Jiayin asked curiously, “What happens if your stomach bloats?”
“You fart—”
“Pfffrrrrttt—”
Both voices sounded at once, and immediately Jiayin smelled a terrible odor!
It was so foul that she took several steps back.
Beside her, Fang Zhiyuan shouted, “Wow, this donkey’s farts stink so bad!”
Then he pinched his nose with one hand and frantically fanned the air with the other.
Jiayin copied him, pinching her little nose with her chubby hand. Ah, much better…
She could also hold her breath—she could go a full hour without breathing if she wanted to.
But remembering the smell just now, she moved even farther away from the donkey.
She said to Fang Zhiyuan, “He farted because he ate the grass we picked. We can’t feed him that anymore. His farts are way too stinky.”
The wild donkey felt wronged and said to Jiayin telepathically, “I only farted because I ate your grass, and now you’re disgusted with me…”
Jiayin smiled sheepishly, feeling a bit embarrassed. “I didn’t know that grass would do that. So what kind of grass can you eat? Tell me, and I’ll go pick some for you.”
“I can eat fully grown grass. These newly sprouted seedlings—I can’t eat those. They make my stomach bloat. But fully grown grass is fine. Tall grass, that kind is no problem.”
Jiayin nodded. “Alright, we’ll look in the woods then.”
The grass on this slope had only sprouted in the past couple of days. To find fully grown grass, they had to go into the woods.
The wild donkey noticed Jiayin was still pinching her nose and said to her unhappily, “The smell’s been gone for a while. You can put your hand down now.”
Hearing this, Jiayin cautiously lowered her hand, wrinkled her little nose, and sniffed the air. Sure enough, there was no smell anymore.
“It’s gone,” she said, tugging at Fang Zhiyuan’s hand that was pinching his nose.
He let his hand down, still muttering, “This donkey’s farts are so stinky. We should just name him Stinky.”
Jiayin shot him a sideways glance. You came up with a name that ugly?
The donkey also blew a loud snort at him and bared his teeth to show he didn’t like it.
Fang Zhiyuan immediately understood. “Hey, you don’t like that? Then what should we call you? How about Big Black?”
The wild donkey blew another snort and bared his teeth again.
Fang Zhiyuan saw he didn’t like that one either and kept thinking. “Stinky, you don’t like. Big Black, you don’t like either. Then what should I call you?”
Jiayin asked him telepathically, “Do you have your own name?”
The wild donkey shook his head. “I was my mother’s sixth foal. They all called me Little Six.”
Jiayin’s eyes widened in surprise. “I didn’t know donkeys could count! Then we’ll call you Liu Liu.”
The wild donkey Liu Liu nodded. “Alright. That way, I don’t have to change my name.”
Jiayin remembered what he had just said and asked, “You mentioned your herd earlier. How come you were alone out there? Did you get separated from them?”
Liu Liu lowered his head sadly, sniffled, and replied, “I heard the herd leaders say there was a terrifying, powerful pressure coming from this area. They said we had to migrate somewhere else, that we couldn’t stay here anymore.”
“I got curious about what this ‘pressure’ was—I couldn’t feel it at all. So I came over to take a look… and then you caught me.”
Jiayin: “…”
She remembered what her father and mother had told her back in her past life: when you sense danger, turn around and run. Don’t stay out of curiosity to see what it is—because that curiosity might cost you your life.
Jiayin felt she now truly understood that saying.
A living example was right in front of her. If this donkey weren’t useful—able to pull a cart and do farm work—he would probably already be spiced donkey meat by now…
Fang Zhiyuan watched from the side, utterly fascinated. He couldn’t hear their conversation, but he could see the donkey’s expressions so vividly!
Wide eyes one moment, head lowered the next, then sniffing pitifully. He felt like he couldn’t take it all in. What an interesting donkey this was!
Just then, they heard Fang Youwei calling out loudly to them: “Jiayin, Dazhuang! Your dad is going to check the snares and traps. Do you want to come?”
Since he didn’t feel comfortable leaving the old and young women in the family alone, he wasn’t planning to go deep into the mountains to hunt. He would just check the nearby traps and snares to see if they’d caught any small game.
Back when they lived in Fangjia Village, he used to be gone for a day or two at a time.
But not now. This was the wilderness. Though three sides were surrounded by water, there was no guarantee that other refugees wouldn’t paddle over on wooden planks. If danger came, he wouldn’t make it back in time.