“My husband is still the best…”
Jiang Yuning was moved to tears.
Lu Jingzhi watched as Jiang Yuning gobbled down the food greedily, as if she had been starving all along. “Slow down. Eat slowly.”
Both of them had already decided to take a different route down the mountain today. The route that they had planned on taking would be on the opposite side of the mountain. This side of the mountain would challenge both of them physically as they make their way down.
After eating her breakfast, Jiang Yuning quickly cleaned up before she grabbed her backpack and followed after Lu Jingzhi.
Jiang Yuning had initially thought that hiking down the mountain would be easier with Lu Jingzhi, but she was wrong. Lu Jingzhi stuck to his promise and was very strict with her.
His footsteps were way quicker in comparison to Ku Jie’s and at this time, he was like an emotionless machine.
Jiang Yuning’s feet were full of blisters from the hike and her feet began to hurt because she had to walk faster to catch up with Lu Jingzhi.
However, despite her pain, Jiang Yuning did not complain at all but she merely followed after Lu Jingzhi quietly.
Eventually, both of them came upon a river and there was no way for them to get across.
Lu Jingzhi took his backpack off before he passed it to Jiang Yuning. He then pointed at a large rock by the river bank and said, “Go there and rest for a little while.”
“What about you?”
“I am going to cut down a tree to make a bridge,” Lu Jingzhi replied briefly before he took a survival knife out from his boots.
“I will go with you,” Jiang Yuning responded before she placed her backpack down and ran after Lu Jingzhi.
“You do not need to use a lot of force or strength to do it.”
“I got it,” Jiang Yuning replied confidently. This was because Ku Jie had already taught her how to use her intelligence instead of strength to obtain wood in the wild.
However, she was really weak in comparison to Lu Jingzhi.
In this aspect, all men were naturally stronger than women. Jiang Yuning thought that it was very unfair.
After a short while, they had already chopped down five tree trunks to make into a bridge. Lu Jingzhi used his survival knife to scrape one of the barks of the tree trunk before using it to tie the five trunks tightly together. Then, he placed the tree trunk across the river.
“Let’s go,” Lu Jingzhi said as he kept his survival knife and signaled for Jiang Yuning to follow after him. However, at this time he suddenly noticed that Jiang Yuning’s shoes were already soaking wet and that her ankles were red and swollen.
Though he had already promised to be strict with her, he could not help but to feel his heart ache when he saw her ankles.
Therefore he crouched down in front of her before he said, “Sit on my lap.”
“It is okay…my shoes will dry on its own later.”
Lu Jingzhi grabbed Jiang Yuning and sat her on his lap before he removed her soaking shoes from her feet and started examining her ankles.
“You should not be wearing your shoes when it is soaking wet like this.” After that, Lu Jingzhi looked around him before he sat Jiang Yuning down on a rock. “Sit here and wait for a moment. We will dry your shoes before we start walking again. I will also use this opportunity to teach you how to dry your shoes more effectively in the wild.”
After speaking, Lu Jingzhi went around collecting pebbles to build a simple cooker in order to boil some water with some smaller rocks in it.
After the water started boiling, Lu Jingzhi use two sticks to pick up the hot stones before placing them into Jiang Yuning’s shoes.
“If you use this method, you can easily accelerate the evaporation of the water in your shoes. Do you understand now?”
Jiang Yuning nodded her head immediately. “Second brother, your teaching methods and your way of doing things are completely different from my brother’s.”
Ku Jie was very good at making use of the terrains and natural resources that nature had to offer, whereas Lu Jingzhi was very skillful and intelligent.
Ku Jie had derived his knowledge and skills from his previous mountaineering and camping experience, whereas Lu Jingzhi gained all his knowledge and skills from his training and time in the army.
“This way, you can fill in the gaps easily,” Lu Jingzhi replied as he looked at Jiang Yuning’s feet again.
Since Jiang Yuning was already originally very fair-skinned, the bright red blood stains of the wounds on her ankles appeared very obvious.
Lu Jingzhi quickly cleaned her wounds and after struggling for a while, he finally revealed how much his heart was aching to see her in pain. He put her feet down before he said, “You had better rest for a little longer before we continue our journey down the mountain.”
Jiang Yuning looked at the distressed expression on Lu Jingzhi’s face and she immediately felt warmth in her heart. “You were just pretending not to care or worry about me all along. You were walking so quickly, I almost could not catch up with you.”
“I was afraid that I would give in immediately and not be able to be strict with you the moment I stop to look at you,” Lu Jingzhi replied softly.
“Do not worry, second brother. As long as I am with you, I am able to do anything.”
The happiness that she felt when she was with Ku Jie was one of being with family, whereas the happiness that she felt when she was with Lu Jingzhi was one of being with the one that she loved the most in this life.
She could never measure the amount of happiness that she felt whenever she was together with second brother.
This was because no one else would ever be able to understand what they had both experienced and been through before they could finally be together. Moreover, there were not many people who would be able to comprehend the tacit understanding between Lu Jingzhi and Jiang Yuning.
“Let’s go now, second brother. I can continue walking already,” Jiang Yuning said when she saw that her shoes were almost dry. Lu Jingzhi and Jiang Yuning then continued their hike down the mountain.
In actual fact, although he did not show it, the backpack that Lu Jingzhi had on him was extremely heavy. When he passed his backpack over to Jiang Yuning earlier, she could not even carry the backpack. Therefore, she had secretly opened up his backpack and saw that Lu Jingzhi had actually packed and brought a lot many emergency supplies because he was worried about Jiang Yuning. However, he did not take them out because he wanted to be strict with her.
Jiang Yuning really felt that Lu Jingzhi was so silly for carrying all the items with him because his backpack was really heavy now!
Both of them encountered a lot of difficulties along the way, but Jiang Yuning persisted and did not complain at all. Instead, she dealt with the difficult situation and followed Lu Jingzhi without holding him back.
As they arrived at the middle of the mountain, it started pouring heavily.
Although they were both were wearing waterproof clothings, they did not dare to continue their hike because the paths were slippery from the rain and the terrains were not easy to navigate.
At this time, both of them seeked shelter under a huge tree to hide from the rain. Lu Jingzhi held his little descendant tightly in his arms.
“Second brother, does this mean that I will never be able to take care of anyone else when I am outside?” Jiang Yuning asked Lu Jingzhi with a sad expression on her face. She felt very helpless and frustrated with the feeling that she could never do anything on her own.
“Your performance has already exceeded my expectations.”
Lu Jingzhi tightened the hood of Jiang Yuning’s windbreaker to prevent the rain water from getting into her clothing.
This was because she did not complain nor did she give up even when they were faced with many challenges and difficulties.
They had already been hiking for about three or four hours continuously without taking a break and she did not complain at all. She did not cause any trouble to Lu Jingzhi.
“But you have been taking care of me and making sure that I am doing fine all along the way.”
“I am your husband. Of course I would take care of you. As far as I am concerned, even when I am not around, I am certain that you would be able to do well without me.”
After listening to Lu Jingzhi’s words, Jiang Yuning took out her cell phone and took a picture of them under the rain as a keepsake.
“Did you bring your whistle along with you?”
“Yes, I brought it,” Jiang Yuning replied as she took the whistle out of her pocket.
“I will take advantage of this opportunity to teach you some of the ways that you can use your whistle to call for help. It is useless to simply blow the whistle when you are out in the wild. You have to blow the whistle three short times, three long times and followed by another three short times to call for help. Make sure that you remember this, okay?”
“I will keep this in mind,” Jiang Yuning replied as she nodded her head. “When the time comes, I do not believe that the expert team will be able to look down on me then. Both of you are my secret weapons!”
She already had two male gods helping her out.
“Muyang is right. Most of the so-called experts do not actually have real life experience in the wild. Therefore, you should not be afraid of them, nor should you allow them to belittle you. What they possess is merely knowledge that they have gained from books.”
“Alright, I understand, second brother. I will not embarrass you,” Jiang Yuning quickly raised her hand and assured Lu Jingzhi.
Lu Jingzhi held her hand before he kissed her gently on her lips. After the rain stopped, he then started leading the way down the mountain again.
At this time, Jiang Yuning finally understood that her brother and second brother had already agreed beforehand to take turns to guide her. This was so that they could help her gain more knowledge and skills that the other party would not have been able to teach her.
They did not tell her in advance and that was why she had been really surprised when she saw Lu Jingzhi on the mountain.
Later in the evening, both of them finally made it out of the mountains. Jiang Yuning felt extremely exhausted and she felt as though her legs were about to give way because she was really worn out.
She looked at her ankles which were covered with blisters and broken skin, yet still felt that this trip was completely worth it.
This was especially because she had the opportunity to look at Lu Jingzhi’s back the whole way down the mountain and this gave her a sense of joy and security that no one else could ever provide…