Upon hearing this, the light in Su Yunzhi's eyes disappeared, and she even seemed lost in thought for a moment.

Is it because of my mother?

Yes and no.

Out of consideration for his feelings, Lin Yinan didn't want to make a definitive statement right away.

“I will persuade my mother. Besides, with my father around, it’s not her place to make the decision.” Su Yunzhi felt this was not a problem.

“She doesn’t like me now. After we get married, she’ll make me follow the rules all the time and find fault with me all the time. She could crush me with the label of being unfilial. I don’t want to live like that, and I will not live like that.”

Seeing him lower his head and remain silent, Lin Yinan continued, "I like a free and unrestrained life. I used to practice martial arts so that one day I could travel the world with a sword."

After a long silence, Su Yunzhi looked up, her eyes clear and firm.

“Anan, I don’t agree to break off the engagement. I will definitely give you the life you want.”

"Whatever you want."

Too lazy to say anything more, Lin Yinan quickly climbed back up the tree.

He wondered if she had taken the initiative to break off the engagement, making him lose face.

There's no one around now, so it's unlikely that a third person will hear us.

On another tree, Yun Mo and Yun Er were staring at each other.

They heard the conversation between the two men very clearly.

Yun Er was inexplicably excited, his eyes shining.

“Master, your chance has come. So the young lady really wants to break off the engagement.”

Yun Mo rolled his eyes: "Don't meddle."

He told others not to cause trouble, but his own eyes kept peeking through the gaps in the leaves at Lin Yinan, while the scenes from the daytime kept replaying in his mind.

He quickly closed his eyes and regulated his breathing to suppress the fire in his heart.

Lin Yinan rested her head on her hands and continued to look at the starry sky.

In my hazy state, I heard my uncle Lin Shuo's voice; it was already past midnight.

She climbed down from the tree, stuffed the sweet potato Su Yunzhi had given her into Lin Shuo's arms, and turned back to the cave.

Yunmo on the tree kept his eyes closed until her figure disappeared into the cave.

The next day, before dawn, the people inside the cave gradually got up.

Lin Yinan carried the things to the tree where the horses were tied and hung the items on the horses' backs one by one.

"Thank you for saving my second brother."

Yun Mo's voice suddenly rang out from the side, "I should have thanked you yesterday, but my mother said not to make a fuss, it's not good for your reputation."

Lin Yinan kept tidying things up without looking up.

"No need to thank me, we're even now, we owe each other nothing."

After tying the things up, Lin Yinan saw that he was still standing there.

"Is there anything else?"

No, that's all.

Yun Mo quickly turned and left, as if he were fleeing in panic.

A short while later, Yun Erlang was carried out by the guards.

He had regained consciousness and was now looking at the person with gratitude.

Everyone quickly packed their things and prepared to set off.

The route had already been discussed yesterday. They couldn't take the official road, for fear of encountering Hu cavalry again. They weren't always so lucky.

When they went up the mountain, they had already lost their planks, so now they could only use livestock to pull things, and people could only follow behind.

The Yun family walked at the front, followed by Lin Yinan's family and Liu Ji and his sister, with Su Yunzhi and Lin Tiezhuang's family at the back.

Lin Tiezhuang is Lin Tiezhu's younger brother, and he studied at Jiancheng Academy with Lin Yiheng.

After hearing his mother's account of his brother's ordeal, he, like his sister-in-law, was determined to follow Lin Yinan and the others.

It's October now, and the dewdrops, like bright pearls, hang on the green leaves and petals, creating a white expanse.

It rained yesterday, and the mountain road is muddy and difficult to walk on, so let's walk slowly. It's better than losing our lives.

Lin Yinan rode a horse, and Lin Yi'an and Lu Changqing insisted on following.

Leaves, thorns, and thatch scraped against your body from time to time, so you had to walk slowly and carefully.

The group wound their way through the forest, stopping to rest just before noon.

Lin Yinan sat on a rock, munching on a dry, hard wild vegetable pancake.

To preserve the pancakes for a long time, Mrs. Zhao baked them until they were completely dry.

"Ah!" A scream rang out in the forest.

Lin Yinan quickly stood up and looked in the direction of the sound.

The sound came from Liu Zhaodi, Lin Tiezhu's wife, who was digging for wild vegetables in the grass not far away. The grass was too tall to see what was happening.

Lin Shuo and his son, Lin Yiheng, and Yun Mo from the Yun family, along with several guards, rushed over.

"What's wrong?" Old Mrs. Zhao craned her neck.

Li Shulan frowned. "Did you step on a hunter's trap?"

"Grandma, you stay here, I'll go take a look."

Lin Yinan took a step and walked in that direction.

Lying in the grass was a human mutilation, gnawed beyond recognition by wild beasts. The head was still there, but only bits of flesh remained of the limbs, and the internal organs had been removed.

Apart from Yun Mo and his guards, everyone else ran to the side and began vomiting violently.

Lin Yinan stuffed the last piece of bread into his mouth, leaned closer to examine it carefully, and then found a twig to rummage through the remains.

Yun Mo glanced sideways; this little girl was incredibly bold.

Not only were they not afraid, but they were also eating while rummaging through the corpses on the ground.

Yun Er was also humbled; he simply couldn't eat while looking at a corpse.

If Lin Yinan knew, he would definitely sneer: in front of a highly decomposed zombie, this mutilated body is nothing.

She stretched her neck and swallowed the dry, hard biscuit, her voice cold as she said, "The deceased was male, killed by a wild animal, and the time of death should have been yesterday afternoon."

"How do you know he's a man?" Yun Er asked curiously.

He wouldn't be able to tell unless he looked closely.

Lin Yinan glanced at him and said succinctly, "First, look at the height; second, look at the frame."

"Skeleton? How do you tell?"

Now it was Yun Mo's turn to be puzzled, but he could tell just by watching her fiddle with it a few times.

Lin Yinan pointed at the mangled body with a tree branch and said, "The male skeleton is larger and stronger than the female skeleton. Since men do not need to reproduce, their pelvises are smaller. Women, on the other hand, have reproductive functions, so their pelvises are slightly larger."

Yun Mo and the others were amazed when they heard this; it was the first time they had ever heard of a distinction between men and women.

After vomiting, Su Kunliang looked at Lin Yinan intently, wondering what kind of teacher his best friend had hired for his daughter to teach her to be so audacious.

Su Yunzhi watched Lin Yinan fall into deep thought, the image of Lin Daiyu from before gradually fading from his mind.

"What bit him to death?" Lin Shuo asked, forcing himself to suppress his nausea.

Lin Yinan pursed her lips and remained silent. What she had just said was already shocking enough. If she said anything more, her original brother would become suspicious.

Seeing that she remained silent, Yun Mo thought it was normal for a young girl raised in the inner chambers to have never seen anything like it.

He cleared his throat and said, "Judging from the extent of the damage to this body, it must have been a wolf pack. Wolves share food, which is why they gnawed the carcass so cleanly."

"What?! There are wolves!!"

Lin Shuo and Su Kunliang were all greatly shocked.

Yun Mo said, "This place is not safe to stay for long. We should leave as soon as possible."

Everyone nodded in agreement, but no one knew when the wolf pack would appear.