The atmosphere froze for a moment before Granny Wu immediately stood up and roared at the two: "You two simpletons! What are you still gawking at! Go change into some clean clothes! Do you want to catch a cold?"
"Oh, oh, oh," the two immediately responded, shrinking their bodies as much as possible and enduring the curious gazes of everyone as they entered the room.
Those gazes laid bare their private lives in the rain.
Alas, Bai Sheng had only wanted a romantic run in the rain with Lu Ye. Who would have thought that when their feelings ran deep, they would engage in several expressions of their love?
Ji Chenghe shouted from behind, "Sister Sheng, hurry up! I'm waiting for you to predict the rain!"
Well, everyone finally understood why Lord Ji couldn't find a wife. He was over twenty and still hadn't figured things out. He probably hadn't realized why Master and Madam were disheveled and avoiding eye contact.
Even Yang Ming had noticed, hadn't he seen how red Xiao Mingzi's face was, like a red-dyed hard-boiled egg?
Lu Tong and Lu Tie, both thirteen or fourteen, had also noticed. They lowered their heads in embarrassment; having been servants in a wealthy household, their knowledge was particularly extensive.
"It's raining!" A Qiu was jolted awake by Ji Chenghe's shout. He jumped up, looking confusedly at everyone in the room: Who am I? Where am I? What am I about to do?
On the scene, no one cared about A Qiu's inner universe; they were still recovering from the awkward moment.
The children, with their simpler minds than the adults, only saw that their brother and sister-in-law, who had been playing in the rain (innocent playing), had finally returned. Thus, they immediately turned their heads and continued to play war with pebbles on the wooden table.
General Fen and Tie Zhu had already "killed" Tian Dou. However, the "dead" Tian Dou was directing his comrades Lu Yu and Tian Ya, teaching them how to "finish off" Tie Zhu.
After Lu Ye and Bai Sheng entered the room, they immediately closed the door and went into the space.
The two of them dove into the stone pool, quickly washed up, and changed into clean clothes. Thinking that a whole room of people was waiting for them to explain the rain prediction, Bai Sheng, despite her sore legs, insisted on walking out with Lu Ye's support.
After coming out, Lu Ye's support turned into holding her hand, as they couldn't let everyone see how weak Bai Sheng's legs were.
"Ah, Sister Sheng, come quickly, sit here!" Ji Chenghe saw Bai Sheng and Lu Ye emerge and immediately got up to greet them. His innocence and fiery enthusiasm helped to dissipate the previous awkward atmosphere considerably.
Everyone else also returned to normal, shifting their small stools closer to Bai Sheng.
Qiu and Dong brought Bai Sheng and Lu Ye two large bowls of steaming ginger soup, along with some pastries. As it was raining tonight and the family was too excited, everyone had an extra bowl of rice, and the meals for the two masters were all gone.
Ever since Lu Ye sat down, Prince Yu had been glaring fiercely at him, hoping to stare a hole through his face.
Lu Ye returned his gaze with a smug look, a slight upturn of his lips. He picked up the bowl of ginger soup, tasted its temperature, and then placed it in Bai Sheng's hand, "Good girl, drink a bowl of ginger soup first, lest the cold enters your body."
Prince Yu rolled his eyes at him. This scoundrel knew that the cold easily entered the body, yet he had acted so shamelessly with Little Black Face outside in the rain? Truly shameless!
Bai Sheng took the full bowl of ginger soup and, without even using a spoon, guzzled it down directly. This made the maids Qiu and Dong's eyes widen. In full view of everyone, their master was... being too unreserved, so hearty... so magnanimous.
They glanced at Prince Yu. Seeing that he had no particular reaction, they once again confirmed that their mistress was entirely different from those noble ladies from prestigious families.
Bai Sheng let out a long sigh, comfortably put down the bowl, and drank the water. She always felt that gulping down water was the most satisfying; drinking it sip by sip with a spoon was worse than... killing her.
Lu Ye handed her another piece of pastry. Bai Sheng took it, opened her mouth wide, and stuffed the entire piece in.
Qiu and Dong's expressions were updated again.
Seeing that Sister Sheng had finished drinking and eating, Ji Chenghe said, "Sheng, how did you know it would rain today?"
Everyone perked up their ears. General Fen, in order to hear his sister-in-law's prediction of rain sooner, had directly had Tian Ya "kill" him.
Tian Ya had won unfairly, but he was still very happy. He grabbed Tian Dou and Lu Yu and excitedly shouted, "We won! We won!"
Bai Sheng swallowed the pastry in her mouth, "I call it observing clouds to predict the weather. I learned these methods from an old slave in the slave shed. He said that clouds are water vapor. Clouds of different shapes in the sky portend different weather."
Ji Chenghe dipped his brush in ink and, listening to Bai Sheng's narration, wrote with lightning speed.
"So, Madam was looking at the clouds this morning to forecast the weather?" Feng Pingyuan asked, stroking his chin in thought.
Bai Sheng nodded, "This morning, I happened to notice that the clouds in the sky were wispy white, which are typical 'cotton clouds.' Uh, cotton is the fruit of the plant that produces cotton cloth. I'll get some seeds back later, and our Hongshu Village can also plant them. I'll continue talking about clouds, okay? The old slave said there's a proverb: 'Cotton clouds, rain is coming,' so I predicted it would rain today."
"Then why did only our Hongshu Village get rain? The nearby Qianfei Village, Guihao Village, and Shougo Village did not?" Huang Gousheng propped his chin with both hands, looking very puzzled. This completely exceeded his understanding, making him believe even more that ghosts existed.
"Is it because God favors our Hongshu Village?" Hu Daniu said proudly with a laugh.
Others felt the same honor. A village favored by God... let's see which blind bastard dared to provoke them in the future!
Bai Sheng also chuckled, "Brother Daniu is partly right. There's a reason God favors our Hongshu Village, because only our Hongshu Village is full of trees planted everywhere."
Bai Sheng then shifted her gaze to Hu Daniu and Ji Chenghe, "Brother Daniu, Brother Ji, do you still remember the beneficial weather cycle system I told you about before? Our Hongshu Village is slowly forming this system."
"We remember, it's just... we don't quite understand it yet," Hu Daniu said with an embarrassed laugh.
Ji Chenghe suddenly realized, "So that's how it is. Sister Sheng, does it mean that if we plant more trees in the future, we'll attract more clouds, and the frequency of rain will also increase?"
"That's the idea," Bai Sheng nodded. "To have rain, you need water vapor. Where does water vapor come from? Besides rivers, lakes, and oceans, vegetation is also a major source."
"I see!" Ji Chenghe was very excited. With these methods of observing weather and controlling clouds and vapor, it would be extremely beneficial for agricultural production!
He wrote while asking, "Sheng, besides cotton clouds, are there any other clouds that can predict rain?"