Chapter 160
Chapter 160
“Right, who’s this one?”
Ji Lu picked up another portrait that barely looked human.
Song Jin finally broke, laughing until his stomach hurt. “Can’t you tell? That’s our Young Master! Hahaha…”
Everyone fell silent.
Of course. The Young Master feared the cold, so he had wrapped himself from head to toe in animal hides, leaving only his eyes exposed. But drawn like this, he did not look human at all.
They observed several seconds of silence for him.
“I wonder what Little Yunsui is doing. With her ability, leaving should be easy. What if she’s already gone back to look for us and we miss each other?”
Song Jin shook his head. “No. She can’t tell directions. Waiting here, where she can always scrounge up food, is smarter than wandering the endless grasslands alone.”
Elsewhere, Jiang Yunsui gave a tiny sneeze as she stood blankly inside a tent packed with grain.
Counting on her fingers, she said, “This is the third tent full of food.”
She had to mark it.
Lying on the ground, she took out a hide and drew with charcoal she had found at the Cook Battalion.
Those drawing lessons had finally become useful. The hide already showed every tent she had found, along with the sheep pens, Cook Battalion, and routes between them.
Since she could not write, she used simple pictures: a sparkling gold ingot for the treasure vault, a cute sheep for the pen, a dagger for the armory, and now a basket of rice for the granary.
Simple and clear.
She was a little genius!
Jiang Yunsui rolled up the map, then frowned at her grubby black hands.
Another day of missing Nanshu. He would have cleaned them for her. She missed Fat Chef too, and Ji Yan’an. Her hair was a mess, and she could not tie it herself.
Little Mushroom sighed.
The tent flap suddenly opened. Several towering Barbarians entered.
Jiang Yunsui’s eyes widened. She covered her mouth and backed into a corner.
“Hurry. Carry more.”
She did not understand the words, but their movements made it clear they had come for grain.
One approached her corner. Jiang Yunsui grew rigid.
“What’s this?”
He had stepped on the charcoal she used for her map. She watched anxiously, terrified he would notice something.
Instead, he tossed it aside in disgust, never wondering why charcoal lay in a granary.
Jiang Yunsui finally relaxed.
Once everyone left, she poked her head out.
No one there. Run!
She raided the Cook Battalion again. Their cheese was tasty, and so were the roasted sweet potatoes.
Hmph. The Barbarians must have stolen them. They could not farm well, so they stole instead.
She was not stealing. These things had belonged to her people first!
She took extra sweet potatoes.
There were flatbreads and other breads as well. The Cook Battalion prepared enormous quantities for the whole camp, so a little missing food would not be noticed.
Little Mushroom was cunning enough to exploit every opening. She filled her pouch, gathered flatbreads and coarse-grain cakes in her arms, and ran.
The sheep pen was empty when she returned. With the slaves and sheep gone, even the patrols ignored it.
Perfect.
She uncovered the pit Centurion Lin’s men had dug and, like a little hamster, stored her haul inside, keeping only enough for herself. Then she replaced the hay.
Perched on the haystack, face dirty and hair tangled like a little beggar, she ate a fragrant roasted sweet potato until her cheeks bulged. Even filthy, she was irresistibly cute, making anyone who saw her want to pinch her cheeks and find out whether they were as soft as they looked.
After eating her fill and burping, she rested briefly, then became a busy little bee again.
She went to the armory and hauled weapons out with great effort. Small daggers were easiest; she could carry three or four at once. She ran them back, rested, and returned for more.
By deep night, Centurion Lin’s men returned. Jiang Yunsui was struggling into the pen with a curved saber longer than her arm when she sensed the grim mood.
“Xiao Wu, hold on…”
“What do we do? He has a fever. Without medicine, the wound won’t stop bleeding.”
Centurion Lin’s eyes burned with hatred. They had no medicine, and fires were forbidden in the pen, so they did not even have wood ash.
This had happened before. All they could do was watch helplessly as comrades died.
“The mushroom! The green mushroom I gave you!” Jiang Yunsui cried when she saw the bleeding whip wounds across Xiao Wu’s back.
Centurion Lin remembered. She had said it could cure illness and wounds, though its color truly looked poisonous.
“We have no choice. We’ll try anything.”
He retrieved a fresh green mushroom while the others covered him.
“How do we use it?” he asked, eyes red.
“Eat it.”
The others stared. “Centurion, can he really eat that?”
It looked deadly.
“What other choice do we have?”
Silence fell. They could only watch Xiao Wu die otherwise.
Centurion Lin crushed the Verdant Jade Mushroom into paste and fed it to the injured young man.
Everyone watched tensely, hoping for a miracle.