Chapter 46 Face to Face
As soon as the end of school bell rang, the children respectfully bid Teacher Zhuang farewell. After he waved them off, with a whoosh they happily ran out.
Man Bao naturally didn’t fall behind, hugging her books as she dashed out. Bai Shan Bao was even faster, running outside only to encounter Da Tou who had come to pick up Man Bao.
Yesterday after finding out that the children all went home by themselves after school, and the Bai’s residence wasn’t far from the school, Liu Shi decided that for Bai Shan Bao to integrate into the school quickly he couldn’t be treated special. So they had all agreed he wouldn’t be picked up today.
Bai Shan Bao was more than happy with this and had talked about playing with classmates.
So now Liu Shi hadn’t sent anyone to fetch him, only dispatching a servant to watch by the riverside. If Bai Shan Bao went to play by the river they would bring him back.
Seeing that Man Bao still needed someone to fetch her, Bai Shan Bao felt very proud, saying she was still a baby without weaned.
Man Bao said, “You’re the one not weaned. I stopped drinking milk when I was eight months old. Humph, Da Tou came to carry my books.”
“That’s right, I came to carry books for little aunt.”
Although she said this, Man Bao also decided to tell her mother that night, to have Da Tou and the others stop picking her up after school.
Man Bao felt looked down on, so she ordered Da Tou as authoritatively as possible, “We’re going to dig lotus roots. Da Tou, lead the way!”
Da Tou felt that although little aunt was just a child with fanciful ideas, with her size if she went to dig lotus roots she’d be digging herself into the ground instead.
However, seeing Bai Shan Bao next to them, he felt he couldn’t lose face for little aunt in front of her classmate. So his eyes turned as he said, “Little aunt, let’s take the books home first. We still have to get the hoes.”
Man Bao’s raised head paused for a second. She scratched her head, straining to recall as she asked, “Do you need a hoe to dig lotus roots?”
Da Tou thought of her being her silly. “Of course, lotus roots are in the mud.”
Bai Shan Bao contemptuously glanced at Man Bao, thinking her stupidness. Even though he didn’t farm he knew things in dirt had to be dug out with hoes.
He felt they were peers and also Da Tou’s elder. So with a wave of his hand he said, “Fine, let’s go.”
Watching them walk in another direction, Bai Er Lang who was observing couldn’t help but scratch his cheek in distress. “What to do?”
Bai Er Lang gritted his teeth. “Follow them. It’s just the three of them, we’re bigger than them.”
The other two buddies also felt the three of them could definitely beat these three little ones, so together they dragged their sack and followed.
Da Tou led them back to the Zhou home. After putting down the books and poking around finding no adults home, he knew Granny must have gone to the vegetable garden. Today the family was harvesting napa cabbage so Granny had to be in charge.
Man Bao and Bai Shan Bao were both urging him. After all they were children and very impatient.
With no other choice, Da Tou could only find Er Ya who was in the kitchen cooking. He told her to go to the fields and find fourth uncle, telling him to just go straight to the lotus pond by the river bank to meet them.
Er Ya looked at the cooking rice before hurrying off.
Da Tou took out a nice thick stick, “The family took all the hoes. We’ll use sticks instead.”
Man Bao and Bai Shan Bao naturally had no objections. As long as they could go.
And so everyone headed towards the riverside, following along the bank forward. Once out of the village tail they walked a bit more until a river beach. The river had scoured out quite a large wetland here before turning back on itself to continue flowing. The children didn’t know where this river ultimately flowed. They heard it went into the mountains.
More than once Man Bao had wanted to follow the river to see where it led. Da Tou obviously knew of little aunt’s dangerous idea so cautioned her as they walked, “You can’t follow the river or you’ll never see us again. And don’t go near the water, if you fall in my arms are too short to grab you.”
Man Bao didn’t know if she was listening or not, only nodding.
Arriving at the spot, Bai Shan Bao looked around. He discovered many tall weeds here with sparse leftover lotus leaves by the river bank.
It was called a river beach but near where they stood the soil was already hardened. Because it had rained yesterday there were still many small pools holding water. The water was very clear, the bottom of the pools clearly visible.
Bai Shan Bao curiously squatted down to look, even reaching out to measure the little pools.
After just a glance Da Tou said, “It must have been the village chief’s cattle here eating grass.”
He exclaimed emotionally, “The grass here sure is green, long and delicious.”
Bai Shan Bao curiously asked him, “Have you eaten it before?”
Da Tou thought him silly, “Grass is for cattle to eat, have you eaten it?”
Bai Shan Bao stumped him. “Then how do you know it’s delicious?”
The little water pools on the ground captured Man Bao and Bai Shan Bao’s attention, temporarily forgetting about digging lotus roots. Of course Da Tou wouldn’t remind them, letting them play here.
The river had receded now so this large area was dry land. No matter how much they fell down, as long as they didn’t run towards the water they wouldn’t fall in.
The two inexperienced little buddies ran around the tall reeds, even crying out when they saw little fish swimming in the pools.
The servant Liu Shi sent to watch young master was observing the two children from afar squatting by a pool with their little heads practically leaning together as they chatted. He decided not to approach for now.
After all there was still a good distance from the river here.
Who knew what the two children were chatting about, but they started a game of blind man’s bluff. Da Tou clearly wasn’t participating, only watching from the side.
So the servant saw when their young master had just hidden in the grass, the older boy immediately pointed him out to the Zhou girl.
Servant: ……*speechless* How shameless. But this child isn’t bad, at least he’s still watching over them.
The servant decided to forgive them. Glancing left and right, he found a high vantage point to more fully observe the situation below.
He could give them three quarter hours to play at most. No matter what, they had to go home after that.
Just as the servant shifted position, temporarily losing sight of them, Bai Shan Bao had already guessed that Da Tou was feeding Man Bao clues. He strongly opposed this and said if it happened again he wouldn’t play anymore.
Man Bao promised it wouldn’t happen again. And so the two little friends reconciled. Since Man Bao had cheated, this time Bai Shan Bao went to hide while Man Bao sought.
Man Bao knew the tall grass made it a bit hard to find people, but she deeply understood the benefit of startling the prey. So she randomly chose a direction to crash into, immediately yelling, “I see you, I see you, don’t move…”
And so Bai Shan Bao nervously moved a bit and Man Bao immediately located his position.
Bai Shan Bao was quite angry. Before Man Bao even reached him he turned to run aside…
Where three littler buddies were squatting! They had still been discussing how to throw the sack over Bai Shan Bao when the person suddenly charged out in front of them.
Bai Er Lang’s actions were much quicker than his thoughts. Before his mind reacted his body had grabbed the sack to throw over Bai Shan Bao’s head.
The two buddies: ……He already saw our face, what’s the difference between putting the sack over or not?
