Chapter 172: Night Lodging
She quickly exited the stone door. Su Ning turned on the flashlight, shouldered the back basket she had left here before, and took out the small hoe from inside to grip in her hand.
“Jiaming, you go up first?”
“Sure, I’ll clear the way for you. Watch closely!”
With a hey-hey smile, he successfully found the medicine. The old man and older brother’s injuries now had hope of being cured. His gloomy mood dissipated by more than half, and he regained some of his previous carefree demeanor.
Fu Jiaming bent down to pick up the hemp rope on the ground. He tugged it hard first and found that the knot he tied had no issues, then crouched and crawled into the pit, climbing up the slope bit by bit while pulling on the rope.
After maintaining a safe distance, Su Ning followed closely behind, imitating his movements and laboriously inching upward using the rope in her hand.
Successfully climbing out of the pit opening, Fu Jiaming was only slightly panting for breath, while she collapsed entirely on the ground.
“Hahaha, Su Ning, your stamina is really something. You need to exercise more often.”
“You think I don’t want to? This is innate!”
This wasn’t just talk. From the womb, she had relied on Mom’s daily stabilizing medicines to keep her going. Sure enough, after birth, she was weaker than her peers.
Later, Maternal Grandfather fed her medicinal cuisine with meticulous care at every meal, allowing her to be like ordinary people and no longer fall ill frequently.
Stamina was her only weakness, an irredeemable flaw. Maternal Grandfather had once joked that heaven gave her a smart brain in exchange.
“How is it? Can you manage? Or should you go back too?”
“You’re the one who’s forgotten yourself. I’m afraid you’ll turn around once and not find your way back.”
“Hey hey hey, I almost really forgot about that!”
One directionally challenged, one stamina weakling—who was in no position to laugh at whom.
After Su Ning recovered, the two began searching around for firewood first.
Since they were preparing to spend the night here, the temperature at the bottom of the cave would definitely be lower than outside the mountain. They certainly couldn’t skimp on firewood and needed to prepare plenty more.
But in the mountains, withered branches and broken wood were plentiful. It didn’t take long for the two to gather two full bundles, which should be enough no matter what.
It got dark earlier in the mountains. After the sun was blocked by the peaks, the woods took on a somewhat eerie and terrifying atmosphere.
Rubbing the goosebumps that had unconsciously appeared on her arm, Su Ning turned her head to look at the person not far away who was holding Maternal Uncle Yan’s bow and arrow, peeking around in search of small animals.
She squatted down to continue looking for any method that could directly solve the problem.
“Eh, what’s that thing?”
At a single glance, the fuzzy little round ball on the ground caught her attention. She quickly walked under that big tree, and upon looking up, immediately revealed a delighted smile.
Great, she had almost forgotten that this was exactly the time when chestnuts were ripe.
She hurriedly took off the back basket from her back and placed it by her feet, picked up the small hoe, and began smashing the naturally fallen ‘fuzzy balls’ on the ground.
Once the chestnuts inside came out, she picked them up one by one and threw them into the back basket.
There were quite a few wild chestnut trees in this area, several of them. Only when she felt it was enough for three people to eat did Su Ning stop her smash-smash-pick-pick actions.
Her eyes darted a few times, and she smoothly took out some wild onions, ginger, wild mountain peppers, and other seasonings that could be found in the mountains from the space.
“Su Ning!”
Su Ning, who was secretly doing something big, was startled by the shout and trembled all over. She forcefully patted her chest, then stood up from this weed-infested spot and shouted toward the direction of his voice, “Here.”
“You actually found wild chestnuts. Impressive, Su Ning!”
In comparison, Fu Jiaming looked even more like a flower wilted by wind and rain. He said dejectedly, “I watched that rabbit dart right past me with my own eyes!”
These small animals were too fast, and their reactions weren’t slow either. Without specialized training, it really wasn’t something he could blindly stumble upon like a blind cat finding a dead mouse.
“I think we should go to the river to catch fish instead!”
With chestnuts secured, that could fill their stomachs too, but meat would be better for faster recovery. Since catching wild rabbits or pheasants was hopeless, they could only try to see if they could catch some fish.
“Sure, then we need to hurry.”
Glancing at the watch on her wrist, Su Ning estimated the distance to that water source and nodded in agreement.
“Did you bring the things I gave you properly?”
“Rest assured, rest assured. The sachet and jade token are both here.”
He said this, but his hand still subconsciously touched them, confirming the items were indeed still there, and he nodded even more affirmatively.
These things for repelling snakes and insects and warding off evil absolutely could not be lost!
With her leading the way, the two smoothly arrived at that small pool.
The pool opening wasn’t large, emerald green and opaque in depth. It should have been formed by long-term scouring from mountain springs, streams, and rain and snow.
“There should be fish here, right?”
Scratching his head, Fu Jiaming muttered as he quickly kicked off his shoes. “Su Ning, wait for me by the small pool. I’ll go down to the stream below to try.”
“Okay, be careful!”
“Rest assured!”
Once he slowly clambered over the moss-covered stones to the stream below, Su Ning turned her head and focused intently on this pool of water.
Sure enough, upon close inspection, she saw black spots floating and swimming in the deep pool water—fish, and not small ones at that.
She couldn’t rely on that guy Fu Jiaming. Whether he could spear a fish with an arrow was entirely up to heaven’s will.
Smiling and shaking her head, she picked up his somewhat heavy back basket from the ground. Su Ning looked around and found a relatively flat spot.
She first used stones to enclose a circle, then poured all the chestnuts from the back basket into the circle to prevent them from rolling away.
With the back basket emptied, she brought it back to the pool edge, bent down holding its bamboo straps, and placed the basket into the water, sinking it more than halfway.
Immediately after, her consciousness entered the Peach Blossom Spring Space and grabbed several fish from the space’s small river, each two or three jin in weight—not too big, not too small.
When she lifted the back basket from the water again, it instantly contained lively, flopping fish.
Wasn’t this much faster and more efficient than that guy’s method?
The back basket full of fish was quite heavy, but fortunately the straps were sturdy. Even though they creaked, they didn’t suddenly break. Using all her strength, she finally dragged it successfully onto the shore.
She spat twice, then wiped the water splashed on her face by the fish tail with her hand, before rummaging through the weeds by the pool to pull out several tough grass roots.
Once the water in the back basket had mostly drained, she began prying open the fish gills, threading them onto the grass roots, and tying round knots. Soon, a string of them was ready on the ground.
“Hahaha, Su Ning, Su Ning, quick look—I caught a fish! We can have roasted fish tonight!”
A jubilant cheer came from the stream below, startling the birds resting in the trees.
“Keep it down. What if you attract a big one and have to feed it to you?”
“Cough cough~”
Embarrassed, Fu Jiaming touched his nose and made a silencing gesture. He looked up, found an easier path to climb back, and trotted happily to the pool.
When he proudly raised the palm-sized fish in his hand, waiting for praise, he finally noticed the string by her feet—tails occasionally flicking—one, two, three, four, five—five fish?!
Shocked to the point his jaw nearly dislocated, Fu Jiaming quickly used his hand to push it back up. Utterly stunned, he pointed at her and then at the fish on the ground. “You, how did you get these?”
“Here!”
“Back basket? You netted them with it?”
Damn, why was he so stupid?
If he’d known, he wouldn’t have foolishly poked around with arrows.
“Hehe, let’s go. Adding yours makes enough for us. Hurry and pick up the chestnuts to head back, or Maternal Uncle Yan will worry.”
“Okay.”
The fish he had just cherished so dearly was casually tossed beside the string. Fu Jiaming simply adopted an out-of-sight, out-of-mind attitude—once he couldn’t see it, he’d forget his foolish deed soon enough.
The two worked together, handful by handful reloading the chestnuts into the back basket.
After packing them all, Fu Jiaming shouldered the back basket again, not minding that it was soaking wet and still dripping.
“Su Ning, throw as many fish as you can fit into the back basket.”
Only two fish filled the back basket completely. Each of them carried two more in their hands as they hurried back.
By the time the sky was completely dark, the two finally found their way back to the pit.
“Su Ning, you go down first. I’ll lower the back basket and firewood using the rope—you catch them down there.”
“Okay.”
Going down was far more convenient than coming up, and faster too. After sliding to the bottom without the previous fear of the unknown, she even found it quite fun, with a unique stimulus.
“Ning Ning?”
“It’s me, Maternal Uncle Yan.”
“You finally made it back. If you didn’t, I’d have gone up to find you two!”
Maternal Uncle Yan breathed a sigh of relief and helped up the person who had slid down. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
Next, the three worked together to transport the items one by one back to the spacious, well-ventilated spot deepest in the cave.
It wasn’t long before they successfully lit the fireplace and began roasting fragrant chestnuts and fish.
