His mind wandered for only two seconds before he heard the clattering sound of ceramics and stoneware colliding.
An Xiao followed the sound and saw the handsome man stuffing the bowls, chopsticks, and plates back into the pot.
He: "?"
The handsome man finished stuffing them, clapped his hands, and walked out.
Curious, An Xiao followed him out.
The handsome man walked to the pile of wood by the door, casually sat down cross-legged, picked up a small knife, propped up a tree trunk over a meter long, and began shaving off wood chips with a kacha kacha sound.
And he really was shaving.
That short little knife cut through it like tofu—one slice per cut.
An Xiao was stunned. He moved closer and picked up a wood chip.
The handsome man glanced at him, grabbed the trunk, turned around, and continued shaving with his back to him.
An Xiao didn't notice. He stared at the wood chip in his hand, utterly shocked—it was real wood, not tofu!!
Could it be that everyone here has superhuman strength?
He tried to snap the wood chip in half. It was hard—he couldn't break it no matter what.
He looked up at the handsome man.
Huh? Why had he turned his back?
He circled around, bent at the knee, and leaned in to watch the handsome man work the knife.
But the handsome man turned away to avoid him.
An Xiao: "…?"
He looked at himself, then at the other man, thoughtful.
He circled around again, but this time kept his distance.
Sure enough, the handsome man stopped turning away and kept his head down, continuing to shave.
An Xiao blinked and smiled.
Looks fierce, but is he actually a gentle dad-type?
Looks like getting along won't be a problem after all.
After all…
An Xiao's thoughts drifted.
During the car accident, he'd imagined many possibilities: high-level paralysis, amputation, critical illness… even death.
But he never expected to wake up in someone else's body.
He had no partner, no debts, and the few projects he'd left behind would be followed up by colleagues. His only worry was his parents.
But the old couple was still in decent health, and with his older brother and second sister around, plus grandchildren at their knees, they should pull through.
…Thinking about it that way, dying might actually be better than becoming a burden as a vegetable…
It's just that… he suddenly didn't know what to do anymore.
No need to support his parents, no need to work, no need to manage projects, no need to run around in wind and rain every day…
A cloth bag suddenly landed in front of him.
An Xiao snapped back to attention and looked up, meeting the handsome man's dark, calm eyes.
He glanced at the cloth bag, then at where the handsome man had been sitting—when had this guy moved away?
The handsome man pushed the bag forward a little.
An Xiao took it.
The handsome man returned to his spot, sat cross-legged again, and continued shaving wood.
An Xiao gave him a suspicious look, untied the bag, and saw a pile of wooden strips and blocks in all sorts of shapes.
…What is this?
He looked at the handsome man, confused.
The handsome man ignored him, focused on shaving the wood.
An Xiao looked down again and pulled out a few pieces.
Each block had notches or holes… fit them together… thread them through…
Huh? Is this a burr puzzle?!!
No wait, there are so many—
This is building blocks!!
…
…
…
What does this guy mean?!!
An Xiao glared at him.
The other man remained completely unmoved, slowly and leisurely shaving wood.
An Xiao wanted to complain, but the moment he opened his mouth, he remembered they couldn't communicate, so he had to swallow his frustration.
Can't even talk—!
Right. Talking!
Since he was here, life had to go on!
First, he needed to learn the language here!
An Xiao recalled the pronunciation of the two uncles from earlier and tentatively spoke: "**."
The handsome man stopped his movements and looked up at him.
He got it right? An Xiao was delighted: "**, right?"
The handsome man spoke: "***."
It was completely different from the two uncles' pronunciation.
An Xiao: "?"
Had he misheard?
The handsome man pointed at him, then at himself, and repeated, "***."
An Xiao was puzzled and mimicked his pronunciation: "***?"
The handsome man: "Mm."
An Xiao: "***."
The handsome man: "Mm."
So it really was the handsome man's name. Could the two uncles have been calling him by a nickname?
—No, the two uncles had been quite respectful, so they were probably using some other form of address.
An Xiao pointed at himself: "My name is An Xiao. An, Xiao."
The handsome man repeated: "An Xiao."
An Xiao's eyes curved into crescents: "Yes, An Xiao."
The handsome man nodded, then lowered his head and continued whittling the wood.
Though the language barrier remained, An Xiao felt invigorated.
He grabbed his hair, twisting and twirling it, until he fumbled and tied it into a knot, at least keeping it from flying everywhere.
Then he called out to the handsome man: "***."
The handsome man glanced at him.
An Xiao gestured wildly: "Can I look around?"
The handsome man seemed to frown slightly, but it was too fast for him to catch.
Thinking the man hadn't understood, he pointed at the several cave rooms carved into the rock and gestured again: "Me, go look."
The handsome man followed his finger with his eyes, paused for a moment, then nodded.
An Xiao's eyes curved into crescents. He patted the man's shoulder and turned to go exploring.
So he didn't notice the handsome man watching him the whole time, until he ducked into the room.
The cliff face was dozens of meters tall, with only three rooms carved out. He'd already seen the first two; he was going to check out the last one.
Still the bare-walled style.
Empty, without even a window carved out, containing only a large wooden chest and a big bamboo basket.
An Xiao looked at the bamboo basket first. Inside were two sets of coarse cloth clothes, one gray and one black.
He lifted them up and compared the sizes—they must be the handsome man's.
Just as he was about to put them down, he saw the bottom of the basket piled full of gold, silver, pearls, and gems.
He froze, looking at the crude bamboo basket, then at the coarse cloth clothes on top, then at the bare walls around him.
He: "…"
Calmly setting the clothes down, he looked at the unlocked wooden chest, hesitated for a moment, then lifted the lid: it was also all clothes.
White, green, blue, gray… all sorts of colors, but the material was much better than what was in the bamboo basket, similar to what he was wearing.
He took them out and compared—they were all his size.
An Xiao: "…"
Looking at the wooden chest, then the bamboo basket, then recalling how the handsome man had been acting like a nanny since he woke up—
Could they be master and servant?
"He" had passed through here with a fortune and a strong attendant, staying temporarily or settling down?
That's why the handsome man was taking such meticulous care of him?
…The more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed.
An Xiao stroked his chin. If they were master and servant, then given that the handsome man didn't mind him suddenly acting like a completely different person, he would treat the handsome man well!
So, next step: live well!!
Having made up his mind, An Xiao crawled out of the room again.
The handsome man was still sitting there, but no longer stripping bark—he was now splitting wood.
"Thud, thud," a few times, and a round log nearly a foot in diameter was effortlessly split into wood chips of various sizes.
An Xiao: "…"
Is that kind of strength really normal?
…Well, it's a good thing the "attendant" is strong and capable.
He scratched his head and ducked into the middle room.
In the bamboo basket the handsome man hadn't gone through, there was a bag of flour, and the rest were all plant roots. He couldn't tell what they were, but they looked a lot like potatoes, yet they smelled faintly of milk… somewhat like the paste he'd eaten not long ago.
An Xiao ignored the food and first checked the water vat, confirming it was full. Then he took out the utensils the handsome man had carelessly stuffed away, one by one, and carried them to the water vat.
At least there was a bamboo ladle in the vat to use as a scoop.
He rolled up his sleeves, went outside to pick up two wooden planks, and laid them down.
Then he used the pot as a basin, washed every single utensil thoroughly, and set them on the planks to dry.
The big bowl from the earlier porridge was left in the corner, so he washed that too while he was at it.
There was no grease, so a quick rinse with water was enough to clean them.
He didn't have the heart to throw away the leftover water, leaving it in the big pot for later use in cleaning something else.
Using the small pot he'd washed, he filled it with clean water and carried it out with some effort, setting it beside the extinguished campfire.
He picked up a few stones and stacked them into a simple stove, then ran over to the handsome man's side and brought back a pile of stripped bark and wood shavings, placing them on the campfire—
Wait, how was he supposed to light it?
He turned and called out to the handsome man: "Hey!"
While he'd been running around, that guy hadn't even lifted his head. Only when he heard the call did the handsome man stop, slowly looking up at him.
An Xiao gestured from a distance, pointing at the campfire and making a burning motion.
The handsome man watched him gesture for a while, finally understood, got up, and came over. He picked up a thin black bamboo tube by the campfire, twisted it open, blew on it, and brought it close to the wood shavings An Xiao had piled up.
Sparks slowly glowed to life.
An Xiao's eyes lit up just like the sparks—so this was the legendary fire-starter tube!
Watching the handsome man cap the tube and toss it back on the ground, he patted the other's arm and said with a grin, "Thanks~"
The handsome man glanced at him, then went back to splitting wood.
An Xiao ignored him, slowly coaxing the unburned wood in the campfire to catch flame, then tossing in a few pieces of sun-dried bark. Once the fire was steady, he set the small pot on top.
After all this fussing, even with his sleeves rolled up and pant legs cuffed, his snow-white clothes had still picked up quite a bit of dust.
He frowned, looked at the water that would take a while longer, hesitated for a moment, then ducked into the last room and changed into the handsome man's gray coarse-cloth shirt.
Pant legs too long—rolled them up.
Sleeves too long—rolled them up.
Shirt too loose—added an extra belt.
Once he'd tidied himself up properly, he came back out of the room.
The water was still boiling, so he added a few more pieces of bark before heading over to the handsome man's side.
The handsome man had his back to him, fiddling with something—no sound of wood splitting.
Curious, An Xiao approached from behind: "What are you doing?"
The handsome man turned slightly, as if to show him, then his gaze froze.
An Xiao also saw what he'd been blocking, and exclaimed, "You're making a cabinet! That's amazing—!"
The handsome man's hand reached for his arm, his dark eyes heavy and deep.
An Xiao followed his gaze to himself, understood, and explained, "Sorry, just borrowing your clothes for now, otherwise I'd get them dirty—?"
His body suddenly lifted off the ground.
The handsome man picked him up and carried him straight toward the only room with a bed.
An Xiao: "??"
It wasn't until he was pressed down onto the bed that it finally clicked:
No wonder his body had felt strangely sore when he woke up—it really was this seemingly reliable handsome man—
The belt binding his sleeves came loose and fell to the ground, rough fingertips brushing against his chest.
An Xiao broke out in goosebumps, shoved at the handsome man with all his might, and cried out in alarm, "No!"
The handsome man obeyed immediately, stopping his movements and watching him quietly.
Only his eyes were dark as ink, as if even his pupils had vanished, looking rather frightening.
An Xiao, slightly flustered, gestured wildly toward the outside: "Outside—I'm boiling water out there! I'm thirsty! Dying of thirst!!"
The handsome man didn't understand.
But he understood the rejection.
He got off the bed, picked up An Xiao again, and turned to leave.
An Xiao quickly grabbed his shoulder: "Where are we going?"
Of course, he wasn't lamenting the interruption—he was just asking out of reflex.
The handsome man said nothing. Holding him, he strode to the third room, set him down, picked up a light green robe from a large chest, and turned to strip the clothes off him—
As if he intended to dress him in something light, soft, and brightly colored?
An Xiao: "…"
Is this the priority here?
But then…
Feeding him.
Putting on his shoes.
Dressing him in fine clothes and fine shoes.
He had the desire.
But he didn't force it.
Alright, he got it.
This handsome man was no "attendant" or "servant" at all!
This was damn well a lover!!