Xia Xun was stunned: "What?"
They set off in the afternoon, and it has only been an hour since they left Qi Mansion.
It was originally a clear sky, but if you didn't pay attention, it was covered by dark clouds.
Xia Xun looked up at the sky, but couldn't even find where the sun was.
Qi Yan took his time and continued to walk deep into the flourishing flower trees.
Xia Xun stopped in her tracks:
"Since you can't find your way, you should go back. If you insist on going forward, where are you going?"
Qi Yan's tone was steady, not in a hurry:
"Don't worry, Qi Hui can't wait for us in Wuyuan, so he will naturally come to look for us."
He looked back at Xia Xun, and actually smiled at him:
"Why worry? It's rare to be free today. Wouldn't it be more interesting to enjoy the beautiful scenery of the mountains and plains than to see the burned Wuyuan?"
With his calm demeanor, Xia Xun couldn't help but suspect that he deliberately led him off the road.
Qi Yan continued:
"I vaguely remember that there is a stream ahead, which flows from Wuyuan. Let's go to the water's edge and go upstream along the direction of the stream. We should be able to find it."
As he said this, Xia Xun followed behind him.
Along the way, no one spoke.
Xia Xun is naturally not in the mood to appreciate the flowers and wild grasses, and Qi Yan, who proposed to see the flowers, just concentrates on walking and has no intention of admiring the flowers.
And so they went, until the darkened sky closed in on all sides.
The creek that existed in Qi Yan's words finally appeared before his eyes.
Xia Xun couldn't move anymore, so she leaned on the tree trunk and sat down on the big rock by the stream.
Qi Yan took out a fire notebook from his arms:
"Qi Hui must know that we are lost. He should have sent someone to look for us. Let's make a fire. With the light of the fire, it will be easier for them to find us."
He blew lightly, and sparks burst out from the torch.
He randomly found a few branches and put them on the fire.
After burning for a long time, the branches did not catch fire.
Xia Xun originally planned to watch with cold eyes, but was blown by the late summer wind, her whole body was chilled, and she urgently needed to keep warm.
He stood up and searched around in the dim light of the sky, found a few branches that grew on the tree and were far from the ground, broke them off and threw them to Qi Yan.
Qi Yan took it and asked:
"What's the difference between these and the ones in my hand?"
While talking, a few sparks from the fire folder splashed onto the branch Xia Xun had just found, and the dry branches instantly ignited.
Qi Yan looked at Xia Xun in surprise.
Xia Xun took the burning branch in his hand, put it on the ground, and pulled out a few clumps of dry moss from the surface of the stone.
It hadn't rained for several days, and the moss didn't have any moisture at all.
He sprinkled moss on the fire, and the flames sprang up and burned brighter and hotter.
He put the branches that Qi Yan found on top of the flames, and simply built a tower.
The flames licked the branches and gradually burned into a big fire.
Qi Yan became more and more surprised: "You—"
Xia Xun said coldly:
"The wood you are looking for is too wet and it is difficult to start a fire. Wait for the fire to be used to burn it, and it is not easy to have black smoke."
Qi Yan sat by the fire, the shadow formed by the fire light undulated on his face.
After pondering for a moment, he asked: "... how do you know this?"
Xia Xun didn't answer, but walked aside.
Just now he caught a glimpse from the corner of his eye, and there seemed to be something there.
He kicked away a piece of weeds with his feet, and he saw the expected scene.
—A wild rabbit was lying motionless on the ground with a large bloodstain on its neck.
Its blood attracted bloodthirsty insects, black worms shuttled among the brown fur, sucking its blood.
Qi Yan walked to his side, looked down, and frowned suddenly:
"Filth! Don't look!"
He wanted to pull Xia Xun away, but Xia Xun shook off his hand, bent down and grabbed the rabbit's ears, and lifted the hare's body up.
"Xia Xun!" Qi Yan raised the volume: "Release it quickly, don't touch it! Be careful!"
The worms were alarmed and ran around on the corpse. Xia Xun numbly patted them off, let them fall at his feet, and fled in a hurry.
Qi Yan grabbed his hand:
"What are you going to do?! Aren't you afraid of being bitten??"
Xia Xun asked back: "What else can I do? Take it home to enjoy? Of course it's for eating."
Qi Yan's eyes widened:
"How do you eat this?!"
Xia Xun lifted the rabbit up and pressed its belly.
"Why can't I eat it? This rabbit was bitten to death by a weasel. The body was still warm. It had been dead for no more than half an hour. Those insects had just crawled onto it, and I shook it off before it could suck blood. It’s clean and ready to eat when cooked.”
Qi Yan reprimanded:
"Ridiculous! You and I are not mountain beasts, how can we eat such filth? If you are really hungry, Qi Hui will find us in a short time, and then—"
Xia Xun met his gaze:
"If Mr. Zhongshu dislikes it, just watch me eat it."
He shook off Qi Yan's hand, carried the rabbit to the stream, cleaned its fur carefully, and washed away the blood and dust.
At some point, Qi Yan came behind him:
"...you are in Lingnan, do you often... eat this kind of thing?"
As a place of exile, Douzhou is full of poisonous miasmas and rampant insects and snakes.
Only in the vicinity of the county seat, due to the felling of a large number of trees, the poison of miasma marshes is much reduced, so it is suitable for survival.
When Xia Xun and her elder brother just escaped, they were afraid of being recognized and dared not approach crowded places, so they could only hide in the forest.
The local hunters took them in, let them live in the firewood house at home, and taught them how to hunt.
These survival skills were all learned at that time.
Facing Qi Yan's question, Xia Xun didn't say a word, which was regarded as tacit consent.
He groped along the shore and found a sharp-edged stone.
There is a wound on the rabbit's body, and the stone can be used to peel off its skin.
Its body was not completely cooled, Xia Xun tore off the skin of its wound.
In the hare's corpse, wet blood flowed continuously down his hand.
Qi Yan was shocked suddenly, grabbed the rabbit, threw it far away, and pressed Xia Xun's hand firmly into the stream.
He rubbed Xia Xun's hands vigorously to wash off the blood on his hands.
He was so strong that the skin on the back of Xia Xun's hand was quickly rubbed red by him.
"enough!"
Xia Xun pushed him away fiercely, and Qi Yan fell to the ground in embarrassment, with the hem of his clothes hanging down into the stream, and was quickly soaked by the stream.
Xia Xun asked angrily: "What are you doing??"
Qi Yan sat on the ground in a daze, and after a long while, he staggered to his feet.
Xia Xun ignored him, picked up the rabbit, put it in the stream, and washed it clean again.
Qi Yan slowly squatted beside him, and once again took the rabbit from his hand.
It was taken with it, and the stone.
He whispered: "... I'll do it."
His voice was hoarse.
Xia Xun really didn't understand what he was going to do.
"You come? Don't talk about peeling, have you ever been in a kitchen in your life?"
Qi Yan insisted on doing it himself.
"Come on, I don't want to see blood on you, even if it's not your own blood..."
Pausing for a moment, he murmured to himself:
"...I dreamed of you one day, and that was the only time, you stood in front of me covered in blood..."
He couldn't continue, stopped to take a breath, and continued:
"I can't see that scene again, not once...not at all."
He picked up the stone and clumsily cut the rabbit's fur.
Qi Yan never worked.
Even when Xia Xun met him when he was at his worst, Qi Hui was always by his side.
After the accident in the Xia family, Xia Xun deceived herself and avoided reality, unwilling to understand the grievances between Qi Yan and his father.
He only heard it intermittently from his eldest brother.
Qi Yan's parents are noble, far from being comparable to the Xia family.
Their deaths were indeed caused by Xia Hongxi.
Now the official Qi Yan worships the servant of Zhongshu, but he wants to skin and tear apart a hare in the countryside and mountains for his enemy's son.
No matter how Xia Xun looked at it, she felt that the scene in front of her was very funny.
He stood aside with his arms folded, watching with cold eyes, without saying a word.
In the dark night, Qi Yan endured the smell of blood, and cut off the rabbit meat bit by bit.
His movements were quite jerky, and there was still a lot of meat attached to the fur, which he didn't cut off, so he just discarded it.
Blood flowed all over his hands, and he didn't have time to wash it off, and his sleeves gradually became black and red.
He handed the washed rabbit meat to Xia Xun. Xia Xun put them on several branches and roasted them on the fire.
Not long after, there was a smell of meat, and the rabbit meat was roasted.
Xia Xun picked it up, blew on it, and was about to bite.
Qi Yan pressed his hand:
"I'll try it first, it's fine if I eat it, you can eat it later."
Xia Xun was very troubled:
"I've eaten a lot of meat worse than this, and there are many more disgusting that you haven't seen, but am I still alive?"
He avoided Qi Yan's touch:
"This scent will soon attract other animals, so eat as soon as you want!"
Qi Yan withdrew his hand and picked up a meat skewer with a complicated expression.
They have no spices on them and the roast meat is bland and definitely not tasty.
Qi Yan put the meat under his nose and smelled it, reluctantly put it into his mouth, chewed for a long time before swallowing it with difficulty.
After eating a few strings of rabbit meat, Xia Xun finally didn't feel so cold. He put his hand on the fire to absorb the temperature.
Qi Yan looked at the fire, not knowing what he was thinking about.
After a while, he suddenly said:
"The first time I saw you, you were hiding in the weeds with your jade beads in your arms. I saw the grass turning and thought it was a hare from somewhere."
Xia Xun shook her hand: "Don't mention the past!"
Qi Yan didn't seem to hear, she shook her head and said sadly:
"The Xia family doesn't treat you well, especially your second brother Xia Xing, he always bullies you. I feel distressed, but I can't help you."
He fell into memory, wandering in thought:
"... At that time, I said to myself, I will compensate you for everything you didn't get in the Xia family, and I will let him taste everything Xia Xing has done to you."
Mentioning Xia Xing, Qi Yan's eyes showed a hint of sternness.
Xia Xun saw it:
"Stop talking meaningless words, Xia Xing is already dead."
After a pause, he asked Qi Yan softly:
"... Did you kill him?"
His words interrupted Qi Yan's memory, and gradually cleared up his originally trance-like expression.
Qi Yan didn't answer for a long time, until the sky began to drizzle.
He stood up and took the thickest log in the fire as a torch.
"I looked around just now. There is a cave not far ahead. It's raining. Go into the cave and hide."
Qi Yan was avoiding his question.
Xia Xun didn't ask any further questions.
The answer has already been revealed, even if Qi Yan didn't say it, wouldn't he know it
If you insist on asking, you are clearly asking for trouble.
He wiped the rain from his eyelashes, followed Qi Yan into the cave.