But when Jiang Xi looked at the meat in the pot and thought of that face covered in blood and tears, she couldn't get over it and left a bowl of rice.

It had been a long time since we had eaten fresh meat, so today we finally had a meat dish, and everyone ate it with great relish.

Jiang Xi said to Yan Jing'an, "I left some food for him in the kitchen. You can bring it to him later."

Yan Jing'an seemed startled and leaned back: "I can't do that. He's afraid of me. If I really go, he'll probably be so scared he won't be able to eat."

Jiang Xi sighed, "Never mind, I'll go."

After the meal, she took out the rabbit meat she had left in the kitchen, a bowl of stir-fried sweet potatoes, and a bowl of root and potato rice.

They entered the deer pen, but the man didn't react at all. He used to look at Jiang Xi, but now he wouldn't even look at the two of them, his eyes fixed on his feet as if he couldn't focus.

Jiang Xi asked Yan Zheng to loosen his hands a little so she could eat more easily.

"Eat."

The man remained unresponsive, and Jiang Xi had no interest in coaxing him. She put down the food and left with Yan Zheng.

It was already quite dark by then. After a long day, the three of them fed the rabbits and sheep and prepared to rest.

Yan Zheng locked the courtyard gate and then checked the rope binding the man.

Before going to bed, he specifically instructed Yan Jing'an to close the doors and windows tightly at night, not to sleep too soundly, and to keep an eye on the noises outside.

The next morning, Jiang Xi was the first to get up.

She has always lived a regular life, and without a mobile phone, she gets sleepy at the same time every day.

She often lamented that her biological clock was now comparable to her grandmother's.

The mountain air was chilly in the early morning. After getting up, she went to check on the child first. When she saw the untouched food on the ground, Jiang Xi frowned slightly.

At this moment, Yan Zheng also got up and picked up the broom by the door to sweep the yard.

Jiang Xi walked into the shed. The child was still unresponsive, just like yesterday, and didn't even look at her. But Jiang Xi could see that his eyes were even redder.

She didn't say anything more and picked up the dishes from the floor. For breakfast, she cooked sweet potato porridge and some leftover rabbit meat from yesterday, and also stir-fried a plate of bean sprouts.

Jiang Xi reheated the dishes that the child hadn't touched yesterday in a separate pot.

Jiang Xi brought him breakfast after he finished eating.

She looked at the man and said, "You must be very interested in the snow disaster, right? Eat your food, and I'll allow you to ask me three questions."

At first, after she finished speaking, the child didn't react, probably still processing what she had said.

A few seconds later he started eating.

Jiang Xi noticed that she didn't use chopsticks, but instead used her hands to scoop the food into her mouth.

Because he ate too quickly and choked a few times, Jiang Xi went into the room to bring him a bowl of water.

After she finished eating, the man looked up at her.

Jiang Xi remained expressionless and said, "Go ahead and ask."

The man blurted out, "Snow disaster."

He had probably said it many times, and just hearing those two words, one wouldn't realize that he was a person with language degeneration.

After gathering her thoughts, Jiang Xi said, "About five years ago, a global cold wave broke out, causing snow disasters everywhere and killing many people. We also came here by accident."

Before she could finish speaking, she saw that the man's eyes redden even more, and he shook his head as he listened.

After a few seconds, he asked again, "Yan... Su."

Yan Su?

It sounds like a place name.

Jiang Xi frowned: "You're asking about the city of Yansu."

The man nodded again after hearing this.

She said, "I can't answer you, but someone should know. I'll go find him."

Upon hearing the name of the place, Yan Jing'an was stunned for a few seconds at first. After a while, he coughed twice and said, "Yansu was one of the first cities to be affected by the disaster."

Of the city’s 70 million inhabitants, fewer than 200,000 survived.

As Yan Jing'an spoke, Jiang Xi observed the man's reaction.

At first, he had no expression, but when he heard that there were only 200,000 people left, his expression became even more sorrowful, and his already thin shoulders slumped even more.

Feeling uneasy, Jiang Xi looked away and said, "You have another question."

"No..." He shook his head.

Jiang Xi looked at him for a long time, thinking that he probably had nothing more to ask.

So they took the bowls and chopsticks back to the kitchen.

Although the man has been captured, the crisis is not completely over. Yan Zheng means that there may still be wild bears around, and they cannot venture into the forest for the time being.

Currently, I can only find jobs that are close to home.

Yan Jing'an suddenly had an idea: "We said before that we wanted to fence off the yard. Why don't we merge this yard with the blacksmith's yard next door?"

“I always feel very constrained living with you. Please renovate the house quickly so I can move in.”

When he brought it up, Jiang Xi remembered that he had said he wanted to move out when he was injured.

The wall between the two bedrooms in this house is thin and doesn't provide good sound insulation. You can hear people talking loudly, which is quite inconvenient.

Yan Zheng thought for a moment and said, "Then let's do some basic repairs first and merge the two courtyards together. We can still eat together, but in different rooms within the same courtyard. This way, it will be safer to live there, and we can detect any disturbances in time."

Considering that the two courtyards together are nearly thirty meters wide, it would probably take quite a while to renovate each one.

He added, "Let's not repair the firewall for now. If we have time after the autumn harvest, we'll build another one. If we don't have time, you can bring it back."

Yan Jing'an was quite satisfied with this arrangement, thinking to himself that it had to be my eldest brother.

This arrangement provides each person with their own space, but also prevents them from becoming too distant.

After tidying up the yard and feeding the livestock, Yan Zheng and Jiang Xi went to the fields, while Yan Jing'an swung a hammer and smashed the wall at home.

They smashed the courtyard wall of the hunter's house. The stones that were smashed down can be piled up and used in the newly built courtyard wall.

Yan Zheng and Jiang Xi went to the field. Jiang Xi wore a straw hat and carried a basket. The two of them pulled weeds from the vegetable garden and picked out the things that rabbits and sheep liked to eat and put them into the basket.

She even went to other fields to look for the shepherd's purse they ate, and was pleasantly surprised to find that the wheat-like plants had grown much taller and their leaves were much wider. Just by looking at their appearance, they were already clearly different from foxtail grass.

The corn had grown to knee height, but there were too many weeds, which Jiang Xi felt would somewhat affect the harvest.

She pulled Yan Zheng along to weed the cornfield.

It wasn't until mid-afternoon that the two of them finished weeding one acre of land. The temperature was still quite suitable, but they couldn't withstand squatting in the field all day, their clothes getting wet and then dry again.

Yan Zheng wiped the sweat from his brow and said, "I'm probably too tired to sleep well today."

Jiang Xi, who was standing to the side, hummed in agreement.

Yan Zheng is a rather reserved person and doesn't usually say he's tired easily. The fact that he said something like that means he really has reached his limit.

Jiang Xi was also covered in sweat and looked listless.

After finishing everything, she exclaimed, "I think Tao Yuanming must not have done his job properly."

Yan Zheng brandished his hoe and asked her what she meant.

Jiang Xi, supporting her back, said, "If he had focused on his work, he wouldn't have been able to write 'Picking chrysanthemums by the eastern fence, I leisurely gaze at the southern mountains.'"

It took off its hat and fanned itself: "How can this person say the word 'leisurely' while doing farm work? It's clear he hasn't been working properly."

This explanation amused Yan Zheng: "We're both struggling to make a living, but it's different."

As they talked, the two went from talking about the exhaustion of work to poetry and distant places, and the sun slowly began to set.

After Yan Zheng finished gathering the last of the wild vegetables, he packed them into a basket and they hurried home.

As the sun set, Yan Jing'an sat on a rock drinking water. Seeing them returning from the valley in the distance, he waved and greeted them.

Jiang Xi waved her hat in response.