Just as Yu Yangyang had exited the space, Bai Lan gently patted her shoulder.
“Yang’er? Get up. It’s time to keep moving.”
After the chaos of the previous night, the Yu family was eager to reunite with the main group from Tuopo Village.
Yu Yangyang said nothing and silently climbed onto Yu Yan’s back. Having barely slept for two days and one night, she was utterly exhausted.
The moment she settled onto Yu Yan’s back, she fell into a deep sleep.
Yu Yangyang was jolted awake by the uneven road. When Bai Lan saw her open her eyes, she wiped the sweat from her own brow and brought a bamboo tube to her lips.
“Yang’er, have some water.”
The weather was getting hotter and hotter. Seeing Yu Yangyang’s face flushed red from the sun, Bai Lan felt terribly sorry for her.
Yu Yangyang obediently leaned over and took a few sips before wearily wrapping her arms around Yu Yan’s neck.
Yu Yan instinctively slowed his pace.
“If you’re tired, sleep a little longer.”
Yu Yangyang nodded, but after lying on his back, she could no longer fall asleep.
That was what it was like to have such a weak constitution—weak and exhausted, yet with terrible sleep quality.
Her heart would occasionally pound violently, and the sound irritated her.
Nearby, she could hear Li Zhong and Yu Shanghua talking. Yu Shanghua was carrying a water bucket and adjusted it on his shoulder before asking,
“I heard someone important went missing?”
A trace of wariness flashed across Li Zhong’s face.
“Brother Yu, you may not know this, but I heard last night’s incident had something to do with people from the capital.”
Honestly, those powerful people had such good lives. How did they still end up fighting and killing each other every day?
Yu Yangyang frowned and began searching through her memories of the original novel, trying to find some clues.
The greatest obstacle between the male and female leads in the novel was none other than Pei Yin, the current Regent.
Rumor had it that this man was bloodthirsty and ruthless, even toward his own relatives. After the female lead entered the capital, he repeatedly made things difficult for her. In the end, the male and female leads joined forces to bring him down, allowing the male lead to successfully ascend the throne.
The novel had indeed mentioned that Pei Yin once disappeared for a period of time.
So, presumably, Pei Yanche had been trying to deal with Pei Yin last night.
But none of this had anything to do with Yu Yangyang. Surely she would never cross paths with the Regent in the future.
Yu Yangyang stopped listening. Her vision gradually became dizzy, so she closed her eyes and fell asleep again.
When she woke up again, the Yu family had already found a suitable campsite.
It was an abandoned building, probably once used as a warehouse.
Not far away stretched a continuous range of mountains. Looking toward the deeper parts of the mountains, they could finally see something rare in this drought-stricken world—patches of green.
Nearby, some villagers were already getting restless. Every now and then, people could be seen heading toward the mountains.
Yu Yangyang was equally tempted.
Bai Lan looked at her gently.
“Does Yangyang want to go take a look?”
Yu Yangyang nodded.
Li Zhong immediately volunteered.
“I’ll accompany Miss.”
Yu Yangyang thought about it for a moment before shaking her head.
“I want my brother to come with me.”
Yu Jin quietly perked up his ears.
Then he heard Yu Yangyang say,
“Big Brother, will you come with me?”
Li Zhong chuckled.
“Then I’ll go gather some firewood.”
Li Zhong’s wife, Chunjuan, looked exhausted and nervous.
“Then… I’ll cook?”
Bai Lan waved her hand.
“Look how tired you are. Go rest. There will be plenty of opportunities later.”
Chunjuan answered anxiously.
“Yes.”
Seeing Yu Yangyang and Yu Yan about to leave, Yu Lan hurried over.
“I want to go too! Sister, I want to go with you!”
Yu Yan frowned.
“I don’t have time to look after you.”
Yu Lan pouted.
“I’m not going with you. Sister will look after me. Sister~”
Seeing him plead pitifully, Yu Yangyang’s eyes curved into a smile.
“Okay.”
Yu Yan’s gaze lingered on the two of them.
He remembered that Yu Lan had always been afraid of and disliked Yu Yangyang. Yet after getting separated from everyone the previous night, the relationship between the two had suddenly improved by leaps and bounds.
What exactly had happened last night?
Yu Yan instinctively wanted to carry Yu Yangyang on his back, but she knew they were going into the mountains. She had secretly drunk a bottle of Spirit Spring Water earlier, so she was feeling fairly well now.
She moved slightly aside and said softly,
“There’s no need to carry me. I can walk with Lan’er.”
So Yu Yangyang held Yu Lan’s hand and walked out together with Yu Yan.
The three of them looked surprisingly harmonious from behind.
Yu Jin watched them and found the sight particularly irritating, as though he were somehow the odd one out.
Once they reached the mountain, Yu Yangyang followed the system’s prompts and began gathering things like crazy.
She collected grasshoppers’ greens, wild vegetables, wild scallions, various edible herbs, and even managed to find several bird eggs.
Yu Yan looked complicatedly at her.
Every time, she somehow managed to accurately locate the few remaining wild vegetables, as though she could predict where they were in advance.
Yu Lan was full of admiration and volunteered to act as Yu Yangyang’s walking basket.
“Sister, you’re amazing!”
Yu Yangyang practically collected all the edible wild plants in the surrounding area.
Whenever she encountered something that was unpalatable or too old to eat, she would simply reach out and touch it. That was enough to count toward completing the food catalog.
After all that work, Yu Yangyang successfully completed two collection missions in succession, earning thirty points and two mission reward packages.
Her current missions were now:
【Mission 1: Complete 3/30 entries in the Food Catalog.】
【Mission 2: Successfully earn at least five taels of silver.】
【Side Mission: Use a Skill.】
Thirty points were nothing compared with the thousands of points she had received in one go earlier, but every little bit helped.
More importantly, there were still the reward packages.
By the time they prepared to descend the mountain, Yu Yan and Yu Lan were both carrying armfuls of wild vegetables and several bird eggs.
On the way down, while Yu Yan and Yu Lan weren’t paying attention, Yu Yangyang secretly released the old hen from her space.
Then she quickly reached out and grabbed it.
Under Yu Yan’s stunned gaze, she blinked innocently.
“Big Brother, I caught a wild chicken.”
Yu Yan: “?”
If he hadn’t seen it incorrectly, that was clearly a domesticated hen.
Yu Lan, meanwhile, stared straight at the chicken and wiped the drool from his mouth.
“Meat!”
At this point, whether it was a wild chicken or not was no longer important.
Even the usually composed Yu Lan became nervous. He immediately grabbed the chicken from Yu Yangyang, snapped its neck, and stuffed it underneath his clothes.
“Let’s go back first!”
The three hurried down the mountain.
When they returned to the house at the foot of the mountain, Bai Lan had already finished steaming the rice.
She smiled and came over to greet them.
“You’re back?”
But then she saw Yu Lan close the broken door behind them.
Bai Lan: “?”
It wasn’t even dark yet. Why were they closing the door?
Then everyone watched as Yu Yan slowly pulled his hand out from inside his clothes.
And with it came a huge, plump chicken.
It looked like it weighed at least five pounds.
Bai Lan: “!!!”
Everyone else crowded around.
Someone couldn’t help swallowing loudly.
Hunger and excitement spread through the group.
Yu Jin wiped the corner of his mouth, looking thrilled.
“Big Brother, you’re amazing! Did you hunt this?”
But the chicken looked suspiciously like a domesticated one. It was also obvious that it had been well fed.
Yu Jin had never seen such a fat hen in his entire life.
Yu Yan glanced at him lightly.
“It wasn’t me. Yangyang caught it.”