Hua Wumian saw Rong Yan, whose lips were still slightly blue as he leaned against a large tree, and used his lightness skills to land steadily by his side.
“Did your poison flare up just now?” he asked with a worried expression.
“Hmm.” Rong Yan’s voice was calm, as if he had long since grown accustomed to it.
Hua Wumian was puzzled. “Logically, every time the poison flares up, it should be more painful than the last. You, this…” The condition he was in this time looked much better than the last, which was clearly contrary to reason.
“I ran into an interesting person,” Rong Yan said indifferently.
“They… saved you?” Hua Wumian didn’t believe it.
“In a way.”
Hua Wumian pursed his lips and lowered his head, feeling somewhat discouraged. “This time, I still didn’t find that key medicinal herb for the antidote in Tianyun Ridge.”
A hint of coldness flashed through Rong Yan’s deep eyes. “If it were easy to find, would those people have gone to such lengths to poison me in the first place?” But even if he only had three years left, he wouldn’t let those people get their way!
Hearing this, Hua Wumian knew that Rong Yan had already resigned himself to the situation regarding the antidote. Sighing softly, he helped Rong Yan up. “Let’s head back first and come back in a few days.”
Meanwhile, on An Xia’s side, perhaps it was because she had done a good deed. Aside from the gray rabbit, her bamboo basket now held a pheasant as well. Moreover, her luck seemed exceptionally good; she had stumbled upon a “silly” roe deer that had knocked itself unconscious against a big tree, weighing about forty catties.
When An Qiu saw An Xia walking toward her, carrying the bow and arrows in one hand and the roe deer in the other, she was so surprised her jaw dropped. Her second sister had gone toward Tianyun Ridge for less than an hour, and she returned with such a large roe deer! Was this really her second sister? Previously, among the three sisters, she had been the least agile.
An Xia laughed at An Qiu, who hadn’t yet managed to close her mouth. “What are you staring at? Don’t just stand there, come help your second sister!”
An Qiu finally snapped out of it, trotting quickly to An Xia’s back to take off her basket. Seeing the contents, her eyes went wide. “Goodness! There’s a rabbit and a pheasant, too! Second sister, you are amazing!”
An Xia smiled triumphantly. “Let’s go! Home we go—we’re eating meat tonight!”
When the sisters returned to the house on the east side of Hulu Village, they found An Chun already in the yard, organizing the firewood she had gathered.
“Big sister, we’re back!”
An Chun didn’t turn around, calling out, “It’s hot; go scoop a ladle of cold water from the vat to wash your faces so you don’t get heatstroke. I’ve gathered quite a few wild berries; we’ll make do with those today. Tomorrow morning, I’ll carry this firewood to town to sell so we can buy some rice!”
An Qiu laughed, “Big sister, we don’t have to eat wild berries today! Second sister hunted plenty of game!”
An Xia didn’t want to eat berries either. After all, the three of them had only eaten the pancakes Auntie Sun gave them that morning, and they were starving.
An Chun turned around. When she saw the roe deer An Xia was holding, her expression mirrored the one An Qiu had worn earlier. She opened her mouth, not knowing what to say, but her face was filled with excitement. “How… how did you get it? You hunted it?”
An Xia shook her head. “The roe deer knocked itself out, so I was lucky enough to find it. The rabbit and pheasant were hunted!”
“There’s a rabbit and a pheasant, too?” An Chun raised her voice.
An Xia took the pheasant out of the basket. “Big sister, we’ll stew some pheasant soup in a bit. Qiu’er also gathered plenty of dropwort.”
“Then I’ll go to the creek to clean the pheasant,” An Chun said, taking the bird.
“Big sister, wait for Qiu’er and me; we’ll go wash the laundry!”
An Chun pointed at the clothes on the drying rack. “They’re already washed; you two rest at home for a while! I’ll go tie up the roe deer so we can sell it in town tomorrow.”
After An Xia spoke, she dragged the roe deer toward the shed behind the house, while An Qiu carried a wooden basin to wash the dropwort and mushrooms.
Half an hour later, An Chun returned with the cleaned pheasant, and in her other hand, she held some wild ginger.
“Big sister, chop the pheasant in half; we should send half to Auntie Sun’s house,” An Xia suggested. Both An Chun and An Qiu were grateful people and had no objections to the suggestion. If it weren’t for the pancakes Auntie Sun had given them, they would have had to rely on water to fill their stomachs yesterday.
When An Xia arrived at Auntie Sun’s house with the half-pheasant, she found her washing rice in a basin. “Auntie, preparing dinner?”
Seeing An Xia at the door, Sun Taohua waved her over. “Ah, Xia girl, you’re here! Just in time—I have a few coarse grain pancakes left, take them home to eat.”
An Xia didn’t hesitate. “Alright, Auntie!” She then handed the half-pheasant to her. “Auntie, this is for you. We hunted it on the mountain today.”
Sun Taohua was stunned, unable to believe it. “This is for me?” An Xia nodded with a smile.
“I can’t take this. You children have such a hard life as it is; you should eat it to build up your strength!” Sun Taohua refused.
An Xia pressed the pheasant into Sun Taohua’s hands. “Auntie, please accept it. If it weren’t for the pancakes you gave us yesterday, we would have been drinking cold water to stave off hunger.”
Seeing she couldn’t refuse, Sun Taohua embarrassment-fully carried the half-pheasant into the kitchen. She returned a moment later with two small porcelain jars! “Take this bit of lard and salt to use for your cooking!”
An Xia felt Auntie Sun was incredibly thoughtful; these were exactly what she needed right now! “Thank you, Auntie! You go ahead and be busy, I’m heading home!”
When An Xia returned with the jars, An Chun was debating how to stretch the half-chicken over several meals.
“Big sister, cook it all; let’s have a proper meal,” An Xia proposed. The three sisters were as thin as bean sprouts, suffering from severe malnutrition. Seeing the frail state of her younger sisters, An Chun gritted her teeth and decided to cook it all.
She added wild ginger and the mushrooms, stewing them with the pheasant. Before long, a thick, rich aroma of meat drifted through the courtyard. An Xia and An Qiu gathered around the stove.
“Big sister, the rabbit is already dead, and it won’t sell for much, so why don’t we process it too? How about we salt it and hang it from the beams to dry?”
An Chun, still thinking about her sisters needing to get stronger, agreed. “Alright, after dinner, I’ll go to the creek to skin the rabbit.”
A quarter of an hour later, the mushroom-stewed pheasant soup and the stir-fried dropwort were on the table!
An Qiu ate with immense satisfaction, smiling with broth on her lips. “This soup is so delicious!”
An Chun, seemingly used to looking after them, didn’t eat much of the chicken, opting instead to keep picking at the dropwort with her coarse grain pancake. An Xia served her several pieces of meat, leaving no room for refusal. “Big sister, you eat all of these!”
An Chun tried to decline. “I’m the eldest, how can I compete with you two for food?”
“If you build yourself up to be strong, won’t you be better able to take care of the two of us?”
An Xia knew that only by saying this would An Chun agree to eat the meat.