Although they set out earlier today, they didn’t get back to the cave any earlier than yesterday—in fact, they were even more exhausted.
Tang Jiao was on the verge of tears. Her soreness from the previous day hadn’t even faded yet, and today she had walked twice the distance, carried more weight, and on top of that, she’d been carrying An’an the whole way.
Gu Yu didn’t look any better. If anything, he had it worse. The load was extremely heavy, the shoulder pole was hard to balance, and the path was full of branches and thorny vines that constantly snagged and resisted every step. Walking was painfully difficult.
When they stopped to rest about a third of the way back, Tang Jiao checked his shoulder. Even with clothing wrapped around the pole, it had still rubbed him badly. She was sure his skin would be broken by the time they finished this trip.
By the time they finally reached the cave, even Gu Yu collapsed on the ground, unable to get up for a long while.
When they finally caught their breath, dusk had already fallen. Gu Yu struggled up first, lifted the supplies into the cave, then pulled Tang Jiao and An’an to their feet.
“It’s almost dark. Let’s get inside first and rest up there,” he said.
They all climbed back into the cave.
There was still some firewood left from what Gu Yu had gathered earlier that morning—barely enough, but it would do. Unfortunately, they still hadn’t had time to fetch water from the small river Gu Yu had mentioned nearby. Drinking water aside, for washing up they’d only been using a small stream along the way. It was cold, so they couldn’t even wash their feet properly. With the heavy activity of the past few days, when Tang Jiao cleaned the blisters and broken skin on their feet, the smell and sting were… unforgettable.
Once Gu Yu got the fire going, Tang Jiao took out the steamer pot, bottled water, and instant noodles. The pot had been stuffed into her large backpack. Having a pot meant they could finally eat something with hot broth. With the weather turning colder, a warm soup at night felt especially comforting.
She generously cooked three packets of noodles. They hadn’t brought the eggs back yet, so she added two sausages instead, along with the shepherd’s purse they had washed at the stream. It wasn’t fancy, but it counted as a balanced meal. With reheated steamed buns on the side, the family of three—plus the two little animals—enjoyed the most satisfying meal they’d had in days.
Gu Yu’s shoulder was indeed rubbed raw. Thankfully, Tang Jiao had had the foresight to pack the first-aid kit. After she treated his wound, the whole family fell into bed, exhausted but content.
Everyone slept deeply that night.
Even Gu Yu didn’t wake up in the middle of the night this time—whether because there were no wolf howls or because he was simply too tired to hear them, no one knew.
As usual, Gu Yu was the first to wake up. Tang Jiao, on the other hand, went through her daily battle between mind and body. In the end, sheer willpower won, and she painfully, stiffly forced herself out of bed. Little An’an surprised them by waking up early as well and eagerly followed Gu Yu to gather firewood.
By the time the two returned with a bundle of wood, Tang Jiao had just managed to shuffle to the cave entrance. From below, An’an tilted his little head up, hands raised high as he proudly called out, “Mom! Look! We picked some yummy fruit! I was the one who found them!”
Tang Jiao focused her gaze and saw that An’an was holding two bright red fruits. They weren’t big, but their color was vivid—very much like hawthorn.
She asked Gu Yu, “Those are hawthorns, right?” and added warmly, “Wow, An’an is amazing! You’ve got such sharp eyes!”
Gu Yu replied, “They look like hawthorn, but I tasted one—it’s much sweeter. That’s probably why the birds have been pecking at them so much. There weren’t many left intact, so we picked all the good ones.” As he spoke, he lifted a bundle of fruit wrapped in his clothes.
Only then did Tang Jiao notice that he had taken off his outer coat. She immediately said, “Hurry up and come back in. If you needed something to carry the fruit, you could’ve just grabbed a bag. Why did you take your coat off? Aren’t you cold? Next time you go out, take the backpack with you!”
As she spoke, she reached out to help An’an climb up and asked, “Where did you find these hawthorn fruits? You went to collect firewood the past two days too, but you didn’t see them then. Did you go deeper in?”
Gu Yu had already climbed up and replied, “Not really. We didn’t go very far—just headed in a different direction today, so we didn’t notice them before. I think there’s still plenty of food around here. Once we move our clothes and bedding over, we can search nearby for food first before hauling more supplies.”
That was exactly what Tang Jiao had been thinking as well. She wanted to take the day off from transporting supplies and let everyone recover a bit.
Of course, truly resting was impossible. Even if they didn’t carry anything today, there was still plenty to do. What worried her most was Gu Yu’s shoulder—it was already injured, and if he kept carrying heavy loads, it would only get worse.
Seeing how firm she was about it, Gu Yu agreed. So they decided to go check the water source first, since that was a crucial matter too.
They didn’t light a fire. Instead, they ate a little food just to stave off hunger, planning to wash up by the water and then come back to cook something hot. An’an had woken up early, and they were worried he might get hungry.
After eating, they packed their self-defense items, toiletries, backpacks—and of course, containers for carrying water.
They didn’t have many containers, so they brought the steamer pot, which could hold a decent amount of water. Tang Jiao had also saved all the empty plastic bottles from the bottled water they’d been drinking these past few days. Those could be used to carry water as well, so she brought them all.
The water source Gu Yu had discovered earlier wasn’t far from the cave. After walking for about ten minutes, Tang Jiao could already hear the sound of flowing water. Turning a bend, they came upon a small river—or perhaps more accurately, a stream.
Both banks were filled with reeds, cattails, and other plants—some familiar, some not. Though many were withered, it was still easy to imagine how lush and dense they must have been in summer.
Large rocks dotted the riverbank. Unlike the murky, polluted water of modern times, the river was clear—just like the streams from Tang Jiao’s childhood memories. In the distance, wild ducks drifted leisurely across the surface, and the water flowed slowly and calmly toward an unknown destination.
They chose a large rock close to the water. Amid An’an’s delighted squeals, they comfortably cleaned themselves up.
Of course, there was no such thing as a proper bath—just washing their faces and brushing their teeth. The water was far too cold. Still, having such a nearby water source made it much more convenient to carry water back to boil.
After washing up, they also cleaned the wild vegetables they had dug up the day before yesterday. Yesterday they’d eaten freshly gathered ones, and these had been forgotten and were starting to wilt. Fortunately, they were still usable. Wasting food wasn’t an option—after washing them clean, they could blanch and dry them back at the cave for storage.
While Tang Jiao washed the vegetables, Gu Yu took An’an to keep watch and wander around nearby. Before long, he came back with An’an, both of them excited.
“Wife, don’t we have fishing line and hooks at home?” Gu Yu said happily. “I saw quite a lot of fish in this river. We could come back and try fishing!”
An’an bounced along beside him, shouting excitedly, “Fishing! Fishing!”
Tang Jiao’s eyes lit up immediately. To be honest, their food supplies weren’t too scarce for now—but they had no meat. All the meat was in the refrigerator back home and hadn’t come with them. With how much physical labor they’d been doing and how simple their meals were, she was really craving meat. And fish counted as meat too!
She nodded eagerly. “Yes, yes! We have them. They’re in one of the boxes—I bought them myself. We’ve got plenty of hooks and fishing line. We just don’t have a fishing rod yet. It hasn’t arrived!”
In truth, none of them really knew how to fish. When they were planning to move to the mountains, they’d figured there would be rivers nearby and that fishing could be a nice pastime, so they ordered fishing rods online. The hooks and line had been bought separately—Tang Jiao had grabbed them because they were cheap, came in bulk, and there was a discount coupon to use. The hooks and line had arrived days ago, but the fishing rods still hadn’t—and they were expensive too.
Definitely worth a bad review.