Chapter 37 – Sudden Happiness (2)
Translator: Lunarise
Editor: Lunarise
Proofreader: Livyuna
The bear didn’t like leaving his territory. He wouldn’t sleep, his small eyes scanning his surroundings, his posture always tense and on guard. The bear’s eyes weren’t as good as Zhao Xi’s but his ears and nose were far superior. She had smelled hundreds of medicines but could only find them by smell from a close proximity. Ping An could sniff them out from a hundred meters away, or further if he had passed it by recent enough to remember. These advantages were natural of course, to allow the bear to hunt. If he didn’t have such keen senses, he’d be little better than a blind man, waiting to become another animal’s prey.
The unlikely duo pushed on, stopping and starting, hunting and looking for any sign of the Brittle Snake. When they got tired, they would drop and rest where they were. If they could keep going, they did. At frequent points along the way, Ping An would grow bored of walking and sulk, forcing Zhao Xi to chivvy him along.
He did this a lot, so she was used to it by now. She resorted to hauling the bear along to keep him moving. When she got tired, she’d climb up on Ping An’s back and let the giant creature carry her. He scarcely seemed to notice. Especially on the way back, when he was itching to get home and would bound along, Zhao Xi riding him.
Ping An was five times as strong as her, but lazy. As an omnivore, he usually ate vegetables, fruit, and corn. He couldn’t be bothered to run and hunt without Zhao Xi pushing him to do so.
They climbed to the South side of the mountain, but there was no trade of the Brittle Snake. On the plus side, they had collected plenty for Ping An’s food store. Most of it was stored in the creature’s stomach, the rest split between his back and Zhao Xi’s. They collected fruit along the way, too, which ate up a lot of their time.
After two nights and a day had slipped past, she rushed back to tend to Shen Fei.
Before leaving, she had only prepared three or four meals worth of food for him, leaving them next to the fire. All the ingredients were still raw. He would have to use his wheelchair and carry them over to the steamer on the fire. There was coal on the ground, along with a set of tongues so he didn’t have to dirty his hands.
But he’d been so angry… What if he had been starving himself this whole time, just lying there in bed and wasting away for two days? If he kept this up, his health would deteriorate.
She hurried back with the speed of a loose arrow. No time to care about being dirty or tired as she rushed all the way home. When she got back to her little piece of the valley, she almost collapsed with exhaustion.
Her legs were so swollen from walking she could barely keep herself up, but Zhao Xi was young and strong. After a short break, she recovered enough to pick herself up and stumble toward the cottage. It was still early in the morning; the sky was still dim. Shen Fei was probably still asleep, she thought, softly opening the door.
To her surprise, he was sitting next to the bed, reading under the light. He looked up when he heard her come in.
“You’re back?”
Zhao Xi froze. Wasn’t he angry anymore? It seemed as if he’d forgotten the entire shaving incident, acting as if it had never happened. His tone was the same warmth, considerate one of a wives waiting at home to greet her husband. All her life, Zhao Xi had been waiting for other people. Shen Fei was the first person to wait for her. Her heart warmed.
“Mm. I picked some fruits for you.”
She made no mention of his changed attitude, just in case it reminded him of what had made him so mad in the first place. She couldn’t stand it if he went back to ignoring her. This was nice. They could start a new chapter.
Setting her basket on the table, she began to take everything out. The coarse meat and fruit went to Ping An, while the soft, tasty, sweet ones were reserved for Shen Fei. There was no denying her favoritism.
The bear couldn’t enter the cottage, only able to watch from the window. The low sill was almost big enough for half of his body to fit through. She worried that the bear would squash Shen Fei, so she tossed a piece of fruit toward the trees. Ping An went chasing after it. He was like an oversized cat, with a tendency to bring food and all sorts of other treasures back.
Once, he’d brought back an entire deer and left it on Zhao Xi’s doorstep. She’d thought it was for her to eat. It turned out Ping An wanted her to roast the deer for himself to eat. Naughty bear.
“Have you eaten yet?” she asked, laying the fruits out on the table. She could wash them after she cooked. As she opened the steamer, she froze again. “You made this?”
There were three dishes in the steamer: green peppers and eggs, eggplants and meat, and steamed bean sprouts. Zhao Xi hadn’t prepared any of these ingredients, and they shouldn’t have appeared in Shen Fei’s diet. The ingredients she had provided him with were all prepared beforehand – fish, shrimp, other high-nutrient foods. The eggplant and green peppers were from her vegetable patch in the back garden. He must have gone and picked them himself.
Sure enough, the wheels of his wheelchair in the corner were caked with dirt. Had he really gone into the garden to pick vegetables and cooked for her? Just like a little housewife, waiting for her husband to come home from work and eat.
From the looks of it, the dishes were for more than one person. Shen Fei had made a portion for her. A sudden happiness swelled in her chest.