Qin Yining gathered firewood, kindling, and pine needles. Her shaking hands fumbled out a fire starter from her clothes, first igniting the kindling and pine needles, then feeding the dry firewood to the flames so that a small campfire was built behind the rocks.
Her recently recovered body was extremely exhausted; coughs shook her frame as well. But she knew that she could only rest here temporarily. If she did nothing and stayed by a campfire that could burn down at any time, she’d certainly freeze to death.
She hugged her knees and wrapped the cape tightly around herself, warming up by the fire for a bit. When nimbleness returned to her limbs, she went out searching for more flammables. She also spent a great deal of effort in breaking off many branches from shrubs.
Qin Yining smiled wryly at herself. She was worse off than her eight-year-old self. At least she’d had some tools then, not just the bare pair of hands that she could wield now.
Thankfully, experience was on her side.
Two hours later, she’d woven the branches into curved shelter. It was just enough for her to huddle inside and build a small fire.
She hauled it to the big rocks again, to the patch of ground that had been slightly warmed by the campfire. Undoing the scarf around her neck and an outer layer of clothing, she wrapped them around snow and placed them over the fire.
The melting snow moistened the fabric, which was quickly flung over her makeshift shelter. They were just large enough to cover it.
Qin Yining immediately fetched more snow and scattered her haul over the still-wet fabric. The snow stuck firmly to the wet fabric and hardened into ice.
Over the next hour, she alternated between coating the shelter generously with snow and melting it with hot branches from the fire. As water melted and froze, an extremely study ice shelter slowly took form.
Qin Yining rubbed her reddened, chafed hands together. They were so cold that they’d almost lost all sense of feeling. She covered her mouth as several coughs shook her body. It was already late, and it was impossible to hunt in the mountains with no tools available. Going hungry for one night won’t kill me.
Putting the thought of food outside her mind, she fetched more firewood and pine needles, piling the latter onto the campfire outside the shelter and building a small fire inside as well.
Finally, she shrugged off her cotton jacket and hung it in front of the entrance. The size was perfect.
Wrapping the cape tightly around herself and her feet inside her cotton skirt, she faced the fire, leaned against the branches, and dozed off with peace of mind.
Although the occasional wind would steal in through the cracks, and the fire inside produced smoke, the smoke could also be vented through the same cracks. It was better to deal with a bit of smoke than freeze to death overnight in the open air.
So Qin Yining spent the night in light slumber. Warmth slowly returned to her limbs, and though she was hungry, it wasn’t too difficult to bear.
Danger lurked everywhere in the mountains at night, and the distant howl of wolves could be heard as well. She didn’t dare relax her guard, but didn’t drive herself too hard either. Apart from some aches and pains from sleeping in a sitting position, she felt fine the next morning.
A night of recovery under her belt, Qin Yining analyzed whether she should descend the mountain now, or keep hiding.
Chapter 292: Deep in the Mountains (II)
Qin Yining could draw some conclusions from the conversation between her pursuers yesterday.
One: Their accents gave away that they were from the north, from Great Zhou.
Two: They were following the orders of a marquis to kill the Qins.
Three: They’d stayed behind to conduct a thorough search and probably couldn’t complete their mission if they didn’t kill anyone surnamed Qin.
Four: Their martial arts was on a level that enabled them to go toe-to-toe, but nothing more, with the Valiant Tiger escorts.
So therein lay the question. Which army commanded these men with rigorous coordination and advance martial arts skills?
Who was the marquis who’d ordered the death of the Qins?
Which marquis in Great Zhou had the ability to lead three hundred adept soldiers to ambush them?
Qin Yining didn’t think for half a second that the Zhou emperor had sent the attackers. He needed the surrendered Yan officials to be a counterweight to the two parties at his court. If he didn’t want the Yan officials, he could’ve refused the surrender to begin with. There was no need to send out men to intercept them halfway.
Therefore, the ‘marquis’ behind the operation this time must be someone in high authority, wielding authority over troops, and had done this behind his liege’s back.
The answer was jumping up and down in Qin Yining’s mind. Could it really be the Marquis of Northern Stability, the sworn brother of Pang Xiao and the Zhou emperor?
Wasn’t he supposed to be stationed on the Tatar border with his Dragon Riders? What was he doing here at this time?
And if the assassins were targeting only the Qins, why had they killed so many innocents at the front of the caravan?
If they weren’t targeting the Qins, how would that explain the conversation she’d overheard?
The myriad of thoughts scattered in her mind wasn’t something that could be sorted through quickly. But of one thing she was certain, and that was she needed to hide carefully over the next few days. She couldn’t descend the mountain no matter what.
The assassins had their marching orders. Their mission wasn’t complete if they didn’t go back with a head, so they’d show up again sooner or latter. There was only one of her. She couldn’t fight them, so she had to hide.
Thankfully, she could draw on her experience surviving in the wilderness. Though it was the barren season of winter, she was confident that she’d be able to survive.
Pleasant joy thrummed through her when she thought of how dejected and anguished Lian Shengjie must be at the moment.
Lian Shengjie was the imperial representative overseeing the surrender. Since he was heading back to the capital with the Commandery Prince of Yan and a large cohort of surrendered officials, he naturally had to protect them well.
Now that such a tragedy had occurred on the road, imperial wrath would be mighty. Most importantly, it was a tremendous loss of face for that old fart!
It wasn’t the first day that Lian Shengjie had been at odds with Pang Xiao. He was the secret envoy behind her being kidnapped and used as bait. When that plan had failed, he’d brazenly sauntered in to seize Pang Xiao’s opportunity of honor and glory.
There’d been a hundred Valiant Tigers left behind for him, but he’d managed to fall to bandits halfway along the way and lose so many of Great Zhou’s new subjects.
He wouldn’t be able to explain himself to the emperor even if he had ten mouths to speak with.
Since the ‘marquis’ had taken pains to disguise his men, the Zhou emperor wouldn’t be able to glean any clues. Thus, Lian Shengjie failing to properly escort the new Great Zhou subjects and being powerless in the face of mere bandits — that was a scandal just waiting to break.
Running through the current situation again greatly cleared up Qin Yining’s mood and alleviated her gloom. Having thought it all through, she went out in search of food.
In the absence of tools, she used suitable branches as a substitute and foraged plenty of dried grass to weave traps for small animals. But even still, it was very difficult to hunt in the snowy mountains in the dead of winter.
Qin Yining spent an entire day trying to figure out how to get food. There were no wild vegetables or fruits during this season, and no nets or lure to catch birds. It’d be easier to scale the heavens than to actually catch some small prey with her simplistic traps.
Hunger gnawing at her, she combed the woods extremely cautiously. She didn’t find any prey, but found four corpses instead.
They’d already been reduced to skeletons. She could vaguely make
out from their clothing that three of them were Great Zhou soldiers, and the fourth just an ordinary commoner. From their positions and poses, as well as broken arms and necks, Qin Yining could tell that this was the tragic story of one fighting three, but all four falling in the end.
Troubled times had descended for many years, and tragedy like this could be found anywhere. But to think that she’d stumble upon this deep in the isolated mountains!
Emotions rippled through her. But it was also a great stroke of luck that useful weapons lay next to them!
She picked up a machete, a dirk, two daggers, a bundle of rope, an empty water skin, and a satchel containing unknown medicine pills. Newly equipped, she went off in search of food again.
Thankfully, she found a source of water before long — part of a creek yet to freeze over. After much effort, she caught a hibernating frog at dusk and returned to her shelter to roast it.
No wonder those of this world would use any method to fight for power and wealth. Only with these two would life be comfortable.
Although this lifestyle wasn’t comfortable, Qin Yining pleasantly endured it as if she was eating sweets. As she took in the fragrance of roasting frog, she reflected optimistically that the weather had been good today. Perhaps I’ll be able to catch a wild rabbit tomorrow. I won’t have to worry about starving to death then.
As her thoughts ran wild, the snow suddenly crunched nearby.
Startled out of her wits, she almost threw away the frog in her hands. She hastily picked up the short sword and and looked warily in the direction the sound had come from.
Just at that moment, a strong gust of wind travelled past, shaking the shrubbery. A furry, roughly one meter tall thing swiftly ran away.
What animal was that?
Qin Yining stared intently at where the creature had vanished and heaved a sigh of relief when she noted that there wasn’t anything there.
Thank goodness it wasn’t a wild fox. I’d be in even more danger then.
Munching through a bony, tasteless frog, she felt warmth return to her body. When laying down dry straw in her shelter, she heard a soft rustle nearby. The corner of her eye caught another shadow flitting past.
Gravity descended on the girl.
What kind of animal was that? Why was it so fast, like an agile leopard?
She picked up a weapon without a change in expression and quickly grabbed the torch she’d made from the fire. If it was an animal, it should be afraid of fire.
She maintained her frozen position for a while, but the creature didn’t appear again.
It looks like the little thing’s run off.
Qin Yining went back to carpeting her shelter.
But this time, she suddenly felt something behind her!
She whirled around and saw a figure right in front of her.
It was a child about seven or eight years old with a dirty face and matted hair. It was wearing thick animal pelts and pushing a wild rabbit with half-charred fur next to her campfire.
Not anticipating that Qin Yining would turn around, the child jumped, wide-eyed with surprise.
Qin Yining spoke with surprise, “Eh, you…”
The child turned and ran off before Qin Yining could finish, as fast as a breath of wind.
Realization struck the Qin fourth miss. The creature she’d seen earlier was this child!
Chapter 293: Xiaozhou
Qin Yining chased after the figure for many steps, but she couldn’t keep up. She had to settle for watching the pelt-wearing child vanish into the bushes.
This was a patch of mountains so isolated that even hunters wouldn’t venture here. There were no signs of human habitation whatsoever. Why would a child of roughly eight years old appear here?
Is there a village nearby?
Deeply mystified, Qin Yining’s attention was quickly caught by the wild rabbit.
It was a slightly fattened, gray rabbit. Its fur had been roughly handled and it’d been roasted. However, it was apparent that the cook wasn’t very skilled as the rabbit was still a bloody mess. It hadn’t even been cleaned of its organs.
The Qin fourth miss guessed that this was the handiwork of the child from earlier. I wonder when I was discovered.
But of one thing she was certain, and that was the child bore her no hostility. Thanks to her perception honed from years of habit, she’d detected no enmity. Besides, if the child really did feel hostility, she wouldn’t have gifted such valuable food to a stranger.
Qin Yining picked up the rabbit and walked a bit into the distance with a dagger. After carefully removing the innards and cutting off the charred fur, she buried them all into the snow so that the scent of gore wouldn’t attract other wild animals. She then carefully washed her hands and the rabbit with snow, again burying the dirty snow before returning to her shelter.
The fire had burned down by now, so she fetched some more firewood.
Now that she had a machete and short sword, it was much easier to chop firewood. She could also shave off the wet bark so that her fire would produce much less smoke.
Hanging the rabbit up onto branches, she hoisted the meat over the fire and roasted it slowly.
Though there was no salt, the fragrance of cooking meat made her stomach churn uncomfortably. She’d had only a skinny, roasted frog over the past two days and was absolutely famished.
Right at this time, she heard the rustling of small animals moving through snow. Lifting her eyes in the direction of the sound, she saw a small figure crouched behind the bushes.
Perhaps because they’d seen each other just now, the child didn’t take off running as soon as their eyes met. Remaining close to the ground, it cautiously shuffled forward, craning its neck and wrinkling a nose set in a dirty face to sniff at the smell of roasting rabbit.
Qin Yining broke into an involuntary smile.
“Hello there. Did you catch this rabbit?” She waved at the child as she turned the rabbit over.
The sound of her voice seemed to have startled the child. Big, bright eyes blinking blankly were the only answer. This perplexed Qin Yining. The child looked eight years old, so it should be able to understand her, right?
Or was it part of a tribe that lived deep in the mountains, rejecting communication with the outside world? Or maybe it didn’t understand her language?
She cut off a piece of cooked meat and reached a hand out to the child. “This is for you.” Gestures accompanied her words, out of consideration that the child might not understand.
Meaning was successfully conveyed in the end. It scampered over like an agile monkey and stooped next to Qin Yining, prudently reaching out with grubby hands to grab the meat from the tip of the dagger.
Startled by the motion, Qin Yining shrank back to avoid slicing into the child’s hand.
“Be careful, you might cut yourself.” The Qin fourth miss removed the meat to hand it over.
The child had been heavily disappointed when it saw the stranger withdraw the meat. But when cooked rabbit was proffered by a lily-white arm, it perked up like a happy puppy and gulped down the meat with a happy cry, eyes crinkling with joy.
The antics teased a chuckle from Qin Yining. “Do you live here?”
Staring steadily at the roasting rabbit, the child nodded.
Wonderful, it understands me!
“What’s your name? How old are you?”
The child remained fixated on the rabbit.
Qin Yining sliced off all the cooked meat on the surface and gave it to the child, who ate it with great gusto. It seemed like it’d been a long while since it last had a meal. Its mouth covered with grease, it flashed a big grin.
Heartache crept in to see a child this way. Qin Yining asked, “Where is your family?”
“Die, died.”
The child responded!
But even a singular word tipped off the issue at hand. The child’s voice was hoarse and raspy from prolonged disuse, its pronunciation very clunky as well, as if speaking
was a very difficult exercise.
“Do you mean that your family is all dead?” Qin Yining fed it another piece of meat.
The child nodded, pointed in a certain direction, then pointed at the sword by the Qin fourth miss’ hand.
The latter blinked, recalling the four corpses.
Three of them in Great Zhou uniforms, the last in casual clothing. All four were men, and it’d seemed to be a case of one against three. From the rotting of the clothing, they had been dead for at least four years.
Pity had crept into Qin Yining’s gaze. “Do you have any other family?”
The child shook its head.
“Then, where do you live? How old are you? What’s your name?”
The child pointed in another direction and replied haltingly, “Live… house. Ni-ine. Name. Lotus.”
“Your name is Lotus ? Of the lotus flower?” [1] Qin Yining carefully looked over the child. Because it was so young and covered with grime, she couldn’t tell if it was a boy or a girl.
Lotus nodded. “Lotus, flower. In, vat. There. Lotus flower. My name.”
Qin Yining nodded with a smile. It looks like she’s a girl. She didn’t stop her motions and kept slicing off meat for the little girl.
Though it was unsalted, Lotus ate with immense enjoyment and struggled to communicate. “Yummy. More, more yummy, than me cooking.”
Heartache had well and truly wrapped its grip around Qin Yining’s heart. “Do you usually cook for yourself?”
Lotus nodded and pointed where Qin Yining had discovered the bodies. “Uncle died.”
The situation was becoming clear. The man killed by the Great Zhou soldiers must’ve been the child’s only kin. Without family, she could only gnaw on half-cooked prey to assuage her hunger.
Thinking back to the half-raw rabbit that Lotus had surreptitiously gifted her earlier, Qin Yining knew the the child must’ve been subsiding on fare like this over the past couple of years.
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