Chapter 48 – Styling hair
After sprinting down a path and seeing that Li Shu was no longer in sight, Li Man finally stopped. Pressing her hand against her chest, she gasped for breath. Little Five was also taking big gulps of air to catch his breath.
Li Hua let out a chuckle when he saw that Li Man looked like a frightened and helpless baby rabbit. His headscarf had also been loosened when he had been dragged along during her frantic dash, and he cut a sorry looking figure too.
As Li Hua took down the headscarf, he looked at her with a slight smile and asked, “Are you okay now?”
Li Man bit her bottom lip in embarrassment. Soon after, she walked to his side, took the headscarf from him, and gestured at him. “Crouch down. I’ll help you with putting it back on.”
Seeing Li Hua was only staring at her blankly without moving, Li Man tugged him down by the arm. After that, she gently gathered up his inky black hair and tucked most of it underneath the headscarf. The rest of his hair was scatter over his shoulders like a waterfall.
“Your hair is really good. It’s so black and lustrous.” At the end, Li Man admiringly looked at his hair and even used her fingers to comb his hair a bit.
Li Hua straightened himself. Seeing her glittering eyes, his heart felt quite warm and happy. Since ancient times, women only styled the hair of men they deeply loved. It was just like how his mother had always brushed and styled his father’s hair.
She must know this, right?
“What are you looking at?” Feeling uncomfortable from how Li Hua was looking at her, Li Man rubbed her face and smoothed out her hair.
Li Hua curved his lips into a smile. He tugged her hand down and tucked her disheveled hair behind her ears. “Alright.”
When his warm fingers lightly brushed against her cheeks, it felt as if she was being shocked by electricity. Li Man lightly trembled. Her face turned slightly to the side, but he had already taken his hand back.
This? Was this just the kindly action of an older brother towards his younger sister? Li Man uneasily wondered.
Li Hua had already picked up the bamboo basket and continued walking forward with Little Five. Seeing that she wasn’t following them, he turned around to wait for her.
Li Man could only discard that recent strange feeling and jogged a little bit to catch up with them.
—
At the foot of the back mountain, there were a variety of wild plants growing in one continuous field. There were ones that were growing well, and ones that were growing poorly.
Li Hua and the others had come to this field to gather some wild plants.
Li Man actually didn’t know which plants the piglets could eat. She just thought that if the leaves looked tender, then it could be picked. Fortunately, none of the plants that grew in this field were poisonous. After Li Hua looked over the plants and determined they were all okay, they started tossing in random sprouts, dandelions, and wild amaranth greens into the bamboo basket.
It was spring right now, and the time when plants would be blooming. The field was filled with lush and flourishing vegetation. It didn’t take long before the three of them had filled up the basket. There was at least enough to feed the piglets for two meals.
But, since they had already come all the way here, Li Hua wanted to bring more back, so he pressed the plants down to make more space in the basket.
At this moment, a happily surprised voice from nearby called out, “Older brother Hua.”
Following the direction of that sound, Li Hua saw two teenage girls running over here. His eyebrows slightly furrowed.
Li Man also stopped what she was doing and raised her head to look. The two teenagers had already reached them. She had met these girls before.
“Older brother, are you picking plants for pig feed? Did your family recently buy pigs?” Lianhua happily looked at him and offered, “Let me help you.”
“It’s okay. We already have enough. We’re just about to go back,” Li Hua refused.
“What’s the hurry?” Lianhua hurriedly grabbed onto the bamboo basket and anxiously said, “Your basket isn’t full yet. Qiqiao and I happen to not be busy right now. We can help you.”
Li Hua exerted a little more strength and pulled the basket away from her. He politely said, “Thank you, the pigs in our family are still small. This will be enough food for them.”