Chapter 183
Chapter 183
“Awake now?” Ji Yan’an’s chilly voice sounded beside Nanshu.
Nanshu was the last to recover. He could not remember what he had done while poisoned, but Ji Lu enthusiastically reenacted it for him, leaving him mortified.
Nanmo had awakened first because his internal energy cleared the toxin faster. Unfortunately, he remembered everything and found his legs buried in a hole. He wanted the earth to swallow him.
Song Jin rubbed his head. “Little Yunsui!”
Several accusing gazes fell on Jiang Yunsui, who was biting a fried dough twist.
She looked back with pitiful innocence. “But they really were delicious! They just weren’t cooked through.”
It was definitely not the mushrooms’ fault.
Her excuses failed to prevent punishment. Song Jin drew two huge black circles around her eyes, while Nanshu tied her hair into two upright pigtails and painted bright circles on her cheeks.
When beauty-loving Little Mushroom saw her hideous reflection in the water, she burst into loud sobs and tried washing her face. The colors only smeared, making her look worse.
“You’re too mean! How can I face anyone looking this ugly?”
“Stop washing,” Ji Yan’an said. “You’re making it worse.”
She wailed louder, though not a single tear fell.
Ji Si wiped her face. Some pigment came away, but the rest spread into pale black and red stains. She looked ugly, yet oddly adorable, and everyone struggled not to laugh.
“Ahem. We should continue.”
Jiang Yunsui marched ahead with folded arms and a towering pout.
“Qianqian, Houhou, don’t forget to catch food for Milk Tea.”
Milk Tea was the little golden eagle. It clung to Jiang Yunsui and the two roosters, and since it would eventually carry messages, they needed to build a bond with it. Bringing one chick posed no difficulty.
Qianqian pecked another venomous snake to death, tore off a suitable piece, and fed it to the chick in a guard’s arms, along with the gallbladder. Most previous snake gallbladders had gone to Milk Tea because they nourished it well.
The once-bald chick was now fluffy, covered in handsome silver-white down.
Petting Milk Tea improved Jiang Yunsui’s mood slightly. Still sulking, the little girl moved off to one side and pointedly kept her distance from everyone.
Song Jin teased, “Little Unlucky One, be careful. Don’t…”
Before he finished, Jiang Yunsui tripped over her own feet and vanished from sight.
“Good heavens!” Song Jin cried.
“You jinx!” Nanshu shouted.
Everyone rushed over.
“Careful,” Shen Qingzhu warned. “There’s a drop beneath those plants.”
Dense plants had concealed the edge, and unlucky Jiang Yunsui had stepped straight into the gap.
A bear roared below.
They hacked away the vegetation and saw an endless bamboo forest beneath them. Jiang Yunsui was hanging from a tree growing out of the cliff.
Beneath the tree sat a rather simple-looking black-and-white bear.
“Jiang Yunsui, don’t move!”
Dazed from the fall, she lay across the branch on her stomach and felt as though all her food would be squeezed out. She tried to adjust herself.
“Huh?”
“Don’t move!”
Ji Si seized a vine and descended rapidly. Something touched Jiang Yunsui’s foot.
Crack.
The small branch had barely survived her fall. When the bear pawed at it, it snapped.
That familiar feeling of weightlessness returned. Jiang Yunsui wore the weary resignation of someone who had been through this far too many times. Ji Si managed to catch only the red ribbon in her hair and was left speechless.
Jiang Yunsui landed without pain on a furry, round belly.
As Ji Si prepared to act, Shen Qingzhu shouted, “Don’t move! That’s a Bamboo Bear. It eats plants, so don’t provoke it.”
Everyone watched tensely.
The puzzled Bamboo Bear examined the little girl on its belly, then held her like a cub. It snapped off a bamboo shoot, peeled it deftly, and offered her the tender center.
Jiang Yunsui stared blankly. “I don’t eat that.”
Song Jin studied the black circles around her eyes. “Did it mistake her for its cub?”
Shen Qingzhu’s mouth twitched. “It seems so.”
When she rejected bamboo twigs too, Jiang Yunsui took an apple from her pouch. “Here. Do you eat this?”
The Bamboo Bear sniffed it, bit away half with one crunch, and brightened. Delicious.
While it ate, Jiang Yunsui looked around and raised her head. More than three yards above, Ji Yan’an and the others were all staring down at her. It felt rather strange.
Then she noticed something familiar and jumped down. The Bamboo Bear did not stop her.
At the foot of the cliff, a patch of purplish-red lingzhi grew on a stump. Beneath it lay a large flesh-colored mass with the texture of jelly.
Jiang Yunsui ran over happily, disappearing into the party’s blind spot. She recognized it. It was even more precious than lingzhi.
After examining it carefully, her soft voice rang with delight.
“Ji Yan’an! Ji Yan’an, I found something wonderful! It’s Taisui! Taisui!”