48 Wilderness Survival

◎Isn’t the loss of his sister also a source of grief for him?◎

I can do it.

Ye Zhizhi stood with her feet firmly planted in front and behind, her upper body slightly leaning forward, her small hands tightly gripping her only weapon, staring at the jackal without blinking, her eyes fierce.

The jackal, provoked by the seemingly weak wolf cub, seemed enraged, its eyes gleaming with a fierce glare. Without hesitation, it bared its sharp teeth and pounced, determined to crush the wolf cub that had dared to challenge it.

Ye Zhizhi was very calm, his sharp eyes fixed on the jackal's movements, all his senses focused on the jackal's every move.

Her eyes reflected the appearance of a jackal, with every detail of its hair shaking as it rushed towards her, and its densely packed sharp teeth flashing with a cold light.

At the moment the jackal pounced on her, Ye Zhizhi dodged suddenly, avoiding the jackal's fatal bite. At the same time, her feet bounced amazingly and she landed on the jackal that turned around and wanted to continue biting her.

She clamped her legs together, grabbed the jackal's ear with one hand, and pulled it straight back. As the jackal's head uncontrollably jerked back, Ye Zhizhi raised the wooden stick in her hand, sharpening the end and stabbing it cleanly into the jackal's neck. The force was so strong that it broke the stick three points.

The jackal howled in pain, turned its head but couldn't bite Ye Zhizhi, and fell to the side. Ye Zhizhi hit the ground hard, and the sudden pain made her loosen her feet, but she still held on tightly to her only weapon. With her other hand, she pulled the jackal's head down hard to prevent it from turning its head to bite her.

During the struggle, the wooden stick was pulled out, and the jackal's ear was pulled off directly, with bright red blood spurting out.

The jackal's ears and neck were injured, and its eyes became more ferocious. Its face was hideous, and it turned around and pounced on Ye Zhizhi.

Ye Zhizhi rolled on the ground, avoiding the jackal's sharp claws and teeth again.

The jackal pounced again, but Ye Zhizhi failed to dodge it completely this time and was bitten on the shoulder.

The intense pain from her shoulder instead aroused Ye Zhizhi's ferocity. Her small body burst out with amazing strength. She grabbed the jackal's head with her backhand and lifted it up suddenly, flipping the jackal's entire body over.

The jackal's sharp teeth tore open the clothes on Ye Zhizhi's shoulders and bit off a piece of flesh directly. Blood spilled out and splattered on Ye Zhizhi's neck and face.

Faced with a life-or-death situation, she became even calmer. She sat astride the jackal's neck, with both feet on the ground, and leaned over to press the jackal's jaw to the ground. With her other hand, she thrust the sharp end of the stick into the jackal's neck again.

Even though she didn't hit the aorta the first time, she didn't panic. She pulled out the stick and continued stabbing.

Again and again.

The jackal struggled desperately, but it could not escape the wolf cub's terrifying strength. Its limbs flared wildly, its body twisted wildly, trying to turn over, but it had no place to put its foot in mid-air.

The jackal was already frightened and wanted to leave, but Ye Zhizhi held it down tightly and it couldn't move.

Slowly, the jackal's struggle began to weaken, the side of its neck was covered in blood, and the flowing blood soaked the ground.

The confrontation lasted only a moment. The moment the jackal was pinned to the ground and unable to turn over, the outcome was decided.

I don’t know how long it took, but it seemed like a moment, and the jackal was no longer moving, as if it had died.

Ye Zhizhi seemed to be completely unaware, she was still thrusting, her instinct had already firmly remembered the lesson she learned from her father, the Wolf King.

Some animals will fake their own death and attack back before dying. If you're not careful enough and let your guard down thinking your opponent is dead, you'll be the one getting killed the next moment, even though you thought you'd won.

Ye Zhizhi still held the jackal tightly until a familiar breath approached, which made her feel instinctively at ease. She raised her head and looked at him with a ferocious look in her eyes.

It's Wolf Mom...

Ye Zhizhi was in a trance for a moment, and paused his hand as he was about to continue thrusting.

The silver wolf walked to Ye Zhizhi, lowered its head, licked the blood off Ye Zhizhi's face, and looked at her with relief and admiration.

Ye Zhizhi regained consciousness and saw everything around her clearly. It turned out that while she was fighting the jackals, the wolves, having noticed something unusual, had already rushed over and quickly joined the battle.

The wolves had already noticed the cubs fighting the jackals. They could have stepped forward to help, but they all realized that this was a fight between the cubs.

Therefore, even if they saw their cubs injured, they did not intervene, but only dealt with the jackals that attempted to attack the cubs.

The silver wolf and the wolf king had been watching. Even though the cub was on the verge of life and death, they had already seen the outcome from the cub's eyes. Even if they did not take action, the cub would still win.

Only after the battle was over did the silver wolf approach the cubs.

Ye Zhizhi lowered his head. The jackal beneath him was deader than dead. The ground beneath his feet was stained with blood and was muddy and sticky.

She looked around and saw wolves standing around her, unharmed. The jackals had suffered heavy losses. Seeing that the main group of wolves had arrived, they could not snatch the food away, so they quickly fled the scene with the remaining jackals. The jackals that did not have time to escape were lying scattered on the ground.

Ye Zhizhi's tense nerves relaxed, and all the strength in his body seemed to be drained away. His whole body instantly became limp, and his hands, which were tightly gripping the wooden stick, kept shaking due to excessive force.

She did it.

Ye Zhizhi opened her eyes wide, she looked at the silver wolf, then turned to look at the wolf king.

She really did it!

She was no longer the little cub who could only watch helplessly as the pack's wolves died. If it happened again, she would no longer be frightened and unable to move. She would bravely rush forward to protect the pack, rather than just being protected...

That kind of thing will never happen again!

The wolf king walked over, lowered his head and licked the blood on the other side of Ye Zhizhi's body.

Ye Zhizhi looked at the wolves looking at her, and seemed to get some kind of affirmation from their eyes.

Yin Yi and Er Zong came over and surrounded Ye Zhizhi. Their eyes were bright, as if to say that they had protected the prey together and prevented it from being stolen.

This was a battle in which Ye Zhizhi participated.

Ye Zhizhi grinned, her eyes moist, and she raised her head and let out a childish but very loud howl, announcing her growth to the jungle.

The wolves also howled, as if celebrating for Ye Zhizhi.

After venting her excitement, Ye Zhizhi belatedly felt the pain. She was now covered in blood, and the flesh on her shoulder that had been bitten open was dripping with blood.

The strong smell of blood has already attracted the agitation of nearby predators.

The smell of blood is the most stimulating to predators. If it weren't for the wolves standing by to frighten the predators, they would probably be eaten as snacks.

Ye Zhizhi's face turned pale, she had lost too much blood. However, she didn't frown, and with her other hand she tore off the medicine powder tied around her waist.

She wrapped all the prepared powder in leaves, wrapped it in a layer of leather and tied it around her waist to prevent the wolves from getting hurt if they encountered danger outside the territory.

Unexpectedly, the wolves didn't use it, but she used it first. Ye Zhizhi endured the severe pain and opened it, sprinkling the powder on her left shoulder that was bleeding profusely.

A layer of flesh was scraped off her left shoulder, leaving the bone exposed. Fortunately, she dodged in time, otherwise she would have suffered more than just this injury, but half of her shoulder would have been bitten off.

Just this one action made her break out in a cold sweat.

The powder was quite effective. After a while, the bloody wound on the shoulder slowly stopped bleeding, leaving only a little bit of blood seeping through.

Still sitting on the jackal, Ye Zhizhi was in a state of disarray, looking like she had just emerged from a pool of blood. Her clothes were torn and bloodstained. She had more than just the wound on her left shoulder; she also had scrapes and scratches from the jackal's claws, but these were insignificant compared to the injury on her left shoulder.

Moreover, she didn't have much medicine powder, so it was a bit difficult to stop the bleeding from the wound on her shoulder.

The silver wolf licked the blood off Ye Zhizhi's body.

But the smell of blood was still strong.

It was no longer suitable for Ye Zhizhi to stay outside at this time, and their hunting was completed, so they set off to return to their territory.

Ye Zhizhi lay on the back of the silver wolf, and the taste of victory made her forget the pain in her body.

She was very happy. Although the injuries she suffered this time were more serious than any other time, she had broken through her own limits. She had overcome her fear of ferocious carnivores and was even able to fight them, which meant that she had a certain ability to protect herself.

Even though it was just a jackal, it was still a huge step forward for her. Perhaps in the near future, she would be able to fight lions and tigers, or even fight against multiple people at once!

Ye Zhizhi not only did not feel afraid, but even aroused high fighting spirit.

She recalled the exhilarating battle and began to replay every frame in her mind.

In fact, her fight with the jackal was very short. This fight was a life-or-death struggle that did not allow for any hesitation. She relied more on instinct in the fight and stimulated her potential on the brink of life and death.

She began to reflect on herself, realizing that she was not fast enough, her skills were not good enough, and she simply relied on brute force to win.

If she had been faster, perhaps she wouldn't have been injured. If she had been more agile, perhaps she could have avoided harm.

Ye Zhizhi pondered and found a direction to work towards.

Her strength was truly immense. Normally, I wouldn't have felt it, but in life-or-death situations, it was as if her entire strength erupted. I was thankful she possessed such strength; otherwise, even if she could subdue the jackal for a moment, she wouldn't have won, as her weapon would have struggled to penetrate.

Speaking of which, she also needs to improve her weapons.

Even if Ye Zhizhi sharpened one end of the stick to a very sharp point, it was still no match for an iron or stainless steel knife. If she had such a sharp weapon, wouldn't her combat effectiveness be directly increased by several levels!

...Forget it, she didn't count on the knife. Even if there were iron minerals in the forest, she didn't have the ability to forge them. She might as well hope that a dagger would fall from the sky for her to pick up!

Unfortunately, there is no free lunch in the world. You may have more hope if you look for thorny plants.

Ye Zhizhi was thinking, his eyelids gradually became heavy, and before he returned to the cave, he was already half-conscious and half-asleep.

In her hazy consciousness, she seemed to see a vague figure that gave her a very familiar feeling.

Who is it?

=======

A black car slowly stopped in front of a Chinese-style villa.

The car door opened and a teenager in his teens walked down. He had a handsome face and a noble temperament.

"Master Zhiyan, you're here!"

As soon as the boy got out of the car, the middle-aged woman waiting in front of the villa came to greet him.

"Auntie Zhang."

Aunt Zhang showed a concerned look, "I'm glad you're here, Miss... Miss has been inside."

Ye Zhiyan looked towards the villa, and a hint of heaviness flashed across his still young face.

He stepped into the villa, walked up the stairs, and went straight to a door. He raised his hand to knock on the door, but his thoughts went back to three years ago.

He was just seven years old when it happened, but he remembers the day vividly.

When he was picked up from school, the house had changed completely. There was chaos everywhere, the servants were in a panic, his mother was hysterical, and his father allowed his mother to smash things. It turned out that his precious sister had been stolen, and the person who stole her was his father's former lover.

Then, the mother, who was about to go out to look for her sister, accidentally fell down the stairs in front of them, and blood was all over the floor...

Those days were nightmares that Ye Zhiyan would often dream about and wake up from.

It was clearly a very ordinary day. He went to school as usual in the morning. Before leaving, he held his sister, who had not woken up yet, for a long time reluctantly, thinking that he would play with his sister after school.

He had clearly spent all the pocket money he had saved since he was born, and even asked his father to advance his pocket money for the next ten years, just to give his sister a precious gift. He was just waiting for his sister to wear the little princess crown he bought for her on her hundred-day celebration and receive blessings from relatives and friends.

But in less than a day, everything changed.

He stayed by his mother's side for three days, feeling overwhelmed and lost, as if in a dream with no sense of reality. On the third day, his father heard some news and left without waiting for his mother to wake up. He only told him to take good care of her and left without returning for a long time.

Not long after my father left, my mother woke up and struggled to be discharged from the hospital to find my sister. It was my grandfather who forced someone to look after her so that she could recover in the hospital.

Ye Zhiyan accompanied his mother, thinking about his sister who suddenly disappeared. He felt that God had played a huge joke on him. He was panicked and felt as if he was in a fog. But he could not cause any more trouble for the adults and could not delay them from finding his sister. He even had to suppress his anxiety to comfort his mother.

No one knew how tormented he was at that time. He couldn't sleep day or night, wanting to hear the news but afraid to hear it at the same time.

Later, my father came back and knelt in front of my mother, saying with guilt that he had not found his sister and did not know where she was thrown. He would continue to look for her...

The mother replied calmly, "I understand."

On the day his mother was discharged from the hospital, she packed her luggage and left the Ye family. Before leaving, she calmly said to his father and him that she would come back when his sister came back.

Ye Zhiyan looked at the back of his mother who was leaving resolutely, and looked at his father who was crying bitterly with gray hair. He realized very clearly that his once happy family had been shattered.

For nearly three years, the atmosphere at home has been very depressing. No matter whether it is my father's side or my mother's side, no one has yet gotten over the haze of losing my sister.

Ye Zhiyan was distracted for a moment, and the door appeared in front of him again.

He knocked.

The door was ajar.

Ye Zhiyan paused before speaking: "Mother, I'm coming in?"

There was no response from inside. Ye Zhiyan waited for a moment, then pushed open the door and walked in.

This is a very delicate and beautiful princess room, every detail of which was decorated by the mother herself.

Yu Jingyao was sitting on the big pink bed, holding a doll in her hand, motionless as if in a daze.

Ye Zhiyan silently accompanied him, his face solemn and his heart empty.

"Today..." After a long moment, Yu Jingyao's hoarse voice rang out, "It's little Zhizhi's third birthday."

Ye Zhiyan remained silent. Of course he remembered. He had even prepared a birthday present for his sister a long time ago, but he didn't know if he would ever give it to her.

"I wonder how she's doing now...is she being bullied?"

"...Can I have a bowl of...longevity noodles?"

Yu Jingyao choked and covered her face with her hands. A line of tears dripped from between her fingers. Her shoulders trembled and she tried hard to suppress her voice.

Ye Zhiyan's eyes were red. He stepped forward and put his arm around Yu Jingyao's shoulders, trying to calm his surging emotions. "My sister must be doing well. She's still waiting for us to take her home. Mother, please don't be too sad. Otherwise, my sister will be heartbroken if she knows..."

Yu Jingyao cried silently for a while. The intense emotional fluctuations made her head hurt.

Yu Jingyao had hit her head that year, but because of her sister's matter she was unable to rest and recuperate, and ended up with sequelae. Whenever her emotions fluctuated too much, her head would throb with pain.

Ye Zhiyan calmed Yu Jingyao's emotions.

It took a long time for Yu Jingyao to calm down.

Her beautiful face was haggard, and she looked at Ye Zhiyan with an apologetic look, "Zhiyan, Mom didn't mean to ignore you..."

Ye Zhiyan shook his head. "You don't have to apologize to me. I understand."

The loss of his sister is an unhealable scar in his parents' hearts, and it is also a pain in his heart.