Chapter 10 Rat Mountain

The weather was good today, and the long, repetitive drizzle finally stopped. The twilight in the west was a silver-grey color, and as the sun went down, the color became dimmer.

Wen Zhiheng finally rushed back at this time.

He was holding two pheasants and a fat rabbit in his hands. His face was tired, but there was a hint of smile in his eyes.

Rui'er was the first to discover Wen Zhiheng's return.

He hurriedly rushed into Wen Zhiheng's arms, his voice filled with tears.

"Uncle, you are finally back. Rui'er is so hungry."

Wen Zhiheng pinched Rui'er's cheek with his free hand.

"Uncle will grill you some meat later, and give you all the chicken legs, okay?"

"Um…"

They all gathered around Wen Zhiheng and talked, and Wen Zhiyuan took the prey down.

Chen Shiyi silently pulled out the bushes and weeds around the house. A fire had been lit in the house, which would remove some of the moisture. She had collected the firewood one by one in the woods and tied them up.

That should be enough for tonight.

While she was busy, she glanced at the eldest young master.

His clothes were torn in several places, and there were bloody marks on the back of his hands. It must have taken some effort to chase these small animals.

He was unfamiliar with the place, but luckily he had some kung fu skills, so he was able to kill a few prey. Otherwise, everyone would have starved.

The previous fire was borrowed by Wen Zhiyuan from Lao Yu. Now, he was going to borrow a knife from Lao Yu again to deal with the prey.

Unexpectedly, Lao Yu's fat body was rolling towards them.

Seeing what Wen Zhiyuan was holding, his sleepy eyes suddenly lit up. He grabbed the prey with his fat hands and smiled sinisterly.

"It's just enough to cover half a month's rent."

Everyone on the field was instantly frightened.

The prey was taken away by him, so what would they eat?

They had not eaten anything since the two pieces of bread in the morning.

Wen Zhirou hurried forward to stop him.

"I'll pay for the room later. This is food for our whole family tonight."

Lao Yu's expression changed instantly.

"What did you say?"

Wen Zhirou was about to retort, but was stopped by Wen Zhiheng behind her.

He spoke to Lao Yu calmly.

"Brother Yu, it's too late today and we really can't get anything to eat. If you take our food away, our whole family will go hungry."

Lao Yu glanced at Wen Zhiheng. Although the man in front of him was in a state of desolation, his demeanor could not be ignored. It is better not to offend such a person.

He took out ten copper coins from his pocket and threw them to Wen Zhiyuan.

"I am kindhearted and I cannot bear to see others suffer. You are lucky."

After saying this, he walked away holding the prey that Wen Zhiheng had just hunted.

The Wen family was so angry that they gnashed their teeth.

Rui'er saw the meat that was about to reach his mouth being taken away by someone else, and he immediately burst into tears.

"Uncle, I'm so hungry, I want to eat chicken legs..."

Wen Zhiheng quickly picked up Rui'er and said in a deep voice.

"Don't cry, Rui'er. Your uncle will get it for you tomorrow."

Wen Zhiyuan used ten copper coins to buy ten rice balls from the Fengming Mine. Everyone got one. He didn't dare to eat the rest and planned to save them for Wen Zhiheng, Wen Zhiyuan, and Rui'er tomorrow.

The two men were going to work in the mines, and Rui'er was still a child.

Several of them looked a little listless. After eating, they went to the pond to clean up a little, then sat on the floor of the house, leaning against the wall with their heads down, not wanting to talk.

On the ground, Chen Shiyi had collected dry grass from the forest and roughly woven two mats. At least, he didn't have to sleep directly on the mud.

Wen Zhiyuan got a bamboo tube water cup from somewhere and was about to give Ruier some water.

Chen Shiyi took a glance and shouted hurriedly.

“Don’t drink!”

After she yelled, she quickly stood up and snatched Ruier's cup.

A soft and slippery insect slowly crawled out from the wall of the bamboo tube cup, and the black patterns on it kept squirming, which was very disgusting.

Wen Zhirou, who was standing next to her, turned pale. She had just drunk water from the cup, screamed, and hurried out of the room, opening her mouth and vomiting.

Mrs. Wen also looked very unhappy.

"What is this?"

"Leech."

Wen Zhiyuan continued.

"It's also called a blood-sucking worm. It grows in ponds and fields."

Mrs. Wen had a headache.

"What are we going to do with water in the future? We don't even have a pot to heat water?"

When Wen Zhirou ran outside, Chen Shiyi followed her, patted her back and comforted her softly.

"Are you okay?"

Wen Zhirou waved her hands to indicate that she was fine, but her face was extremely pale, without a trace of blood.

It was late at night and it was very quiet outside the house. The only sounds were the wind blowing through the woods and the croaking of frogs in the fields, mixed with the low chirping of insects.

In the middle of the house, the fire gradually died down.

Perhaps due to tiredness, Rui'er fell asleep in the arms of the Second Young Master's wife, while the other female relatives had fallen asleep.

Chen Shiyi didn't sleep. He lowered his eyes slightly and listened to Wen Zhiheng and Wen Zhiyuan talking.

"Tomorrow at 12:00, you and I will go to Fengming Mine to work, and we won't be back until 12:00. You and I are not afraid, as we will have food in the mine, but what about mother Rou'er and the other women?"

"Brother, there are still a few rice balls left. Let them share them tomorrow morning. We should eat less and bring back the remaining food."

"How can they bear being hungry for the whole day?"

"Alas, there is nothing we can do about it. When we have time, we can go up the mountain and hunt some prey to exchange for some silver. We will eventually get through this."

"We are all going to work, and the women are staying here. If they run into any bad guys, I really, really worry about them."

"Brother, we just arrived, so we can only make such arrangements for now. Compared with the days of corpse separation, there is still a glimmer of hope, right?"

Fire flickered in Wen Zhiheng's dark eyes.

"It's not easy to hunt prey in the mountains. Today, thanks to the guidance of others, I didn't return empty-handed."

"Life must go on."

Chen Shiyi also felt very unhappy.

Before, when they were in exile, someone provided them with meals. Although the food was not tasty and not enough, at least they did not have to worry about what to do if they had no food to eat every day. But now, they even have difficulty solving the problem of drinking water.

What should I do next?

Because he was so hungry, Chen Shiyi slept very uneasily.

There was a rustling sound in the room, as if there was some movement. Chen Shiyi rubbed his eyes and, with the help of the fire that was not completely extinguished, he looked around the room and found something extremely terrifying.

She hung the unfinished rice balls from last night on the beams to prevent them from being contaminated by ants. Unexpectedly, at this moment, countless mice, gleaming with brilliance, densely crawled all over the beams and ropes. The mice climbed and fell, and many more kept piling up on the ropes, all trying to scramble for the rice balls in the air.

And under the rice ball was the sleeping Miss Wen.

Chen Shiyi looked at the rice ball that was about to fall and shouted loudly.

"Miss, get up quickly."

This shout woke up everyone in the room. Wen Zhirou had misty eyes and didn't know what was going on. Suddenly, a large black mass fell directly on her and then quickly scattered.

Chen Shiyi's legs had already been stretched out and he was too late to stop what was happening.

Wen Zhirou held her head with both hands and screamed madly.

Chen Shiyi hurriedly pulled the crazy Wen Zhirou up and dragged her to find a place to stand.

The fallen mice covered the floor of the house in a dense crowd. In order to compete for those rice balls, the mice piled up layer by layer, forming a mouse mountain.

Everyone in the room turned pale with fright. Rui'er was held in Wen Zhiyuan's arms, crying breathlessly.

"Quick, run out."