An Jing stood at the entrance of the main hall of her new home with her husband and watched as her husband carried the bamboo baskets and shoulder poles to the kitchen and placed them properly. It was only after she saw her husband emerge from the kitchen that she opened her arms and called out with a beaming smile, "Husband."
Xiao Changyi immediately understood and quickly walked over, letting An Jing embrace him while he also wrapped his arms around her.
An Jing wrapped her arms around Xiao Changyi’s waist, tilted her little face upward, smiled contentedly, and called out again, "Husband."
"This will be our home from now on."
As An Jing leaned in Xiao Changyi’s embrace, she looked at the spacious courtyard and pointed her free hand towards a corner on the left, "Husband, let’s open a small plot for vegetables over there. We don’t need to make it too big; just a small patch for the two of us to eat from."
In the past, they were too poor, and she thought about growing a lot of vegetables to sell for money. In the end, she realized they couldn’t sell for much. It was just a farmer getting by, growing vegetables to sell.
"Hmm," Xiao Changyi had no objections.
An Jing pointed to a corner near the kitchen on the left, "When the time comes, we’ll draw the stream water down with bamboo pipes to here, and we’ll put a water jar there to collect it."
Their courtyard lacked a well, and the house was a bit far from Jiuping Village. If they had to keep going to the well in Jiuping Village to carry water, it would be too far and tiring. Therefore, she and her husband had already discussed not to dig a well, but to draw mountain stream water into the courtyard instead, to save the trouble and effort of fetching water from the well.
In fact, there was a river not too far from the house, but An Jing thought river water wasn’t as clean as stream water, which was why she came up with the idea to bring the stream water into the courtyard.
They were originally planning to dig ditches to channel the water, but the stream was too far from the house, and it would take more than a moment to succeed. So, An Jing and Xiao Changyi planned to first use bamboo pipes to draw water for drinking.
But the ditches still needed to be dug.
Because An Jing also intended to create terraced fields, she had always planned to draw the stream water down for irrigation.
An Jing then pointed to the right, "Let’s plant a tree over there. When the tree grows big, we can rest in its shade."
Hearing Xiao Changyi’s response, An Jing suddenly laughed even more radiantly, "Actually, you don’t have to answer me. I know you’re listening." She understood her husband very well.
Xiao Changyi said indifferently, "I want to answer."
An Jing’s heart instantly felt as sweet as if she had tasted honey. She looked up, smiled at him mischievously, and teased, "Do you want a kiss? After all, there’s only our family here, nobody will see."
Xiao Changyi actually nodded, "Yes." As he spoke, he leaned down and kissed her.
It wasn’t a deep kiss but a very shallow and gentle one. With their eyes closed, their eyelashes fluttered slightly from time to time.
The atmosphere around them was serene and beautiful, faintly echoing with bird songs and the flow of the stream. Their hearts, as if refined by a millennia of time, were unlike strong liquor, but rather like a faintly fragrant tea that became more aromatic as time passed.
When the kiss ended, they both opened their eyes.
Neither of them gasped heavily; both were calm as if they hadn’t just shared a kiss. But only the two of them knew, their calmness was just a façade, and their hearts were throbbing.
Even though they had kissed countless times before, they still felt a deep tremor for each other.
The two of them gazed quietly at each other for a while, then An Jing spoke teasingly, "That kiss of yours lasted quite long."
Xiao Changyi said indifferently, "It could have been longer."