A New Addition

Outside Shan Hai Village, on the country dirt road.

Two figures, one yellow and one gray, were out in front, their steps lively as they ran and walked by turns. Every now and then, they ran back a stretch, heads wagging and tails swishing, looking thoroughly delighted.

Behind them, Ling Yi and Zhang Lei walked side by side, their steps light, neither hurried nor slow.

Ling Yi's hands were empty. His gaze was not on the road ahead or the path beneath his feet, but wandered around, surveying the great swathes of Blue Silver Grass in sight with a faint sense of satisfaction.

Aside from the small portion that had already been there, the vast majority was the result of the Blue Silver Grass seeds Ling Yi and Zhang Lei had scattered while playing in and around Shan Hai Village over the past two years.

If one looked down at Shan Hai Village from the sky now, one would find that the entire village was already surrounded by Blue Silver Grass, sunk into a sea of azure, like an island in the middle of the ocean.

Before long, the two of them returned to the Ling Family's small courtyard.

The moment they entered, they heard a loud cry suddenly ring out. They glanced at each other, and Zhang Lei lifted the two live Wild Rabbits and three dead pheasants in his hands, then silently stepped toward the Ling Family's kitchen.

Ling Yi looked at Zhang Lei's back, shook his head, and, surrounded by A'Huang and Meow Meow, walked toward his family's main room.

Before he even reached the doorway, another wail rang out. Together with the one from before, they rose and fell in turn, as if performing a duet, making one's head buzz despite themselves.

He walked inside calmly. Compared with the brightness outside, the interior was slightly dimmer, and it felt softer and cooler as well. Ling Yi narrowed his eyes, adjusting briefly to the change in light and dark, then saw two figures sitting in the middle of the room beside the square table.

Or rather, four figures—two large and two small.

"Xiao Yi, you're back~" When his mother, Zhang Xiaoyu, saw Ling Yi, her originally troubled expression immediately eased a little. She hurriedly said, "Come take a look. What's wrong with your little brother—"

As she spoke, she held out the tiny infant in her arms slightly toward Ling Yi.

"And this little fellow too~" His aunt, Ling He, stood up with the other little fellow in her arms, gently rocking him as she spoke.

Ling Shan had been born in the warm spring of March this year. Right now, he was not yet seven months old—Ling Yi's younger brother.

Zhang Xin had been born in December last year. In a few more days, he would be ten months old—Zhang Lei's younger brother.

Before the two mothers could move, Ling Yi closed the distance in a few quick steps and arrived beside them, reaching his hands toward the two little fellows' faces respectively.

His movements were gentle, and the tranquil air around him grew even more unhurried.

The index and middle fingers of both hands curled slightly, the backs of his fingers brushing over those two tofu-tender little cheeks.

Miraculously, as Ling Yi touched them, the two little ones, who had been crying nonstop, gradually quieted down until they stopped altogether. They only pouted their tiny mouths pitifully, looking uncomfortable.

After observing them up close for a few breaths, Ling Yi's eyes shifted slightly. His left hand tugged at the lower part of the old thin cotton quilt wrapped around Zhang Xin in Ling He's arms, and he said, "Aunt, you wrapped the quilt too tightly. Xiao Xin's feet are uncomfortable—"

Ling He was enlightened. "No wonder this little fellow kept kicking and flailing his legs today—"

Then Ling Yi drew back his left hand, reached both hands forward, and took his younger brother Ling Shan from his mother Zhang Xiaoyu's arms. He held him crosswise with his left arm, loosened the thin cotton quilt in front of Ling Shan a little with his right hand, and slid his hand inside, pressing his palm against the little fellow's stomach as he began to rub gently.

After only a few rubs, the little fellow opened his mouth and let out a breath with a "Burp—!" His wrinkled little face relaxed along with it.

"All better~" Ling Yi handed Ling Shan back to his mother, Zhang Xiaoyu, and said, "Xiao Shan got bloated from drinking milk. He's fine now~"

"Next time you feed him, pay a little attention to the way you hold him. And don't let his little belly get cold either..."

Ling Yi spoke patiently and carefully to the two nursing mothers.

Although the two of them each had sons as old as Ling Yi and Zhang Lei, at the end of the day, they were only village women of around twenty. When it came to caring for infants, they only knew ordinary care such as feeding, bathing, coaxing them to sleep, and changing and washing diapers.

Most of the time, when an infant cried, their first reaction was to feed the child and check whether they had peed or passed stool. If the child would not eat and the diaper was still dry, then they could only start fussing over them, checking for the cause one by one.

And often, before they even found the cause, the child would get better on their own and stop crying.

Living among the fields, for the sake of survival, even nursing women actually did not have much time to care for newborns in detail. They poured their energy into the fields, laboring for a mouthful of grain.

In any case, that was how Zhang Lei's infancy had passed before.

And compared with infants in the same village, or even in some surrounding villages, Zhang Lei had already received quite a lot of care.

As for Ling Yi, in his eldest uncle Zhang Dahe's words, he was the most well-behaved, most worry-free little fellow. In all these years across Ten Miles and Eight Villages, there had been only this one.

At noon, Ling Xiaoshan and Zhang Dahe returned one after the other. One had a firewood knife tucked at his waist and a bundle of wood on his back, while the other carried a Fish Basket.

Ling Yi said, "Daddy~"

Zhang Lei said, "Daddy—!"

The two little ones went to greet their own fathers, smiles appearing on their faces without thinking.

"Daddy~" Ling Yi glanced over the firewood on Ling Xiaoshan's back and said, "You went to the Old Forest?"

"Mm~" Ling Xiaoshan nodded, leaned forward to pick Ling Yi up, and walked without stopping toward his courtyard as he said, "I noticed yesterday that we didn't have much firewood left at home. There wasn't much to do in the fields this morning, so I went to the Old Forest to bring some wood back—"

"Uncle~" Zhang Lei, held in Zhang Dahe's arms, drew back his gaze from where he had been peeking over his father's shoulder at the Fish Basket. He turned to Ling Xiaoshan and said, "So you went to the Old Forest too. If we'd known, Ah Yi and I would've gone to find you..."

"Oh?"

Hearing his son Zhang Lei say that, Zhang Dahe raised his brows and asked, "From the sound of that, you two little fellows also ran off to the Old Forest this morning?"

Hearing Zhang Dahe ask in that voice, neither happy nor angry, Zhang Lei shrank his neck and muttered softly, "We... we only wandered around outside the Old Forest. We didn't go inside..."

"You two," Ling Xiaoshan frowned, drew his gaze back from Zhang Lei, and looked at Ling Yi in his arms. His voice lowered a little as he said, "That Old Forest is very dangerous. Not only are there poisonous creatures like Local Vipers, Giant Spiders, and Black Star Scorpions, deep in the forest there are wolves, Wild Boars, leopards..."

"If you ran into the fierce ones, forget you two little fellows—even adults like us might not get away unscathed!"

"Daddy~ Uncle~"

Ling Yi understood his father and eldest uncle's worry for the two of them. He pursed his lips and said softly, "We know. We only wandered around outside, the outermost edge. We won't go inside."

"Also..." Ling Yi paused and looked at the cat and dog that had, at some point, come over to circle around their feet. Then he went on, "A'Huang and Meow Meow are here too—"

Hearing that, Ling Xiaoshan and Zhang Dahe also looked down at Yellow Dog and Gray Cat beside their legs. The scolding they had been about to deliver was swallowed back down.

There was no helping it. Now two and a half years old, A'Huang looked extremely sturdy, comparable to the wild wolves the two of them had seen in earlier years at North River Mouth Town's market, which hunters sold to wealthy households and restaurant merchants.

Meow Meow, who was the same age, was not as large as A'Huang, but her streamlined body and agile bearing made her look like a small leopard.

With these two bodyguards accompanying them, given their strength and alertness, they were more than enough to ensure Ling Yi and Zhang Lei's safety, at least within the three-to-five-li area around the outskirts of Old Forest.

"Fine, then~" ×2

Ling Xiaoshan and Zhang Dahe exchanged a look, then nodded helplessly.

There was no helping it. Putting aside the fact that Zhang Lei was six years old this year and was about to undergo the Martial Soul Awakening Ceremony, gain his own martial soul, and thereby gain a certain degree of independence—

Even Ling Yi, though he had been well-behaved since childhood, had always had a mind of his own, always coming up with all sorts of wild, imaginative yet convincing reasons and ideas.

While the two pairs of father and son were talking, the two women at home had already finished preparing the meal and began calling the four of them inside to eat.

Their living conditions were several times better than before now. As Ling Yi and Zhang Lei became able to take care of themselves in daily life, and Ling Shan and Zhang Xin were about to turn one, both families had already begun planning to have a third child.

It was easy to foresee that in the future, the Ling and Zhang families would surely be blessed with many descendants and flourish more and more!