Zeng Rui-xiang took Zi Fu and Zi Lu to catch frogs, while Zi Qing waited anxiously at home. After a long wait, she finally heard voices outside. Zeng Rui-xiang had said that he wouldn't know what time they would return, so he locked the main gate himself when it got dark. This time, hearing the voices, Zi Qing rushed out and saw their excited expressions, indicating that they had a big harvest.

  "Sister, tomorrow I'll definitely let you eat your fill. Just open up and eat with all your might, brother will catch some for you every day." Zi Fu showed off with a complacent face.

  "Big brother, it seems I caught more, little sister, you should eat more, second brother will catch some for you again tomorrow." Zilu added, unwilling to let his credit be stolen.

  Zi Fu smiled and pushed Zi Lu with one hand.

  Ziying took over their bamboo basket, which was quite heavy. "Whatever you do, don't open it," Zeng Ruixiang hastily instructed. "If they get out, it's easy to attract snakes." Zifou quickly took it and put it in the kitchen.

  The next morning, Zeng Ruixiang had to deliver watermelon to the old master again. It was hot these days, and he would send some watermelons over from time to time. This time, Zeng Ruixiang said that he would take some frogs to let the old master taste them. Zi Qing wanted to follow him, so she took a watermelon to Xiao's house as well.

  When they arrived at the old house, Zi Qing only knew that her second aunt had not returned to her husband's home, and her second uncle had gone back by himself. It turned out that Xia Shou was busy, and Zhou Tianqing was afraid of not being able to take care of Xia Yu, so she let her stay here to rest well. Last time when Shen Shi came to Zi Qing's house, she also brought a basket of sweet potatoes for Xia Yu and told her how to cut the sprouts. This thing is not only high-yielding but also easy to manage, and it is also drought-resistant. Of course, she didn't forget to remind her that after sprouting, they couldn't be eaten. I guess Zhou Tianqing will also go back to hurry up and plant them.

  The old man was delighted to see the toad, and had Tian's wife stir-fry it with a lot of chili peppers. Then he sat down with his son and asked about some family matters. Zi Qing saw this, and carrying the watermelon, wanted to head towards the back room, thinking that she could finally carry a watermelon by herself, another year had passed. At this time, she heard Qiu Yu ask: "Zi Qing, where are you going to take the melon?"

  "Hey, auntie in the back, mom said we haven't sent any yet this year."

  "It's too precious a thing, don't give it away, let's keep it for ourselves to eat. It's too hot today." Qiu Yu said.

  "That's no good, just this once."

  "Never mind, never mind, anyway you haven't listened to what I said, just send it if you want to." Qiu Yu was impatient.

  "You've spoiled all the good kids, you're worse than a child yourself. Your aunt has always been kind to you." The old man didn't like hearing that, it was his sister's family after all.

  Ziying hurried away, unfortunately, Xiushui was not there, saying that she had gone into the city. Ziying said a few words to her aunt and put down the watermelon before leaving.

  Back to the front room, listening to Tian said that it's possible that Chunyu's family will invite guests for their fourth son's full moon celebration, but isn't this just an excuse to collect gifts? And please? Last year they already had one meal and collected three gifts, and last year when we went to their house, Ziqing saw that there were only a few villagers. This time it's probably just the grandparents and their own family, and even Big Brother doesn't speak with them anymore, so I definitely can't go. Ziqing thought with utmost resentment that this time she wouldn't go no matter what.

  Zi Qing and Shen Shi went to Zhou Shi's place again a while ago, bringing a basket of eggs. Zhou Shi's leg has recovered a lot and she can walk with the help of a crutch. Zeng Ruiqing always laughs and calls her "Crutch, Crutch". Zhou Shi says that even when her leg is fully healed, she doesn't plan to go back home. Her brother will continue to send over rice and other essentials, and sometimes he'll also bring some vegetables. Living at home except for rent, they won't spend much money, and the chickens from their own home have been sent over too, raised in the courtyard. After taking care of her parents-in-law all these years, she can finally live a relatively easy life now. Of course, she wants to be with her family together again.

  Back home, Shen killed the toads and waited for them to go down in the pot. Zi Qing said to add more chili peppers. This meal was eaten with great relish by Zi Qing, who sweated profusely, drank water nonstop, and had a runny nose. The whole bowl was finished, and Zeng Rui Xiang said they would catch some more at night.

  At noon, after waking up from a nap, Zilu came over and said to take her to catch loaches. "Qinger, mother didn't let you go last night, second brother knows you want to go, so he's taking you now, there are many loaches today."

  Zi Qing quickly got up, found an old set of clothes, but didn't realize that his movements were too big and startled Zi Fu. The three of them sneaked out and came to their own paddy field, where they had not yet transplanted the late rice seedlings.

  Zilu found a piece of wet but not too watery mud, and with his hands, he dug up the mud. Indeed, there were loaches, and Zilu scooped them into a small bamboo basket with both hands. Zifu's movements were slightly slower than Zilu's, and occasionally, a loach would slip through his fingers.

  Ziying saw this and was eager to try, took off her shoes and went down to the ground. The loach could be seen, but it was slippery and couldn't be caught. The more she tried to catch it, the more she wanted to catch it. After a while, Ziying felt some itching on the soles of her feet, lifted her foot to scratch, and saw that a big black leech had sucked onto her skin. Ziying was frightened and cried out loudly, sitting down in the mud with a thud, and burst into tears.

  "Where is it? Where's the leech?" Zifu and Zilu hurried over to ask, Ziqing pointed to her left foot, Zilu grabbed her foot and slapped it, and soon saw the leech fall off. Zifu carried Ziqing to the ridge of the field, Ziqing was still sobbing. From then on, Ziqing had a psychological barrier and never went into the water field again.

  Back home, Mrs. Shen saw Zi Qing's disheveled appearance and was startled, asking what happened. Zi Qing cried for half a day, feeling somewhat embarrassed to say that she had been scared by an earthworm. Zi Fu explained the situation.

  "You deserved it, I didn't say you couldn't go, but you had to sneak out. Next time, let's see if you dare again!" Shen said and went to boil water for Zi Qing to take a bath. No matter how hot the weather was, Shen never took cold showers, nor did she allow Zi Qing to do so. However, after Shen told Zeng Rui Xiang about this incident, Zeng Rui Xiang commented: "After all, she's still just a child, and one leech can make her cry. I used to worry that she was too mature for her age when I saw her doing things with a hint of adult composure. It seems that being too grown-up at a young age isn't necessarily a good thing."

  Zi Qing didn't know that a leech had actually made her parents' hearts feel much more at ease. At this time, she was being teased by Zi Fu and Zi Lu, "Little Four, you didn't see your sister's embarrassing appearance just now, she sat down in the field with a thud and cried loudly, haha, it was so funny! I'm the one who helped her get rid of the leech!" Zi Lu laughed while imitating and dodging Zi Qing's pursuit.

  "Yes, your sister's legs are all weak, and I had to carry her up here. And that's not all - didn't you see how Mother looked at her? Her clothes were covered in mud and water, and even her hair was a mess. You couldn't even tell what was mud and what was tears on her face! It was just one leech, after all. Look how scared you are!" Zi Fu chimed in from the side.

  Zi Shou burst out laughing after hearing this and even complained that they didn't take him along.

  Dinner's mud loach ham and winter melon soup, Zi Qing didn't drink less, it was too fresh. Shen Shi sliced the ham into thin pieces, red and transparent, rolled into her mouth and melted. Shen Shi also smiled and said that she hadn't eaten such good ham in many years. Zeng Rui Xiang said he would learn to marinate it himself next time.

  Mr. He said: "This is not as good as bacon, it's the most troublesome thing, can't get a drop of water on it, and can't bump into anything, otherwise, it's easy to produce maggots."

  "Grandma, are you going to let people eat or not?" Zi Qing thought of that thing and the rice in her bowl was really hard to swallow.

  In the evening, Zeng Rui-xiang and others went to catch frogs again. Zi-qing went to the yard to watch fireflies, watching and waiting at the same time. Several days passed in this way. On this evening, Zi-qing was sitting with He-shi in the small courtyard cooling off, while Shen-shi was inside the house coaxing Zi-xi to sleep. Zi-xi is now sleeping together with Zi-shou in the first room of the east wing.

  At this time, Zi Qing heard the sound of her father and others returning, but unlike usual excitement, it seemed that something bad had happened. Zi Qing ran out to see Zeng Rui Xiang carrying Zi Fu back, with blood all over his legs. Zi Qing quickly went to the kitchen to find some rice wine, poured it into a teapot filled with boiling water, and used cotton balls to absorb the steam from the wine. She hastily prepared a few pieces of cotton, but had no time to look for white wine anywhere, so she made do with this. At this moment, Shen Shi also came out and boiled some hot water to clean Zi Fu's wounds.

  Ziying carefully cleaned Zifu's wound with cotton, the wound was about 10 cm long. It turned out that Zifu had accidentally fallen and landed on a piece of ceramic, cutting himself so badly. It seemed they would have to go find a doctor tonight. "If only we had some golden retriever fur," muttered Zeng Rui Xiang.

  Shen asked what was the golden hair dog. "It's what Uncle used to get when he went hunting, and it has a particularly fast hemostatic effect on all kinds of wounds. Unfortunately, I don't know whose hands it is in now?" Zeng Rui Xiang explained and was about to go find Lang Zhong, Zi Qing suddenly remembered, wasn't that the golden hair that Xiushui pulled out for her last year?