RYEY -Chapter 266 Eating Shit in Public

“Let’s go—take us to find the medicinal herbs.”

After Little Redhead finished drinking the well water, the color on its head grew even redder. Under the sunlight, it faintly gleamed. Cheng Qiao reached out to stroke the snake’s head—the texture felt really good.

The two of them and the snake slowly climbed upward. Suddenly, an urgent eagle’s cry rang out from the sky. Cheng Qiao’s heart jolted—she knew danger was near. At the same time, Little Redhead sped up, slithering ahead of Cheng Qiao and lifting its head high in alert.

“Cheng Qiao, be careful.”

Ye Jun stepped forward as well, placing himself in front of Cheng Qiao. A foul, fishy stench hit his nose. There was no need to guess—something big had appeared.

Two butcher knives materialized in Cheng Qiao’s hands. She handed one to Ye Jun and gripped the other tightly herself. She knew that if no ferocious beast had shown up, the sea eagle and Little Redhead wouldn’t be acting as if facing a formidable enemy.

A minute later, two black bears emerged. They first lifted their heads to look at the sea eagle flapping its wings, ready to attack, then glanced at Little Redhead, tongue flicking and hissing. Tension showed clearly on their faces.

“Qiao, let’s go. We definitely can’t beat two bears,” Ye Jun said without hesitation.

They didn’t have hunting rifles. Trying to defeat two adult black bears with just two butcher knives—wasn’t that a joke?

But Cheng Qiao shook her head. She took out a large bucket of well water from her space, quickly added white powder to it, then grabbed Little Redhead and tossed it back into the space. Only then did she and Ye Jun quietly retreat.

Sure enough, a much larger male black bear came charging over and began gulping down the well water. The female bear waited patiently at first, but perhaps sensing that if she waited any longer there’d be nothing left, she let out a loud roar.

The roar made Cheng Qiao cover her ears. She silently thanked her luck that she hadn’t brought the children up the mountain—otherwise today would have been extremely dangerous. After all, the space had already closed itself to Little Cheng Li, and Little Li Ming had never once been able to enter it.

The female bear’s roar made the male lift his head. Reluctantly, he backed away two steps, and the female immediately moved in. Before long, she finished the water in the bucket.

“One… two… three… four… five… collapse.”

Cheng Qiao quietly counted under her breath. This powerful sedative took only three or four seconds to work on humans, but on black bears, it took more than twenty seconds.

The two bears fell one after the other.

Ye Jun moved at once. The butcher knife in his hand became a bear-killing blade. He had to be fast—if the bears woke up, who would eat whom was anyone’s guess.

Twenty minutes later, Ye Jun had finished dismembering the two huge black bears. The bear gallbladders especially—those were genuinely precious medicinal ingredients and had to be carefully preserved.

Cheng Qiao put the dismembered bears into the space and gave the excess organs to the sea eagle. Neither master nor disciple had any mood left to look for herbs. After releasing Little Redhead, they hurried down the mountain.

When Mother Li saw the bloodstains all over the two of them, she was so frightened that the spatula slipped from her hand and clattered to the ground. Little Cheng Li and Little Li Ming burst into tears—their mother was bleeding! Would she die?

“It’s okay. It’s not my blood—it’s animal blood.”

Cheng Qiao took two wild rabbits out of her basket and handed them to Mother Li. Seeing the blood-covered rabbits, Mother Li finally felt relieved—but she still confirmed again and again that the blood on Cheng Qiao was definitely not hers, but from animals.

Only after Cheng Qiao and Ye Jun repeatedly reassured her did Mother Li relax and carry the rabbits into the yard. Little Cheng Li immediately ran obediently to the kitchen to heat water—Grandpa Ye needed a bath.

Cheng Qiao returned to her room, entered the space, thoroughly cleaned herself, washed her clothes, and only then came out into the yard clean and fresh.

Just as she stepped outside, Xu Hui came running in excitedly. The moment he saw Cheng Qiao, he shouted, “Mom! Dad brought Uncle Xiangyang and the others back!”

A smile instantly spread across Cheng Qiao’s face. Three days—it had been three days, and they were finally back. For the past three nights, she’d been constantly on edge, unable to sleep through even a single night.

The villagers all ran toward the foot of the mountain. Sure enough, they saw their families—faces drawn with fatigue but spirits high—happily carrying two wild boars down the mountain.

The other members of the security team carried wild rabbits and chickens or had bundles of firewood on their backs. Not a single person came down empty-handed.

Aunt Wang let out a loud cheer and called the women to the threshing ground to prepare the stoves—it was time to eat slaughtered-pig dishes. These days, Aunt Wang’s call was answered by almost everyone. A large group of women followed her in a rush.

All the harvest was placed on the threshing ground. Chen Weidang would naturally distribute everything properly. In this regard, every villager trusted his character completely.

Chen Weidang felt warmth in his heart. The villagers’ trust filled his exhausted body with fresh energy. Cuihua stayed behind out of concern, helping him with the work.

Of course, Er Mao and Chen Xiao Niu stayed as well. Even handing him a bowl of water was something. Watching the filial Er Mao and Xiao Niu, Chen Weidang’s heart grew cold toward Da Mao.

Although school hadn’t gone on break yet, there were weekends every week. Even if he wanted to save on bus fare, coming home once a month wouldn’t cost much.

Cuihua felt the same. She glanced sympathetically at Zhang Yuefang, who was quietly helping out. If Zhang Yuefang asked for a divorce from Da Mao, Cuihua would definitely support her.

Whether a man is dependable isn’t judged when he’s poor, but when he becomes successful. Now Da Mao was merely a worker-peasant-soldier college student, yet he already had his nose in the air—clearly unreliable.

When Li Huan returned home and saw Cheng Qiao take out black bear paws, his eyes nearly popped out. He grabbed Cheng Qiao nervously and looked her over from every angle—was she hurt?

Cheng Qiao shook her head. She had medicine on her, and it was only two bears—nothing to worry about. Seeing how lightly she spoke of it, Li Huan knew things definitely hadn’t been as simple as she made them sound.

He went to find Ye Jun. Only after confirming that Cheng Qiao had told the truth did he finally relax. “Uncle Ye, there’s no need to go gather herbs anymore. Qiao has everything she needs here.”

Ye Jun rolled his eyes. You don’t know shit. There are countless kinds of medicinal herbs across China—how could you possibly have everything? Even the Medicine King Bodhisattva in the heavens wouldn’t dare say that.

The villagers of Xiangyang Village joyfully enjoyed a feast of slaughtered-pig dishes. Every household also received a good share of meat and firewood. After that, everyone entered a tense phase of seedling protection.

Because they had to protect the seedlings, that winter the villagers of Xiangyang Village didn’t participate in the river embankment construction tasks. They needed to focus all their energy on the village’s land.

Chen Weidang, Uncle Niu, and the others almost went to the fields every day. No one knew where Li Huan had gotten thermometers from, but whenever the temperature dropped too low, coal stoves were brought out.

Aside from the village chief of Qianjin Village secretly visiting Xiangyang Village, the neighboring villagers all scoffed. In such cold weather, if the wheat seedlings could survive the winter safely, they said, they would eat shit in public.