Porridge (1)
Qin Yining chased a few steps forward, but she was not as fast as the child. She could only watch the back of the child wearing animal skin disappear into the bushes.
Even hunters would not come to this desolate mountain to hunt. How could a seven or eight-year-old child appear here?
Could there be a village nearby?
Qin Yining was puzzled, but in the blink of an eye, his attention was attracted by the wild rabbit on the ground.
It was a slightly fat gray rabbit. The fur on its body had been roughly processed and roasted. However, it was obvious that the person who roasted the rabbit wasn't skilled enough. It was roasted until it was dripping with blood and its internal organs weren't cleaned.
Qin Yining guessed that it was the child's handiwork. She wondered when the child had discovered her. However, Qin Yining was certain that the child did not harbor any hostility toward her. It was a habit she had developed over the years, so she did not detect any hostility from the child. Besides, if the child did harbor any hostility, the child would not have given her such precious food.
Qin Yining carried the rabbit and walked a little further away with a dagger. He carefully dealt with the rabbit's internal organs, cut off the burnt fur, and buried it together with the internal organs in the snow to prevent the smell of blood from attracting other wild beasts. He then used the snow to carefully wash the rabbit meat and his own hands. After burying the dirty snow again, he returned with the properly treated rabbit.
Qin Yining went to pick up some more firewood because the fire was no longer burning brightly.
Now that she had a machete and a dagger, it was much more convenient for her to chop firewood. She also used a knife to cut off the wet parts of the firewood. This way, the smoke would be much less.
Qin Yining skewered the rabbit with a tree branch and carefully roasted it over the fire.
Although there was no salt, the aroma of the roasted meat still caused her stomach to rumble. After starving for two days, she had only eaten a roasted frog with little meat. In fact, she was already very hungry.
Just then, Qin Yining heard the rustling of small animals moving in the snow.
She looked up at the source of the sound and saw a small figure squatting behind the shrubs.
Perhaps it was because they had just met face to face, but the child didn't run away the moment he saw her. Instead, he carefully squatted and inched forward, stretching his neck and wrinkling his dirty face. He kept twitching his little nose to sniff the aroma of the roasted rabbit.
Qin Yining couldn't help but laugh.
"Oh, it's you. Did you catch this rabbit?" Qin Yining waved at the child as he roasted the rabbit.
The child seemed to be startled by her sudden voice. She blinked her big bright eyes and stared blankly at her.
Qin Yining was a little puzzled.
This child looked about seven or eight years old. He should be able to understand her, right?
But living in such a deep mountain, perhaps it was a tribe that did not communicate with the outside world? What if he didn't understand her?
Qin Yining used a dagger to cut off a piece of roasted meat and handed it to the child. "This is for you." She was afraid that she didn't understand, so she even gestured to him.
This time, the child finally understood. Like an agile little monkey, he ran over and squatted down beside Qin Yining. He carefully used his little dirty hand to grab the piece of meat on the tip of the knife.
Qin Yining was startled by him. She was afraid that she would cut his hand, so she hurriedly retracted her hand.
"Be careful not to cut yourself."
She took off the piece of meat and handed it to him.
The child was originally very disappointed when she didn't give him the meat. Now that he saw her use her white jade-like hands to feed him the roasted meat, he was as happy as a little puppy. He swallowed the meat in one bite and narrowed his big eyes.
Qin Yining was amused by his funny behavior. She couldn't help but ask, "Do you live here?"
The child stared at the roasted rabbit and nodded.
Qin Yining was delighted when she saw this. This child could understand her!
"What's your name? How old are you? "
The child continued to stare at the roasted rabbit.
Qin Yining used a knife to slice off the roasted meat on the surface and fed it to the child.
The child ate very happily, as if he hadn't eaten for a long time. His mouth was covered in oil, and his eyes curved into crescents as he smiled.
Qin Yining felt sorry for him when she saw him like this. She asked again, "Where's your family?"
"They, they, they're dead."
This time, the child actually opened his mouth to speak!
However, as soon as he spoke, Qin Yining realized that there was a problem. The child's voice was a little hoarse from not speaking for a long time. His pronunciation was also very stiff, as if speaking was an extremely difficult task for him.
"Are you saying that your family is all dead?" Qin Yining fed him another piece of meat.
The child nodded as he chewed. He pointed in a certain direction and then pointed at the sword next to Qin Yining's hand.
Qin Yining was stunned.
She thought of the four corpses.
Three of them were wearing Zhou Dynasty military uniforms, and one of them was wearing casual clothes. It was obvious that they were all male corpses. Moreover, they had perished together while fighting one against three. Judging from the degree of decay of the clothes, the four corpses had been dead for at least three or four years.
Qin Yining looked at the child with pity. "Is there anyone else in your family?"
The child shook his head.
"Then, where do you live? How old are you this year? What's your name? "
The child pointed in another direction and said awkwardly, "I live in a house. I'm nine years old. I'm called Xiaolian."
"You're called Xiaolian? Is it the Lian from Lianhua? " Qin Yining looked at the child carefully. Because the child was young and dirty, it was impossible to tell whether he was a boy or a girl just by looking at his appearance.
Xiaolian nodded. "Lianhua. In the vat. There's. Lianhua. My name."
Qin Yining smiled and nodded. It seemed that this was a little girl.
Qin Yining's hands didn't stop moving. He gave her another piece of meat.
Even though the meat wasn't salted, she still enjoyed it very much. She even tried her best to express, "It's delicious. It's, it's better than the meat I roasted."
Qin Yining's heart ached when he heard this. "Do you usually roast meat by yourself?"
Xiaolian nodded and pointed in the direction where Qin Yining had found the corpses. She continued, "Uncle is (dead)."
Qin Yining somewhat understood.
The man who had been killed by the three people from the Zhou Dynasty was this child's only family member. Without her family, she could only eat the half-roasted prey that she had roasted herself to satisfy her hunger.
Qin Yining thought of the half-roasted rabbit that Xiaolian had secretly given her earlier. She knew that this child must have been eating this kind of thing all these years.
She couldn't help but stroke her head lovingly.
A nine-year-old child had already lived alone in this kind of deep mountain forest for three or four years!
It would have been fine if she hadn't encountered them. But since they had encountered them, she couldn't ignore them anymore.
With this in mind, Qin Yining made up her mind. "Xiaolian, can you take me to your house?"
Xiaolian nodded happily. She reached out her dirty little hand and grabbed Qin Yining's hand. "Let's go, let's go."
Qin Yining immediately smiled. She casually ate a bit of the remaining rabbit meat and broke off a rabbit leg for Xiaolian to play with. Then, she extinguished the bonfire and buried it in the snow. She took the weapons that she had collected and followed Xiaolian into the depths of the mountain.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
