Lin Luoran lets Lin Luodong and Huang Weijian camp in the shelter. Lin Luodong is excited and says “Yes, sir” seriously, looking like an army spy.
Huang Weijian expresses deep contempt to him. In fact, there is also hidden excitement in his mind.
They do not know the purpose of Sakurako Asada’s group yet, so they may have to stay in the hidden hillside for a few days. Lin Luodong’s DSLR camera was broken. As a cultivator in the level of Laying Foundation, Lin Luoran is not good at handling these electronic products. Without the camera, Luodong devotes himself to monitoring.
But monitoring in the distance is not a good solution. How to find a breakthrough?
Lin Luoran laments again the fact that she is not strong enough in the spiritual mind. As long as entering the level of Bearing Essence, she can master the secret abilities such as “Insanity”, which can directly invade people’s spiritual mind for secrets, or at least, she can also use spells to change her appearance and get into the village. But now, in case of causing undesired agitation, they can only wait in the distance.
She can’t use the Breath-holding Spell. Mini World is soundproof and shadow-proof but cannot insulate breath, which is only to guard against the ordinary people.
Work hard in self-cultivation, and try to bear Essence as soon as possible!
Because they are still lurking, Lin Luodong emphasizes not to cook with firewood, whose smoke may expose three of them. Lin Luoran has to perform her skill of Fire Ball spell to cook an egg. Huang Weijian thinks it is luxurious to waste Wakan for an egg. But the little cyan fox claps its claws warmly to show support for Lin Luoran.
Lin Luoran feels the crafty fox become less intelligent recently. Does it eat well and drink well in Lin’s family and have no sense of crisis without the need to strive to live as in the underground world?
While the naughty owner is thinking how to practice it, Lin Luodong has spread the toast with jelly, put eggs and ham in the middle, and eat with a box of milk.
He likes marmalade best, while Huang likes ketchup, and the little cyan fox has a special preference for strawberry jam.
Lin Luoran is not picky about food. There are too many fruits and vegetables in the space. It’s a waste to keep it if not to make a jam. The taste of food is like life, being bitter, hot, sour and sweet. The lack of any taste is imperfect, so she would like to taste all and experience more.
Well, try the celery sauce today.
The slight tingling of raw celery combined with the salty and fresh ham, and the soft bread, form a rich and complex flavor. All three of them and the fox are very satisfied with this meal.
This is a hearty breakfast. The little cyan fox rolls on the thick grass with a round belly.
At the same time, Interpreter Sun and the group of people led by Sakurako Asada are working hard with the white porridge made of leftover and rotten sweet potatoes.
The cooking smoke gradually goes out. After breakfast, the villagers begin to work.
The naughty boys, who were wandering in the village all morning, are also assigned some work. A boy aged eleven or twelve is walking ahead carrying a basket on his back and taking a goat aside him.
The three people look at the boy coming near, and hold their breath. Here is the chance? But how to get close to him and not be like a strange aunt who wants to abduct young lads? That is a problem.
The little boy played a whole morning, looking like a dirty monkey, but his eyes show he should be smart… This can be good and bad. Clever children are helpful, but not easy to trick.
He anchors the goat under a tree, leaving it bleating there, and goes to mow the grass with a basket, which is made of bamboo and is higher than half of him. The three of them are on the slope not far from the boy’s head, quietly watching him. He is too concentrated to find the three persons.
Collecting over half a basket of grass, he perhaps feels tired. The boy looks around and finds a jujube tree in the woods. He throws up his sickle, hits a lot of half-ripe jujubes down, and eats one. From his face, you can tell it is so sour, but his eyes still look happy.
During the break, the boy sits on the grass eating the “snacks” one by one. The three of them feel sour in teeth and even feel sad for the poor boy, but he is eating happily. Lin Luoran has deeper feelings. She knows the fruit. It’s a delicacy during the famine when she was young, but what age is it now? It has been 20 years, there are still some children taking this thing as a treasure, which can only show how poor this small village is.
Moreover, when she was a child, she only chose the jujubes that were yellow and soft and had fallen to the ground, which could barely eat. But half-ripe ones… Lin Luoran looks at the little boy who wears faded shorts and T-shirts, quietly sigh.
Be good in times of adversity, and do good in times of prosperity. Is she now prosperous? But how many good things has she done? Something should be on the agenda.
The boy eats the jujube, and then finds a mushroom. He throws away several broken ones and picks all the rest. In order to look for more mushrooms, he steps away from the big goat tied to the tree.
The goat, which just found the pasture, suddenly begins to bleat again and keeps backing away, but the rope fastened it so firmly to the tree that it cannot run.
Lin Luoran looks carefully. The goat is very unlucky. A “green bamboo snake” on the grass, has been disturbed and is sticking out the tongue towards the goat.
The boy also finds the snake. He is so afraid that his face turns grey, and the mushrooms in the pocket fall on the ground. That goat is the most valuable thing of his family. People living in the mountain all know that this snake is highly poisonous. If being bitten by it, the goat will not live!
The boy hesitates for a moment, but there are no branches around. He takes two bold steps with his sickle. Without warning, the snake springs up and rushes at the goat’s neck.
The boy is anxious to cry. At such a distance, he cannot fly, and the goat is sure to be killed by the snake!
In his despair, with a “poof”, from the direction of the slope shoots a green light. The snake is firmly pinned on the tree.
A piece of bamboo?!!
The boy looks toward the slope stunningly. He sees three city people come down from the slope, holding a rare cyan fox.
The beautiful sister squats down and says to him with a smile, “Little boy, are you from the village at the foot of the mountain?”
The boy nods silently.
…
Things go unexpectedly smooth because Lin happened to save the only property of Hong Bin’s family.
This mountain village is called Tao’s Village. Not because of their surname Tao, but the generations of people have been making pottery there. In the early republican period, the national security war broke out. The villagers moved into the mountains to avoid disaster. But since the place is too remote, even the new government has just found the village and helped them to register for more than ten years.
The situation is favorable to Lin Luoran. People in Tao’s Village were often bullied by the Nihonese army because of their craft. Because Sakurako Asada and her group are Nihonese, Hong Bin is willing to stand on Lin Luoran’s side. So he goes down from the mountain and becomes Lin Luoran’s spy.
Correspondingly, because there are guests, many children play around Old Mr. Tao’s house. Hong Bin is among them, pretending to be curious, quietly passes the message.
The next day he comes again with the goat.
“Sister Lin, those Nihonese are very strange. They have much interest in the pottery of our village. Are they to steal the skills?”
Lin Luoran rewards him with a chocolate bar for his creative imagination… Sakurako Asada should cry if she heard it. She is also a promising practitioner in Nihon. How can she reduce to steal skills in the small mountain village in Huaxia? The average Nihonese might do that. But sending out cultivators is wasteful.
On the third day.
“Sister Lin, Old Mr. Tao stewed a chicken today, smelling good… Oh, you ask the Nihonese woman? I asked my friends to follow her. She just walked around the village and didn’t do anything. Oh, there was one thing. she gave me candy.
Lin Luoran keeps silent. Lin Luodong hands Hong Bin a roast chicken leg with honey juice.
On the fourth day.
“Sister Lin, Miss Sakurako wanted to buy dried mushrooms of Mr.Tao, and she picked a favorite pot to store.
Huang Weijian quietly hands him a box of biscuits. From the Nihonese woman into
“Miss Sakurako”, if they cannot find clues, their little spy is possible to betray.
Pottery, pottery again! Is the secret in the pottery?
Lin Luoran decides to see the pottery that Sakurako Asada likes. She is not at ease with the temptation of food, so she gives this slippery village child a large bill. In the afternoon, Lin Luoran sees the pottery Sakurako Asada cares about.
Several potteries of different styles are packed in the Hong Bin’s basket, covered with grass. He says these are “borrowed” from Mr. Tao.
These potteries are quite good, but not enough to let Sakurako Asada spend many days in the village. Lin Luoran picks up a pot and turns it over.
Eh, a fox face is carved on the lower part of the pot.
The others, either with the fox body or claws, have something to do with the fox.
Lin Luoran hands a pot with a carved fox that is picking flowers to the little cyan fox, “I have never seen other foxes who know how to pick flowers.”
The little cyan fox, who can even pick the herbs, turns pale and stares at the pot——
