Chapter 172: Fish Bait
At the breakfast table, Shi Tou and Xiao Huan stared at Lu Chengjing’s neck again and again, unable to resist asking, “Brother-in-law, what happened to your neck?”
This big green patch looked just like a piece of vegetable leaves smeared on it.
“Mosquito bite.” Little Friend Chu Xu grabbed a poached egg and answered quickly, “I just asked.”
Xiao Huan worriedly said, “What mosquito bites such a big patch? It’s not fleas or poisonous bugs, is it?”
Shi Tou took a sip of porridge and puzzledly said, “I specially fumigated yesterday, how are there still mosquitoes? Why are there no mosquitoes in my room?”
Lu Chengjing: “…”
His ears had a tendency to heat up.
“Ahem, your brother-in-law attracts mosquito bites.” Shang Wan suppressed her upturned lip corners and picked a soup dumpling into the embarrassed someone’s bowl.
“Mother.” Yuan Yuan pushed her small bowl toward her mother, the cub wanted some too.
Shang Wan also picked one for her and warmly instructed, “Be careful, it’s hot.”
“Not afraid!” Yuan Yuan patted her small bib with her oily small hand, the cub was very brave.
Shang Wan chuckled. Chu Xu nagged Yuan Yuan all day, and the little baby girl knew more and more words.
After breakfast, Shang Wan carried baskets of stir-fried cliff ginger slices to the small platform for drying medicine. With her skills, she jumped up and down directly, no need for a ladder.
Chu Xu watched enviously. He also wanted such good skills.
“Aunt Shang, can you teach me martial arts practice?”
“This of mine isn’t really martial arts. I haven’t learned systematically either, teaching you would only mislead you.” Shang Wan tapped his little head, “Your family is a general’s lineage, you definitely have inherited martial arts. It’s better to learn from your family’s than these wild tricks from me.”
His family did have inherited spear technique, but Chu Xu didn’t like using spears. Compared to spears, he preferred using knives.
Shang Wan said, “One inch long, one inch strong. You even said you want to go to the battlefield to earn military merit and become a general later. Learning spear technique well does no harm. If you really like knives, you can learn both. Anyway, you’re still small. True experts don’t pick weapons.”
Hearing this, Chu Xu immediately recalled the scene of Shang Wan killing the assassin with a leaf that day. It was so cool!
He followed behind Shang Wan like a little tail, chasing and asking, “Aunt Shang, how did you become so awesome?”
“Fought for it.” Shang Wan replaced zombies, “If I put you in a place surrounded by vicious wolves, if you don’t kill those wolves, you’ll be eaten. Day after day, year after year, never slacking off for a moment. After a long time, you’ll have life-preserving skills too.”
Chu Xu surprisedly opened his mouth. He didn’t expect Shang Wan’s experiences to be so rough. Wasn’t this the method big families use to cultivate death warriors?
Could Aunt Shang have been a death warrior before?
But death warriors were emotionless murder tools. How could there be one with Shang Wan’s lively personality who could even marry and have children?
His little head couldn’t figure it out. Chu Xu raised his hand and patted it, looking at Shang Wan with eyes full of sympathy.
Shang Wan: ???
What was this kid thinking?
Chu Xu patted his chest and seriously said, “Aunt Shang, don’t worry. I’ll keep your secret for you.”
Shang Wan was full of question marks, “…What secret?”
“I absolutely won’t tell others your real identity.” Chu Xu raised his small hand in a swearing gesture, “Not even to parents or Elder Brother.”
Shang Wan: “…”
Fine, whatever.
“Good boy.” She raised her hand and rubbed the kid’s head, “Those assassins probably won’t come. I need to go check the field in a bit. You go play by yourself.”
Chu Xu stood still and didn’t leave. His eyes turned twice, and he softly asked, “Aunt Shang, can I go into the mountains to play with Yuan Yuan?”
He hadn’t mentioned it before for fear of causing trouble to everyone. Now hearing the assassins wouldn’t come, his little thoughts became active. He really wanted to go into the mountains and have fun.
“Ask Yuan Yuan.” Shang Wan didn’t care how the two children played, “Go if Yuan Yuan is willing to take you.”
“Okay!” Chu Xu immediately bounced off to find Yuan Yuan.
Yuan Yuan had just had Aunt Xiao Huan fill a bottle of goat milk for her, slung the small milk bottle on her back, and was ready to set off.
She had received a task from her mother today: to bring back the doe that had given birth to a cub.
Mother said her own rations had to be found by herself, independence starts from a young age.
She would definitely complete the task!
“Yuan Yuan, Yuan Yuan, can I go too?” Chu Xu clung to the door frame, looking eagerly at Yuan Yuan… riding the gray wolf.
Riding a wolf was so majestic. He wanted to too!
Yuan Yuan blinked her big eyes and tilted her head to look at him, “Go… there?”
“Into the mountains.” Chu Xu walked over and reached out to touch Xiao Hui, “I want to go into the mountains to play with you. I asked Aunt Shang, and she told me to ask you.”
“No.” Yuan Yuan made claws with her small hands and opened her small mouth, letting out a woof at Chu Xu, “Axes… tigers.”
“I’m not afraid.” Chu Xu’s little abacus clicked away, “You’ll protect me, it’ll be fine.”
Yuan Yuan pouted her small mouth, “No!”
She had a task today and couldn’t play with little brother.
“Good… good.” Yuan Yuan reached out her little meat hand to pat Chu Xu’s arm. She’d play with little brother when she came back. Little brother had to be good.
Chu Xu wanted to say more, but Yuan Yuan patted Xiao Hui, “Go!”
One person and one wolf ran out of the courtyard in the blink of an eye.
“Hey!” Chu Xu immediately ran after them, “Yuan Yuan, wait for me!”
He only hated that he hadn’t been born with two more legs!
Shang Wan saw from the platform and shook her head with a tsk, “The kid’s got quite the plan.”
The kid definitely saw Yuan Yuan riding the wolf being majestic and wanted to ride a wolf through Yuan Yuan.
Unfortunately, her own cub didn’t take the bait and ditched this little brother.
Seeing Chu Xu chasing farther and farther with no intention of turning back, Shang Wan touched her chin, a playful smile flashing in her eyes.
The bait was cast, the fish should bite soon, right?
She packed up the medicinal herbs, jumped down from the platform, went to the woodshed to get the bamboo basket, slung it over her shoulder, and headed into the mountains.
On the other side, Chu Xu kept chasing behind and lost one person and one wolf as soon as he entered the woods.
“Not even waiting for me. When I get back, I won’t let you on the swing.” Chu Xu muttered complaints, turning his little head to look around, “Which way did they go?”
Everything in the dense forest felt the same. Turning a few circles made him dizzy.
Chu Xu patted his head, squatted down to look at footprints, studied for a long time, and finally followed his feeling in a direction to continue chasing.
Shang Wan, who had followed, was amused to the point of laughing.
The kid had quite the guts. Not only did he bravely choose the opposite direction, he advanced without hesitation. Did he really think the jackals, wolves, and tigers in the woods were vegetarian?
Chu Xu wasn’t gutsy; he really thought the direction he was chasing was correct.
He had even planned: if he didn’t catch up by the count of three hundred, he’d go back the way he came.
Then… he magnificently got lost.
“I remember coming from here. Where’s the stone I left?” Chu Xu trotted around with his short little legs looking everywhere, completely unaware that danger was approaching.
“Seems like this one.” Chu Xu bent down to pick up a gray stone, feeling it was especially like the one he dropped.
He looked at the dense forest ahead and confidently said, “This way.”
With one step of his short little legs, he bravely advanced.
