Yan Jing'an really didn't want to get involved anymore. He tightened the rope tied to the pillar and then returned to the main house.
Jiang Xi quickly sat up and asked, "How is it?"
Yan Jing'an picked up the water bottle on the table and gulped down a cup, saying, "He said his surname was Lin, but when asked where he was from, he said the sky, an airplane."
"That bear was indeed with him. I asked him if he was going to kill us, and he said no."
"I asked him again if he wanted to use us to kill that wild bear."
He got stuck at this point.
The other two looked at him, waiting for him to continue.
Yan Jing'an scratched his head, his agitation lessening slightly: "Then he broke down and cried."
He coughed lightly: "He's not very good at talking, and you can't get any results even after asking him for a long time."
Yan Zheng and Jiang Xi exchanged a glance.
Yan Zheng asked, "Did he say what his purpose was today?"
Yan Jing'an chuckled: "He said he was hungry."
Yan Jing'an felt speechless whenever the topic came up.
After a lot of effort, we finally caught it, only to find out it was a human, and a child at that. We couldn't kill it, and when we tried to, it cried.
Thinking of this, he waved his hand with a headache: "You guys handle it, I don't care anymore."
Anyway, I've vented all my anger.
Jiang Xi was surprised by this outcome and asked Yan Zheng, "So what do we do now?"
Yan Zheng also pinched the bridge of his nose: "We can't just let him go. What if he has accomplices? We'll have no leverage at all, and we'll be in a very passive position."
After thinking for two seconds, he finally said, "Never mind, let's give him some food first, lock him up for two days and observe his reaction. Also, keep an eye on the surroundings and see if anyone comes to rescue him."
Jiang Xi thought about it and had no choice but to do so. Remembering what Yan Jing'an had just said, she went to the kitchen and got two steamed sweet potatoes. Yan Zheng followed, and the two of them took them to the deer shed.
However, the man kept his head down and huddled in the corner, even flinching when they came in.
He was clearly taken aback when he saw the sweet potato that Jiang Xi handed him.
I was still a little hesitant to answer, and I didn't look her in the eye like I had before.
As Jiang Xi approached and saw the blood streaming down his forehead, her heart skipped a beat. She pushed the sweet potato forward a little further and whispered, "Eat it."
The man glanced at the sweet potato she brought him, quickly took it with both hands, and wolfed it down from the wooden post, not even bothering to peel it.
His wrists were exceptionally thin; Jiang Xi thought they were truly skin and bones. His hands were covered in black mud and ash, making his thinness even more frightening.
As he ate, his already bloodshot eyes became even redder, and tears even streamed down his face. The tears, blood, and mud mixed together, making his face a pitiful sight.
Jiang Xi saw the injury on his forehead, sighed, and asked Yan Zheng to go to the kitchen to pour a glass of cold water.
Soon the man finished drinking it all.
After seeing that he had finished eating, Jiang Xi raised her voice and said, "You once commanded that bear to hurt two of my companions. Today, the wound on your forehead is considered even."
“Giving you food and water is not to forgive you, but simply out of kindness. The whole world is currently suffering from snow disasters, and we are both human beings. We do not want to make enemies of you, nor do we want to hurt you.”
Seeing that he was listening, Jiang Xi continued, "Stay here for a few days. If nothing unusual happens during these days, we will let you leave."
They are not saints.
But the person in front of them was just a child. What could they do? Could they cripple him like Yan Zheng did?
Which of the three of them can do it?
No one could bring themselves to do it.
After saying that, Jiang Xi took Yan Zheng's hand and prepared to leave the shed.
Before they even left the shed, they heard the person behind them suddenly speak. She always spoke unclearly, and it took her a while to utter two words: "Liar...me."
Hearing this, Jiang Xi turned to look at him and asked, "What did I lie to you about? As long as you behave, I'll let you go."
However, the focus of the content didn't seem to be on the last sentence. The person opened his mouth for a long time before finally saying, "Snow...disaster."
Then, gritting his teeth, he said, "You lied to me."
Jiang Xi remained expressionless as she observed his reaction. She wondered to herself, "Doesn't he know about the global catastrophe?"
Jiang Xi said, word by word, "I don't know who you are or where you come from. But I can tell you definitively that a global snow disaster occurred five years ago."
He remembered Yan Jing'an saying that this was already the fifth year since the disaster.
She added, "Many people have died, and it's freezing cold outside. Perhaps this forest we're in now is the last oasis in the world."
Jiang Xi wasn't sure if he could understand her, so she spoke very slowly.
But as soon as she finished speaking, she saw the man go crazy, using both his hands and feet to pull on the rope tied to the wooden stake.
His face, covered in mud and bloodstains, grew increasingly frantic as he cried. He struggled and muttered, "Snow disaster... you lied to me... you lied."
Yan Zheng quickly shielded the frightened Jiang Xi behind him.
Yan Jing'an, who was in the main house, came out when he heard the commotion: "What's going on?"
Startled, Jiang Xi regained her senses and, after finding her voice, said, "He doesn't seem to be able to accept the snow disaster."
Yan Jing'an waved his hand, glanced into the shed, and then moved a wooden stool to sit in the yard.
"You two go about your business, I'll keep an eye on things."
Jiang Xi glanced at Yan Zheng, and seeing him nod, she felt relieved and went into the kitchen.
She was making braised rabbit for dinner, but she was still a little unsettled because of what had just happened.
Yan Zheng, who was tending the fire, noticed this and got up to take the wooden spatula from her hand: "You tend the fire, I'll stir-fry with my right hand."
Jiang Xi wanted to say no, but after opening her mouth, she couldn't say anything. So she obediently handed him the shovel and went to start the fire herself.
Holding the shovel, Yan Zheng said, "I know what you're thinking."
Jiang Xi paused in her work of adding firewood: "I'm just a little worried."
The child's arrival disrupted their peaceful life. She was indeed worried, worried that he wasn't alone, and that there might be other members of his clan behind him.
How should they respond then?
The rabbit meat in the pot changed color from being stir-fried. Yan Zheng picked up a clean sweet potato, cut it into chunks, and threw it into the pot.
Amidst the rising steam, he said, "At first I was worried that he might be from a tribe or ethnic group, but this child clearly has language degeneration."
"This situation is mostly caused by a lack of communication for a long time, three to five years without normal language exchange. Gradually, the ability to listen and read will be lost. Is locking it up because we're afraid of other humans, or because we're afraid of other wild bears?"
When Jiang Xi brought the food back to the main house, she glanced at the person and saw that he had calmed down, but he was still huddled in the corner, having lost all the energy he had just exerted.
His small body was crouching in the corner, and his expression couldn't be seen, but for some reason, it made Jiang Xi feel a pang of sadness.
She knew she was easily swayed by emotions, but thinking of Yan Zheng and Yan Jing'an's injuries, her heart inexplicably hardened.
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