The poor girl from the 1970s was forced to kiss by the damp educated youth.

Chen Zhi didn't see Xi Lang do anything before the things on the ground disappeared. She stared in disbelief, "Where did they go?"

"Here."

As soon as Xi Lang finished speaking, a wolf and a bear reappeared on the ground.

Chen Zhi rubbed her eyes, wondering if she was seeing things. "How did you do that?"

"Just some little tricks." Xi Lang put the wolf and bear away again, and this time released two large red cotton quilts. "These two quilts are a wedding gift from a friend of mine."

It's bright red, with auspicious clouds embroidered in yellow thread; you can tell it's not cheap.

"Your friend is very thoughtful." This was the first time Chen Zhi had heard Xi Lang mention the word "friend." She was very curious about what kind of friends someone like Xi Lang would make. This friend probably wasn't from Sandong Village.

"He also sent a chest of drawers and four hens. The chest of drawers will be delivered tomorrow, and the hens are over there, I almost forgot," Xi Lang said, pointing to the chicken coop next to the water tank.

The four hens stayed quietly in the cage without making a sound.

"It's so big?" Chen Zhi was extremely surprised. She and Xi Lang were going to start raising poultry!

"They've already started laying eggs. Once they've adapted to their environment, they should lay more eggs, and then we can collect them." Xi Lang felt a strange sense of anticipation. Things she hadn't cared about before had become meaningful now that she was with him.

Chen Zhi wanted to bring the four hens inside, but Xi Lang rejected the idea.

"What if something comes again in the middle of the night and eats them?" This is their family property.

"With me here, it won't happen," Xi Lang said confidently.

"What if it gets eaten?"

"I'll go buy you four more."

"You don't cherish your friendship with your friend at all, nor do you appreciate the gifts he gives you."

He won't mind.

"Which friend of yours is this? They gave such an expensive gift, why didn't they come to the wedding dinner?"

"I forgot."

"...Did you forget to call him?"

"Um."

Chen Zhi rolled her eyes, feeling sorry for that friend who had to have a friend like Xi Lang.

"Don't think about it anymore, go to sleep." Xi Lang closed his eyes first.

The two remained a hand's width apart, neither touching the other. Chen Zhi felt that her relationship with Xi Lang was wrong. She had no friends, no one talked to her about relationships between men and women, and her mother would never bring it up, yet she had "seen" it.

I've seen Widow Yu and Chen Yao kissing, and the two of them touching each other...

Is that comfortable?

The thought of herself and Xi Lang doing the same thing made Chen Zhi feel warm all over, and she felt a vague sense of anticipation.

Why doesn't Xi Lang take the initiative?

Does he not know how?

Chen Zhi was extremely conflicted. If Xi Lang didn't know either, then should she and Xi Lang learn first?

Thinking of this, Chen Zhi poked Xi Lang's arm with her finger.

"What's wrong?" Xi Lang asked.

Chen Zhi found it difficult to say this; how could she bring herself to say it?

When Xi Lang didn't get a reply, he changed from lying flat to lying on his side. His gaze fell on Chen Zhi's small face. Seeing her conflicted and slightly troubled expression, he couldn't help but be more curious about what was going on in her little head.

"Still wondering where I hid the wolf and bear? Well, I can tell you. It's a Taoist technique called 'Universe in the Sleeve,' or 'Universe Sleeve.' It means that there is heaven and earth in the sleeve. Saying 'heaven and earth' is a bit of an exaggeration. You can think of it as a space, a tool used to store things."

"Not this one." Chen Zhi buried her face in the blanket.

"What is that?" Xi Lang became even more curious.

"I want to ask you, do you... do you not know how men and women sleep?" Chen Zhi said, then buried her entire head under the covers.

Xi Lang: "......."

Xi Lang had no experience with matters between men and women, but he had been "forced" to watch quite a few, so he naturally understood what was going on.

He never expected to be questioned.

Especially when these words came from Chen Zhi's mouth, he felt both amused and exasperated.

He couldn't help but laugh out loud.

Hearing the laughter, Chen Zhi was so ashamed that she dared not see anyone.

"Zhizhi, you're only seventeen years old, you're not an adult yet."

"But other girls have children when they're fifteen."

Having children too early can harm your health.

Xi Lang sighed, his voice a mix of helplessness and indulgence. "You probably don't know how much self-control I need to resist touching you when you're lying next to me."

Chen Zhi didn't say anything, but she felt a sweet warmth in her heart.

"Sweetie, we'll discuss this when you turn eighteen. Go to sleep now."

"Um."

Her birthday is in the first month of the lunar calendar, so there are still six months to go.

Half a year isn't a long time.

Chen Zhi woke up refreshed after a dreamless night.

She was the only one left on the bed. Xi Lang's spot was already cold, and it seemed he had been up for a while.

The four hens were clucking.

Xi Lang was chopping greens, then adding some rice bran and water to the chopped greens, stirring it well before feeding it to the chickens.

"You can do this too?" Chen Zhi said in surprise.

"I've seen others do it," Xi Lang said. He'd been living in the countryside for two years and had seen plenty of people feeding chickens.

"We haven't fenced off the yard yet, so the chickens are being kept in cages for now. Today I'm going to make them a bigger cage."

"Okay." Chen Zhi thought for a moment, "I'll go collect some snails and clams, crack them open, and feed them to them."

"Why smash it?" Xi Lang asked, puzzled.

"I heard from the elders that if you crush river snails and clams in their shells and feed them to the chickens, the eggs they lay will be big and good." When Chen Zhi was with the Chen family, she was often assigned to do this.

Xi Lang seemed thoughtful. "I'll go pick it up with you."

He's worried about leaving her alone now.

"Then let's go this afternoon, and take a bath in the river while we're there."

After breakfast, Xi Lang first had to weave a chicken coop out of bamboo, while Chen Zhi took a hoe to tidy up the newly opened vegetable garden.

"Can we plant vegetables in the next couple of days?" Chen Zhi asked.

Xi Lang hummed in agreement and asked her, "What do you plan to plant?"

"I want to plant everything." Chen Zhi felt that she was too greedy and wanted to try everything.

"Then plant a little bit of everything." In Xi Lang's opinion, this was no big deal. "We don't have many seeds at home, I'll go buy some for you."

Chen Zhi grinned foolishly, "Okay."

Before noon, Xi Lang stopped what he was doing and went to chop wolf meat. He chopped a whole basinful, put it in an iron pot, added a bottle of white wine and various spices, covered it, brought it to a boil over high heat, and then simmered it over low heat.

After finishing these tasks, he continued weaving chicken coops.

This wolf must have lived for countless years; its meat would be too tough to chew if it weren't stewed for several hours.

After the chicken coop was finished, Xi Lang moved the four hens into the new coop.

The chicken coop is 1.6 meters long, 80 centimeters wide, and 1.2 meters high, with two levels, allowing the chickens to move between the upper and lower levels.

Xi Lang not only wove chicken coops, but also made the feeding troughs for the chickens.

Chen Zhi was amazed by the exquisite craftsmanship of the chicken coop, which was more than ten times better than the one in the Chen family's house.

"The aroma of meat is wafting out, is it time to cook rice?" Chen Zhi asked. "Should I go cook rice?"

"Cook more, enough for seven or eight people."

"Is anyone coming over for dinner today?"

Just as Chen Zhi finished speaking, the sound of a truck came from afar.