Chapter 50: More
Zhang Er glanced at the pitted ground and enthusiastically suggested, “The Xiucai Scholar has few family members. Let’s help out and fill these pits back in.”
“Right, each of us fills a few, it’s effortless.” Liu Cheng was also good at reading the situation and immediately raised his hand to call over the remaining young and strong men.
Everyone came over to help, not giving Shang Wan any chance to refuse.
Shang Wan felt complicated. She thought that after she dealt with Village Chief Lin, the villagers would fear her and keep their distance out of respect. Now it didn’t seem like that at all.
Filling the pits didn’t even take a quarter of an hour. After all, the dug-up soil was right there beside them; they just pushed it back into the pits and stamped it down.
After finishing the work, everyone bid farewell one after another, and soon only Shang Wan’s family was left.
Xiao Huan watched the departing backs of the crowd with some emotion. “There are still many good people in the village.”
Shi Tou nodded in agreement.
Shang Wan made no comment on this.
Shi Tou turned to look at her. “Sis, will the Lin Family send the silver?”
Shang Wan examined the jade pendant in her hand and casually replied, “They will.”
Shi Tou blindly trusted Shang Wan and didn’t ask why she was so certain. He happily went to tidy up the things that had been messed up.
Xiao Huan carried Yuan Yuan and walked around the area before coming back, puzzled. “Sis, didn’t you call Xiao Hui back? Why isn’t it here?”
She had originally thought Xiao Hui had proactively hidden itself to avoid scaring people, but now that everyone had left and the gray wolf still hadn’t appeared, she couldn’t help but worry a little.
“It was today’s great contributor.” Shang Wan glanced toward the mountain forest. “It’ll come back once the Lin Family sends the silver.”
Xiao Huan was baffled, but seeing that Shang Wan had no intention of saying more, she obediently didn’t press and placed Yuan Yuan on the straw mat to play with the little turtle. She rolled up her sleeves and went to help Shi Tou with the work.
Shang Wan put the jade pendant into Lu Chengjing’s arms and, while at it, pulled up the thin blanket that had slipped to his waist and straightened it over his chest.
Seeing that Shi Tou and Xiao Huan could handle that pile of messy things, Shang Wan bent down to pick up Yuan Yuan, greeted the two, and headed into the mountain to move wood.
Taking advantage of no one entering the mountain at this moment, Shang Wan wanted to test Yuan Yuan’s ability.
“Good baby, how many animals can you summon?”
Yuan Yuan tilted her little head, her big black shiny eyes clearly reflecting Shang Wan’s appearance, and said in a soft childish voice, “Lots.”
Shang Wan wasn’t sure exactly how many this “lots” meant. She sat down on a fallen tree trunk holding Yuan Yuan and pinched the little one’s chubby cheeks. “Try it. Summon as many as you can, but don’t let them roar or cry out chaotically.”
Yuan Yuan blinked her big eyes, her clever little head working hard to understand what her mother meant.
Shang Wan didn’t urge her and instead looked around at the surrounding trees, thinking about how many she should move back later.
“Come.” Yuan Yuan suddenly clapped her little palms, colorful lights flashing in her big eyes.
Shang Wan lowered her head to observe her, her ears attentively listening for movement in the mountain forest.
As Yuan Yuan’s little palms clapped faster and faster, the originally quiet mountain forest boiled over, with countless running sounds surging toward them.
Apart from various birds, the first to arrive was a leopard. Its elegant and agile figure passed through the bushes, approaching step by step, stopping two steps away. Its green-glowing beast eyes fixed tightly on Yuan Yuan, its tail gently swishing behind it for a moment before it lay down.
Seeing this action similar to submission, Shang Wan secretly raised an eyebrow. Yuan Yuan’s ability seemed more powerful than she had imagined.
Wild rabbits, squirrels, snakes, deer, wolves, wild boars, monkeys… Even with Shang Wan’s eyesight, she couldn’t count exactly how many animals there were. They were densely packed in a circular distribution centered on where the two were.
Herbivores and carnivores coexisted harmoniously. Even natural enemies didn’t take the chance to fight to the death. If seen by others, they would probably suspect they were hallucinating.
Yuan Yuan’s little hands were still clapping, the colorful lights in her eyes growing stronger, but her pink little mouth began to turn pale. This was a sign of overusing her ability.
Shang Wan immediately grabbed Yuan Yuan’s clapping little meat hands and kissed the little one’s tender white little face. “Good baby, stop clapping.”
The colorful lights in Yuan Yuan’s eyes instantly faded. She opened her mouth for a little yawn, rubbed her little head against Shang Wan’s chest, and fell asleep just like that.
Shang Wan pried open her little mouth and fed her two drops of spiritual spring water. The little one still couldn’t freely control the output of her ability yet, so someone had to watch over her when using it.
The animals smelled the scent of the spiritual spring water and became faintly restless, tentatively approaching the two.
Shang Wan swept a glance over them, and the animals instantly froze their paws, not daring to move. The furry ones bristled their fur, the hairless ones flared their scales, and a bird in mid-flight went “splat” and dropped, burying itself in the leaves to play dead.
In the past, upon encountering something more powerful than themselves, the animals would have scattered and fled long ago. But now, constrained by Yuan Yuan’s ability, they couldn’t run even if they wanted to.
Shang Wan figured that since the animals had been summoned, it would be a waste not to use them. Those fallen trees still needed clearing.
In the mountain forest, the animals were like a group of free long-term laborers, huffing and puffing as they cleared the branches and leaves from the tree trunks. Those with teeth used their teeth, those without used their claws, and those without claws cooperated with other animals to become porters.
Shang Wan spotted that familiar doe and specially went over to greet it, scaring the doe so much it didn’t dare move.
About half an hour later, under the animals’ united efforts, the fallen big trees became bare logs that could be taken back and used.
Shang Wan was quite satisfied and rewarded the animals with spiritual spring water as usual. Both sides cooperated happily.
Yuan Yuan woke up after not sleeping long. Shang Wan gently rubbed her little face. “Good baby, let them go back.”
“Okay.” Yuan Yuan was still drowsy, but whatever mother said, she agreed directly.
As her words fell, the animals scattered and ran off as if a ban had been lifted.
Shang Wan glanced at the leopard lying motionless by her feet. “Not leaving?”
Only then did the leopard slowly stand up and leave with elegant cat steps, looking back every three steps.
Shang Wan suddenly remembered another use for the beast-taming ability and poked the little one in her arms. “Good baby, want to take the leopard as a pet?”
Yuan Yuan tilted her little head, her short arms opening to hug Shang Wan. “Hug.”
“Not hug, raise a pet.”
“Mommy, hug.” Yuan Yuan didn’t care about any pet and rubbed against her fragrant mother.
Shang Wan: “…”
The baby was still too young; they’d talk about it later.
Shang Wan stored a pile of logs into her space and only released them at the foot of the mountain, easily shouldering one as she walked home.
Yuan Yuan stealthily stretched out her little hand to support the wood, helping her mother.
Shi Tou saw Shang Wan carrying the wood over and hurried to meet her, helping to place the log on the empty ground.
“Sis, let Xiao Huan sort this out. I’ll go help you move wood; it’ll be faster with two people.”
“No rush.” Shang Wan pointed at the logs on the ground. “You try first if you can move them.”
How heavy could one log be? Shi Tou had just helped Shang Wan unload wood earlier and felt it was quite easy, not taking the weight of the log seriously at all.
He bent down to hug the log and exerted force… almost straining his waist.
Shi Tou lay on the wood, doubting his life.
