Chapter 4

The mother and daughter pushing the bottle back and forth made Ding Xiaodie feel touched.

She had no choice but to take the bottle and drink a sip before handing it to her mother. After the two of them had some, they had half the bottle left. When they returned, they quietly slipped it to Ding Gui. Ding Xiaodie then whispered to him about the secret of the space.

Ding Gui’s jaw dropped in shock, then a wide grin spread across his face, reaching all the way to his ears.

How amusing—he never expected that at his age, he’d get to catch up with the trend. Time travel and spatial magic? Worth it.

With this bottle of water, Ding Xiaodie decided not to mention the rabbit she was hiding for now. After all, with so many people, cooking a rabbit wasn’t realistic. Now that they had water, they could hold out a bit longer. Everything would have to wait until daybreak, when people started moving again.

But that night’s sleep was so rough that the whole Ding family nearly kicked the bucket.

From soft beds to hard rocks—yesterday they were sleeping on name-brand mattresses, and now they were lying on piles of stone. When they woke, every part of their body hurt, like their bones had been disassembled and put back together.

“Hurry up, everyone get up! Push yourselves—once we cross this mountain, Yangliu Town is right ahead. We must get there before sunrise, or else you’ll all die of thirst, got it?”

In the distance, the village chief Laifu’s hoarse voice spurred everyone forward.

But soon, wails of grief rang out from the ragged crowd of villagers.

Someone had died in their sleep from hunger last night, and only now did the family realize they couldn’t be awakened. Devastated, their cries dragged everyone’s spirits into a pit of helplessness.

Zhang Xiu couldn’t hold back her tears.

It was just too tragic.

Ding Xiaodie looked at the people around her with a heavy heart. Her mother and father were thin as twigs, looking like a strong wind could blow them away. Old woman Wang Dafeng wasn’t much better, her skin as dry and shriveled as old bark. As for herself…

She stuck out her little arms and legs.

Damn. How could this look like a twelve-year-old kid? Even seven or eight would be a stretch—classic malnourishment.

On the other side, Laifu trudged over with weak steps and offered a few words of comfort to the grieving family. “We don’t have the strength to bury anyone. A body’s just a shell—let it be.”

“Chief, just last night you said the Ding family should be buried. Now it’s our family and you’re saying no? That’s not fair.”

“Yeah, Chief, at least bury them.”

The grieving family, surnamed Li, protested. The deceased was an elder of their lineage. Leaving him exposed in the wilderness felt wrong to them.

Everyone else just stood aside helplessly. Their dry, cracked lips couldn’t even form words.

Laifu waved a tired hand. “Listen, Li family, it’s not that I’m being unfair. Last night, the Ding family got trampled to death by everyone. And now? We’re all starving, and every passing hour just makes it worse. We don’t even have water, let alone the strength to dig a hole. If you trust me, place your ancestor behind those rocks. Once we get food from Yangliu Town and fill our bellies, we’ll come back and bury him. Otherwise, you’ll have to figure it out yourselves.”

The Li family looked at each other speechless.

Truth was, they didn’t have the energy to do it either—they were just hoping the villagers could help pitch in.

Seeing no one else offering to help, they shut up.

When Laifu saw they weren’t speaking anymore, he waved his arm again. “Alright, let’s go. Keep moving.”

A person had died, yet couldn’t even be properly buried. How pitiful had this world become?

Looking at Chief Laifu’s solemn and heroic back, Ding Xiaodie asked her father, “Do you really think this many people can beg for food in Yangliu Town?”

“Rationally speaking, not likely.”

Even though they had been walking for days, the sky was still the same sky. A drought didn’t recognize boundaries. Judging by the barren mountain slope ahead, they clearly hadn’t walked out of the drought zone.

“What are you muttering about? Hurry up and carry me, or the three of you will starve if you don’t get food soon.”

Wang Dafeng, seeing that her youngest son’s family hadn’t moved a step, grew anxious and raised her stick at Ding Gui.

Ding Gui sighed and bent down to carry her, but Ding Xiaodie grabbed his sleeve and whispered, “Let them go ahead first.”

She pointed to her chest. “We have food.”

Ding Gui and Zhang Xiu’s eyes lit up immediately. When Wang Dafeng heard there was food, she reached out her gnarled hand and seized Ding Xiaodie’s tiny wrist, whispering harshly, “Hurry up and show Granny. What is it? Quick.”

Seeing his daughter’s frail body being jerked around like that, Ding Gui was furious.

His precious child being bullied? Absolutely not. No more pretending to be the original host. The other villagers had already gone ahead—no one would see anything.

He stepped forward, grabbed his daughter’s hand back, and said coldly, “Mother, if you treat Xiaodie like that again, you can walk the rest of the way yourself.”

Did the old woman think they were still easy to bully?

The original host may have feared her out of filial piety, but they had inherited this family’s body. Being respectful was fair enough, but there were limits.

“What, you’re rebelling now?”

Wang Dafeng, of course, didn’t understand all that. All she knew was that she was the boss, and her youngest son’s family had to obey her unconditionally. She raised her stick again, intending to strike.

“Grandma, look what this is!”

Just then, Ding Xiaodie pulled out a rabbit’s foot and held it up. Her tiny, palm-sized face lit up with smug pride. “If you hit my dad, you don’t get any.”

With people like this old woman, you had to fight fire with fire. No point trying to reason or appeal to emotion—she’d never change. The only way was to be tough.

Sure enough, it worked.

Wang Dafeng froze on the spot!

Never mind what kind of animal it was. Her eyes glowed green and her parched lips muttered one word: “Meat.”

At that moment, Laifu, standing atop the hill, noticed they hadn’t moved and shouted, “Ding Gui’s family, hurry up!”

Ding Gui quickly put on an obedient face and shouted back, “Chief, you go ahead. My mom needs to use the bathroom. We’ll catch up soon.”

This kind of thing happened a lot on the road. Laifu just shook his head and continued leading the group forward.

Only then did Ding Xiaodie pull the rabbit out of her shirt.

“A rabbit.”

“Meat! We have meat to eat!”

“Baby, you’re amazing!”

The whole family was overjoyed. Wang Dafeng tried to snatch it greedily, but Ding Gui intercepted her. Zhang Xiu couldn’t even look at the old woman anymore. The couple said nothing, just quietly began to prepare the rabbit.

Luckily, the original host had a knife. They found a clean stone, skinned the rabbit, and ran a stick through it from head to tail.

They had no pot, and there wasn’t enough time anyway. Soup was out of the question. Roasting was the only option—quick and efficient.

During the process, Wang Dafeng’s cloudy, triangular eyes stared fixedly at the little kid beside her.

“Xiaodie, tell Grandma—where’d you get the rabbit?”