Chapter 195: I’ll Go Catch A Fish, Be Right Back
Su Ran immediately realized something was wrong.
She quickly propped up her upper body, leaned close to Hui, and reached out in the darkness to find Hui’s forehead.
But before her palm could touch Hui’s forehead, just as it brushed his face, Su Ran was startled by the scorching heat on his face!
He had a fever!
Realizing this, Su Ran panicked only for a moment before immediately getting up and fumbling in the dark to find her clothes and put them on.
Her sleeping spot was at the head of the heated brick bed, the side closest to the door.
Right next to the head of the bed was a wooden table with an oil lamp on it, which had a stone base and a cover made of thin animal hide like the animal hide window cloth. Both the stone base and lampshade were something Su Ran had come up with during winter.
Su Ran found the oil lamp, removed the cover, lit it with flint, and then took the oil lamp to check on Hui again.
This look revealed that Hui’s face was already flushed red from the fever!
His forehead was covered in fine sweat, and even his two ears were limply drooping over the top of his head.
His eyes were tightly closed, but sensing the approaching light, he opened them and looked over.
Seeing it was Su Ran, the body wrapped in the quilt scooted closer to her side, mumbled something, and then closed its eyes tightly again.
Su Ran’s chest tightened. She quickly got up and took a coat from the closet.
Then she got down from the heated brick bed, put on her shoes, and lit all the oil lamps placed at the room’s window and on the wall at the foot of the bed.
Then, holding an oil lamp, she went to the kitchen to get a backpack and came out of the room.
Before leaving, she also lit the oil lamp at the house doorway by hand.
It was still raining outside, and because it was overcast, there was no moon in the sky. The world outside the house was pitch black, and Su Ran couldn’t tell what time it was at night.
The pitch-black world outside the house frightened her for a moment, but her worry for Hui quickly overcame the fear in her heart.
She held the coat over her head to try to block the raindrops falling on her top of head, and hurried through the rain to the rain shelter on the right side of the house where the firewood was stored.
She filled the backpack with wood, and then pulled a clump of dry grass from an animal hide bag that still had half a bag left.
The dry grass in this bag had been specially dried extremely dry and was stored for use as kindling in daily life.
Then she held the clothes over her head and quickly ran back into the house carrying the backpack full of firewood.
Hui inside the room was sleeping very restlessly.
When Su Ran entered the room, his ears weakly perked up for a moment, probably recognizing her footsteps, before drooping down again soon after.
Su Ran closed the door, placed the backpack full of firewood in front of the stove inside the room, and then started making fire.
Once the fire was burning, she first put a large wooden jar of water on the stove, then pushed open the room’s window a small crack to prevent the smoke from the newly lit fire from choking Hui.
Then she took a clean sheep wool towel and soaked and wrung it out with the slightly warm hot water that had been boiled before bed and poured into the wooden jar.
She first wiped the fine sweat from Hui’s forehead, then gradually wiped his neck, chest, thighs, paying special attention to the armpits, thigh roots, knee pits, soles of the feet, and palms.
Even the two ears that felt hot to the touch were not missed.
As she wiped different areas, Su Ran gradually lifted the nearby quilt, and immediately covered it back after wiping to prevent Hui from getting cold again.
While Su Ran was doing this, Hui, already delirious from the high fever, instinctively wrapped his arms around Su Ran’s waist, wanting to burrow into her embrace.
Su Ran cupped his face and rubbed her nose tip against Hui’s nose tip. The nose bridge that usually felt cool and smooth to the touch was now warm from the elevated body temperature.
Su Ran removed the hands holding Hui, tucked in his quilt, then bent down and said by his ear: “I’m going to get a fish. I’ll be back soon~”
“Wu~”
Hearing this, Hui, who had buried his face in the quilt because he felt cold, perked up his ears on top of his head with a “whoosh,” and then lifted his entire face out from the quilt.
But the expression on his face and his eyes that could barely open were filled with haziness.
Su Ran took the coat she had just used to cover her head and wrapped it around the area above his head to block the wind blowing in from the opened window crack.
“Keep sleeping. I’ll be quick.”
“Ao wu~”
Another weak and powerless whimper. Hui slightly lifted his head, opened his eyes to look at Su Ran, then gently nodded.
Su Ran leaned down and kissed him again.
Su Ran planned to use red mushroom to make some fish soup for Hui to drink.
The medicines she brought had expired and were inedible half a year ago, so now she could only use this world’s methods to help Hui recover quickly.
Red mushroom had a very good effect for dispelling cold, and Hui had been chilled by today’s rain, which was exactly right for it.
But now, she had to go to the riverside to catch a fish!
This time when going out, Su Ran directly put on the raincoat.
She held the oil lamp with its rough lampshade, came out of the house, went to the storage room to get a net bag for catching fish, and headed to the riverside with the net bag.
After an evening plus midnight of rain, beyond the stone ground laid in front of the house door, the soil ground became especially slippery.
Su Ran, carrying the oil lamp and in a hurry, nearly fell and flung the oil lamp out several times.
Moreover, the closer to the riverside, the farther from the house, the more open the surrounding environment became.
By the time she reached the riverside, she could no longer even see the light of the oil lamp hanging at the house doorway on the slope behind her!
For a moment, Su Ran even felt like she was deeply trapped in a dark void, as if her feet weren’t stepping on soil but floating in the air.
In that instant, all the body hair on her stood up, the heartbeat in her chest was so loud it caused tinnitus, and she even felt like her heart was blocked in her chest!
The fear of the night made Su Ran briefly stiffen all over for a moment!
Then she took a deep breath, slowly exhaled, and jumped hard on the ground twice. The feeling of solid ground under her feet calmed her heart.
She bent down and placed the oil lamp in her hand on the riverbank. The glow of the oil lamp cast a small circle of light around her.
Then she held the pole of the net bag for catching fish and carefully looked into the water.
At night, if light appears, nearby fish will swim over, and catching them isn’t difficult.
Su Ran didn’t need many; one would be enough.
Sure enough, after waiting less than two minutes, within the range illuminated by the light, a blue fish swam in wagging its tail.
Su Ran was quick-eyed and quick-handed; she scooped up the net bag and slammed it down, trapping the big fish underneath in one go.
She hurriedly exerted force, quickly flipped the net bag up, and flung the fish onto the river beach.
The night was deep, and amid the patter of fine rain, the sound of the fish jumping and struggling on the river beach could be heard: “Plop! Plop!”
Hello, treasures!
This story has reached the end here. There’s just one last plot left, which will be written in the next couple of days, and there should be one or two extra chapters afterward, which will also be posted later.
This is my first book that I managed to write to 400,000 words. Although the writing isn’t great and many plots have issues, I’m still very happy to have persisted in writing it.
I also hope you all enjoyed reading it~
Also, the new book is already in preparation, tentatively a post-apocalyptic story. Fans who like it, welcome to keep following~
(It’s the last few days of the month, begging for some votes)
