His hand was pulled up, a dark shadow—
An Xiao immediately swung his other hand out, slapping it over the Handsome Guy's face and shoving him back, exasperated: "I'm talking to you, [don't move]!"
The Handsome Guy instantly drooped, visibly disappointed.
An Xiao almost laughed, but thinking of the consequences, quickly flattened his lips and turned around to get to work.
He shook the cleaned bamboo shoots as dry as possible, bundled them up in his clothes, and said, "Going home."
The Handsome Guy looked at him.
An Xiao pointed in the direction of their home.
The Handsome Guy understood, scooped him up in one motion, and sprinted down the mountain.
An Xiao: "…"
Fine.
He needed to hurry up and get to work anyway.
It had taken an hour to climb up the mountain, but only a few breaths to descend.
Impressive.
An Xiao marveled briefly, then let it go, carrying the bamboo shoots into the kitchen—
Oh right, the cleaver!
He immediately turned his head—"*—cough, cough—"
Startled by the big man standing right behind him, he nearly choked on his own saliva.
The Handsome Guy was also startled and immediately reached out to hold him.
An Xiao swatted his claws away and asked, "Where can I buy a cleaver?"
He mimed cutting with the bamboo shoot, then pointed at the small knife tucked into the other man's lower back.
The Handsome Guy handed him the small knife.
An Xiao frowned and waved it off: "This is for your wood carving—"
Forget it.
He picked up the small knife left in the kitchen and said, "[I, this.]"
The Handsome Guy nodded.
An Xiao didn't rush to process the bamboo shoots. Instead, he pushed him outside, pointed at the cliff top, and said, "[Water.]"
Then he trotted over to the railing at the cliff's edge, pointed at the ground, and said, "[Water, here.]"
Then pointed beyond the cliff, "[Out there.]"
The Handsome Guy nodded, looked left and right, hesitated for a moment, then turned and walked out.
An Xiao instinctively followed a few steps.
The Handsome Guy turned back: "[Don't follow, ***.]"
An Xiao stopped.
The Handsome Guy confirmed he wasn't coming, turned, and ran off, vanishing into the small woods in the blink of an eye.
…What's he going to do?
An Xiao watched for a while, confirmed the Handsome Guy wouldn't be back anytime soon, and turned back into the kitchen.
He struggled to slice the bamboo shoots with the palm-length slender knife, then blanched them in boiling water—good grief, there was no strainer.
An Xiao sighed helplessly, put out the fire, and used chopsticks to fish out the bamboo shoot slices bit by bit.
These bamboo shoots were for lunch, so no need to dry them—just set them aside for later.
Then he turned his attention to the beast carcass hanging on the wooden rack.
He didn't know the climate here, but the temperature felt very spring-like—meat would spoil within two days. He wanted to preserve some meat just in case.
To store meat, you either salt it heavily or dehydrate it.
There wasn't much salt at home, and he didn't know if salt was expensive in this world, so he didn't plan on salting.
Instead, he decided to smoke it.
No sooner thought than done.
The prey had only one piece cut off, its body intact and massive, weighing over a hundred jin.
An Xiao couldn't be bothered to move it, planning to smoke it right under the wooden rack.
But first, he needed to set aside the portion for lunch.
Given the Handsome Guy's appetite, at least two thighs were needed.
An Xiao tried to cut with the dagger. The skinned meat was tender and parted easily.
But the joints… those were truly troublesome.
The dagger was too small, and the carcass hung mid-air with no leverage. He stabbed and chopped with the dagger for ages without getting it off—and in the process, he chipped the blade.
Chipped the blade!
But the Handsome Guy had cut through it so easily…
An Xiao fumed. It definitely wasn't his fault—the Handsome Guy was just freakishly strong!
He faced the two thighs dangling in mid-air, connected only by bone, and prepared to wrench them off by hand—
His hand was caught.
An Xiao turned around in surprise. "You're back!"
The Handsome Guy, carrying a large bundle of things on his back, was frowning at him.
An Xiao raised the knife to explain first: "I wanted to cut meat, but I broke the knife."
The Handsome Guy took the knife, looked at it, then looked at the meat that had been chopped into a mess, his expression strange.
An Xiao: "…If you want to laugh, just laugh."
Unfortunately, the Handsome Guy couldn't understand him.
He set down his things, picked out a cleaver from among them, and with one chop each, sliced straight through the bones of the two animal legs.
An Xiao: "…"
Hurt pride.
The Handsome Guy held up the two thighs and looked at him.
An Xiao pointed toward the kitchen. "[Put them in there.]"
The Handsome Guy nodded and turned to go put the legs away.
Only then did An Xiao crouch down to look through what the Handsome Guy had brought back.
A hoe, a shovel, a cleaver, a sickle, a hammer, an axe… even an iron pot.
They weren't new—all covered in rust, as if they'd been sitting for a long time.
An Xiao looked at the Handsome Guy coming out of the kitchen and asked, "[These…?]"
The Handsome Guy: "[My **'s.]"
An Xiao: "?"
The Handsome Guy scratched his head.
An Xiao pushed aside the rubble. "[Draw.]"
No task was more urgent than language—it was the top priority!
The Handsome Guy: "…"
Then, imitating the stick figures An Xiao had drawn before, he clumsily drew two stick figures, one tall and one short—ignoring the unevenly thick and thin arms and legs.
After drawing them, he erased the short one and drew a curved arc in the belly area.
An Xiao guessed this was a pregnant woman.
Then the Handsome Guy drew another tall and short stick figure pair beside it. This time, the short one didn't have a big belly, but there was an even shorter stick figure in the middle.
Then he pointed at the middle one, then at himself.
An Xiao understood: "[This is you.]"
The Handsome Guy nodded, pointed at the short one: "[This is **,]" then at the tall one: "[This is **.]"
An Xiao understood, matching them respectively: "[Father, mother.]"
But was that the written form or the spoken form?
The Handsome Guy nodded, then pointed at the pile of tools: "[Father mother's.]"
An Xiao was surprised. He looked at the pile of rusty iron tools and asked, "[Don't use?]"
He didn't know the word "they."
Fortunately, the Handsome Guy understood and said, "[They don't use.]"
He paused, then added, "[They **.]"
An Xiao was confused. Moved away? Discarded? Or what?
The Handsome Guy thought for a moment, wiped away the drawing on the ground, and drew two small mounds of earth, repeating: "[They **.]"
An Xiao: "!"
Dead?
So the iron tools were left unused?
That didn't make sense.
The Handsome Guy had taken less than an hour to go get these things, which meant the distance wasn't far. Why didn't he live at his parents' house instead of moving to this cliff with nothing on it?
He tried to figure it out with gestures and drawings.
But the question was too complex. The Handsome Guy stared for a long time without understanding. An Xiao had no choice but to give up.
The large pile of tools was very practical.
An Xiao immediately directed the Handsome Guy to go cut some non-toxic fresh branches, preferably ones with a pleasant scent.
The ever-obedient Handsome Guy ran out and, moments later, dragged back two trees.
Two trees.
Trunks a foot in diameter, over ten meters tall.
An Xiao: "…"
Get used to it.
The Handsome Guy swiftly chopped all the branches off, piled them beside the wooden rack where the meat hung as instructed, then tossed the two trunks onto the lumber pile.
Then he picked up the hoe and shovel and headed toward the cliff edge.
An Xiao piled wood shavings and lit a fire while keeping half an eye on him.
The Handsome Guy turned a couple of circles at the corner of the platform, glanced up at the cliff a few times, then set down his shovel and began to dig.
With each strike of the hoe, there was a "crack" sound.
It wasn't loud—in fact, it sounded muffled.
But An Xiao could tell it was the sound of stone breaking.
Forgetting the smoked meat, he rushed over to see what was happening.
In just a few strokes, the Handsome Guy had dug a large pit in the gravelly ground, piling the excavated rocks at the edge.
—They really were stones.
Complete blocks, each about the size of a soccer ball, with jagged, uneven edges—they were unmistakably hard granite.
An Xiao looked again at the Handsome Guy swinging the hoe.
One strike, one block. With a series of cracks, he dug a pit over a foot deep, and the exposed ground beneath was also solid granite with the same pattern—one continuous piece.
An Xiao pressed a hand to his forehead.
This strength… was really hard to get used to.
Walking back to the meat rack in a daze, An Xiao decided to focus on himself—the smoked meat.
Fresh branches were lit, sending up billowing smoke that drew several glances from the Handsome Guy.
An Xiao waved to signal that everything was fine, confirmed the flames were burning steadily, then took a turn around the area, picked up a relatively smooth stone, went back into the kitchen to fill a bowl with water, stacked a few wooden boards as a stool, and began—
Sharpening the kitchen knife.
The stone was an ordinary mountain rock, roughly oval in shape, and it worked well enough for sharpening.
The kitchen knife seemed to have gone unused for years, rusted beyond recognition.
Fortunately, it hadn't rusted all the way through—with a bit of sharpening, it could still be used.
An Xiao sharpened the knife while keeping an eye on the campfire, adding branches whenever they burned down, and also stealing glances at the Handsome Guy digging the pit.
The Handsome Guy worked quickly. A knee-deep pit was done in no time, about a meter in diameter, matching what An Xiao had gestured.
After finishing the pit, the Handsome Guy began digging a long, narrow trench outward, all the way to the railing.
Then he grabbed the railing, preparing to climb over and dig outside, which startled An Xiao into shouting.
The Handsome Guy turned back, looking confused.
An Xiao dropped the knife and ran over, paused, then ran back, shouting over his shoulder, "Don't move!"
The Handsome Guy obediently waited, holding the railing.
An Xiao quickly returned with vines and began wrapping them around him.
He wound them around his waist, crossed them, then wrapped them around his upper thighs.
The Handsome Guy seemed uncomfortable and shifted his legs.
An Xiao: "…"
Silently, he loosened the vines a bit.
After securing the Handsome Guy, he wrapped the other end of the vines around himself.
The Handsome Guy touched the vines on his own body, then looked at the ones on An Xiao, his eyes burning bright.
An Xiao finished tying the vines, gave them a tug to confirm they were sturdy, and gave a slight nod, signaling: "Go."
But the Handsome Guy stepped forward instead.
An Xiao was on alert and immediately stepped back—
He didn't dodge in time.
His head was hooked and pulled forward, and with a "smack," he was kissed soundly.
An Xiao: "…"
He wanted to hit someone.
Unfortunately, the culprit had already climbed over the railing to dig the water channel along the cliff edge.
He could only silently grab the railing and watch nervously.
The Handsome Guy was fast. He quickly finished the channel from the pit to the cliff edge, deliberately digging it at an angle, deepening as it approached the cliff.
Only when the Handsome Guy climbed back over the railing did An Xiao finally breathe a sigh of relief. He lowered his head to untie the vines and went back to smoking the meat and sharpening the knife.
Meanwhile, the Handsome Guy took an axe and a dagger and headed to the back mountain.
An Xiao, while smoking the meat and sharpening the knife, kept looking up at the roof of their house.
Their house had a ceiling height of about five or six meters. Above the roof was a fairly gentle slope. Since it was granite, there were no trees on it—not even grass.
Given the Handsome Guy's speed and strength, each poke created a foothold, but the most tedious part was cutting the bamboo tubes and hollowing out the bamboo joints.
After sharpening the cleaver, he wiped down the wok.
The branches for smoking the meat had been refilled four times, and finally, he spotted a familiar figure on their rooftop.
An Xiao excitedly stood up and waved: "**!"
It was a form of address he didn't understand, one the Handsome Guy had taught him.
The Handsome Guy, gripping the wood, poked his head out and waved back at him, then with a "crack,"
he jammed the wood into the rock, setting up the bamboo tube.
An Xiao's eyes widened: "[Is the water ready?]"
The Handsome Guy poked his head out: "[No. ***.]"
Then he ran off.
An Xiao stared at the bamboo tube propped up on the rooftop, watching with anticipation.
It felt like a long time passed, then the sound of tapping on bamboo came from above. The next moment, a white stream shot out over the hillside, flashing a brilliant arc, and landed—outside the pit to the left front of their storehouse.
An Xiao let out an "Oh no!" and said: "So close!"
The Handsome Guy poked his head out to check.
An Xiao broke into a smile: "Done! Just need to dig a little more—"
The Handsome Guy leaped down.
An Xiao's smile froze—holy crap, that's two stories high!
The Handsome Guy landed effortlessly.
He picked up the hoe and continued digging in the splashing water.
An Xiao looked up at the rooftop, then at the Handsome Guy, and pressed a hand to his forehead—he'd only been here two days, and there was so much to get used to…
"An Xiao."
An Xiao snapped back to attention and followed the voice—
The pit was already dug, and the water that had been splashing now obediently flowed into it. The Handsome Guy was staring straight at him with a look that seemed to beg for praise.
…It must be his imagination.
An Xiao set down his things, ran over, and crouched at the edge of the pit, looking at the small puddle forming at the bottom of the rocky hole.
The water flow was small, but it was steady.
From now on, washing vegetables, meat, clothes, and everything else would be much easier.
An Xiao was delighted.
He directed the Handsome Guy to make adjustments and improvements.
For example, widening a platform at the entrance of the channel for daily washing and scrubbing.
Also, wedging a grate in the middle of the channel to prevent anything from falling in and being hard to retrieve.
After going over the details, An Xiao excitedly returned to smoking the meat.
Amid the smoke and flames, the Handsome Guy, who should have been fixing the channel, suddenly tossed aside his hoe and walked past him, heading out.
An Xiao called out in confusion: "[**?]"
The Handsome Guy glanced at him, waved a hand, and stood outside the small grove.
…A scene that felt all too familiar.
The only difference was that today the Handsome Guy stood even farther out.
An Xiao instinctively followed his gaze toward the small grove.
Before long, a group of people burst out of the trees.
Seeing the Handsome Guy, they all froze for a moment, then shouted with joy and rushed toward him.
An Xiao recognized that pronunciation—yesterday, when two groups had come up, they'd all addressed the Handsome Guy that way.
It was completely different from the pronunciation the Handsome Guy had taught him.