The sky over the rivers and lakes is very clear

Chapter 215

With her tense body relaxed, Zhu Huihui turned over and fell asleep peacefully.

In the darkness, a warm smile appeared on the lips of a maple-colored face, then the smile faded, turning into a soft sigh.

Zhu Huihui slept for a very long time. Finally, she was full and yawned, rubbing her eyes as she got up from the ground.

Feng Xuese sat at the cave entrance, deep in thought. Hearing the noise behind her, she tilted her head slightly and asked with a smile, "It's dawn, isn't it?"

Zhu Huihui was overjoyed: "Huh? How did you know? You can see now?"

Feng Xuese shook her head slightly, turned her face to the rising sun, and said, "The melodious birdsong, the fresh air, the warmth of the sun, and the scent of grass and trees all tell me that it is already morning."

Zhu Huihui stared at him blankly.

Sunlight streamed through the gaps in the grass covering the cave entrance, illuminating his handsome face. His fair, jade-like face seemed to be coated with a faint yellow hue; his expression was serene, his spirit radiant, and his entire being seemed to glow.

Feng Xuese suddenly turned around and faced her: "What?"

Knowing he couldn't see, Zhu Huihui still blushed. "N-nothing!" she said慌乱地, "Great hero, please wait for me!" She then pulled up her sleeve and wiped her mouth. How embarrassing! The great hero isn't a steamed bun, why was she drooling in front of him!

Zhu Huihui arrived at the cave entrance and looked around.

“There’s no one around,” Feng Xuese said directly, as if she knew what she was doing.

Although he could no longer see, his other senses became more acute, especially his hearing.

When his mind is calm, he can hear the breathing of the surrounding trees, the sound of a small flower quietly blooming dozens of feet away, and even sense a hawk swooping down on a titmouse high in the sky...

Zhu Huihui said, "Great hero, I'll be right back after I go out for a bit."

Don't worry, she has already figured out what to do, so this time she won't abandon him and run away alone.

Feng Xuese nodded, sat down at the cave entrance with his sword in his arms, and instructed, "Don't go too far." If something unexpected happened, he might not be able to get there in time to rescue you.

Zhu Huihui agreed and went out of the cave, but it took her quite a while to run back.

"Hero, I just went to wash my face and brought back a handkerchief for you. Please wipe your face." Zhu Huihui handed a handkerchief to Feng Xuese's hand.

Feng Xuese smelled the scent of grass on the handkerchief and asked curiously, "What's that smell?"

"It's nothing!" Zhu Huihui said ingratiatingly. "Are you feeling unwell, sir? Shall I help you wash?" She boldly reached out to touch Feng Xue's fair face. Hehe, the hero's face is so handsome; she'd wanted to touch it for a long time…

Just as she was about to succeed, Feng Xuese suddenly raised his hand, grabbed her palm, and quietly said, "I'll do it myself!" What is this girl up to? He thought to himself as he washed his hands and face with a handkerchief.

Zhu Huihui stared at him, almost bursting out laughing.

Haha! My mom says that the herbal juice from *Lao Chi Huang* (a type of herb) will turn your skin yellowish and it's very difficult to remove. Now Grandpa's face and hands are a burnt yellow, like smoked bacon, hehe!

"Oh, by the way, sir, why don't you wipe your neck while you're at it!"

The old man's neck was so white, a completely different color from his face, it looked like it had been sewn on.

Feng Xuese nodded and wiped her neck as well. Although she thought the handkerchief was too much, she didn't care about such formalities at this moment.

Seeing that a handsome young man had turned into a sickly person, Zhu Huihui couldn't help but chuckle.

"Sir, please wait a moment while I go feed the horse, so it won't sluggish later." This horse also needs a good grooming! What can you do? Both it and its master act so important!

Feng Xuese nodded in agreement.

His eyesight was impaired, and he couldn't see at all that the horse Zhu Huihui had brought back had turned into a dirty, mangy, grayish-brown horse.

Zhu Huihui vigorously swung her arms, exclaiming, "It wasn't easy! I was up early this morning, hungry, rubbing herbs to extract juice! Mother said the juice from the fruit of the purple coix seed can dye fingernails and lips, the 'crow's wing' can dye cloth black, and the juice from the blue feather turns hands brown... Luckily, we can find several kinds of herbs around here! But this horse is so big, dressing it up is really difficult, my arms are aching! Sigh! Even with the makeup, this horse is still too tall and imposing. If I wasn't worried about its strength, I really wanted to feed it some laxatives, and make it turn into a sick horse no matter what..."

"Sir, your clothes are torn, please change them!"

The old man's attire was too conspicuous; that white outfit was clearly a signal, beckoning people to come and chop him up! Luckily, she had planned ahead and took out the clothes she had taken from the village yesterday for the old man to wear over them. Although they didn't fit him perfectly, it was still much better than him wearing that "white lookout outfit"! However, she didn't dare tell him that the clothes were stolen, lest he become picky and cause trouble.

Feng Xuese naturally didn't know what was going on, but she felt that what she said made sense, so she changed her clothes.

Zhu Huihui even volunteered to help him redo his hair. She didn't need to deliberately make it look bad anymore—for her, it wasn't easy to make it look good, but making it look bad was her natural talent.

She relentlessly ravaged the old man and the horse, turning them into ugly monsters, and showed no mercy to herself either. Her head, neck, hands, and face were now a uniform yellowish-black, like a color that could never be washed off—utterly grotesque!

She changed into the stolen clothes and checked them again. She almost forgot about the old man's annoying sword. She pondered for a long time but couldn't figure out what to do with it, so she had to find a cloth to wrap it up and put it on the horse's back so that the old man could easily get it.

Although she didn't know she had been turned into a monster, Feng Xuese had a vague idea of what she was busy with.

He was always easygoing and not one of those who were aggressive and competitive. Although he wasn't afraid of being hunted down, his eyesight was impaired at the moment, so he figured it was better to avoid some trouble. But what if the enemy discovered him? Even though he couldn't see, as long as he had a sword in his hand, what did he have to fear!

Meanwhile, Zhu Huihui finished tidying up everything, then tucked the stolen cleaver into his waistband and covered it with his clothes. Then, a blind man who looked like a consumptive rode a dirty, rustic horse, and a dark-skinned country girl held the reins. The three of them strolled off down the mountain, looking for a way.

Knowing that countless people might be searching for the old man on the mountain, Zhu Huihui dared not take the main road and led his horse along secluded paths. After traveling only a few miles, they saw a mountain of flesh in the distance, carrying a large knife on its shoulder and swaying as it walked up the mountain.

The moment she saw the fat man, the hair on her body stood on end! Last time on the Lone Eagle Gorge boardwalk, she was almost sat on to death by this fat man—damn it, he was the one who had been sent by the dead pig! She was so frightened that she didn't even dare to look at who was with the mountain of flesh, and immediately led her horse into the woods.

The thought that countless people might be waiting to kill her and her in the mountains sent shivers down her spine. Her eyes widened, darting around as she searched for any clues. Those who fear death often have an innate sensitivity to danger, and several times she actually spotted some suspicious individuals, prompting her to lead her horse away in advance.

Although Feng Xuese was blind, she could still sense that Zhu Huihui was leading her around aimlessly, so she frowned slightly and asked, "Huihui, which way are we going?"

"We are..." Zhu Huihui tiptoed, looked in the direction of the sun, and then answered, "We are walking in circles!"

Maple Snow Color: "..."

Zhu Huihui cautiously looked up at him: "Great hero!"

"Um?"

"I think...we're lost..." Zhu Huihui said, wiping the sweat from her brow, looking ashamed.

She didn't know which path led down the mountain, and in order to avoid the enemy, she wandered around aimlessly. So now, before the enemy has even done anything, she has confused herself.

Maple Snow Color: "..."

Zhu Huihui secretly stuck out his tongue: "Great hero, why don't you just choose any direction to go?"

Now that things had come to this, Feng Xuese had nothing to say, so he could only casually raise his left hand and point: "Then let's go this way!" He could only distinguish front from back and left from right, but he had no way of knowing which way was east, west, south, or north.

"Great, great hero..."

"Um?"

"On the left is the crash site..."

"The one on the right!"

"Ugh, there's a cliff to the right!"

"..."

This girl is deliberately trying to annoy me! Feng Xuese tapped her on the head and gently scolded, "Then let's move forward!"

Zhu Huihui chuckled and led the horse forward. Actually, she was lying to him. She felt no remorse for taking advantage of a blind man; she was just inexplicably happy—because the old man, who used to stand high above the clouds pretending to be a god, had finally been brought down to earth by lightning and had become much more like a human.

We walked straight downhill for nearly two hours before finally seeing signs of human habitation in the distance.

Looking ahead, there are terraced fields on a hillside. The land is very flat, and the seedlings in the fields are lush and green, looking very cute, like a fluffy green carpet.

A path winds down a mountain stream, and at the end of the path are three thatched houses built against the mountain. On one side of the yard, there is a melon trellis and a grape trellis, and on the other side, vegetables are planted on the flat ground. The bamboo fence surrounding the yard is covered with morning glories of various colors.

Smoke was rising from the chimney of the thatched hut.

Where there is land and water, there will be people. In the mountains, where travel is inconvenient, neighbors often live far apart, so Zhu Huihui was not surprised by the sudden appearance of this secluded courtyard.

Just as she saw the smoke rising from the chimney, her stomach rumbled loudly. Without a word, she grabbed her horse and headed for the hut.

Upon arriving, she first helped Feng Xuese dismount, then went to knock on the door herself.

"Hey, is anyone home?"

No one answered from inside the door.

Nobody here? That's great!

"Hero, there are stone benches here, please sit here first." Zhu Huihui pushed open the fence gate, saw that there were no dogs, then took Feng Xuese's hand and made him sit under the grape trellis. He then turned around and brought the horse in as well.

"Grey, what are you doing?" Although Maple Snow was at her mercy, she wasn't entirely at ease. This girl had a history of offenses; barging into an empty house like this definitely meant no good.

Zhu Huihui casually replied, "Nothing. Just looking around." Then she stepped into the house.

The three thatched houses consist of three rooms. The middle room is the front hall, furnished with simple, crude furniture. The room on the left is the bedroom, which contains a bed and some wardrobes and other items. Although the items are few and crude, they are kept very tidy, showing that although the family is poor, the owner is very hardworking.

Zhu Huihui was most interested in the room on the right.

This is a kitchen. Several golden cornbreads are stuck to the top of a large iron pot on the stove, and there is also golden rice and pumpkin porridge inside, steaming hot.

Zhu Huihui laughed as soon as she saw it. She had eaten her last meal just last night and was starving. Even though it was just ordinary farm food, the sight of food made her eyes light up like a hungry wolf.

She first used a spatula to lift a pancake off the stove, burning her hands as she flipped it back and forth, exhaling repeatedly, before taking a bite: "Hmm, it's alright!"

He then peeled off two more flatbreads and put them on a plate. He then found a bowl and filled two large bowls with porridge, placing them on the tray. When he went to find chopsticks, he discovered spicy pickled vegetable pieces and a bowl of smoked rabbit meat in the cupboard, and immediately brought them over without hesitation.

After walking a few steps, I suddenly remembered something: the old man had a bad temper and would pretend to be innocent, saying he wouldn't eat stolen food. Whether he ate it or not was none of my business, but his eyesight was failing, and he hadn't eaten anything yesterday. If he refused to eat again, he might starve to death—but I had no money, and I couldn't produce any bread myself. Stealing was the only option I could think of…

After thinking for a moment, she suddenly remembered something, reached into her robes, and pulled out a small ingot of silver, placing it on the stove. This was the very silver ingot the snake envoy had bought for her to "seduce" Ah Shan with rouge and face powder, yet it was being used here.

Zhu Huihui happily carried out the tray: "Great hero, there's something to eat!" Before Feng Xuese could ask, he added, "This time it wasn't stolen, it was bought! I put silver on the stove, only a grandson would lie to me!"

Upon hearing this, Feng Xuese smiled slightly and nodded gently.

Zhu Huihui placed the tray in front of him: "Great hero, please!"

Feng Xue hesitated for a moment, but did not make a move.

"Ah! I understand, I need to wash my hands! Please wait a moment, I'll go get some water."

Zhu Huihui was unusually diligent and considerate. She picked up a bucket, ran to the stream by the mountain path, and brought back half a bucket of water. She patiently helped Feng Xuese wash her hands and face, and also washed her own little paws: "Great hero, my hands have been washed. Now I'll get you some cakes!"

She took a pancake, put it in his maple-colored left hand, then placed the chopsticks in his right hand, and pulled him to touch the porridge bowl and the pickled vegetables: "It's a little hot, please be careful!"