Chapter 360: Chapter 191: I Haven’t Made Up My Mind Yet
Juhua glanced at Qingmu beside her, then turned to Zhang Huai and said, "Shouldn’t you be asking my brother about that? It only works if he’s the one who likes her. Whether I do or not isn’t that important."
Zhang Huai shook his head and said to her softly, "That’s not true at all. If you don’t like her, your brother would never go propose. But you’re also right—if your brother likes her, then you’ll surely like her too."
Juhua, dizzy from his convoluted reasoning, couldn’t help but laugh. "Why are you making it so complicated? I think what’s most important is that my brother genuinely likes her."
Zhang Huai froze. ’Is that how she sees it?’
’Then would she feel that as long as I genuinely like her, nothing else matters?’
He grew a bit dazed and murmured, "Juhua, you..."
Juhua felt the atmosphere suddenly turn heavy. Zhang Huai’s hesitant look, as if he were holding something back, made her feel a little uneasy. ’This is getting too intimate,’ she thought. ’I’m not ready to accept him yet. I still need to think things through properly.’
She quickly glanced over at Li Changyu and Qingmu, who were not far off. Giving Zhang Huai an awkward, apologetic smile, she changed the subject. "Huai Zi, when is your family going to build your house?"
Standing before him and asking an unrelated question, Juhua felt as if he had grown taller again. His figure was leaner, and she had to look up to see his face. His patched, coarse-cloth jacket was impeccably clean, carrying the warm scent of the sun. Against his thick, dark eyebrows, his brow ridge appeared prominent and his eyes shone, dark and bright.
In the end, Zhang Huai didn’t ask his question. Hearing Juhua, he replied, "We’re planning to build it this autumn. Juhua, would you like me to move over sooner?"
Juhua hadn’t expected this to lead to a new question. Seeing his expectant gaze, she didn’t know how to respond. She couldn’t say yes, but she couldn’t say no either. So, she offered a small smile. "Autumn is a good time to build, since there’s more free time. That’s when my family built our house, after all."
Zhang Huai nodded. "I’d like to buy the land first and plant more crops. That would be a more secure arrangement." He glanced at Juhua again. "But I still want to move over sooner. I’m just afraid I won’t be able to scrape the money together by autumn. If that’s the case, I’ll have to wait until next spring."
Hearing this, Juhua’s heart was touched. She smiled at him and said, "Don’t worry. Just keep working at it, and you’ll get there. Once the land is bought, the house will go up quickly."
Zhang Huai paused, his eyes brightening. He suddenly felt he understood her true feelings. He gazed at her and broke into a silent smile, one as gentle as the early spring sun.
This time, Juhua didn’t avert her gaze and smiled back at him. A silent, mutual understanding flowed between them.
The two of them silently planted a few more willow branches, exchanging a few quiet words now and then. After a while, Juhua left him and ran over to Qingmu. "Brother, are we only planting this many this year? Isn’t it too few?" she asked.
Qingmu replied with a wide grin, "We’ll be back tomorrow to plant more. We’re going to fill this entire stretch of the riverbank."
He longed for the scene Juhua had described—a landscape shaded by willows. He wanted to use the time before the village school started to plant willows all along the riverbank with Huai Zi, leaving space in between to transplant the peach saplings once they were big enough.
Li Changyu gazed at the quietly flowing creek and the distant village. This was the homeland that had raised him, yet he had never paid it much attention before. Instead, he had always yearned for the distant city of Qinghui. He still remembered the thrill of his first boat trip there.
But things were different now. He was changing it with his own hands.
Seeing Juhua happily plant a willow branch before hurrying to get busy at the next prepared hole, he laughed and said, "Should I have my father give you all a reward? This land by the river isn’t even yours, yet here you are, planting trees without complaint for neither fame nor fortune. In the future, our whole village will be the one to enjoy this beauty."
Juhua looked at him with disdain again. "For such a sharp person, you can be so crass. If it beautifies the whole village, aren’t we part of the village too? Are you saying we should stop planting just so others can’t enjoy the view for free? Besides, when the peach trees are planted, we’ll be able to harvest the fruit."
Li Changyu didn’t get angry at her disdain. Instead, he just beamed at Juhua. "You have a point. No matter how large you build your own courtyard, there’s a limit to the trees and flowers you can plant. How could it ever compare to the vastness of the world outside? Even if the land doesn’t belong to you, all the beauty your eyes can see is yours to enjoy. The earth, in its great virtue, supports all things. She opens her arms to welcome all of creation, and no one can ever possess her completely or forever."
