Yan Huan walked out of the tent. A year had passed, during which the seasons had graced them by turns.
And now, it was spring again. She reached out and touched her hands together, feeling a numbing pain.
She had frostbite.
It wasn’t that bad of a thing, she decided. She wouldn’t even need makeup now.
She then went back inside the tent, where she had already resided for a year. Time really does fly. She was 26, almost 27 in the coming year. In her previous life, she had died a year after 27.
She didn’t know how long she had in this life. She didn’t need it to be too long; just long enough to take care of Lu Yi’s parents and send them off on their final journey. That’s when they could all reunite again.
“The soup’s ready, Miss Yan,” said the nanny, putting the bowl onto the table.
Yan Huan walked over, raised the bowl to her lips, and drank deeply. Her hands were sad to look at.
What used to be pretty fingers, were now red and swollen from the frostbite. It might even give her a sequela.
Why would a woman push herself this hard? Yes, why, indeed? Yan Huan often found herself asking the same question. But what was there to do other than pushing herself? Dwell on the past? Hope for the future?
Her past was brittle, and her future bleak. That’s why she was fine with the way she was living. Call it penance, or letting loose, it made no matter. To her, it was just another year.
Before the Beginning had reached its final scenes, the most challenging scenes of the entire film, where they had to escape from a volcano eruption. The volcano will be added during the after-production, so the actors had to use their imagination and coordination to complete the shooting.
Yan Huan laid down her bowl. The soup warmed her stomach. The weather was warm too. Basking in the warm sunlight, she hankered for a rocking chair, a book, and a cup of tea. In the lazy afternoon, she could listen to the birds sing, the winds whisper, and the leaves rustle as they fall.
But she didn’t have time for that kind of leisure. The shooting had to go on.
There was more work to be done, so they had to work hard.
Shi Jia lifted the fur curtain and saw him standing there, a hand over his eyes to ward off the glaring sun.
Spring was here.
She looked up too. Her fingers were frostbitten and swelling. A deep gash had appeared on it too.
But she didn’t seem to mind at all. Her lips even curved up slightly as she looked at the sun. It had been a close shave, but we made it.
At night, Zhang Peng brought bad news. As expected, there had been many deaths in the tribe they were exiled from. Most had died from starvation.
Shi Jia couldn’t bring herself to pity them. They had warned them, but they chose not to listen. There was nothing more they could have done. They continued living in the cave, living peacefully and hunting for food.
As the earth grew warmer, all kinds of animals awakened from their wintry slumbers, and they no longer had to hunt actively thanks to the foolish creatures that kept stumbling into their traps.
Yao Xiaoyu and Zhang Peng cultivated some lands for the purpose of planting anesthetic plants. Yao Xiaoyu also tried to figure out how to grow mushrooms, since there wasn’t much for her to do anyway. Even though she hadn’t done it before, she made progress after a few trial and errors. That was to be expected, since she did know how it worked theoretically.
But their peaceful days soon reached an end. The tribesmen sought them out, begging Zhang Peng to return and help them rebuild their homes. Half the tribe had died, leaving the old, young, weak, and sick. Grown men had headed out on the coldest of days, foraging for food, only to never return.
Only five people remained in the village. The rest had made off with the women, and what remained of their food.
Zhang Peng didn’t even want to entertain them. So they needed him now. Back then, they had treated his words as farts. He was living well now, and he wasn’t responsible for their lives.
But the tribesmen never stopped coming, bringing their children along with them. In the end, Zhang Peng softened and gave in. He had spent five years living among them, witnessing the birth of those children, watching them grow. If he left them to themselves, the kids might not even get to mature.
He returned by himself, but Yao Xiaoyu didn’t. Why would she? She liked their current base. Besides, that was where she grew her mushrooms and anesthetic plants.
Shi Jia was fine with anything, but she leaned towards not going as well. Mainly because she was lazy. Tarzan followed Shi Jia like a shadow, so her decision was as good as his.
Shi Jia often sat on the ground working on bows and arrows. She wanted to craft a proper weapon, which could come in handy in times of emergency and make hunting easier. Apart from her inner thoughts, she was very much a savage now, clad in fur skirts, eating beast meat, and living like a primitive.
Her skin had become tanned and coarse, her muscles more developed than before. Her senses had also gotten sharper, and nearly no prey could escape her now.
Perhaps this isn’t a bad place to live after all. She set her work aside and looked towards Yao Xiaoyu, who was puzzling over a method to grow mushrooms.
Yao Xiaoyu had adapted way faster than she did. She had her own forms of amusements and spent every day grinning like a fool, living happily without a care in the world. Perhaps that was a good way to live.
Life passes, whether you are happy or sad.
She picked up an arrowhead and continued sharpening it.
Suddenly, for some reason, she couldn’t explain, her eyes turned towards the nearby active volcano. She had felt some trembling in the ground lately. That had always been her only fear. Where could they hope to run to, if the volcano were to erupt?
She brought up her concerns to Zhang Peng.
