Chapter 36 – Please Eat

In the end, it was the hunter who showed some mercy. He lifted the boar by its hind leg and dragged it out of the forest.

Wen Lan followed behind, carrying the pine mushrooms and the boar’s head.

The two returned once more to the mountain stream.

Xuan Yue put down the boar carcass and the wild pheasants, then sat on a boulder by the stream to wash his machete.

Wen Lan also put down her basket, rolled up her pants to check the injuries on her legs.

To her, there was nothing inappropriate about this. But Xuan Yue thought otherwise.

In the Southern Dynasty, though the customs were relatively open, things hadn’t advanced to the point where men and women could openly expose their arms and legs in each other’s presence.

So when Wen Lan rolled up her trouser legs, revealing pale calves like white jade, Xuan Yue grew visibly uncomfortable.

He immediately turned his back to face the forest, coughing lightly in awkwardness.

Wen Lan, completely unaware, dipped her feet into the stream and used her hands to wash the blood off her knees.

Xuan Yue thought she was being too bold and coughed again.

Only then did Wen Lan come to her senses. She quickly withdrew her feet and pulled down her pant legs, looking at Xuan Yue in a panic.

I’m doomed, she thought. Spending too much time here, she’d forgotten this was still an ancient time, not the modern age she came from. Without realizing it, she’d reverted to her modern ways.

The reputation of Lin Furong—the original owner of her body—was already poor to begin with. What if the hunter thought she was shameless and indecent?

“Um…” Wen Lan felt the need to make up for her slip. “Hunter big brother, I was going to tend to my wounds… could you possibly look away for a bit?”

The hunter said nothing.

Wen Lan figured he probably wasn’t willing, so she gave up the idea. She got up, ready to head downstream instead. But as she turned to grab her handkerchief, she realized that the hunter on the boulder was already gone—only a bottle of ointment had been left behind.

Wen Lan immediately looked around, puzzled. In just the few seconds it took for her to speak and rise to her feet, the hunter had vanished. Could he fly or something?

“Don’t tell me he ran off because he was embarrassed,” Wen Lan muttered, shaking her head. She wondered what kind of woman a stoic man like that might have once liked—and what had become of her. Why was he now living in seclusion in these mountains?

As these random thoughts floated through her head, she cleaned her wounds. Then, she applied the ointment the hunter had left behind.

To her surprise, the ointment was cool and soothing on her skin, with a faint, pleasant fragrance.

“This must be the good stuff,” Wen Lan murmured, turning the little blue porcelain bottle over in her hands. The bottle was an elegant shade of blue—clearly the work of an official kiln.

At the bottom of the bottle, two characters were carved:

Zi Yi.

Zi Yi? Was that the hunter’s name?

Or maybe the name of the woman he once loved?

Wen Lan dared not make wild guesses. She glanced around and, seeing that the hunter hadn’t returned, decided to keep the small bottle for now. She would hold onto it on his behalf.

After tending to her wounds, Wen Lan turned her attention to the headless pig carcass.

Though it was autumn, the midday temperature was still quite high. If they planned to sell this pig at the market, it would have to be skinned and butchered first.

If she did it alone, she likely wouldn’t be able to finish in time.

If the meat started to spoil and someone got sick from eating it, she might have to compensate them for medical expenses.

It would be better to preserve the meat now—smoke it and make cured pork, then sell it at the market in winter. That would definitely fetch a good price.

Wen Lan was lost in this pleasant daydream when suddenly she felt a chill behind her. She turned around and saw the hunter standing silently behind her, hands behind his back.

Holy crap! He comes and goes like a ghost. A real master from beyond the mortal realm!

He definitely wasn’t an ordinary man.

Reverence welled up in Wen Lan’s heart. She pulled out an oil-paper-wrapped flatbread from her pouch and respectfully held it out to Xuan Yue.

“Hunter big brother, please eat.”