Chapter 154 The Vegetable Garden and Confucianism (1/2)

With the status of the Cui family, it was a big event in the whole Qing Prefecture that Cui Keli would succeed to the home lord, so a lot of people would be invited to the ceremony and it would take time to prepare. Considering that the Convention of Penglai Immortals and Taoism was approaching, the final decision was that the ceremony would be held after the Convention of Penglai Immortals and Taoism ended.

Under the guard of some cultivators on horseback, a carriage drove out of the gate of Qing Prefecture along the official road to the east.

The carriage was quite spacious, and Cui Keli was sitting in it.

This Confucian scholar couldn't keep himself idle for a second. He read in the carriage on his way. Although the carriage swayed, Cui Keli wasn't affected because of his cultivation. When he was interested, he would also take some notes.

Li Ye, Su Emei and Wei Xiaozhuang were riding horses in front of the carriage.

Wei Xiaozhuang was very excited as he talked about the Taoist temple with Li Ye. ”Although our Taoist temple doesn't farm, there is a vegetable garden, which is tidied up by my senior sister. I remember when we were a kid, about seven or eight years old, we went down with our master for the first time and saw the villagers and fields at the foot of the mountain. From then on, my senior sister would alone go to the side of the Taoist temple mysteriously to tidy up the flat wasteland at every noon. Picking up stones and pulling up weeds, she finally managed to make a place, and then she transplanted the potherbs from the mountain into the field. She watched there with great anticipation, hoping to make a vegetable garden. In the evening, she got up to watch for a while, causing my master and me unable to sleep.”

”Guess what? Haha. On the next day, when we got up and went to have a look, they were all dead, for which my master and I both laughed at her, making my senior sister cry. Sitting next to the vegetable garden alone, she sulked for most of the day and ignored us. My master felt sorry for her, so he went to the mountain to find some potherb seeds and gave them to my senior sister. He also taught her how to reclaim the wasteland. But in fact, my master had never farmed before and he only saw someone farming, so he knew little about farming. As a result, the potherb seeds were planted, but nothing happened. It was winter at that time and the field was frosted, so the potherb seeds couldn't grow up. Haha. I can't forget the scene that my senior sister squatted beside the vegetable garden, looking and waiting silently. But it had just snowed, so there was nothing in the vegetable garden but thick snow.”

Li Ye was very interested in it and he had been listening carefully, so Wei Xiaozhuang was more excited. ”Then my senior sister got angry again, but this time she was angry about herself and shut herself in the room without going out for most of the day. By the next spring, the potherb seeds had managed to grow a few, but there were really only a few, three or four, which was very pitiful. That wasn't the funniest part. The funniest part was that the seeds weren't potherb seeds at all. Guess what? They were not potherbs but petunias! Haha, laughed my ass off.”

”I laughed at my master for a long time. It was the first time for my master to flush from embarrassment, while my senior sister was depressed with tears in her eyes. Haha. You can imagine the scene that only I was happy among the three of us...”

Li Ye smiled and asked, ”And then?”

”And then? Without a doubt, I was beaten. They beat me up together. In the end, I was the only one who cried, and they both laughed. Piss me off!”

Su Emei secretly gnashed her teeth and glared at Wei Xiaozhuang. Wei Xiaozhuang was so frightened that he shut up immediately. Li Ye saw her embarrassment, so he felt more interested. He asked Wei Xiaozhuang, ”What happened later?”

Wei Xiaozhuang giggled. ”Later, my master felt sorry for her because he gave her wild grass seeds as potherb seeds so that she wasted a winter and a spring. He felt sympathetic to my senior sister since she was so young at that time. And his omnipotent image was destroyed. In order to maintain his image, he took us down the mountain to consult the villagers at the foot of the mountain. In the end, we figured out the knowledge inside it. Later, the villagers gave my senior sister a large handful of potherb seeds from door to door because my master had a good reputation in the village and saved many patients. When she took the potherb seeds up to the mountain, she didn't let us touch them at all, just like protecting her children. She was very fierce. Humph. When she was little, she was petty.”

In contact with Su Emei's murderous gaze, Wei Xiaozhuang awkwardly scratched his head. He cleared his throat and continued, ”Later, my master and I wanted to help her with the vegetable garden, but she waved her hand to drive us out. She didn't trust us at all. She worked very hard in the vegetable garden alone with a big hoe which was up to her chin.”

”Finally, a few spring onions grew up. Those days, she was very happy for seeing the spring onions growing up. She went many times to have a look at them every day. She was as swift as a cat. She prevented us from pulling out the first spring onions and eating them. No matter how my master and I tried to persuade her, she stood in the way of the vegetable garden, stubbornly shaking her head, like a hen guarding her young. Those were vegetables for eating, but she refused to let us eat them.”

”In the end, my master and I could do nothing and felt hopeless, so we sighed for our miserable life together. It wasn't easy for some spring onions to grow up, but we could only look at them and couldn't eat them, which was unreasonable. Until one night, when my senior sister brought out the steamed patty, my master and I were surprised to find that there were countless green points on the steamed patty, which smelled and looked good. It turned out that my senior sister had pulled out the spring onions and cut them up to mix with the steamed patty. My master and I enjoyed that meal very much. It was very delicious, like the roast chicken that you made. Haha.”

Li Ye was amused and looked at Su Emei. She ducked her head, too shy to see anyone. He asked Wei Xiaozhuang, ”Why did your senior sister suddenly think through it? Didn't she refuse to let you eat them?”

Wei Xiaozhuang giggled. ”She didn't think through it, but it was because the spring onions were going to turn yellow. If we didn't eat them, they would die, so she had no choice but took them out!”

Su Emei glared at Wei Xiaozhuang murderously as if she was going to kill him with a sword. ”Wei Xiaozhuang!”

”Okay, I stop talking!” Wei Xiaozhuang raised his hand to surrender, but he laughed so hard that his eyes couldn't be seen on his round face. Only a wide-open mouth could be seen.

Li Ye couldn't help but look at Su Emei. He thought she was so lovely when she was little. Indeed, little girls were lovely, while little boys were naughty and couldn't rival the little girls in attraction. As long as little girls didn't cry all the time, they were cute when they were little.

Su Emei was very charming and more beautiful than a peony, but her temperament was graceful and restrained and she was introverted. Aware of Li Ye's gaze, she dared not to look at Li Ye, like being caught doing something wrong. But she couldn't keep her head down all the time, so she turned her head slightly to look at the other side of the road, leaving her soft and beautiful profile as well as her delicate and small ear to Li Ye.

At this time, the setting sun was on the side of Su Emei's head. In the setting of the red sun, her charming and quiet face made Li Ye lose concentration for a while. Perhaps she could feel Li Ye's gaze, Su Emei was a little bit embarrassed, so she flushed and her red face was just like this season's ripe white peach. She unconsciously pressed her lower lip. This little movement made Li Ye's heart beat faster, so he quickly withdrew his eyes.

Wei Xiaozhuang saw Li Ye's look and giggled in a low voice on the side.

Seeing Li Ye looking over, Wei Xiaozhuang excitedly continued, ”My master also raises two fish in the Taoist temple since my senior sister and I have memories, one in each fish tank. One is black and one is white. But so many years have passed, the two small fish haven't grown up and they are still very small.”

He showed the length with his thumb and index finger. ”I said to my master that since the fish couldn't grow up, why didn't we cook it? My master beat me immediately at that time. Perhaps because he was afraid that I would eat the two fish on the sly while he was away, he beat me so hard that my ass was badly injured.”

Li Ye smiled. ”So you really didn't eat them on the sly?”

”Of course not. Am I such a coward?” Wei Xiaozhuang shouted loudly. Then he felt frustrated and unhappy. ”On one occasion, when my master went down the mountain, I went to catch the fish, but I couldn't catch it at all. The fish was in the fish tank, but I couldn't touch it. My fingers could pass through its body as if it hadn't existed. I also asked my senior sister to catch it with me. She was sensible, so she refused at the beginning. But after I said to her that I couldn't touch the fish at all, she didn't believe me, so she came to try, however, she didn't succeed either.”