CH 101

Apr 25 2023

Xie Ama wiped his face and joined in. With the strength of everyone, a dozen strong men worked together for half an hour to move the huge boulder aside.

Li Changfeng was exhausted, gasping for breath and sweating profusely. When the boulder was finally moved, Li Changfeng dared not turn around immediately. He was afraid to see the person he held dearest lying lifeless on the ground.

“Eh, what’s going on?” Second Wei looked puzzled at the spot where the boulder had been moved.

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

Li Changfeng’s body stiffened, and his hand, which was covered in dry blood, clenched tightly on the rock.

“Thank goodness, thank goodness…” Xie Ama wiped his eyes back and forth, afraid he had not seen clearly.

Hearing Xie Ama’s relieved tone, Li Changfeng turned around and looked in that direction. After a long time, he knelt down on the ground.

No one was there…

Tears of excitement dripped from Li Changfeng’s eyes and fell slowly to the ground. No one was there, which meant that Xu Qing and the child were okay and nothing had happened to them.

Village head also breathed a sigh of relief. They had searched this place thoroughly. Besides some dead chicken and pig blood, they had found no other bodies. Xu Qing’s house was covered in rocks large and small. It was impossible that they had been washed away by water.

Li Changfeng also noticed this, but what he found more concerning was that he discovered that the wardrobe destroyed by the boulder did not contain their family’s clothes. This was very strange because Li Changfeng had specially made the wardrobe for Xu Qing and had engraved his mark on it. The clothes of his family were also in this wardrobe, but now there was not a single piece of clothing he recognized, not even a scrap of cloth.

That can only mean that the clothes in the cabinet were taken away by someone, and that person, Li Changfeng’s eyes lit up, could only be Xu Qing himself!

“Get up quickly and treat your wounds. Ah Qing won’t be in any danger,” Uncle Xie and Second Wei helped Li Changfeng up and advised him.

“It’s nothing. Thank you all,” Li Changfeng bowed deeply to everyone present.

“What’s the big deal? We’re all from the same village. You take a rest first, and we’ll all go to the back mountain to search. Ah Qing and the child couldn’t have gone too far!” The village head spoke loudly.

Everyone nodded and began to search for Xu Qing on the mountain.

Li Changfeng naturally couldn’t stop and rest properly. He wouldn’t be able to rest at all until his family had been found.

Xie Ama couldn’t hold him back either. He watched Li Changfeng walk forward quickly and hurriedly followed him. He also wanted to find Xu Qing and Tuan Tuan to feel at ease.

Li Changfeng heard the footsteps behind him and turned around, saying, “Xie Ama, you…”

“Do you think you’re the only one who can’t calm down? I haven’t seen Qing and Tuan Tuan yet, and I can’t be peaceful for a moment either,” Xie Ama said.

Li Changfeng paused for a moment.

“I know that, but please, Uncle Xie, wait for me in the village, okay? I’m afraid that if Ah Qing comes back, we’ll miss each other.”

Xie Ama slapped his forehead. “Oh, man, why didn’t I think of that? Okay, I’ll wait in the village. You come back early and take care of your hand injury.”

Li Changfeng nodded and went to the back mountain.

As the day grew darker, although it was May, it had only stopped raining for a day, and the accumulated water on the ground and the fine branches blown down by the wind and rain on the road made walking slower.

The crowd circled the outside of the big back mountain several times, shouting Xu Qing’s name, but still got no response.

“It’s dark now. We can’t go any further. We’ll continue tomorrow morning!” The village head said. He couldn’t ignore everyone’s safety, and the wild animals in the mountains at night were not easy to deal with.

Usually, everyone only wandered around the periphery and occasionally went deeper to hunt, but that was only during the day.

“Thank you all.”

Li Changfeng and the others returned to Xu’s house at the foot of the mountain.

“What’s with the formality? We’ll continue searching together tomorrow!” The crowd left, but Uncle Xie was puzzled when he saw Li Changfeng didn’t follow. “Changfeng, why aren’t you leaving? Didn’t we say you would make do at our place?”

Xu’s home was completely uninhabitable now.

Li Changfeng nodded, “I’ll be there in a moment. I’ll check if there’s anything left behind. You go ahead.”

“Okay, hurry up. It’s getting late,” said Uncle Xie without suspicion. He instructed Li Changfeng and followed the others in front.

Once the group reached the outskirts of the village, Li Changfeng quickly went to the place where he found the curved knife earlier. He picked up the knife and tied it to his waist, then grabbed a few pieces of dry firewood and hurried towards the mountain.

As soon as he entered the mountain, the surroundings became darker. Li Changfeng had been here a few times before, so he knew that the danger on the periphery was not too great and he walked a little faster.

If Xu Qing wanted to hide, he wouldn’t take the child too far away, especially since he was seven months pregnant.

Li Changfeng lit a torch and carefully looked at the ground, afraid of missing any traces. Although the soil underfoot was somewhat softened by the rain, animal footprints could still be distinguished.

“Ah Qing? Tuan Tuan?” Li Changfeng called out softly, carefully observing the surrounding tracks. He couldn’t call out too loudly at night, or he might attract unwanted attention.

Here were the footprints of a pheasant, there were snake-shaped tracks, wild boar tracks, and… Li Changfeng stopped and crouched down.

Were these tracks made by wolves or dogs?

Li Changfeng reached out and picked up some of the soil with traces, sniffing it at his nose. It was a dog! And it was the smelly dog he was most familiar with!

Li Changfeng could not contain his excitement. He stood up and followed the dog’s footprints for a while, and eventually found a pair of human footprints.

Li Changfeng was delighted and didn’t pay attention to his surroundings. He had only followed the footprints for two steps when a sudden black shadow rushed out and tackled him to the ground!

The torch was thrown aside and quickly extinguished by the stagnant water on the ground.

Li Changfeng was in complete darkness, and a nauseating smell hit him!

He struggled to fight off whatever was on top of him, but the more he fought, the more excited the creature on him became. Li Changfeng looked up and saw a pair of greedy and hungry green eyes.

It was a wolf!

Li Changfeng was startled!

He quickly turned his head to avoid the hungry wolf’s big mouth and kicked it hard when it pounced on him!

The wolf was caught off guard, stumbled to the side and got pricked by some thorns. It stood up and growled low at Li Changfeng, who had kicked it hard.

Li Changfeng took a deep breath and calmed down. He picked up the curved knife from his waist and held it tightly, but he saw the green eyes of the hungry wolf on the other side become even more excited.

Li Changfeng lowered his head and saw that he had reopened the already dried-up wound on his hand because of his forceful grip. The smell of blood was in the air, no wonder the hungry wolf was so excited!

In the moment when the hungry wolf couldn’t hold back and rushed up again, Li Changfeng also swung his curved knife…

****

Tuan Tuan did not go far, but wandered around the cave entrance for a while, playing with mud, before returning to the cave with Xiao Bao.

Even though he was young, he remembered his parents had said that he couldn’t go out to play when the ground was wet, so he just played with mud for a while. It should be fine.

Back in the small cave, when he saw Xu Qing still hadn’t woken up, he grinned and ran over to nudge Xu Qing before amusing himself nearby.

It wasn’t until he got hungry that he noticed Xu Qing still wasn’t awake, so he reached out and nudged him. Seeing Xu Qing unresponsive, he called out, “Ama, hungry!”

When Xu Qing still didn’t respond, he reached out with his dirty little hand and gently pinched Xu Qing’s prominent nose.

This was Li Changfeng’s way of waking Xu Qing up, and little Tuan Tuan always remembered it in his heart.

The suffocating feeling from his nose made the unconscious Xu Qing frown uncomfortably.

Tuan Tuan saw Xu Qing frown and immediately shouted loudly, “Ama! Ama! Tuan Tuan’s hungry!”

Xu Qing opened his eyes to a blurry vision; his head was too dizzy.

“Tuan Tuan, be good, Ama will prepare food for you right away.”

Tuan Tuan immediately became obedient and even leaned in to kiss Xu Qing.

The soft and moist touch gradually cleared Xu Qing’s mind. “Thank you, Tuan Tuan,” he said. “Thank you for waking me up and making me realize my responsibility.”

Xu Qing sat up, waited for the dizziness in his head to subside a bit, and then quickly prepared something for both himself and Tuan Tuan to eat.

Xu Qing didn’t feel hungry at all; he even felt a little nauseous. However, he had to eat something, or else how would the baby in his stomach survive?

After they finished eating, Xu Qing saw that Tuan Tuan’s clothes were soiled with mud and decided to change them. As he went to grab some clothes from the storage space, he suddenly caught sight of something he had forgotten for a long time but was now very important: the Red Lingzhi mushroom!

Xu Qing had always kept the Lingzhi in his storage space and had forgotten about it. Although it was the lowest grade of Lingzhi, it was still a medicinal material that could improve Xu Qing’s health.

Xu Qing was now seven months pregnant, and these days his body had been weak at times, making it the perfect time to use the Lingzhi.

He had entered the storage space while Tuan Tuan was feeding the donkey. When he came out with his clothes and the red Lingzhi, Tuan Tuan hadn’t come in yet.

Xu Qing broke off a small part of the red Lingzhi and put it in the pot, then poured in some spiritual spring water.

Lingzhi was a highly nourishing substance, and although he was a little weak, he was pregnant after all so, he couldn’t consume too much of it. Xu Qing didn’t know why spiritual spring water wasn’t of much use to him anymore, but he still poured some in.

After feeding the donkey, Tuan Tuan entered the small cave, and Xu Qing changed his clean clothes and let him sleep for a while. The sky outside had already turned dark.

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

Children fall sleep quickly, and it didn’t take long for Tuan Tuan to pass out. Xu Qing looked at the stars in the sky and knew that the weather was about to clear up.

He wondered if the medicinal soup he had just drunk would make him feel better in the morning, so he could take Tuan Tuan down the mountain.

The rain had stopped, and he didn’t know if Li Changfeng and the others had been released or not…