our Flourishing Flower Village is from February to July every year. They don't bloom at other times."

The old man looked regretful.

Here again, here again!

Xuan Li stammered as she spoke, "But I've heard people outside say that the Flower Village... isn't it blooming all year round?"

Why was her answer exactly the same as yesterday?

"These people outside are spreading rumors. How many batches of victims have you been tricked into coming here? These heartless people keep letting you run around like this."

"Little girl, is your foot injured?"

"Yes, this is my sister. She twisted her ankle when she came here."

The old woman stood up. "Oh dear, you've suffered, haven't you? Come with me, come with me. I happen to have some medicine at home for treating sprains and bruises!"

Feng Siyue glanced at the person on her right shoulder and asked hesitantly, "Shall we... go in?"

Xuan Li couldn't stop wailing in his heart.

OMG!

Help!

She must have mentally prepared herself a lot before she said it with such a resolute expression.

"it is good!"

Then, the process of greeting, sitting down, and getting the medicine was almost exactly the same as yesterday, with every word and action exactly the same.

They couldn't even find a single wrong word to describe how they wanted to teach them massage techniques.

This made Xuan Li feel eerily uneasy.

The once tranquil village, bathed in the early morning sun, now felt eerily unsettling, as if it were about to engulf them at any moment.

"It's almost noon. I'll go dig some vegetables to cook for you. I can't let you go hungry."

The difference was that the old lady changed her dinner to lunch.

Feng Siyue said, "Grandma Hua, why don't you tell me where it is and we'll come and dig it for you!"

"There's no reason for us to go."

Feng Siyue walked over and pulled the old woman to sit down, pretending to be familiar with the situation, and said, "It's alright, old lady. Just tell us where you want to sit. You're getting old, so you should rest more."

Her sensible appearance amused the old woman, who said with a smile, "Okay, my vegetable garden is to the left when you leave. There's a persimmon tree by the roadside. You'll see it after walking about a hundred meters."

"If you're thirsty, you can have some."

"Okay, Granny Hua, I'll take my sister to see her. Please wait here for us for a while."

The old woman paused for a moment, then said, "Your sister twisted her ankle, is she still going? Let her rest here."

Xuan Li grabbed Feng Siyue's arm and shook her head, "No, I don't want to be separated from my sister."

Feng Siyue feigned helplessness, "Grandma Hua, my sister is timid and can't be left alone when she's out. Anyway, I'm used to it, it's fine."

"Then I'll prepare the rest at home. Come back soon."

Feng Siyue carried Xuan Li on her back. "Okay."

Once outside, Xuan Li, relieved to have escaped death, said, "If I had been left there alone, I probably would have been scared to death."

A hundred meters or so is a short distance for Feng Siyue, but it is daytime now, and many villagers are working in the fields.

So Feng Siyue took it one step at a time.

When they arrived at the field the old woman had mentioned, Feng Siyue stopped and asked, "Why don't you try the soil here and see if it's cold on your feet?"

Xuan Li stretched his leg out onto the edge of the embankment, then pulled it back.

"ice."

Feng Siyue frowned.

"That's strange. Meat can be dried and stored, but seeds planted in such cold soil shouldn't germinate. So what are they busy with?"

Feng Siyue looked up and saw a bare persimmon tree with not a single leaf, its branches black as if it had been struck by lightning.

There were three or four green fruits hanging sparsely.

The vegetables in the field are lush and green, growing very well.

"I didn't notice the vegetables and this persimmon tree when I was on the back of the Gale Bird, but they suddenly appeared after I got off."

The persimmon tree wasn't tall, and Xuan Li could easily reach out and pluck one. She wiped it clean, put it in her mouth, took a bite, and then frowned. "It has no taste."

Unripe persimmons are generally astringent.

Feng Siyue walked into the field, casually picked a fist-sized green vegetable, and handed it to Xuan Li, saying, "Try it."

Xuan Li retorted defiantly, "Do you think I'm a rabbit? I don't eat grass!"

"A sip of peach blossom wine."

Xuan Li immediately reached out, picked a small piece, put it in his mouth, chewed it a couple of times, and then spat it out, saying, "It has no taste."

Feng Siyue understood. "So, the food Granny Hua served us had no taste. Under what circumstances would food have no taste?"

"Either the sense of taste is gone, or it's something that doesn't exist. You mean..."

"Is all of this an illusion?"

Feng Siyue shook her head, "It's not certain yet. Let's see after lunch."

The two slowly returned to Granny Hua's house.

Smoke curled upwards as Granny Hua boiled water on the stove.

Seeing them return, he smiled and said, "How was it? Were the persimmons delicious? My daughter loved that persimmon tree when she was young."

Feng Siyue placed Xuan Li on a chair. "You have a daughter?"

"Yes, my daughter is very well-behaved. A few years ago, she and her son-in-law took their granddaughter on a trip. It's been about three years now."

When her daughter was mentioned, Grandma Hua seemed to open up, "My granddaughter is very cute and loves to eat persimmons."

As they were talking, Grandma Hua had already cooked some vegetables and invited them over to eat.

"When the persimmons ripen, she can come back and eat them."

Grandma Hua couldn't help but smile when she thought of her daughter and granddaughter.

During the meal, the old woman kept talking about her daughter, barely eating a few bites of food. Feng Siyue and Xuan Li pretended to be engrossed in their story and rarely touched their chopsticks.

Even after finishing her meal, Feng Siyue still hadn't seen the old man who had come to collect the persimmons the day before.

After the meal, Feng Siyue told Granny Hua that they wanted to go for a walk.

Grandma Hua agreed, but still told them to come back before dark.

Feng Siyue led Xuan Li around the village again and again. Strangely, they made no further discoveries after that point.

Beside the farmland, the villagers of Fanhua Village were working hard, sowing handfuls of seeds. Feng Siyue could almost see the crops sprouting, blossoming, and bearing fruit, and finally the joy on the villagers' faces when they harvested.

Spring goes and autumn comes, the cycle repeats itself.

That is the changing of the four seasons in the human world.

She left in silence.

The old man still insisted that the two stay overnight. Around midnight, Xuan Li woke up again, hungry, feeling utterly hopeless.

"Feng Siyue, I'm hungry."

Feng Siyue didn't say anything more about enduring it, but instead placed the peach blossom wine in front of her, saying, "Have a couple of sips to tide you over."

Xuan Li picked up the wine jar and complained, "The wine isn't enough to fill you up, and you only bought one jar last time..."