Early the next morning, when Madam Bai went into the kitchen to make breakfast, the first thing she noticed was that the cooking pot was gone.
Terrified, she let out a shrill scream and ran back out.
“Ahhh! Husband, this is terrible! A thief broke into our house! The thief stole our pot!”
As Bai Zilin was drinking water, he immediately spat it all out.
“Cough! Cough, cough…”
Thinking of Liu Ye, he couldn’t help laughing.
“How could that silly girl… Hahaha… hahaha…”
Laughing so hard, he clutched his stomach.
No, he couldn’t keep laughing. If he laughed any harder, he was going to wet himself.
The moment Liu Ye heard that the neighbors had discovered something was missing, she quickly slid down from the woodpile and ran toward the back mountain.
Given the personalities of the Bai couple, they would definitely suspect her.
Though she really had stolen the things, she couldn’t be bothered to deal with them.
When she reached the foothills, she discovered that there were people everywhere.
“Hah! There are more people than wild vegetables. Can anyone even find edible greens like this?”
But when she arrived at the dried-up stream, she found people there too. Several village men were filling water skins from the remaining water.
Their wells must have run dry, otherwise they wouldn’t have come all the way here for water.
Liu Ye slipped into the nearby forest and continued deeper into the mountains.
With a wave of her hand, she took out her hatchet from the space and walked forward while pushing aside the grass.
After roughly three hours of hiking, she finally reached the deep mountains.
Wiping the sweat from her forehead, she complained,
“It’s way too hot.”
The blazing sun felt like it was roasting her scalp, while the shaded areas were stuffy and humid, like stepping into a sauna.
“If only it would rain.”
She looked around.
This was far enough.
If she went any deeper, she’d probably get lost. During the past few days, she’d only managed to avoid losing her way by following the stream’s course.
After wandering around for a while, she gathered some shepherd’s purse and picked more than a dozen mushrooms.
“Aiya, it’s almost noon, and I’ve only found this much.”
Maybe she should keep going.
Perhaps there would be prey farther ahead.
Following the traces of the dried stream, Liu Ye continued onward and eventually discovered a large overgrown marshland.
There were few trees around it.
Judging by the terrain, it had once been a large pond. After the water dried up, grass had taken over the entire area.
Pushing aside the weeds, she stepped into the marsh.
The grass was so tall that it rose above her head.
Suddenly—
“Quack! Quack!”
A huge flock of wild ducks burst out of the grass.
The unexpected commotion startled her.
“Holy crap! So many wild ducks!”
If there were wild ducks here, then there had to be wild duck eggs too.
Excited, Liu Ye began searching through the marsh.
Sure enough, she found them.
Nest after nest of duck eggs were hidden among the grass.
Some nests contained a dozen eggs.
Some held twenty.
Others even had thirty.
Every nest she found went straight into her space.
Then she came across a different batch of eggs.
“Huh? These don’t look like duck eggs. Why are they so small? They look more like pheasant eggs.”
Holding one up to the sun, she inspected it.
She couldn’t see much, but it didn’t appear spoiled.
“One, two, three, four, five…”
“Twenty-five. Okay, collected.”
By the time she had finished making a complete circuit of the marsh, she had gathered a huge number of wild duck eggs.
Without wasting any more time, she hurried back down the mountain.
By the time she returned to the old house, the moon had already risen.
The first thing she noticed was that the woodpile had been torn apart.
Firewood was scattered everywhere.
She didn’t even need to think about who had done it.
It had to be the Bai couple.
They must have suspected she’d hidden the stolen goods inside the woodpile and searched through the entire thing.
“Bastards.”
“Not worth a damn.”
“As if you’d ever find anything.”
Then she remembered something.
It was already this late.
Big Brother Bai probably hadn’t eaten all day again.
She quickly entered her space to cook.
To be honest, she hadn’t eaten anything all afternoon either and was starving herself.
Arriving beside the wall, Liu Ye flashed into her space.
A huge pile of wild duck eggs lay on the ground.
Today’s harvest.
She had roughly counted them while collecting them.
There seemed to be 361 duck eggs and 25 pheasant eggs.
Maybe she’d just boil the pheasant eggs tonight.
Simple, quick, and nutritious.
She efficiently lit a fire and set a pot on the stove.
Before long, the pheasant eggs were cooked.
She scooped them into a bowl and soaked them in a little spirit spring water.
Afterward, she stripped off her clothes and took a bath.
She absolutely had to.
She smelled terrible after spending the entire day in the mountains.
After changing into Liu Qing’s clothes, she darkened her face, hands, and neck with soot again.
Then she ate ten pheasant eggs herself and saved the remaining fifteen for Bai Zilin.
Using the hem of her skirt as a pouch, she carried the eggs out of the space.
Without the tall woodpile, climbing over the wall was a bit harder, but it still wasn’t a challenge.
With a short running start, she leapt lightly onto the wall.
Then she landed gently inside the courtyard.
Not a single sound accompanied her landing.
Having strength in her body really was wonderful.
If she jumped with all her might, she could soar several meters into the air.
Looks like she had real potential for a life of sleeping by day and roaming by night.
Quietly pushing open Bai Zilin’s door, she whispered,
“Big Brother Bai, I’m here. I got back late from the mountains today.”
Bai Zilin nodded with a bright red face.
“Oh… Silly girl, your timing is perfect. I… could you help me find two sturdy sticks? I need to go to the latrine…”
Liu Ye placed the eggs from her skirt onto the kang bed.
“Can’t hold it anymore? How about I help you? It’s fine. I’ve seen everything before. I’ll support you.”
The moment those words left her mouth, Bai Zilin’s face darkened in shock.
“You… what did you just say?! You’ve seen everything? Seen whose? Did someone bully you?”
Only then did Liu Ye realize she had said too much.
Quickly grabbing at her messy bird’s-nest hair, she played dumb.
“Hehehe… I’ve seen Wang Erya’s little brother’s tiny pepper. Aren’t all men the same? Big Brother Bai, I’ll help hold—”
“Cough! Cough! Cough!”
Bai Zilin nearly choked on his own saliva.
His face turned crimson as he coughed, and he couldn’t even meet her eyes.
“You… help me hold what? I don’t need your help! I… you’d better just find me some sticks. I can manage on my own…”
Liu Ye rubbed her nose awkwardly.
“Okay then. I’ll go find some right now. Big Brother Bai, eat the eggs first. I’ll be back soon.”
Bai Zilin nodded with his face still burning red, not daring to lift his head.
After leaving the room, Liu Ye went to the wall and entered her space.
Among the pile of collected firewood, she selected two thick branches.
Using her hatchet, she stripped away the bark and carefully smoothed both ends so they wouldn’t splinter or hurt his hands.
Comparing their lengths, she nodded.
“Okay. These should work.”
Taking the sticks, she left the space and returned to Bai Zilin’s room.
Handing them over, she asked,
“Big Brother Bai, are these suitable? If not, I’ll make new ones.”
Bai Zilin accepted the sticks and inspected them.
The length was perfect, and they were sturdy enough.
“They’re just right. Thank you, Silly Girl.”
Then he added,
“It’s getting late. You should go rest.”
“Oh, and I heard the woodpile got torn apart by them. You’ll just have to make do tonight.”
“Earlier today, Village Chief Zhao came to my house. They were chatting in the courtyard, and I overheard part of it.”
“From what Village Chief Zhao said, if it still doesn’t rain within three to five days, he’ll organize everyone to head south. He’s already going door to door notifying people. Anyone planning to leave needs to start packing now.”
“My parents have already begun packing their things.”
He paused, bitterness filling his voice.
“But they never came to tell me.”
“It seems they never intended to take me with them…”