The Wilderness

Early morning, the sky was overcast, with rain on the way.

Rumble rumble~

Lightning flashed and thunder roared. Rain poured down in a steady rush, having fallen nonstop since the latter half of the night.

Fang Zhixing rose early and looked at the heavy rain outside, unable to feel any brightness in his heart.

He had originally planned to enter the mountains to hunt today, but heaven's weather was as unpredictable as a storm from nowhere.

"There's no food at home. Even if it's raining, I have to go out."

Fang Zhixing sighed softly.

He regretted not finding a way to store some food for situations like this.

But there was nothing he could do about it.

Whenever he went down to the river to fish, he ate whatever he caught. Only then would he have the strength to practice archery and the Draw Blade Technique.

There was simply no possibility of saving any food.

Skinny Dog hesitated. "Without raincoats, we'll get soaked as soon as we go outside. What if we get sick?"

In this backward ancient mountain village, if one fell ill, one could only endure it through sheer force. If they could not endure it, they were as good as dead.

Fang Zhixing naturally understood that, but he did not know how long this rain would last. He could not possibly wait forever for it to stop.

Besides, even if the rain stopped, it could still rain while he was out. There was no way to avoid it forever.

Man and dog headed out into the rain.

The downpour was quite heavy. Fang Zhixing was soon drenched to the skin, while Skinny Dog's wet fur clung flat against his body.

The roads inside and outside the village were all dirt roads, and after the rain, they had turned into mud.

Fang Zhixing trudged through the muck, one foot deep and the other shallow, leaving the village for the great river to fish.

When he reached the riverbank and looked—

The river had clearly swollen. The current surged violently, waves rolling one after another, swift and treacherous.

"Holy shit!"

Fang Zhixing stood on the bank, his hair plastered to his face, rainwater streaming all over him.

He could not go into the river. It was far too dangerous.

Skinny Dog was dumbfounded as well. He transmitted, "We're screwed. We probably won't be able to go into the river for the next few days."

Fang Zhixing gritted his teeth, turned around, and returned to the forest, where he picked some wild vegetables before going home.

Once home, he hurriedly lit a fire, dried his soaked clothes, cooked the wild vegetables, and barely filled his stomach.

By afternoon, the rain had not stopped. Instead, it only grew heavier.

Standing water was everywhere in the village, as though it had become a vast ocean.

Fang Zhixing realized the problem was serious. This was no ordinary rain—it was a natural disaster.

In the blink of an eye, evening arrived, yet the rain still fell without pause.

Fang Zhixing and Skinny Dog went hungry once again.

"Tomorrow, no matter how heavy the rain is, we have to enter the mountains and hunt," Fang Zhixing sighed.

Skinny Dog was listless and only gave two weak grunts.

The night soon passed.

The next day, Fang Zhixing woke in hunger. When he looked outside, the sky was still gloomy, but the rain had stopped.

The temperature had dropped sharply, and there was a faint chill in the air.

Man and dog were overjoyed. They hurriedly grabbed their hunting tools, left home, and entered the mountains.

They had not gone far before a fine drizzle began to fall again, striking their bodies with a bone-chilling coolness.

Skinny Dog glanced in the direction Fang Zhixing was heading and cried out in surprise, "You're going to the hunting grounds Zhao Dahu and the others have seized?"

Fang Zhixing nodded.

Skinny Dog hesitated. "Aren't you afraid something will happen? If you clash with the old village chief's family, there are more people in the Zhao family than you have arrows."

Fang Zhixing replied, "These past few days, the old village chief's family should be busy seizing the Song family's money and grain. They won't be going out to hunt."

Skinny Dog thought it over and hesitated. "Let's hope so."

Man and dog ventured deep into the wild mountains, traveling a great distance. By Fang Zhixing's estimate, they had gone eleven or twelve li.

Fang Zhixing grew tired and sat beneath a large tree to rest.

"Ow, this dog is exhausted." Skinny Dog was worn out from being walked around too. He sprawled on the ground, tongue hanging out as he panted nonstop.

Splash, splash~~

As luck would have it, the rain suddenly intensified.

Fang Zhixing looked up at the sky. Dark clouds blanketed it, and thick bolts of lightning tore through the heavens like enraged divine dragons.

"Move. We can't stay under a tree." Fang Zhixing stood up and had no choice but to relocate through the rain.

The two found a slanted boulder and squeezed into a narrow spot beneath it, which happened to shelter them from the rain.

"Look, is that a patch of wild strawberries?" Skinny Dog spotted something and craned his neck.

Fang Zhixing followed his gaze, and his eyes immediately lit up. He rushed over in three strides.

On a slope grew a dense patch of upright shrubs—wild strawberries. Their branches were laden with bright-red fruit, each one about the size of a peanut.

Fang Zhixing swiftly picked a wild strawberry. Just as he was about to put it into his mouth, he suddenly stopped.

"Skinny Dog, come here," he called.

Skinny Dog did not want to get rained on and shouted back, "Hurry up and pick them. What's the point of me going over? I can't help you."

Fang Zhixing curled his lip, spread open the ragged hemp cloth at his waist to make a pouch, and quickly began picking.

After a while, more and more wild strawberries filled his makeshift pouch until it could hold no more. Yet when he looked, more than half the wild strawberries remained unpicked.

Fang Zhixing returned and sat down.

Skinny Dog immediately jumped onto his lap. He sniffed the wild strawberries, and a sweet fragrance rushed straight into his head, making saliva flood his mouth.

Seeing this, Fang Zhixing quickly said, "Eat."

Skinny Dog lifted his head and bared his teeth. "What's this supposed to mean? Haven't you always eaten first, while I ate whatever you left over?"

Fang Zhixing smiled. "You found the wild strawberries. Consider it your reward!"

"Bullshit!"

Skinny Dog bared his teeth with a low growl. "You're scared the wild strawberries are poisonous, so you're using me as a test subject."

Without changing expression, Fang Zhixing said, "You dog really don't know a good heart when you see one. You always measure a gentleman's heart with a petty man's belly! Fine, fine—say I do want to use you as an experiment. So what? You've got two lives. What the hell are you scared of?"

Skinny Dog gave a cold, mocking laugh. "Fang Zhixing, I'll remember this."

With that, he opened his mouth, bit into several wild strawberries, and swallowed them.

"Huh, they're pretty tasty—sweet and sour!" Skinny Dog's spirits rose. Throwing caution to the wind, he wolfed them down with wild Awooo!

Fang Zhixing watched, his stomach growling as he swallowed mouthful after mouthful of saliva, yet he forcibly held himself back.

"Ah, so delicious!"

"Aren't you eating?"

"You're really not eating?"

Skinny Dog ate while teasing Fang Zhixing, taking endless delight in it.

Fang Zhixing turned a deaf ear. After waiting a long time and confirming that Skinny Dog was perfectly fine, he finally began to eat.

The wild strawberries truly tasted good.

Or rather, since transmigrating into this world, this was the first time Fang Zhixing had eaten fruit. It was practically a luxurious indulgence.

He ate them all in one breath, easing his hunger, then went back for a second round of picking. He swept an entire patch of wild strawberries clean and ate every last one, filling himself to six or seven-tenths full.

The rain fell harder and harder.

Fang Zhixing pondered, "After this rain, I'm afraid the disaster will only grow worse, and the world will become even more chaotic."

Skinny Dog mused, "Do you remember that human trafficker, Mr. Qian? Look how well he's doing! I think we need to find a way out. We can't stay trapped in Crouching Ox Village."

Fang Zhixing shook his head. "We know nothing about the outside world. If we go out and wander around blindly, our situation may become even harder."

Skinny Dog said seriously, "We need to go to a big city. All the people with power and influence live in cities. Let me tell you, if I'm reincarnated as a human, I'll definitely still be handsome as hell. I can just flirt with some rich older woman, and I won't have to worry about a thing."