Liu Shitou glanced at the girl weakly, "Fine."
The girl didn't know what to do and dared not move Liu Shitou, so she just sat next to him, keeping a close watch on him. Whenever she noticed Liu Shitou trying to close his eyes, she would wake him up, to prevent him from passing out.
Zhang Xiaoying quickly found some hemostatic herbs and returned.
Seeing this, the girl hurriedly got up.
"Are you scared?" Zhang Xiaoying glanced at the girl.
Which six-year-old wouldn't be scared? The girl's face turned pale, yet she shook her head and said, "I'm not scared."
"Mmm, that's a good child of the Xu Family," praised Zhang Xiaoying. "Come, help Granny out."
The girl was stunned for a moment. Her grandmother had never spoken to her with such a tone. It had always been either hitting or scolding her, never any chance of concern or compliments.
"What, what should I do?" The girl quickly regained her composure and timidly asked.
Zhang Xiaoying, while treating Liu Shitou's wound said, "Just do as I tell you."
Zhang Xiaoying actually didn't need the girl's help, but after all, she was just a child, who was being forced to witness such a bloody scene and it was inevitable she would be left with a trauma or even be frightened.
So Zhang Xiaoying hoped to dispel the girl's fear by saving Liu Shitou through her medical skills.
This wasn't the apocalypse; cubs shouldn't start learning to kill enemies to survive from the moment they understand things!
Liu Shitou clenched his teeth and bore the pain, beads of cold sweat falling like rain.
The girl watched Zhang Xiaoying working seriously and felt she was very different from usual.
Zhang Xiaoying cleaned Liu Shitou's wound, crushed the medicine to stop the bleeding, and then asked the girl to hand over the cloth from the basket cover. She tore it and used it to bandage Liu Shitou.
Once the bleeding was stopped, Liu Shitou's condition improved slightly.
He looked at Zhang Xiaoying with complicated feelings.
Who would have thought that one day he would be saved by Zhang Xiaoying?
Zhang Xiaoying didn't care what Liu Shitou was thinking; after being busy for so long, she was starving.
Her gaze fell on the chicken in the basket.
However, the chicken had only been boiled in water and wasn't cooked.
It would probably be another half an hour before Mrs. Lin called someone over.
"Do you have a flint?" Zhang Xiaoying asked Liu Shitou.
"Yes, over there," Liu Shitou gestured with his chin toward a cloth bag.
"Girl, go bring some firewood," Zhang Xiaoying ordered the girl to work; she didn't plan to suddenly change from a harsh grandmother to a nice one, lest the people of the Xu Family couldn't accept it.
The girl breathed a sigh of relief; this was more like her grandmother.
Firewood was the one thing the mountain didn't lack. The girl simply picked up some nearby, and brought back an armful of dry firewood.
Zhang Xiaoying chopped a few branches, started a fire, then tore the chicken into pieces, skewered them on the branches, and started roasting them over the fire.
Zhang Xiaoying turned a blind eye to the surprise shown by the girl and Liu Shitou.
With the wild pig around, what was the issue with eating a chicken to recuperate?
"Auntie Xu, have you learned kung fu?" After a long silence, Liu Shitou couldn't hold back his curiosity and asked. Zhang Xiaoying was notorious in the village for being a shrew, but no one had ever said she could hunt!
With such a big wild boar, one he couldn't handle himself, how did she manage to kill it?
"What, you think only men can hunt?" snapped Zhang Xiaoying, looking annoyed. "Is there a rule that says only men can hunt?"
Liu Shitou was not good with words, and after being rebuffed by Zhang Xiaoying like that, he suddenly didn't know what to say.
He was incredibly embarrassed, "Auntie, I-I didn't mean that, I-I just think you're impressive..."
"You should thank my dad for taking me hunting in the mountains when I was young; otherwise, your life would have been lost today." Her natal family lived in the neighboring village, her father was a hunter, but he had passed away, and all this was known by the villagers.
The original hostess had always been a formidable presence in fights and brawls, and with her father being a hunter, it became quite natural for her to kill a wild boar.
Liu Shitou gasped: Had she been holding back when she fought in the village?
Liu Shitou then thought, Zhang Xiaoying was widowed at such a young age, how could she have brought up four children if she weren't fierce and tough?
Zhang Xiaoying was unaware that Liu Shitou had already found reasonable explanations for the original host's past actions.
"Grandma, you're so amazing," the eldest girl mustered her courage to say to Zhang Xiaoying.
Zhang Xiaoying, imitating the original host, rolled her eyes: "Stop buttering me up, go and gather more firewood, or you won't get to eat even a chicken's butt."
The eldest girl didn't take it to heart; after all, she hardly ever got to enjoy the good food anyway.
She obediently went to pick up firewood.
"You owe your life to me, and I don't want any silver. Catch a chicken for me later," Zhang Xiaoying said as she turned the chicken meat to Liu Shitou, "My second child's family did run errands for you, after all."
"Of course." Liu Shitou agreed without a second thought.
He had been prepared for Zhang Xiaoying to make outrageous demands, but to his surprise, she only asked for a chicken.
The chicken might not have had any seasoning, but once roasted, it still gave off an enticing aroma; both the eldest girl and Liu Shitou couldn't help but swallow their saliva.
Zhang Xiaoying handed a chicken leg to each of the eldest girl and Liu Shitou, pointing at the Xu Family's ancestral tomb, "Eat it, lest they accuse me of lacking humanity later."
Both were stunned, especially the eldest girl, who could hardly believe that what was in front of her was a chicken leg!
"Do I have to feed you? Being nice for a second and you take an inch, is that it?" Zhang Xiaoying snapped fiercely.
The eldest girl, still in shock, promptly shoved the chicken leg into her mouth.
Liu Shitou, who was about to decline, seeing this, also didn't dare speak and quietly started eating the chicken leg.
He vividly remembered how ferocious Zhang Xiaoying had been when she killed the wild boar.
By the time Lin's family arrived with reinforcements, Zhang Xiaoying and the others had already cleaned up the chicken, leaving only a pile of bones on the ground.
Lin's mother was seething with anger, but since Zhang Xiaoying was her mother-in-law, she could only forcefully suppress her fury.
"Head of the household, how are you?" Liu Shitou's wife, Mrs. Kong, ran over, crying her eyes out, "What am I to do if something happens to you? The Xu Family has gone too far, wounding you just for a wild boar?"
With that, Mrs. Kong's eyes nearly burst with rage as she glared deadly at Zhang Xiaoying: "We can't let this rest; I will take this to the authorities!"
Zhang Xiaoying: "???"
Before she had a chance to speak, an indignant villager spoke out:
"Auntie of the Xu family, this is not how you treat people. If you wanted the wild boar meat, you could've just told Shitou, there was no need to take advantage of someone's misfortune."
"Exactly, you used to boss around the village, but now it's a matter of life and death!"
"We're all from the same village; to do such a thing, not even the village chief can make the Liu Family swallow this humiliation."
…
"I told you it wasn't my mother who did it; are you all deaf?" Lin's mother snapped, "How many times do I have to tell you, it was us who saved the man named Liu!"