"What's this called?"
Jian Yue walked along with Zuozuo, keeping an eye on their surroundings. Suddenly, Zuozuo's eyes lit up as though he had spotted something fun, and he promptly let go of his brother's hand. Jian Yue glanced over, saw that he hadn't gone far, and left him to it.
Zuozuo crouched beside a patch of weeds and studied one spot curiously. After looking for a while, he reached out, snapped off a weed, and brought it over to show his brother, leading to his earlier question.
Jian Yue glanced at it casually. There seemed to be something on it. He wasn't sure, so he looked again.
"Aaaah Ｏ(≧口≦)Ｏ! What is that thing in your hand!"
Jian Yue immediately backed away, pointing shakily at the weed in Zuozuo's hand. There, right on it, was an enormous green caterpillar, so fat that it bent the leaf beneath it.
"It's a baby bug! What's this baby bug called?"
Zuozuo tilted his head and looked strangely at his horrified brother, then glanced at the bug in his hand and took another step toward him.
The cameraman seized the moment to get a close-up of the caterpillar.
[Aaaah!]
[Back, back, back!]
[A bug! My eyes!]
[Bugs are so cute. What's there to be scared of?]
[You're even scarier.]
[That bug and I cannot live under the same sky!]
"Stop. Don't come any closer."
Seeing Zuozuo approach, Jian Yue's expression twisted, and he hurriedly told him to stop.
Zuozuo stopped in his tracks, his face full of bewilderment.
"Throw it away. Throw away what's in your hand."
Hearing that, Zuozuo glanced at the bug in his hand, clearly hesitant. His gaze shifted between his brother and the bug before he finally chose to throw the bug away.
Jian Yue instantly breathed a sigh of relief, strode forward, picked Zuozuo up, and delivered a smack to his bottom.
"What are you doing!" Zuozuo clutched his bottom and glared at his brother. At the thought of so many people seeing him get spanked, his face flushed scarlet with embarrassment.
[Brother Jian, I'm on your side this time.]
[Exactly. He's still little. You absolutely can't let him off.]
Once Zuozuo threw the bug away, the viewers all breathed sighs of relief too, because the cameraman stopped giving it close-ups. Watching Jian Yue spank Zuozuo, they all declared that he was still little and couldn't be let off.
"Haven't I told you not to play with bugs?"
Zuozuo glanced at his expression and hesitantly admitted that he had.
"Then why were you still playing with one?"
Zuozuo replied with complete conviction, "I wasn't playing. I was just looking."
Jian Yue laughed in exasperation, and the next second, another smack landed on his bottom.
"Still talking back, huh? Have you forgotten how your hand swelled up after you played with bugs last time?"
At the mention of that incident, dead memories began attacking Zuozuo. Remembering how swollen and itchy his palm had been, he instantly went pale.
Seeing his reaction, Jian Yue gave a quiet huff. "Remember now? Are you going to play with them again?"
Zuozuo hurriedly shook his head, his face pale. "No. I know I was wrong."
"As long as you know. Stay with me, and don't run off." Still uneasy, Jian Yue gave him another reminder, and Zuozuo nodded at once.
Meanwhile, Chu Yi'an's family was not far away.
Chu Yi'an faintly heard something and asked in confusion, "What was that sound?"
"Huh? There wasn't anything."
Tongtong pricked up her ears and listened carefully. Hearing nothing, she gave her brother a puzzled look.
Chu Yi'an rubbed her head and said casually, "Maybe I misheard."
Some viewers smiled knowingly and posted in the livestream chat.
[No, you didn't mishear.]
[Those were our Brother Jian's high notes.]
[Brother Jian really is a musician. Just listen to those high notes.]
Tongtong scrunched up her face and sighed like a little adult. "What if we can't find any vegetables?"
Although Chu Yi'an was a little worried too, he had no intention of showing it in front of Tongtong. He simply reassured her, "We'll find some. I know a few edible wild greens."
Tongtong's eyes narrowed happily at that. "You really are the best, Brother."
[Compared with those two who keep loving and fighting each other, it's so much nicer here. I'm practically crying.]
[How dare you. You might as well name names.]
[My corpse feels warm. So comforting.]
"Look, what's that?" Chu Yi'an pointed in a direction. Tongtong followed his finger but could only see thick weeds, so she looked up at her brother in confusion.
Chu Yi'an smiled. "That's a kind of wild vegetable. It's edible."
Tongtong's eyes sparkled, and she ran over happily, only to be pulled back before she had taken more than a couple of steps. She turned around, puzzled.
"You need to be careful in places like this," Chu Yi'an said.
With that, he probed the area with a stick he had picked up, only approaching once he saw there was no danger.
[What's Brother Chu doing?]
[You know how beating the grass startles snakes? Better safe than sorry.]
[Brother Chu is so thoughtful. What a gem of a young man.]
"What vegetable is this?"
Tongtong asked, pinching a leaf.
"This is a broad-leaf variety of shepherd's purse. It looks like little spinach plants. Its leaves grow flat against the ground, with deeply lobed notches at the base. The leaf surfaces are smooth, and they're fairly green. It tastes good, and it also has considerable medicinal value."
"There are so many weeds here, and it grows among them, so it's rather hard to spot."
Finally, in a good mood after finding food, he even made a little joke. "Good thing I'm not nearsighted. Nearsighted people would have a hard time finding it."
The nearsighted viewers watching their screens felt as though they had been stabbed. Heaven knew they hadn't been able to see people's faces clearly since becoming nearsighted. They had practically become face-blind.
Tongtong clapped her hands hard. "Then let's hurry and pick some."
As she spoke, she swung the little basket in her hand, grinning from ear to ear.
"You pick some here first. I'll go look nearby." With the cameraman there, Chu Yi'an felt comfortable leaving Tongtong here.
Tongtong had just pulled up a shepherd's purse plant and shaken the dirt off its roots. Hearing him, she raised the hand holding the plant and waved it. "Okay! Bye, Brother!"
"Bye."
After saying goodbye to Tongtong, Chu Yi'an made a few circuits of the surrounding area without straying far from her, making sure he stayed where she could see him.
When he returned, he had some little red berries in his hand.
Seeing Tongtong still focused on pulling up shepherd's purse, Chu Yi'an quietly held his hand out in front of her.
Tongtong looked at the hand that had suddenly appeared before her, then raised her head. "Brother!"
Chu Yi'an brushed aside the hair over her forehead and smiled. "Look what I brought you."
Only then did Tongtong notice the little red berries in his hand. "What are these?" she asked in delighted surprise.
"They're bubble berries. Try one and see if you like it."
Tongtong immediately ate one, her eyes widening. "It's sweet!"
"You like them, right?"
"Have you had any, Brother?"
"I had some just now."
Tongtong nodded. Holding the remaining little berries, she asked hesitantly, "Can we take some back for the younger boys and girls?"
Chu Yi'an smiled. "Of course. We can pick some on our way back later. If we pick them now, they'll get squashed easily."
Tongtong: (ᕑᗢᓫ∗)˒
When he agreed, Tongtong gave a happy little jump. Of course she knew that.
Bubble berries flattened with the slightest squeeze. They didn't know when they would head back, so if they picked them now, they would be squashed by the time they returned.