He Changdi sat against the cave wall with a hand holding up his forehead. His eyes were shut and it looked like he was resting.
After Chu Lian finished taking care of her wound, she settled down in a daze. The cave was silent. Neither of them made a sound. Finally, Chu Lian couldn’t resist any longer and snuck a glance in his direction. The beardy didn’t move. She glanced at him a few more times, but he still didn’t show the slightest sign of movement.
Chu Lian frowned and assumed that he was asleep.
However, He Changdi wasn’t asleep at all. His head currently felt like it was splitting apart, and the high fever that had subsided earlier this morning had returned with a vengeance. After breaking out in cold sweat from lugging Chu Lian back to the cave, his bout of hunting, then cleaning off the pheasants with cold water at a brook, his body was on the verge of collapsing from all the physical labour. Furthermore, the poison hadn’t been completely cleared from his system yet.
The only reason he was still hanging on was because his body was more robust thanks to his daily training. If it had been any other normal man, they might have already long succumbed to the poison.
With the warning she had received earlier, Chu Lian didn’t dare to provoke him. She left him to his own devices, thinking he was asleep.
Her gaze landed upon the two fat pheasants roasting on the fire. Chu Lian had worked herself to the bone today; since she had given all of her beef jerky to the beardy the day before, she had been unable to eat anything after all that work. Thus, it had been almost an entire twenty-four hours since her last decent meal. As she stared at the two fat birds, she unconsciously began to drool.
Chu Lian reached out and took one of the pheasants, carefully keeping an eye on the man next to her. When she saw that he hadn’t reacted at all, she grew a little more daring.
The pheasants had only been roasted on the outside. When Chu Lian sniffed at it, she realised that the side facing the fire was a little burnt since the pheasants hadn’t been flipped at all…
Chu Lian shot another glance at the bearded man before looking at the pheasant in her hands.
Was the beardy really thinking of just placing the birds over the fire until they were done roasting?
Chu Lian suspected that the two pheasants wouldn’t even be edible by the time the beardy woke up. They would probably be completely charred, right? Even if they hadn’t been turned to ashes, the outside would surely be burnt with the insides probably still raw…
Chu Lian rolled her eyes and took out a purse and a small dagger from her waistband.
Next, she brought out two small white porcelain bottles from her purse.
As a true foodie, how could she not bring her own seasonings out with her on a trip to the wilderness?
Of the two small bottles, one of them contained finely ground salt and the other contained Chu Lian’s own special blend of five-spice powder. The five-spice powder was especially convenient when camping outdoors.
She used the dagger to cut open the fattest part of the pheasant before rubbing the salt and five-spice powder inside the meat. Then, Chu Lian found a flat, thin piece of rock lying around the cave. After cleaning it, she placed the rock over the fire to warm until it grew hot enough to put the pheasant on.
Placing the meat on the rock would distribute the heat more evenly so it wouldn’t burn as fast. It was also more convenient to flip the meat.
Chu Lian looked at the remaining bird. When she thought back to how the beardy had taken advantage of her, she curled her lip and decided not to bother with it. Since he wanted to roast it that way, he could eat it however he liked.
He Sanlang’s head was extremely heavy and fuzzy. He was feeling terrible, so he wasn’t sleeping at all. He was just resting his eyes since he didn’t have the energy to move.
When he noticed Chu Lian taking one of the pheasants in the middle of his haze, he started to become a little more alert.
Then, when he saw her take out a small purse and start to season the pheasant, he wanted to burst out into laughter.
When had this wicked woman turned into a foodie? She had actually brought seasonings out with her, and she even had a little knife to cut up the meat…
As hi vision turned blurry and his mind felt even more dizzy, only Chu Lian’s busy figure was left reflected in his eyes. How strange. They were clearly the same person, but why did he feel that the Chu Lian before him and the Chu Lian from his past life were starting to separate in his mind?
Chu Lian’s stomach had already grumbled a few times. She stared at the pheasant on the fire, drool almost spilling from her mouth.
An enticing aroma slowly came off the salted and seasoned pheasant. The fats in the pheasant’s skin were helping to make the surface brown and crispy; the outer layer of meat was glistening with a thin layer of oil. Chu Lian could almost imagine the tenderness of the meat in her mouth. All it would take was one bite…
Chu Lian carefully took the roast pheasant down from the flat rock and let it cool down on another rock she had cleaned earlier. She was about to tear off a fat, tender drumstick when a hand shot out from the side.
Chu Lian watched with widened eyes as the newly awakened beardy tore off a drumstick without asking and immediately began to bite into it.
By the time Chu Lian managed to react, she could only cry out angrily, “What did you eat my pheasant for?! Yours is still on the fire!”
He Sanlang had bitten into the meatiest part of the drumstick with his first bite. The skin of the pheasant was crispy, and its meat tender. The juices within oozed out and filled his mouth with their fragrance. That new and delicious taste was instantly etched into his memory.
He was just about as hungry as Chu Lian was, so he managed to polish off the entire drumstick in just three bites.
In this lifetime, the wicked woman had really become a great foodie. Possibly the only trait she had that was worthy of praise was her godly cooking skills.
Since she was taking up the position of his legitimate wife, there was no reason for him not to enjoy the fruits of her labour, right?
As he watched Chu Lian puff up her cheeks with a helpless expression on her face, He Sanlang felt a trace of satisfaction soothing his battered body.
