In the dark forest, Xiao Nuo picked up the firewood while waiting for Ding Ning’s return. She was secretly wondering where he went to wash the snake meat.
Soon Ding Ning came back. Xiao Nuo could not help but curiously asked, “Where have you been to wash the snake meat?”
“There is a small stream which was absolutely natural and pollution-free not far from here. The Ophiophagus Hannah likes to live by the water. There must be water near the place where it appears.”
Ding Ning naturally said. He certainly would not tell Xiao Nuo that with his unusual hearing, he had heard the faint sound of the flowing water in front of them.
Although it was a tropical rainforest with few dry branches, it wasn’t difficult for Ding Ning to ignite a bonfire. He easily solved the ignition problem by finding some branches containing oil. However, Ding Ning had to seek them by himself, which made the branches found by Xiao Nuo useless and made her complain without stop.
Nevertheless, when the white snake meat was roasted to a golden color and the fragrance greeted the nose, Xiao Nuo stopped complaining , and her stomach began to rumble.
It was natural for Xiao Nuo to feel so hungry. After all, from the night before last night until now, she had never had a good meal. After coming out of the underground base, she immediately went to perform another task without having a big meal.
Although Ding Ning had also found some fruits and plant roots for her to eat, those things could only barely fill her stomach. How could them compare with roast meat?
Too hungry to care about how she looked, she reached out to enjoy the meat, but was stopped by Ding Ning, “Wait a minute, this snake meat is delicious, but not fragrant enough.”
After finishing his words, he took out a strange plant root, crushed it in his hand and put it on the snake meat before Xiao Nuo said anything.
Suddenly, a strange fragrance greeted the nose, causing Xiao Nuo’s appetite. She asked in astonishment, “What is this? It smells so good.”
“This is a kind of spice that has not been universally accepted by people. I thought that my hometown is the only place with this kind of spice. I didn’t expect to find it here when I went to wash the snake meat.”
There was a trace of sadness of recalling the past on Ding Ning’s face. Although it flashed away, Xiao Nuo was still keenly aware of it.
“Are you homesick?” Xiao Nuo asked softly.
“Yeah, it has been five years. I haven’t been home for a long time.”
Ding Ning put away his mood and said with a smile, “Don’t mention it. This is a natural spice. It will be more fragrant after being dried and ground into powder. Although now it’s not as fragrant as the dried spice due to the limited condition, it contains a natural fragrance which is different from that of the dried spice. Have a taste.”
Unable to hide her greed, Xiao Nuo reached out to pick up the snake meat that Ding Ning handed over. She ignored the heat and stuffed it into her mouth like a starving ghost.
“Watch out!” The words were hardly out of Ding Ning’s mouth, when Xiao Nuo burned her mouth. She pouted and fanned her mouth with her hand, but was still unwilling to spit out the snake meat. She chewed the meat while muttering, ” It’s delicious, it’s so delicious! I’ve never eaten something like this.”
She swallowed her saliva and continued stuffing the snake meat in her mouth before her tongue recovered.
“Now you don’t think it ugly.” Ding Ning gently took a bite of the snake meat and teased with a grin.
Xiao Nu rolled her eyes and said, “Can you stop reminding me that this is snake meat? I’ve never eaten these strange things.”
“Humph, you are a special policewoman. I wonder if you have taken the lessons of wilderness training. If you really want to survive in the wild, you should eat everything that enables you to stay alive, such as snakes, mice, ants, scorpions, bark, grass roots and even maggots.”
Ding Ning said scornfully, while munching the golden snake meat and enjoying it.
“Can you stop talking about something so disgusting. It sounds like you have experienced the survival training in the wild.”
Xiao Nuo knew that what Ding Ning said was true. Both of her father and her brother had told her that in order to survive, people need to eat everything including maggots and even their own urine.
“I don’t consider them disgusting. I have eaten all of those things when they were still raw. Despite the harsh living conditions, there are too many things to eat in this rainforest, and we won’t meet any life and death crisis. When you have the chance to face the death threat, you will know how lucky we are to have the roasted snake meat for food.”
Recalling that when he was ten years old, he had been left alone by his third master Uncle Xiaowu in the Luochuan Mountains for seven days and fed on insects to stay alive, Ding Ning said with deep feelings.
Xiao Nuo fixedly stared at him and suddenly asked, “Who are you? Why did you have such an experience?”
Ding Ning startled and realized that he had inadvertently spilled the beans. He immediately made up a story, “I am a traditional Chinese physician. When I was young, I went into the mountains to gather herbs and lost my way. I was stuck in the mountains with nothing to eat and drink. I fed on some herbs and various insects to stay alive.”
Xiao Nuo glanced at him deeply. He did not know whether she believed it, but she stopped asking and munched the snake meat. After a long while, she bitterly said with a determined look on her face.
“When the situation comes, I can definitely do that.”
Ding Ning shook his head with a smile and meaningfully said, “As a special policewoman, generally you won’t fall into this situation. It’s unnecessary for you to seek a trouble for yourself. The reason why I told you this is that I want to make you know no matter what kind of hopeless situation we fall into, we should not give up easily. As long as we try hard, there will always be a way out.”
Xiao Nuo nodded without expressing any opinion, proudly raised her chin and said, “I am Xiao Nuo, and I never give up easily.”
Xiao Nuo didn’t know if it was her illusion. She seemed to sense a trace of barely detectable relief behind Ding Ning’s smile.
Indeed, Ding Ning vaguely indicated that Xiao Nuo should not give herself up.
Frightened by Xiao Nuo’s blank eyes, he was afraid that he had broken her heart by deceiving her under the name of You Xumo and the hopeless feeling would make her commit suicide. If she really did that, he would blame himself for a lifetime.
After the meal, they took a break and then started off again.
Xiao Nuo had enough food and her physical strength recovered a lot. They gradually quickened their paces.
When they passed through the clear stream, Xiao Nuo washed her face. Of course, she had to suffer the irritating smell of the bug repelling grass again.
However, after the previous experience, Xiao Nuo did not frown, as if she had changed into another person after a meal.
Although she still seldom talked with a poker face, Ding Ning felt relieved a lot. He could feel that Xiao Nuo seemed to have changed into a stronger person.
It was dark and humid in the dense rainforest. The sounds of insects and birds made the entire virgin forest full of vitality, and occasionally there came the roars of large beasts from a distance.
Xiao Nuo who was sweaty followed Ding Ning, with the curious sparkle in her beautiful eyes.
She didn’t understand how Ding Ning did it. She had already been disoriented and couldn’t tell the direction at all.
Nevertheless, Ding Ning was as experienced as an old horse who knew the way. He was so familiar with this place, as if it was his home. They hadn’t encountered any large beasts. Occasionally they would make a detour to avoid some places, but would soon return to the original route.
Xiao Nuo was not a fool. She remembered that they made detours at the spots where they heard the roars of the large beasts. What did this mean?
It meant that Ding Ning was very clear about the location of the large beasts, so he deliberately avoided the places that could pose a threat to them. Was it an instinct for danger or a full understanding of the habits of the beasts?
If it was the former, Ding Ning had horrifying intuition, so she believed that it should be the latter.
What kind of people knew well about the habits of the beasts and the distribution of the territories? That was a hunter with rich experience in hunting.
The word “hunter” had an extraordinary meaning to Xiao Nuo. It reminded her of the iron wood arrow and Hunter’s apprentice Huntsman who even did not tell her his real name.
Who was Ding Ning? As a doctor, why was he so experienced in hunting? What was the relationship between him and Huntsman?
Ding Ning said that he had cultivated his hunting skills while gathering herbs in the mountains. Xiao Nuo did not even believe a punctuation mark of his words.
Among so many traditional Chinese physician who went to the mountains to gather herbs, she had never hear anyone who could master hunting skills.
Huntsman was a jerk, and she felt her heart broken every time she thought of him. However, love was unreasonable. Besides, the guy was the first one with whom Xiao Nuo had fallen in love, so he was so unforgettable that he was engraved on her heart.
The view of Ding Ning’s back gradually blurred in her eyes and overlapped the shadow in her memory.
This feeling astonished Xiao Nuo. They could not be the same person, and the strongest direct evidence was the gap between their height.
Nevertheless, why did he always make her feel inexplicably familiar? No matter his scent which made her feel relieved or the way he spanked her, they were almost the same as those of You Xumo. Even his voice was 99 percent similar to that of You Xumo. If it was just a coincidence, it was outrageous.
Xiao Nuo’s mind was full of troubles. She knew that Huntsman simply fooled her, but she could not let him go and wanted to know about his news.
She remembered that scientists had done such researchs. If two people had stayed together for a long time, they would subconsciously imitate each other’s movements, expressions, body language and even habits.
Over time, their living habits, body language and even appearances would be strikingly similar.
If they were a man and a woman, it was called husband-wife looks. If they were two men or two women, it was called brother looks or sister looks.
Since Ding Ning looked like him, Xiao Nuo boldly speculated that they must be closely related. Even if they were not brothers, at least they should be apprentices from the same sect.
Thus, Xiao Nuo intended to sound out Ding Ning about Huntsman. Even if she had no relationship with Huntsman, she still wanted to find out the truth. What was more, the bastard had kissed her twice.
“Doctor Ding, where are you from?”
On hearing her words, Ding Ning answered with a touch of nostalgia across his face. “I am from Diannan, a very remote town, but it’s picturesque and beautiful.”
“Are you the only child?” Xiao Nuo kept asking.
“Well, I think so.” Ding Ning answered with a little uncertainty.
“What do you mean by saying you think so?” Xiao Nuo was very dissatisfied with his answer and felt that he was fooling her.
Ding Ning was silent for a moment and then said sadly, “I have never met my mother as far as I could remember. No one has told me whether she is dead or alive. So I don’t know if I have brothers or sisters.”
“Oh, sorry, I don’t know that you are an orphan.”
Xiao Nuo felt the sorrow in his voice, and apologized guiltily.
Unexpectedly, it annoyed Ding Ning, “Who told you that I am an orphan? I have father, but he is extremely reticent. Every time I asked him if my mom was dead or alive, he kept silent and smoking. I got impatient of his response, so I’ve stopped asking him since then.”
“Sorry, I got you wrong.”
Xiao Nuo apologized in embarrassment, and then continued asking without flagging, “Did you learn your medical skills from your father?”
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