Mysterious Memories Within the Bloodline

The next day

Zhang Chen fed the chopped meat to the falcon, then returned all the way to the karst cave. He placed the falcon on the perch he had built there long ago and began sorting through the honey in the jars.

As Zhang Chen opened a jar of honey, the hornets building their nest seemed to catch some signal. They immediately buzzed over on beating wings, blotting out the sky as they pounced on Zhang Chen's jar. Startled, Zhang Chen hurriedly swept the swarm of hornets away with his sleeve, then scooped out a little honey with his finger and flicked it onto a nearby rock. The hornets rushed to suck it up, finally giving Zhang Chen the chance to consolidate the honey into a single honey jar.

"The most important things for me now are excavating the Ancient Tomb, gathering honey to deal with the rent increase, and, most crucially, raising my skills." After organizing the honey, Zhang Chen calculated the time. The sun was already high in the sky, when yang energy was at its most abundant—the ideal time to enter the tomb and dig.

Carrying his equipment, Zhang Chen arrived at the underground cave and carefully inspected it. Finding nothing unusual and seeing no signs of any small animals, he picked up the Luoyang Shovel and headed down to begin today's great cause of digging through the Frozen Soil.

Chiseling earth, loading it, hauling it away—once he reached an incomparably frigid layer of Frozen Soil, the Luoyang Shovel had basically lost its usefulness.

The cave remained bitterly cold. Before long, a layer of frost coated the hammer, and Zhang Chen had no choice but to wrap himself in animal hide to keep the chill from invading his body.

In truth, although Zhang Chen's bloodline had mutated, it offered no help whatsoever in excavating the Ancient Tomb. His strength had not increased, neither had his endurance, and he had gained no ability to withstand heat or cold. It seemed that the bloodline mutation had merely given him the ability to control blood—nothing more.

However, Zhang Chen had mastered the ability to control the flow of blood. He could speed up blood circulation and the dispersal of bruising, as well as accelerate the blood's delivery of nutrients and strength. Zhang Chen's endurance had indeed improved, but correspondingly, the energy in his blood was being depleted several times faster as well.

After digging all morning, Zhang Chen stewed meat outside the pit. Once he had eaten and drunk his fill, he resumed chiseling through the earth.

Points +1

Points +7

Points +18

Points +6

Points +2

Points +6

It was not until around three in the afternoon that Zhang Chen stopped. His eyes turned toward the Golden Finger Interface:

Name: Zhang Chen

Skill 1 (Second Tier): Light of the Righteous God (0/5000)

Skill 2 (Unranked): Dragon Qi (0/2000)

Skill 3 (Unranked): Blood Control (0/100000)

Points: 4690

"I only dug up forty-odd points in an entire day? How strange! Logically, shouldn't there be more and more Experience Points the deeper I go into the cave? Why are there fewer and fewer?" Zhang Chen was puzzled. He could not make sense of it.

Why was it like the Stone Tablet, with fewer and fewer Experience Points dropping?

"I don't know why either. I'll know once I break into the tomb and inspect it." Zhang Chen did not dwell on it. Right now, he only hoped the tomb would come through and let him gather five thousand Experience Points first, so he could raise the level of his first skill.

For him, all hope of restraining the Fox Spirit, suppressing the Fox Spirit, and living freely from then on rested on this great tomb.

"The collection of Experience Points has slowed down. Perhaps I can find another way, such as stealing the Golden Pages from the Fox Spirit next door." Zhang Chen entertained the thought, but after considering it, he gave up. He did not want to provoke the Fox Spirit right now. He had finally managed to make the Fox Spirit spare him—why would he go looking for trouble?

Who knew whether the Fox Spirit had tampered with the Golden Pages?

Though excavating the tomb to level up was somewhat slow, it was reliable. At present, Zhang Chen put stability above all else and had no desire to take a dangerous gamble.

Zhang Chen dusted himself off and emerged from the tomb, making his way to the little river to wash up. But as he looked at the increasingly dried-up stream, a flicker of surprise appeared in his eyes. The stream before him was now only two meters wide. Standing on the bank, he could clearly see the bottom and the fish swimming through the water, still unaware that danger was approaching.

"The stream is dropping so quickly! Such a rapid fall in the water level is clearly abnormal. I'm afraid a year of great disaster is coming." Zhang Chen's expression darkened as he stood by the shore.

Many people wondered why, when commoners suffered total crop failure in years of great disaster, they did not simply catch fish in the water or hunt animals in the mountains.

In truth, that way of thinking was far too narrow-minded. The chief culprit behind years of great disaster was drought. Drought withered all the grass and trees in the mountains, leaving animals unable to survive as well. They either had to migrate or starve to death. The villagers' crops yielded not a single grain because of the drought; they had not even grass roots or tree bark to eat, and so they had no choice but to leave their homes in search of a way to live.

As for fishing?

In such years of great disaster, even the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers would likely run dry. Where would there be any fish?

If the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers had not run dry, the powerful evaporation of Water Vapor from the rivers and Luo would always bring some rainfall. There simply would not be such a severe drought.

Thus, once drought struck, basically no one could survive. It was not only humans and crops—mountain vegetation and animals, streams and fish, all shared the same fate.

"I need to make preparations early." Zhang Chen looked at the yellowing leaves in the mountains, cut some grass with his knife, then went to inspect the traps. After collecting two Wild Ducks, he headed home.

Zhang Chen had many things to consider. He had to think about how to feed his hornets during a year of great disaster; the hornets likely would not survive it either. He also had to think about the chickens and ducks at home, as well as his Stepmother and Little Sister.

"This world is really driving people mad." Zhang Chen muttered as he returned home. He fed the bundle of grass to the muntjac, then began preparing the evening meal.

Zhang Chen did not eat meat for dinner. Instead, he made claypot rice.

Claypot rice had first been invented by Zhang Chen. Then, after that Fox Spirit arrived, the Fox Spirit next door learned it from him.

After feeding the leftover rice to the pheasants and Wild Ducks, Zhang Chen lay on his bed and closed his eyes to rest. It's been a while since I visited Stepmother and Little Sister. I wonder how they've been doing. I should make time to see them tomorrow.

Zhang Chen lay in bed, drowsy with sleep. For some time now, his body had burned fiercely throughout the night, leaving him unable to sleep well. Only as the pain had weakened in recent days, as though the transformation were nearing its end, had Zhang Chen been able to doze off for a little while each day.

Zhang Chen drifted off in a hazy sleep. The crystal nucleus moving through his bloodline kept flashing. Then, at a certain moment, it stopped moving and hovered quietly within Zhang Chen's body. The space around the crystal nucleus began to twist, as if turning into a bottomless hole, greedily swallowing all the blood in Zhang Chen's body. Within a few breaths, it had devoured every last drop of his blood. Yet Zhang Chen's breathing remained steady, as though he had noticed no change within his body.

Three breaths later, the crystal nucleus gave a slight tremble and began to spit Zhang Chen's blood back out. Before long, the blood poured back in and circulated through his body once more.

This cycle repeated nine times. Nine wondrous runes appeared upon the crystal nucleus, then the strange symbols shattered, turning into illusory visions. Within them, wind, rain, thunder, and lightning seemed to churn, while terrifying figures clashed in a blood-red river. Torrents of information flooded into Zhang Chen's soul.

Zhang Chen dreamed. He dreamed that he had become a figure wreathed in blood-red radiance, battling an opponent whose features he could not make out. A blood-red river flowed around his body, and wherever it passed, countless living beings became desiccated corpses, their blood seized away by the river of blood.

The man opposite him had an indistinct face. He only kept forming hand seals, suppressing Zhang Chen's river of blood.

The two fought for who knew how long. Zhang Chen only felt as though he had died, his battered body reduced to dust, with only a hand severed at the wrist remaining, buried deep beneath some wilderness.

As Changes of Time swept by, who knew how many more years passed. An inexplicable change occurred in that hand—it actually transformed into jade, and true blood gathered within it once more, giving birth to intelligence.

Then one day, a tall man came. His entire body was hazy, as though separated by time and space, and Zhang Chen could not make out his face. He only felt that the man was deeply sorrowful—sorrowful to the extreme. Even heaven and earth seemed infected by the man's emotions, letting out waves of mournful cries.

Then he was taken away and brought to a graveyard. The man struck with his palm, and the jade dust around Zhang Chen's body continuously fell away, taking the shape of a gravestone. Then the man pressed him down before a great tomb.

In a daze, Zhang Chen seemed to see a strangely shaped dragon, as well as a woman dressed in plain, coarse hemp clothes.

The woman lay within a huge coffin made from a single log. The log was three meters long and hollowed out, just enough to hold one person lying inside.

Her expression was serene and peaceful, as though she were asleep. Her peerlessly beautiful face robbed heaven and earth of all color.

That dragon was even stranger. Its body was covered in countless wounds, as though it had endured a thousand cuts and ten thousand slashes. Who knew how many of its scales had been torn away, leaving bloody wounds that looked utterly savage. Its dragon horns had been broken, two of its dragon claws were gone, and the remaining two claws were covered in countless hideous cracks.

The man looked silently at the woman lying in the log and the divine dragon for a long time. After who knew how long, he began forming hand seals and arranging the tomb. That bizarre dragon was buried before the woman's coffin, as though guarding her safety.

Bang— Suddenly, the sound of a washbasin falling to the ground came from next door, jolting Zhang Chen awake from his dream.

"What a real dream! But it was strange. Did I dream of the gravestone's origins?"

Zhang Chen abruptly rolled over and sat up, his eyes turning toward the window. By now, the sky had completely darkened. The clatter of pots and pans came from next door; earlier, it had been a chopping board falling to the ground that woke him.

They were fussing over rice next door, and the clinking sounds seemed much louder than usual.

Zhang Chen sat alone in the darkness for a while. Then the clatter of pots and pans came from next door again. Irritated by the noise, Zhang Chen walked over to the wall. It suddenly occurred to him that he seemed not to have come to peer through the wall in a long time. He wondered how far that Fox Spirit had recovered...

He gently poked open the crack in the wall and saw the White-Haired Fox cooking. Scholar Zhang Chen was nowhere to be seen, clearly not yet back.

Zhang Chen watched the stunningly beautiful young girl. Her soul had condensed a little more, and she now looked just like a living person. There was no sign at all that she was formed from a soul.

"This Fox Spirit has recovered quite a bit more strength." Zhang Chen studied the Fox Spirit for a moment, then swept his gaze across the whole room. Seeing no Experience Points dropped in the neighboring room, he slowly plugged the hole and returned to sit on the bed. Then his heart skipped a beat. "It doesn't hurt anymore! I don't hurt anymore! The burning sensation in my body is gone too."

Astonishment filled Zhang Chen's eyes, followed by delight. Carefully sensing the blood within his body, he saw that the rice-grain-sized crystal core had now become a sphere—a flawless, perfectly round sphere. It was no longer the faceted crystal from before, but quietly circulated within his body.

Zhang Chen "looked" at the sphere. With a thought, the crystal sphere began to turn, continuously darting through his blood like a fish swimming without rest.

"This is my second life!" After adapting to it for a while, Zhang Chen found that activating the crystal brought no apparent supernatural ability. He stopped probing it and lay on the bed, pretending to sleep while pondering the inherited memories from his dream. Those memories were fragmented, however, and still needed sorting out. Fully deciphering them would take time.

After who knew how long, drowsiness overcame Zhang Chen as he sorted through the dream. Before sleep took him, only one thought flashed through his mind:

"Now that my body has recovered, it's time to visit Mother and Little Sister and bring them the robes."

The next day, Zhang Chen entered the mountains to hunt. After checking his traps, he caught a wild duck, a rabbit, and a pheasant. He gathered honey and fed the giant hornets, but did not continue excavating the Ancient Tomb. Instead, he cut some grass and headed down the mountain to visit his mother and Little Sister.

After returning home, he fed the grass to the muntjac. Once it had finished eating, Zhang Chen carried the wild duck and rabbit from that day's hunt and led the muntjac out the door.

Ever since the Fox Spirit disaster struck his home, he had not visited his stepmother and Little Sister for a long time. It was not because he did not want to. He feared that going there would attract the Fox Spirit's attention, and she would wipe out his entire family in one sweep.

Besides, he had not had any extra food to bring them at the time, so he had not gone visiting.

Zhang Chen led the muntjac and carried the wild duck along the road, attracting quite a few looks. But the passersby merely looked at him with envy and said nothing. The world had not yet fallen into chaos. The land had enjoyed Sixty Years of peace and prosperity, and the dynasty's laws hung sternly over everyone's heads. No one dared challenge the court's authority.

The Great Victory Dynasty's laws were harsh, no less so than the Qin laws of his previous life. They even employed collective punishment, so those who committed crimes were rarely seen.

However, imperial power did not reach into the countryside in this era. In some remote regions, the Son of Heaven's authority could not reach at all, leaving loopholes for certain people to exploit—for example, those who forged blades and swords.

If one forged such weapons in the County Town, they would likely have long since been reported. Their entire household would be wiped out, not even chickens or dogs spared; even the eggs would be shaken apart, and boiling water poured into ant nests to scald every last one.

His stepmother's settlement lay at the Back of the Mountain, while Zhang Chen's village lay at the Front of the Mountain.

The Front of the Mountain and Back of the Mountain were not far apart. Thinking of his stepmother, Zhang Chen could not help but smile bitterly. Truthfully, his stepmother had treated him well enough.

In the hazy memories of his youth, when he was about five, his father had taken him, his elder sister, and his Little Sister, who was still swaddled in blankets, out of a very, very large residence. Escorted by a group of people, they were sent to a bitterly cold place to tend horses and herd cattle. Then, by some means unknown to him, his father left that pasture not long afterward and came to this little village.

His father was an outsider, and his arrival drew a great deal of attention. In order to put down roots here, he somehow got together with a widow from Back Mountain. The two went with the flow and held a wedding. From then on, his father counted as half a local, and he brought Zhang Chen to live in the Back Mountain widow's home.

Over the following year, the family lived in harmony. Though they did not have lavish meals of fish and meat, they got by well enough. Two more people were added to the household in succession. The widow bore his father a boy, and although the family's life was tight, laughter never ceased.

Until Zhang Chen was eight, when his biological father entered the mountains to hunt and was bitten by a wild beast. Without anti-inflammatory or disinfecting medicine, he ultimately failed to pull through three months later and died, leaving Mother to support four children.

Among the three siblings, Zhang Chen was the second eldest. Above him was his biological elder sister, five years older; below him was a younger sister three years his junior. After his stepmother married that cheap father of his, she gave birth to a younger brother five years below him.

After Zhang Chen's father died of illness, he left the widow and orphans only a dilapidated house and some worthless jars and pots.

After the old man died, Zhang Chen's stepmother struggled to support the four children, relying entirely on needlework and mending for others.

Then, when Zhang Chen grew a little older, after his stepmother had raised him for four years and he could often hunt prey in the mountains with Wang Wu, she sent him away to live separately. Zhang Chen returned to his family's old, broken Thatched Cottage and became neighbors with Zhang Chen next door.

"Honestly, my stepmother was a very decent person. After Father died, she still raised me for four years and brought me up. She only sent me out once she saw I could hunt with Wang Wu. Her kindness runs as deep as the sea. Besides, my Little Sister is still being raised in her home. My stepmother has no fields and lives entirely by doing work for others. Raising four children by herself—one can imagine how difficult life must be." Zhang Chen muttered.

Though his stepmother had sent him away, he felt only gratitude toward her, not resentment.

As for his elder sister, two years earlier, when Zhang Chen was thirteen, the Great Victory Dynasty conscripted laborers. As the male of the household, Zhang Chen had no choice but to take her place. His elder sister could not bear to see her young brother lose his life. Who knew what she did, but she returned with a large sum of silver that exempted him from labor service. Yet from that day onward, his elder sister vanished from the household, and Zhang Chen's conscription was canceled.

At the time, Zhang Chen had not understood. His stepmother said that his sister had abandoned him to search for their mother. Zhang Chen had believed it and been filled with hatred for his elder sister. But now that he thought about it carefully, there were likely many hidden twists to the matter, and the outcome might not have been kind. How could his sister, a weak woman, possibly have obtained such a large sum of silver?

Zhang Chen did not even dare think too deeply about it!

Zhang Chen went around Back Mountain and arrived at the village there. The village behind the mountain was called Liwan Village. With more than three hundred households, it counted as a large village. His stepmother's home was not on the village outskirts, but in its central core.

But before Zhang Chen entered the village, he spotted a small, skinny figure squatting on the wasteland at the village entrance in the distance, a basket hanging from one arm as the figure dug for wild vegetables.

The figure was very small and wore tattered, ill-fitting clothes. The clothes were clearly a size too large, making the person inside seem even smaller.

Looking at that frail back, it was like seeing a skinny little monkey wrapped in clothes, crouching on the ground and crawling about.

"Zhang Tuowei!"

Zhang Chen looked at the small figure and called out from afar as he led the roe deer.

The small figure froze, then spun around as nimbly as a monkey. Once she saw Zhang Chen's face clearly, she tossed aside her basket and came sprinting over like a nimble little monkey. But the "little monkey" was wearing an adult's clothes, the hem clearly far too long. Running too urgently, she stepped on her own robe and fell flat on her face, kicking up a cloud of dust.

"Don't rush! Don't rush!" Zhang Chen's heart ached when he saw the small figure fall, but with the roe deer in hand, he could not go over to meet her. He could only shout helplessly, "Slow down! Slow down!"

"Big Brother!"

The figure paid him no heed. She scrambled up and cried out anxiously before charging forward again. Just as she reached him and was about to throw herself into Zhang Chen's arms, she stepped on her hem again and tumbled headlong before him.

Riiip—

This time, not only did she fall, but the sound of tearing cloth rang out as well. That long-suffering hem finally tore apart.

"Big Brother!"

The girl did not care about any of that. Her face covered in dust, she sprang to her feet and burrowed into Zhang Chen's arms.

That was right, a girl! It was just that her name was so awful. Who knew why their father had given a girl such an unpleasant name as Zhang Tuowei?

Ignoring the dust, Zhang Chen wrapped her in a tight embrace and said reproachfully, "Didn't I tell you to slow down?"

The girl was covered in dust. Her little face had been tanned dark, layers of dead skin peeling from it. She looked like one of those travelers cycling through XZ in later generations, weathered and worn beyond her years in a way that made one's heart ache.

"Tell me yourself—how many months has it been since you last came to see me?" The girl's voice was crisp as her clear black-and-white eyes fixed on Zhang Chen. Without caring about the dust on her face, she rubbed herself against him.

"And you're blaming me? I could barely survive on the front mountain. How was I supposed to find time to visit you? I was too busy going up the mountain every day to look for prey." Zhang Chen patted her little head irritably, then simply hoisted her onto his shoulders. Her body was so, so light—little more than skin and bones, like a skeletal frame.

Combined with those oversized clothes, she looked like an enormous skull, ridiculous and comical.

"I thought you disliked me for being a burden and didn't want to come see me anymore." Her voice was full of grievance.

"You silly girl. How could Big Brother not come to see you?" Zhang Chen comforted her.

The girl's eyes darted toward the roe deer behind him. "Wow, Big Brother, you caught such a big one."

"Want to eat it?" Zhang Chen asked with a smile.

"I do! I want it steamed! I want it braised!" Her eyes gleamed as she stared at the roe deer, as if she wanted to stuff it straight into her stomach. Drool even dripped onto Zhang Chen's neck.

"Zhang Tuowei, are you disgusting or what? Wipe that drool away!" Zhang Chen wiped at his neck with his sleeve, his voice exaggeratedly disgusted.

The girl ignored him and reached out to pry open Zhang Chen's basket. The next instant, she let out a cry of surprise. "Wow, dried meat! It's actually dried meat! Big Brother, you're living way too well! No wonder you're all fair and tender, looking like some wealthy Young Master. So you've been stuffing yourself with meat out front while leaving us to suffer in the back."

As she spoke, she grabbed a piece of dried meat. Never mind the dirt on her hands—she shoved it straight into her mouth, filling her cheeks at once until she looked like a little hamster, working her cheeks hard.

"You Zhang Chen, getting all fair and tender from eating so well out front while not caring whether I live or die! I worried about you every day, afraid you'd fail to catch any prey and starve to death, but you're so heartless!" Zhang Tuowei simply climbed onto Zhang Chen's neck, swinging her legs back and forth as she kicked at his chest.

This was Zhang Chen's first time seeing Little Sister since awakening the memories of his past life, yet there was not the slightest sense of unfamiliarity or distance. After all, she was his own sister, born from the same womb.

"You really are outrageous. I even remembered to bring you something nice, and you still blame me. If I'd had the time, why wouldn't I have come to see you?"

Zhang Chen grumbled unhappily, then pulled out a fist-sized jar from his sleeve and handed it to the girl on his shoulders. Zhang Tuowei took the jar and opened it carelessly at first, but froze when she saw the crystalline contents. She did not recognize what was inside. "What is this?"

"Take a taste and you'll know. It's not like I'm going to poison you to death." Zhang Chen's tongue was no gentler than hers.

In Zhang Chen's hazy memories, he recalled that Zhang Tuowei had eaten honey with him in that grand residence when they were young. But so many years had passed, and she had been so little at the time that she had long forgotten it.

"So sweet! Honey—it's the honey Old Wang in the village talked about!" Zhang Tuowei cried out from atop Zhang Chen's shoulders. Her filthy little hands clutched the jar tightly, terrified that she might drop it. Her voice was full of disbelief. "Where did you get something this good? You can even get your hands on such rare goods? You've really made it big now."

Perched on Zhang Chen's neck, Zhang Tuowei carefully scooped up a mouthful with the tip of her tongue, then put the lid back on the jar. Her face shone with delight. "I'll take it back for Little Brother and Mother to eat."

Zhang Chen neither agreed nor objected.

Supporting Zhang Tuowei, carrying the basket on his back, and leading the roe deer, Zhang Chen walked through the village. The village men, young and old, kept glancing his way. Some greeted him, while others ignored him.

Zhang Chen had lived in Liwan Village for many years. He did not know every villager, but he knew seven or eight out of ten.

Leading the roe deer, Zhang Chen made his way to a dilapidated Thatched Cottage. Around it stood a wall built from earth mixed with Rice Straw. The worn-down Thatched Cottage had been battered by the years, and a huge hole had opened in the side room.

The gate was a fence woven from wood. Looking through its gaps, one could see a three- or four-year-old boy picking wild vegetables in the yard.

The boy wore nothing at all. He was filthy black from head to toe, even more badly sunburned than Zhang Tuowei, and no less thin and starved than she was.

Under the blazing sun in the yard, an even thinner woman with dark skin was repeatedly threading a needle back and forth.

The woman's clothes were tattered, even more ragged than Zhang Tuowei's. They were patched together from countless scraps, clearly cut and recut, altered and altered again, washed until all color had faded away.

"Mother, look who's here!" Zhang Tuowei sat on Zhang Chen's shoulders, her gaze crossing the wall to land on the woman in the yard.

The little boy picking wild vegetables stopped and turned around, while the dark, gaunt woman sewing also lifted her head.

The yard gate opened, and Zhang Chen pulled the roe deer inside. The woman's gaze swept over Zhang Chen's fair, tender face, clearly showing that he had been living well, before finally falling on the roe deer behind him. She could not help but stare blankly.

Zhang Chen shut the gate, set Little Sister down, and tied the roe deer to a post nearby. Then he walked over to the woman and called warmly, "Mother!"

The woman looked at Zhang Chen's fair, tender face, seeing that he had evidently been doing well. Then she came back to herself and said in a gentle voice, "I was worried about you a few days ago. Seeing you now, it seems you've been doing quite well."

There was no resentment in her voice, only happiness—sincere happiness. She did not blame Zhang Chen for feeding himself until he was fair and tender while leaving the old and young at home to fend for themselves. That was simply her nature, gentle to the extreme, always so weak and soft. Otherwise, after Father died, the family's fields would not have been swindled away.

"I ran into some trouble recently. I only had time to come over after I dealt with it," Zhang Chen explained. He did not say what kind of trouble it had been, because the Fox Spirit was not something she could deal with.

The woman's face tightened with worry, and she set down her needle and thread. "Was it some calamity? If something happens to you, tell me. I will never let anyone bully you."

"It's already settled. Just a few minor problems, Mother. There's no need to worry." Zhang Chen smiled.

As he spoke, Zhang Chen pointed at the roe deer nearby. "I knew Mother and Little Brother had been having a hard time, so I brought over a roe deer for you all to improve your meals a little."

The woman's eyes flickered. She swallowed a mouthful of saliva before saying, "You should sell it for coarse rice instead! How many days can one roe deer last? If you trade it for coarse rice and eat it with wild vegetables, it could last half a year."

Zhang Chen smiled at that. Opening his basket, he pulled out the coarse rice he had prepared long ago. "This is thirty jin of coarse rice, enough for the three of us to eat for half a month. My hunting skills have improved now, and I have other sources of income too. You won't need to worry about making a living anymore."

Zhang Chen's gaze fell on the woman's hands. Her bony fingers were covered in calluses and lined with wounds. Those hands had embroidered the finest needlework and supported the three siblings for years.

As he spoke, he took out the dried meat and handed it to the little boy. Not minding the dirt on the boy's body, he scooped him into his arms. "Little Fei, did you miss Big Brother? Look what good things Big Brother brought you."

"Meat! Meat!" Zhang Fei's eyes instantly turned green. Drawn in by the dried meat, how could he spare any thought for Zhang Chen? He stretched out his hands and pounced.