"Sister, wake up, sister, wake up."
Zhou Chenyu heard Baoyu's voice and groggily opened her eyes. The morning sunlight shone directly into the room, making her eyes hurt.
"Hmm? It's already dawn?" She let out a lazy groan, rubbed her sore eyes, and subconsciously touched Yang Xi's forehead.
Last night, she kept changing his wet towels to cool him down, which took up most of the night. Around 4 a.m., she saw that his fever had subsided. Later, she couldn't bear it any longer and fell into a deep sleep on one side of the bed.
"Sister, the food is ready, and I've kept it warm in the pot. It's already light out, so I'll go down the mountain to find someone now." Baoyu took a few steps, then turned back, still worried. "Sister, you and Yang Bantou are here. Make sure to lock the door properly tonight and be careful."
"Okay, I understand. Go and come back soon." Zhou Chenyu washed her face with cold water to clear her mind, followed Baoyu out the door, and watched him walk away.
She returned to the room behind the partition. Yang Xi was still unconscious, but his complexion was much better than yesterday, and his fever had completely subsided.
Baoyu had already prepared the herbs and placed them outside. Zhou Chenyu opened the window, brought in a basin of clean water, replaced the half-dried medicine residue on his wound, applied new medicine, and wiped his body again. After finishing all this, she went out of the main room to have breakfast.
Baoyu made radish omelet for breakfast. The radish must have been soaked not long ago in the morning, as it was dry and hard, and the omelet was burnt.
Zhou Chenyu barely managed to eat two bites before deciding it would be better to catch two fish from the river for lunch. Thinking of this, she suddenly remembered the fishing net she had left in the stream yesterday, which had been soaking in the water all night. She wondered if it was damaged or not.
"Oh no, oh no, I spent over an hour making that fishing net, please don't let me break it." Zhou Chenyu quickly tidied up the table, went into the house to check on the man's injuries, left the soybeans in the yard, and hurriedly ran to the mountain stream.
When they arrived, the fishing net was indeed washed away by the swift current, with only one side held in place by a rock.
She picked it up and looked at it. The fishing net wasn't badly damaged, and there were two palm-sized fish caught in it.
Zhou Chenyu picked up the net with a pained expression, but said with a hint of relief, "It must be because we caught too many fish that were too heavy, and we didn't get them out in time, that's why the net broke."
Fortunately, I left her two fish, so she had lunch and dinner sorted out.
The game they caught yesterday was still locked up. Zhou Chenyu gutted the fish and picked some wild grass along the way.
The deer, pheasants, and rabbits were kept in three adjacent enclosures, having been hungry all day. She threw a handful of tender green grass into each enclosure. Except for the two injured rabbits who were a little slower, the grass was devoured by the others in an instant.
Yang Xi lay unconscious in the house and needed to be checked on every now and then. Zhou Chenyu couldn't go out hunting for long periods of time, so looking at the empty space in the yard that had just been cleared of weeds, she decided to stay in the yard and cultivate the land for vegetables.
She took a small shovel and divided the open space in two, leaving one side as a small vegetable garden and the other side for drying fish and meat.
The roots of the weeds go deep into the ground, and you can't even insert the shovel without using a lot of force.
Zhou Chenyu exerted a great deal of effort, turning over four vegetable plots, until his legs were trembling with exhaustion. Huang Dou, on the other hand, was having a great time, either chasing birds in the woods or digging for crickets in the vegetable plots, looking even happier and freer than in Zhoujia Village.
Zhou Chenyu stared at the grinning soybeans for a while, then shook the dust off her clothes. "It's almost noon, time to go back and cook."
She placed the shovel at the base of the wall, grabbed a handful of rice, rinsed it clean, and put it on the fire to cook.
When the rice is about 70-80% cooked, heat another iron pot, add a small spoonful of oil, and following Li Xiuju's method, first put the fish into the pot and fry it until the surface is golden brown. Then, scoop up a ladle of water to cover the fish slices and add two slices of ginger.
Simply boiling a fish is too monotonous, but there's no soft tofu here, so Zhou Chenyu had to fry an egg and put it in to boil along with the wild scallions.
After simmering for only a short while, the clear broth slowly turned into a delicious milky white, and the aroma of fresh soup wafted out.
"It smells so good!"
Zhou Chenyu had only managed to eat a few bites of food in the morning. After a busy morning, the aroma of the fish soup and the golden-brown, tender fish meat made her stomach rumble with hunger.
"Soybean, I feel like I can finish all the food here."
Zhou Chenyu muttered to herself as she lifted the lid of the rice cooker, preparing to scoop out a bowl of rice with a rice scoop, when she heard a low, painful, hoarse sound coming from the other side of the partition.
He's awake?!
Zhou Chenyu was overjoyed. He put the lid back on and hurried to the room inside the partition.
Yang Xi clutched the wound on the left side of his shoulder, sat up against the wall, looked around the room, and looked down at the clothes he was wearing.
Zhou Chenyu leaned against the door, peeking out with half her head, and asked softly, "Yang Xi, are you awake?"
Yang Xi looked up at the sound and saw Zhou Chenyu's face. He then covered himself with the blankets.
Yesterday's events slowly surfaced in his mind, and he frowned. "You saved me?"
Zhou Chenyu stared at his movements. In her impression, many men with abs would be like a teddy bear seeking a mate, going out shirtless with oil and grease that could be wrung out half a bucket.
The man in front of her was completely covered up. Oh well, she'd already seen everything she needed to see last night anyway.
There aren't many men this rare anymore.
Zhou Chenyu smiled slyly, walked slowly to the bedside, and nodded: "Yes."
Yang Xi glanced at his clothes and looked at Zhou Chenyu, "Is Baoyu here as well?"
"He's not here. He happened to be transporting game out of the mountains the day before yesterday. It's just me and our dog here." Zhou Chenyu said, shaking his head. Seeing the doubtful look in his eyes, he added seriously, "To be honest, when I rescued you from the water, your clothes were soaked and you were covered in injuries. I had no choice but to change your clothes. Chief Yang, you won't blame me, will you?"
Zhou Chenyu teased him with an innocent look, watching his reaction, but did not receive the usual scolding.
Yang Xi covered the wound on his shoulder, the flushed blood spreading from his ear to his neck. "Thank you for saving my life."
Zhou Chenyu suppressed a laugh and tried to maintain a calm expression, but then she saw Yang Xi look around, realize something, and suddenly get up to get out of bed.
She immediately broke down, "Hey, hey, Yang Xi, you're still injured. Why aren't you in bed? Where are you going?"
Yang Xi looked at Zhou Chenyu anxiously, "Have you seen my sword?"
A sword?
Zhou Chenyu shook her head blankly, "No."
"Where did you rescue me yesterday?!" Yang Xi looked at Zhou Chenyu, his bloodshot eyes losing their former sharpness and indifference, looking extremely anxious. Coupled with his pale and weak expression, he was somewhat pitiful. "That knife is extremely important to me. Yang Xi begs Miss Zhou to tell me."
Zhou Chenyu hesitated for two seconds, looking at him, "You're injured like this, what difference would it make if I told you?"
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