Chapter 33: Flesh

Yang Liuqing pulled Liang Dan to her feet and swept her up into her arms. “We need to leave quickly. Who knows whether they have any other traps hidden around here?”

Lying in her arms, Liang Dan poked her head out. “I think I can walk by myself.”

Yang Liuqing strode forward. “I can heal your injuries, but I can’t replace all the blood you lost. By my conservative estimate, you shed enough blood to fill about one hundred and eighty milk bottles.”

Shen Si gripped a thick branch, scanning their surroundings as she raised her voice. “Listen, you little brats! Although Sister Liang’s injuries have been healed, that has absolutely nothing to do with you! The harm you caused her cannot be erased or undone! Just you wait until I catch you!”

“Forget it,” Liang Dan said. “They’re only a bunch of pitiful children who went to great lengths to make a trap for their own protection. I saw the earthen steps below just now. They were tiny—children over ten could not even have stood on them.”

Liang Dan thought Shen Si would continue angrily defending her, but as soon as she finished speaking, Shen Si lowered her eyes and said, “All right. If Sister Liang says to let it go, then we’ll let it go. But you must not do this again. Sister Yang and I aren’t nearly so easygoing!”

Yang Liuqing smiled faintly. “After we send you out, I’m coming back in.”

Shen Si’s eyes widened. “What are you planning to do? They’re only children!”

“Isn’t there a big snake in the village?” Yang Liuqing said. “We haven’t seen it these past few days. It’s probably hiding somewhere in this forest. I’ll catch it and roast it for meat, so Sister Liang can regain her strength.”

Shen Si nodded fervently. “Exactly. After losing so much blood, she needs meat to build herself back up. How can she recover by eating nothing but leaves?”

A slightly panicked voice came from somewhere nearby. “Don’t eat our Little One! We have meat for you!”

The instant the voice fell silent, a huge mass of leaves came rustling down from above. Shen Si recoiled in fright, thrusting out her branch. “Hey! What kind of giant monster just fell out of the sky?!”

She swept the branch through the pile, scattering the leaves and revealing a plucked chicken tied up inside.

Shen Si seized the chicken by the neck. “Since you’ve shown such sincerity, we’ll spare your big snake for now. Er—your Little One.”

Perhaps because she had lost too much blood, Liang Dan fell into a deep sleep in Yang Liuqing’s arms before they had even left the forest.

*

A fragrant smell drifted into her nose. Even before consciousness returned, hunger had already awakened in her belly.

Liang Dan opened her eyes, only to have smoke sting them so badly that she shut them again. She coughed hard, and the smoke immediately drifted away.

“Sister Yang,” Shen Si said, “Sister Liang only just barely survived. Don’t smoke her to death.”

Yang Liuqing replied irritably, “Weren’t you just asking why she hadn’t woken up? Now she’s awake, and you’re unhappy about it.”

Liang Dan murmured faintly, “I’m not even dead yet. Why am I being cremated?”

“It’s roast chicken!” Shen Si said. “The chicken those little brats gave us!”

Liang Dan opened her eyes again and saw Shen Si cupping both hands together, fanning the fire as hard as she could in an attempt to redirect the smoke blowing toward Liang Dan.

On the ground before them, four bricks had been arranged on either side. Several branches were laid across them, with a roast chicken resting on top. A pile of firewood had been stuffed underneath, and the flames were burning vigorously.

Yang Liuqing sat beside the fire wearing a straw hat and holding a shovel as she stirred the embers.

Liang Dan shifted to the side to avoid the smoke blowing into her face. Shen Si lowered her hands with a sigh of relief.

Beside Yang Liuqing stood the large iron basin from the temple, filled with water. Yang Liuqing had washed her hands in it, then tore off a wet chicken leg and handed it to Liang Dan.

“You eat first.”

Liang Dan felt a little embarrassed. “Let’s all eat together.”

“Use your ability to test it first,” Yang Liuqing said. “If there’s no poison, then the two of us will eat.”

Liang Dan’s eyes lit up. “You’re a genius.”

With that, she opened her mouth wide and bit hard into the chicken leg, swallowing a mouthful of slightly charred meat.

Shen Si blinked at her. “Is it good? Is it good?”

Liang Dan forced the chicken down, then pounded her chest a few times. “To be honest, it’s not good.”

Yang Liuqing snorted. “There isn’t even a pinch of salt. Of course it doesn’t taste good.”

Shen Si looked rather disappointed. “What a pity. I thought eating barbecue out in the open would be romantic.”

Yang Liuqing tore off another leg and handed it to Shen Si, then began pulling meat from the wings herself.

Shen Si took a bite. “It really is awful. How can meat this terrible even exist in the world?”

Liang Dan nodded. “It’s even worse than eating grass.”

Yang Liuqing laughed. “I knew you two would say that. The forest is right next door. Lie down back-to-back and you can start chewing on it immediately.”

Liang Dan shook her head repeatedly. “The forest is too dangerous. Children are terrifying.”

“They certainly are,” Yang Liuqing said blandly. “The corn we picked has all been carried away. They didn’t even leave us the stalks.”

“Exactly!” Shen Si complained indignantly. “Those children didn’t think at all. They even took the corn stalks. What were we supposed to use as firewood to roast the chicken?”

“Um…” Liang Dan pressed a hand to her forehead. “Even if they hadn’t taken them, fresh green stalks wouldn’t make suitable firewood.”

Shen Si glared. “Regardless, that group of children is utterly immoral. They actually left us without a stick of firewood!”

Liang Dan looked at the fire they had built. The wood was already nearly gone. “Then where did you get this?”

“I dismantled her box,” Yang Liuqing said. “The one that held the clay figurines.”

Liang Dan was deeply impressed. “There’s really nothing you can’t do.”

“After we took the box apart, there was a line of writing inside,” Shen Si said. “It was written in red.”

Yang Liuqing shifted aside, picked up the small wooden board she had been sitting on, and handed it to Liang Dan.

Along the very edge of the board, several tiny, crooked words had been written in red ink.

Liang Dan widened her eyes and tried hard to make them out.

After staring at it for a long while, she asked, “Is this supposed to be writing?”

Shen Si clicked her tongue and looked smugly at Yang Liuqing. “See? Sister Liang is even worse at recognizing words than I am.”

She hugged Liang Dan’s arm. “She was making fun of me earlier, saying I hadn’t recognized a single thing correctly, and that once you woke up, you would definitely be able to read more. Well, look at the result! You can’t recognize even one word. Ha ha ha ha!”

Liang Dan did not laugh. She continued staring at the wooden board.

The line was crooked and uneven, worse than the handwriting of a child just learning to write.

Liang Dan ran her fingers over the board. It was clearly hard wood, yet the words had somehow been carved into it, leaving behind shallow depressions.

Yang Liuqing said, “When you were speaking with that woman earlier, I didn’t say anything, but I thought to myself that you were sick in the head.

“You actually tried to persuade someone like that to turn back from the wrong path… But after seeing these words, I finally understand. Perhaps she truly had no choice.”