A week later on Saturday, Gu Wenxi saw Yan Yan’s figure from the second-floor window again. She was standing on the backyard path talking to Du Yunyan, accompanied by a boy of about the same age.

“Uncle Yunyan, Du Xinyu doesn’t believe wild fruits by the river can be eaten!” Yan Yan’s voice was clear, and Gu Wenxi heard her as soon as he approached the vegetable garden.

“Those fruits are especially sour. Why else would no one pick them?” the boy argued.

“Alright, alright,” Du Yunyan understood and smiled. “Today, I’ll treat you guys.” He glanced at Gu Wenxi, knowing he had heard, and added, “You too.”

Gu Wenxi felt as if he was being counted among the children, but he felt quite happy and followed them into the dining room.

It was windy early in the morning. As they ate fruit, Du Yunyan went to close the door. The wind chime’s pendant hung on the door frame, and before closing the door, he reached out and flicked it open. The lingering sound echoed for a while before it returned to calm.

The candied fruit had completely soaked up the flavor, sweet and refreshing.

“I thought you didn’t like eating it. Why are you grabbing mine?” Yan Yan exclaimed after a while.

“Because you’re eating too slowly,” the boy said without hesitation, using his fork to pick at Yan Yan’s bowl.

Gu Wenxi patted Du Xinyu’s shoulder. “Why are you stealing from girls? That’s not very gentlemanly, you know?”

“She’s not a girl, she’s a tomboy!”

“Who are you talking about?”

“Alright, alright,” seeing the two about to argue again, Du Yunyan interrupted them, “Finish eating, and then do me a favor, okay?”

“What is it, Uncle Yunyan?”

“Here,” Du Yunyan handed them two pale-colored cards, “copy this recipe for me.”

Yan Yan pouted. “Uncle Yunyan, your handwriting is so beautiful, I can’t compare to you…”

Du Xinyu smirked. “You even know your handwriting is bad!”

“Yours is worse!”

“You two are good friends, don’t talk like that,” Du Yunyan said sternly. “It’s okay, just write it however you can, think of it as practice.”

Du Yunyan took a blank piece of paper for himself, ready to write.

“Hey,” Gu Wenxi noticed that he completely forgot about him, and frowned. “I might not be very efficient at work, but I can write just fine, you know!”

“You want to write too?”

“Is that not allowed?”

“It’s fine, just write neatly.” Du Yunyan handed him the stationery.

The pen was a very ordinary style available on the market, smooth to write with.

Gu Wenxi’s handwriting wasn’t as meticulous as Du Yunyan’s, but he had practiced for a while when he was younger. His basic handwriting was still very beautiful, and he wrote much faster than the two children. The content he copied was a winter menu, slightly different from the one he had seen when he first arrived.

“Do you often change your menu?” he asked, puzzled.

“Not necessarily,” Du Yunyan said, “sometimes I make adjustments based on the season.”

“But aren’t there fewer customers in winter?”

“That’s why I prepare less.”

Gu Wenxi handed him the finished product. “How is it?”

Du Yunyan glanced at it a few times. “It’s passable.” He started adding simple patterns to the edge of the paper, flowers, trees, and natural scenery… with just a few strokes, they looked lifelike.

“Playing it cool,” Gu Wenxi muttered quietly, though he noticed the slight lift of Du Yunyan’s lips. Their interaction these past few days hadn’t been warm, but luckily Gu Wenxi hadn’t caused any big trouble, and Du Yunyan occasionally let him do some trivial tasks.

Yan Yan and Du Xinyu were still in elementary school, and their handwriting was generally neat but average. However, Du Yunyan didn’t really intend for them to help, just urging them to practice writing. With something to do, the two children were less noisy.

Du Yunyan had originally planned to have them stay for lunch, but Yan Yan said her mom was waiting for her at home, so she couldn’t stay. Du Xinyu, being a gentleman this time, offered to escort her home, and they left together on their bikes.

The glass jar that had been opened in the morning was quite large, with only two pieces of wild fruit left inside. After clearing the table of stationery, Gu Wenxi picked up an unused small fork and picked up a piece, offering it to Du Yunyan’s mouth. “You didn’t eat much just now, did you?”

Du Yunyan’s face shifted slightly, and he took the fork himself and put it in his mouth. Just as he put down the fork, the only landline in the hall rang, and he walked over to answer it.

“Hello… Oh, is that okay?”

The counter was right next to them, and Aunt Liu’s loud voice came through the phone. Even though Gu Wenxi didn’t deliberately listen, he roughly understood what the other party was going to deliver.

Sure enough, after Du Yunyan hung up the phone, he said, “I’ll be right back.”

Gu Wenxi didn’t mind. Aunt Liu and Uncle Sheng’s house was next door, and it wouldn’t take more than a few minutes to go there. When Du Yunyan came back, he was holding a freshly slaughtered chicken in one hand and a bag wafting with a rich fragrance in the other, which Gu Wenxi recognized as the meat strips he had seen at their house that day.

Gu Wenxi’s stomach couldn’t help but growl twice, but today was Saturday, and he wasn’t sure if Du Yunyan would be willing to immediately bring these gifts to the table.

“Um, are these… for us?” he tentatively asked, “To eat?”

“Who else would they be for?” Du Yunyan gave him a sideways glance.

“But it’s not Sunday yet, is it?” Despite his joy, he still doubted that Du Yunyan would make an exception given his character.

“Consider it making up for last week.” Du Yunyan walked towards the kitchen. “You said you wanted to learn how to cook, right? Come over and help me.”

“Sure thing, boss!” Gu Wenxi followed him eagerly. “Where did you get this chicken?”

It looked like it was just slaughtered and the feathers removed; the skin was still warm.

Du Yunyan halved the chicken and removed the internal organs. “It’s a hen from Uncle Sheng’s house.” Almost every family in the village raises chickens, so there’s no need to buy from outside.”

“Don’t you also raise chickens here?” Gu Wenxi remembered the three in the backyard. “Do you need others to send them?”

“I don’t really want to slaughter my own.” He stuffed the sliced ginger into the emptied chicken belly.

“Eating from some else’s involves killing,” Gu Wenxi said with a downturned mouth. “Hypocritical.”

“So are you not going to eat later?” Du Yunyan glanced at him sideways.

“I’ll eat!” Gu Wenxi blurted out without much backbone. He hadn’t tasted any meat in the past two weeks. Finally catching an opportunity, how could he not eat?

Du Yunyan turned around and placed the prepared chicken into a large stew pot, poured in hot water and mushrooms, covered it, and simmered it over low heat. “I’ve always liked vegetarian food. If it was just me, I wouldn’t accept these.”

Gu Wenxi suddenly realized that it seemed like these were accepted just to entertain him…

The chickens from Aunt Liu’s house were always free-range in the yard, fed with natural grains, and a bit of seasoning was enough to make them tender and delicious. Du Yunyan indeed didn’t like eating meat much. After the chicken was stewed, he only drank some soup; most of it ended up in Gu Wenxi’s stomach.

“Hey,” Gu Wenxi gnawed on the chicken leg vigorously. “You said it’s to make up for last week, so… can we eat meat tomorrow too?”

“Yeah,” Du Yunyan swallowed the food in his mouth. “Isn’t there some left? We’ll eat that tomorrow.”

Gu Wenxi secretly rejoiced; having meat every day was truly enjoyable.

After dinner, Du Yunyan stewed some of the tougher parts and leftover bones for the two dogs. Perhaps these dogs didn’t usually get much meat, as they crowded around as soon as he stepped out, barking and wagging their tongues.

“Yangyang,” Du Yunyan pulled the yellow dog back slightly, “don’t bully Beibei.”

Gu Wenxi had already figured out that the yellow dog was called Yangyang and the black one was called Beibei. But Du Yunyan spoke to the dogs as if coaxing a child, with a face full of loving smiles, emitting an irritatingly affectionate vibe, making him shiver involuntarily.

Upon closer thought, it seemed like Du Yunyan was always pleasant and never abrasive towards Uncle Sheng, Aunt Liu, Yun Han, Yan Yan, Du Xinyu… to anyone else, but always seemed to have a face like he owed him something.

The voice in Gu Wenxi’s mind grew weaker; he really did owe him.

Not only that, he left watermarks everywhere while cleaning the floor, almost blew up the kitchen while cooking, and even stepped on the cilantro he planted earlier… It seemed like he was a bit annoying.

The hens in the backyard started clucking; they must have laid eggs.

Gu Wenxi followed Du Yunyan to see, and sure enough, there were two intact eggs on the hay, with one hen still clucking while another two pecked at a broken egg.

“Do they eat their own eggs?” Gu Wenxi had never raised chickens before, so it was the first time he saw this.

“Yeah, sometimes they peck the eggs,” Du Yunyan opened the chicken coop’s fence, “So we have to pick them up in time.” He stared at Gu Wenxi, no longer moving.

“You want me to pick them up?” Gu Wenxi understood his meaning.

“Don’t you want to?”

“Cough, of course I do.” Gu Wenxi picked up the two eggs with his index and middle fingers of both hands, avoiding touching the feces on top. “Isn’t this too dirty?”

“Can anything coming out of their behind be clean?” Du Yunyan said.

“Of course, I know it’s from the chicken’s behind!” He suddenly burst into laughter, probably finding it amusing to hear such crude words from someone as elegant as Du Yunyan.

But Du Yunyan didn’t understand why he was laughing, just treating it as a fit of madness: “Wash those two eggs clean before bringing them inside,” he conveyed the order without changing his expression.

There was another sink in the backyard, usually used for watering plants. Gu Wenxi reluctantly turned on the tap.

It’s just washing an egg; he couldn’t let Du Yunyan look down on him again.

That night,  Gu Wenxi turned over on the bed, feeling for the air conditioner remote control. These days, to reduce extra expenses at the inn, he hadn’t been turning on the air conditioner at night anymore, preferring to wear more clothes. But he still remembered the day he arrived, when he told Du Yunyan it was too cold here, and the man went out early in the morning without eating to buy batteries.

Actually, he’s quite gentle.

Gu Wenxi’s fingers rubbed back and forth on the remote control and the slight discomfort that arose when feeding the dog at noon gradually subsided.