"Daughter... daughter, you should take it away. Father is a little scared."
Meng Shaode's scarred face showed no hint of his usual ferocity.
"Yes, yes, A-Jiu, if you like it, you can keep it yourself. It's better to be further away," Wu Dalei said after getting up.
"Oh." A-Jiu withdrew her hand and gently stroked the scales.
The scales twitched a few times and then relaxed. She didn't know if it was her imagination, but she could feel the little snake enjoying her touch.
The group returned to their resting place. A-Jiu curiously propped her chin in her hand, cradling the little snake and gazing at it. The more she looked, the happier she became.
"Lihua, look. Look at your daughter." Cai Lihua, who was drowsy with sleep, was nudged by her husband a few times.
He pointed at A-Jiu and spoke in a low voice, the fear still lingering in his tone.
"What is it? Staying up late in the middle of the night. How will we travel tomorrow?"
Cai Lihua, with no other thoughts on her mind, was sound asleep.
"Look, your daughter likes something so unusual..."
"You're so annoying. As long as our daughter likes it, anything is good." If he continued, Cai Lihua would jump up and threaten him with a knife.
Meng Shaode was instantly silenced.
A-Jiu, like a child with a new pet, had no thoughts of sleep; she was full of energy.
Conveniently, there was bamboo outside the cave. She drew her ox horn knife and chopped down a stalk.
She split it down the middle, then peeled it into thin strips, and cut them into fine bamboo slivers.
She painstakingly smoothed each sliver on a stone, fearful of any rough edges snagging the little king snake. Then, by the firelight, she began to weave.
She had seen people weave cricket cages. Many people in the Li family enjoyed cricket fighting.
A cage about two fists in size would be enough for the little black snake.
If it grew larger in the future, A-Jiu would make a bigger one.
However, her grandmother's intention was that this snake, having lived for over a hundred years, had a spiritual nature and thus didn't focus on physical growth. Perhaps it wouldn't grow much even in another hundred years.
Thinking of this, A-Jiu had a humorous thought: if she were to die after a hundred years, this little black snake might even attend her funeral.
The small cage was quickly woven.
Huh? Where was the little king snake?
A-Jiu looked around and suddenly noticed a black lump on the bamboo basket. At first glance, the little king snake coiled there looked like a lump of black excrement.
A-Jiu cautiously approached, lifted the bamboo lid, and said, "Come in quickly."
As if it understood, it looked up at A-Jiu before crawling into the small bamboo cage.
A-Jiu was so amused that she covered her mouth, trying not to laugh too loudly.
A-Jiu made a bamboo plug to secure the lid, which could then not be opened.
She also made a loop with hemp rope, which could be directly tied to her waist.
"Hmph, just don't let it run away." Madam Wang, who was sitting in meditation to continue expelling the poison, felt very wronged. Her backside had been bitten, and now this girl had made a wedding dress for her.
"Even if it ran out, would you dare to catch it?" A-Jiu looked slyly at the little dragon cage she had woven.
"..." Madam Wang's face turned red with anger. She then muttered to herself:
"One must not be agitated and disrupt the flow of Qi."
A-Jiu couldn't understand what she was saying anyway. She placed the bamboo cage by her pillow and slowly drifted off to sleep, her hands behind her head.
Spirit Spring Space.
A-Jiu's three water skins were filled and placed in the storage room.
Actually, when they were cooking dinner, her mother had asked with surprise where all this water came from.
There had been half a water skin left before, and her mother had assumed it was from the puddle they had filled last time.
She needed to find an opportunity to tell her parents about this matter, so they wouldn't be puzzled every time.
As dawn broke, Meng Shaode woke everyone up.
The time拓跋焱 had given had passed. It was likely to be the day after tomorrow before everyone left Mount Qiming.
拓跋焱 would definitely not be waiting there then.