After the door was opened, Lucy noticed the bloodstains on Li Xing.
Startled, Lucy hurriedly asked, "Are you all right? Can you talk? Where are you hurt? Why aren't you saying anything!?"
Seeing how pale Lucy had gone with fright,
Li Xing smiled and explained, "Lucy, I'm fine! This is all wolf blood. Hurry and get me something to eat so I can recover first! I'm so hungry I can barely hold on!"
Then Li Xing walked over to the dining table, pulled out a chair, and sat down.
Lucy put some bread and a water jug on the table in front of him.
Without another word, he began eating, washing each mouthful of bread down with water!
As he ate, Li Xing saw that Lucy was still staring at him, so he pointed out the spoils outside the door to her!
Lucy understood what he meant and reassured him.
"Don't worry, those things won't go missing!"
Only after Li Xing had finished the dry bread with the water from the jug did he recover his energy!
Watching Lucy direct the children as they carried the meat from the handcart into the house,
Li Xing spoke after he had rested.
"Lucy! Let me use your kitchen knife!"
With that, he got up and headed for the kitchen!
Once everything was ready,
Li Xing began processing the wild boar.
Scalding, shaving, butchering, and deboning!
Then, drawing on what he had learned from his part-time job at a large supermarket before transmigrating,
Li Xing broke the whole large boar down into cuts of meat of various grades in less than a dozen minutes.
Li Xing had originally wanted to try making a whole butchered-pig feast by himself.
But once the whole pig had been cut up, Lucy said there was too much meat and that they should save it to eat over time.
Then Lucy put the four legs away, saying she would preserve them as ham.
Finally, after Lucy had also taken away the skin-on pork belly and tenderloin, she brought over a basket of vegetables and suggested to him,
"Um, Li Xing! Isn't it bad for the children to eat too much meat at once?! Ha~~"
Seeing Li Xing staring at her as if she were an idiot,
Lucy guiltily suggested in a quiet voice, "Look, there's still plenty of meat on these bones. Why don't we have meat soup tonight?"
After making that suggestion, Lucy could read "Are you fucking kidding me?" in Li Xing's black eyes.
Finally, Lucy dropped the act.
"You can't do this!"
"Why?" Li Xing asked in confusion.
Looking anxious, Lucy explained, "You'll put me in a difficult position! If you feed them so well today, they'll have complaints about my cooking tomorrow!"
Then Lucy glanced at Li Xing's strong body out of the corner of her eye and muttered,
"I'm not as strong as you, and I can't go hunting! Most of the time, we usually just have potato and vegetable soup."
Suddenly, Lucy paused for a moment.
"Unless you provide our food from now on, too." She turned her head away and murmured with a blush, "Just like Old Turner said last night..."
The red glow of the setting sun passed between them and fell on the wall inside the house.
The fiery red sunset glow
made the children playing inside and outside the house especially excited, adding a touch of vitality to the approaching night.
At the same time,
the two silent figures in the kitchen were filled with mixed feelings.
Just as the atmosphere was becoming somewhat ambiguous,
"Oh, right, there's something I forgot to say!"
Li Xing's attention was drawn by her words. He turned to see Lucy looking him in the eyes as she said,
"Thank you, Li Xing."
At that moment, Lucy broke the silence in the room!
And in the glow of the sunset, Li Xing saw Lucy's determined, bright eyes.
At that moment, in Li Xing's eyes, her slender figure formed a striking contrast with her powerful emerald-green eyes. Her features adorned her face, and the word "beautiful" seemed to find its perfect expression!
Li Xing was shaken to the core!
Bathed in the light of the sunset, the two of them gazed at each other.
After an unknown amount of time, Li Xing spoke from the heart. "You're really cool, Lucy!"
After saying that, he resumed working on the wild boar's innards without waiting for Lucy's reaction.
With those heartfelt words, Li Xing broke their gaze and the atmosphere between them that neither could quite explain!
Seeing Li Xing at work and recalling what he had just said, Lucy rolled her eyes, turned to leave, and complained,
"Who uses 'cool' to describe a lady? You're really something."
But then Lucy smiled and added,
"Still, I like it!"
Their conversation in the kitchen afterward also helped Li Xing understand what Lucy meant: "It's easy to go from frugality to luxury, but hard to go from luxury to frugality." He realized that he had indeed been a little too enthusiastic, causing some minor trouble for both himself and her.
At Lucy's request, Li Xing gave up on making a butchered-pig feast and made potato, pork rib, and vegetable soup instead!
And so the two of them stayed in the kitchen, one cooking and the other helping.
Before the sun went down, they finally finished making everyone's dinner!
Lucy's dining table couldn't seat that many people.
So when everyone ate together, they usually took their bowls and sat in a circle in the courtyard.
Gradually, the dining table had become a place for entertaining guests.
Holding bowls of meat soup and bread,
Li Xing and Lucy sat on a bench at the edge of the courtyard, eating and chatting.
"I can tell you're happy taking care of them!"
As he spoke, he tore up his bread and began eating it "even the gods drink soup" style.
"Yes. After all these years, by the time I realized I should start a family of my own, I found I couldn't bear to leave them anymore."
After a moment's silence, Lucy added,
"No, it's not that I can't bear to leave them. They've long since become my family!"
Li Xing nodded in agreement as he listened, then went on to slurp down a few more mouthfuls of soup...
"I'm really grateful to you, Li Xing!"
"How so?"
"Actually, I only thought you'd pay a few gold coins to buy some vegetables and bread, and that would be enough! I didn't expect you to go hunting for this!" After taking a sip of soup, Lucy looked at the children and said, "I can tell you really did think of these children instinctively."
"Of course! In my hometown, there's a saying: children are our future! How could I ignore my own future?" After drinking a few more mouthfuls of soup, Li Xing looked at Lucy curiously and asked,
"Speaking of which, I'm a little curious. What do you usually do when there isn't enough food for the children? How do you manage?"
"What else can I do? If there's not enough, I make sure they eat first! It won't hurt me to miss a meal!"
Lucy replied with a smile.
"What if there still isn't enough?" Li Xing pressed.
"Still not enough? Then I borrow some from the neighbors. Most people in town are quite willing to help!"
Lucy's answer was as calm and matter-of-fact as ever.
He looked at Lucy's slender figure, then turned to look at the children's eyes shining in the courtyard because they were eating well.
"Lucy, you really are cool!" Li Xing said with feeling.
"I know, I know!"
Lucy took a sip of meat soup and replied, "Once is enough. Say it too often and it gets a little annoying!"
Li Xing finished everything in his bowl and nodded in agreement. "True!"
"Li Xing!"
Lucy's sudden call took Li Xing by surprise. After swallowing the soup in his mouth, he looked at her in puzzlement.
Lucy sat upright with her bowl in her hands, her emerald-green eyes sparkling in the setting sun as she watched the children eating ahead of her.
"Yesterday at the bar, you heard Old Turner describe my situation. Do all those demands of mine make me seem silly!?"
Li Xing followed her gaze to the children gathered together for dinner and replied, "No! They make you seem even more outstanding and beautiful!" He paused to think. "More precisely, precious and wonderful!"
"Precious and wonderful? Outstanding and beautiful?"
"Yes!"
Li Xing looked at Lucy, who seemed quite surprised and puzzled by his assessment of her.
"Lucy, a pretty girl like you must encounter many temptations in everyday life, but you chose a difficult path and kept walking it. You've stuck to it for so many years, even prepared to give up the happiness of a good marriage for that choice.
"Those qualities show your brilliance as a person and your charm as a woman. So much so that, in my eyes, your beautiful face is merely an important adornment to those qualities!"
"Really? Am I that good?" Lucy asked him with a skeptical look, and before he could even reply, she reached a conclusion.
"I'm not as easy to fool as Aniekra! I don't know what you're after by flattering me, but I'm very happy! Hahaha~"
With that, Lucy began patting him on the back.
Looking at Lucy beside him pretending to believe him, he shook his head with a wry smile.
When he had first arrived in town, Lucy had taken him around to meet everyone. Li Xing had noticed that the townspeople held Lucy in high regard. At first, he thought there were other reasons, such as her cheerful, assertive personality, her pretty face, or her wide circle of connections.
Then, as he was introduced to more and more households in town, he noticed that every family showed Lucy some degree of respect when speaking with her.
It wasn't obvious, but Li Xing had noticed it all the same.
"Your charm goes far beyond that!"
After the two of them finished dinner, Li Xing left Lucy's home and headed toward the smithy.
As Li Xing arrived, a voice came from inside the smithy.
"You're here!"