133

The scenery in the forest was pretty good. Among the vibrant green picture there occasionally jumped out one or two branches of wintersweet.

“Alright, it seems that different climates brings various stuffs. We can’t find those plants here, but fortunately, the spices are able to grow anywhere, our chance is coming.” said Song Qinghan expressionlessly while they were on the way walking.

Seeing that there wasn’t any trace of disappointment on Song Qinghan’s face, Wu Dahu felt quite relieved. Suddenly, he caught a glimpse of a trace of yellowness from the corner of his eyes. He then turned to gaze at it and then pointed, saying, “Is that little stuff edible?”

Song Qinghan’s gaze followed the direction where Wu Dahu pointed at. He took a suddenly pause in surprise as he noticed that there hung several plants which were just like bunch of tiny lanterns. He was aware that he should know the plants but memories failed him to recall the name of them.

Wu Dahu did not urge Song Qinghan but stood there without words. It should be their luck to search something here after all. If they did not find something they want, there was no loss at all anyway.

With a great curiosity, Song Qinghan approached to the plant, picked one of the fruits and then peeled off the skin of it. The next second he shouted in surprise, “Oh, it’s golden berry!”

In fact, Wu Dahu was just asking casually. He didn’t believe that the little thing he just casually mentioned could be edible at all. But after Song Qinghan’s shout, he picked another one of the fruits and pinched it with his fingers, asking, “We can we eat this stuff then?”

Song Qinghan took out the golden yellow fruit directly from the remaining skins, and then threw the fruit into his mouth, chewing and confirming, “Oh, that’s it! Just eat it like this, it’s kind of sour and sweet, not a bad taste. But we should eat them as they are fresh, they won’t be with a good flavor if we make them into dry one.”

Without waiting for Wu Dahu to react, Yuan Wenxuan couldn’t help but pick one and throw into his mouth. His eyes lit up suddenly as he bit the fruit and tasted the juice. With a surprise, he exclaimed, “It indeed tastes so good!”

Seeing the little boy kept picking the fruits and tucking them into his mouth but stopped suddenly without any sign, Song Qinghan smiled and explained as if he had seen through Yuan Wenxuan’s worry, “This thing has an anti-inflammatory effect, don’t worry, just eat as you want.”

Hearing that, Yuan Wenxuan smiled in return in awkwardness. He kept picking and throwing some of them into the basket on his back while eating the others.

Little Shitou stared at the three of them eating golden berries in turn. He stretched out his hands and whimpered. Noticing that everyone was just ignoring him, he suddenly cried, “Daddy! Eat!”

Wu Dahu was utterly dumbfounded standing there. He looked at Little Shitou’s chubby face as several golden berries were still remained in his mouth. And then he picked another one from the plant in his hand, teasing, “What did you say? Say it again.”

Little Shitou stared at the tempting golden berry in Wu Dahu’s hand, he tried his best to open wide his eyes while babbling, “Daddy! Daddy!”

Wu Dahu laughed happily as he clearly heard two sounds of “Daddy” from Little Shitou’s mouth. He laughed in excitement as if the warming call just swept all the gloom out in his mind. He delivered the golden berry to Little Shitou’s mouth while pinching Little Shitou’s chin, and then squeezed the berry juice inside the baby’s mouth.

Little Shitou’s eyes lit up all of a sudden either as Yuan Wenxuan reacted after tasting the exceptional flavor, and then again he grabbed tight on Wu Dahu’s arm, babbling even more fiercely, “Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!”

Song Qinghan was a little jealous and deliberately complained, “It’s me who accompanied with him the most of time, how come he just called you but not me?”

Wu Dahu looked a little guilty, he pinched Little Shitou’s face trying to guide, “Say ‘Dada’, ‘Dada’.”

Little Shitou smacked his lips as if he was trying to imitate Wu Dahu’s way of talking, “Dade, Dade, Da da…”

Seeing that it was quite difficult for Little Shitou who was almost got his eyes a pair of tearful ones to pronounce the right accent,  Song Qinghan couldn’t help laughing indulgently, “Well, never mind. I know it’s because that the accent ‘daddy’ is way better to pronounce than ‘dada’. Don’t you force him, let him eat!”

Little Shitou, who was finally got the release from the force, immersed into drinking the juice squeezed from the fruit by Wu Dahu. The yellowness was coated on Little Shitou’s cheek and nose. Not long, his face was like the one of a kitten as the juice got dried. It was quite a funny picture especially when Little Shitou got his big eyes blinked innocently with that messy face.

The four people ate as they picked to fill the basket. Not long they got their baskets almost full, which was quite enough for them to eat for a long while.

After walking further for a while, Song Qinghan finally gave up. Knowing that there would not be anything that only he knew, he went backwards by the lead of Wu Dahu.

Just as they were about to reach their current room, Song Qinghan suddenly heard a loud noise and the screams of Hualian not far.

Wu Dahu and Song Qinghan looked at each other in the eyes. Both of them came to know that something might have happened, so they hurried to return to their room.

In the center yard before the room stood a man who featured a delicate appearance. The man raised his head slightly, seemingly viewing the unconventional scene within the yard. Just right in front of him stood bunch of the servants, and Hualian was one of the victims among.

Hualian collapsed onto the ground suddenly with one side of his face completely swollen. On the surface of the swollen half a clearly visible palmprint could be seen.

Just as Hualian caught the sight of Wu Dahu and Song Qinghan, something called ‘hope’ seemed to re-burn in his eyes. He struggled to stand up, and then said weakly, “Young Master, Young Mistress. Please forgive me that it’s out of my capacity to stop them intruding the yard…”

At the moment he finally succeeded standing up, he got a fierce kick suddenly on the chest. The complacent femina man who made the evil kick raised his chin proudly, and then he roared, “Oh let me see. Your master came back right now? Do you think they are able to save you?! Tsk, what a dream!”

After saying this, the femina man suddenly raised his foot and was about to step on Hualian’s head ferociously without mercy. But just as his foot almost stepped on the head of Hualian, his leg was grabbed by a big hand suddenly. And then he was forced to twirl and the next moment was thrown into the nearby pond.

Wu Dahu looked at the delicate appearance man with his hands behind his back and frowned, saying, “Are you also the candidate for the final tournament? Why didn’t you challenge me abiding by the rules but intruded my room and asked your evil servants to bully mine?”

Song Qinghan reached out to support Hualian, wiped the dust out from his cloth and checked his injury. Seeing that Hualian had only suffered some external injuries and didn’t get any internal injuries, he relaxed a little.

However, even so, it couldn’t change the fact that those two men were full of rudeness and indignity. Song Qinghan glanced at the man coldly and couldn’t help but sarcastically utter, “Ah, I think it’s so right and true as there’s saying goes, ‘Various kinds of rice raise various kinds of people’, I should be so curious now about what aging rotten rice is capable of raising someone like you, so cheeky and with rotten heart!”

At first, the man hadn’t fully comprehended so much about the metaphor in Song Qinghan’s words. But just as he regained his attention and understood, he could no longer maintain his calmness on his face. He frowned fiercely and said, “What are you saying? You mean guy with a mean mouth. This room doesn’t belong to anyone at all, so what was wrong if I took my servant here to have a look? But it was your evil servant who tried to fight with us in the beginning! If he didn’t choose to offend us, what was the reason for my servant to give him a slap in the face?”

Song Qinghan sneered and glanced at the greeter who hid again at the corner as a rubbernecker. He raised his eyebrows and said, “Oh, so according to what you have just said, the challenge doesn’t count at all. It will just be useless for the winner to win the fairly short term of peacefulness in here, the tranquil can’t be guaranteed at all. The winner can be bothered in any possible ways, then what is the meaning for us to fight for the room? If you like the room, we will give it to you. We won’t do anything but just wander around here. You’d better do nothing to us, or the best solution is that you won’t even talk to us. Otherwise, we will regard the action as an offend. At that time it will be late for you to beg for the forgiveness!”

The moment he said this, the man’s chest stiffened. He couldn’t think of any rebuttal. After a long time, he waved his sleeves and said, “I won’t argue with any femina man. But to accept the challenge or not, it all depends on you. But the ownership of the room, I should have it!”

Looking at the man who was seemingly having a well-thought-out plan in mind, Wu Dahu got his eyebrows sank tight, but then he said calmly, “Alright then, I will accept the challenge! I will figure out who’s the real offender.”

The greeter was a little guilty by Song Qinghan’s words. He thought that the challenge would never be provoked anymore. But he didn’t expect that the development of the whole matter was still moving on at his will, he couldn’t help but giggle secretly hidden himself at the corner. But as his sight again met the one from Song Qinghan which was extremely cold as ice, he got his nerve strained suddenly and guiltily walked towards the ring.

After Wu Dahu fixed his step on the stage, he didn’t even allow himself to have time to probe when the challenge started. He directly pounced on the man.

The surprise flashed across the man’s eyes as he found that Wu Dahu took the initiative to attack. He seemed to have never thought that Wu Dahu would be so urgent in a battle. Just as he was about to put on his most powerful move, he felt a pain in his chest while being forced to take a few steps back. He looked at the spear in Wu Dahu’s hand with disbelief and cried out, “How can you use the spear? You tricky…”

Wu Dahu’s movements didn’t stop and he even asked with some spare time, “Why can’t I use it?”

“Didn’t the greeter say that you’re good at close combat?”

The man was forced to retreat to the edge of the stage by Wu Dahu’s neverending movements. He asked loudly as he fled on the stage. The complacent expression seemed to have already disappeared on his face but now he was all in a fluster.

Wu Dahu narrowed his eyes and found the vulnerable spot on the man. He raised his spear and made a beautiful and coherent motion, directly picking the person off the stage. After he fixed his steps again on the stage, he answered slowly, “I am indeed good at close combat, but no one tells you that I’m not good at distance combat, right?”

The man collapsed onto the ground with his face full of shock. No one knew whether he was shocked by his own failure or by the exaggerating conceit of Wu Dahu.

However, no matter what, he lost. The truth couldn’t change. Even if he didn’t use all his strength in the challenge just now, he still lost.

The femina servant who came together with him approached and grabbed the man’s wrist suddenly without concerning his own dripping wet cloth, he roared, “Childe, you might be tricked by them! You never lose! it must be him who did something unscrupulous on you, do you feel something strange physically? I just think that he might have drugged you by something! I have gotten a news saying that someone from another provincial capital was drugged by poison in the preliminary competition, no one knows whether he had been cured or not!”

Wu Dahu’s eyebrows moved slightly, and then he broke in calmly, “The one you just mentioned, that’s me.”

The femina man was stunned, he turned his head to look at Wu Dahu, and then at his master. He didn’t seem to know how to wrap up the conversation. After thinking for a long time, he said with difficulty, “Well… Childe, why don’t we just pick another room to have a rest? You just got a long and exhausting trip, after all. And… You seem not so well currently…”