After they gathered half a basket of wild vegetables and mushrooms nearby, they saw Xiao Bai jumping down from a treetop with a squirrel.
"Chirp chirp chirp." Humans, the squirrel says there are no wild ginseng nearby.
After Xiao Bai finished speaking, he made a gesture of eating.
Fu Xinci, being very observant, grabbed a handful of large sunflower seeds and handed them to the little squirrel.
This was a good thing, rarely found in the wild, and the little squirrel accepted it gladly.
"Chirp chirp chirp." What, after you've used me, you want to kill the donkey?
"Xiao Bai, you're using the wrong phrase."
Xiao Bai: ...?
"This is at most me neglecting you a little bit, what does it have to do with killing the donkey after using it?" Fu Xinci said, handing a piece of crispy fried ribbonfish to Xiao Bai.
"Chirp chirp chirp." This is more like it.
Xiao Bai ate the crispy fried fish with gusto, not caring that the little squirrel was drooling from envy.
Fu Xinci and Brother Qi exchanged smiles, neither of them speaking.
Xiao Bai quickly finished a piece of crispy fried fish, and even remembered to ask Fu Xinci for a handkerchief to wipe his little chubby paws. Then he nudged Fu Xinci's arm, "Chirp chirp chirp." Let's go look somewhere else.
"Alright." Fu Xinci naturally had no objections, and neither did Qi He.
With Xiao Bai leading the way, the two of them followed behind as if on an outing.
Along the way, Fu Xinci discovered two more wild grapevines, and unceremoniously transplanted them into her space.
The plan was to plant them outside the courtyard after they returned home.
Xiao Bai got tired of running and lay back in the basket without a word, snoring happily.
Qi He and Fu Xinci were not disappointed either, and continued to walk unhurriedly in the direction Xiao Bai had indicated earlier.
They crossed another ridge, and both felt that the scenery here seemed to be even better than before.
Fu Xinci pointed to the valley below the ridge, with its lush green grass and winding stream, and asked Qi He, "Brother Qi, haven't we been here before?"
"I don't think so."
"When we were young, Grandpa Meng and my father wouldn't let us go far. Later, we trained with the soldiers of the garrison, and we didn't have free time to come out."
Fu Xinci thought, indeed, ever since Qi He and the others started training with the garrison soldiers, they had hardly had any time to accompany her out to play.
"How about I take Fu sister for a walk today?"
"Yes, let's go to the valley below." Fu Xinci meant the same thing, and she was even happier when Qi He took the initiative.
"Fu sister, let's go this way." It seemed there was no path down from the ridge into the valley.
Qi He saw a gentle slope ahead and decided to go down that way.
"Okay." Actually, the terrain of the mountain posed no difficulty for Fu Xinci, but she still liked to follow Qi He's arrangements.
The two of them walked along the gentle slope into the valley. Stepping on the green grass beneath their feet and looking around at the beautiful mountain scenery, Fu Xinci always had a feeling that there should have been human footprints here.
To verify her guess, Fu Xinci took Qi He's big hand and continued forward.
As expected, they discovered a pile of ruins.
Qi He also did not expect that someone had actually lived here before.
"Fu sister, who do you think lived here?"
"I can't say for sure." Fu Xinci was not a history major, so she really couldn't say.
"However, we can walk around and see, maybe we can find more useful information here."
"Okay, I'll listen to Fu sister."
After saying that, the two of them made up their minds and walked forward hand in hand.
This time, they didn't walk far before Qi He discovered that the land under the weeds should have been cultivated.
"Fu sister, look, aren't these neat furrows?"
"Yes." Fu Xinci could also see it.
"This is a large area of reclaimed land." The two of them walked along the furrows and saw a few scattered large tree stumps.
Qi He pointed to the large tree stumps and said to Fu Xinci, "Fu sister, I estimate these large trees are at least decades old."
"Yes. It's just a bit strange, since the trees were cut down, why weren't the roots dug up."
"Perhaps they didn't intend to farm here?"
"No way. This is adjacent to that piece of land, if they didn't want to farm, why cut down these big trees."
"Big trees block sunlight, and without sunlight, crops don't grow well." https:/
"Fu sister always knows more than I do."
Fu Xinci really wanted to say that any child would know this common sense.
But she remembered it was ancient times and quickly shut her mouth, she couldn't discourage Qi He.
Seeing these traces of life, Fu Xinci became even more curious about who lived here.
Qi He was even more curious and pulled Fu sister's little hand to continue forward.
However, this time they walked for a long time, almost reaching the foot of the northern mountain, and found nothing new.
"Is there nothing else?"
"Probably. Fu sister, we've been walking for most of the day, let's sit down and rest."
"I'll listen to Brother Qi." Fu Xinci was indeed a bit tired, after all, climbing mountains was strenuous work.
Seeing that Fu sister agreed to sit down and rest, Qi He suggested looking around nearby to see if they could hunt any game.
Upon hearing about hunting, Xiao Bai instantly woke up.
"Chirp chirp chirp." This Bai also wants to go hunting.
"Go ahead."
Fu Xinci told Qi He about Xiao Bai's idea, but Qi He refused.
"Fu sister, it's better to let Xiao Bai stay with you, I'll be more at ease."
"Chirp chirp chirp." That's a tigress, who could hurt her?
Fu Xinci was also worried about Qi He, so she suggested, "Brother Qi, let's go together."
"Isn't Fu sister tired?"
"Not very tired, let's go quickly, we can rest after we catch some prey."
"Alright."
Qi He was helpless when it came to Fu sister.
Qi He was quite experienced in hunting. Before the heavy snow sealed the mountains each year, Qi Yuanshan would lead the best soldiers from the thousand-household office on hunts.
Qi He never missed any of them.
The two of them, one in front and one behind, lightened their footsteps.
Fu Xinci's senses were sharp, and she first heard the sound of wings flapping not far ahead.
"This wild chicken is mine."
Qi He smiled gently, and as he spoke, he had already darted out.
Fu Xinci followed behind, and a thought arose in her mind: Brother Qi's long legs are so shapely.
When Qi He caught the wild chicken, he didn't know that his Fu sister had almost drooled over his long legs.
"Fu sister, come quickly, I heard water."
"Mm." Fu Xinci also heard it, but she didn't go to disturb Qi He.
When they both reached the stream, they were delighted.
"I really didn't expect that there would be fish in such a shallow stream."
"I didn't expect it either." Fu Xinci looked at the crystal-clear stream filled with schools of small fish and showed an incredulous expression.