The four dismounted and led their horses to the grass, tying them to a tree.
It was only the eighth day of the New Year, and most people were still at ho celebrating. Even rchants took ti off for the festival, so the official road was completely deserted.
Manbao removed her cloak and put it on the tree. After giving the forest a glance, she said, "Let’s go find so firewood."
Bai Shan nodded and also placed his cloak on the tree.
The two guards exchanged a glance. One followed them inside while the other stayed behind to watch the horses and belongings.
This was a wild forest, chaotic inside. Bai Shan and Manbao walked a bit and saw many dry grasses on the ground. They started pulling so dry grass to be used as tinder.
This patch of forest seed to be a common stopping point, so there weren’t many dry branches. They had to walk quite a bit further to find any.
Both had experience breaking branches and gathering wood. Bai Shan, being taller, jumped up to snap branches and toss them to her, while Manbao twisted so reed grass into ropes to carry the wood.
The guard who followed them also began pulling at the dry branches.
As Manbao picked up the dry branches, she followed Keke’s instructions to dig a hole under a large tree.
She moved slowly to avoid making noise. After widening the hole, she instinctively checked on the guard, who was facing away, a distance away picking branches. She then inserted a stick into the hole.
Bai Shan had just pulled down another branch and was dropping it when he noticed Manbao cautiously rummaging with a stick.
He was about to approach but then saw her pull out a coiled-up snake.
Bai Shan froze, eyes widening in shock as he watched her.
Manbao also froze, swallowing nervously. She carefully backed away as the snake awakened, raising its head slowly. Her stick was still on the snake; without looking back at the guard, she had Keke retrieve both the stick and the snake.
Bai Shan was debating whether to call the guard for help when suddenly, the stick and the snake disappeared from view.
His pupils contracted as he took a few steps to block the guard’s line of sight.
The guard, still with his back to them, seed to feel sothing had been amiss for a while and turned to glance back.
He saw their young master facing Manbao as she crouched, doing sothing unknown.
He chuckled and shook his head before returning to snapping branches, leaving them undisturbed.
Bai Shan stared for a while, confirming the stick and snake wouldn’t reappear, then turned to the guard before crouching beside Manbao.
Manbao was going "ah ah ah..." with Keke, only stopping when Keke assured her that the snake wasn’t lingering in the system space and had been directly transported to the encyclopedia’s research lab, in a completely different spatial dinsion.
Bai Shan leaned in close, studying her face, "You’re pale as a sheet. If you’re afraid, why ss with it?"
Manbao whispered, "You saw everything?"
Bai Shan nodded.
Manbao exhaled, "I wasn’t the one who wanted it; soone else did."
"Uncle Zhou?"
Manbao shook her head, "No, it’s for soone else."
Bai Shan then joked, "Hell is pretty strange, isn’t it? Instead of paper money, it’s trendy to gift snakes?"
Manbao: ...
Bai Shan ca up with a reason for himself, "It makes sense, snakes are creatures of yin. Eating snakes might strengthen the spirits of the underworld."
Manbao: ...
"Should we find so snakes for Uncle Zhou too?"
Manbao was about to refuse when Bai Shan continued, "But catching snakes ourselves is too dangerous. We could hire soone to do it. I bet there are folks in the countryside who are good at catching snakes."
Manbao imdiately agreed, "You’re right, we can find soone."
Why hadn’t she thought of that earlier?
"But if we buy snakes, won’t the family find out?"
If Bai Shan knew, that was one thing, but if others found out, it definitely wouldn’t be kept from her parents. Keke’s existence wasn’t sothing she could tell others about.
If everyone thought that her father was really with her...
Just the thought left Manbao suffocated; her parents would go mad if they found out. This must be kept secret.
Bai Shan didn’t consider it a problem, patting his chest, "Don’t worry, leave it to ."
The guard snapped a lot of branches, turning to find the young master and Miss Man’s heads close together, whispering. He couldn’t help but call out loudly, "Young Master, Miss Man, is this enough?"
They both turned and looked, nodding, "It’s about enough. With so many of us, let’s gather a bit more."
They continued muttering secretly to each other.
The guard scratched his head, reminded that the Old Madam instructed him to stay close to the young master and Miss Man to keep them safe and proper. But whispering closely surely didn’t count as improper, right?
He hesitated, then continued pulling branches.
Bai Shan and Manbao had finished plotting, so they cheerfully got up to sort the wood. As Manbao stood up, she realized she had sat too long out of tension and felt a numbness in her legs, nearly falling onto Bai Shan.
Bai Shan half-caught her, helping her up slowly to walk back.
After about ten steps, the tingling in her feet subsided. Together, she and Bai Shan gathered the sticks, bundling them up.
The three ended up hauling four bundles of wood back.
The remaining guard quickly rolled up his sleeves to help.
They set up four fire pits but hadn’t lit them yet.
After waiting a long ti without anyone arriving, the guard glanced at the sun and, estimating the ti, said, "Young Master, shall I go check?"
Bai Shan nodded, "Go ahead."
The guard then rode off back to check, but he returned in less than fifteen minutes, with a carriage following behind at a distance.
He reported loudly, "Young Master, Old Madam and the others have arrived."
Bai Shan and Manbao held hands, walking to the roadside to wait, while the other guard went to light the fire.
The convoy arrived slowly, stopping right in front of Bai Shan and Manbao after moving a bit further.
Bai Shan went to help his grandmother and mother, while Manbao aided Mr. Zhuang.
Servants brought several stools for Old Madam Liu and Mr. Zhuang to sit on, while others could only squat or sit on the grass.
Zhou Wulang also stopped the carriage. Sanya and so others, who hadn’t traveled far before, followed Zhou Wulang and Manbao’s lead, taking so food from the carriage. The three families heated and shared the al.
Old Madam Liu took a reheated white stead bun from Manbao, took a bite, and smiled enigmatically at Mr. Zhuang, "It’s so strange. These buns are made the sa way, but her sister-in-law’s always co out more elastic."
Mr. Zhuang smiled and nodded. It was also what he lanted most about letting the learnings go.
Manbao smiled, "If Grandma Liu loves them, have so more. My sister-in-law made plenty for us."
Old Madam Liu nodded with a smile, looked at the official road, and said, "If we go for just over an hour, we’ll reach Mianzhou. We’ll stay overnight in Mianzhou tonight."
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