Wu Yue rembered that clearing, too. It was the place where her original tribe had traded her away.
Grabbing the at they had, the two of them headed for the river.
They ran into a few people from the tribe along the way. Everyone stared with envy at the large piece of at in Wu Yue’s hands.
"Yue, what do you think of this stone?" Qingcao asked, holding up a long, palm-sized rock.
"The shape is right, but it’s not sharp enough," Wu Yue said, shaking her head. "We need to find one with a really thin edge. A thin piece of slate would work, too."
The food she’d been eating for the past two days was a sort of wild vegetable dumpling, but it was just mashed-up plants squeezed into a ball. The flavor was completely natural—not bad, per se, but certainly not delicious.p>
"Ah!" Suddenly, a pained cry from Qingcao ca from up ahead.
Wu Yue hurried forward to see what was wrong. Qingcao had already waded into the shallows. The river water was clear, and there were indeed more rocks in it than on the bank.
But now, thin wisps of pale red blood were spreading out from around Qingcao’s foot.
Wu Yue’s expression tightened. "You’re hurt?"
But Qingcao didn’t answer right away. Instead, she crouched down and pulled a shell out of the water.
The shell’s owner had probably been dead for a long ti. The two halves were connected, but just barely, and one of the edges was stained with a bit of blood.
But Qingcao seed to feel no pain at all. She presented the shell to Wu Yue as if it were a treasure. "Yue, look! Will this work? It’s sharp enough to cut my toe!"
Wu Yue’s lips twitched. ’Lady, is this really sothing to be happy about?’
"Stop celebrating. You’re hurt. Good thing I still have so hemostatic grass. I’ll put it on for you."
With that, she took Qingcao’s hand to head back, but Qingcao didn’t budge. "Weren’t we still looking for a slate?"
Wu Yue pointed to a slate about the size of two palms lying by the river not far off. "Found one. This one will do. If it’s too big, the two of us won’t be able to carry it back."
"You two, get back to the bank! Now!" A frantic shout startled them. A middle-aged woman on the bank was waving her arms frantically, yelling at them to get out of the water.
Qingcao seed to rember sothing, and her face went pale. She grabbed Wu Yue’s hand and started running for the shore.
"Qingcao, your foot is hurt! Running like this will make it worse!"
Wu Yue was completely baffled, with no idea what was going on.
Gradually, she thought she heard a strange sound. She looked back toward the noise, and a cold sweat instantly broke out across her back, her scalp tingling with fear.
’Who could tell her why the Grass Carp—the sa ones that had been docilely darting around her feet just monts ago—suddenly had such dense rows of sharp teeth?!’
’Are these freaking Grass Carp?’
’Are they really not baby sharks that just look like Grass Carp?’
Watching the school of fish, like a swarm of swimming at grinders, lunge toward them, Wu Yue felt a sudden surge of adrenaline, as if she’d taken a super-soldier serum.
’So much for being naturally weak! Suddenly, her back didn’t ache, her legs didn’t hurt—she felt like she could run up five flights of stairs without breaking a sweat.’
Dragging Qingcao along, she scrambled ashore in a single burst of speed. A few THUD, THUD, THUD sounds ca from behind them as fish landed on the bank. They ran more than ten ters away before they dared to look back.
The Grandma from earlier ca over, looking worried. "Don’t you know how vicious the fish in this river are? Never go in the water if you’re bleeding. The mont those things sll blood, they’ll swarm you. They’d pick your bones cleaner than we do."
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