Just as Yan Zheng said, Yan Jing'an's personality is different from others. Apart from himself and Yan Zheng, he probably only feels wary and cautious towards others.
She didn't believe that letting Lin move in was out of Yan Jing'an's sympathy.
Yan Zheng lowered his head and said softly, "Let him live under our noses. We can detect his every move and know whether he's genuine or just pretending."
Then he said seriously, "If he rejects you, you should be more careful."
Jiang Xi knew what they meant. A child struggling to survive alone in the deep mountains had no reason to refuse such an enticing offer.
By simply moving here, Lin can have a safe haven and the support of others like her.
At first, she thought the arrangement was quite good, but after thinking about it carefully, she felt that something was wrong.
If Lin were a boy, she would indeed have no reason to refuse.
But Lin happens to be a girl, and she's also very afraid of Yan Zheng and Yan Jing'an. Jiang Xi has a feeling that Lin probably won't be willing to move in.
Of course, she couldn't tell Yan Zheng these things; they were a little secret between her and Lin.
It took Jiang Xi a while to say, "I can try asking her."
If Lin comes again.
After all, it wasn't a bad thing. If Lin really was willing to live in the village, for some reason, she suddenly felt relieved.
Yan Zheng saw that she had been thinking for a while and realized that she had taken his words to heart, so he didn't bring it up again.
He brushed aside the stray hairs that were falling around Jiang Xi's ears and looked at her calm face.
I've lost weight.
Her long, black hair accentuated her small, delicate face.
Jiang Xi blushed when she saw him staring at her, and suddenly didn't know where to put her hands.
She murmured, "Is it pretty?"
Yan Zheng suddenly felt a pang of sadness. He pulled Jiang Xi into his arms, feeling an indescribable bitterness in his heart. With one thing after another happening, he felt that he hadn't taken good care of her.
Touching the top of her head, he thought: I'll catch a fish for her tomorrow to nourish her.
The next day, since the two men were going out to find a new road leading to the lake, Jiang Xi made a sweet potato and pepper biscuit for them to take with them while they were tidying up after their daily exercise.
She originally wanted to go too, but the mother rabbit at home was getting bigger and bigger, and the road conditions were more complicated this time, so the fawn had to stay at home.
And then there's Little Black; she really can't bear to leave these little creatures behind.
After packing the main dishes, she prepared to pack some fruit for them. The green fruit that Lin had brought yesterday looked a bit like a pear, with a greenish-blue peel.
Jiang Xi tried to break it open to taste one, but couldn't. Yan Jing'an, who was standing next to her, took it and opened it with a gentle push.
She thought: I'm so jealous of men's strength.
Yan Jing'an handed the fruit to her, and Jiang Xi then realized that the fruit actually had pulp inside, not a pit.
Seeing that she didn't recognize it, Yan Jing'an said, "This is also a kind of melon, it grows on the ground, but it's not ripe yet, so it might taste a bit sour."
He was much more restrained in his speech today, and not as nonchalant as before.
Jiang Xi had already stopped being angry before going to bed last night, and this morning she even made soy milk with honey for Yan Jing'an.
That's how it is between friends; they might argue, get angry, or bicker occasionally, but they all know the other person means well.
Jiang Xi tried taking a bite of the green fruit. It was juicy, but not as crisp as he had imagined. The flesh was a bit soft, and as he had said, it wasn't very sweet and was quite sour.
Knowing that Yan Zheng liked sour food, I packed two for them.
After seeing them off, Jiang Xi watered the vines drying in the yard again.
Then I wandered around the village, mainly feeding the little guys.
The mother rabbit's belly grew bigger and bigger, and Jiang Xi sometimes felt a little heavy looking at it, while also feeling a faint sense of anticipation.
How many will they have?
Seven or eight would be best; she can keep them all alive.
To make it easier for her to give birth, Jiang Xi even went to the edge of the forest to find some dry, fluffy grass for the mother rabbit to use for making a nest.
Surprisingly, it quite liked it. Jiang Xi lay on the wall, watching it carry clumps of grass into the shed.
Then Jiang Xi fed the ewe and the fawn. She also squeezed a bowl of goat milk for Xiao Hei.
The ewe's milk production has been decreasing lately, and she remembered her grandmother saying that lambs only drink milk for three months.
Jiang Xi calculated the days and realized that in another half month, Xiao Hei would run out of milk.
It's time for Yan Zheng to take it out more often; raising a leopard is not like raising a small dog.
Dogs can barely survive by eating some vegetables with humans. Leopards, on the other hand, are carnivores by nature. If they want to survive, they will have to go hunting with Yan Zheng.
Thinking this, Jiang Xi patted Xiao Hei's head.
He earnestly instructed it: "You must learn skills from your master. Only then can you support yourself."
Little Black, who was drinking milk with all his might, seemed to understand, but he kept gulping it down, drinking with increasing gusto.
After everything in the courtyard was tidied up, Jiang Xi sat on the stone bench under the fig tree and started crocheting clothes. She used to use fish bones, but recently she had Yan Zheng make her a few wooden crochet hooks.
That makes things much more convenient.
Nevertheless, summer clothes are still quite unbearable.
Winter clothes crocheted with thicker yarn are actually thicker and quicker to make; she can make a winter sweater in four or five days.
Summer clothes need to be made of thinner materials. Therefore, the yarn needs to be extra fine, and the crocheting process is slower. It takes about ten days to make a short-sleeved shirt from the point where the fibers are twisted into rope to the point where it is crocheted into a garment.
This was completed with Yan Zheng and Yan Jing'an sharing some of the rope-making work.
So Jiang Xi is actually much busier than before, and she spends most of her free time in the evenings on this.
She would hook the fabric around her clothes, and every now and then she would stand up and look out over the wall.
It's as if they're waiting for someone to come.
Later, she simply opened the courtyard gate and moved a stone stool to sit at the gate.
By mid-afternoon, the person still hadn't arrived, and Jiang Xi was getting restless, while also starting to worry about Yan Zheng and the others.
The waterfall isn't that far away; they should be back by now.
**
On the other side, Yan Zheng, with a swollen lump on his foot, walked forward without saying a word, his face gloomy and his aura extremely low.
Yan Jing'an followed behind, looking dejected.
The more Yan Zheng thought about it, the angrier he became.
The two had agreed that they would go back after finding a path leading down to the lake at the bottom of the cliff, so that Jiang Xi wouldn't worry.
On their way back, the two had just detoured to the cliff when they passed a grove of trees in a hollow leading to the fields. They heard the sound of bees, greeted them, and pulled the rope into the grove.
By the time Yan Zheng realized something was wrong with the voice, it was too late.
His scalp tingled; that wasn't a bee at all, it was much bigger than a bee.
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