Chapter 004
The three of them walked into the temple together and returned to the only room where they could rest.
The room was divided into two parts, with a fire pit near the door. A pot hung on a thick iron hook extending from the top of the beam, and the fire pit was 20 to 30 centimeters below the bottom of the pot.
Qingxi took Airi to familiarize herself with the stove, which seemed very simple to her, and finally began to cook the first meal she was sent to this world by the food system.
Actually, it can't be called a dish. She just took out half a pound of rice, washed it, and poured it into the pot with water to boil. When the porridge became thick, she cut the clean vegetables into small pieces and added them in. She took out four eggs, beat them, poured them into the pot and stirred them gently clockwise for a few times. Finally, she crushed the dehydrated bacon leaves into pieces and scattered them into the porridge. She added a little salt and the flavored mushroom powder in her food backpack, and the dish was done.
"Ashi, can we eat now?"
It was the first time for them to indulge in such thick vegetable porridge with four eggs added. The four of them, including Sayaka, gathered around the fire pit.
Xiang swallowed and asked anxiously.
Qingxi nodded, "Okay, go get the dishes."
As soon as she finished speaking, Yang Tai ran ahead of the others to get the bowls and chopsticks for everyone. In addition, considering that Beiming Island Xingming was still injured, he specially changed his chopsticks to a wooden spoon.
Qingxi took the bowl handed to her by Airi, and with the big spoon in her right hand, she scooped a full spoonful of liquid from the pot and poured it into the bowl. Seeing that the bowl was only two-thirds full, she added another half spoonful.
Airi carefully took the bowl full of porridge. After Yangtai put the spoon into the bowl, she carefully carried the bowl to Beimingyu Xingming first.
"Teacher, it's time to eat." Airi handed the bowl to the young man's outstretched hands, and before finishing, she reminded him, "Be careful, Aki's is a little full."
Beimingyu Xingming paused after taking the wooden bowl. Just as he opened his mouth to say something, the unfamiliar girl's voice rang out, "I cooked a lot. If you need more after you finish eating, Mr. Beimingyu, please let us know."
The soft and tender voice that only children can make is surprisingly reassuring.
But when I thought about how the other person used those little hands to bandage my body last night, and that he was just a child not much older than Yangta and the others.
No, maybe she is even younger than Youta and Xiang.
Beimingyu Xingming had complicated thoughts in his mind, but his other free hand had already taken the spoon, scooped up a spoonful of porridge and slowly started to eat it.
Airi returned to her friends, picked up the porridge that Qingxi had left for her, and ate it while blowing on it.
Airi was happily drinking her porridge when she suddenly stopped eating with a look of dejection on her face, "If... if everyone was still alive, how great it would be.
The porridge made by Axi is really delicious.
If only, if everyone could eat it, how great it would be.”
As if someone had pressed the pause button, the originally warm atmosphere suddenly became silent, with only the crackling sound of the unburned charcoal in the fire pit.
"Cheer up." Yota's grip on the wooden bowl tightened a little, and suddenly, he said loudly, "We must survive well, including Shunichi, Ahe, Keita, and Kana."
He changed the subject, his teeth grinding loudly, "Also, their vengeance, the betrayer of everyone, Xiao Yue, will not be let off."
"Speaking of this, there's something you might need to know." Qingxi interrupted Yangtai's grinding of teeth, "When I was recording my statement at the police station, I also asked who reported the case.
After all, the temple is in the mountains and few people come here on weekdays. How did the police know that a murder had occurred here in the first place?
The police officer told me that a boy, about seven or eight years old, came to report the case with a teardrop-shaped stone around his neck.
"It's Xian Yue, that bastard!" Yang was so angry that he almost spilled the porridge in his hand on the floor. Fortunately, he reacted immediately and avoided waste.
Xiang and Airi were so angry that their faces turned red. They swore and shouted that they would find him, catch him, make him kneel in front of the graves of his dead companions and repent, and if he was unwilling, they would send him to prison.
Qingxi looked at the three people here for a while, and his blue eyes couldn't help but look at the only injured person present who suddenly became silent.
Being betrayed again and again by the children he raised, the young man must be feeling the most miserable at this moment.
After venting his anger, Yang Tai thought of something and asked Qing Xi: "Axi, why didn't you tell the police about our encounter with a ghost?"
Qingxi lowered his head and drank his porridge: "After the ghost died, the body also disappeared. We have no evidence to prove it. If we don't tell the police, they will think it was a lie we made up to avoid responsibility.
So, to avoid further trouble, I fabricated a large group of kidnappers to draw their attention to them."
She had already thought about the follow-up. In this era when technology has not yet been fully developed and information has not been circulated conveniently, it is not normal for the police to not be able to find a group of roving kidnappers.
Of course, if by coincidence they really caught a group of them at this time, she wouldn't be afraid if they asked her to go over and identify them. She would just bite them to death and be done with it.
Those people have captured so many children, how could they possibly remember all of them?
"It's okay." Qingxi comforted Yangtai, who was still worried about the truth being revealed, and then she changed the subject, "Mr. Beimingyu, have you finished your porridge? If you have, I'll give you another bowl."
"No, I'm full." Beimingyu Xingming, who didn't know how the topic turned to himself, was stunned for a moment before he remembered to respond.
But, it was obvious that his answer was too late.
Because Xiang, who had already finished a bowl of porridge, ran to his side, grinned and took his bowl away. When he came over again and stuffed the bowl back into his hand, the full weight in his hand, the same as before, told him that he was given another bowl of porridge.
No matter how good a child's appetite is or how much he can eat, he will be almost full after eating a big bowl of porridge. If he doesn't have any more, he can only eat half a bowl of porridge at most.
Qingxi finished her lunch with a bowl of porridge. There was still some soup base left, which was shared by the two boys, Yangta and Xiang.
"It's delicious." The four full people lay straight on the floor, hugging their bulging stomachs with a look of satisfaction on their faces.
Qingxi took the empty bowl from Beimingyu Xingming's hand and prepared to clean up and wash them all, but Ai Li took all the bowls and chopsticks from her hands.
"Aki, you've worked hard today. Leave the washing of pots and dishes to us." Airi said seriously.
Qingxi didn't refuse, "In that case, I'll go out for a walk."
"Axi, are you leaving?" Xiang asked nervously.
Qingxi shook his head and said bluntly, "I have nowhere to go. If possible, please let me stay."
"Ah, that's great." Xiang clapped his hands happily. However, he couldn't make the decision on this matter, so he turned and ran to the side of Beiming Island Xingming, "Teacher, is it okay? Let's let Axi stay and live with us."
Beiming Island Xingming did not answer immediately, but asked instead: "Where are your family members?"
Qingxi said: "They are not in this world. I am an orphan."
There was nothing wrong with what she said. No matter whether it was her original world or the world where she was taken to "Gourmet Prisoners" by the food system and then to the current Taisho, well, it's not Taisho yet. The exact time when she came to the present should be the late Meiji period. She was an orphan. She lived in an orphanage when she was young, and moved out of the orphanage by herself when she was capable.
But to Xingming, Yangtai and the other three people on Beiming Island, it seemed that her relatives had died and were no longer in this world.
Beimingyu Xingming spoke again, "If you have nowhere to go, then stay here."
"Thank you." Qingxi bowed in his direction, then walked to the backpack she was carrying, took out the things she had bought today and put them on the floor, then went to the utility room next door, took off her clothes and changed into the kimono that ordinary girls wore at that time.
Ai Li looked at Qing Xi who came out after changing clothes, picked up the hoe and put on the backpack as if she was going out. She stopped her and said, "Aki, you haven't told me where you are going yet."
Airi was very uneasy after losing four companions at once last night. Now seeing Qingxi looking like she was about to leave, she couldn't help but not want her to leave.
Qingxi clapped his hands soothingly and said, "I'll just walk around in the mountains. It's autumn now, and there should be ripe fruits and food in the mountains."
Ai Li understood, but she still warned, "Ah Xi, you have to be careful too. There are many snakes and ants in the mountains. Also, you have to come back before the sun sets. If you encounter a man-eating evil spirit, it will be dangerous."
"I understand. I will be back before the sun sets. Besides, maybe I can't find something and come back soon." After Qingxi's repeated assurances, Airi finally let her go.
Qingxi walked out of the temple and went into the mountains along the same path he took last night based on his memory.
There are many places in the mountains where the sunlight is blocked by the crowns of large trees, and it is easy for ghosts to hide. In order to save her life, she even sprayed fragrant wisteria perfume on her body.
Walking all the way to the place where she was taken by the gourmet system yesterday, she remembered that she had seen a wild chestnut tree and wild yam in that area.
When she was penniless and could hardly take out the things in her gourmet backpack, these things became her best food.
"Found it." Standing under the wild chestnut tree, Qingxi looked up at the tree, then looked at the prickly shell that had fallen to the ground and had automatically cracked to reveal the dark brown fruit inside.
She took out more than twenty small food-carrying ants from her food backpack.
The Food Transporting Ant is a mechanical ant developed by the IGO Food Research Group to help farmers easily pick and collect food weighing no more than 2,000 kilograms. It costs 100,000 yuan each and was bought by Qingxi when her food cells had not yet awakened. It is used to transport low-level food for her in the wild. Of course, because they have no level, no high-level beasts will be interested in them.
Leaving these delicacies and the ants carrying them up the tree to help him pick chestnuts, Qingxi went to the place where wild yams grew.
The gourmet digging mole cricket is similar to the gourmet carrying ant and is also produced by IGO. However, it helps farmers dig soil and costs 130,000 yuan each.
Putting two small machines there to prepare food for himself, Qingxi went a little deeper and found another wild persimmon tree.
After sighing that the mountains were full of treasures in autumn, she went back to the wild chestnut tree and separated ten of the gourmet-carrying ants that were picking wild chestnuts from the tree, and asked them to pick persimmons.
With these three things, Qingxi no longer went to other places to look for food. She was under the wild chestnut tree, using both feet to carry the wild chestnuts he had picked.
She didn't pick up the wild chestnuts that were stepped on, because the food-carrying ants would automatically carry them to the basket she brought on her back later.
The sun gradually set, and the light in the dense forest where Qingxi was standing gradually dimmed. Worried about worrying the people in the temple, she put the unprocessed wild chestnuts into her food backpack. She added a few wild yams and persimmons to the half-filled basket of wild chestnuts and put the rest back into the food backpack.
As for the deep pit dug by the gourmet mole cricket, Qingxi did not fill it up. She simply made a trap and threw some bait into it. She waited to see if there would be any wild game falling into it tomorrow.
Carrying a heavy small backpack on her back, Qingxi returned the same way. When she returned to the temple, the sun had just set and Airi and Sayaka were waiting for her in the yard.
"Aki, you took so long to come back. I was so worried about you." Airi pulled Sayaka over and surrounded Kiyoki.
"Sorry, sorry, I found a wild chestnut tree in the mountains and picked a lot without realizing it. Oh, and I also found a patch of wild yam and wild persimmon trees. I'll bring them all back little by little in the next few days."
"Oh, really? That's really lucky." Airi's eyes sparkled when she heard there would be so much food at home. "I'll go with you tomorrow. If we're two, we can go much faster."
Qingxi shook his head decisively. If I let you go, my side will be exposed.
She said, "Mr. Beimingyu still needs Airi's care, and Sayo can't be left unattended."
Airi frowned, "If I can't go, then let Youta and Shou help you."
Qingxi shook his head again: "There are still some of these in the mountains, and I can still harvest them. So, I think we can keep these wild yams and persimmons for ourselves, and let Yangtai and Xiang carry the rest to the town tomorrow to sell them for some money.
There are plenty of wild animals in the mountains in autumn, so if we work harder, we can have a better time in winter."
Airi hesitated a little. Qingxi was right, but she was really worried about letting her go into the mountains alone.
Seeing this, Qingxi continued, "This is only temporary. When Mr. Beimingyu is well again, if you still want to accompany me into the mountains, then we will go together."
Airi thought about it and nodded. "It's settled."
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