CHAPTER 19: CHAPTER 18: AUNT DOESN’T WANT US ANYMORE

Qin Yao woke up from sleep, the rain had already lessened. The forest was damp, and at a glance, it was full of white mist.

In such weather, not to mention animals, even people wouldn’t go out.

Qin Yao remembered Old Liu saying there would be rain these few days. It seems this old farmer’s skill at predicting the weather is quite accurate.

She just didn’t know if it would affect the sowing of wheat.

But she couldn’t worry about that now, she chose a rabbit to skin and roast as both breakfast and lunch.

After filling her stomach, she continued to prepare the remaining six rabbits.

By the end of the morning, Qin Yao had cleaned all seven rabbits. The skins she peeled were very intact, treated simply with plant ash, and all the meat was roasted together.

She could heat it up and eat anytime. It was also convenient to carry them. Luckily, the temperature had dropped, and this roasted rabbit meat should last two to three days, just enough as her provisions for the next few days.

Qin Yao had a big appetite, and her energy consumption matched her food intake. If she ate freely, these seven rabbits would only last her two days.

By noon, the rain completely stopped. A bit of sunlight filtered through the clouds, evaporating the moisture on the ground and creating an unpleasant smell in the forest. Mosquitoes emerged, and small animals started to cautiously leave their nests, walking through the forest.

Qin Yao concealed the cave and took her weapon, setting out to find a water source.

Along the way, Qin Yao found traces of many wild animals, with wolves and monkeys being the most common. There was at least one troop of monkeys and one pack of wolves nearby.

Monkeys were not valuable, as these animals resemble humans, and people from Sheng Country were very wary, avoiding eating or actively hunting monkeys.

The wolves were mostly gray wolves. Their meat wasn’t tasty, but their fur was quite valuable.

However, wolves were pack animals. Without proper weapons and equipment, provoking a wolf pack was tantamount to seeking death. Qin Yao avoided them throughout the way.

This season, snakes rarely came out of their dens, and encounters were infrequent.

She was too lazy to deal with the small snakes she passed by, but instead, they noticed her, hissed in fright, and quickly slipped into the grass, slithering away swiftly.

On the way to the water source, Qin Yao shot two arrows, taking down a yellow weasel and a roe deer.

With yesterday’s practice, her archery had become very accurate. She intentionally left them a breath, not shooting vital spots, and ran a long distance to chase these two stumbling creatures trying to escape their fate.

Especially the yellow weasel, which was nimble and quick. Had the arrow not been dragging on its tail and getting caught in branches, Qin Yao would have had to chase it even further.

When she finally caught it, the little beast bared its teeth, very fierce, trying to bite Qin Yao, but she knocked it out with a slap.

The roe deer wasn’t foolish either, but because the deep forest was rarely visited by people, it was focused on chewing leaves and didn’t notice the hunter closing in. Qin Yao shot an arrow into its front thigh, causing it to run in pain.

But it was larger, a bigger target, much easier to catch than the weasel. She tied a long rope around it, flipping it over, and brought it back tied up.

The forest never lacked sturdy branches, and Qin Yao cut a thick tree branch to tie these two catches before heading to the water source.

It was a small pond naturally formed in a depression at the mountain top, likely fed by spring water seeping from underground. The water was shallow and clear, and surprisingly, it had fish in it.

The pond’s edge had lots of signs of animals drinking. Qin Yao put down the load and found a clean spot to wash her face, attempting to catch fish. To her surprise, the fish there didn’t hide, moving slowly, making it easy to catch each one.

Soon, Qin Yao caught six fish weighing about two to three pounds each, strung them with grass rope on the other end of the pole, and filled a bamboo tube with water. Tonight, there would be an extra course.

At dusk, when the forest animals were most active, Qin Yao left the water source early with today’s catch to observe the surroundings.

Two kilometers from the water source, she noticed a fresh pile of feces, clearly left after the rain stopped during a walk.

She might not recognize all the farm crops, but she could identify the feces of various large animals at a glance.

This was left by a black bear, and judging by the size of the feces, it should be an adult black bear.

Filled with joy yet troubled, Qin Yao knew bears had keen hearing, and in this season with an abundance of food, black bears fattening for hibernation rarely appeared, making it hard to track one down.

But since she had discovered its trace, Qin Yao did not intend to let it slip away.

As darkness fell, Qin Yao returned to the cave with today’s spoils, grilling fish for an extra meal while pondering how to lure the black bear out.

Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t cooperating, and it started raining again at night.

And this time, the rain continued intermittently for two days.

Qin Yao lay in the cave, watching the struggling roe deer and yellow weasel, along with several casually caught wild chickens and squirrels, unwilling to go down the mountain just yet.

She didn’t hesitate long before deciding to stay in the cave, waiting for the opportunity.

...

Four days had passed since Qin Yao went into the mountains.

During these four days, the rain continued nonstop intermittently.

Fortunately, Liu Bai had taken both brothers on the first day to finish planting the wheat Qin Yao left behind.

If they had delayed by half a day, those two acres of wheat would have been ruined.

An autumn rain brings a chill, and in just four days the temperature had dropped several degrees.

In the innermost thatched house in Liu Family Village, Liu Dalang and Liu Erlang had built a fire inside the house, but the wind still leaked in, keeping them cold even near the fire, until the four thinly dressed siblings moved directly to the bed, wrapped in quilts, trying to stay warm.

After a breakfast of the leftover taro Qin Yao had left behind, they were already out of food.

It kept raining outside, making the ground muddy and impassable. Da Lang and Erlang wanted to go out and dig for wild vegetables but couldn’t.

If they got caught in the rain and contracted a cold, without money for medicine, they would face a dead end.

Several days had passed without seeing Qin Yao, and Si Niang counted on her fingers day by day, constantly asking:

"Big brother, when will Mother come back?"

Today, after counting off four fingers, she asked again: "Big brother, why hasn’t Mother come back yet?"

Sanlang quietly asked Second Lang: "Isn’t she going to come back?"

Second Lang glared at him, "Don’t talk nonsense, she’ll come back when the rain stops."

Sanlang stayed quiet for a moment but couldn’t help furrowing his little face in worry, "Second Brother, do you think maybe she’s been eaten by wild animals?"

As soon as he asked, Si Niang burst into tears: "Wahhh... I don’t want Mother to be eaten by wild animals!"

Her crying caused the other three in the house to fall silent.

After three seconds of silence, Sanlang couldn’t hold back and also began to cry, wiping his eyes with his little hands in grievance, chokingly saying: "Aunty doesn’t want us anymore, she must have run away..."

Second Lang looked at Da Lang worriedly, "Big brother, did she really leave?"

Da Lang looked at the woefully crying Dragon and Phoenix Twins and then at the anxious Erlang. His suspicions over the past few days seemed confirmed, and a surge of feeling betrayed, abandoned, bitterness, and anger rose within him. He was about to grumble at his siblings not to think of her anymore.

Suddenly, there came a knock at the door.