Chapter 74:
Luo Zhi’er held Miaomiao as they shuttled through the forest, thinking about things in her head, losing focus for a moment.
Unknowingly, they walked into a place with particularly many leeches, and Luo Zhi’er felt they were surrounded by leeches!
Looking down the path, it turned out the small path below was a slope, with cogongrass, small vines growing on the slope, and a cliff face of a hundred or so meters below the slope!
Without looking carefully, she wouldn’t have known she was on top of a cliff.
“Ah, Mother, you’re bleeding on your face, there’s a leech!”
She was startled awake by Miaomiao’s cry of alarm.
Miaomiao was so scared she planned to quickly stretch out her little hand to pull it off for her, but only then did Luo Zhi’er feel a bit itchy and painful on her face. She set down Miaomiao and slapped it with a smack…
The leech curled up and fell to the ground, and Miaomiao quickly lifted her foot and stomped it to death…”Stinky leech! Stomp you dead, for sucking Mother’s blood!”
Luo Zhi’er chuckled lightly,
“Miaomiao, next time you see a leech sucking blood, don’t pull it off with your hand, slap it off like this!”
Miaomiao swallowed some saliva, “Got it, Mother.”
“And also, move your foot away and look…”
Miaomiao puzzledly moved her foot away and opened her eyes wide, “Mother, why is this leech still moving after being stomped into several pieces?”
“Leeches like this won’t die, they’re a bit like earthworms, soft-bodied animals, and breaking into several pieces will turn them into little leeches…”
“Even boiling water can’t scald them to death…”
“Mother, these leeches are really so scary! Let’s leave here quickly, it would be good if we could kill them all!”
Miaomiao was already trembling all over, after all, she was just a young maid.
Luo Zhi’er was also thinking in her mind of ways to kill them; she remembered this thing was afraid of salt, but where to buy so much salt?
It was also afraid of fire, but she couldn’t set the mountain ablaze…
Looking at this place ravaged by these things, it was originally deep in the mountain range, with ferocious beasts rampant, fierce birds blotting out the sky, and strange medicinal herbs everywhere…
Now there wasn’t even a single small animal, the branches and leaves here, cogongrass, medicinal herbs had all been gnawed ragged, some withered and dead…
Not even a bird was seen flying by, only those meat-eating birds flying past from high places on the cliff face, probably waiting for them to be besieged by leeches!
At that moment, Miaomiao probably wanted to turn back, but her foot slipped.
Somehow, she slid down the small path along the cogongrass with a whoosh.
Only then did Luo Zhi’er become alert—this below was a cliff! “Miaomiao!”
Miaomiao let out a sharp cry, “Mother!”
The terrified scream echoed in the wilderness…
Luo Zhi’er was scared out of her wits and quickly reached out to grab her, but unfortunately it was a step too late.
She only touched the clothes on her back and watched helplessly as she slid toward the cliff face, “No, Miaomiao!”
Luo Zhi’er didn’t even dare open her eyes to look—why?
She shouldn’t have brought Miaomiao here—regret! Despair!
Just as she was in despair, a very small branch actually blocked her!
“Mother, Mother!”
Miaomiao’s feet were stepping on a stone block, her body wedged between two tree roots, and she herself was holding onto a branch, not continuing to fall down…
Luo Zhi’er let out a long breath of relief, still shaken, “Miaomiao, you absolutely must not move, Mother is coming down to save you right now!”
She quickly set down the bamboo basket, looked at the path, and stuck the sickle in her waistband.
She was too fat; to avoid creating a secondary risk of Miaomiao falling, she slid down slowly along the side of the path Miaomiao had just slid down…
That below her was a cliff face of nearly a hundred meters!
If she fell, Miaomiao would be in real trouble today!
She figured she wouldn’t fare much better either; if she couldn’t survive today, there would just be two piles of white bones below this cliff face!
Just as she was being extremely careful, panicking deep inside… Miaomiao saw many, many leeches crawling on her body, and was extremely scared!
She had applied a thick layer of medicated oil on her body; these leeches were rubbed onto her when she fell just now.
Because of the temporary barrier of the animal skin clothing, they hadn’t yet entered her skin to suck blood, but she was very scared—big fat ones wriggling on her body…
Arms, hands…
At this time, one was already crawling from the back of her head near her ear toward her face.
Scared to the point she could only cry for Mother.
“Mother, Miaomiao is scared, there are leeches!”
“Miaomiao, hold on a bit, don’t move, it won’t suck your blood for now, even if it bites it’s okay, Mother is coming down to save you right away!”
She couldn’t care about the leeches crawling on her body anymore, single-mindedly thinking of getting to Miaomiao’s side quickly.
Grabbing nearby branches and vines, stepping on tree roots and sharp stones, after a series of movements, she finally groped her way to near Miaomiao.
She took out the sickle and chiseled a few small pits nearby as stepping footholds, comforting Miaomiao.
“Miaomiao, Mother is here!”
“Come, give your hand to Mother, come into Mother’s arms.”
“Mother, boo… Miaomiao doesn’t dare!”
She didn’t dare let go, scared to the point of sobbing.
“Don’t be afraid, give your hand to Mother, Mother will definitely catch you!”
Luo Zhi’er’s confident and steadfast tone gave Miaomiao courage and confidence; finally, she let go of the branch in her hand, reached out, and leaped toward her arms.
Luo Zhi’er grabbed her hand and pulled her over.
Watching the stone block under her feet fall away, her heart filled with terror, but also relief.
Her heart had almost jumped out just now; if something happened to Miaomiao today, she would never forgive herself in this lifetime.
She touched her sweat-soaked forehead hair: “Good Miaomiao, hold onto Mother’s neck, Mother will take you up right now…”
Miaomiao was only about sixty pounds or so, still easy for her, but her own body weight was heavy, and climbing up this slippery cliff slope with small branches was extremely dangerous and difficult.
“Okay, Mother!”
Miaomiao was very obedient and compliant, not moving around.
She then pulled out the sickle from her waist and continued chiseling small pits, grabbing branches, stepping steadfastly one step at a time!
While chiseling with the sickle, something felt off; she felt there was some hard object under the soil layer, making the blade tip clang.
She thought it was a stone or old tree root and didn’t pay it any mind, continuing to chisel forcefully.
Something was wrong, because a shiny golden thing in the soil flashed in the sunshine, nearly blinding her eyes.
“Mother, what’s wrong with you?”
“Nothing, Miaomiao, hold tight to Mother.”
Luo Zhi’er curiously continued prodding with the blade tip; at this point, a golden object the size of an egg was revealed from the soil.
Out of instinct, she carefully chiseled away the surrounding soil with the knife, then gently dug it open with her hand.
In the dirt pit, a medium-sized, round, exquisitely crafted bowl appeared!
“Mother, who, who threw a bowl here?”
Miaomiao was baffled.
Luo Zhi’er’s eyes spun, suddenly showing excitement; she picked it up, wiped off the dirt, and a shiny dragon fish gold bowl came clearly into view, with green and red gems inlaid around the bowl…
Luo Zhi’er couldn’t help but put it in her mouth and bite it—heavens!
This… this was truly a bowl made of pure gold!
