Chapter 142 Now There's a Name
Two figures walked out against the light.
"Who?" one of them asked in a low voice.
Qin Yao smiled. She was familiar with the voice. "Brother Yang, it's me, Qin Yao!"
"Ah?" Yang Da was genuinely surprised, thinking what a coincidence.
He hurriedly called his son Yang Xu to go forward together. It was dark and he could not see clearly what the mother and son were dragging behind them. He only smelled a mixture of leaves and blood.
The father and son wanted to take the trailer of the mother and son, but Qin Yao quickly said, "No, it's too heavy for you to carry."
Yang Da and his son were both stunned. Their outstretched hands froze for a moment before they were retracted two seconds later.
Qin Yao pushed Dalang, who was there to accompany her, out of the way and said, "Xu'er, help me take care of this kid."
Dalang took off the vines on his shoulders, knowing that he was hindering his stepmother, and followed Yang Xu to walk ahead.
Yang Da stayed behind and brought the two children to the fire.
Qin Yao appeared last and placed the trailer next to the fire.
This place is the cave where Qin Yao stayed last year. Yang Da should have renovated it. He cleared out the weeds at the entrance of the cave and the messy branches inside the cave, and built a low wall with stones at the entrance of the cave, which just blocks the entrance of the cave and can provide a certain concealment. It is also convenient for making fire and cooking.
With the light, the prey on Qin Yao's drag rack revealed its true form. The golden-brown tiger body scared Yang Da so much that he almost jumped up.
"You have encountered a tiger!" Yang Da exclaimed.
Qin Yao nodded and smiled modestly, "Not bad luck."
Yang Da: Am I asking you that?!
He looked at the mother and son. Their clothes were dirty and messy, but there was no sign of injury. It was incredible.
Looking at the tiger's body that had already cooled down on the trailer, Yang Da had a clearer understanding of Qin Yao's specific strength.
Dalang took off the sack he had been carrying all the way and put it on the trailer. His heavy shoulders finally relaxed and he breathed a sigh of relief.
"Isn't this a tiger's head?" Yang Xu asked tentatively in shock, pointing at the sack with the outline of a tiger's head on it.
Dalang hummed, "My aunt killed him."
As he spoke, he made a beheading gesture with his hand, with pride all over his little face.
Yang and his son looked at each other, with the same expression of horror on their faces.
Just as he was surprised, Qin Yao had already found a good spot and asked Dalang to sit down. She took out the pots, bowls and bamboo tubes and used their fire to cook porridge.
"You also brought rice?" Yang Xu asked in surprise.
Dalang looked at him in confusion, "What will we eat without rice?"
"Here." Yang Xu took out a dry cake from the small bag on the ground. "It's convenient to bring dry food with you when you go into the mountains. If we hadn't found this cave today, we wouldn't dare to make such a big fire. The firelight will easily attract wild animals."
When Dalang heard this, he thought to himself, so this is how normal people go into the mountains to hunt.
Unlike them, they started a fire from the first night they entered the mountains. Every time the stepmother started a fire, her expression looked as if she was hoping that a ferocious beast would come and find her, with green light in her eyes.
However, they never encountered any ferocious beasts attracted by the fire.
Yang Xu sat down opposite the mother and son and asked Dalang curiously, "What's your name? Who is Madam Qin to you?"
Dalang glanced at Qin Yao, not knowing how to answer. He had no name and had been called Dalang since he was a child.
Qin Yao added the water from the bamboo tube to the mini pot filled with rice, covered the pot, thought for a moment, and replied with a smile:
"Zi Wang, Liu Zi Wang, my eldest son."
Yang Xu patted Dalang's shoulder and pointed at the tiger's body. "Are you scared?"
Dalang shook his head blankly, his mind full of what Qin Yao had just said: Ziwang, Liu Ziwang.
"Why Zi Wang?" The young boy added a piece of firewood to the fire and asked curiously in a voice that only the two of them could hear.
Qin Yao shrugged, "It sounds good."
Dalang: "Oh."
Yes, it sounds nice, a hundred times, no, a thousand times better than Liu Dalang!
Qin Yao glanced at him, her mouth almost grinning from ear to ear. He was so happy with just a name, he was still a child indeed.
"What about them?" Dalang asked again in a low voice.
Qin Yao thought for a while and said, "Zishu, Ziming, Pingling, I will enroll you in the academy next year."
Dalang nodded happily. Erlang, Sanlang and Si Niang would definitely be very happy if they knew that their stepmother had given them all nice names.
Qin Yao saw him humming a tune while cooking porridge, and asked with amusement, "Are you so happy?"
"Yeah!" The young boy turned around and looked at her, his eyes brighter than the moon in the sky.
Yang Da and Yang Xu had already cleared half of the space in the cave. Yang Da came out of the cave and said to Qin Yao:
"You guys sleep inside at night, and Xu Ge and I will take turns to keep watch."
"It's okay." Qin Yao blew on the rice and bacon porridge that Dalang handed over, "I'll just keep watch, you guys can sleep in the cave, it's more convenient this way."
Seeing that Yang Da wanted to refuse, Qin Yao pointed to the low wall and said, "If I feel sleepy, I can take a nap here. I won't get cold by the fire."
Seeing her persistence and knowing that she did have the ability, Yang Da stopped persuading her. He stopped his son who wanted to have a bite of hot porridge, and went to pick up some firewood nearby for Qin Yao to burn at night.
After collecting the firewood, Qin Yao and Dalang finished their dinner and were contentedly teasing the little white-haired squirrel that had fainted and then woke up.
Qin Yao tied the little squirrel's feet with a hemp rope. The little squirrel wanted to run away but couldn't. It squeaked anxiously and fiercely.
Yang Xu was so envious when he saw such a beautiful live squirrel. If his father had this ability, he would have been sitting at home like a master.
"Liu Ziwang, your mother is so kind to you. She even caught you a squirrel as a pet."
"No, it's for sale." Dalang explained.
Qin Yao told Dalang to keep an eye on the rope and not let the squirrel bite it, then turned to Yang Da and asked curiously, "Why did you two come into the mountains?"
Yang Da glanced at Da Lang and said, "I am just like you, thinking of bringing them out to gain some experience."
Otherwise, who would bring these children whose hair hasn't even fully grown when hunting?
"But you, you dare to bring such a small child into the mountains, what if something goes wrong..." Having said this, Yang Da caught a glimpse of the tiger's body on the trailer, coughed twice uncomfortably, and quickly waved his hand to say that it was okay.
"Madam Qin, how about we go together tomorrow?" Yang Da invited enthusiastically, "It's a good opportunity for me to learn a few moves from you."
"No." Qin Yao refused. They brought prey and needed to deal with it first.
As soon as Yang Xu heard his father invite Qin Yao and her son, he looked over expectantly. When he heard Qin Yao decisively refuse, he sighed with regret and said to Da Lang enviously again:
"Zi Wang, I really envy you."
"What's the matter?" Yang Da'er was not deaf. "Your father has also killed tigers. How can you choose a master like this?"
Yang Xu complained, "Dad, I didn't say anything, why are you so excited?"
Yang Da glared at his son and said, "You little bastard!"
Looking at Dalang, who took the initiative to clean up the pots and bowls after eating and even fed the little squirrel, I thought to myself, I envy him for having a good son.
(End of this chapter)