Chapter 53: Lily and the others arrived

  It wasn't long after ten o'clock, Ju An was surfing the internet when he heard Xiao Jie Ri shouting: "A car is coming!" He looked up and saw a burgundy SUV heading towards his house. Ju An put down the cup in his hand, walked out from under the corridor, and went to the courtyard to welcome the three foreign girls.

  Before he had even put down the ladder, his parents and sister and brother-in-law all came out of the house and followed him to the courtyard. Jian saw his mother and sister smiling happily.

  "Hey brother-in-law next door: 'How can you all come out? Don't you need to watch the stuff in the pot?'"

  "My brother-in-law smiled and said, 'Your sister told me that one of the three girls might be my daughter-in-law. I didn't get a good look at them last time, so I'll take a glance now and leave.'"

  "Hey brother-in-law, why are you also learning from mom and sister to be so gossipy? They're just here as guests, sigh, you guys..."

  "My brother-in-law smiled and replied: 'A few girls come to visit, we go out together to welcome them, isn't that showing Chinese hospitality?'"

  Jū ān bèi jiě fu shuō de yī zhèn wú yǔ, kàn dào chē zǐ mǎ shàng jiù dào mén kǒu le zhǐ hǎo duì dà jiā shuō: "Rén jiā lái zuò kè de, bié luàn wèn a, wǒ gēn nǐ men shuō".

  Mom happily said: "Don't worry, we won't speak foreign languages, what can you ask, just take care of yourself, I've lived so many years and still need you to teach me?"

  As soon as the burgundy Toyota SUV stopped, Lily jumped out of the passenger seat and waved at Ju An, saying "An, we're here". Next, Richie got out from the back door, followed by Diana, who turned off the engine and got out. The three girls were dressed simply in jeans, sandals, baseball caps, and sunglasses. Lily wore a yellow top with a cute big-mouthed monkey pattern on it, Richie wore a white long-sleeved shirt, and Diana wore a tank top that looked like the bat-wing shirts that were popular when Ju An was in middle school.

  The little ones saw that there were guests at home, so they all came over to watch the three girls. Ju An stepped forward and said: "Welcome! Welcome everyone to come to Xi Shui He Pasture as a guest."

  Then the old mother and others welcomed the three girls in Chinese. They invited the three girls to enter the house and sit down, Ruth said: "Thank you everyone, we also brought some small cakes that we baked ourselves, I'll go get them later". After finishing speaking, she turned around and took out a lunch basket from the car, handing it over to Ju'an. Ju'an took the basket and said in a gentle voice: "Thank you".

  When they arrived at the living room, Ju An invited a few foreign classmates to sit down, then took the basket into the kitchen and handed it over to his parents. His father and brother-in-law didn't think there was anything else they could help with, so they thought about going out for a horse ride. His sister complained: "Now my dad and brother-in-law have basically become horse friends. In the past, at home, he would sleep in until 12 o'clock every day. If you asked him to get up and make breakfast, if Tongtong wasn't around, he would rather not eat. Now he gets up at 7 o'clock sharp, goes with dad to brush the horses, and then rides them for a lap, saying that if he doesn't ride for a lap every day, it feels like something is missing."

  "Go back, just let him make breakfast every day." She said and returned to the living room to greet the three foreign girls.

  "Would you like something to drink, tea or coffee?"

  Ruth and Lily ordered coffee, while Diana ordered tea. She specifically asked Juan: "Is it the kind of tea made from loose leaves, not the bagged kind?" Seeing Juan nodding, she said: "Then I'll have tea."

  Back to the kitchen, I poured a cup of coffee that my mom had brewed for Reth and Lily, then took another cup and got out the tea that Wang Fan had given me when he came over, and made a cup for Diana.

  When Diana walked into the living room, Ruth and Lily looked at her cup curiously and said: "Isn't tea usually in a bag? Why is it directly put into water like that?"

  Diana looked at the tea leaves slowly unfolding in her cup and explained, "Actually, that's how Chinese people drink their tea. When I was little, I drank tea with my grandfather, it was more complicated than this, a small wooden table, a teapot on top, first you had to scald something, then you could drink, every time it was just a tiny cup, the tea was very fragrant, but drinking it was too tiring, each time only one sip."

  Lily and Ruth curiously asked: "An, is it really that complicated? Give us a demonstration."

  After thinking for a moment, Ju An realized that Diana might be referring to Gongfu tea. He shook his head and replied: "Actually, nowadays ordinary Chinese people drink tea just like I brewed it for Diana, at most they pay attention to the tea set. The kind of tea Diana mentioned is probably Gongfu tea, even in China, I rarely see it, at least in our hometown we don't brew tea that way."

  Rui raised an eyebrow in slight disappointment and took a sip of her coffee. Lily took a sip of her coffee, then leaned over to Diana's cup and sniffed it, saying: "This tea smells so good, Rui you come smell too." Rui also took a sniff and nodded in agreement.

  "Wait until you've finished your coffee, and I'll brew a cup for you. This tea is from a friend who brought it over, and even in China, very few people drink this kind of tea."

  After the two finished their coffee, Ju An again changed the tea leaves for the two girls. Then the three girls wanted to go into the kitchen to help Old Mother and Sister with cooking. After going in for a while, they found that they couldn't help with anything. The three foreign students didn't know how to do anything, so Ju An took them on a tour of his own ranch.

  When they arrived at the courtyard, Lily saw the little ones bringing Wu Song, Hu Tou and Suan Tou to play football, so she came up with interest, and said to Ju An: "An, take Rui Ci and Dai Na away, I'll play English football with the little ones".

  After finishing, she walked into the courtyard and said to the little ones: "Hey! Can you take me with you?" The little ones heard that someone was playing with them, and they all nodded their heads eagerly, shouting loudly: "Good, good!" Looking at Lily surrounded by a circle of little ones, kicking the ball back and forth, Ruth said: "She's really a child who never grew up." Yu An smiled and said: "Lily is generous and has a childlike heart, it's really enviable."

  Diana and Lizzie laughed after hearing Ju An's words, Diana agreed and said: "That's true, Lily is very good at making friends, she can chat with anyone".

  Then, Ju An brought the two girls to the warehouse and wanted to take them on a motorcycle tour. Who knew that Rui Zi said: "Let's ride horses instead, you have horses here, it's more comfortable."

  Diana also nodded in agreement with Ritchie's proposal, and Ju An led the two of them to the horse herd. As soon as they arrived, Dou Cao saw Ju An and let out a long whinny, running over with happy little steps and nudging Ju An with his head.

  Diana and Lizzy stroked the horse's neck with their hands and praised: "What a beautiful horse!"

  Three people got ready with their saddles, and Ju An took them to see the cattle, sheep, and his own proud poultry house. Along the way, they ran wildly in the pasture, and when they returned to the stable, Rui Cai said: "Such a large pasture, there are not many cows and sheep raised." Ju An replied: "For now, it's just that much, later when the small cattle in the pasture grow up, the bulls will be sold, the cows will be kept to give birth to small cattle, after a few years, the herd can expand. The sheep are only for eating, not for sale, and ducks and geese are also specifically supplied to the ranch."

  As he walked to the front of the house, he saw Lily and a bunch of little guys sitting under the porch drinking water. Wu Song finally couldn't escape Lily's clutches and was hugged in her arms, holding a potato chip in his hand and gnawing on it with a gloomy expression on his face.

  As soon as Wu Song saw Ju An, he immediately jumped out of Lily's arms and ran towards Ju An. Ju An picked him up and put him on his shoulder. Wu Song then made a face at Lily, which made Rui Qi and Diana laugh. The two girls were just about to tease Wu Song some more when their mother came out of the room and said to Ju An, "The food is all ready, let's go in and eat."

  When three foreign girls with four little monkeys entered, the long table in the restaurant had already been set with bowls and chopsticks. After everyone sat down, Ju'an helped his mother and sister serve the dishes: green pepper and potato shreds, tomato scrambled eggs, stir-fried beef, steamed fish, roasted goose, braised pork, chicken and peas, etc., more than a dozen dishes were served on the table, making the three foreign girls' eyes wide with wonder.

  All dishes are ready, Mom and sister have also taken their seats. Ju An announced: Everyone can start eating now.

  Lily looked at Diana who had just taken a piece of braised pork and put it in her mouth, curiously asking: "Diana, don't you think this braised pork is too greasy?"

  Diana smiled and said: "If you eat some yourself, you'll know it's delicious, not greasy at all, sweet with a meaty flavor."

  Lily picked up a small piece with her chopsticks, then divided it into two pieces. With a serious expression reminiscent of Liu Hulan's heroic sacrifice, she put a small piece of shiny braised pork into her mouth, chewed for a few seconds, and smiled at Diana, saying "Really, it smells so good!" Rachel heard Lily say this and curiously picked up a piece too. After eating, she also praised it highly.

  The shrimp that Ju An had high hopes for, except for Diana eating a few, Lily and Rui Zi only ate one. Ju An asked Lily: "Is it that the shrimp doesn't suit your taste?" Lily's answer almost made Ju An fall over: "The flavor is not bad, it's just too much trouble to eat."

  Three girls have different tastes, Diana may have eaten Chinese food when she was a kid, basically nothing is not edible, every dish has been tasted, especially fond of potato roasted goose, gnawed on several pieces of goose meat.

  Lily and Razi are light eaters, mainly eating dishes like tomato scrambled eggs, potato shreds and other vegetarian dishes, seemingly not fond of greasy food.

  The little ones were having a great time eating, probably because they had eaten together many times before. Jerry and Emily didn't have any dietary restrictions, so they dug in with gusto, their faces flushed with excitement, which also boosted the morale of the others.