Chapter 15: Recovery and Encounter with Japanese Soldiers

After finishing her meal, Jiang Yu practiced throwing “darts” using whatever she could find—stones, sticks, even leaves—while thinking about how to adjust her mental state.

Unfortunately,

she wasn’t a psychologist, nor was she someone naturally sensitive or thoughtful.

So after a long time of thinking, it remained just thinking, with no real progress.

However, her dart practice showed promising results.

Not to say she could hit exactly where she aimed every time, but her accuracy definitely improved.

Also, because of her extraordinary strength, the power of the thrown darts within one meter was roughly comparable to that of a bullet.

But beyond one meter, the power gradually decreased with distance.

Still, she was confident she could kill or injure someone within 800 meters.

Most importantly, the darts made almost no sound when thrown, which was far better than modern silenced guns.

In short, she could sneakily take down enemies without making noise!

And no worries about running out of “ammo” either…

“Master, the two baskets of steamed buns are done…”

Before she started practicing darts, Liang Mengwen had many thoughts going through his head.

But ever since Jiang Yu began training with the darts, he had no other thoughts.

Especially seeing all the holes in the tree trunks around.

He wished he could speed up making the buns.

He was afraid that if Jiang Yu was dissatisfied, she might throw darts at him next, which could be fatal.

“Done? Can I try one?”

Jiang Yu paused her movements, picked up a steaming-hot bun, and tasted it.

“Tastes pretty good! Keep going!”

“Yes! Right away.”

“Wait! Only one flavor per two baskets, except the chive flavor—all others are fine.”

Each large steaming basket had seven layers, with each layer holding 30 buns.

So one flavor meant over 400 buns.

That was enough!

Jiang Yu took several large bowls from her space, quickly collected the buns, and stored them back in the space.

Then she returned to practicing her darts.

She practiced until dark.

During this time, Liang Mengwen made buns in two more flavors, which Jiang Yu tasted and found quite good.

So she brought out more ingredients and had him continue making more.

After all, when she had been moving things out of the 66th Army camp earlier, she had kept most of the containers.

No worry about storage.

Most importantly, buns had meat, vegetables, carbs, and eggs—nutritious and convenient.

No problem making a lot.

The only problem was Liang Mengwen.

He felt like his hands were no longer his own after making so many buns.

But he didn’t dare say he was tired.

Especially after dark, when Jiang Yu returned to the cabin with a book and gestured and demonstrated techniques.

Occasionally, the gusts of wind she summoned blew hard enough to sting his face.

As soon as Jiang Yu got tired and wanted to sleep, he was tied up and thrown back into the box, finally able to breathe a sigh of relief.

…

Another night filled with bloody, flesh-tearing nightmares!

But when Jiang Yu woke up, she didn’t feel as exhausted as the day before.

Could it be that her psychological problems were improving on their own?

But aside from practicing darts and movement techniques, she hadn’t done anything else.

Oh well!

If she couldn’t figure it out, she wouldn’t think about it.

She’d just keep practicing!

Maybe she was just dumb luck, and her condition would fix itself!

And wouldn’t you know it?

As she grew more and more tired each day, falling asleep quickly, her nightmares really did start to fade little by little.

Last night, she even slept through the whole night without a single nightmare…

Great!

It seemed that she really was lucky, haha!

She just didn’t know whether she would still get dizzy, nauseous, or shaky the next time she encountered those bloody and gruesome scenes.

Oh well!

She’d just take things one step at a time.

Listening to the steady drizzle of rain that had fallen since last night,

Jiang Yu decided to give herself a day off.

After all, her dart-throwing was already so accurate that she could hit every target.

Her movement skills and speed were also incomparable to before.

Easily dealing with a few Japanese soldiers was now a given.

Even her invisibility skill had improved, now lasting five hours continuously, with a cooldown time reduced to 40 minutes.

Though she still hadn’t figured out why the skill changed.

“Today no more flatbreads, let’s do… various stir-fried dishes instead!”

She skillfully pulled Liang Mengwen out of the box, thinking that after all this time he’d made nearly every kind of convenient food he knew how to make.

Jiang Yu had no choice but to have him start cooking stir-fried dishes to improve their meals.

“Oh right! I still have some beef bones here, you can stew them into soup!”

There was still plenty of flour and rice in the space.

But various vegetables, meats, and seasonings were running low.

Jiang Yu decided that once these last supplies ran out, she’d head down the mountain to give the Japanese soldiers some trouble.

These days, it had been unusually quiet outside—no gunfire or artillery sounds.

Even the planes that used to buzz overhead daily had stopped flying.

For some reason, Jiang Yu had a feeling something big was about to happen…

“Um… Master, we’re out of several seasonings, and there aren’t many vegetables left, look…”

From morning until nearly two in the afternoon, Liang Mengwen had been nonstop cooking stir-fried dishes, and his hands were nearly too tired to lift.

When he saw how few supplies were left, his face looked anxious, but inside he was secretly thrilled.

But before Jiang Yu could say anything, a sudden shout came from down the mountain.

Followed by a stream of curses in Japanese.

And increasingly loud footsteps.

“What are they saying?”

“Uh… they said the road’s too rough, and they’re a bit hurt from falling…”

Seeing Jiang Yu’s excitement as she packed up the food and cooking tools,

Liang Mengwen tilted his head, straining to hear the voices mixed in the rain, then quickly relayed to her:

“They saw the cabin and said their clothes are soaked from the rain, and they plan to rest here a bit, maybe find some food…”

“Heh! They’re dreaming. I was just about to find them, but they came to me instead.”

“Uh… they also said that Chunhua and General’s Mountain have already fallen, and they were sent to reinforce Jurong…”

“What’s that mean? Where are Chunhua and General’s Mountain? Are they nearby? Why would they come to reinforce Jurong?”

“Well… Chunhua and General’s Mountain are on the left and right sides ahead of Jurong.

The Japanese probably want to advance simultaneously on Jurong, Chunhua, and General’s Mountain toward Nanjing.

Since the route to Jurong is currently blocked, they’re coming to support Jurong for strategic reasons.”

Based on what the Japanese said, Liang Mengwen guessed this.

“How many troops did they send?”

“Uh… not sure. I only heard the Japanese complaining outside.

Apparently, on their way here, they encountered some Sichuan troops sent to support Jurong, scattered them,

and this squad got separated from the main force while chasing after some Sichuan soldiers…”

“Sichuan troops? How do you know they’re Sichuan troops?”

“Well… according to the Japanese description, the army they encountered was at least ten to twenty thousand strong,

but had fewer than a thousand guns.

Most of them wore ragged clothes, and many had only straw sandals on their feet…”

“Alright! Did the Japanese say what happened to them?”

“No, they didn’t mention that.”

“Forget it! You stay inside and keep listening to what they say. I’ll go deal with them.”