Shan Yu and Wu Liang

Shan Yu is someone who helps with the bread-making work in Huang Gu's wife Huang Gu's aunt Huang Xie's bakery house, from morning to evening together with other aunts.

The smaller building on the right side that was attached to the main house which had a simple upright mill that helped grind wheat into fine flour, had a fragrant smell of wheat flour being ground and processed into dough ready for baking.

"you've arrived, over there please bake them, we need to make a lot, at least a few dozen, you still remember your cousin Wu Jin Fei right?, he will be home the day after tomorrow, the news from the pigeon has reached this dawn, and maybe tonight he will reach the border of the outer forest"

Aunt Huang pointed to an iron tray on the corner of the table on the right that was full of ready-to-bake wheat dough that reached a dozen doughs.

"Great, after more than a hundred full moons he finally returned, he must have many interesting stories to share"

"Not only you that excited to hear his stories, he has really matured this time, his journey this time must have broadened his horizons, not all of us have enough preparation to follow his path, and auntie hopes he is not ignorant anymore hahaha"

Aunt Huang smiled faintly while squinting her eyes and covering her mouth with a hand full of sticky flour, a middle-aged woman with a young body, hair tied with a cloth covering her forehead and plastered with flour and a little messy from being in this room for a long time.

Shan Yu smiled at Aunt Huang's behavior. After tying up her hair and putting a protective cloth on her body, Shan Yu lifted the tray on which a dozen loaves of bread dough were rising ready for baking.

This was the Wu tribe's specialty bread, a large round oval-shaped wheat flower bread with a crispy texture on the skin and a soft cavity inside, spread with sweet honey from forest ground bees and fresh cow's milk from the Wu family farm.

This is one of the food variants of the Wu's daily life, as well as an exchange item like money, but this exchange is less valid because it has no solid basis and always involves close family feelings.

The sound of the dough as it is processed on the tray and the sound of the ripple of firewood occasionally fill the sound instrument of the room, the heat emitted by the combustion is balanced by the cold air from outside that enters through the gap between the wooden walls, this is a room slightly larger than Wu Liang's hospital room.

With the position of the entrance place in the middle, and to the right lined up 2 tables filled with flour filled by Huang Xie's aunt who did the part of processing the dough behind her again there was a side door that went directly to the kitchen room of Huang's aunt's house, on the other side of it to the left of the entrance, there was 1 wide fireplace with a special hanger for baking dough.

Shan Yu's role here is to take the ready dough and bake it and then put the ready bread back in the wooden cabinet on the edge of the wall to the right of Wu Shan Yu.

"Aunt Huang Xie, why isn't Aunt Lin Yiu here?"

"She has a fever, her husband came earlier and told me about her condition, I think it's because she's tired"

"Poor auntie Lin Yiu, when are aunt Huang Xie going to visit her?"

as Shan Yu put the iron tray into the oven box underneath which a medium fire was burning.

"Maybe in the afternoon or evening, depending on how fast we finish this job"

"If auntie is healthy and helping us, we all able to finish our part quickly, we really need more people"

"No need to be so pessimistic, among the three of us, you are the fastest hehehe, ah yes, what about your brother's condition?"

"Liang'er just moved his finger, but I think he is awake but still needs to rest for some time, I hope he will recover before the family celebration happen"

An older sister's expression of worry and sympathy for her young brother who had suffered a misfortune.

"Don't be too sad, that boy is recovering quite quickly too, auntie's son said, his scalp was slightly exposed and auntie's son had a hard time stitching it up"

"I am deeply grateful to the aunt's family, not only providing bread, the aunt's family also took care of the whole family"

Shan Yu bowed his head and his hands clenched forward, while holding back his tears.

"It's okay, this is our duty as a family, family is there to take care of each other"

"Ng, thank you aunt"

"Next time take care of your brother, and give appropriate advice"

"Yes aunt, but my brother is hard to tell, always acts freely as he pleases, this is why men are difficult to live long"

"Yes, that's who they are"

Shan Yu was a little stunned, then chuckled while taking the cooked bread and putting it into the storage cabinet, they chatted about various things, from how the fastest new way to make bread, to the variants of bread flavors they dreamed of, there really wasn't a day without fantasizing about things beyond their abilities.

***

Wu Liang opened his eyes slightly while enduring the dizzy shock in his head, his eyes were dancing, while trying to fix his situation, he slightly saw his grandfather in the corner of his eyes who was reading a book on his reclining chair.

Wu Liang got up slightly while supporting his body with his right hand and left hand which was holding a slight pain on his left upper forehead, hissing slightly while frowning his left eye slightly.

"Hohoho, young people are now recovering very quickly, no longer dizzy Liang'er?"

"Still a little scarred"

While stroking lightly around the wound on her upper left temple which was covered with a thin cloth.

"Rest first, your stitches are still not completely healed, your clothes have also been changed by your uncle, Ao Qi"

"Grandpa, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have been so reckless yesterday, it's inconvenient for Uncle Ao Qi"

"It's okay, you didn't go too far too, ah yes, grandpa wants to give you this"

Ming Qi's grandfather got up from his reclining chair, and handed him a book, a book with a neat cover of light brown animal skin that looked as if it had been expertly made, with a neat string across the left side to hold the pages together.

In the center was the title "Myth of Chi Ren".

"Grandpa is happy that you like reading, and writing, and your talent in composing words, that's what it's called uhh yes great, that's great, this is a healing gift from grandpa, I got this from grandpa's storage box, hope you like the book"

"B-But grandpa, you still reading it?"

"I'm reading it because I'm waiting for you to wake up, after you wake up I planned to go to bed"

As Grandpa Ming Qi gave the book to Wu Liang.

"thank you very much, this book is good"

Wu Liang rubbed the cover of the book, and slowly read silently the title on the cover block written in front of him, then flipped through the pages from the beginning to the end of the book, while feeling the texture of the sheets of paper that filled the book.

"Then you continue, grandpa wants to sleep first, old time is the right time to sleep often hohoho, oh yeah, eat your porridge before it gets cold"

"Thanks again grandpa"

Wu Liang, the younger brother of Wu Shan Yu, Wu Liang the grandson of Wu Ming Qi, Wu Liang is an avid reader, has a different interest from most of his cousins in the Wu tribe village, has an advantage in literature than his other cousins because of his talent and has been guided by his grandfather since childhood.

Wu Liang then leaned his full body against the headboard of his bed, then looked at his grandfather who was trying to sleep in his reclining chair, then his gaze turned to the bowl of wheat porridge on his left table.

"Have grandpa eaten?"

"Yes, yes, I have eaten, I want to sleep first, if there is something important, just wake me up."

Wu Liang smiled slightly at his grandfather and put his book on the right side, then opened the blanket and moved to sit on the edge of the bed and ate a bowl of warm wheat porridge made by his brother.

Wu Liang scooped out the center of the porridge and blew on it slowly, a thin smoke came out carrying the heat from the porridge Wu Liang scooped out, then stuffed it into his mouth while holding back the remaining heat.

"Huuhh, eshh, less honey here, sister you're such forgetful"

Wu Liang clucked his tongue while familiarizing his bitter mouth to the slightly bland porridge, then took the second, third, and so on spoon.

A few spoons later Wu Liang almost finished the entire contents of his porridge bowl, he then pensive for a moment while chewing and digesting the porridge that just entered his mouth.

He reflected on his behavior in the forest yesterday afternoon, he realized that he was not being watched by his uncle and cousin, then he sneaked to the edge of the border forest, and then saw a forest deer on the edge of the border forest, he rarely saw deer while walking around in the grassland.

It crossed his mind that if only he could go through the entire frontier forest and learn new things behind there like his grandfather used to, maybe he wouldn't be treated as a child by his brother anymore.

Actually, he could have seen what was out there but the frontier forest was too vast, and what was behind the frontier forest was hard to see because it was too far away and small for the eyes to see.