Huo Tianzhou Strangeness (Part 1)

Regardless of the task outside, the work must be ended at dusk.

Even the strictest employers wouldn't let someone work in the dark.

It was nearly curfew, and the distance from the village entrance to their home shouldn't have taken more than a moment.

Why did Huo Tianzhou seem out of breath, as if he had walked for hours?

Seeing Liang Hongyu's demeanor, Huo Tianzhou knew he couldn't leave without giving her some explanation for now.

There was still a little bit of water left in the bowl.

Huo Tianzhou dipped his fingers in, his slender and thin joints moistened.

With his head bowed, he painstakingly scribbled a few words on the tabletop.

Liang Hongyu noticed a cut on his knuckle, likely from yesterday's strenuous work after sowing the rice seeds.

He had only gotten calloused, not broken the skin.

Her gaze followed down to read the words he wrote before looking up at him again, "What kind of odd job keeps you busy so late?"

Huo Tianzhou's fingers rubbed against the table for a moment before he withdrew them, then he turned his head to look at Liang Hongyu without showing any strange expression.

Liang Hongyu stared at him for a moment, then decided to let it go for now and got up to leave.

After Huo Tianzhou finished bathing and returned to the main hall, Liang Hongyu was still there while preparing herbs for him at the dining table.

After standing there for a while, waiting for the herbs to be pounded, Liang Hongyu straightened up and walked over.

As she was about to speak, Huo Tianzhou bent down to pick up the mortar, indicating he would handle it by himself.

"You can wrap the bandage by yourself."

Liang Hongyu was very concerned about the severity of Huo Tianzhou's injury.

These herbs would need to be applied for at least a few days.

Liang Hongyu's eyes seemed capable of seeing everything when she looked at someone like that.

Huo Tianzhou lowered his gaze, nodded his head slightly, and carried the items into his room.

In the morning, Liang Hongyu didn't see Huo Tianzhou after washing up.

She walked to the woodshed and saw that the place where he usually kept his bamboo basket was empty.

So, he knew that he had gone to collect grass for the chicken.

She quickly prepared breakfast in the kitchen.

When she came out again, the two hens in the chicken coop were pecking at their feed in the trough area while occasionally glancing sideways with distracted looks.

Looking ahead, Huo Tianzhou was squatting there, his back appearing quite tense and troubled.

Liang Hongyu walked over and asked, "What's wrong?"

Huo Tianzhou relaxed his furrowed brows, glanced back at her, and stood up, moving aside.

In front of him were the wild rabbits Liang Hongyu had brought back from the mountain yesterday.

They were separated by size into three cages, each filled with fresh grass.

The adult rabbits gathered in front of the grass, sniffing but not daring to eat.

In the adjacent cage, three baby rabbits huddled together, trembling.

Beside them, two lay flat, lifeless.

Huo Tianzhou hadn't noticed the rabbits last night.

When he came over this morning and saw them, he had only given them a quick glance.

He wasn't sure how Liang Hongyu planned to handle the rabbits.

When he out to collect the grass for the chicken, he had also gathered some fresh grass, only to return and find two of the rabbits had already died.

Liang Hongyu squatted down to inspect them, opening the cage and reaching inside.

The rabbits inside panicked and huddled together, and the adjacent rabbits were also frightened and jumped around wildly.

The bodies of the two wild rabbits had lost their temperature, indicating they hadn't been dead for long and hadn't stiffened yet.

Liang Hongyu took them out and closed the cage.

Typically, wild rabbits have strong disease resistance and are easier to raise than domestic rabbits.

However, they are also very skittish and often too frightened to eat.

Wild rabbits are fast and difficult to catch.

While some people in the village had caught and even tried to raise them before, their wild nature made them very hard to be domesticated.

After being captured, they often refused to eat out of fear, leading to their eventual death.

Liang Hongyu had caught the rabbits and placed them in the cage without much thought.

She assumed keeping them together would be fine, but their small hearts couldn't handle the stress of a new environment.

The sight of a human in the morning had scared them to death.

Huo Tianzhou also understood the cause of their death.

Looking at the three remaining, motionless rabbits, he found the situation troublesome.

Liang Hongyu noticed Huo Tianzhou's troubled expression as he stared at the rabbits, mixed with a little bit of reluctance.

She remembered that Huo Tianzhou had raised rabbits before.

People usually bought wild rabbits to eat.

The smaller ones were hard to keep alive, so no one would buy them.

Knowing they couldn't keep them alive and not wanting to waste the effort of catching them, Liang Hongyu felt stuck.

The small wild rabbits couldn't be sold either, which added to her frustration.

Liang Hongyu didn't see it as a big problem; if nothing else, they could be slaughtered for their meat, though there wouldn't be much.

Uncle Wu next door had experience raising rabbits.

Maybe he could keep them alive.

Liang Hongyu picked up the two limp rabbits with one hand and, as she turned around to leave, she said to Huo Tianzhou, "Finish it up early. The leftovers in the kitchen are all yours."

She had just made egg pancakes and accidentally added too much flour. So, she made a lot of them.

As she walked out, she said, "If you can't finish it, save some for lunch."

She went to the corner of the house, grabbed a hoe, and went outside to dig a hole to bury the rabbits.