The next afternoon...
Little Western Heaven was still blanketed in snow, with flakes swirling through the air. After waking up, eating her fill, and drinking her fill, Annie—who had nothing to do—went outside and wandered casually through the snowy mountains, enjoying this rare peace and leisure to her heart's content.
After all, that big macaque, Zhu Bajie, and Kang Jinlong had all been sent out to work. Now that they had finished their tasks, Annie naturally had nothing to do. And when she had nothing to do, she obviously had to find some fun.
Wasn't that so?
She skipped lightly through the snow-covered mountain slopes of Little Western Heaven, occasionally bending down to scoop up a handful of snow and sometimes pulling out a wild ginseng root to take home and stew in soup. She was having a wonderful time.
Suddenly!
As she walked along, Annie saw a wisp of cooking smoke rising from the woods ahead. It looked as if someone was hiding in there, having a little cookout.
Curious and bored, Annie naturally followed the smoke over to take a look.
But unexpectedly, she soon discovered a huge fellow sighing beside a campfire in the snowy woods. When she drew closer, she finally saw clearly that the person—or rather, the horse—was none other than Ma Tianba, whom she had encountered twice before.
"Hey! Why is it you again?"
When she realized who it was, Annie immediately widened her eyes and exclaimed.
At the same time, Annie was even more surprised to see that Ma Tianba was covered in purple and blue bruises. Some places even had blood and wounds, and those wounds seemed to have only recently scabbed over. He looked as if he had just been beaten up.
However, Annie was certain that although she had beaten