Chapter 39: Side Quest

A sudden change startled Xu Jiaojiao.

Following the sound, she saw a limp snake that had been thrown to the ground.

The snake’s tail was still twitching.

Xu Jiaojiao’s face turned pale, and she instinctively took a step back. She then realized that there was an arm around her waist.

She was being protected by a strong and powerful embrace.

The scent of hormones hit her, and Xu Jiaojiao was a little dazed.

She pushed his chest, saying, “You… let go first.”

But the man didn’t move.

Pushing him was useless, and Xu Jiaojiao was shocked.

Her strength had no effect on him?

The chest muscles under her palm were as hard as iron, and those muscles seemed to contain infinite power.

She suddenly felt a little panicked.

Just as she was about to push again, she felt the hand on her waist loosen.

Xu Jiaojiao hurriedly took two steps back, her eyes filled with suspicion.

She opened her mouth to say something, but when she met his calm gaze, she swallowed it back down.

Xu Jiaojiao suspected that he had just been acting like a hooligan, but she had no evidence.

The woman’s originally porcelain-white face was flushed, and her watery eyes seemed to be both angry and shy.

Her brows and eyes flickered with an unconscious charm.

As her name suggested, she was truly a Jiaojiao [meaning delicate and charming)+].

Qin Shuo’s fingers curled slightly, as if still retaining a faint fragrance.

He paused before retracting his gaze.

Suddenly, the half-dead snake slowly moved again.

Xu Jiaojiao was startled and took a few more steps back.

She saw the man pick up a stick and walk towards the snake.

With a flick of the wrist, the already dying snake was completely dead.

Seeing the soft creature dead, Xu Jiaojiao’s complexion improved slightly.

But the next moment, Qin Shuo’s actions almost made her jump up.

He actually picked up the snake!

Xu Jiaojiao: ??!

“It’s a snake! We’ll have meat for dinner!” Seeing that the two adults hadn’t followed, Dahu ran back.

He saw the snake in Qin Shuo’s hand and cried out in joy.

Soon, the other children rushed over.

“Third Uncle, you are so amazing!” Erhu was also incredibly admiring of his Third Uncle.

Da Ni and Erni didn’t say anything, but their eager expressions showed that they also wanted to eat snake meat.

“Third Aunt, do you like eating snake meat?” Erhu looked up at her with starry eyes.

“Who doesn’t love eating meat?” Dahu thought he had asked a silly question. “Third Aunt, snake soup is the most delicious, right?”

Xu Jiaojiao: …

“Yes!” Xu Jiaojiao forced a smile. “It’s very delicious.”

The smile was as strained as it could be.

But the children believed her, and they all excitedly told her about various ways to cook snake.

Xu Jiaojiao: This is truly a pain in the neck!

“There’s a bird’s nest over there.”

Suddenly, Qin Shuo pointed to a tree not far away.

The chattering children, upon hearing about the bird’s nest, cheered and ran off.

Xu Jiaojiao breathed a sigh of relief, not daring to look at Qin Shuo, and walked away with her backpack.

The two walked one behind the other, and soon arrived under the tree.

Dahu had already climbed the tree.

His agile movements showed that he had done this many times before.

The children looked up at Dahu as he took the bird’s nest.

The tree wasn’t very tall, and Xu Jiaojiao didn’t bother, so she started picking herbs under the tree.

Erni followed her.

“Third Aunt, I’ll help you.”

“Thank you, Erni.” Xu Jiaojiao said with a smile.

The two, big and small, squatted down and dug up the herbs.

Suddenly, Xu Jiaojiao saw a familiar vine.

“How come there’s yam here?”

This luck was simply unbelievable.

Xu Jiaojiao looked at Qin Shuo with some suspicion.

She and the children often went up the mountain, and they hadn’t seen so many of these things.

How come every time he came, they could find something?

Qin Shuo had already wrapped the snake, knowing that she was afraid of it, he didn’t bring it forward.

“I’ll dig it.”

Hearing this, Xu Jiaojiao didn’t act coy and directly handed him the hoe.

It was a waste not to use his strength to dig.

Qin Shuo took the hoe and started digging.

He was tall, and the short hoe looked a bit small in his hands.

He dug up the soil as easily as digging tofu cubes.

Xu Jiaojiao realized then that her little bit of strength was nothing compared to his.

She was probably just stronger than ordinary girls?

Qin Shuo worked quickly, and soon a strangely shaped yam was dug up.

It was fan-shaped, wide and large.

It was different from the long, narrow ones in later generations.

“Wow! Such a big yam!”

Dahu had already climbed down from the tree, and seeing his Third Uncle dig up a yam, he was even more admiring.

He secretly decided that he would follow his Third Uncle from now on.

There was food to eat!

The other two children thought the same way, surrounding Qin Shuo, calling him “Third Uncle” this and “Third Uncle” that.

Only Erni followed Xu Jiaojiao closely.

The two, big and small, bent over and diligently picked herbs.

“This is Artemisia capillaris, it has the effect of clearing heat and dampness, combined with…”

Xu Jiaojiao picked herbs while explaining to Erni.

Erni’s eyes were shining, as if she was extremely interested in these things.

What surprised Xu Jiaojiao the most was that she had a good memory.

She could basically remember the names of all the herbs she had mentioned.

She just didn’t understand the medicinal effects yet.

But for a six-year-old child, this was already very impressive.

She was willing to learn, and Xu Jiaojiao was happy to teach.

After about an hour, the weather became increasingly hot, and they didn’t harvest much herbs today, only half a backpack.

But Xu Jiaojiao didn’t plan to pick any more.

She had to work in the fields to weed in the afternoon.

Just as she was about to go down the mountain, she saw Qin Shuo walking over with a full backpack.

Xu Jiaojiao: …

She had a feeling of déjà vu, like seeing the protagonist of a lucky girl novel. What was going on?

“What?”

Seeing her strange expression, Qin Shuo stopped.

Xu Jiaojiao shook her head, but the smile in her eyes was about to be uncontrollable.

Thinking about this big man having the luck of a lucky girl, she found it very incongruous.

“Lucky girl?” She couldn’t help but blurt it out.

Qin Shuo: …

Realizing that “Lucky girl” was referring to him, Qin Shuo’s face darkened.

Seeing his disgusted expression, Xu Jiaojiao couldn’t help but laugh.

She felt a sense of revengeful joy.

Her silver bell-like laughter echoed through the forest, like a seductive siren.

Looking at the woman with curved brows and eyes, laughing so freely, Qin Shuo’s heart suddenly beat faster.

Feeling the man’s somewhat scorching gaze, the smile on Xu Jiaojiao’s face froze.

For some reason, she felt a little panicked.

The cowardly Xu Jiaojiao didn’t dare to turn her head, and she quickly walked ahead with her backpack.

Dahu, who was beside her, looked at his Third Aunt, then at his Third Uncle, feeling confused.

Didn’t they just laugh and chat?

Adults were so strange!

Xu Jiaojiao, who was walking ahead, almost bumped into a tree.

“Ding! Side quest: Have Qin Shuo feed the host water once.”

Xu Jiaojiao: (?? ?′Д`?)? 彡┻━┻