Xu Shuo arrived in the village, the open square built around the river had already gathered a number of people, who looked to be travelers from out of town.
It was lunchtime, and villagers, clutching their rice bowls, had come outside to enjoy the show, followed by neatly dressed children, blinking their big eyes curiously at the outsiders. They didn't have the usual scruffiness of the countryside but instead looked clever and cute.
"Dai, you've come."
As Xu Shuo approached, a six-year-old girl with double buns clutching a rice bowl came up to him, her round cheeks so tender it seemed they would burst with a touch.
So Xu Shuo naturally pinched her cheeks and smiled, "Go back inside to eat, there's too much dust out here."
The little girl, with her cheek pinched, didn't react much but just tilted her head and looked at him for a while before she scampered back under the eaves of the brick house, standing there and peering out.