The pastoral life of the grass tribe chief

After drinking the soup, everyone felt much more energetic.

Lu Chang'an and his sister were juicing wheatgrass and putting it in the refrigerator to drink after it had cooled down.

After chatting for a while, everyone went to dig for bamboo shoots.

Lu Chang'an and his sister Lu Changyu led others to catch bamboo elephants all over the mountain, taking photos and videos, and uploading them to WeChat Moments and Kuaishou.

Lu Jijun and Gao Lang accompanied their grandparents for a walk in the bamboo forest.

The four of them were talking about something fun, and their laughter echoed through the bamboo forest.

Lu Yao placed the dug bamboo shoots by the roadside, and each of them took one on their way back, making it easy to carry them home.

On a hot day, it's nice to take a walk in the bamboo forest, but there are a lot of mosquitoes. They're big and fierce, and if you're not careful, you'll have a big welt on your neck, arms, legs, or feet.

"Watch out for mosquitoes, you should spray some mosquito repellent."

Grandma kept reminding her granddaughter and Gao Lang, and even used her straw hat to swat away mosquitoes for them.

"I'm not that delicate."

Lu Jijun also used a sun hat to ward off mosquitoes.

"Grandpa and Grandma, there aren't as many mosquitoes when we walk."

Gao Langdao.

"You must have been used to being wild since you were a child, so your back and legs don't ache when you walk on mountain trails."

The old man cast an admiring glance at Gao Lang.

"I trained with my dad and others since I was a child, and I endured a lot of hardship to develop this physique."

Gao Lang still feels lingering fear when he thinks back to those years of training.

As Lu Yao watched the four people walking slowly, chatting and laughing, he felt that his grandparents treated Gao Lang differently than they treated others.

Could it be that the two elders have discovered something, or that my older sister secretly told them about her relationship with Gao Lang?

Forget it, this isn't something I should worry about. I'll just keep digging for my bamboo shoots.

My life is so hard.

"Hey, Xiao Jun, Gao Lang, look at all these wild rhododendron flowers here, they're so beautiful."

"Take a picture of me quickly to remember this moment."

"Let's take a group photo, Xiaoyu too."

"I'll take a picture of you and your brother too."

"don't want."

"Tch, you think I want to take a picture with you?"

"Come quick, come quick! What kind of fruit is this? Can we eat it?"

"These are called sour vines, and they are edible. We use them to make bullets for bamboo tube guns."

"I also played with bamboo guns in my hometown when I was a child, but we used wet paper as bullets."

"Hmm, I didn't expect this fruit to be so sweet and sour, it's delicious."

"It tastes like lemon."

"Its leaves are also delicious."

"It would look beautiful if we dug this up and used it as a potted plant."

"It adapts poorly to its surrounding environment and is not easy to raise."

……

When Lu Yao had dug up enough bamboo shoots, his nephews and nieces ran down the mountain, each with several swollen bumps on their bodies.

"The mosquitoes in the bamboo forest are terrifying; even spraying mosquito repellent doesn't help."

The petite beauty took out a small mirror from her bag, looked at the swelling on her neck, wanted to scratch it but dared not, and felt like crying.

"I used the floral water I made when I got back, and it worked quite well."

Lu Yaodao.

"You can also make floral water?"

The group was quite surprised.

"I know how to make it. I put dried mint and honeysuckle into a glass jar, add 75% alcohol, and let it soak for about three days."

Lu Chang'an said smugly.

"Showing off."

The younger sister disliked her second brother's smug attitude.

"Do you and your siblings argue and fight every day?"

The curly-haired handsome man asked the brother and sister with a smile.

"I could take on two of her with one hand."

Lu Chang'an said dismissively.

Back inside, the brother and sister took out chilled wheatgrass juice from the refrigerator for everyone to drink.

Lu Yao took out some floral water he had soaked and used it to wipe the swellings on everyone's skin.

"So cool and refreshing, so comfortable."

"The swelling went down so quickly, the effect is amazing!"

"I'll try making a jar when I get back."

The group was amazed by the magical effects of the floral water.

Lu Yao smiled but remained silent.

They can't make a floral water that works this well.

Before Lu Jijun and Gao Lang were about to leave, Lu Yao picked a few more pounds of lychees for his older sister to take back to the family.

"You've played all day, hurry up and do your homework. After dinner, go help out at the convenience store."

Lu Yao said to his nephew and niece, who were lying on the sofa drinking wheatgrass juice and scrolling through their tablets.

"Even my mom isn't as nagging as you."

The niece pouted.

"If it weren't for seeing how badly your mother beat you and your brother, I wouldn't bother with you at all."

"Anyway, you're not studying for me, so it's up to you whether you want to study or not."

Lu Yao carried a wire basket to collect duckweed.

The brother and sister glanced at each other, turned off their tablets and phones, and took their schoolbags to the bamboo shed next door to read and do their homework.

Lu Yao arrived at his family's duckweed field across from Wumutang. Lu Changping's father was weeding the banana field next to it and chatting with other villagers who were working.

"Everyone says that having many children brings many blessings, but when you get old, you'll still find yourself disliking this son and that son."

"You can't say that. His brother-in-law suffered a stroke at seventy and has been bedridden for more than ten years. Anyone would get tired of taking care of him, so it's understandable that he would complain a few times."

"That's true, his sons are quite filial."

"Actually, it would be best if someone like your second brother suddenly suffered a heart attack and passed away while taking a nap. He wouldn't have to suffer, and he wouldn't have to burden his children."

How old was your second brother when he passed away?

"Seventy-three."

"Five years have passed without me even realizing it; it feels like just yesterday I was having tea and chatting with him."

"His children passed away just as they started to earn some money. They worked themselves to the bone their whole lives and didn't even have time to enjoy their retirement before they were gone."

"Seventy-three is a bit young; it would be good to live to eighty."

"I went to the township government a few days ago to register my mother's age as eighty. In our township alone, there are no fewer than two hundred people over eighty years old, the oldest being 111 years old."

"Is she Yimin's aunt? She's been on the provincial TV station."

"She was stronger than a tiger, and she went to the small shop to play cards every day."

"Longevity is largely related to genes. Almost all of Ayao's elders lived to be over eighty years old, and each of them passed away after lying in bed for a year or two, never becoming a burden on their children."

"That's because our ancestors accumulated good deeds."

"Every generation in their lineage produces an outstanding person. Not to mention the distant past, just look at the last three generations: the previous generation was Old Master Nian, the middle generation was Li Min, and the next generation was Lu Yao."

"And each generation is stronger than the last."

My father-in-law always says this: "A family that accumulates good deeds will surely have abundant blessings, while a family that accumulates evil deeds will surely have abundant calamities."

"Your father-in-law likes you so much as his son-in-law, and his son doesn't want to learn feng shui, so why doesn't he teach you?"

"That's right, a turn of the compass brings in a fortune."

He said that this line of work seems glamorous on the surface, but only the person in it knows the hardships. People can praise you to the heavens or curse you to the ground. Sometimes, one careless move can not only offend people but also bring trouble to your family.

"That's life, good fortune and misfortune are intertwined, there's nothing strange about it."

……

Lu Yao scooped up the duckweed, placed it on the edge of the field to drip water, and then sat under the banana tree chatting with the villagers.

"I heard from your father that the cost of rebuilding the ancestral hall has exceeded the budget, and it will take at least another 100,000 yuan to complete."

Lu Changping's father said to Lu Yao.

"Even another 100,000 wouldn't be enough."

Lu Yaodao.

Just like building a house, you can roughly estimate the cost of the main structure, but the decoration is a bottomless pit.

Moreover, the money used to build the ancestral hall wasn't their own, so they didn't feel burdened by spending it.

You want better materials here, better materials there, this is a little over budget, that is a little over budget, and in the end you find that you've exceeded the budget by too much.