While Lin Xinyan was locked away in the backyard, the two kids had gotten used to the life here. Every day after meal, they would wander around in the village. It was a village with picturesque scenery, and the children enjoyed themselves very much. They treated themselves as a tourist, experiencing the village life to the fullest.
Yesterday, Lin Ruixi heard from an old grandma that It was the season for persimmons now. Wild persimmons could be found on the mountain to the west. Lin Ruixi had eaten all kinds of fruits before, but she had never eaten handpicked persimmons from the mountains. Therefore, she was curious about it and begged Zong Jinghao to bring her to the mountains.
Zong Jinghao would never say no to his daughter. Therefore, after breakfast, he brought two children with him to the mountains with the bodyguards. Shen Peichuan went with them, while Su Zhan and Qin Ya stayed back to hold the fort.
Bai Yinning didn’t go to the mountains due to his immobility.
When Lin Xinyan came in from the back door, the front yard was empty. Bai Yinning had gone to deal with the company’s affairs, while Su Zhan was holding a freshly plucked wild chrysanthemum flower, trying to impress Qin Ya. As for Qin Ya, she was squatting by the river washing the children’s clothes. The river was clear, but it was a bit cold due to the changing season. The washing machine would be good to have now, but unfortunately, there wasn’t one here.
Su Zhan stretched his head out quietly and handed the flower to her, “Does it smell good?”
Qin Ya stared at him angrily, “Get lost! Can’t you see that I am washing clothes?” She continued, “Don’t you know that giving a chrysanthemum flower as a gift is a bad sign to the receiver? Do you wish that I am dead?”
Generally, women loved receiving roses, daisies, and other types of flowers. But she had never seen anyone giving out chrysanthemum flower to a living person.
Su Zhan lowered his head awkwardly and blinked his eyes innocently while looking at the purple and pink chrysanthemum flowers. The flowers are beautiful, aren’t they? Only this type of flowers can be found in this season.
“I didn’t mean to curse you.” Su Zhan felt wronged and upset.
Out of frustration, he tossed the flowers into the river. The river looked more lively with the bright flowers in it.
“Su Zhan, what’s wrong with you?” Su Zhan pointed the river with a frown, “Why would you toss the flowers into the clear river? Are you trying to pollute it?”
Su Zhan was speechless.
What the…
Why can’t I do anything right?
It’s not hazardous waste either. What can the flowers do to the river?
“Pick them up.” Qin Ya stared at him. Su Zhan’s jaw dropped open as his eyes widened in shock. Pick them up? But how? The flowers had drifted away with the water.
However, his gaze fell on her hands. He saw the redness in her hands due to the cold water so he pulled her hands and wanted to warm them for her, “Let me rub your hands for you.”
Qin Ya shook off his hands and said, “Don’t change the topic. I didn’t ask you to rub my hands for me.”
Su Zhan was standing on the rock by the river while he was holding Qin Ya’s hands. As she shook off his hand with a great force, he lost balance and fell into the river. With a thud, water splashed onto Qin Ya’s body.
Qin Ya’s intention was to stop Su Zhan from touching her, and she didn’t expect to push him into the river accidentally. It was winter, so the water could be freezing.
Su Zhan emerged from the river, and he was shivering. He had goosebumps all over him due to the coldness. He shouted at Qin Ya, “Are you trying to kill your husband?”
It was so cold.
At first, Qin Ya was guilty of what had happened to him, but after hearing what he had said, she wasn’t feeling guilty anymore. “Cut it out, Su Zhan. We are just pretending to be in love so please don’t forget about that. As soon as we get back to the city, we will break up, and there will be nothing else between us. Do you get it?”
Su Zhan swam up to the shore quickly. Then, he held his arms with both of his hands instinctively. He realized it became colder when the wind blew. “Ah-choo!” He sniffled as he covered his nose and mouth. “Qin Ya, you took advantage of me, and you should be responsible for it!”
Qin Ya was speechless.
“Su Zhan, don’t you feel embarrassed at all?” Qin Ya had never seen anyone so shameless and despicable.
“I don’t care…”
“What are you two doing here?” Lin Xinyan saw both of them bickering in the cold weather. Furthermore, Su Zhan was wet from head to toe, wasn’t that too cold for him?
Qin Ya and Su Zhan heard the voice and turned their heads around at the same time. They saw Lin Xinyan standing not far away, and spoke in unison, “You came…”
Noticing both of them said the same the thing simultaneously, they stared at each other for a brief moment. Then, Qin Ya averted her gaze; walked towards Lin Xinyan and greeted, “Ms. Lin.”
Lin Xinyan responded in a nod, but she didn’t look away from Su Zhan, “Have you taken a bath in the river?”
“Ah-Choo! Ah-Choo!” Su Zhan bent over his body, trying to warm himself up. Taking a bath? Of course not!
“I will go back into the house first.” He couldn’t take the coldness anymore, else he would catch a cold very soon.
Lin Xinyan asked Qin Ya in a curious tone, “Are the two of you fighting?”
Qin Ya shook her head, “No, no, he slipped and fell into the water himself.”
Lin Xinyan knew that Qin Ya was lying; however, she couldn’t care less. Instead, she asked, “Where are Xichen and Rui?”
“President Zong brought them to the mountains to pluck the persimmons.” Qin Ya answered.
“What?” Lin Xinyan frowned.
To the mountains?
It was not something Zong Jinghao would do. Although he was stuck here, I bet he was pretty busy?
How did he make time to go for the persimmons plucking?
“Ruixi was the one who begged him to bring her to the mountains,” she explained seeing Lin Xinyan’s doubtful look.
After the explanation, Lin Xinyan finally understood what happened. Her phone was still in the house, so she had to get back there to call Zong Jinghao and asked him to come back now. Cheng Yuxiu was still waiting for her so she had no time to waste.
Just as Lin Xinyan was about to go back to the house, Su Zhan walked towards her in his newly changed clothes. Seeing Lin Xinyan in a hurry, he asked, “Are you looking for President Zong?”
Without waiting for Lin Xinyan to answer the question, he then continued, “He is in the mountains. His beloved daughter begged him to go.”
Seeing Su Zhan walked towards her at the right timing, Lin Xinyan asked, “Can you call him and ask him to bring the children back?”
Su Zhan agreed with a nod and started calling Zong Jinghao with his phone. However, he could only hear a female voice answering him, “I’m sorry, the number you have dialed is currently unavailable. Please call again later.”
“I couldn’t get through to him.” Su Zhan hung up the phone. “Probably the signal in the village isn’t strong enough. Let me call again.”
“Beep beep beep… The number you have dialed is currently unavailable. Please call again later…” It was still the same answer from the other side of the phone. He looked up at Lin Xinyan and said, “There is probably no signal in the mountain.”
This was the first time he had encountered such a problem. He had always been able to dial out to other locations.
Lin Xinyan gave it a thought and nodded. It was possible; after all, it was a huge and dense forest.
“Which mountain did they go to? I will go and look for them.”
“I will go with you then. I am not entirely sure if there would be wild boars or other animals around the mountain. Just in case anything happens, then I can come to your rescue. Else, Jinghao will skin me alive if he finds out that I failed to protect you.” Su Zhan walked forward to lead the way.
Lin Xinyan’s initial plan was to bring the two children to Cheng’s family residence; however, now she had no choice but to look for the children in the mountains with Su Zhan. Su Zhan was indeed a smooth talker who could talk her into his plan.
They walked along the rugged path towards the top of the hill to the west.
The path was wet because of the night dew, and it was slippery. Out of concern, Su Zhan warned her, “Slow down there.”
“Mmm…” Lin Xinyan responded as she looked at the vines sticking out all over the ground. It wasn’t easy to walk.
“Look at the footprints; they should be somewhere here.” Su Zhan looked at the trampled plants in front of him and continued, “I will lead the way, and you follow me at the back.”
As soon as he finished speaking, he followed the footprints on the ground intently. Lin Xinyan did not follow Su Zhan at his back right away. Instead, she looked around her surroundings and searched for something. Luckily, she saw two branches with the tree forks that came with the right thickness not far away from her. She walked over to grab one of the branches and broke it from the tree. She then put the branch on the ground to see if that was the correct height for her. After testing the height, she broke it at a height that she thought was appropriate. A ready-made walking stick was done in just a matter of minutes. The walking stick was a perfect tool to support her in walking on the wet ground so she wouldn’t fall easily.
As she was breaking the other branch from the tree, she accidentally cut her hand. The cut was right in her palm, and she shouted in pain.
Hearing the shouts, Su Zhan turned around and found her far behind. Seeing her hand covered in blood, he asked worriedly, “Are you okay?”
Su Zhan then hurried over, wanting to check on her wound. Perhaps he was walking too fast; he slipped accidentally. As he was about to fall, he grabbed the tree on his right-hand side for support and saved himself from the embarrassment of falling.
“Gosh…” He was in a shock and let out a long breath.
“Are you okay?” Lin Xinyan asked as she was concerned.
“I am fine. What are you doing?” Su Zhan replied after he stabilized his footing. He then saw the branches on Lin Xinyan’s hand, and he was baffled.
Lin Xinyan smiled, “I bet you have never climbed a mountain like this. You need to have a walking stick to climb a mountain like this.” She then showed him the branches.
When she was a child, she and Zhuang Zijin were sent abroad. They were living in a remote place, and they also had no money. Therefore, she and Zhuang Zijin often went to the mountains not far from where they lived to pick bracken ferns. The locals didn’t know that they could eat it, but Zhuang Zijin knew that this plant was a delicacy, which was especially delicious if you served it as a cold dishes or stir-fried it with meat.
I guessed when you had no money and not enough food; everything would be yummy as long as it can feed your tummy.
Su Zhan broke the branches just like Lin Xinyan had instructed; then he used it as a support.
After half an hour, Su Zhan saw a persimmon tree in front of him. It was huge and tall, the tree was full of permissions. It looked beautiful as if hundreds of little red lanterns hanging before them. Now that the persimmons tree was in front of them, Zong Jinghao shouldn’t be far away from them. “Look, little sister-in-law, there is a persimmon tree here.”
Lin Xinyan’s eyelids twitched at his words. Did he just call her as little sis-in-law?
She was not happy with this form of address.
“I bet we are not far away from them.” Su Zhan didn’t notice the facial expression of Lin Xinyan.
He then realized that Lin Xinyan didn’t move, so he turned to look at her face. Lin Xinyan didn’t look so well. He asked curiously, “What’s wrong with you? Little sister-in-law?
Shen Peichuan, Zong Jinghao and him were about the same age. In fact, Zong Jinghao was elder than him and Shen Peichuan. Lin Xinyan was Zong Jinghao’s wife, so they should be calling her sister-in-law.
Although Lin Xinyan was about six or seven years elder than him, she looked young like a fresh graduate from university. Nobody could tell that she was a mother of two.
He thought it would be inappropriate to call her sister-in-law; therefore, he added the word ‘little’ in front of the title.
Just then, somebody walked towards them and asked, “Who is over there?”
