Suddenly, she remembered the dream from the previous night!
The hot spring, the strange beast trying to drag her away, the punches and kicks, the wide, vigorous movements she had made…
“Stop! Stop imagining it!”
Those… movements were a little too embarrassing to think about!
Lin Jingwan’s sudden outburst startled Luoluo.
“Sis, what’s wrong? Does your head still hurt?”
“N-No, I’m fine. I just woke up, so my mind is still a little foggy.
“By the way, where’s Li Zhaoye?”
“He’s in the courtyard. He was making breakfast just now, and now he’s getting ready to knock down the wall.”
“Knock down the wall?”
Hanhan added from the side, “Sis, didn’t you say before that you wanted to tear down the wall and combine the two yards into one? You were busy getting married yesterday, so you didn’t get around to it!”
Lin Jingwan’s heart stirred.
He really had remembered something she had casually mentioned.
Just then, Li Zhaoye’s voice came from outside the courtyard.
“Hanhan, your sister’s awake!”
“Mm, she’s awake!”
The next second
“Bang!”
A heavy pounding sound rang out.
Li Zhaoye had really started tearing down the wall!
Lin Jingwan quickly finished brushing her teeth and washing up, downed a bowl of millet porridge, and walked out into the courtyard.
It was November, and the weather already carried the chill of late autumn. Yet the man in the courtyard was wearing nothing but a white undershirt, perfectly outlining his muscular physique.
The muscles in his forearms bulged as he swung the hammer, each strike full of power.
Perhaps sensing the gaze behind him, Li Zhaoye stopped and slowly turned around.
The instant their eyes met, Lin Jingwan instinctively looked away only to catch sight of the teeth marks on his neck.
As though she had been scalded, Lin Jingwan quickly turned around, not daring to meet his eyes.
The blush spreading across the young woman’s ears and her shy reaction fell straight into Li Zhaoye’s eyes.
The corners of his lips curled upward.
“Awake? After breakfast, pack your things. We’ll leave on time this afternoon.”
“…Okay.”
“Oh, right. Drink less alcohol from now on!”
Lin Jingwan: “……”
She hurriedly went back inside.
Even after sitting down on the heated brick bed, her face was still flushed.
She patted her cheeks.
What was there to be embarrassed about?!
Wasn’t it just that she had gotten drunk and been taken care of by a man for one night?!
He was her man. Wasn’t it only natural for him to take care of her?
Her man had washed her from head to toe. Wasn’t that only natural too?
Her man…
Her eyes happened to catch sight of the little underwear fluttering in the breeze outside, and her face turned even redder!
Ahhh!
It was all because she was too easily embarrassed!
Still, when she thought about it, this man had taken care of her without showing the slightest disgust. He had practically provided a full-service package washing her, helping her settle down, and even staying by her side while she slept.
He had even known to cook her millet porridge in the morning!
There hadn’t been any millet at home for a long time, so he must have traded with someone early that morning!
She touched her chest, feeling a little warm inside.
She had to admit, this man was even better than she had imagined.
Ah, forget it!
They were about to leave, so she’d better hurry and take care of the things that needed settling and retrieve whatever needed to be taken with them!
The back mountain of Dalaoba Village.
Lin Yihan and Lin Luoluo followed closely behind Lin Jingwan, one on each side, their little faces filled with curiosity.
“Sis, why did you bring us all the way to the back mountain?”
Lin Jingwan carried a shovel over her shoulder and looked back with a smile.
“Of course, we’re here to retrieve our ‘family fortune.’”
“What family fortune?” the two children asked in unison.
“Years ago, our father discovered a wild ginseng plant somewhere in these mountains.
“He was a man who always followed the rules and never engaged in speculative trading, so he left it there untouched all these years.
“Now that we’re planning to leave the village, naturally we have to dig up this treasure and take it with us.”
As soon as they heard it was wild ginseng, the two siblings immediately became excited.
Before long, the three of them arrived at a sheltered slope.
Among the weeds, one particular plant stood out. It had bright red berries and broad, rounded leaves layered over one another.
“That’s the one. Let’s dig it up, but be careful. Don’t damage the roots.”
The two siblings immediately stepped forward. The three of them carefully cleared away the surrounding weeds and slowly dug through the soil, following the roots.
Before long, they unearthed a wild ginseng plant with its delicate rootlets completely intact and its body plump and well-formed.
“Sister, this ginseng looks pretty thick. How many years do you think it’s been growing?” little Luoluo asked curiously.
Lin Jingwan studied it for a while before shaking her head.
“I don’t know, but it must be at least several decades old.”
“Then it must be worth a lot of money, right?”
“Probably. Come on, let’s head home!”
After packing everything up, the three of them were just about to head down the mountain when a grayish-brown shadow suddenly flashed through the bushes.
Lin Jingwan’s eyes lit up.
She handed the wrapped ginseng to Hanhan.
“You two stay right here and don’t move. Keep an eye on the ginseng. I’ll be right back.”
After giving them her instructions, she grabbed her shovel and quickly followed the animal.
She was certain she hadn’t mistaken it.
It was a badger.
The creature was a notorious thief in the mountains. It was exceptionally skilled at digging burrows and especially fond of stealing all kinds of eggs and storing them as food.
Following it might lead to an unexpected harvest.
She followed it for a while. Soon, beneath a cluster of bushes on the slope ahead, she spotted a burrow entrance.
The claw marks around the opening were still clear. This had to be the badger’s home.
A smile curled across Lin Jingwan’s lips.
She took out some matches, gathered dry grass, and began smoking the animal out of its burrow.
Unable to stand the smoke, the badger grew frantic and scrambled toward the exit.
The moment half its body emerged, Lin Jingwan seized the opportunity and brought her shovel down precisely on its head.
The badger passed out on the spot.
With the trouble taken care of, she began digging into the burrow.
There were pure white, plump and rounded ones; oval eggs with greenish shells; eggs covered in light brown speckles; and two especially large ones that she had never seen before.
Whatever kind of eggs they were, they were edible anyway!
Lin Jingwan immediately took off her coat, gathered all the eggs into it, and tied it up into a bundle to carry on her back.
When she returned to the slope where they had stopped earlier, however, she couldn’t see the two children anywhere. A trace of anxiety immediately rose in her heart.
“Sis, we’re up here!”
A clear voice came from above.
Lin Jingwan looked up and saw Hanhan and Luoluo sitting on the branches of a large tree, waving at her.
She couldn’t help laughing. These two little ones were certainly clever.
“Come down quickly. We had a great haul today. We’ll have something delicious for lunch!” She planned to cook the meal herself!
“Yay!”
The two children swiftly climbed down from the tree. When they saw the bulging bundle in Lin Jingwan’s arms, their faces filled with delight.
The three of them soon returned home, only to find that the earthen wall between the two courtyards had already been completely torn down.
Li Zhaoye was busy cleaning up.
There were also more than a dozen sturdy men standing in the courtyard. One of them looked familiar it was the eldest grandson who had come to take the Zhao family’s old lady home yesterday!
Lin Jingwan couldn’t remember his exact name, so she decided to address everyone the same way.
“Thank you all for helping. You’ve worked hard! It’s lunchtime now, so why don’t you all stay and have lunch at our place?”
Everyone quickly declined.
“No, no! My grandmother had already eaten at your wedding banquet yesterday and even packed up quite a bit of meat and vegetables to take home. If I stay for lunch again today, she’ll definitely scold me when I get home!”
“Exactly! Same here.
“My child ate at your place yesterday, and we even took home two jin of pork. We already feel bad about it!”
“Yeah. Tearing down a wall is such a small thing. With so many people working together, it was done in no time. It wasn’t hard work at all, so we won’t trouble you any further!”
Seeing how firmly everyone refused, Lin Jingwan stopped trying to persuade them. They really didn’t have many ingredients left today anyway.
“Alright, then. Thank you all for your help. Hanhan, go pour a bowl of brown sugar water for all the uncles.”
“Okay, Sister!” Lin Yihan answered immediately before turning around to help.
Meanwhile, Lin Jingwan returned to the kitchen and began preparing the badger. She planned to personally cook a special dish with it.