Chapter 14

Zhuo Yan was momentarily stunned when he saw that the original bowl of food had been cleaned out. His gaze then fell upon the still-sleeping A-Yin, and he felt a surge of joy—A-Yin had gotten up during the night and eaten everything!

This was great news; being able to eat indicated that at least A-Yin was feeling better, at least for the time being.

However, Zhuo Yan felt a twinge of regret. He decided that he would prepare some late-night snacks for A-Yin, taking on the nurturing role akin to that of a caring father.

He remembered that his silver tabby cat was a male. In the spring, when he was in heat, he would often sneak out to play. Back then, Zhuo Yan lived in the countryside, and it was hard to keep him indoors. After more than half a month, the cat returned with a little calico kitten in tow. Before long, the beautiful calico was noticeably pregnant and gave birth to four kittens: orange and white, black, calico, and tabby. Not one of them looked like his silver tabby.

The Netizens Say A-Yin Has Been Cheated On.

Zhuo Yan, much like his cat A-Yin, found himself facing the four kittens: heh heh heh.

In response to the comments in the live stream chat claiming that A-Yin had been “greened” (a term meaning cheated on), Zhuo Yan dismissed them as nonsense. These were his beloved grandchildren, after all! Although they didn’t resemble A-Yin much, they looked just like him. Just look at how lively, active, and clever they were—exactly like their owner!

He then devotedly tended to the calico cat during her postpartum period, ensuring she was well taken care of. Once she recovered, the couple took their pets to get neutered.

As for the injured A-Yin, Zhuo Yan reassured him: he was skilled and experienced enough not to send A-Yin a “neutering gift package,” so there was no need to worry.

“I’m sorry, my dear A-Yin,” Zhuo Yan gently patted A-Yin’s head. “Today we’ll have chicken soup again, and I’ll give you an extra bowl.”

In a good mood, Zhuo Yan continued to chatter away, not holding back his thoughts. In reality, considering A-Yin’s age, if he were to take human form, he would be about the same age as Xiao Xian—around fourteen or fifteen, a middle school student. Zhuo Yan himself was sixteen or seventeen, certainly old enough to be an older brother.

“Did you sleep through it and not hear? I won’t take advantage of you anymore.”

Whether he called him brother or not didn’t matter; it was still good.

He had been the youngest at home, and now he had a leopard brother—how cool was that?

Zhuo Yan skillfully started a fire, first boiling water. He washed his face and hands, then took a small cup outside to brush his teeth. Afterward, he dipped the cloth in hot water and wiped A-Yin’s face, eyes, and looked at the wounds. It seemed…

Not so good.

Even though it was winter, the first time he had treated the wound on A-Yin’s head had not been thorough. It still looked a bit dirty and black, and when he pressed on it, it felt hard and slightly swollen. This definitely required cleaning again.

Zhuo Yan’s expression grew serious. He poured out the washing water and cleaned the pot for the day’s meal. As usual, he prepared half a chicken along with potatoes and taro to cook. This time, he boiled the potatoes a little longer until they became mushy, almost like a paste.

If only there were some herbs to stop the bleeding. Zhuo Yan could recognize three-seven (a medicinal herb), Bletilla striata (an herb used for healing), and earth anchovy (another herb). However, in this deep winter, with a foot of snow on the ground, finding these would be difficult. Moreover, with the passage of time, he had no idea if they even existed anymore.

But there was no time to wait for that.

A-Yin couldn’t afford to wait.

The stew still needed a little more time to cook, so Zhuo Yan didn’t plan to be idle. He grabbed his water bucket and headed to the river to collect water, taking the opportunity to check on the traps he had set up yesterday.

Before leaving, he said to the sleeping A-Yin, “I’m going out for a bit, but I’ll be back soon. When I return, we’ll eat together.” On his way, he couldn’t stop thinking about how to clean A-Yin’s wounds. This time, it had to be done properly; otherwise, the cycle of suffering would continue endlessly, which neither of them could bear.

The most crucial factor was that there were no anesthetics or painkillers available. The pain of cleaning the wounds would be intense. If he put himself in A-Yin’s position, Zhuo Yan couldn’t even guarantee that he could endure it without going insane. What if A-Yin lost control as well?

But it couldn’t be delayed.

As Zhuo Yan contemplated all of this, he first made his way to the trap. From three to four meters away, he noticed some rustling sounds coming from the snow-covered area in the distance. He momentarily forgot all the pressing issues that had filled his mind earlier, and his spirits lifted.

Something was there!

The chickens! The whole chicken family!!!

Zhuo Yan’s eyes sparkled with excitement as he approached slowly, taking one step and then another. Finally, he got closer, and the grass was already quite low. What came into view was something trapped inside—

“Rabbits?”

A white rabbit mixed with gray fur was covered in snow. As he drew nearer, the rabbits were startled and shook off the snow that had settled on their backs—one, two, three—there were three of them!

Zhuo Yan didn’t need to look in a mirror to know how much he was grinning like a maniac at that moment.

Three rabbits! Spicy rabbit heads!

Oh, he hadn’t found any chili peppers, but that didn’t matter; boiled in plain water, they would still taste delicious.

Zhuo Yan mentally listed the dishes he could make. This time, armed with the experience he had gained from catching the chickens, he swiftly and decisively grasped the neck of one startled rabbit. To his surprise, he realized that these three rabbits hadn’t been hurt by the wooden nails; rather, they had gotten tangled in the ‘rope’ he had set up while trying to escape, causing them to trip over one another in a panic, which led to all three of them being tied together.

It seemed that the three rabbits had been there for quite some time. Their faces were filled with fear, and they trembled, lacking any vitality. Zhuo Yan placed all of them into the wicker basket and began to tidy up the wooden nails; the area was in disarray. Once he finished everything, he went to fetch water and then headed home.

As he walked to the entrance of the cave, he could already smell something delicious wafting through the air.

Zhuo Yan closed the door behind him and set down the water bucket. He took the wicker basket containing the three rabbits and placed it aside, noticing that the three large rabbits huddled together by the firewood pile, too scared to move. He decided not to bother with them for now, making sure the door was securely fastened before checking on the food in the stone pot.

After stirring the contents, he added a pinch of salt. When he turned his head, he caught sight of A-Yin’s gaze.

“Did the smell wake you up? It’s time to eat. I have something to tell you later.”

However, A-Yin’s attention was not on the stone pot but fixed on Zhuo Yan. As Zhuo Yan served the food into two bowls, he felt a sense of joy. After working late last night, he finally had wooden bowls to eat from today instead of using cups.

The chicken was deboned, and the chicken soup, which had been cooked with potatoes, had a somewhat mushy consistency. While it didn’t look particularly appealing, the aroma was incredibly enticing. Zhuo Yan served A-Yin a generous portion, saying, “Be careful; it’s hot.”

As they began to eat, Zhuo Yan’s expression turned serious. “I noticed that your wound is a bit uneven and has some dirt in it. If this continues, it could develop pus. If the wound doesn’t heal properly, it will only get worse. So today—” he looked directly at A-Yin.

A-Yin had been watching him intently. His left eye was swollen and could only be opened a narrow slit, but his right eye was open and sparkling blue—a beautiful sight. Though he appeared weak, there was a focused intensity in his gaze as he listened to Zhuo Yan.

Who understands? It was especially heart-wrenching.

“We need to take care of this wound.” Zhuo Yan pointed to his own head, indicating where A-Yin’s injury was. “It’s hardened, and we’ll need to scrape it open with a knife to clear out the dirt inside. It’s going to hurt a lot.”

A-Yin nodded slightly in response.

“It will be very painful,” Zhuo Yan emphasized, his tone serious. “And there’s no way to stop the bleeding, nor do we have any other medicinal herbs. You’ll have to endure it.”

A-Yin’s blue pupils gazed up at Zhuo Yan, and he nodded again.

It was as if he was putting all his trust in Zhuo Yan.

Zhuo Yan felt a weight settle on his chest. “Let’s eat first,” he suggested, wanting to ensure they had a full meal.

Having made the decision, after finishing their meal, Zhuo Yan tidied up the remnants. There was still some food left from lunch, which he put into bowls and plates. He washed the stone pot three times, then filled it with fresh water to boil, allowing it to cool afterward. He did the same with the stone knife.

“Time for the cleaning,” Zhuo Yan took a deep breath, sitting on the skin and cradling A-Yin’s head, allowing him to lean against his chest. A-Yin looked up at him, his gaze directed from below, and when Zhuo Yan lowered his head, he met those striking blue eyes. Zhuo Yan gently stroked A-Yin’s head, his voice unconsciously taking on a soothing tone.

“It might hurt a lot, but you have to hold on, A-Yin.”

“You can do it.”

“Once we get through this, our lives will get better, I promise.”

Zhuo Yan spoke as if he were addressing A-Yin, but it felt like he was also reassuring himself.

The conditions here—there really weren’t any conditions at all—but there were also some advantages. His friends were kind and open-minded, the scenery was beautiful, and he had inherited Little Zhuo Yan’s cave, which now had a door. He was eating chicken and looked forward to having rabbit to eat in the future.

Now, he even had a companion—someone to keep him company.

“You have to hang in there.”

A-Yin blinked his eyes, as if in response to Zhuo Yan’s encouragement.

“Alright, I’m starting now.”

With the red-hot stone knife, Zhuo Yan used a piece of leather to cushion his grip, and began to cut. He first sliced open the scabbed, hardened wound with focused precision, completely immersed in the task at hand, forgetting to check A-Yin’s expression. In his arms, A-Yin’s front paws twitched slightly—very gently—before quickly settling back into stillness.

Zhuo Yan dug carefully, going deeper, and indeed, there was pus inside, emitting a foul smell.

Once, twice, Zhuo Yan meticulously cleaned the wound, beads of sweat forming on his forehead. Every now and then, he would glance down at A-Yin. Despite the pain, A-Yin retracted his claws and, several times, fainted from the agony only to wake again, yet he never extended his paw to scratch Zhuo Yan.

Once everything was done, Zhuo Yan couldn’t help but kiss A-Yin on the other side of his head, which had fallen asleep. “It’s alright, alright, good boy A-Yin, it doesn’t hurt anymore.”

He tossed the tools aside and cradled A-Yin in his arms. The leather on the ground was too dirty, being close to the floor and prone to dust, so after resting for a while, Zhuo Yan regained some strength and carried A-Yin over to the stone bed, placing him gently on the clean leather he had prepared.

Tears welled up at the corners of A-Yin’s eyes, and Zhuo Yan softly wiped them away.

In that moment, it felt as though the bond between him and A-Yin had grown even closer. Zhuo Yan no longer thought about the tale of the wolf and Mr. Dong Guo; he knew A-Yin wouldn’t harm him.

That day, A-Yin did not wake up at all. Zhuo Yan was heavy with worries, constantly thinking about A-Yin’s well-being. He didn’t even bother to reheat the leftover food for dinner, instead eating the cold food in a daze. As the night grew deeper, A-Yin began to run a fever, and Zhuo Yan could only do his best to cool him down.

The next day, A-Yin still hadn’t woken and remained in a deep sleep.

On the third day, the wound had stopped bleeding.

By the fourth day, A-Yin was still not awake.

Zhuo Yan was extremely troubled. For the past few days, he had been eating nothing but boiled potatoes and roasted potatoes, just taking random bites without much thought.

It wasn’t until the fifth day that A-Yin finally woke up, only to vomit several times. Zhuo Yan was extremely worried and hurried to the bedside to clean up the mess. A-Yin’s vomit was mostly water. Zhuo Yan offered him some boiled water that had cooled down to a suitable temperature, and A-Yin looked at him and blinked.

“I’m fine,” Zhuo Yan interpreted the look, “Really, I’m fine. A couple of days ago, two of the rabbits froze to death, and one was sickly, so I decided to put them all out of their misery. You’ll be able to eat them; we can stew some rabbit.”

A-Yin was still very weak and could only manage to drink water.

Every day, Zhuo Yan checked A-Yin’s wounds. The wound on his eyelid had nearly healed, while the one on his head, which had been cleaned, was larger in area but was showing signs of improvement each day. It was now scabbed over, with a thin layer of soft scab forming.

Zhuo Yan felt that the genes of beastmen were remarkably strong, capable of enduring a lot. If A-Yin had been an ordinary animal, he would have likely perished long ago.

What Zhuo Yan didn’t know was that beastmen indeed possessed a remarkably strong vitality. However, after A-Yin had been severely injured for so long, combined with his hunger, any other beastman in his condition would have been certain to perish. Yet, A-Yin’s will to survive was incredibly strong, and he had managed to pull through several times.

He couldn’t die; he had promised Zhuo Yan that he would live and that he would get better.

After waking up, A-Yin spent most of the day in a deep sleep. Zhuo Yan feared that his nutritional intake was dwindling—A-Yin was already extremely thin, with skin stretched tightly over bones. After giving him some clean water in the first couple of days, Zhuo Yan gradually began to add bone broth to his diet, carefully skimming off the fat.

Whenever A-Yin was awake, Zhuo Yan would personally feed him spoonfuls of the broth. Initially, A-Yin could only manage a few sips, but gradually he began to drink more, reaching seven or eight servings a day.

It had been nearly half a month since A-Yin had his first taste of meat puree.

After several days of eating the meat puree, Zhuo Yan started adding potatoes as a supplementary food, and A-Yin enjoyed it immensely. Zhuo Yan, the older brother figure, also found it delicious.

Another ten days passed, and it was evident that A-Yin’s appetite had significantly increased.

Zhuo Yan faced two pieces of news: the good news was that A-Yin was recovering rapidly; the bad news was that they had finished the last piece of stored meat—the four-pound dried white-horned beef. The three rabbits they had caught earlier had long since been consumed, leaving behind only their skins and fur.

The meat supply in the cave was completely exhausted.

For nearly half a month, the traps set along the riverbank hadn’t caught anything. Chickens and rabbits had stopped coming around, and Zhuo Yan had even changed the trapping location, only to find a few chicken feathers tangled in the snow.

Well… there were indeed some feathers, but they were useless; they couldn’t be eaten—just feathers!

At that moment, the surface of the river had frozen into thick ice. Zhuo Yan recalled what Qiao and the others had mentioned and pieced together from his memories as Xiao Zhuo Yan. He deduced that the entire winter would last at least three months, with the middle month being the most difficult to endure.

And now, they faced the hardest month in their cave without any meat.

Zhuo Yan thought to himself: Ah! I don’t really want to die, but it feels like I can’t hold on much longer!

That morning, he roasted two potatoes and, as the older brother, gave A-Yin the larger one. Zhuo Yan felt a bit like a parent saying, “Don’t worry about me; you eat!” His imagination made him feel a pang of sadness, and he bravely declared, “I’m going to check by the river to see if there are any fish…”

A-Yin obediently pushed the potato towards his brother with his paw.

Zhuo Yan reached out to gently stroke A-Yin’s head. He noticed that fur had started to grow on the side of the wound, short and bristly, which felt a bit prickly but was actually nice to touch, especially since A-Yin’s eyes had healed. Those bright blue eyes sparkled with life.

“I’m not hungry, really. You go ahead and eat,” Zhuo Yan said with a smile.

A-Yin looked quite cute and beautiful at that moment.

Moreover, he was very well-behaved and listened to him!

Feeling a sense of satisfaction, Zhuo Yan slung the rattan basket over his shoulder and took the water bucket outside to go ‘hunting.’