In the middle of the night, Yu Wan was woken up by a heatwave. When she woke up, she found that Little Bruiser had wet his bed.
Little Bruiser hadn't wet his bed since he was two years old, but after eating dumplings and drinking three big bowls of water last night, he finally managed to wet his bed.
Yu Wan did not know whether to laugh or cry. She quickly got up to change the bedding. Just as she was about to wake up Madam Jiang, she discovered the bold sleeping posture of Madam Jiang.
Madam Jiang was lying flat on her back, her left leg slightly bent, her right ankle resting carelessly on her left knee.
Yu Wan's face could not help but darken. Wasn't she supposed to be a well-bred young lady from a wealthy family in the city? Why did a well-bred young lady behave like a female bandit?!
Yu Wan closed her eyes. "My mother is a young lady, my mother is a young lady…"
In the end, Yu Wan had changed all the beddings and still did not wake up the young lady from the Jiang family.
...
Before dawn, Yu Wan woke up. After washing up, she first went to the well shared by the village to carry the water. Then, she went to her uncle's house and planned to cut some sweet potato leaves. Her hometown used to call these leaves pigweed. When there was no food left, her aunt cut them to feed the pigs.
But halfway there, she remembered that there was no pigweed in winter. She had no choice but to dig up some cabbages and radishes from her field.
That pig had eaten too well in the Zhao Family and actually disliked the cabbage and radish. Fortunately, it was about to be sold off. Yu Wan only planned to sell half of it and leave the other half to spend the New Year with her uncle.
The day after tomorrow was the day of the market. She could use these two days to dig up more winter bamboo shoots and call her big brother and second brother to fish some fresh carp. When the time came, they could sell them at the market.
After Yu Wan heated the breakfast in the pot, she brought along some tools and dry food and entered the backyard.
Yu Wan had already dug up all the bamboo near here. In order to dig for more tender and plump winter bamboo shoots, Yu Wan walked deeper into the forest.
The bamboo in the middle section was either too old to produce bamboo shoots, or too tender to produce good quality winter bamboo shoots. Yu Wan walked forward patiently.
The forest was really big and Yu Wan's legs were sore from walking. Luckily, she found some bamboo that she could dig out.
Yu Wan determined the position of the bamboo whip according to the direction of the bamboo leaves. She squatted down, took out a shovel from the basket on her back, and was about to dig when suddenly, there was an unusual movement not far away, as if… there was the sound of claws scratching.
Yu Wan's first reaction was—there was prey!
The prey in this deep forest was most likely a vicious beast. Yu Wan tightly gripped her wooden saber to protect herself as she cautiously walked towards the direction of the commotion. However, when she arrived there, there wasn't any vicious beast. There was clearly only a small snow fox trapped in the animal cage.
The animal cage was already very old, and the surroundings were rusty. It didn't look like it was used by hunters, so there was naturally no bait. It was unknown how this little snow fox had foolishly locked itself inside.
Its tail was injured, and its fur was bald.
Yu Wan looked at it with great interest and began to estimate the value of this snow fox. If she sold it, she wondered if she would be able to gather enough money to go to the Capital.
When the little snow fox saw that someone had come, it wasn't afraid at all. Instead, it opened its black eyes wide and revealed an aggrieved expression.
Yu Wan burst into laughter. She opened the cage and caught the little snow fox. In the blink of an eye, just as Yu Wan was about to find a rope to tie it up, it suddenly kicked its legs and twisted its body, sliding out of Yu Wan's palm.
It darted into the depths of the bamboo forest!
"Trying to escape? Not so easy!" Yu Wan did not believe that she could not catch up to an injured young fox!
After running for a while, Yu Wan really caught up to it.
"Little thing, why are you still…" Yu Wan walked over with the basket on her back. She stopped mid-sentence when she saw the little snow fox suddenly stop moving. Following its gaze, Yu Wan saw a low-lying patch of grass. In the grass, there were seven to eight pheasants walking around.
These pheasants were much fatter than the pheasants she caught in the fields! It was rare to see such fat pheasants in winter.
"This little thing actually brought me here to look for pheasants?" Yu Wan was in disbelief.
As if to confirm Yu Wan's guess, the little snow fox actually jumped down from the grass to catch a pheasant.
"You're not even as big as a chicken! What are you catching!" And even scared the chickens away! Yu Wan could only rush to catch the chickens.
Yu Wan caught a total of five, and each one was plump.
The little snow fox ate a mouthful of chicken feathers, but did not catch a single one. After that, the little snow fox ran to a wild rabbit's nest. Yu Wan naturally followed and caught two fat and strong wild rabbits.
This young fox looked small, but she did not expect it to be so familiar with the mountains and forests. The harvest from this trip was comparable to the hundreds of pounds of bamboo shoots she dug.
Yu Wan glanced at the little snow fox. For some reason, she was suddenly reluctant to sell it. She might as well keep it and bring it up the mountain to hunt every day.
As this thought flashed through her mind, Yu Wan took out her dry rations from the basket on her back—two meat buns that she had personally made. Although the bun was a little cold, it had a lot of meat and emitted a strong meat fragrance.
The little snow fox sat up straight and stared at the bundle in Yu Wan's hands with green eyes.
"Do you want some?" Yu Wan asked naughtily.
Little Snow Fox took a step forward.
Yu Wan put down her bundle, but halfway through, the little snow fox's head suddenly turned and its little ears twitched. It was unknown what it heard, but it picked up Yu Wan's bag and ran away with a whoosh!
Yu Wan thought that it was going to bring her to hunt again, but this time, it was gone.
...
On the other side of the bamboo forest, the waterside pavilion was quiet and serene.
In an elegant farmhouse courtyard, the middle-aged man put down the bag on his shoulder. He first looked at the little snow fox in the house.
Little Snow Fox obediently lay on the soft cushion.
The middle-aged man seemed to be satisfied with it. He turned around and said to the guards, "Young Master is almost here. You guys go and start a fire first. I'll go and see what food there is."
"Yes!" The two servants answered respectfully.
The middle-aged man left. After a while, his expression changed and he walked in. "Why is the chicken we raised gone?"
The servants were confused. No way, they had just fed them.
Little Snow Fox turned around guiltily and hugged its half bald tail.
"That's enough, start the fire first!" The middle-aged man went out again. After a few minutes, he came back, panting. "Why are there no rabbits left?!"
The little snow fox silently covered itself with its tail.