These words stunned Jiang Xi, and it took her a while to react: "You two aren't lovers?"
Yan Jing'an lowered his gaze and gave a soft "hmm".
Jiang Xi didn't react for a while. Yan Zheng also turned around and glanced at her. They both understood what the other was looking at. Jiang Xi turned back and asked, "Aren't we childhood sweethearts?"
Yan Jing'an ran his fingertips along the pattern on the teacup. It was a simple sun drawn with a twig, and the artist had even added a smiling face to it. Just looking at it, one could imagine the good mood the artist was in when it was made. He replied, "Besides being a friend, she is also... my manager."
Thinking of this, he felt a little breathless, and his hands, with veins bulging, tugged hard at the collar of his windbreaker.
After a long while, about a minute, three minutes later, Jiang Xi's voice came from the front, indistinct and ethereal, and he suddenly felt that he could catch his breath.
Jiang Xi asked, "Didn't she study archaeology?"
Yan Jing'an watched as her expression gradually darkened. He tried to control the trembling in his throat and replied with an "Mmm," "I studied finance."
Jiang Xi murmured, "That really is different."
Thinking about it carefully, it is indeed surprising. They are from two different worlds, and their life trajectories have diverged so much.
Perhaps it was because both of them died young that these minor discrepancies were not taken into account by the rules.
She felt a lump in her throat, let out a long breath, and looked up at the moon. It was so bright.
Jiang Xi said solemnly, "I've made up my mind. We'll set three days from now as the Mid-Autumn Festival."
"We also want to make mooncakes and prepare a sumptuous family feast."
After she finished speaking, she sprinkled the soaked beans into the earthenware plate, and even covered it with a clean, damp cloth, then covered it with a wooden basket. These bean sprouts were prepared for the Mid-Autumn Festival family feast.
In the days that followed, although the two men didn't say anything about her decision, they could feel the different atmosphere in the cave, and everyone was full of energy for that day.
Meat, vegetables, and fruit were continuously poured into the cave.
Even the firewood was several times more than usual, and another stack of firewood was piled up at the entrance of the cave.
Yan Jing'an not only went to the mountains and forests, but he also walked dozens of kilometers downstream along the direction of the lake.
Now his temper is unusually stable. He just eats, sleeps, and goes out to find food every day. Even Jiang Xi finds him much more agreeable now.
Needless to say, they found fruits and seasonings. Not only did they find fig trees, but they also found a taro-like plant in a body of water. However, there wasn't much of it, and Jiang Xi couldn't bear to eat it.
She buried them on the hillside and covered them with straw. My grandma always did this when she was little, saving taro seeds. They were buried because the soil temperature was high in winter, so the taro wouldn't freeze. They would survive when planted again the following spring. She even marked the locations with stones.
Yan Zheng dug three rabbit traps on the hillside in front of the mountain, and he would put a sweet potato in them almost every day. The rest of the time he would hunt constantly. Sometimes when he went far away, Jiang Xi would go with him to help process some fur and down.
It truly proves Yan Zheng's saying: many hands make light work.
In just five days, the cave, which had seemed quite spacious before, was now completely empty. The wooden shelves on both sides of the walls were filled with freshly smoked pork, dried duck, and salted fish.
Jiang Xizi counted carefully several times: there were twenty-two ribs of cured pork, sixty strips of cured pork, forty cured ducks, twenty-seven dried rabbits, and thirty salted fish.
There aren't many yams and yellow carrots left. The main problem is that the temperature in the cave is high at night, and the yams will sprout after a few days. We can only wait until after the Mid-Autumn Festival to dig a cellar and then dig up more to store.
Having food in hand brings peace of mind, which is her source of security. As a result, her hand speed has increased significantly. In just five days, she not only collected vines but also made two more sets of clothes for the two people who were traveling outside.
Jiang Xi got up very early on the Mid-Autumn Festival.
The purpose was to give Yan Zheng a haircut. His buzz cut, which he had when he arrived, had now grown flat, with the ends reaching his ears.
Jiang Xi took out a dagger that she had sharpened a day in advance. No matter how sharp the dagger was, it was still not as good as the clippers. It could only cut off the hair strand by strand, two or three centimeters away from the root.
When she encountered gray hairs, Jiang Xi's eyes welled up with tears, so she deliberately kept them shorter.
Although the speed was a bit slow, the results were quite good. He had sharp features, and with his hair a little shorter, he looked extremely energetic.
"So handsome."
Jiang Xi gave him a satisfied peck on the lips.
Yan Zheng was not satisfied with this. He was mischievous and deepened the kiss as if to retaliate, wrapping one arm around her waist and pressing her body closer to his.
Yan Zheng's kisses gradually slid to her ear. Jiang Xi wrapped her arms around his neck, her legs went weak, and her head tilted slightly to the side.
Um?
When did Xiao Lu get behind Yan Zheng?
Then, it burrowed its head towards Yan Zheng's back.
At noon, Yan Zheng went out to hunt for fresh ingredients, and Jiang Xi began to prepare dinner. First, she made mooncakes. Jiang Xi planned to make both sweet and savory flavors. The crust was made of yam, the filling of the sweet mooncakes was made with raspberry jam, and the savory mooncakes were made with fresh mushrooms mixed with diced cured meat, and seasoned with wild scallions and Sichuan peppercorn powder.
Because she didn't have white sugar or honey, she tried to choose some pure sweet black and yellow raspberries, thinking that this would reduce the acidity of the plum jam. But she was wrong. She didn't know what chemical reaction happened, but the jam was still sour that people frowned.
Just when she was at her wit's end, Yan Jing'an returned, carrying a basket on his back. Despite the temperature being around ten degrees Celsius outside, he was sweating profusely from running.
Before Jiang Xi could speak, he took out a ceramic plate and placed it on the table, then took out something wrapped in banana leaves from his basket.
Jiang Xi curiously leaned closer and found that it was a few palm-sized pieces of honeycomb, cut very irregularly, but the orange-yellow honey inside could already be seen, some of which had already flowed down the cuts into the plate. Just by looking at it, one could imagine its excessive sweetness.
Jiang Xi's heart tightened, and she subconsciously looked at his face and neck: "How did you take this? And what about your body? Weren't you bitten?"
As she spoke, she circled around him to check for any bite marks.
Seeing her anxious expression, Yan Jing'an suddenly smiled: "It's alright, I smoked them all away. I only took half of the beehive, I can take it again next spring."
Jiang Xi hesitated, feeling a lump in her throat. This person's behavior was too unpredictable; just a few days ago he was fighting and killing, and today he's working so hard.
Suddenly she saw something, tiptoed and pulled open Yan Jing'an's collar at the back of his neck. There was a red and swollen patch above his spine on his back, clearly from a bee sting, and it was swollen to the size of an egg.
Jiang Xi asked, "Don't you feel the weight of such a big bag?"
Her warm breath came from behind him, and Yan Jing'an only then felt the discomfort of his wound. He subconsciously tried to touch it with his hand, but Jiang Xi slapped his hand away as soon as he raised it.
Jiang Xi frowned and said, "Don't touch it with your hands. If you get infected, I'll go find some herbs."
As she was speaking, just as she let go of his hand, Yan Zheng's deep voice came from the doorway: "What are you saying?"
He casually unloaded the basket from his back, stared directly at Yan Jing'an, his brow furrowed, his eyes devoid of emotion.
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