Translated by Pure

Edited by NovaLeir

Chapter 4: Ready to Depart 

"Haah," Su Shuilian let out a sigh of relief, straightened up, rubbed her aching waist, and finally finished.

Su Shuilian wrapped the dried wild mushrooms in silk cloth and put them in the bag.

These were found under a few damp trees while exploring a few days ago. At first, she was not sure whether it was poisonous or not. After some observation, she found pheasants that passed by were pecking and eating it, and there was nothing unusual; so, with a thick branch, she dug up all the mushrooms with confidence. 

She added a few to the stew, and found that the mushrooms made the soup taste much better. It seemed that stewing soup was also not a simple matter. She thought back to before, when she only wanted to find some wood to make a fire and stewed a bland and tasteless tiger meat soup. It was not until she found and made a sour and salty sauce last month, did the stew have some flavor. And now the fungi she recently found added an even more complex flavor to the broth.

Su Shuilian was satisfied with the large package of dried mushrooms that she had collected. Although the weight was not heavy, it was enough to eat by herself for several months.

"Woo woo," it was then the two little wolf cubs rushed into the cave from the outside. They lightly bit Su Shuilian's trouser legs and tried to drag her outside. Su Shuilian had no choice but to let them drag her to the entrance of the cave.

"Xiao Chun, Xiao Xue, you caught this?" Su Shuilian asked in surprise. She pointed to the two bleeding pheasants lying on the ground at the entrance of the cave.

"Woo woo woo." The little wolf cubs seemed to answer her. They straightened their forelegs and staggered around Su Shuilian for a while before wagging their pure white tail a few times.

Su Shuilian smiled and squatted down to rub their heads: "Unexpectedly, Xiao Chun and Xiao Xue have grown up and can actually hunt for food. Haha… Ok, today we will eat roasted pheasants…hmm… And we’ll cut off the feet and necks to make soup."

"Woo woo woo-" The two little wolf cubs happily surrounded Su Shuilian, shaking their heads a few times, then rushed out of the cave to grab some dead branches. Su Shuilian stood at the entrance of the hole and smiled at them for a while, then rolled up her sleeves, ready to work.

While boiling hot water for cleaning the pheasant feathers in a stone earthen pot, she continued to think about the matter of leaving the woods. Now that the two little wolf cubs were almost a year old, they should have no problem following her out of the forest. Besides, they were able to hunt small wild animals. Even if the dried meat, mushrooms, and wild fruits she prepared were not enough to eat, there was no need to worry about them starving. If you can read this, it means this chapter was stolen from puretl .com

Well, then it’s decided. While it's still spring, heading to summer, she should leave as soon as possible. Who knows how long it will take to get out of this forest? If the weather turns cold, it will be bad if the snow starts to cover the mountain.

After she finished her plan, Su Shuilian plucked the feathers briskly. After washing the two pheasants, she cut open the chicken’s stomachs with a dagger. Wild animals living in the mountains always had relatively clean stomachs. Except for the five internal organs, there are almost no disgusting oil sacs. Unlike her previous memory, when her cousin dug up so many greasy and disgusting things when he cleaned a chicken.

Su Shuilian stared at the two cleaned and dissected pheasants for a long time, and decided to marinate one of them in the gravy of salty fruit for a while, then hang the chicken by its legs with a woven made from rattan grass, and hang it in by the cave to air dry. The other pheasant was generously smeared with the sour and salty sauce and put on a wooden stick, ready to be grilled later. She then put the cut chicken feet, chicken necks, and internal organs into the stone pot that had been filled with 60% water. She also threw in a lot of dried mushrooms, adding seasonings, and allowed it to slowly simmer on the fire.

"Woo woo woo-" When the fragrant pheasant soup and the crispy roast pheasant were almost ready to taste, the two little wolf cubs stopped playing from afar, and ran back to Su Shuilian. They cried out while licking her feet, as if greedy for the food.

Su Shuilu hugged Xiao Xue in a funny way, "Are the siblings hungry? Well, we'll have dinner right away." Then she patted Xiao Chun, who was squatting on the ground with shining eyes and watched Su Shuilian teasing Xiao Xue with admiration. She smiled and reassured: "Xiao Chun is also hungry, right? Well, go play with your sister for a while. I'll serve you fragrant chicken soup and cut crispy roast chicken when it’s done."

She filled the stone bowl for the two little wolf cubs with a thick serving of pheasant soup and set it aside to cool. She then cut the whole roast pheasant into eight large pieces with her dagger. She saved the two legs for Xiao Chun and Xiao Xue. And then took a piece of chicken wing for herself to nibble on. Wow, with the seasoning, the roast pheasant tasted so much better than the original roasted tiger meat. If you can read this, it means this chapter was stolen from puretl .com

Watching at the two little wolf cubs who nibbled on the ground happily, she smiled. Unexpectedly, the wolf cubs also liked to eat cooked food. Maybe it was because she fed them broth and minced meat from the very beginning; Xiao Chun and Xiao Xue did not have the ferocity of hungry wolves for living or dying wild animals… Just like today, any wild animals caught will be brought back and handled and processed by her. Though, she was unsure if wolves brought up this way was a good or bad thing. However, since she has decided to take them out of the mountains together, she will raise them as if they were big dogs. As long as she has something to eat, they will also never be hungry.

—

Although she had already decided to make her way out of the forest, after Su Shuilian was fully prepared, another month had already passed. The forest had already allowed summer to enter as scheduled.

"Xiao Chun, Xiao Xue, it's time for us to go now."

Su Shuilian picked up the well-organized, big bag. In addition to the clothes, accessories, and silver that were already there, she added a bag of dried mushrooms that were almost weightless, and a dried pheasant, and a large package of jerky made from tiger and rabbit meat.

In addition, Su Shuilian also scooped the remaining crystal green transparent liquid from the stalactite into the gourd with a wooden spoon. Although it was only a small percentage of the gourd, Su Shuilian, who had only tasted a few drops, knew how effective this liquid was, so it was best to save the remaining bits. 

The two little wolf cubs have recently fallen in love with hunting. Although they could only catch small animals, perhaps it is due to their nature, but the food they hunted had always been handed over to Su Shuilian for processing. They no longer liked to eat raw food. All of the wild rabbits and wild ducks they hunted, were handed to Su Shuilian to be stewed or roasted. They enjoyed every bite, and Su Shuilian used the rest to make jerky, ready to be eaten on the road.

As for wild fruits, she filled her lovely rattan basket to the brink. It contained ripe wild mountain peaches, sour plums, wild mulberries, hawthorns, and a couple of fruits that looked like apples, but were smaller than normal apples – smaller and more sour, it is probably a wild apple, but there are very few fruit trees of this kind. After searching for a long time, only two were found, and all the ripe fruits on the tree were picked by her. There were only twenty, but in a few days, she couldn't help but eat a couple of them. Among the remaining wild fruits, this kind of fruit was the least.

However, it was enough for her to eat for a long time. Su Shuilian happily thought.

At least, the current situation is much better than when she first arrived and could only eat bland tiger jerky. See, there was salty jerky, various dried mushrooms, and various fresh and refreshing wild fruits…  Although the weight of the basket was really heavy. However, looking at the two underage wolf cubs jumping  happily in front of her, Su Shuilian reluctantly changed the luggage from one hand to the other; she should carry it herself. She can't bully them as they are still young, although she really wanted to put the fruit basket and bag on their backs and let them carry it out of the forest...

—

One human and two wolves continued to walk and then rest. Whenever they encountered a water source, Su Shuilian always stopped. Because the gourd contained the crystal green liquid, she no longer had a container to carry water. Su Shuilian had to use the water source to wash her face, wash her hands, and drink some water to moisturize herself.

It is still a bit hot while walking in the woods in the summer.

Su Shuilian allowed the two little wolf cubs to drink enough water to play by themselves for a while, while she rested against the tree trunk, nibbled a few wild fruits, and threw a few pieces of jerky as a snack for the little wolf cubs.

Although she had previously lost a few thousand taels of silver bills because of a water source, she still liked to rest in places with water.

Speaking of those five silver notes that were soaked in water, Su Shuilian could only attribute that she had no fate with them.

Who knew that the owner of this body hid the silver note in the belt between her outerwear and the inner robe. How could she have noticed it when she took off her robe by the creek? She just took it off to rinse it in the stream. As a result, she only saw the five silver notes when they floated up from the water, and when she picked it up, she found out they were silver notes with a face value of a thousand liang, but unfortunately it had dissolved and could no longer be used.

—

After walking and resting four or five times, when she came to her next water source, the sky was already dark. Su Shuilian looked at the endless forest and sighed. She looked around, but couldn't find a suitable cover like stone caves, tree caves, and the like. It seemed that she had to sleep outside tonight. She still didn’t know if there would be a water source if she continued to move forward.

After Su Shuilian looked around, she picked out a relatively hidden bush behind her, took out the tiger skin from her bag and spread it on the ground. The two little wolf cubs were very discerning and a lot of dry sticks arrived by her side. Su Shuilian patted their heads happily, as if she was letting her considerate children know she was happy to have them.

It was only after a while of happiness that she remembered that she hadn't brought any kindling.

"Oh!" Su Shuilian patted her forehead in frustration. She thought of the burning charcoal that she had carefully stored in a stone tube hidden under a light layer of hay, but it was left back in the cave.

She used a lot of effort to make a fire; with countless experiments, did she successfully start a fire. Since then, Su Shuilian had been accustomed to leaving a tiny lit fire in a stone tube. She did not want to countlessly drill wood to start a fire; it was very painful. If you can read this, it means this chapter was stolen from puretl .com

Su Shuilian crouched on the ground and looked at the two little wolf cubs innocently shaking their heads and waving their tails. She spread out her palms towards them and poured out her grievance: "Xiao Chun, Xiao Xue, I forgot to bring the fire. Although I did not plan to bring the stone bowl and stone pot as they were too heavy, I didn't want to forget the fire in the stone tube! Ai! It's all my fault, before I left, I kept thinking about the tiger skin and didn't check carefully." Su Shuilian muttered to herself in a half-complaining and half-reproach tone. The two little wolf cubs hummed towards her affectionately, and dived into her arms, as if to comfort her.

"Okay, I'm not sad, I just blame myself for being too careless. Fortunately, it's early summer, so sleeping out at night shouldn't be very cold. Besides, we still have this warm and soft tiger skin, right? Haha...don't lick my face, it's so itchy!"

One person and two wolves shared some dried meat and wild fruits. Su Shuilian also cut a salted pheasant leg for the two of them to share. The little wolf pups were still growing, so they shouldn't go hungry. Afterwards, after they finished drinking some water, they snuggled together; wrapped in tiger skin and fell asleep peacefully.

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