Chapter 18 Becoming a Qualified Punching Bag

“Yes, I can’t compare to my sister.  Our little Nian Nian is the smartest little kid, she has a strong learning ability and even stronger hands-on skills.  A mere big meat bun is a piece of cake for her!” Shen Xue nodded.

Shen Nian smiled and said: “Second brother, you flatter me so well, please continue to praise me!”

Shen Xue praised her a few more times, and Shen Nian was satisfied, rewarding him with a big meat bun.

Although he knew his little sister was very capable, she was only a three-year-old child after all.  Could the buns she made really be eaten?

Back when their mother first learned to make buns, the buns looked very good, but the taste was indescribable.

The buns his sister made were most likely good-looking but not tasty.

The next second, he was slapped in the face!

The big meat buns his sister made were delicious!

They were even better than the ones made by his fourth brother (Shen Cai), who loved to cook.

After dinner, Shen Xue and Shen Bo volunteered to wash the dishes and then took their younger siblings out for a walk.  The brothers from the other families all came out, and the ten siblings reunited.

At night, after Shen Nian and Shen Feng fell asleep, Shen Dong and Wei Shi lit a lamp and counted their money.

Wei Shi counted the money in the box and said: “There’s a total of fifteen taels of silver and four hundred and twenty copper coins.”

She closed the wooden box and said: “Mother said she has four taels of silver.  Adding that to our less than twenty taels, our family has so many people.  If we build a house with blue bricks and tiles, each person needs a room, which would cost at least fifty taels of silver.  Husband, why don’t we build a mud house instead?  Would that be okay?”

There were many people in the family, and the children were growing up.  Shen Bo and Shen Xue would need to get married in a couple of years, and there wouldn’t be enough rooms.  They had to build a new house, but they didn’t have much money.  Moreover, Shen Dong was stubborn and wanted to build a house with blue bricks and tiles, which would cost even more.

The ganoderma lucidum that Shen Feng had given them two years ago had sold for a lot of money, but the family’s expenses were too high.  Plus, the children were all going to school, and Shen Bo and the others had gone to the academy in town.  The annual tuition fees cost a lot of money, so that money had long been spent.

In recent years, the four of them in the Shen family had been relying on farming and hunting to make a living.  They were lucky, and they always had a good harvest every time they went up the mountain.  Although it wasn’t as abundant as the year Nian Nian was born, it was enough to sell for some money to support the family’s food and clothing, and they could also save a little money to eat meat regularly.

Shen Dong shook his head: “No, a mud house is uncomfortable to live in.  We’ll build a house with blue bricks and tiles.  When A Bo and the others finish their exams, I’ll go into the mountains.”

Since adopting Shen Feng, he hadn’t let Shen Feng go into the mountains again.  Shen Feng had wanted to go deep into the mountains to find ganoderma lucidum many times, but he had stopped him.  There were so many unknown dangers in the mountains.  Since he had adopted this child, he had to ensure his safety.  He didn’t want to use him to find ganoderma lucidum to make money.

There were many ways to make money.

Working as a laborer in the county could earn money, and working as a bodyguard in the prefecture could earn a lot of money.  But there were old and young people at home, and he couldn’t leave home for too long.  So he couldn’t go to those places.  He couldn’t ignore his family just to make money.

If he had to go into the mountains, he would go, not Shen Feng, a child.

Wei Shi disagreed with Shen Dong going into the deep mountains to take risks: “It’s different now than it was a few years ago.  Two years ago, we allowed you to go deep into the mountains because we really didn’t have enough food at home.  But now we don’t lack food or clothing.  If you go into the mountains just because of building a house, I won’t agree.  Not only will I not agree, but father and mother won’t agree either.”

Seeing that he couldn’t convince Wei Shi, Shen Dong didn’t say anything more, but his desire to go into the deep mountains to find treasure became even stronger.

Soon, the two of them turned off the lights and went to sleep.

In the moment the lights went out, the two of them didn’t see that Shen Nian, who had already fallen asleep, opened her eyes.

After her parents fell asleep, Shen Nian quietly got up, put on her clothes, and was about to climb out of the window when she saw Shen Feng get up from the bed through the moonlight, his eyes fixed on her.

Shen Nian was helpless.

She had been discovered by this kid again!

Fine!

She would take him along.

Shen Feng also climbed out of the window with Shen Nian.  Their movements were very skilled, clearly not the first time they had done this.

The two of them went towards the mountain, came to a grassy area, and then fought.

Shen Feng was defeated and lay on the ground, unable to get up no matter how hard he tried.

Because Shen Nian was too strong!

Shen Feng had gotten used to being beaten down by Shen Nian like this, because he could always sense when Shen Nian snuck out to practice martial arts every night and followed her.

Then he became a punching bag.  But he was a weak punching bag, with insufficient skills.  Shen Nian couldn’t get enough of beating him, so Shen Feng had to try his best to become a qualified punching bag.

After a few moves, Shen Nian took Shen Feng to practice martial arts.

Shen Laotou was a bodyguard before he fled the famine. He learned some martial arts from his master and later created some messy but practical moves. He relied on those martial arts to make a living in Lanhua Village after fleeing the famine. Shen Dong and his four brothers all inherited his skills. Every child in the family had to learn martial arts from him. It didn’t matter if they learned well or not, but it was better than knowing nothing. It could strengthen their bodies and protect themselves.

Shen Nian was the most serious learner and the fastest learner. However, to hide her divine power, she didn’t reveal her strength in front of her family. Whenever she had the chance, she would sneak out to practice secretly, incorporating the moves she learned in her previous life to kill zombies into her martial arts.

Shen Feng saw her moves were fast, accurate, and ruthless, different from what his grandfather taught. He was very confused.

But he didn’t ask any questions. He just followed along and learned.

As they were practicing, the white wolf ran out from the forest.

It barked at them.

Shen Feng understood its meaning: “Mantou says there’s a stranger at the foot of the mountain over there.”

Mantou was the white wolf’s name. Shen Nian learned this later. Shen Feng didn’t know why the white wolf had such a “delicious” name. He had called the white wolf Mantou since he could remember.

“A stranger?” Shen Nian was puzzled.

Although the white wolf had been in the mountains all the time, it had sneaked out many times in the past few years. Although the villagers didn’t recognize it, it had already recognized everyone in the village.

If it said there was a stranger, then the person definitely wasn’t from the village.

“Let’s go take a look.”

Shen Nian and Shen Feng followed the white wolf to the place and saw the person it was talking about. The person was lying unconscious on the ground, his body cold. It was the strange uncle from earlier.

The night in early spring was very cold.  Lying outside was like being in an ice cellar.

The strange uncle’s shoes were gone, his socks were dirty and had a big hole in them, and the white cloth on his head was stained with blood.  The wound had split open and become infected.

If he wasn’t treated, he would freeze to death or die from illness.

Shen Nian reached out and grabbed the strange uncle, lifting him up.

Seeing her immense strength, Shen Feng looked at his own small hands and fell silent.

Shen Nian carried the man to a tree and leaned him against the trunk. She took his pulse and untied the white cloth on his head to check.

The wound was indeed infected.

Shen Nian took out a medical kit from her space and cleaned, disinfected, and treated the man’s wound. She re-bandaged it and gave him an injection.

Seeing the medical kit, Shen Feng wasn’t surprised at all.

This wasn’t the first time he had seen it.

He and Nian Nian had snuck into the mountains many times and had been injured ten or more times, big and small.  Every time they were injured, Nian Nian treated them.  She could not only conjure seeds, saplings, and food out of thin air, but she could also conjure various medicines.

Nian Nian’s medical skills were very good, much better than Doctor Liu from Liu Jiacun.  She could even treat injuries on wolves.

This was Nian Nian’s secret, and he would never tell anyone, unless Nian Nian told him to.

After treating him last night, Shen Nian put the medical kit back into her space.

She said to Shen Feng: “Ninth brother, he won’t wake up for a while.  Let’s stay here with him for a while!”

She patted the stone beside her: “Come sit here, let’s huddle together for warmth.  Mantou, come here too.”

Shen Feng and the white wolf came over, protecting Shen Nian on either side.

A quarter of an hour later, the man woke up.

As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw a white wolf and two children.  He was startled by the white wolf and was about to shout when Shen Feng covered his mouth.

“Don’t shout!” Shen Feng said fiercely.

The man hugged his head and said foolishly: “Don’t hit me, I won’t shout, I’ll be good.”

Shen Nian looked at him: “Uncle, we won’t hit you.  Do you remember me?”

The man looked up, his eyes lit up when he saw her: “Who are you?  You’re so beautiful.”

Shen Nian raised an eyebrow.

Oh!

He didn’t recognize her?