Kiyono Lin nodded in agreement, ready to get up, but then, as if suddenly remembering something, she looked up and stared at Dubian Che.
"What’s the matter?" Dubian Che was startled.
She couldn’t possibly see something about the "Qi Blood Medicine" just from his expression, could she?
If she really complained, there would be no privacy at all.
"How long do you plan to feign ignorance and stay here?" Kiyono Lin said coldly.
"...What?" Dubian Che was taken aback. Only when he saw Jiutiao Meijie lazily starting to change her clothes did he realize.
He quickly left the bedroom.
Feigning ignorance, that was a bit too much.
He really had focused all his thoughts on the "Qi Blood Medicine" and never thought about taking advantage of the girls changing their sleepwear while they were still drowsy!
Through the wooden sliding door, he could faintly hear the sound of clothes rubbing against each other.
Ah, how he wanted to know what color underwear Ms. R and Ms. K were wearing today.
A rural student’s sketching trip without paint, easels, stools, frames, canvases, etc., might be scoffed at: What kind of sketching trip was this?
They only had a regular pencil, a regular eraser, and a 16-open notebook.
The three of them met up with Little Lian.
Besides the handbag carrying the pencil and eraser notebook, Little Lian also carried a water bottle almost half the size of her body.
"Say good morning to the sun~ Today is another ordinary day~ Say good morning to the birds~ Today is another happy day~"
Little Lian sang a song, walking in the front, with the water bottle swaying from side to side.
The four walked up the mountain along the narrow path between fields, with low sloping sides covered in wild grass, and terraced fields between the slopes.
Dubian Che picked a piece of foxtail grass and swung it randomly.
Little Lian looked back to check if her "subordinates" had caught up, saw him holding the grass, and also picked one, then her song turned into a self-composed "Foxtail Grass."
The sky was clear, soft sunlight sprinkled on the fields, even the dry yellow rice straw roots were enjoying the winter sun.
Kiyono Lin, dressed in white, made her dark, shiny hair stand out even more.
Her black hair, Dubian Che could swear on Misezawa Village, would make all the girls envious and the boys want to bury their faces in it.
Kiyono Lin used her hands to shade her forehead as she gazed into the distance.
The vast blue sky, the sparse houses, the dense fields of crops, and the isolated train platform—they had come from there.
Sunlight spilled through the thin gaps between her fingers, kissing her fair and beautiful face.
She withdrew her gaze from afar.
Beside her, Dubian Che kept talking about late August, how the rice shoots up in the fields, turning here into a green prairie, how he touches the field crabs down the fields, down by the river;
Jiutiao Meijie occasionally nodded, dealing with Dubian Che’s endless talk;
Leading the way, Dubian’s little sister, the first-grade elementary school student called Little Lian, was now somewhat out of breath from singing and walking.
"We’re here!" Little Lian suddenly shouted.
"Here?" Kiyono Lin looked around in confusion.
The road they came from was behind them, and in front was a patch of tall, withered grass. The grass had turned to a dry yellow, and under their feet was a solid dirt road; it didn’t seem at all like a suitable place for sketching.
"Through this patch of grass!"
Before Kiyono Lin could make sense of her words, Little Lian had already dived into the patch of wild grass, disappearing from their sight.
"What’s going on?" Jiutiao Meijie asked Dubian Che.
"You’ll see if you follow."
"Come on, hurry up!" Inside the wild grass, only Little Lian’s shouts could be heard; her small figure was out of sight.
Dubian Che stepped forward first, parting the grass for the two ladies.
They followed closely behind.
As they passed, the wild grass rustled.
Walking a few steps inward, away from the mountain road, it felt as though they were in a grassland during the dry season, far from somewhere in the Island Country.
Ahead, Little Lian’s voice came intermittently, like a child eager to show off a secret base she had found.
Walking forward, an open space suddenly appeared, a patch of wild grass flattened into a grass mat.
From a particular direction, the whole village could be seen.
The windmills on the distant mountains seemed a bit larger.
"This is it." Little Lian obediently sat down in the wild grass.
"Amazing." Dubian Che patted Little Lian’s head, "You’re like the Columbus of Misezawa Village for discovering this place."
Flattered by the compliment, Little Lian grinned bashfully.
She set aside the large water bottle, took out her sketchbook and pencil from the bag.
Just as she was about to start drawing, seeing the three still standing, she quickly put on a first-grader’s serious face and said:
"You guys, sit down too!"
Dubian Che took out a picnic cloth from the bag, spread it on the wild grass, and had the two ladies sit down.
He himself sat down next to Little Lian directly on the wild grass.
The tall wild grass hid their tracks.
On a windless day, the winter sun was warm and cozy; there was no better place or weather to idly paint.
Aside from the blue sky and the white clouds, no one could see them.
The pencil wrestled with the paper, making a rustling battle sound.
After a while, Little Lian opened her water bottle, poured hot water into the lid, and sipped it slowly.
"Did you finish your drawing, Little Lian?" Dubian Che asked.
"Mhm." Little Lian nodded obediently.
Dubian Che took her sketchbook, and the two ladies sitting behind him also looked over.
The village, the fields, the houses, all rendered in a childlike style, yet it all looked quite convincing.
"Ah, you draw much better than Mr. Dubian from class 4." Kiyono Lin covered her mouth with her hand, chuckling lightly.