The next morning, as dawn broke and a cool morning breeze blew, Jiang Xi got up early to exercise.

First, they did some physical training to warm up, then Yan Zheng led her to practice the latest fencing footwork, and finally they finished with archery training.

Now, Jiang Xi can hit the target seven times out of twenty meters with her arrows, and her hands have developed a thin callus from practicing.

Once you get into the habit of practicing every day, you'll break a light sweat in the morning, wash yourself off, change your clothes, and feel refreshed all day long.

Instead, she gradually began to get used to this lifestyle.

Breakfast was the same old three dishes: shepherd's purse, sweet potato, and root and yam porridge.

After discussing it yesterday, the three of them decided to release the child today, as keeping him locked up indefinitely was not a good idea.

Jiang Xi couldn't bear to let him leave on an empty stomach, so she gave him two bowls of porridge and vegetables.

While he was eating, Jiang Xi asked the question they had all wanted to ask: "How did you manage to get that wild bear to work for you and obey your orders?"

She didn't want to beat around the bush, so she asked very directly.

I thought this child would have an emotional breakdown like last time.

Unexpectedly, he remained calm after hearing Jiang Xi's question, put down his spoon and said, "He...I...the child."

child?

Jiang Xi frowned: "You mean you used his child to blackmail him?"

As soon as she finished speaking, she saw the man quickly shake his head.

He repeated it again, this time adding gestures. First, he pointed outside and said "he," then he pointed to himself and said "I," and finally he made a gesture of holding a baby and said "child."

Jiang Xi still didn't quite understand, but after a couple of seconds she suddenly realized.

She covered her mouth in horror and said, "You and he have a child?"

As soon as he said that, the person opposite him angrily threw down their spoon, shook their head repeatedly, and kept saying, "No...no."

Just then, Yan Jing'an's irritating laughter came from behind.

Jiang Xi glared at Yan Jing'an, who leaned against the door frame, touched his nose, and said, "Hehe, I guess he means that the bear treats him like its own child."

Seeing the man nodding frantically, Jiang Xi realized she had made a huge blunder, and her face instantly turned red.

She quickly said, "I'm sorry, I misunderstood."

Then, looking puzzled, she asked, "If he treats you like a child, why did you send us here...?"

She didn't say the words "kill him".

But the person on the other end clearly understood.

The boy rolled up his sleeves, and Jiang Xi saw his arm and tried to get up, but after squatting for a long time, her legs went numb and she ended up sitting on the ground.

She gasped, and Yan Jing'an, who was leaning against the doorframe, slowly straightened up.

The child's hands, which were exposed, were covered in black mud and ash, while his arms, which were covered by his clothes, were clean.

However, this clean skin was covered with large and small, hideous scars, mostly claw marks, with new wounds covering old ones, looking horrifyingly cruel.

Seeing that he had frightened them, the man quickly pulled down his sleeve to cover his arm and lowered his head.

Jiang Xi asked in a hoarse voice, "Did that wild bear make this?"

The man nodded upon hearing this.

Jiang Xi didn't dare look him in the eye. She felt a tightness in her chest, so she pushed the food further towards him.

"Eat quickly."

After saying that, she went to the yard, clutching her chest and trying to catch her breath.

Yan Zheng, who was in the kitchen, saw this, wiped his hands, and walked over to her.

"What's wrong?"

Jiang Xi told Yan Zheng everything she had been asked about and what she had seen.

He nodded and said in a deep voice, "In that case, everything makes sense."

"Although the wild bear said he raised him like a child and made him hunt at his behest, he was still a wild beast after all, and the child probably suffered a lot in his hands."

However, due to the vast difference in their strength, she was unable to kill him.

He accidentally discovered their existence, so he devised a plan to have them help him get rid of the bear.

He put his arm around Jiang Xi's shoulder and said, "Let him go in a bit."

Jiang Xi thought it was about time and nodded.

Yan Jing'an didn't say anything, and went straight to feed the rabbits after leaving the deer pen.

Yan Zheng and Jiang Xi led the man to the entrance of the forest. Jiang Xi handed him a basket containing several boiled yams and yams rice balls made of diced mushrooms.

Yan Zheng untied him and asked in a deep voice, "Don't provoke us anymore. Go live your own life."

The man started walking slowly. After walking a dozen meters, and confirming that Jiang Xi and Yan Zheng had indeed released him, he turned and went into the woods, disappearing from sight.

However, the crisis is not completely over yet.

Yan Zheng, still worried, instructed the two, "Don't let your guard down these next few nights, and don't sleep too soundly."

"We can't just listen to his side of the story. Given his intentions, we have to be wary of him."

Jiang Xi understood Yan Zheng's thoughts.

A child who has been isolated from people for many years and has suffered abuse may not be as harmless as he appears.

After sending the people away, the next step is to urgently get to production and construction.

They packed the few potatoes they had left in the house for the child; today they still had to go to the cliff to dig up some more potatoes.

However, since the people had just been released, and there were still rabbits and sheep at home, they dared not let their guard down for a while.

So it was Yan Zheng and Jiang Xi who went to the cliff this time.

Yan Jing'an stayed at home. The blacksmith's yard next door had been abandoned for too long, and with the addition of a sheep, it was in a dilapidated state.

Since the yard was to be properly renovated, the weeds and sheep droppings in the yard had to be cleared out, so he stayed home to tidy up the yard.

After packing up some equipment, just like before, Xiao Lu pulled the cart while Yan Zheng and Jiang Xi walked.

Upon reaching the entrance to the canyon, the peach blossom grove we had seen last time had already faded, and if we looked closely, we could see the seed pods, about the size of soybeans, under the flower calyxes.

Once you reach the bottom of the cliff, you can clearly feel that there are more animals in the forest.

Needless to say, wild ducks fly in flocks across the lake, and sometimes if the two of them make a little too much noise, they'll startle a whole flock.

Just like last time, Yan Zheng parked the car by the lake at the bottom of the cave. He first dug up some sweet potatoes to set up the rabbit trap, then shot a bird, took out its entrails and stuffed them into the fish trap, before throwing the fish trap into the lake.

Once everything was ready, the two began digging for sweet potatoes. Yan Zheng's left arm had not fully recovered, so his pace was much slower than before.

Jiang Xi's arm strength has improved. She remembers that when she first came to the forest, she could only dig half a meter deep before she reached her limit. Today, she dug more than a meter deep and still had the energy.

It is clear that the physical training during this period has been effective.

By mid-afternoon, the two of them had barely managed to dig up two baskets of sweet potatoes.

Seeing that the sun was high enough, Yan Zheng went to the lake and retrieved the fish trap.

For some reason, the fish trap didn't yield any results today, only two small fish, about three or four inches long, not enough to start a fire, so Yan Zheng eventually released them again.

Thinking that he still needed to catch two more wild ducks, he simply threw the fish trap back.

It was the peak season for wild ducks, and Yan Zheng, carrying stone arrows, shot down two wild ducks in just one or two hours.