Chapter Text
"You're not serious!" Li Lianhua declared when Fang Duobing offered him his bargain. "This is what farmers and markets are for. Division of labour. Professional agriculture as the base of a nation's wealth. The invention of civilisation by the gods, handing the knowledge to mankind so we could prosper."
He stared at the pond. It was brown and ominous.
Fang Duobing laughed. "Says the man who was so proud of growing his own vegetables!"
"If you remember correctly, I tried my hand at gardening and took my harvest to market, like a civilised person. I even made you take the vegetables home to the aunties who bought them, as a bonus!"
Di Feisheng didn't take part in the argument; he simply started taking off his outer layers and hung them over the branches of the walnut tree they had come here for.
"You can't undress like that in the middle of the day!" Li Lianhua protested. "That is indecent – I can see your – just imagine what this is doing to my heart!"
"It's not your heart that's affected," Di Feisheng shrugged, taking off his inner robe. Now, Li Lianhua really could see his, well, private ornament, the existence of which he usually never considered in daytime.
Di Feisheng casually touched himself there, and smirked.
"The sooner we get this over with," Fang Duobing said, stripping down with utter detachment, "the sooner your energy can go back up to where it's needed for foraging and cooking. This will be fun!"
Fang Duobing's body was as handsome as Di Feisheng's, Li Lianhua mused. His muscles were a bit more evenly distributed, and he hand no specific, distracting features like A-Fei; he was just generally very pleasing to look at.
His feet stirred the dry, colourful leaves and he hung up his clothes as well, the Erya sword joining Dao in the roots of the walnut tree, as if it were a proper sword stand.
Stripped down to his trousers, Fang Duobing waded into the pond; Di Feisheng grabbed the empty basket, and followed.
"You can start heating oil in your biggest wok," Di Feisheng smirked, squatting in the water and reaching down into the mud.
Triumphantly, he brought up the first lotus root.
"We are going to have so much lotus root chips tonight!" Fang Duobing added, bringing up two roots at once and pitching them into Di Feisheng's basket.
"I am going to have two very muddy men tonight," Li Lianhua groaned, "and so much laundry. Do you really think I am carrying your clothes back to the Lotus Lodge and have you march in front of me, muddy and – oh no you don't!"
Li Lianhua jumped up to catch the dog, but it was too late. From where she had been dozing in the late autumn sun, her paws buried in the rustling leaves, Huli-jing jumped up and ran to join the two of her three humans who were currently playing in the mud, which was an activity she loved, but wasn't really allowed to do very often.
She hit the pond with a muddy splash, and both Fang Duobing and Di Feisheng cheered and praised her.
Li Lianhua sat down again heavily, groaned, and shook his head.
"Now I have two very muddy men and one extremely muddy dog," he said. "What shall I do?"
"Make lotus root chips!" Fang Duobing said, laughing. "I think we have enough for one night? Let's get more tomorrow!"
Di Feisheng looked down into his basket. Then, he waded to the shore of the pond and put the basket down beside Li Lianhua where the one they had filled with walnuts earlier was already sitting.
"It will be a very filling meal," Li Lianhua conceded. "But you wash and slice the lotus roots yourself. I don't want anything of mine to get muddy."
"Too late," Fang Duobing laughed from where he was playing tug-of-war with Huli-jing, using some dried-up lotus stalks, "everything of yours is already muddy – both your men, and your dog as well!"
Di Feisheng bent down to where Li Lianhua was sitting, and kissed him, his muddy hands carefully clasped behind his back.
Then, he very deliberately put a muddy forefinger to Li Lianhua's nose, turned, and strode back into the pond to join the enthusiastic puppies, one human and one canine, playing there.
"You are all so annoying!" Li Lianhua groaned, dabbing at his face with his sleeve.
He loved them all so much. So much! His blood flooded his heart with sentiment, and that was where it properly belonged right now.