The sound of the hoe hitting the ground to loosen the soil, Quartz stopped working and wiped the sweat on her forehead after she had just finished doing the heavy farming work.
Now Quartz knows that farming is not easy at all, her mother often reminds her that taking care of plants is a job that requires responsibility, just like people. It needs water to drink, it needs the sun to have energy, it needs fertilizer to provide nutrition.
Those things are very necessary to grow vegetables.
She understands why farmers are so happy to work even though they have to work so hard, farmers are manual laborers but they are also a part of society. If there were no people doing those field jobs.
"Big sister, do you work on the vegetable garden too?"- Aster
"Yeah, even though the soil here is magical so the vegetables don't spoil easily, I still have to check if there are animals or insects eating our vegetables"- Quartz
"You sound like mom"- Aster
"Like what?"- Quartz
"Well, as for having gardening skills, if it were me, I'd be exhausted just raking the soil"- Aster
"Maybe you should exercise more"- Quartz
"Stop it, I'm too lazy to do that"- Aster groaned
With that, the little sister went back into the house, leaving the big sister to just shake her head slightly and continue her work, pulling the ripe carrots out of the brown soil. Quartz looked at the carrot in her hand and couldn't help but admire its size and color.
"The orange color is really beautiful, back in the old world, carrots were never this big. Moreover, the price at the market is sometimes cheap, sometimes expensive, what a merchant" - Quartz muttered
Putting the carrot in the basket of carrots and continuing to pull another one, she didn't notice that there was a small creature lurking behind the bushes, observing her and the basket of carrots. It quickly approached, Quartz turned her head, it seemed like she heard something.
Thinking that she was imagining things, Quartz went back to work, the small creature saw the human leave and quickly jumped onto the chair and then onto the table. Its small nose sniffed the faint scent of the carrots inside the basket, making the small creature unable to resist taking one to eat.
Suddenly, a pair of giant hands reached under the small creature's armpits and lifted it up.
"Caught you, little thief" - Quartz
The sneaky thief, was a white rabbit with black ears, eyes like two black pearls, looking very cute.
The rabbit realized that it had been caught red-handed and struggled hard to escape. Seeing the agitated rabbit, Quartz gently placed it on the ground, then it immediately jumped and hid in the vegetable mounds. The small creature stuck its head out to spy as if it was afraid that the human would chase it.
She guessed that the rabbit seemed hungry, so she took out a carrot and brought it to the rabbit. When the other creature saw the human approaching, it crouched and hid deep inside the vegetable mounds. Gently placing the carrot on the ground, Quartz slowly backed away so as not to scare the rabbit.
The rabbit's small nose poked out from the vegetable mound, sniffing, then its head gradually poked out and crawled closer to the carrot on the ground. Although the little creature was still scared, the delicious carrot in front of it gradually loosened its guard, the rabbit's mouth bit the green part of the carrot and pulled the vegetable towards it, the rabbit took a bite and ate it deliciously.
Looking at the rabbit, Quartz picked up a ripe red tomato in her hand and took a bite, the sour taste mixed with the sweetness of the fresh tomato made her spirit refreshed.
"Should fresh vegetables like this be made into salad? Mom often said that fresh vegetables would be delicious if made into salad" - Quartz
After finishing the tomato in her hand, Quartz picked up the basket of carrots and was about to bring it inside when the white rabbit jumped out in front of her, it seemed like it had finished the carrot just now and was about to ask Quartz for another one. She smiled lightly and took out a carrot from the basket and knelt down on one knee and offered it to the rabbit.
The rabbit seemed to have become less afraid of humans, it slowly walked towards Quartz and snatched the carrot from the girl's hand and ate it deliciously.
"Alright, I have to go inside, don't sneak around stealing vegetables anymore. If you want to eat, ask the gardener properly"- Quartz
I don't know if this rabbit understood what she said or not, the rabbit didn't seem like a normal rabbit, after all, in this world, there were magical creatures everywhere.
Quartz brought the baskets of vegetables inside to start making another dish.
She washed the vegetables and cut them into bite-sized pieces, the seasoning to put in the salad was of course mayonnaise. She had made it once before and the result wasn't as expected so she had to look up how to make this sauce on the mirror.
"I really like this egg sauce, it's delicious but my little sister doesn't like it because it's too greasy" - Quartz thought
So she checked the dry food cabinet to see if there was anything to put on the salad and Quartz saw a bag of dried seeds. She realized that it was sesame seeds, with this, her mayonnaise would be more delicious.
So she poured the sesame seeds into the pan to slowly cook them, while making the mayonnaise.
This sauce is quite simple to make, first take the egg yolks then add salt, sugar, lemon juice and water and mix them together in a blender. When it's pureed, slowly add the cooking oil to mix them together. Then gradually create a creamy white-yellow sauce.
Smelling the faint aroma of the golden sesame seeds, Quartz took the pile of sesame seeds and put them in a blender to grind them, then mixed them with the mayonnaise using a whisk to turn the egg sauce into a light brown color. When she poured it over the vegetables and mixed them well, she immediately tried a piece of green vegetable, the crunchy sound of the fresh vegetables combined with the flavor of the sauce was spreading in her mouth.
"So delicious! I successfully made the salad that my mother often makes!" - Quartz
Quartz immediately went to make many other side dishes to complete the dinner for two people, the most important thing that could not be missed was white rice. Because for Asians, white rice is an indispensable food in simple family meals.
After arranging the food, both of them sat down on the chair and started eating. Aster took a piece of vegetable and put it in her mouth, her eyes widened as she looked at her older sister.
"This is really delicious, although I've eaten salad a lot, this is the first time I've eaten such fresh vegetables" - Aster
"Maybe it's because of the magical soil in the backyard, which helps the vegetables not only grow quickly but also be fresh and nutritious" - Quartz
While the two of them were eating, suddenly there was a sound like something scratching on the glass door outside, attracting both of their attention. Outside, there was a small white creature that was constantly scratching the wall and jumping around as if it wanted to attract the homeowner's attention. Quartz put down the food and walked over to see what was going on, as soon as she opened the door, the rabbit naturally jumped inside.
"What is it? A rabbit?"- Aster
"I just saw this rabbit in the garden, it looked hungry so I gave it some carrots"- Quartz
The older sister knelt down on one knee to pick up the rabbit, but it immediately jumped into her arms as if they were very familiar with each other.
It was strange, rabbits were said to be quite timid animals, but this rabbit didn't seem to be afraid at all. She swam around a bit, her hand trembling slightly as she gently touched the rabbit's smooth white fur, the rabbit rubbed its head against Quartz's chest, making her heart flutter with joy. So this was the feeling of petting a rabbit, how happy it was.
"Aster, come out and see what I have. This creature is extremely gentle!"- Quartz
The younger sister just walked out of the house and saw her older sister holding a rabbit in her arms, her eyes widened with excitement. The rabbit ran over and was startled, rubbing its head against Quartz's body to hide.
"Oh my god, a white rabbit! It looks so cute!"- Aster
"It seems like it's still afraid of strangers, so it's only friendly with me"- Quartz
Quartz gently stroked the rabbit in her arms, then brought it inside the house, placed it on a chair, and gave it a carrot to eat.
"Looks like we have a new member in the house"- Quartz
"Mom and Dad don't allow us to keep animals in the house"- Aster
"But our parents aren't here"- Quartz
"That's right, we can keep any animal without getting scolded"- Aster
At night, the two of them searched the warehouse and took out a cat's nest. Quartz used to bring home abandoned cats or dogs, but because her family couldn't afford to take care of them, they had to give them to someone else to raise. Now there were only two sisters in the house so they could say they were free.
After petting the rabbit once more, the older sister went upstairs to go to bed.
"Good night little one, I hope you have a sweet dream. How adorable!"- Quartz
Looking at the little creature sleeping in the nest made Quartz's heart melt, then she left.
The night covered the house, the room where the two sisters were sleeping soundly, then below, the white rabbit perked up its ears when it heard the noise outside. It jumped out of the nest and jumped to the door, where it saw another rabbit, the rabbit slowly lifted its front legs, pushed the chair near the wall, jumped on it, took the key on the wall, and opened the door wide.
A rabbit jumped in, another rabbit jumped in, then a whole bunch of rabbits jumped into the house. The eyes of the rabbits turned towards the rabbit standing on two legs, it looked up at the clock hanging on the wall, a low voice came from the rabbit's mouth.
"Alright, let's clean this place up. I want it to be neat and tidy by early morning. Let's start!"
Listening to the two-legged rabbit, the other rabbits divided up their work, some cleaned the dishes in the sink, some swept and mopped the floor, some washed the clothes.
A rabbit curiously saw the washing machine, in its eyes it saw a strange square object with a circle at its center, it curiously crawled inside to take a look, then another rabbit accidentally stepped on the switch of the square object. This caused the lid to close, trapping the rabbit inside and starting the laundry process.
Some time passed...
The two-legged rabbit watched its companions working, then glanced at the clock, it was almost morning.
"Good job, very clean and shiny. It's up to the standards of a neat house, they'll be very surprised!"
*Click!*
Suddenly the lights were turned on, surprising the rabbits. They turned towards the stairs and saw Quartz holding a broom in her hand while Aster was standing next to it with a cup in her hand. Their faces were shocked and in disbelief.
"What the..."- Aster
"Unbelievable"- Quartz
A mechanical sound rang out as the washing machine opened, water spilled out along with a soaked rabbit.
"I think we need an explanation"- Quartz