Disclaimer:
1. This is an unofficial translation and no permission has been obtained from the author/ official publisher. It may be taken down if the author/official publisher requests.
2. This is a fan work and the interpretation represents only the translator’s personal views without any input from the author.
3. No permission has been granted to use, publish, upload and/or copy this translation to any other site except for Second Life Translations.
Because Liu Xu’er started to plant tomatoes, she began to spruce up the courtyard. Then, she realised that their original plans to have ornamental plants in the space had never come to fruition.
After they had dug a stream into their home, they didn’t have any time to work on the courtyard. They had spent all of their energies on their business. It was Shi Cheng who had arranged for the grape vines to be grown in the backyard. Apart from that, there was nothing else there.
Liu Xu’er wanted to see her previous plans through – she wanted to have lots of roses in her backyard. Then Shao Rong popped into her mind. Because Liu Shu was more familiar with the Shao family than her, he should know where they lived. So she asked Liu Shu to bring her there.
Liu Shu checked in with Niu ge about how to get to Niangou Village. Early this morning, he brought Liu Xu’er with him over to the village.
Lkydtsw Akzzytl oyp hlau nzspl vs Wldt vsod. Mbl esdjlu nyav bye sdzu clld vayhlzzkdt qsa yd bswa obld vblu yaakhle. Mblal olal vos zyatl lzx vallp yv vbl hkzzytl ldvaydnl, nshlale okvb qalpb talld caydnblp.
Ebld vblu ldvlale vbl hkzzytl, Nkw Fbw fwxrle sqq vbl nyav yde zle vbl esdjlu nyav vs ralhldv vbl esdjlu qasx xshkdt vss iwknjzu. Mblal olal y zsv sq nbkzeald awddkdt ycswv kd vbl hkzzytl – bl eked’v oydv vs ynnkeldvyzzu naypb kdvs vblx. Gzsdt vbl oyu, bl ypjle yaswde vs qkde swv oblal vbl Fbys qyxkzu pvyule.
Gp bl ypjle yaswde, bl xshle vsoyae vbl olpvladxspv ryav sq vbl hkzzytl yde nyxl ynaspp y bswpl. Mbl pwaaswdekdt oyzz sq vbkp bswpl oypd’v vbyv bktb yde kv zssjle vs cl iwkvl sze. Mbl oyzz pbsole nzlya pktdp sq clkdt pzsozu lasele cu vbl lzlxldvp.
Nkw Fbw oldv yde jdsnjle sd vbl essa. “Rp ydusdl bsxl?”
G alprsdpl hlau iwknjzu nyxl qasx kdpkel vbl bswpl, “Ebs’p vblal?” Gzsdt okvb vbl pswde sq yrrasynbkdt qssvpvlrp.
Nkw Fbw kdpvydvzu alnstdkple Fbys Twyk’p hsknl. Tl pxkzle yde pyke, “Rv’p Nkw Fbw.”
Mbl essa srldle, yde Fbys Twyk oyp pwarakple cwv elzktbvle vs olznsxl vblx kd. “Nkw Fbw… Ebu yal usw blal?” Mbld bl zkqvle bkp blye yde oyvnble yp Nkw Dw’la tsv sqq vbl nyav. Tl nyzzle swv, “Dw’la kp yzps blal!”
Nkw Fbw vwadle yde oldv vs blzr bkp pkpvla. Tl pxkzle yde pyke, “Dw’la oydvle vs nsxl yde zssj yv vbl qzsolap.”
When Liu Xu’er was stably on the ground, she smiled and nodded her head, “That’s right Shao Huai ge, I wanted to see the flowers that your family plants. I want to plant some in our backyard, and want to know what plants are suitable.”
Shao Huai smiled and said, “Quickly come into the house and sit! Mei? Damei?” He called, all while escorting the two guests into his home. Liu Xu’er entered first, while Liu Shu went to settle the donkey, tying it at a stump close to the door.
A 17 or 18- year-old girl came out of the house. She was Shao Gui, Shao Huai’s damei. Because she was slightly older, she seldom left the house. It was Liu Xu’er’s first time seeing her.
From the western room, Shao Rong emerged, holding some handiwork. When she saw Liu Xu’er, she called out, “Oh, Xu’er is here!” Then she placed her handiwork on the windowsill and quickly came forward to welcome them.
The siblings warmly greeted Liu Shu and Liu Xu’er. They brought them into the house to have a seat. Liu Shu and Liu Xu’er tried to get them to treat them more casually, but the siblings wouldn’t hear of it. They finally had to give in and have a seat in the main house. Shao Gui and Shao Rong quickly served them some water and melon seeds. Shao Huai insisted that they sit on the kang.
Liu Xu’er actually just wanted to take a look at the flowers, but the family treated them so warmly. Liu Shu was more mature and took it all in his stride. He smiled and sat down before repeatedly stressing that they didn’t need to be so courteous. When everyone had sat down, he had smiled and said, “Actually, we’re just here to have a look. Xu’er wants to plant some flowers in the backyard. She wanted to know what would be suitable.”
Shao Huai smiled and said, “Your home should be quite large then. It would be quite nice to have some plants there – very refreshing!”
Because Shao Gui was the same age as Liu Shu, it was a bit awkward for her to sit there together with them. After bringing some water over, she had gone to the kitchen. Shao Rong actually wasn’t that young either. She too stood smiling at the side of the kang, keeping close to Liu Xu’er.
Liu Xu’er looked around the room. It wasn’t large. Next to the door was a large kang, but apart from that, there was no other large furnishing. However, the room was completely filled with pots of plants. There was even a double layered planting shelf and the top shelf was filled with plants.
Shao Huai started to introduce different types of flowers to Liu Shu and Liu Xu’er. When Liu Xu’er mentioned wanting to look at them, Shao Huai was only too happy to oblige. When the three of them headed out, Shao Huai hesitated a moment before asking Liu Shu, “Do you want to look at the backyard? When we started, all our plants were grown in the backyard, but we stopped a long time ago. Now, we plant on a piece of land next to the hill.”
Liu Shu looked at Liu Xu’er and Liu Xu’er said, “Then let’s head over to the side of the hill and have a look.”
Shao Huai smiled and nodded his head, “Sure!” He saw Shao Rong, standing in the courtyard and said, “Shao Rong, come with us. Let your jie stay at home and prepare the meal.”
After saying that, he turned and smiled at Liu Shu. “Today, you should have a meal with us!”
Liu Shu quickly demurred, “No, no. Thank you, but we really should head home after this.”
Shao Rong had already gone to the kitchen and told Shao Gui what had been said. Then she left the kitchen and the four of them got on the donkey cart and headed toward the hill side.
Their village was still considered part of Feng Town’s suburbs, with an official road outside the village. After travelling along the official road for a while, they turned off into a smaller road. They then continued on the small road before coming to the hill side.
They had first passed many fields. Shao Huai explained to Liu Shu, “The fields you see here mostly don’t belong to our villagers. A lot of them are owned by the wealthy families in Feng town. For example that large plot of land – that is all owned by the Gu family. You can see how well managed it is!”
Liu Shu glanced over and nodded, “That’s right, they really have maintained the fields very well.”
“In the end, it’s just a question of resources. There are more people than plowing oxes. A human’s plowing effort just can’t compare with that of an ox. During the spring sowing period, you could sometimes see several oxes plowing the land here. You can see how uniform and even everything is! Look at that form!”
Liu Shu and Liu Xu’er both smiled but didn’t say anything. It seemed that Shao Huai still wasn’t too familiar with their family’s situation. After passing this large plot of them, the donkey cart continued up another twisty mountain road. Then Liu Xu’er started to smell the fragrance of flowers in the wind.
“Everyone says that the fragrance of osmanthus fills the air in the eighth month. It is just the right time for the osmanthus to bloom. If you don’t find the smell too strong, you can plant a couple of osmanthus trees in your backyard.” Shao Rong was just saying to Liu Xu’er.
Liu Xu’er smiled, “There should be a lot of flowers blooming at this time, right… Oh!” She suddenly thought of something. “Our family has a little pond as well… Do you have any lotus or water lilies?”
Shao Rong nodded her head, “Yes, but those flowers are being kept at a different place. There’s a pond there.”
Shao Huai smiled and turned to say, “At first, we were growing them in our family’s backyard. We dug a large pond there, but lotus and water lilies are our family’s bestsellers. So we looked for a place where we could grow them specifically.”
Liu Xu’er smiled and said. “Great. In a while, we can head over for a look!”
Shao Rong and Shao Huai were both delighted. It seemed that they would be making quite a lot today. Liu Shu turned to look at Liu Xu’er. Seeing her so happy, he smiled and said, “In the future, we will need to invite Shao Huai and his sisters to come over more often. Otherwise, we might destroy all the plants.”
Liu Xu’er nodded her head, “That’s right!” Her father, Liu Changgeng, wasn’t gifted with these types of plants. Maintaining the grape vines was one thing, it would be impossible for him to grow flowers.
“That’s definitely no problem. Just let us know what you need us to help with!” Shao Huai smiled and said.
As they were speaking, they started to approach looking a field of flowers. The little donkey cart had stopped at the roadside and the few of them got off the cart and walked towards it.
Liu Shu knew that the Shao family no longer had their own ancestral land. At a glance, he could tell that the field here was of poor quality – it had even been dug out at the side of the hill. But there was a long line of different types of flowers grown. The line stretched out pretty far – it was clear that Shao Huai was doing quite a large scale flower growing business. Where the field met the road, there was a tidy woven bamboo fence.
As he looked, he saw a shack constructed of wood and grass at the front of the field. “Are you staying there? When do you come over to watch your fields?”
Shao Huai smiled and said, “I usually stay here for the better part of the year… In the end, this isn’t my family’s land, and a lot of people come by. ITts alright if they just steal a few flowers here and there, but there have frequently been people who would come and steal my flowers at night. So there needs to be someone here often to keep a watch. There’s usually someone here from the second month all the way to the 10th month.”
Liu Shu nodded his head. Liu Xu’er mentally sighed. No one had it easy. They followed Shao Huai and walked into the fields. The flowers had been divided up very clearly. In the frontmost area, was a cluster of moonflowers. Next to them, some orchids grew. Some of the flowers were in season, while others were budding. Yet others were still just green stalks. A large proportion of them still hadn’t bloomed. Liu Xu’er saw that the peonies and roses were kept in the shack. Those flowers were more expensive so that decision was probably a protective measure against thieves.
“These flowers were all originally grown in my family’s backyard. But after a while, there was just no space there any longer and we had to move everything out here.” Shao Rong smiled and explained to Liu Xu’er.
Liu Xu’er pointed at a few of the roses and asked, “Are these easy to grow?”
“Yes, they are. Roses are one of the easier things to grow. And if you grow a lot of them, you can even use it in other items.”
Liu Xu’er smiled and nodded, “Great! I know that it can be used to make rouge and other powders. Hey, do you know how to make those? I don’t think it’s too difficult?”
Shao Rong smiled and said, “That’s right, it’s not difficult.” She said much softer, “I know how to make them. My sister and I have secretly made it before… Ge doesn’t know though – he treats these flowers like his life….” She stuck her tongue out.
Liu Xu’er laughed at that, attracting Liu Shu’s attention, “What’s made you so happy?”
“Ah…. it’s nothing. Un, I’ve decided to buy roses!” Liu Xu’er smiled and said.
“Then do you still want water lilies and lotus flowers?”
“Yes, I want everything!”
Liu Shu smiled and shook his head.
Liu Xu’er did in fact, really want to buy roses. And she wanted to buy those that had already been well established. If she were to try and buy seeds to plant, she couldn’t guarantee that she would be able to get them to grow, and even if she did it would take a lot of time for them to flower.
Shao Rong nodded, “For the inexperienced, it’s very difficult to grow roses from seed….” She smiled and told Liu Xu’er, “I’m not just saying that to convince you to buy mature plants, this is really the case.”
Liu Xu’er smiled, “I was planning to buy mature plants anyway. That way, they can start to bloom once we bring them back.” Because she wanted to buy roses, everyone was standing at the rose bushes. Shao Rong was speaking to Liu Xu’er, and Shao Huai was explaining how to maintain the plants to Liu Shu. Liu Xu’er was asking just how to make rose rouge.
After confirming everything, Shao Huai and Shao Rong agreed to come to their place the next day to scope out their backyard and decide what to plant and where. They also had to look at their pond, to see how many plants the pond could support. After they saw their place, they could advise how many plants the Liu siblings should buy.
As they spoke, they left the field and continued on their way. They were headed to the pond that Shao Rong had mentioned, to have a look at the lotus and water lilies.
Disclaimer:
1. This is an unofficial translation and no permission has been obtained from the author/ official publisher. It may be taken down if the author/official publisher requests.
2. This is a fan work and the interpretation represents only the translator’s personal views without any input from the author.
3. No permission has been granted to use, publish, upload and/or copy this translation to any other site except for Second Life Translations.
Because Liu Xu’er started to plant tomatoes, she began to spruce up the courtyard. Then, she realised that their original plans to have ornamental plants in the space had never come to fruition.
After they had dug a stream into their home, they didn’t have any time to work on the courtyard. They had spent all of their energies on their business. It was Shi Cheng who had arranged for the grape vines to be grown in the backyard. Apart from that, there was nothing else there.
Liu Xu’er wanted to see her previous plans through – she wanted to have lots of roses in her backyard. Then Shao Rong popped into her mind. Because Liu Shu was more familiar with the Shao family than her, he should know where they lived. So she asked Liu Shu to bring her there.
Liu Shu checked in with Niu ge about how to get to Niangou Village. Early this morning, he brought Liu Xu’er with him over to the village.
Lkydtsw Akzzytl oyp hlau nzspl vs Wldt vsod. Mbl esdjlu nyav bye sdzu clld vayhlzzkdt qsa yd bswa obld vblu yaakhle. Mblal olal vos zyatl lzx vallp yv vbl hkzzytl ldvaydnl, nshlale okvb qalpb talld caydnblp.
Ebld vblu ldvlale vbl hkzzytl, Nkw Fbw fwxrle sqq vbl nyav yde zle vbl esdjlu nyav vs ralhldv vbl esdjlu qasx xshkdt vss iwknjzu. Mblal olal y zsv sq nbkzeald awddkdt ycswv kd vbl hkzzytl – bl eked’v oydv vs ynnkeldvyzzu naypb kdvs vblx. Gzsdt vbl oyu, bl ypjle yaswde vs qkde swv oblal vbl Fbys qyxkzu pvyule.
Gp bl ypjle yaswde, bl xshle vsoyae vbl olpvladxspv ryav sq vbl hkzzytl yde nyxl ynaspp y bswpl. Mbl pwaaswdekdt oyzz sq vbkp bswpl oypd’v vbyv bktb yde kv zssjle vs cl iwkvl sze. Mbl oyzz pbsole nzlya pktdp sq clkdt pzsozu lasele cu vbl lzlxldvp.
Nkw Fbw oldv yde jdsnjle sd vbl essa. “Rp ydusdl bsxl?”
G alprsdpl hlau iwknjzu nyxl qasx kdpkel vbl bswpl, “Ebs’p vblal?” Gzsdt okvb vbl pswde sq yrrasynbkdt qssvpvlrp.
Nkw Fbw kdpvydvzu alnstdkple Fbys Twyk’p hsknl. Tl pxkzle yde pyke, “Rv’p Nkw Fbw.”
Mbl essa srldle, yde Fbys Twyk oyp pwarakple cwv elzktbvle vs olznsxl vblx kd. “Nkw Fbw… Ebu yal usw blal?” Mbld bl zkqvle bkp blye yde oyvnble yp Nkw Dw’la tsv sqq vbl nyav. Tl nyzzle swv, “Dw’la kp yzps blal!”
Nkw Fbw vwadle yde oldv vs blzr bkp pkpvla. Tl pxkzle yde pyke, “Dw’la oydvle vs nsxl yde zssj yv vbl qzsolap.”
When Liu Xu’er was stably on the ground, she smiled and nodded her head, “That’s right Shao Huai ge, I wanted to see the flowers that your family plants. I want to plant some in our backyard, and want to know what plants are suitable.”
Shao Huai smiled and said, “Quickly come into the house and sit! Mei? Damei?” He called, all while escorting the two guests into his home. Liu Xu’er entered first, while Liu Shu went to settle the donkey, tying it at a stump close to the door.
A 17 or 18- year-old girl came out of the house. She was Shao Gui, Shao Huai’s damei. Because she was slightly older, she seldom left the house. It was Liu Xu’er’s first time seeing her.
From the western room, Shao Rong emerged, holding some handiwork. When she saw Liu Xu’er, she called out, “Oh, Xu’er is here!” Then she placed her handiwork on the windowsill and quickly came forward to welcome them.
The siblings warmly greeted Liu Shu and Liu Xu’er. They brought them into the house to have a seat. Liu Shu and Liu Xu’er tried to get them to treat them more casually, but the siblings wouldn’t hear of it. They finally had to give in and have a seat in the main house. Shao Gui and Shao Rong quickly served them some water and melon seeds. Shao Huai insisted that they sit on the kang.
Liu Xu’er actually just wanted to take a look at the flowers, but the family treated them so warmly. Liu Shu was more mature and took it all in his stride. He smiled and sat down before repeatedly stressing that they didn’t need to be so courteous. When everyone had sat down, he had smiled and said, “Actually, we’re just here to have a look. Xu’er wants to plant some flowers in the backyard. She wanted to know what would be suitable.”
Shao Huai smiled and said, “Your home should be quite large then. It would be quite nice to have some plants there – very refreshing!”
Because Shao Gui was the same age as Liu Shu, it was a bit awkward for her to sit there together with them. After bringing some water over, she had gone to the kitchen. Shao Rong actually wasn’t that young either. She too stood smiling at the side of the kang, keeping close to Liu Xu’er.
Liu Xu’er looked around the room. It wasn’t large. Next to the door was a large kang, but apart from that, there was no other large furnishing. However, the room was completely filled with pots of plants. There was even a double layered planting shelf and the top shelf was filled with plants.
Shao Huai started to introduce different types of flowers to Liu Shu and Liu Xu’er. When Liu Xu’er mentioned wanting to look at them, Shao Huai was only too happy to oblige. When the three of them headed out, Shao Huai hesitated a moment before asking Liu Shu, “Do you want to look at the backyard? When we started, all our plants were grown in the backyard, but we stopped a long time ago. Now, we plant on a piece of land next to the hill.”
Liu Shu looked at Liu Xu’er and Liu Xu’er said, “Then let’s head over to the side of the hill and have a look.”
Shao Huai smiled and nodded his head, “Sure!” He saw Shao Rong, standing in the courtyard and said, “Shao Rong, come with us. Let your jie stay at home and prepare the meal.”
After saying that, he turned and smiled at Liu Shu. “Today, you should have a meal with us!”
Liu Shu quickly demurred, “No, no. Thank you, but we really should head home after this.”
Shao Rong had already gone to the kitchen and told Shao Gui what had been said. Then she left the kitchen and the four of them got on the donkey cart and headed toward the hill side.
Their village was still considered part of Feng Town’s suburbs, with an official road outside the village. After travelling along the official road for a while, they turned off into a smaller road. They then continued on the small road before coming to the hill side.
They had first passed many fields. Shao Huai explained to Liu Shu, “The fields you see here mostly don’t belong to our villagers. A lot of them are owned by the wealthy families in Feng town. For example that large plot of land – that is all owned by the Gu family. You can see how well managed it is!”
Liu Shu glanced over and nodded, “That’s right, they really have maintained the fields very well.”
“In the end, it’s just a question of resources. There are more people than plowing oxes. A human’s plowing effort just can’t compare with that of an ox. During the spring sowing period, you could sometimes see several oxes plowing the land here. You can see how uniform and even everything is! Look at that form!”
Liu Shu and Liu Xu’er both smiled but didn’t say anything. It seemed that Shao Huai still wasn’t too familiar with their family’s situation. After passing this large plot of them, the donkey cart continued up another twisty mountain road. Then Liu Xu’er started to smell the fragrance of flowers in the wind.
“Everyone says that the fragrance of osmanthus fills the air in the eighth month. It is just the right time for the osmanthus to bloom. If you don’t find the smell too strong, you can plant a couple of osmanthus trees in your backyard.” Shao Rong was just saying to Liu Xu’er.
Liu Xu’er smiled, “There should be a lot of flowers blooming at this time, right… Oh!” She suddenly thought of something. “Our family has a little pond as well… Do you have any lotus or water lilies?”
Shao Rong nodded her head, “Yes, but those flowers are being kept at a different place. There’s a pond there.”
Shao Huai smiled and turned to say, “At first, we were growing them in our family’s backyard. We dug a large pond there, but lotus and water lilies are our family’s bestsellers. So we looked for a place where we could grow them specifically.”
Liu Xu’er smiled and said. “Great. In a while, we can head over for a look!”
Shao Rong and Shao Huai were both delighted. It seemed that they would be making quite a lot today. Liu Shu turned to look at Liu Xu’er. Seeing her so happy, he smiled and said, “In the future, we will need to invite Shao Huai and his sisters to come over more often. Otherwise, we might destroy all the plants.”
Liu Xu’er nodded her head, “That’s right!” Her father, Liu Changgeng, wasn’t gifted with these types of plants. Maintaining the grape vines was one thing, it would be impossible for him to grow flowers.
“That’s definitely no problem. Just let us know what you need us to help with!” Shao Huai smiled and said.
As they were speaking, they started to approach looking a field of flowers. The little donkey cart had stopped at the roadside and the few of them got off the cart and walked towards it.
Liu Shu knew that the Shao family no longer had their own ancestral land. At a glance, he could tell that the field here was of poor quality – it had even been dug out at the side of the hill. But there was a long line of different types of flowers grown. The line stretched out pretty far – it was clear that Shao Huai was doing quite a large scale flower growing business. Where the field met the road, there was a tidy woven bamboo fence.
As he looked, he saw a shack constructed of wood and grass at the front of the field. “Are you staying there? When do you come over to watch your fields?”
Shao Huai smiled and said, “I usually stay here for the better part of the year… In the end, this isn’t my family’s land, and a lot of people come by. ITts alright if they just steal a few flowers here and there, but there have frequently been people who would come and steal my flowers at night. So there needs to be someone here often to keep a watch. There’s usually someone here from the second month all the way to the 10th month.”
Liu Shu nodded his head. Liu Xu’er mentally sighed. No one had it easy. They followed Shao Huai and walked into the fields. The flowers had been divided up very clearly. In the frontmost area, was a cluster of moonflowers. Next to them, some orchids grew. Some of the flowers were in season, while others were budding. Yet others were still just green stalks. A large proportion of them still hadn’t bloomed. Liu Xu’er saw that the peonies and roses were kept in the shack. Those flowers were more expensive so that decision was probably a protective measure against thieves.
“These flowers were all originally grown in my family’s backyard. But after a while, there was just no space there any longer and we had to move everything out here.” Shao Rong smiled and explained to Liu Xu’er.
Liu Xu’er pointed at a few of the roses and asked, “Are these easy to grow?”
“Yes, they are. Roses are one of the easier things to grow. And if you grow a lot of them, you can even use it in other items.”
Liu Xu’er smiled and nodded, “Great! I know that it can be used to make rouge and other powders. Hey, do you know how to make those? I don’t think it’s too difficult?”
Shao Rong smiled and said, “That’s right, it’s not difficult.” She said much softer, “I know how to make them. My sister and I have secretly made it before… Ge doesn’t know though – he treats these flowers like his life….” She stuck her tongue out.
Liu Xu’er laughed at that, attracting Liu Shu’s attention, “What’s made you so happy?”
“Ah…. it’s nothing. Un, I’ve decided to buy roses!” Liu Xu’er smiled and said.
“Then do you still want water lilies and lotus flowers?”
“Yes, I want everything!”
Liu Shu smiled and shook his head.
Liu Xu’er did in fact, really want to buy roses. And she wanted to buy those that had already been well established. If she were to try and buy seeds to plant, she couldn’t guarantee that she would be able to get them to grow, and even if she did it would take a lot of time for them to flower.
Shao Rong nodded, “For the inexperienced, it’s very difficult to grow roses from seed….” She smiled and told Liu Xu’er, “I’m not just saying that to convince you to buy mature plants, this is really the case.”
Liu Xu’er smiled, “I was planning to buy mature plants anyway. That way, they can start to bloom once we bring them back.” Because she wanted to buy roses, everyone was standing at the rose bushes. Shao Rong was speaking to Liu Xu’er, and Shao Huai was explaining how to maintain the plants to Liu Shu. Liu Xu’er was asking just how to make rose rouge.
After confirming everything, Shao Huai and Shao Rong agreed to come to their place the next day to scope out their backyard and decide what to plant and where. They also had to look at their pond, to see how many plants the pond could support. After they saw their place, they could advise how many plants the Liu siblings should buy.
As they spoke, they left the field and continued on their way. They were headed to the pond that Shao Rong had mentioned, to have a look at the lotus and water lilies.
