TSWPF -Chapter 136 Frightened

Xiang Yunfei hadn’t expected Li Qingling to say something like that. For a moment, he felt deeply ashamed—he couldn’t even measure up to a young girl.

“Brother Yunfei, what are you thinking about?” Li Qingning glanced at him. Seeing him lowered his head and stayed silent, she reached out and tugged at his sleeve, asking curiously.

Coming back to his senses, Xiang Yunfei patted her little head. “What your sister said is absolutely right. It makes a lot of sense.”

Perhaps he should really start thinking about what he wanted to do with his life.

From childhood until now, he had always gotten whatever he wanted. He had never truly thought about the path he would take in the future.

This time, coming to Liu Ziqian’s home and learning about Liu Ziqian and his family’s background had stirred something in him.

Hearing this, Li Qingning puffed out her chest proudly and nodded. “Of course. My sister is amazing.”

Seeing her little smug expression, Xiang Yunfei smiled and teased her. “Is she even more amazing than your brother-in-law? Hmm?”

“Of course!” Li Qingning nodded without hesitation. In her eyes, her sister was the most amazing person in the world—even more amazing than her eldest brother. “My sister knows how to do so many things.”

The person she admired most was her sister. When she grew up, she wanted to be just as capable as her.

She remembered her second brother saying that three years ago, when they were fleeing as refugees, they would have died long ago if not for their sister.

So they had to remember how good their sister had been to them, how much she had given for them, and when they grew up, they must repay her properly.

She remembered every word her second brother had said.

Xiang Yunfei felt that Li Qingning was just speaking like a child, so he went along with her teasingly. “Then what exactly can your sister do? Can you tell Brother Yunfei?”

In his impression, girls only knew a few things—music, chess, calligraphy, painting, and needlework. Other than that, there wasn’t much else.

The sisters in his own family were just like that—nothing particularly special.

Li Qingning happily started counting on her fingers. “My sister can cook really delicious food…”

Xiang Yunfei strongly agreed with this. Li Qingling’s cooking was even better than his family’s chef—once you tasted it, you’d be hooked.

He was already planning to follow Liu Ziqian back every time he had a day off, just to freeload on food and drinks…

Before he could finish that thought, Li Qingning continued, “She can hunt, raise chickens, raise fish, raise ducks, raise Ah Huang and Ah Bai… anyway, she knows how to do lots and lots of things.” She took a big breath, then looked up at Xiang Yunfei. “Isn’t my sister amazing?”

“…”

What was going on?

Hunting? Raising chickens? Fish? Ducks? Raising Ah Huang and Ah Bai?

He could understand the rest, but what on earth were Ah Huang and Ah Bai?

Xiang Yunfei felt like he and Li Qingning were talking past each other. He really couldn’t understand what she was saying anymore.

“Qingning, where are all those things you mentioned? Are they raised at home?”

Li Qingning shook her little head. “Not at home. It’s late now, and it’s all dark—you can’t see anything. I’ll take you to see them tomorrow!” She paused, then added, “But I can take you to see Ah Huang and Ah Bai right now, and their babies…”

She smiled mischievously. Before Xiang Yunfei could agree, she grabbed his hand and dragged him toward the backyard.

When Brother Yunfei saw Ah Huang and Ah Bai, he would definitely be scared.

Covering her mouth, Li Qingning giggled.

Instantly, Xiang Yunfei had a very bad feeling. He swallowed hard and asked, staring at the top of Li Qingning’s head, “What are Ah Huang and Ah Bai? Are they dogs?”

“Nope. Just come and see—you’ll know. They’re really cute. I like them a lot.”

Seeing how mysterious she was acting, Xiang Yunfei could only suppress the unease in his heart and follow her.

When they reached the backyard, Li Qingning happily called out, “Ah Huang! Ah Bai!”

As soon as her voice fell, two huge beasts ran out of a room, followed by five smaller ones.

Xiang Yunfei’s eyes nearly popped out of his head. Oh heavens—what was he seeing? Was he hallucinating?

His whole body froze on the spot. Looking at Li Qingning, he stammered, “Th-this… this is a big tiger, right?”

Li Qingning glanced at the trembling Xiang Yunfei and laughed mischievously. “These are Ah Huang and Ah Bai. The little ones are their babies. They’re really fun and won’t bite you. Don’t be scared.” She tugged at Xiang Yunfei’s hand. “If you don’t believe me, you can reach out and touch them.”

“…”

If he reached out, his hand probably wouldn’t come back.

How could Liu Ziqian’s family be so bold? They even dared to raise tigers—this was terrifying.

Seeing that she had achieved her goal, Li Qingning stopped teasing him. She扑ed over to Ah Huang, hugged it, and asked in her babyish voice, “Ah Huang, are you going hunting tonight?”

From time to time, Ah Huang would run to Song Mountain to hunt. With it around, the family never lacked game meat.

Ah Huang glanced at Xiang Yunfei. Sensing that he meant no harm, it stopped paying attention to him, nudged Li Qingning, and let out two low sounds.

Hearing its response, Li Qingning clapped her hands happily. “I want to eat wild rabbit. Can you catch one for me to eat?”

Ah Huang let out two more low sounds.

Th-this… this thing had become a spirit, hadn’t it? It could understand human speech and even respond. This was completely overturning his worldview…

Li Qingning squealed as she hugged Ah Huang and rubbed its big head. “Thank you, Ah Huang! If you catch a few more, I’ll let my sister cook delicious wild rabbit meat for you too.” Thinking of the wild rabbit meat Li Qingling had cooked before, her mouth started watering. “Whether you get to eat tasty rabbit meat depends on how well you perform.”

Ah Huang rubbed against Li Qingning, as if telling her it would catch several rabbits.

“Then remember to take a basket. Put the rabbits in the basket after you catch them, or you won’t be able to carry so many back, okay?”

Hearing this, Ah Huang happily let out a few more sounds.

Watching one person and one huge tiger chatting away happily, Xiang Yunfei stiffly shifted his body. He wanted to run away. He really didn’t want to stay here anymore—what should he do?

“Q-Qingning, I… I…”

Before he could finish, Li Qingning interrupted him. Tilting her little head, she smiled brightly. “Brother Yunfei, do you want to come touch Ah Huang?” She beckoned to him. “Come on, it won’t bite you.”

Looking at Li Qingning’s cheerful smile, he suddenly felt like she was a little devil trying to lure him into the abyss…

He hurriedly pinched his palm, shook his head, and forced a smile. “N-no need. Let’s… let’s go back.”

“Brother Yunfei, are you scared? Why are you so timid?”

“…” Xiang Yunfei really wanted to cry.

He was being deeply looked down upon by a little girl…

“Qingning, don’t mess around.” Hearing the noise from the backyard and seeing that they hadn’t come out after a while, Liu Ziqian knew she was scaring someone again.

To keep his classmate from being frightened out of his wits, he had no choice but to come in and save him.

The moment Xiang Yunfei heard Liu Ziqian’s voice, it was like seeing a savior. “Ziqian, you’re here?”

Perfect timing. He was finally saved.

Seeing Xiang Yunfei’s pale face, Liu Ziqian reached out and patted his shoulder. “Are you okay?”

“I-I’m fine…” How could he admit otherwise? That would be too embarrassing.

Seeing how forced he looked, Liu Ziqian didn’t say much. He turned his gaze to Li Qingning, his eyes stern. “Qingning, do you know what you did wrong?”

Li Qingning pouted, climbed down from Ah Huang, walked over to Liu Ziqian, and softly said that she knew she was wrong.

After that, she very obediently apologized to Xiang Yunfei.

Xiang Yunfei felt a little awkward accepting an apology from a child. He rubbed Li Qingning’s head and smiled at Liu Ziqian. “Ziqian, it’s not Qingning’s fault. I was just a bit shocked seeing the tiger so suddenly.”

Anyone would be frightened seeing a tiger out of nowhere. He really wasn’t cowardly.

Seeing that Xiang Yunfei spoke up for Li Qingning, Liu Ziqian let the matter go. He said gently, “They were raised by us since they were little. They won’t bite people casually. They’re very human-like—as long as you don’t provoke them, they won’t hurt anyone. Let’s go back to the study and continue with the questions from earlier.”

“…” He wanted to stay here. He didn’t want to go to the study.

After walking a few steps, Liu Ziqian noticed Xiang Yunfei hadn’t followed. He turned back and looked at him. “Hmm?”

That rising tone alone made Xiang Yunfei shiver. He chuckled awkwardly. “Coming, coming…”

After being forced by Liu Ziqian to do problems all night, Xiang Yunfei slept until the sun was high in the sky the next day before getting up.

When Li Qingning saw him, she laughed at him for only getting up when the sun was already shining on his backside.

Xiang Yunfei scratched his head awkwardly. Staying up so late as a guest in someone else’s home really wasn’t very proper.

Li Qingling patted Li Qingning and said with a smile, “There’s still breakfast in the kitchen. Go bring some for Young Master Xiang.”

Li Qingning responded with an “mm,” stood up, and trotted off toward the kitchen.

Xiang Yunfei felt embarrassed letting such a young child carry breakfast for him, so he followed her into the kitchen.

This was actually his first time stepping into a kitchen. He looked around curiously, then walked over to Li Qingning and pointed at the pot. “What are these?”

“Goat’s milk, corn cakes, chestnut cake…” Li Qingning unceremoniously told Xiang Yunfei to take the food out of the pot. “My sister made them. They’re really delicious—try some.”

Under Li Qingning’s enthusiastic urging, Xiang Yunfei took a sip of the goat’s milk. “This goat’s milk isn’t gamey—it tastes good…” The goat’s milk he had drunk before was always very gamey; after one sip, he never wanted more. This one was genuinely tasty. He didn’t know how Li Qingling prepared it.

“Of course. My sister’s cooking is amazing.” Whenever she got the chance, Li Qingning never missed praising Li Qingling.

Xiang Yunfei nodded repeatedly and quickly finished all his breakfast in the kitchen.

Still unsatisfied, he glanced at the pot—he wanted more, but there was none left.

Tomorrow morning, he would definitely get up earlier so he could eat more.

“Come on, I’ll take you out to play.” Li Qingning quickly washed the bowls, put them away, waved her little hand, and dragged Xiang Yunfei out to play.

When Xiang Yunfei finally saw the chickens, ducks, and fish Li Qingning had mentioned, he truly felt deep admiration for Li Qingling.