Jian Yue spotted something she could use, and a plan formed in her mind.
But the moment she turned to carry it out, she saw the child who had jumped down from the tree.
Jian Yue’s brows knitted tightly. At the sight, she felt like her heart was about to leap out of her chest.
Not to mention the fierce, rough wild boar eyeing them hungrily.
“Damn it!” Jian Yue couldn’t help but curse.
There was no time to think. Jian Yue turned and ran toward them.
The child had jumped down and seemed to have twisted his ankle—his small face contorted in pain as he struggled to get up.
The wild boar behind him saw this and stopped ramming the tree, instead charging at the child…
Without a second thought, Jian Yue leaped, kicking the thick-hided boar square on. Using the momentum, she flipped mid-air, rolled with a somersault, scooped the child into her arms, and bolted.
“Xiao Er, don’t you dare come down!” Jian Yue shouted, afraid that Xiao Er, who was holding his younger brother up in the tree, might jump down too.
She knew that with this body—not the sturdiest to begin with—that kick of hers would only stun the boar for a moment before it recovered.
So once she had the child in her arms, she headed in one direction. Over there, there was a sharp, large rock she could use as a weapon.
“You…” Ye Xixing, suddenly grabbed and held, couldn’t process what was happening. How was he seeing his stepmother, who was supposed to be dead?
By the time he snapped out of it, they had already run a good distance.
The shock in his eyes was impossible to hide.
“Quiet.” Jian Yue was fully focused on dealing with the wild boar and had no time to entertain whatever the child wanted to say.
“…” Ye Xixing knew the situation was urgent. No matter how shaken he was inside, escaping this boar was the priority.
But he couldn’t stop wondering: Was his stepmother alive? Why was she here? And why had she come to save him?
Still, he couldn’t help but dwell on these thoughts.
Ye Xixing clenched his fists, then wrapped his arms around Jian Yue’s neck, trying not to think too much and to lighten the burden he placed on her.
The boar, angered by the kick, saw the constantly moving humans and charged at Jian Yue with its four powerful, stubby legs.
Fortunately, Jian Yue had been through all kinds of fights in the modern world, even if she was now using this body.
With the right leverage and technique, the boar—despite its strong legs—still fell just short of catching her.
Jian Yue’s eyes swept quickly across the surroundings. She needed to set the child down, then go kill that boar.
“Why don’t you just drop me? You’re fast—without me, you’d be even faster.” Ye Xixing, seeing the boar relentlessly giving chase, loosened his grip around his stepmother’s neck.
Whatever reason she had for saving him, he knew he was dead weight right now.
“Shut up.”
Jian Yue spotted the rock she had seen earlier and didn’t want the little brat saying anything to distract her.
Ye Xixing fell silent at that, not daring to speak again.
But soon, he felt his stepmother actually set him down!
Ye Xixing froze.
He knew that letting go of him, a burden, was the sensible choice.
But… somehow, his heart still ached. A long-suppressed grievance nearly broke through the surface.
Fortunately, he was no longer a child. No matter how bitter or unfair it felt, he could swallow it down bit by bit.
But after being set down, the boar didn’t attack him. Instead, he heard its enraged roar.
Ye Xixing snapped his head up and saw a sight he would never forget for the rest of his life.
Jian Yue had somehow picked up a large rock.
The sharp edge of it plunged straight into the boar’s eye!
The boar shrieked in agony, driven into a frenzy, charging at Jian Yue with reckless abandon.
As it was about to slam into her, Ye Xixing felt his heart nearly stop, his breath catching in his throat.
But Jian Yue swiftly freed one hand, grabbed the boar’s long tusk, and used the leverage to vault herself onto its back.
She drove the rock precisely into the boar’s vulnerable throat, but it wasn’t deep enough—she had to push harder, forcing it in further.
At the same time, she leaped off the boar’s back and pulled the child, who was about to be trampled, into her arms.
Ye Xixing, who had braced himself to be struck by the maddened boar, found himself in a warm embrace the very next second.
For a moment, his mouth opened and closed, until finally, two words slipped out: “Step… mother…”
His stepmother had saved him. And the ferocity she had shown against the boar—none of it was anything he had ever seen from her before.
It gave him the strange feeling that this wasn’t his stepmother, but someone else entirely. Yet they shared the same face, and he couldn’t bring himself to doubt it.
This is the stepmother—the stepmother really came to save him!
But wasn’t she supposed to be selfish and only care about herself?
And since when… had the stepmother become this capable?!
Ye Xixing couldn’t wrap his head around it.
“Are you… alright?” Ye Xixing asked awkwardly, hearing her heavy breathing.
“I’m fine. Not dying.”
Jian Yue paused for a moment longer, then remembered that the two little ones were still up in that tree. The night was growing darker, and the mountain was even more dangerous at night.
She sat up, and Ye Xixing could clearly see the blood covering half of Jian Yue’s face—it looked rather frightening at a glance.
But Ye Xixing remained surprisingly calm, unafraid of the blood-soaked Jian Yue. He even hesitated for a moment before reaching out to wipe her face.
Jian Yue stiffened at the little one’s gesture…