One person: Senior brother Zhang Zhiwei, the Celestial Master begged me to descend the mountain.

The wind on the back mountain gradually softened.

The sun rose high in the sky, dispelling the chill of the early morning.

After coming down from the cliff, Zhang Taichu did not take Chen Duo back to that dilapidated courtyard directly. Instead, he found a large, sheltered blue stone and lazily lay down on it to bask in the sun.

Chen Duo was still holding the half-eaten cold steamed bun in her hand, sitting obediently to the side with her legs dangling in the air.

Her eyes were much clearer than before, no longer stagnant, and occasionally a light would flow within them, the lingering aftertaste of having just seen the sea of ​​clouds and heard the sound of the wind.

"Grandmaster Uncle! Grandmaster Uncle!"

The silence was broken by a burst of hurried footsteps.

Zhang Chulan, holding a phone in his hand, ran up the mountain path, panting, his face filled with excitement and an indescribable, strange smile.

"Hey, slow down!"

Zhang Taichu didn't even lift his eyelids, his hands still behind his head, a blade of grass dangling from his mouth.

"You got chased by a dog?"

"No! It's Bao'er!"

Zhang Chulan rushed over, plopped down on the grass, and shoved his phone in front of Zhang Taichu:

"Xu Si just sent it to me, saying it's Sister Bao'er's agricultural success story, and he wants me to learn from it quickly."

"He said he was driven crazy by Bao'er, and he had to make us suffer along with her so we could have some fun."

Upon hearing the name Bao'er Jie.

Chen Duo, who had been sitting to the side in a daze, twitched her ears slightly.

She turned her head, her big eyes fixed on the screen in Zhang Chulan's hand.

Those were her kind.

She was the only person in the world, besides her master, who made her feel that she didn't need to pretend or be on guard.

"Take it to her and show it."

Zhang Taichu waved his hand and pushed the glowing screen toward Chen Duo:

"This girl must be tired from shouting, this is a good time to clear her head."

Zhang Chulan chuckled, moved closer to Chen Duo, and pressed the play button on the screen:

"Master, come, let me show you a blockbuster."

Chen Duo put down the steamed bun in her hand and carefully held the phone in both hands, as if it were some rare treasure.

The screen lights up.

The footage is shaky, clearly taken from a hidden camera angle using a mobile phone.

The background is a familiar farmhouse courtyard, which is the backyard of the staff dormitory of NaDuTong.

Right in the center of the camera.

A girl wearing sloppy overalls and with messy hair was squatting in front of a newly dug pit.

She held a shiny, golden-brown roast chicken in her hand.

That was Xu Si's favorite XX vegetarian roast chicken.

Feng Baobao had a serious expression on her face, an expression even more serious than when doing math problems.

She looked at the roast chicken in her hand, then at the pit in front of her, muttering to herself.

Although it was through a screen, the phone had good sound quality, and Chen Duo could hear it clearly.

As Xu Si, the silly boy, said, "You reap what you sow."

Even in videos, Feng Baobao's voice retains that unique, flat Sichuan accent.

"Since melons can grow in the ground, beans can also grow in it."

"There's no reason why chickens wouldn't grow."

"Chickens are also raised on insects that grow in the soil, so they're related to the soil in a way."

As she spoke, she solemnly placed the roast chicken into the pit.

"Bury it deeper, it will grow taller."

As Feng Baobao muttered to herself, she grabbed handfuls of dirt and piled them over the roast chicken.

"Water it more often and fertilize it more."

"By autumn, a roast chicken tree will grow from this."

"When the trees are laden with roast chickens, that idiot Xu Si will definitely praise me for being clever."

Chen Duo looked at the screen.

Her brows furrowed slightly, and her eyes, which had just learned to observe clouds, were once again filled with confusion.

The logic... seems a bit off?

In the biology class at the bunker, the teacher talked about the reproduction of species.

Chickens are oviparous animals.

Roast chicken is a cooked food.

Cooked food... lacks cellular activity and is even less likely to undergo photosynthesis.

"this……"

Chen Duo raised her head and looked at Zhang Chulan beside her, her eyes filled with a thirst for knowledge:

"Will it...grow?"

"puff……"

Zhang Chulan covered his mouth, his shoulders shaking violently, his face turning bright red:

"Look, keep watching."

"This is science, Bao'er's unique Feng-style biology."

The video flashed by, clearly indicating that it had been edited.

The subtitles displayed the words: "[Three days later]".

The camera was pointed at the pit again.

However, the once flat little mound has now been dug up and is now a mess.

There were no roast chicken trees growing around.

Instead, seven or eight stray cats appeared out of nowhere and gathered together.

They were frantically digging around the pit, meowing excitedly.

A pungent, tangy smell, almost palpable through the screen, seemed to be permeating that corner.

That's the unique smell of meat after it has fermented and rotted in the soil.

Just then.

The screen shook violently.

A fierce roar came from off-screen, so loud it made the phone speaker crackle:

"Feng! Bao! Bao!!!"

Immediately afterwards, a figure wearing slippers and wielding a broom rushed into the frame.

Xu Si.

At this moment, he was completely different from his usual lazy and decadent self.

His face was flushed, his neck was thick, and the veins on his forehead bulged. He pointed at the pit that the wild cat had dug, and his voice trembled:

"My limited edition roast chicken! I queued for three hours to get it!!"

"You fucking planted the dregs in the ground for me?!"

"And they even attracted a whole yard full of stray cats! I just washed my sheets!!!"

In the lens.

Feng Baobao remained squatting there, holding a shovel, looking innocently at the furious Xu Si.

She even tilted her head slightly, her dead fish eyes revealing a clear kind of stupidity:

"Xu Si, don't be angry."

"It might be due to insufficient fertilizer."

"Or perhaps this chicken didn't want to have chicks before it died."

"Look, although the tree hasn't grown yet, a cat has!"

"These cats are meat too, so why don't we..."

"I'll plant you in the ground, believe it or not!!!"

Xu Si finally broke down.

He threw away the broom and took off his flip-flops, which were his last weapon.

"Stop running! You stop right there!"

"Oh dear, Xu Si has killed someone."

Without any hesitation, Feng Baobao threw down the shovel and ran away.

Her movements were extremely unpredictable; she leaped and bounded around the courtyard like a nimble monkey.

Xu Si chased after him frantically, holding a slipper in his hand, cursing as he went. Occasionally, the crisp sound of the slipper hitting the wall could be heard.

"Snapped!"

"stop!"

"Help! I planted melons but didn't get any harvest, and now I'm getting beaten up..."

The video abruptly ended amidst violent shaking and chaotic shouting.

The final scene freezes on Feng Baobao's expressionless face as she runs away, and Xu Si's ferocious back.

Quiet.

There was a deathly silence on the large blue stone.

Zhang Taichu was still basking in the sun with his eyes closed, but a slight smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

Zhang Chulan had already collapsed on the grass laughing, clutching his stomach and groaning.

Only Chen Duo.

She was still holding her phone, maintaining the same posture as when she was watching the video.

Chen Duo stared at the black screen, her mind replaying the image of Xu Si chasing and hitting Feng Baobao with a slipper.

That kind of lively, down-to-earth atmosphere.

That kind of unrestrained noise.

It's that kind of relationship... even if you do something wrong, even if you make a mess of the yard, you won't be punished or locked up, you'll just be chased around and spanked.

so envious.

Chen Duo's fingers gently stroked the edge of the phone.

The corners of her mouth began to twitch uncontrollably.

That's the facial muscles trying to execute an unfamiliar command.

The left corner of his mouth lifted slightly, then fell back down.

The right eyebrow twitched, then calmed down.

It looks a bit strange, even stiff, like a broken robot trying to reboot its facial expression system.

Zhang Chulan stopped laughing and looked at Chen Duo with some surprise:

"Is this...facial nerve twitching?"

"Shut up."

Zhang Taichu opened one eye and whispered a command.

He sat up and looked at his apprentice, who was holding his phone and whose face was contorted with frustration.

Chen Duo was unaware of the outside world's reaction.

She just felt something moving in her throat.

That feeling was very unfamiliar.

It wasn't the bittersweet feeling of wanting to cry.

It wasn't the nausea or vomiting I felt.

It was a breath of air.

A surge of energy wanted to burst through the chest, through the throat, and through this mask.

She remembered Feng Baobao's line, "It's a long cat now."

It reminded me of Xu Si's flip-flops flying in the air.

The images became clearer and more vivid in my mind.

at last.

The corner of her mouth, which had been twitching, had crossed some unseen threshold.

"ha……"

A dry, short syllable popped out of Chen Duo's throat.

Zhang Chulan was stunned.

He stared wide-eyed at the junior nun who had maintained a poker face since they first met.

"Ha ha……"

The second syllable followed immediately.

This time, things went much more smoothly.

Chen Duo's shoulders began to tremble.

The shackles that had always bound her, the shackles of reason and rules, were shattered at this moment by this absurd joke.

"Ha ha……"

"Ha ha ha ha!"

The sound grew louder and louder.

It's becoming more and more coherent.

Although it still sounded a bit awkward, and even had a slight crack in the voice.

But it was definitely laughter.

It is the most instinctive sound that humans make when they feel pleasure, absurdity, or joy.

Chen Duo laughed so hard she bent over.

The phone slipped from her hand and fell onto her lap.

She clutched her stomach with both hands, her whole body trembling violently.

Tears welled up from the corners of my eyes; they were tears of laughter.

"Grow...grow roast chicken..."

Chen Duo laughed as she intermittently repeated the content from the video:

"It's grown...it's grown into a cat..."

"Ha ha ha ha!"

This was the first time in her life that she found something funny.

There's no need to analyze the pros and cons.

There's no need to calculate gains and losses.

I just found the scene and the logic to be hilarious.

A mountain breeze blows.

It drifted away into the distance, carrying with it the slightly manic laughter of a young girl.

Zhang Taichu sat on the large blue stone, looking at his disciple who finally seemed like a living person.

He reached out and ruffled Chen Duo's messy hair as she laughed.

"Alright, stop laughing."

"If you laugh until you choke, your senior brother will have to give you acupuncture tonight."

Although he was verbally trying to stop him, his tone was full of doting affection.

Chen Duo slowly stopped.

She was breathing heavily, her cheeks were flushed, and a fine layer of sweat appeared on her forehead.

But those eyes were surprisingly bright.

The sky looked like it had been washed by rain.

She looked up at Zhang Taichu, then at Zhang Chulan.

Then, pointing to the phone screen, he asked earnestly:

"Master."

"That pit in our yard..."

"Can you grow roast chicken there?"

Zhang Taichu was stunned for a moment.

He then burst into laughter, the sound so loud it shook the pine trees behind him.

"kind!"

"We must plant it!"

"Have Zhang Chulan buy ten of them later!"

"We not only grow roast chicken, but also roast duck and pork hock!"

"What if it doesn't grow..."

Zhang Taichu glanced at Zhang Chulan beside him, his eyes filled with amusement:

"Let's plant this kid in there as fertilizer."

"ah?!"

Zhang Chulan jumped up instantly, his face filled with grief and indignation:

"Master Uncle! You can't play like this!"

"Why am I always the fertilizer?!"

"Because you have thick skin and plenty of nutrition."

"Ha ha ha ha……"

This time.

Chen Duo smiled naturally.

She watched the two people bickering in the sunlight.

Looking at the rolling sea of ​​clouds in the distance.

Suddenly I realized...

Being a person is really quite interesting.