Rebirth of a Farmer's Dad

For the next two days, Luo Feng planned to stay in the village, spend time with his daughter, and take a break.

In truth, it had been a long time since the father and daughter had played together. The next day, Luo Feng got up very early. He thought he might as well take this opportunity to go on a picnic with his daughter. He could also invite Liu the butcher and his son, as well as a few other children from the village who had nothing else to do.

Anyway, my daughter has always loved excitement, and I'm someone who loves joining in on fun, so I'm sure the bigger the event, the happier she'll be.

When I told Butcher Liu about my idea, he agreed. He probably wanted to relax a bit, since the past two days had been incredibly stressful.

Next, Luo Feng and Butcher Liu agreed that Butcher Liu would be in charge of procuring the meat and wine, while Luo Feng would be responsible for getting bamboo skewers, charcoal, and other supplies. After agreeing on the terms, Luo Feng and Butcher Liu went to the early market together. They also asked Xinghua to go to the village and call a few idle children.

After making all the necessary preparations, the group set off, their destination the mountains near the village. Because they were traveling with children—four or five in total—Luo Feng and his companions dared not venture too far. What if they accidentally lost one or two? How would they explain it to their families when they returned?

There weren't many people this time, only two adults and five children. Besides Xinghua and Xiaoshan, the children included Laoshuan's son Zhuzi and two village girls.

Even though Zhuzi is older, he's already eight years old. The others are around six or seven. Xiaoshan and Xinghua are about the same age, not even five yet.

A group of little ones were laughing and making a ruckus. Meanwhile, two adults were busy on the side. They skewered the ingredients they had bought, built a makeshift stand out of wood, and then lit a fire to ignite the charcoal.

The children were very curious about Luo Feng's actions and wanted to go closer to take a closer look, but Luo Feng stopped them all. He was joking; if he accidentally touched a fire or charcoal, he'd get burned!

Luo Feng quickly asked Butcher Liu to coax the children far away and gave each of them a drink to keep them quiet for a while.

Sure enough, once the children had their drinks, they focused on drinking them and stopped making a fuss.

Luo Feng and Butcher Liu were grilling skewers and chatting, occasionally taking a sip of beer from the beer next to them.

How harmonious this scene looks!

Soon the food was ready, and Luo Feng called the children over to eat. The children, perhaps having never seen such a novel way of eating before, were all exceptionally excited.

Luo Feng handed out the skewers to them, intending to warn them to be careful not to burn their mouths, but before he could finish speaking, Zhu Zi shouted, "It's so hot, so hot, it's burning me to death!" He kept jumping up and down as he shouted.

However, despite complaining that it was too hot, Zhu Zi was reluctant to put down the skewers in his hands, and he seemed quite satisfied with them.

Luo Feng quickly checked Zhu Zi's mouth and, finding nothing seriously wrong, was relieved. He gave him a light tap on the head and told him to eat slowly, then left him to his own devices.

Perhaps learning from the incident with the pillar, the children were extra careful when eating the skewers. After that, no one burned their mouth again.

This reassured Luo Feng considerably, but he still reminded the children to be careful not to prick their mouths with bamboo skewers. Meanwhile, Butcher Liu was drinking his wine while wiping the grease from his son's lips.

It's clear that he's a good father, or rather, he's always wanted to be a good father.

As the saying goes, even a tiger won't eat its cubs, and Liu the butcher's performance today satisfied Luo Feng and Dawei. He couldn't help but wonder if he should go back to the shop sooner, since the business still needed him.

"I wonder how Tiger and the others are doing with the shop." Luo Feng muttered to himself, then drank a couple more sips of wine with Butcher Liu.

"Let's not worry about it too much now. Tiger and the others will have to get through this eventually anyway. Let's just treat this as a test." Luo Feng felt relieved, realizing that this was an inevitable process.

Next, everyone enjoyed Harbin beer and skewers, indulging in a hearty meal. Of course, the children couldn't have beer; they drank only soft drinks.

The atmosphere instantly brightened, and amidst the children's laughter, Luo Feng felt as if he had become a few years younger. He wondered if Butcher Liu felt the same way. But looking at her radiant, happy face, Guo Feng figured she must be feeling incredibly joyful herself.

After eating and drinking their fill, everyone started playing games on the grass. They played games like Eagle Catches Chicks, Statues, and Hide and Seek, having a great time.

Seeing the children's innocent and smiling faces, Luo Feng instinctively wanted to take some photos of them.

You see, although his future self was a chef, he also had a strong interest in photography. As for his skills, they weren't anything special back then, but now Luo Feng felt that his photography skills were second to none.

However, Luo Feng didn't have a camera with him at the moment, so he had to give up.

In those days, let alone a camera, even taking a picture was a luxury. Many people in rural areas at that time had never had their picture taken in their entire lives.

Besides, Luo Feng is used to using digital cameras, while cameras nowadays use film, which requires developing and avoiding exposure—things Luo Feng doesn't know anything about.

Luo Feng chuckled self-deprecatingly, while Liu the butcher looked completely bewildered. He had no idea why Luo Feng was laughing so foolishly.

"Is this kid possessed?" Butcher Liu thought to himself as he looked at Luo Feng grinning foolishly to the side.

Fortunately, Luo Feng doesn't have any mind-reading abilities; otherwise, if he knew that Butcher Liu had such thoughts, he would have spat out a mouthful of blood.

The group set off around 10 a.m., had lunch on the mountain, and spent the entire afternoon playing. As the sunset grew darker and darker on the horizon, they decided it was time to go home.

The children seemed reluctant to leave and wanted to linger on the mountaintop. However, they couldn't dissuade Luo Feng, and under his insistence, they had no choice but to return the way they came.

Before leaving, Luo Feng and Butcher Liu made sure to tidy up and check for any remaining embers. Neither littering and environmental damage nor leaving any embers could cause a wildfire; both outcomes were things Luo Feng wanted to avoid.

Because they weren't far away, the group returned to the village in no time. Seeing that Butcher Liu had brought his son home, Luo Feng shook his head and could only send the remaining children back one by one.

After all, they raised the child themselves, and they owe their family an explanation.

It seems there's nothing to worry about with Butcher Liu; I'll go back to the shop tomorrow.

Having made up his mind and seeing that it was getting late, Luo Feng decided to get some rest early tonight, since he still needed to catch a ride to the county tomorrow.

Afterwards, the father and daughter had a simple dinner, washed up, and went to bed.