Walking and Stopping

Shen Hui and Lu Huan left the city and headed east along the official road.

It was already late autumn, and more than half the grass and trees by the roadside had withered.

Lu Huan walked ahead, clutching a foxtail grass she had snapped off at random, poking here and sweeping there with it.

With the little lamb no longer by her side, she poured all that restless energy into the roadside flowers and grass.

She casually picked an unknown wildflower and tucked it into her lapel. After walking a few steps, she decided it did not look good, plucked it off, and replaced it with a purple one.

After repeating this several times, five or six little wildflowers in varying shades had gathered on her lapel.

When she spotted a clump of wild chrysanthemums, she bent down to pick them.

She picked two and tucked them into her own braid, then picked another and tried to stick it into Shen Hui's cuff.

"You should wear one too."

Shen Hui shifted aside to avoid her, not letting her have her way.

Lu Huan rose onto her tiptoes and chased after him, her foxtail grass brushing back and forth across his waist. One chased and one fled, and they went nearly half a li like that.

After walking for a while, they came upon a sour jujube tree by the roadside.

The tree was not tall. It stood crookedly atop an earthen embankment, with a few remaining sour jujubes hanging sparsely from its branches, their skins wrinkled and shriveled.

Lu Huan looked up at it for a long while, then pointed at the fruit and asked,

"What's that?"

Shen Hui followed the direction of her finger and answered,

"Sour jujubes."

"Can you eat them?"

Lu Huan tilted her head up, her