Chapter 19

Chapter 19

The grievance on Jin Bao’s little face vanished in an instant.

She quickly stretched her chubby arms toward Xiao Jingmo on the other side of the fire.

“Second Brother, hold me.”

Jin Bao had discovered that, among everyone here, Second Brother was the smartest. Every time, he understood what she was trying to say.

Xiao Jingmo immediately stood, circled around the fire, and picked the little girl up.

A faint smile touched Pei Wanqing’s lips. Seeing Jin Bao like Xiao Jingmo so much made her happy too.

Jin Bao lay against Xiao Jingmo’s shoulder. Her little mouth leaned close to his ear, and she said softly, “Second Brother, Baby saw lots of big doggies. Their eyes glowed like leaves, and they’ll eat people.”

Xiao Jingmo’s back abruptly went rigid. It lasted only an instant before he returned to normal.

Holding Jin Bao, he sat back down in his original spot.

On his left was Xiao Che, on his right was Xiao Jinghao, and beside Xiao Jinghao was Xiao Jingxing.

Seeing Jin Bao come over, the father and sons all tried to tease her into talking.

Xiao Jingmo looked at Xiao Che, his expression unusually grave.

Xiao Che understood at once. There was something he needed to say.

He glanced around the cave. Quite a few people were already leaning against the stone walls, drowsy and half-asleep.

Even among the bailiffs, only two were on watch. The other two were already letting out soft snores.

“Mo’er, is something wrong?”

Xiao Che lowered his head, and Xiao Jingmo leaned closer.

“Father, Little Sister saw a wolf pack coming. There should be quite a number of them.”

Xiao Che’s face filled with shock.

Running into a wolf pack at a time like this meant certain death, especially when they were completely unprepared. The Main Branch was still positioned at the mouth of the cave, which meant they would be the first human shields fed to the wolves.

“Jin Bao, tell Father. Besides the wolf pack, what else did you see? Was it daytime or nighttime?”

The most important thing right now was the timing. If they had time to prepare, they might be able to flee the cave and grasp a slim chance of survival.

Jin Bao tilted her little head, thinking back to the scene she had seen earlier.

“Moon. Baby saw the moon, hanging right there. The sky was very dark. The rain stopped. Everyone was sleeping. Big Brother got bitten.”

Back when Jin Bao had lived in Sanjiacun, she had rarely spoken, and the village children had chased after her calling her a little mute.

So her language ability was somewhat lacking. Being able to say this much now was already quite impressive.

“Then it will be at night, after the rain stops.”

To them, this piece of information was truly good news.

“Jin Bao, were there many wolves? Were there more than the people in our cave?”

Xiao Jingmo knew Jin Bao couldn’t count, but if she compared them, he could still narrow down the size of the wolf pack.

Jin Bao quickly lowered her head and began counting on her fingers.

In her previous life at the orphanage, the director mother had taught her to count. She could count from one to ten, but the director mother was mean and would always pick one number out of the ten, and then she wouldn’t know how to read it anymore.

“One, two, three…”

“Baby can’t count them all. Lots of big doggies with green eyes. Not as many as the people in the cave. Very fierce.”

Xiao Jingmo let out a breath of relief. It seemed there were at least a dozen, and at most twenty or thirty. It was a medium-sized wolf pack. Fortunately, it wasn’t a large pack of sixty or seventy wolves.

Judging by the position of the moon Jin Bao had pointed out, he could infer that the wolf pack would appear around the hour of Hai. There were still three double-hours before then, which meant the wolf pack had not discovered them yet. They might even still be very far away.

If they left now, they still had a chance to survive.

The hardest part was figuring out how to pass this information to the officials without making the officials suspicious, and also making them believe it.

Xiao Che looked at Xiao Jingmo.

“Mo’er, what do you think?”

Xiao Jingmo’s face was calm as he watched the flames dancing before him, his mind working quickly.

“Father, we have to find a way to go outside. Ideally, we need to bring back some clues. Only then will the bailiffs believe us.”

Xiao Che nodded. As long as someone could get out, clues could be manufactured, but they first had to come up with an excuse to leave the cave.

Right now, aside from the women, the only people who could move around were the three Xiao Family brothers.

Xiao Jinghao and Xiao Jingmo were the best choices.
“Baby will go. Baby runs fast. Baby isn’t afraid of big doggies.”

No one could really argue with Jin Bao. When it came to speed, she was indeed the fastest among them now. Not a single member of the Xiao Family could catch up with her; Xiao Jingmo had personally verified that.

The problem was that it was raining outside. Jin Bao had only just dried her clothes by the fire. If she went out and got drenched again, she might catch a cold.

And never mind Jin Bao; even an adult couldn’t withstand being soaked by such heavy rain for long.

The temperature in the mountain forest was already lower than outside. With the rain on top of that, if they hadn’t lit a fire, everyone would probably have been shivering by now.

“If only we had something to keep the rain off.”

Xiao Che couldn’t help sighing. He did not lower his voice; instead, he let out a long, heavy lament.

Nanny Chen, who was sitting beside Xiao Che, heard him and looked toward the cave entrance, then back at him.

“My Lord, this old servant does happen to know a craft. I can weave cloaks out of vines and leaves. They can keep off the rain.”

Xiao Che immediately turned to look at Nanny Chen.

“Nanny, you actually know how to do that? I never heard you mention it before.”

Nanny Chen tugged lightly at the corner of her mouth. “This old servant began following Young Miss when I was eight. Before that, I was the daughter of a poor family. My family made a living by weaving. Later, when the taxes grew heavier and we could no longer feed so many children, my mother sold me. It was Young Miss who bought me. From that day on, Young Miss has been this old servant’s benefactor.”

Xiao Che had never known Nanny Chen had such a past. It seemed his wife had truly reaped the kindness she had sown. Nanny Chen had stayed by her side all these years, never abandoning her, even insisting on following them into exile. She had long since tied her own life to that of her mistress.

When Pei Wanqing heard Nanny Chen bring up the past, a gentle light appeared in her eyes. That had happened back when she was still an unmarried young lady in her family’s inner chambers. More than twenty years had passed now, yet she had not expected Nanny Chen to still remember it.

Xiao Che looked at Xiao Jingmo. “Mo’er, find an excuse to step outside and bring back some vines and leaves.”

That was not difficult for Xiao Jingmo.

Along the way, vines had been wrapped around tree trunks everywhere in the forest. Some were as thick as a finger, with green leaves already growing on them.

The person on watch at the moment was Zhu Laosan.

Xiao Jingmo walked over and spoke a few words to Zhu Laosan while clutching his stomach.

Zhu Laosan nodded. He knew Xiao Jingmo would not possibly run away. After all, his family was still here.

In less than fifteen minutes, Xiao Jingmo returned with a large pile of vines.

Zhu Laosan assumed they were going to use them as firewood and gave a silent sneer. These noble young masters really had no common sense at all. Vines might be easy to find, but they were not suitable for burning. At this time of year, they held too much moisture and were hard to dry by fire. They would be far less useful than the dead branches scattered through the forest.

But Zhu Laosan only glanced over before sitting back down.

Nanny Chen’s hands were very deft.

The pile of vines soon became two cloaks in her hands. Then she tucked leaves into the gaps between the vines. Together with the leaves already growing on the vines themselves, the layers overlapped one after another, and they really could keep off the rain.

Xiao Jingmo put the smaller one on Jin Bao. The little girl looked as though she were wearing a green dress, with a hat on her head that resembled an upside-down bird’s nest, adding a touch of wild charm to her appearance.

“Good. This should do.”

Seeing Jin Bao wrapped up tightly, Xiao Che felt slightly more at ease.

Pei Wanqing did not understand. She had no idea what the siblings were planning to do, dressed like this.

Xiao Che had not dared tell everyone about the wolf pack, for fear of causing unnecessary panic. Besides, Madam Liu and her family of three were present as well. One could never be too cautious. Although they had temporarily become allies, Jin Bao’s matters still could not be exposed.

After they sat there doing nothing for another two hours, Pei Wanqing and Old Madam Xiao had both begun dozing off, while the three members of Madam Liu’s family were already leaning against one another, sound asleep.

Only then did Xiao Jingmo stand and walk inward.

By now, Zhu Laosan had already been relieved by Li Si. Xiao Jingmo stepped forward and repeated the same trick.

Li Si nodded and told him to be quick.

Xiao Jingmo picked up Jin Bao. Since there were only two makeshift rain cloaks, Xiao Jinghao was left inside the cave.

Only Xiao Jingmo carried Jin Bao out to scout for news.