She won’t keep that head-raised posture all the time, will she?
This made Li Zhiyuan feel a sense of guilt, and he was somewhat restless while trying to read.
Grandma Liu, reading the newspaper downstairs, was actually keeping an eye on the balcony with the corner of her eye, watching the child poke his head out more and more frequently, and couldn’t help but chuckle to herself:
This is just like a man, all at peace when free to come and go, but flustered and agitated once bound by responsibilities.
But soon, Liu Yumei put down her newspaper in surprise, because she saw Li Zhiyuan running down from upstairs. He smiled as he passed by her, then headed straight for her granddaughter.
Before Liu Yumei could finish her sentence, she saw the boy bend down as if to hold her granddaughter’s hand.
Liu Yumei knew the terrible reaction her granddaughter would have when touched by strangers; even she, as the grandmother, dared not be overly affectionate.
Almost immediately, Liu Yumei stood up with a "swoosh" as she saw the boy take her granddaughter’s hand and her granddaughter also got up.
What’s going on here?
That morning, when her granddaughter was staring at the boy, she had made an excuse to make tea to get a closer look, to see if there was something dirty on the boy that could attract her granddaughter’s attention.
But this interaction now was beyond Liu Yumei’s comprehension.
Li Zhiyuan held Qin Li’s hand, which was warm and soft.
"Your neck will be tired from looking up like that. Would you like to come up and read with me?"
Qin Li looked at Li Zhiyuan without speaking.
"If you don’t say anything, I’ll take that as a yes."
Li Zhiyuan bent down to pick up the stool Qin Li was sitting on, then pulled her towards the house.
Liu Yumei didn’t speak up to stop them. Quite the opposite, after the initial shock, as she watched the young man and girl walk away hand in hand, her eyes immediately moistened with tears.
She covered her mouth with her hand, afraid to let any crying sound come out.
She even bit her hand to confirm she wasn’t dreaming.
Downstairs, Aunt Liu, who was busy making paper effigies, dropped a basin of paste, splattering it all over the floor. Fortunately, Li Sanjiang was on the second floor, otherwise it would have been another cause for distress.
Uncle Qin, who was constructing a house frame, accidentally tore off the roof beam of a paper house.
They exchanged glances, thinking they must have seen wrong. Had they just witnessed Alii being led up the stairs by a stranger?
They both left their work and ran out to the dam. Not seeing Liu Yumei there, they went to the eastern house and saw Liu Yumei standing in front of the ancestral tablet, crying tears of joy and saying:
"Did you see it, did you see it? Our Alii, our Alii..."
Li Sanjiang was humming along to the storytelling on the radio, just taking a sip of water, when he saw Li Zhiyuan and Qin Li come out hand in hand at the stairway.
The water in Li Sanjiang’s mouth sprayed out.
"Grandmaster, shall I refill your water?"
Seeing Li Zhiyuan pulling Qin Li towards him, Li Sanjiang quickly waved his hand:
"No no no, no need, you go on, stay away from me! No, you too..."
Li Zhiyuan led Qin Li to the southeast corner and put her stool down.
Li Zhiyuan sat back in the rattan chair, picked up a book, and after flipping a page, he felt something was off. He stood up again, "Stand up for a second."
Qin Li stood up, and Li Zhiyuan moved her small stool aside, replacing it with a slightly higher stool that Sister Yingzi had brought up yesterday, then placed it beside him.
Qin Li looked at the new stool but didn’t sit.
Li Zhiyuan was puzzled, but he immediately seemed to think of something and wiped the stool with his sleeve:
"Have a seat, it’s clean now."
Li Zhiyuan placed the book on the stool, no longer holding it while lying down.
The two of them were very close, their heads touching.
Qin Li’s gaze was always on him, while he, too, could include the girl’s face in his field of vision while reading.
Her hair, occasionally blown by the wind, brushed across his face; her scent also lingered around his nose.
This feeling was quite peculiar.
Reading and pleasing the eye at the same time,
Li Zhiyuan felt that he had discovered the most efficient way to read.
Far away, Li Sanjiang went from initial panic to fear, then to concern, and then to disbelief.
After watching for a long time, assuring that the girl was just sitting there quietly watching his great-grandson without any danger, his eyes... showed admiration!
This Little Yuanhou, not quite the same as his mother when she was young.
Li Lan, that girl, often received love letters at school, and what she did was, she took all the love letters and directly placed them on the principal’s office desk.
That day, God knows how many boys had their parents called in, and the principal’s office was filled with the sounds of slapping with leather belts.
"Good, very good, it seems our Little Yuanhou has been smarter and more clever since he was little than his mother back in the day, hehe."
Li Sanjiang closed his eyes and continued listening to the storytelling.
As noon approached, Li Zhiyuan felt the urge to pee, probably from the tea he had drunk with Grandma Liu earlier. He asked Qin Li:
"Do you need to use the restroom?"
"Then you sit here, and I’ll be back shortly after going to the bathroom."
Li Zhiyuan stood up, ran downstairs, and circled to the back of the house. The large vegetable garden behind the house was all available for marking his territory. He had just set himself when he heard footsteps from behind. Turning around, he found Qin Li.