Chapter 14: What I Forgot Last Night, I Have To Make Up For Tonight
The tiger was the king of beasts after all. Though injured, its power was still formidable. In the end, the wolf pack left behind about ten wolf corpses under the head wolf’s call and departed.
With Lin Xin’s strength, she could still put up a fight against a mutated tiger in the apocalypse, let alone this ordinary tiger that was now at the end of its rope.
The reason she had hidden before was entirely because she was afraid Lin Nan would be scared. Now knowing he wasn’t just unafraid but even saw the tiger as a big cat, she no longer needed to stay up in the tree.
“Sis, the big cat has lost so much blood. Will it die?” Lin Nan looked at the big cat lying motionless on the ground and asked worriedly.
“No.” Lin Xin replied. For the sake of the little one’s fondness for this tiger, even if it only had one breath left, she had to save it.
It was said that animals’ senses were the sharpest. This tiger seemed to know Lin Nan’s affection for it and that Lin Xin meant no harm, so it showed no rejection toward their approach. Even when Lin Nan’s little hand quietly touched its back, it merely flicked its tail and didn’t move at all.
Lin Xin was satisfied with the tiger’s perceptiveness. She reached out and touched the wound torn by wolf bites on its body. Wood element ability slowly circulated, and those wounds began to heal at a visible speed.
“Wow! Sis, the big cat is amazing. Look, the wounds on its body are almost healed.”
“Yes, the big cat is very powerful.”
Lin Xin smiled, hiding her merit and name.
At the same time, she gave the tiger a threatening gaze, not thinking she hadn’t seen its resentful look just now.
Tiger: ······ I’m the king of the forest!
After all the wounds were healed, the tiger stood up, shook its body, turned back to look at Lin Xin. It knew all too well who was in charge among the three of them.
“Sis, the big cat is better now.” Lin Nan stroked the tiger’s glossy fur with his little hand and said somewhat reluctantly.
“Mm, it’s better.” Lin Xin nodded. “Nan Nan, the big cat has its own home. It needs to go home now. If you miss it later, sis will bring you to see it again, okay?”
“Okay.” Lin Nan nodded obediently, then stood in front of the big tiger, hands clasped seriously behind his back, and said to it: “In the future, be smarter. If you can’t beat those big dogs, just avoid them. Otherwise, what if they bite you again next time when we’re not around?”
Lin Xin nearly burst out laughing and quickly turned away. It was the first time she’d heard someone tell a tiger to hide from a wolf pack. If this tiger really understood his words, who knew what it would think—probably want to swat him dead with one paw!
Lin Nan didn’t know his big sis was silently roasting him. He chattered on to the tiger with lots more words, all along the lines of having some sense, that hiding from danger wasn’t shameful. Lin Xin nearly laughed herself to death listening. He was probably imparting all his own experience to the tiger.
“Alright, Nan Nan, we should head back. Say goodbye to the big cat and let’s go.”
“Oh, then big cat, sis and I are going home. Our home is at the foot of the mountain. If those big dogs bite you again next time, come to my home. Sis can put medicine on you. But you heal pretty fast on your own, so you probably don’t need medicine. You go home too!” With that, he obediently went to Lin Xin’s side and took her hand.
After Lin Xin’s figure holding Lin Nan was out of sight, the tiger shook its body hard again, smoothing out the fur Lin Nan had messed up, stood in place for a while longer, then followed behind them.
They’d gone into the deep mountain just to watch the tiger and wolves fight. No firewood gathered, no hunting done, nothing accomplished. With Lin Nan there, even the wolf corpses were left untouched—talk about a huge loss.
Going back empty-handed was impossible. So, every wild chicken and wild rabbit she encountered along the way was out of luck. Whenever she saw one, she first used her supernatural ability to manipulate wild grass to bind their legs, then pierced their heads with small stones, ensuring she didn’t miss a single one.
“Wow! Sis, you’re so awesome. This is the······” Lin Nan counted on his little fingers for a long time but couldn’t figure out exactly how many wild rabbits he had in hand, so he looked up at his sis.
“The eighth one. One, two, three······ seven, eight. A total of eight.” Lin Xin bent all his little fingers into his palm one by one, then straightened three of them, telling him that was eight.
“Mm-hmm, Nan Nan remembers.” Lin Nan happily looked at his three raised little fingers and said.
“Nan Nan is so smart.” Lin Xin habitually praised him, then asked: “What does Nan Nan want to eat tonight? Roast chicken? Beggars’ chicken? Roast rabbit? Stewed rabbit or stir-fried rabbit?”
Lin Nan looked at the back basket crammed full of rabbits, bit his lip in thought, then shook his head and said: “Nan Nan hasn’t tried any of these. Can sis make them all for Nan Nan?”
Lin Xin: ······ Are you sure eating all of them won’t stuff us to death?
“Can’t make them all. Nan Nan can pick two.” She decisively refused.
“Then······ beggars’ chicken and······ roast rabbit?” Lin Nan thought hard and finally made a difficult decision.
“Good, beggars’ chicken and roast rabbit it is!”
Lin Xin’s cooking skills were very good. She’d even thought about saving up enough money to quit her job and become a full-time food blogger, but unfortunately, before she could realize that ambition, the apocalypse came. Sigh.
Looking at the fragrant roast rabbit and beggars’ chicken, steaming rice, and stir-fried vegetables, Lin Xin felt a rare moment of melancholy, but it was quickly dispelled by the chicken leg Lin Nan held to her mouth. She grinned and took a big bite. Mm, so tasty!
After dinner, she got Lin Nan cleaned up early, cleaned herself up too, then took Lin Nan to lie down on the kang. What she’d forgotten last night needed to be made up for tonight—recharge her energy first.
At midnight, the entire village fell silent. Lin Xin opened her eyes, glanced at Lin Nan sleeping like a little piglet beside her, gently removed his little leg draped over her belly, tucked him in properly with his little quilt, then quickly got up and went out the door.
She reached the Lin family old house without obstruction. The courtyard wall wasn’t high; Lin Xin lightly jumped and grabbed the top, nimbly flipped over into the courtyard. Based on the original owner’s memory, she found Old Madam Lin and Old Man Lin’s room, preparing to give them a “loving education” first.
But as she approached the window, she suddenly heard voices inside. She was puzzled—these two old folks had such good stamina, still not sleeping at midnight? Truly vigorous in old age!
To avoid seeing something intimate later, Lin Xin cautiously approached the window and listened carefully first.
This listen—well then, turns out these two were discussing how to deal with her and her brother.
“Old man, can you really lure that little bastard Lin Nan out?”
“I definitely can’t, but someone can. Did you forget? In the whole village, only the clan leader’s little grandson is willing to play with him. Trick that kid properly, and are you still worried about not luring out the little bastard?” Old Man Lin’s voice was sinister, nothing like a grandfather talking about his own grandson.
“What if the clan leader finds out? He’ll kick us out of the clan! Yang Ge’er still has the imperial examination!”
“Finds out? If you’re afraid of that, it’s easy—just deal with the little bastard together, or toss him to the back mountain. A little kid getting bitten to death by wild beasts is perfectly normal.”
Lin Xin listened until her eyes blazed with fury. These two old farts not only wanted to sell Lin Nan, but also drag the old clan leader’s family into it, even planning to kill their child. This wasn’t just bad—it was poisonous.
