Reborn as a Landlord-Chapter 687 - 353 Foreign Spicy Pepper_1

Lian Manman held in her hand a fan that Lady Zhang had already hemmed with coarse cloth.

As Lian Manman fanned herself, she couldn’t help but laugh. Lady Zhang asked her what she was laughing at, and Lian Manman just shook her head without speaking. She couldn’t very well reveal that, in her past life’s memory, it was only the old men and women of the countryside who used these kinds of fans. When she overlapped her own image with theirs, she couldn’t help but want to laugh.

Relaxing under the shade of a tree was quite pleasant, especially after Wu Lang and Xiao Qi had removed all the cicadas from the nearby trees. The absence of the cicadas’ chirping made it even more so.

But there was a downside; where there were trees, there were also caterpillars.

Take, for instance, the present moment: as Lian Manman looked up, she saw a grayish-yellow caterpillar hanging by a silken thread just a foot above her head, swinging gently with a tendency to descend further.

Lian Manman really detested caterpillars. These little creatures came in all colors – green, yellow, gray, and even black – they were distinctly ugly and without exception, were covered with spines. In the summer, they were everywhere; passing below a tree, one always had to worry about caterpillars falling onto their head, or worse, into their collar.

Those dangling from the trees were colloquially termed as "hanging ghosts" in some areas. Caterpillars were also called thistle worms, and if you got down to particulars, there were many varieties. Tenant farmers didn’t differentiate much between stink bugs, woolly caterpillars, or caterpillars; during the summer, they just referred to these creatures collectively as caterpillars.

A regular woolly caterpillar dropping on someone might at most cause a startle, but not harm. However, some species of caterpillar had poisonous spines; if they fell on a person, they could leave behind a welt with their spines, causing stinging pain and itchiness. There was one sort of flat, vivid green caterpillar that was particularly poisonous. If one touched it, the skin would immediately rise in a welt, painfully prickling with unbearable itching.

This was what tenant farmers commonly called getting "burned" by a caterpillar (here "burned" is pronounced with the second tone).

Cicadas could be completely removed, but not caterpillars. These few poplar trees were considered good since their leaves were mostly intact, indicating fewer caterpillars. But fewer didn’t mean none.

Lian Manman casually waved her fan, and the caterpillar above her head fell to the ground. It gave a couple of grunts, and a large-rooster with long legs came running over from not far away.

Lian Manman’s family had built a chicken coop and duck rack in the backyard of their shop, relocating the family’s chickens and ducks there. During the day, the ducks were put into the river, and the chickens were let loose to roam the farmstead’s vegetable gardens and woods at will, only to be herded back into the yard at night.

Shouxin now lived here every day, which made it more convenient to look after them.

Lian Manman often fed the chickens, so they were used to her clucking. Whenever she made that sound, the nearby chickens would come running.

The large rooster didn’t see any delicious wild greens mixed with bran or strings of grasshoppers, just a caterpillar on the ground that Lian Manman was pointing at with her fan.

The rooster wasn’t in a hurry and strutted over, then stretched out its neck and swallowed the caterpillar. To it, the caterpillar was as tasty as a grasshopper.

The rooster, having eaten the caterpillar, didn’t leave. Instead, it strolled leisurely around the large wooden bed and a few poplar trees. The taste of the caterpillar was good, and it wanted to find a few more for a snack.

Lian Manman didn’t chase it away but continued to talk with Lady Zhang and Lian Zhizhi.

After chatting for a while, she began to feel sleepy.

"If you’re tired, sleep for a bit. I’ll watch the caterpillars for you," Lady Zhang said.

"Mm, then I’ll take a nap," Lian Manman replied, and lay down on the bamboo mat, her head on a cool pillow. At first, she still responded occasionally to Lady Zhang and slowly fanned herself with one hand. After a while, she stopped talking, and her hand fell to her side, still loosely holding the handle of the fan.

Lady Zhang sewed, peering over now and then to see Lian Manman had fallen asleep, and smiled. She gently took the fan from her hand. She and Lian Zhizhi then lowered their voices, sewing for a while, and occasionally fanning Lian Manman a few times with the fan.

The cool breeze was comforting, and even without being fanned, Lian Manman slept soundly.

Having slept for some time, Lian Manman heard faint voices and opened her eyes.

Shouxin had returned at some point and was sitting on a stool across from the large bed, talking with Lady Zhang.