n

n

n

nThe father-daughter pair talked the entire way home. When they reached home, the rain became heavier.

n

nThe old man and Xiao Hu were waiting at the entrance.

n

nXie Chaochao got out of the car and ran toward Xiao Hu.

n

n“Grandpa, Xiao Hu, I missed you so much!”

n

nAt night, the old man cooked a table of food. It was all Xie Chaochao’s favorite food.

n

nXie Chaochao hugged the old man and said many nice things.

n

nWhen she slept at night, Xie Chaochao was still feeling full.

n

nThe heavy rain lasted the entire night.

n

nThe next day, Xie Chaochao slept in. When she woke up, her father was no longer at home.

n

nWhat surprised her even more was that Xu Shan had already arrived at her house and was eating breakfast made by the old man.

n

n“Why are you at my house? Grandpa made me this breakfast!”

n

nAfter Xu Shan finished the last mouth of porridge, he said to Xie Chaochao, “Grandpa said that you woke up late, so he gave me the food!”

n

nXie Chaochao was so angry she wanted to hit him. Her attitude toward him was cold. “Why are you here again? I didn’t leave you any homework this week!”

n

nXu Shan grinned and said, “I was bored at home alone, so I came to play with you! The last time we said we were going to pick strawberries, but we didn’t go in the end. Let’s go again today!”

n

nXie Chaochao did feel like eating strawberries. She then nodded reluctantly. “Alright, you’ve eaten my breakfast. You have to find strawberries to compensate me!”

n

nXu Shan happily said, “Alright, I’ll pick all the strawberries in the back of the mountain for you!”

n

nJust as he was about to pull Xie Chaochao out of the house, Xie Chaochao said, “Let’s go find Fatty and Hei Wa first. We went together the last time.”

n

nXu Shan only wanted to go with Xie Chaochao alone and didn’t want anyone else to follow them. He was very unwilling to agree to Xie Chaochao’s suggestion.

n

n“Let’s just go with the two of us. We’ll ask them next time. They might be sleeping in!”

n

nXie Chaochao thought about it and agreed. She didn’t insist further.

n

nBefore leaving, the old man who was painting in the study shouted, “Come back early. I heard that it will rain today. Don’t get drenched!”

n

nXu Shan recalled that the last time, it was also the old man who had said that it was going to rain. In the end, it really did rain halfway. All his efforts were in vain. Hearing this again this time, he was very unhappy.

n

nHe shouted into the house, “There’s no rain today, it won’t rain today!”

n

nAs soon as they reached the back of the village, they ran into Fatty and Hei Wa.

n

nThe two of them became four people.

n

nXu Shan’s face was dark the entire way. He was clearly very unhappy.

n

nXie Chaochao, on the other hand, was excited.

n

nThe back of the mountain they were going to wasn’t the back of the mountain behind Xie Chaochao’s house, but the slope near the coal mine.

n

nShe thought that she might even be able to see her father!

n

nThe four of them followed the transport team and climbed to the back of the mountain to look for strawberries.

n

nAs it had just rained, the road inside the mountain was difficult to walk on. It was full of mud. Before long, the children were covered in mud.

n

nFortunately, they finally found the wild strawberries.

n

nIt was just that all the areas that could be plucked had been plucked clean. The rest could only be seen and were out of reach.

n

nLooking at the strawberries that had been rinsed by the rain, they were all red and plump. They were very tempting. Xie Chaochao subconsciously swallowed her saliva.

n

nXu Shan broke off a long tree branch. He hooked the strawberry root on top and pulled it down hard. Finally, he pulled it off.

n

nAs he had used too much strength, Xu Shan squatted on the ground. There was even more mud on his clothes.

n

nA few children laughed out loud. They ignored Xu Shan and put the strawberries into their mouths.

n

nA muffled sound suddenly came from the back of the mountain. The children were eating happily and did not care at all.

n