ch 27 – Silent Guardian (2)

　　That said, he shook his head, picked up his medicine box and left.

　　Mrs. Gu and Gu Qiao exchanged a look; they could see worry and concern in each other’s eyes.

　　Gu Qiao thought about it for a while and said, “It is now the best time to go and collect edibles from the mountain; if we miss this window, we will have another difficult year ahead of us. I think…. Even though you can’t talk right now, but it doesn’t really affect your ability to work. Maybe we give it some time and if you still don’t recover then we go to the town to look for a doctor. What do you think?”

　　Mrs. Gu struggled with that for a long while and, having no better options, she finally nodded. The couple looked at each other, both very bothered by what had happened to Mrs. Gu’s face and her voice.

　　“Breakfast is ready!” came Gu Ye’s voice from the courtyard. Mrs. Gu climbed off the stove; the slight pain in her ankle reminded her of what the brat said yesterday!

　　The deities were watching. Perhaps her falling yesterday was a warning from the deities? And her becoming a mute today was her punishment for being disrespectful to the deities? She shuddered when she thought about that. She clasped her hands and bowed toward all four directions.

　　Looking at her and her actions, Gu Qiao got even more irritated. He left her behind, walked out of the room by himself, and sat down next to the boulder that they used as dinner table.

　　Breakfast was still the same old stuff, rough grain biscuit, crushed corn porridge, a plate of pickled vegetables. He remembered how he used to have the best of food and beverages in the city of Yan, and got paid two silvers a month of wages. In comparison, what kind of life was that he was living now? He was tired and sick of living like this; would there be light at the end of the tunnel?

　　Today was another day that the entire family was going to go collect wild vegetables in the mountain so they made extra biscuits for lunch. During breakfast, the entire family was surprised by Mrs. Gu’s swollen face. Gu Ye faked just the right amount of surprise and didn’t attract any suspicion.

　　If it was any other day, the way the kids looked inquisitively would have triggered Mrs. Gu’s shouting way before then. But the house remained quiet and peaceful that day all the way till they left the house.

　　Gu Ming was extremely surprised by that. The two siblings walked at the very end of the procession and Gu Ming whispered to Gu Ye, “What’s up with that old witch? She didn’t start anything today!”

　　Gu Ye just smiled, “Perhaps it was because of the injuries on her face. It hurts when she talks so she decided to give it a break.”

　　“Mei mei, what do you think that woman have done to make dad beat her up like that?” It was only reasonable to think that conflicts between the couple was the reason of Mrs. Gu’s swollen face overnight.

　　Gu Ye raised her brows and smiled heartily, “She had done so many bad things how’d I know which one that was for? If you ask me, she deserve some more.” Gu Ming nodded in agreement.

　　The two siblings went back to the pine forest where they have collected pine cones yesterday. Perhaps they were there too early, they didn’t see any of the other kids.

　　Ling Juechen, having handed over all his herb-seeking responsibilities to his subordinates, was not following behind the siblings secretively. He was watching the little girl happily collecting pine cones and the happy cries that she let up whenever she found ripe berries. She seemed much more outgoing after her transmigration. In her pass life, she was only too serious of a person in front of everyone, she’d only let her emotions surface in private.

　　“Ge, let’s set a few more traps. If we are lucky, we can have meat every few days!”

　　There was no shortage of small animals in the mountain area near the village. Hunter Zhang came back with games each time he went into the mountain, making everybody in the village jealous of him. Gu Ye was quite confident in her ability to hunt, but she’d need some reasons to explain where the animals came from.