It’s been raining all day, but the temperature only dropped from 40° to thirty-six or seven degrees, making it quite uncomfortable.

After a busy half day, the family finally put aside their farm work and went home to wash up and enjoy the air conditioning.

Song Tan was still digging through the freezer, pulling out the watermelon popsicles Lun Chuan made earlier. The two of them sat on the sofa, chatting and eating.

Seeing them, Wu Lan couldn’t help but say, "Eat quickly; the juice will melt and drip on the sofa."

Their sofa was arranged by Zhao Fangyuan back then, and it wasn’t cheap. The color also quite pleased Song Tan; it was that warm white!

Of course, the warm white didn’t last a few days before Wu Lan arranged for a rainbow stripe coarse cloth sofa cover—

Her reasoning was quite sound:

"Working on the farm every day, coming back home you still have to be careful not to dirty the sofa. Isn’t it exhausting? A sofa cover is great, easy to wash too."

The logic is there, but now that there are so many beautiful sofa covers, why insist on this coarse cloth one?

But, Song Tan’s aesthetic was just so-so, so ultimately, she let it be.

But this year was different.

This year when Lun Chuan came home, he was polite at first; later he slowly got involved.

The first change was the cushions.

The original brown sofa cushions were replaced one by one, with patchwork cushions of silk clouds, green linen interwoven with oracle bone script...

As Wu Lan said:

Flashy. Especially that patchwork one, isn’t that just bits of cloth sewn together?

Then, it was the flower vases.

The grey-blue glass vase was replaced with a porcelain white slender neck vase, an antique pottery vase with a big belly, a bright red glazed vase...

Nowadays, the sofa cover on the sofa was chosen by Lun Chuan, not very stain-resistant, nor as sturdy as coarse cloth.

But—young Xiaolun is the kind of diligent person who would even help Aunt Lianhua take down the curtains to wash them, completely different from Tantan.

Now he wants to decorate the house, well, it’s indeed somewhat better looking than coarse cloth, so why not bear with it!

Like at this moment.

The two heard her words and obediently held their popsicles further away.

Yet they still didn’t move, still holding their phones and chatting about something.

Wu Lan saw this and simply grabbed two popsicles, one for her and one for Song Sancheng.

Aunt Lianhua came in to work, and seeing the people sitting on the crescent-shaped sofa, she couldn’t help laughing:

"If you don’t say you’re a family, just look how alike you are." 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

It was raining outside, and inevitably the porch was splashed with water, back and forth, the floor couldn’t stay clean. Wu Lan simply said:

"Lianhua, you’ve been busy for a long time, it’s raining today and there’s not much to do, why don’t you take a break and go accompany your mother-in-law."

Aunt Lianhua wasn’t shy: "Sure, she’s been helping Liu Liu babysit lately, so energetic every day."

"With the heavy rain, the kid’s mom probably won’t need her help, just right for us two moms to chat."

Though she said that, she still swiftly tidied up the clutter on the floors upstairs and downstairs, then took an umbrella, slowly stepping into the gloomy weather.

At this moment, Song Tan and Lun Chuan had already picked up the game controllers, with the little characters jumping around on screen, the two frantically busy, making Wu Lan’s eyes blur.

Too restless to sit idle, she simply went to the kitchen, grabbed a basket of old cowpeas, and sat on the porch with Song Sancheng splitting beans.

Splitting and chatting:

"With the rain pouring, luckily the corn’s been harvested, otherwise the roots couldn’t hold—what’s planted on the slope next year?"

Song Sancheng quietly said, "It’s not up to us what to plant, you can ask Xiaoyan and the others."

Wu Lan: ... Have you heard of what chatting means? Doesn’t she know to ask the experts if needed?

She took a deep breath: "Then tell me, Director Zhu has invited the big group president to personally plan for our village, what kind of plan is it going to be?"

"I saw on TikTok, other villages have long grape arbors built on narrow paths specifically for flowers to climb, like in front of Xiaolun’s homestay."

"If our village builds it, could we build it in front of our courtyard instead? I’ll plant some gourd on both sides. That one climbs fast."

After a pause, she added: "Plant anything else, I’m afraid someone in the village would pick them, gourds aren’t liked by many, have high output, if anyone fancy them, let them, I won’t mind."

Song Sancheng was speechless: "You don’t like to eat them yourself, why plant them?"

Wu Lan clicked her tongue: "Well I do like to enjoy life, doing nothing, don’t I? While it’s raining I’m still splitting beans, see?"

Casual chat, do you know what casual chat is?

But she also knew, Song Sancheng was sulking—he wanted to go fishing in the pouring rain, but Tantan said the riverbank was too slippery, insisted he couldn’t go.

He was stubborn but couldn’t win, so he was grumpy.

No, no!

Wu Lan realized: I’m not the one stopping you from fishing, why am I bearing this grudge?

She looked at the basin of old beans and snorted, directly kicked the whole basket towards Song Sancheng:

"Split well! I’m going to chat with Lun Jing."

She recently introduced him to a short drama that was quite interesting, with the rain, no one likely at the homestay, the two could chat a lot!

The big umbrella opened, plastic slippers squelched into the water, Song Sancheng blew the damp wind on the porch, staring at the basket of beans, speechless.

...

As Wu Lan expected, with heavy rain, the homestay had barely anyone, even those coming to see Doctor Xiaoguo wouldn’t choose such a day.

Except for Top Brother who stayed long-term, the whole homestay fell quiet.

Lun Jing was happy: "Come on, come on, I just picked a new show, let’s watch together! Want milk tea? Xiaochuan bought some good tea for me, let’s try it!"

After specially inviting Master Chai to entertain friends, Lun Jing’s induction cooker was ultimately tucked away in the high cupboard of the kitchen.

To take it out, not only had she to climb a ladder but also clear all the stuff inside. She was too lazy to move, simply upgrading her equipment.

No longer using the induction cooker’s gifted pot for brewing milk tea, but rather a multifunction health pot instead.

Also with a small tea leaf roasting bowl.

Right now, the roasted tea leaves curled, milk emitted a slight fragrance beside, the two of them leaned together, pointing at the tablet, isn’t this more entertaining than talking to annoying men?

Outside, the sky grew darker, rain sounds persisted, time slipping unknowingly until the glass door outside had faint car rumblings.

Lun Jing then belatedly realized:

"Oh, Director Zhu told me to prepare rooms waiting for the designer’s arrival—is it them?"

Initially, she wanted to persuade Xiaochuan to work for the government, but look now, being a village official isn’t easy!

Being an ambitious village official is even harder.

She looked out, Director Zhu had already opened a big umbrella, bringing luggage out, waiting for the designer to get down from the car.

Seeing Wu Lan, her slightly overly plump face blossomed into a smile:

"Aunty, what are we eating tonight? Can I bring the designer along for a meal?"

Also letting the other see the strength of her small village.

Wu Lan cheerfully and brightly answered:

"Stew old beans! Cowpeas on the mountain mature fast, a bunch turned old and I told your uncle to clean them up, tonight stew a pot, very aromatic!"

Rain curtain connected to the sky, darkness around, Vice President Chen saw no scenery, only a growling stomach left.

Upon hearing dinner—

He knew!

He had been exiled by Chairman Yang!