After Wu Chun had just picked up his tools and was preparing to go to Shili Mountain, he saw his grandfather hastily hurrying home.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“What’s wrong, Grandpa?”
The two spoke almost simultaneously. Seeing the situation, Wu Chun temporarily put down the shoulder pole on his shoulders. After just carrying it for a while, his shoulders felt sore, numb, and slightly painful, even though both buckets were empty.
“I’m going to plant some trees,” Wu Chun said, rubbing his shoulders. “There’s a bald patch on Shili Mountain that looks ugly, so I thought I’d bring two trees.”
Upon hearing this, Grandfather burst out laughing loudly and continued for quite some time.
“Chun Chun, what kind of tree are you planting in this July weather?”
“Pine trees,” Wu Chun blurted out. The mountain was full of pine trees, and it would look odd to plant anything else.
“But the best time to plant pine trees is from February to April. The survival rate isn’t very high during this season.”
Wu Chun’s head drooped immediately. He only wanted to do something to help Xu Shi Yao, and he saw that bald patch of land. The first thought in his mind was to plant trees, but he overlooked some basic knowledge.
Grandfather picked up the shoulder pole and water buckets that Wu Chun had put down on the ground and continued to persuade him earnestly, “Wu Chun, planting trees is not an easy task. Just carrying two empty buckets and standing still for ten minutes is already unbearable for your shoulders. If you want to plant trees, you may need as many as twenty buckets of water. Shili Mountain is so high; how are you going to bring the water up there, not to mention fertilizing. It’s really difficult.”
“So, should we just leave that piece of land empty?” Wu Chun asked persistently.
Grandfather patted Wu Chun’s shoulder, looked at him for a while, and asked, “Wu Chun, tell grandpa, why do you want to plant trees there?”
This really stumped Wu Chun.
It’s not possible to expose Xu Shi Yao’s existence. People fear and hate ghosts and would want to eradicate them from the world. In their eyes, ghosts are evil, and if you told them that there’s a ghost living in the pine tree on Shili Mountain, even if it’s a hero, probably nobody would believe you.
They might even invite some masters to set up some kind of complicated formation.
Wu Chun doesn’t know what ghosts are afraid of, and some of the rumours about them circulating in the human world aren’t entirely accurate. As for Xu Shi Yao, he seems to be gradually exploring this himself.
“Grandpa, you don’t know,” Wu Chun said as he took out two small stools from the yard and handed one to his grandfather. He sat down next to his grandfather and continued, “Remember a few years ago when this village had a flood that caused a landslide, and then Grandma Wang’s grandson sacrificed himself to save people? I’ve been thinking about it these past few days. Why did the landslide happen? Suddenly, I remembered something our teacher said: “Mountains also need vegetation protection!”
While speaking, Wu Chun observed his grandfather’s expression. His grandfather pretended to cough a few times, stood up, turned around with his hands behind his back, and continued, “You see, a few years ago, nobody cared about the trees up here. They were cut down naturally, and when it rained, there was nothing to protect the mountain. The soil on top would naturally slide down. It’s been raining heavily these past few years too, but this time there are trees. It’s different now. And our teacher said that too!”
Wu Chun emphasized the last sentence. Others may not know it, but Wu Chun’s own grandfather understood it. He believed in what the teacher said because, in his grandfather’s eyes, teachers were knowledgeable people who knew many things they didn’t know.
Watching his grandfather gradually sink into deep thought, Wu Chun felt that he had listened to his words.
“Grandfather also understands what Chun Chun said. After the landslide, they banned logging from the top, but what can be done? People in the village always need firewood to boil water and cook, and they can’t do without firewood.”
“That’s true…”
“So what can we do?” Wu Chun sat back on the small stool, knees tightly together, hands holding his face with a worried expression.
“Xu Shi Yao’s presence only slows down the rate at the beginning which the pine trees on the mountain are being cut down, but no matter how slow it is, there are only a few trees left, and there will always be days when they are all cut down.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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“Why go?” Wu Chun raised his eyelids, obviously not very interested.
“Buy vegetable seeds! Think about it, Chun Chun: those trees can’t be planted this year, but from February to April next year, when you come to grandpa’s house, grandpa will accompany you to plant trees. Don’t underestimate Grandpa’s age; he is still strong and can carry twenty buckets of water without any problem. But if you want to plant something there now, you can either plant flowers or trees. After thinking about it, Grandpa thinks it’s better to plant vegetables; at least we can eat them.”
“Right!” Wu Chun slapped his thigh. “As long as there is vegetation, we can stabilize the soil. That’s settled then, grandpa; you must take me there tomorrow. I’ll go clean up the land now.”
Wu Chun picked up the hoe he had just thrown on the ground and ran off.
“I’m not going to have lunch!”
“Grandpa, you go ahead and eat first!”
At this moment, Wu Chun felt like he had strength all over his body. Even before planting the vegetables, Wu Chun began to plan to give some to Grandma Wang once they were harvested.
When he returned here, Wu Chun was already out of breath from exhaustion.
“No, I need to rest for a while.”
Wu Chun temporarily threw the hoe to the side, sat down against the pine tree, and felt the refreshing coolness spread throughout his body from his back.
“It’s so comfortable.”
Wu Chun closed his eyes contentedly and leaned tightly against the pine tree. Although the sunlight was getting stronger, Wu Chun was completely unaware.
The branches of the entire pine tree seemed to be tilting in his direction, casting a large shadow to cover him.
Wu Chun slowly opened his eyes and, upon seeing the scene in front of him, joyfully patted the tree trunk behind him. “Not bad, not bad. I won’t hold a grudge against you for knocking me out last night.” Wu Chun adjusted his body to face in a direction where he could see the empty space.
The area was not small, and Wu Chun planned to mark out a section to plant some crops. Even though Grandfather said that planting vegetables would be more valuable, Wu Chun still wanted to plant some flowers.
There weren’t many options available this season, but Wu Chun knew of one type of flower that could be planted now: sunflowers.
“Do you like flowers?” Wu Chun asked behind him. “What do you think about me setting aside a small area in the front to plant some flowers for you?”
Although Wu Chun knew he couldn’t get a reply from the other person during the day, he still wanted to ask and say it out loud.
And he believed that Xu Shi Yao must have heard him.
“The piece of land up there is actually not bad. It’s the flattest part of the whole mountain, unlike here, where it’s all rocks. Even if you want to plant something, it won’t grow,” Wu Chun continued to talk to himself. “My grandfather said that pine trees can only be planted from February to April. I will come back next year, but for now, my grandfather said we can plant some vegetables. I think it’s a good idea. When the harvest comes, we can also give some to your grandmother. I don’t even know what she likes to eat.”
After resting for a while, Wu Chun felt that his strength had recovered, so he stood up, picked up the hoe, and prepared to start working.
Wu Chun thought it wouldn’t be simple, but he didn’t expect it to be so difficult.
The soil here looks like soil, but it’s only a thin layer. When he hoes, he can easily turn up the rocks underneath. The rocks are also not stable and make a clattering sound. Without vegetation to protect the soil, this kind of terrain is most prone to landslides.
It should be noon now. When leaning against the pine tree, Wu Chun didn’t feel hot at all. However, after less than three minutes, he had a layer of sweat on his forehead. Wu Chun straightened his back and looked at the pine tree a little distance away from him. After thinking for a moment, he still picked up the hoe.
“Hang on for a little longer.”
Wu Chun kept encouraging himself inwardly, thinking that it would be a joke if thunder roared loudly and only a few raindrops fell.
“Come on, Wu Chun, you can do it.”
After a few more swings of the hoe, sweat had soaked through his back.
This is the first time Wu Chun has done this kind of work. When he was at home, he would also help with household chores, but farming was a first for him.
This feeling, both tired and hot, was really uncomfortable.
Thinking of the farmers who work in the fields every day without a break, Wu Chun felt a sense of awe for food in the future.
Previously, his teacher always said that if he didn’t study well, he would have to go back to farming. Now it seems that farming is not something that can be done just by planting seeds. At the very least, one needs to be in good physical condition first.
“I can’t go on.”
Having just cleared a small area, Wu Chun was sweating profusely and gasping for breath.
He didn’t care about his dignity anymore and threw away the hoe, rushing towards the pine tree where Xu Shi Yao was.
Wu Chun ran over quickly and hugged the trunk of the tree with force, rubbing his face against it.
“I’m really tired; I can’t do it anymore. Let me rest for a while.”
Wu Chun curled up on the pine tree, wondering why the surface of the tree was so smooth and why he didn’t slip down. Little did he know that he was actually hooking his legs around Xu Shi Yao’s knees, tightly embracing his waist with both hands, his face pressed against Xu Shi Yao’s chest. And there was an invisible pair of hands firmly holding onto Wu Chun’s waist, preventing him from falling down.
Like this, for the whole afternoon, Wu Chun spent his time alternately digging the earth and hugging the tree until the sun set in the west. Wu Chun had only managed to clean up one-third of the plot of land by then.
There was still some time left before it got dark, and Wu Chun felt his slightly flattened stomach rumbling with hunger. “I’ll come back later tonight!” Wu Chun patted the trunk of the tree, picked up his hoe, and walked down the mountain.
He was really exhausted.
Along the way, Wu Chun picked up some dry firewood and small sticks, and when he arrived at Grandma Wang’s door, he added them to the pile of firewood there. At that moment, Grandma Wang came out with a bucket of water.
“Grandma.” Wu Chun put down the hoe and smiled as he approached.
The more he called her “grandma”, the more natural it felt. At first, he felt a bit awkward saying it, but now it comes out easily. He took the water bucket from Grandma Wang and asked, “Do you need to go fetch water?”
“Has Yao Yao come?” Grandma Wang asked.
“It’s me, Grandma.” Grandma Wang gripped Wu Chun’s hand tightly, and her strength was no small thing. Wu Chun’s hands hurt a little.
“Put this here. Someone will come to help Grandma fetch water later.”
Grandma Wang took the bucket from Wu Chun and placed it on a stone outside the door. She held Wu Chun’s hand and led him into the house.
As soon as they entered the house, Grandma Wang took out a package from the cabinet. The package was wrapped in two layers of cloth, and she stuffed it into Wu Chun’s hand, saying, “Someone else gave this to me, but I saved it for you.”
Wu Chun probably knew what was inside. His grandfather used to do the same thing, never willing to eat anything and saving it for him.
“Grandma, you should eat it. I won’t eat it,” Wu Chun declined. He couldn’t possibly accept the old lady’s gift.
It was said that Grandma Wang only had one son and one daughter. The son was the father of Xu Shi Yao, who worked outside and had bought a house. He came back once every half-month.
It was not easy for him to come back. Every time he came, the old lady would ask about her grandson’s whereabouts, so he had to think of a good excuse every time.
After inquiring, Wu Chun found out that the other person would not come for another twelve or thirteen days. He wondered whether he should take the opportunity to bring the person to meet Xu Shi Yao, even though he might never see his son again.
“Yao Yao, Yao Yao.”
Grandma Wang’s call brought Wu Chun’s thoughts back. He realized that the thing had already been stuffed into his pocket by her.
Unable to refuse, Wu Chun temporarily accepted it and chatted with Grandma Wang for a while before rushing back home. He quickly ate a few bites of food and then immediately ran to Shili Mountain.
As soon as the sky turned dark, Wu Chun wanted to wait a while before coming, but his whole body was screaming when he saw that bed.
He was so tired that he just wanted to lie down and take a nap on the bed. However, Wu Chun knew that it would be very difficult for him to get up again once he lay down, so he immediately ran out after finishing his meal.
He climbed up the pine tree with his legs hanging and his head resting against the trunk, and in this position, Wu Chun fell asleep.
When he woke up again, Wu Chun felt a chill around him. He opened his eyes and found that the sky had completely turned dark, and he was being held in the arms of Xu Shi Yao.
“Why are you holding me?” Wu Chun quickly moved to the side. What he didn’t know was that all day long, he would jump into Xu Shi Yao’s arms, then run out, and occasionally rub against him. Xu Shi Yao couldn’t come out of the pine tree during the day, but he could break through this barrier and directly touch Wu Chun. Moreover, when Wu Chun came back at night, he slept directly in his arms.
Xu Shi Yao’s lips moved slightly, thinking of Wu Chun’s sweaty appearance during the day, but he didn’t say anything. He looked at Wu Chun up and down, who was like a scared rabbit with his hands tightly around the tree trunk.
Xu Shi Yao reached out to touch Wu Chun’s arm but heard him shout, “What are you doing!”
Xu Shi Yao remained silent and began gently kneading the fair skin of Wu Chun’s arm.
It felt so comfortable, the coolness spreading through his entire arm, dispersing the fatigue of the whole day.
Wu Chun let go of the tree trunk and, without a word, sat down beside Xu Shi Yao, leaning against him. His voice was weak as he begged, “My shoulder, it hurts so much.”
Yi Zhi Mao Dou:
Let me tell you what I have been busy with recently: my graduation project and graduate courses.
Every day, my advisor arranges classes for me, but for now, it’s not too many. The summer vacation is where the real workload comes in. I have to study six books during the summer, so currently I am taking advantage of my free time to write drafts. I am afraid that if I don’t have enough drafts later on, I won’t have time to write them. Therefore, I apologize in advance if my updates are slow.
Thanks for the translations though you are very busy. 🙏
Thanks for the chapter.. Please take ample of rest..
Thank you for your translation 💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝
»“Xu Shi Yao’s presence only slows down the rate..« – “ at the beginning
».. the old lady would ask about her son’s whereabouts..« I guess it should be grandson instead of son.
WC: Why are you holding me? shocked desu
XSY: …. .. … You hugged me all day long..
Never underestimate work for which you need to move your whole body.
Thx for the ch (ㅅ˘ㅂ˘)