After lunch, everyone discussed where to build their houses.
In the end, they unanimously decided to build near the thatched huts, because there was an existing well there, making water much more convenient.
Once the location was settled, the next step was to plan how many houses needed to be built based on the number of people.
They handled the planning themselves. Yunxi didn’t want to get involved, so she asked Nangong An to take her up the mountain for a walk to see if they could find some wild goods. After all, she never minded having more good things.
She had discovered that the Chinese yams she had previously put into her supermarket had automatically gone up for sale—ten yuan per jin, and the price was quite high.
All the wild rabbits, pheasants, and pheasant eggs had also been automatically listed. Just buying those items alone had cost her nearly a thousand.
So she wanted to go deeper into the mountains to see if anything she put in could be sold.
“Nangong An, let’s go into the mountains, catch some wild goods, and put them into my supermarket to exchange for money.”
A spatial space… so she really did have a mysterious space.
She said it so openly—wasn’t she afraid he might harm her?
No, he had to remind her. She couldn’t tell others everything so casually; it was very dangerous.
If she met someone with ill intentions, she would be in serious danger. This absolutely had to remain a secret.
So he turned around to talk to her, but who knew what this woman was thinking about—she was completely lost in thought.
And just like that, she ran straight into his chest.
“Hiss—my nose, woo…” Yang Yunxi held her nose with tears in her eyes and pointed at Nangong An.
“We were walking just fine. Why did you suddenly stop? Look, you knocked my nose crooked. It hurts so much.”
Nangong An looked at her slightly reddened nose tip, bent down, lowered his head, and said, “Come on, I’ll blow on it and it won’t hurt anymore.”
“You think I’m a child? Blow on it and it won’t hurt? You try getting hit yourself,” Yunxi said with a look of disdain.
“Oh right, why did you suddenly turn around?”
Looking at the woman with tears in her eyes, Nangong An felt a bit guilty at that moment. Still, he hadn’t done it on purpose—who told her to walk while daydreaming?
“Well, about your portable space… you must never tell anyone else in the future. If you run into someone with bad intentions, you’ll be in danger. Do you understand?”
“Oh, don’t worry. I’ll only tell the people closest to me, the ones I trust the most. Other than you, I won’t tell anyone,” Yunxi said. She wasn’t stupid—how could she tell others?
“Nangong An, how about we go check out the neighboring mountain today? I heard that there are more good things deep in the mountains.”
Nangong An looked at the tall mountain she was pointing at and said, “Sure. Hold onto me, I’ll carry you over.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Yunxi jumped onto him and clung to his body.
Nangong An looked at the woman in his arms and shook his head. She really didn’t care about propriety—or maybe they were just too familiar with each other.
He wrapped an arm around her waist, tapped the ground with his toes, and soared toward the tall mountain.
This was the second time Yunxi experienced the joy of flying.
She knew Nangong An would hold her securely, so she let go of him and felt the rushing wind sweep across her body.
It stung a little, but it was mostly exhilarating.
In less than a quarter of an hour, Nangong An landed steadily on a large tree on the mountain.
Then, with another leap, he landed firmly on the ground beneath it.
As soon as they landed, Yunxi immediately got off him. She looked around and saw that this mountain was completely different from the other one—it was lush and shaded.
Towering trees rose high into the sky, so dense that in some places hardly any light could pass through.
Yunxi scanned the area quickly and noticed small bulges pushing up beneath the thick pine needles.
This reminded her of her childhood summer vacations at her grandmother’s countryside home, following her into the woods to pick wild mushrooms.
She remembered that mushrooms loved to grow under pine needles like these.
She walked over to one of the bulges, squatted down, and gently brushed away the pine needles with her hand. A gray mushroom appeared before her eyes.
“Haha, pine mushroom!” She picked it and moved on to the next bulge, happily searching around.
Hearing wild animals scurrying nearby, Nangong An quietly said to Yang Yunxi, “Yunxi, I’m going to catch some pheasants. If you run into danger, shout loudly, okay?”
Without even lifting her head, Yunxi replied, “Don’t worry, I can take care of myself. If it really comes down to it, I’ll flash into my supermarket. You can relax.”
So she picked mushrooms, while Nangong An efficiently hunted pheasants and rabbits nearby.
They worked together, each doing their part.
Meanwhile, on the other side, Feng Ying and the others followed the river, then reached the main road. By coincidence, they arrived at the foot of the very mountain where Nangong An and the others were staying.
Their arrival immediately put Lin Hai and the group on guard.
However, when Feng Ying took out Nangong An’s portrait, Lin Hai didn’t recognize the person, but he recognized the name. After explaining it to everyone, they relaxed at once.
Lin Hai looked at them and asked, “I don’t recognize the person in the portrait, but I do know someone named Nangong An. May I ask who you are to Brother Nangong?”
Brother Nangong?
Someone daring to call the general “brother” hadn’t even been born yet. This middle-aged man actually dared to address their master like that—how strange.
“He is our young master,” Lei Ting replied to Lin Hai.
After that, they talked about the bits and pieces of how they had been getting along with Nangong An and Yang Yunxi over the past few days.
The more they listened, the more something felt off. It sounded like their master—but also not quite.
Where exactly had things gone wrong?
And when had their master married a wife? How could they have had no idea at all?
Back in the forest, Yunxi had become completely addicted to picking mushrooms and simply couldn’t stop.
Green-capped mushrooms, pine mushrooms—she even picked several gray mushrooms as big as washbasins. Just one of those was enough for an entire meal.
What she didn’t know was that, on the road ahead, there would be several people with appetites as big as oxen. This amount wouldn’t even be enough to fill the gaps between their teeth.
Just as she was picking enthusiastically, Nangong An returned.
He brought back a large haul: pheasants, rabbits, a mountain goat, and several brightly colored wild birds.
“Wow! Nangong An, you’re amazing!” she said, giving him a big thumbs-up.
Nangong An felt a little embarrassed, but he wasn’t modest at all. “This is nothing to me. By the way, it’s getting late. Let’s head down the mountain.”
“Okay.” With a wave of her small hand, all the wild game on the ground vanished into her space.
“Nangong An, let’s not fly this time. Let’s walk out. I want to see if I can find even bigger gray mushrooms,” she said, pulling out a large gray mushroom she had just picked from her supermarket.
Nangong An was stunned by its size. He had never seen such a large mushroom before, let alone eaten one.
They couldn’t distinguish which mushrooms were edible and which were poisonous, so even if they existed, they would never pick them.
So they walked and picked as they went, and Yunxi collected even more mushrooms.
“Ah… there’s… there’s… there’s a big beast!” Just as Yunxi was picking with enthusiasm, she suddenly felt an unusual gaze. She looked up—and nearly peed herself in fright.
A huge tiger was walking straight toward her.