Chapter 55: Setting Up Camp and Making Dinner

“Today is the first day. We must cover at least 80 li (about 40 kilometers) to leave Qizhou as soon as possible. So don’t push yourselves—if you feel tired, take turns riding in the ox cart to rest.”

Song Yeqing emphasized again.

It was better to rest in turns starting now than to exhaust themselves and be unable to walk tomorrow.

“Don’t worry, Qingniang. We’re used to this.” Old Wu, looking like a tired old ox, kept his head down as he walked.

The terrain was mountainous and remote. The people here really were used to traveling on foot everywhere—they had long since developed the stamina.

“That’s right, that’s right. I can walk a hundred li in a day,” Wu Dayuan added.

A hundred li? Fifty kilometers? Are you sure?

Song Yeqing glanced over at the two Wu children.

“Auntie, if I can’t walk anymore, I’ll get on the cart,” Wu Daling promised, and Wu Youliang chimed in after her.

The others had no objections either, all stating that they wouldn’t try to tough it out.

“Qingniang, we’re all fine. But how about you ride the cart?” Madam Ge was more worried about Song Yeqing than anyone else.

After all, in her eyes, Lady Song had always been a delicate woman who couldn’t walk far.

“I’ll walk a bit more,” Song Yeqing replied simply.

After that, they took turns riding the cart, helping and encouraging each other along the way.

It was nearly dark by the time they stopped to make camp, and the distance they covered had exceeded Song Yeqing’s expectations.

Still, she didn’t let her guard down or assume that they would be able to go this far every day.

The beginning is always the easiest.

Song Yeqing picked up little Song Chengsi from the cart. The child had slept so deeply all day that he hadn’t stirred. His older brother had gotten restless and gotten off the cart to walk for a while.

All around them was forest. The group had stopped at a rare clearing by the roadside.

The women stayed to light a fire and prepare dinner. Qi Niangzi, being pregnant, was automatically looked after by everyone and wasn’t asked to do anything.

Song Yeqing, worried about her condition, subtly took her pulse as she helped her off the cart.

Fortunately, her pulse was steady.

Also, since the weather was dry, the roads were fairly smooth, and there hadn’t been much jostling along the way.

“You can walk around a bit nearby,” Song Yeqing said gently. For a pregnant woman, sitting too long wasn’t good.

Especially since Qi Niangzi had only gotten off the cart a few times today—to eat and to use the restroom.

Old Wu and Qi’s father had gone into the forest to gather firewood. Wu Dalang stayed behind at the campsite, leading the ox to graze nearby with his son.

He Yanxin and Wu Sanlang had gone to search for water—and possibly hunt?

In this world, with a relatively small population, most people gathered around cities and towns, leaving large areas uninhabited.

With the vast expanse of untouched forest, wild animals were naturally abundant.

Jackals, wolves, tigers, leopards, wild boars, black bears—dangerous beasts of all kinds could be found.

Though these predators rarely approached the main roads, the forests were full of pheasants, rabbits, and other smaller game.

Village children grew up catching rabbits and pheasants, shooting birds, and the like.

Over the past year, as food became harder to come by, every family had tried to find wild game to eat. The small animals near the village had nearly been hunted out.

The original Song Yeqing had also tried trapping a few times, but rarely had success.

So when it came to actual bow-and-arrow hunting, He Yanxin wasn’t very skilled—but he did know how to set simple traps.

The two of them walked for about twenty minutes and found a spring in a low-lying area, where they used bamboo tubes and water pouches to fill up and carry water back.

Based on memory, He Yanxin set two snares along some small animal trails.

Wu Sanlang added two more traps of his own for extra coverage.

For humans to stay healthy, it wasn’t enough to just eat carbohydrates—proteins and fats were essential too.

Without them, especially while walking long distances every day, the body could deteriorate quickly.

Since they were traveling with others, Song Yeqing couldn’t just openly take food from her dimensional space.

So along this journey, acquiring meat became a necessary task.

But the traps wouldn’t yield anything immediately—they would check them the next morning when they came back to fetch water. If they caught anything, they’d cook it for dinner then.

By the time the two of them returned to camp, the sky was completely dark. Wu Sanlang went straight to his wife.

Of course, He Yanxin also wanted to… Wait? Where was Song Yeqing?

The two He boys were with Wu Xiaoniang, but Song Yeqing was nowhere to be seen.

“Qingniang? She said she went to relieve herself,” replied Madam Ge, who was stirring the porridge pot.

Then she paused, her face shifting as realization hit her.

“Wait, she’s been gone a long time… I’ll go check.”

Everyone else was busy—even Qi Niangzi was helping feed the fire. No one had noticed that Song Yeqing hadn’t returned.

“Mother, I’ll go.”

But before Chen Niangzi could walk out of sight, Song Yeqing appeared.

She was carrying a pheasant with bright, colorful feathers.

The animal had clearly been fattening up for winter—it looked quite plump.

“I saw it when I went to relieve myself and hit it with a rock. Didn’t think it’d die from that, haha. What luck, right?”

Song Yeqing tried her best to explain how she came across it. But the two dry laughs she forced out sounded a bit awkward and unconvincing.

She really had gone to the bathroom, but feeling unsafe in the open, she had walked further into the forest.

Then she saw there were quite a few small animals—and couldn’t resist taking action.

He Yanxin: ?

Still, he covered for her immediately: “Yeah, you’ve got amazing luck. That must’ve scared you, huh?”

As for whether he would ever have a chance in this life to actually take care of this woman, He Yanxin mentally left that undecided.

She was terrifying—how could she possibly know how to do everything?

“Yeah, it ran right at me—came super close. I was so scared!” Song Yeqing patted her chest and feigned a frightened expression.

Everyone else: We didn’t see even a hint of fear on her face…

Still, given how close it must have been, it was indeed plausible to hit it with a stone. What luck!

And with that, the situation passed without further questioning.

Wu Dalang took the pheasant and walked away from the campsite to pluck its feathers and clean it.

Those with camping experience knew that carnivores were highly sensitive to the smell of blood—bloody food had to be prepared far from the sleeping area.

If Song Yeqing had taken a knife with her earlier, she would’ve processed it outside too before returning.

Then again, just showing up with a pheasant was already pushing the limit—if she’d cleaned it too, it might’ve seemed too suspicious.

Madam Ge and the others took over cooking for the He family and refused to let Song Yeqing help no matter what she said.

So she went to tidy up the bedding. Tonight, she and the two boys would sleep in the cart with Qi Niangzi.

Actually, Song Yeqing didn’t really know how to do everything.

Her school had taught wilderness survival, including how to find food.

But with her dimensional space, she almost never needed to use those skills.

Besides, her world had strict animal protection laws—she had few chances to put those lessons into practice.

Wild animals were most active around dusk, and many small creatures had come out.

But her muscle control still wasn’t sharp enough, and she lacked experience, so she missed two rabbits earlier.

It had taken her a full half hour squatting in the woods to finally bring down the pheasant.

She didn’t have a bow in her space, so she had to use a stone—and made a clean, painless kill. Not bad.

In the end, everyone had a bowl of hot pheasant soup and a piece or two of meat.

Naturally, the He family got the largest share.

Pheasant soup with vegetable porridge.

The soup only had salt and wild ginger dug up by Qi’s father. The vegetables were from their home garden.

It wasn’t anything fancy—and compared to Song Yeqing’s earlier cooking, it didn’t taste great.

But it would have to do.

(End of Chapter)