"There are rumors outside that the Second Prince and Fifth Prince were swapped. The one who died back then was actually the Second Prince, not the Fifth Prince. The Fifth Prince was exiled with the Sheng Family's military power, and now everyone in the world is looking for you, Master."
If his body had allowed it, the young man would have jumped up and cursed loudly. What nonsense was this? Whose excrement had blinded their eyes? He was three years older than the Fifth Prince - how could they all be so uniformly blind?
Second Prince Ji Xianjun touched his face and asked his subordinate, "Do I look very young?"
The subordinate: He didn't know how to answer that.
"It's fine, I forgive you."
"Yes, Master. You actually look a few years older than others your age."
Ji Xianjun thought: You could have lied to me a little.
Knowing he had become a burden, Ji Xianjun feared he would bring trouble to the villagers and wanted to leave quickly. He asked his subordinate for some silver to leave for Wan Ke's family, then had the subordinate take him away immediately.
Meanwhile, Wan Ke, who was still outside looking for Old Gu Six, was in despair. Wolves were actually robbing him?
Yes, you heard that right - four wolves were robbing him.
"Awoo," they howled. Leave your prey and you can go.
Wan Ke saw they weren't hurting him, so he gave them his catch. But to his surprise, they just kept following him after that. Every time he caught something, they would come up and demand it, snatching it if he refused.
The silver wolf family was overjoyed. They had found an idiot today and didn't have to hunt for themselves.
And so a strange scene unfolded in the forest - a human hunting in front, with four wolves following to rob him.
"Stop following me, I'm not hunting anymore!"
Wan Ke left at the fastest speed of his life. He wanted to go home; the outside world was a bit scary.
The silver wolves returned with their prey. Old Gu Six noticed something different about today's catch.
So he asked, "Did you encounter humans?"
The silver wolf looked at the sky, looked at the ground, anywhere but at Old Gu Six.
Old Gu Six didn't dwell on the question. He processed all the prey, took his share as payment, and went back to his house. He certainly didn't know that the pheasant he ate today was hunted by Wan Ke.
Winter passed and spring came, but the silver wolf family still hadn't planned to return to the mountains.
"The ground has thawed. When do you plan to leave?" Chang'an poked the silver wolf with a tree branch. After the thaw, she and Old Six Father were very busy and didn't have time to help the four of them process their prey.
The silver wolf let out an "Awoo~" and turned around, presenting its backside to Chang'an, refusing to communicate.
Alright then! These four had latched onto their family.
"Since you don't want to leave, why don't you lead us into the mountains to find fruit trees?"
Old Gu Six kicked the silver wolf's bottom lightly and picked up a hoe, gesturing for it to lead the way.
Two humans and four wolves entered the mountains together. They walked deep into the mountains, encountering some newly sprouted wild fruit trees along the way, but none were what they were looking for.
The silver wolf didn't know what kind of fruit tree Chang'an wanted. Seeing she hadn't found anything satisfactory, it patiently continued to lead them.
After wandering in the mountains for two days, they finally found a peach tree in a mountain stream. As for what kind of peaches it would produce, Chang'an didn't know.
She directly collected the tree along with its soil into her space.
"Father, shall we look around to see if there are any others?"
"Sure, let's see if we can find any hazelnut trees."
Hazelnuts could also be used as food. Old Gu Six was always thinking about stockpiling food.
As they searched, Old Gu Six hunted along the way, replenishing the meat supply in Chang'an's space.
After wandering in the mountains for seven or eight days, they found three peach trees, two plum trees, no hazelnut trees, but they did find two wild chestnut trees.
However, these were all found deep in the mountains. Feeling they had found enough, Chang'an asked the silver wolf to lead them back.
They planted the fruit trees on the side of the house facing the sea. When warm spring came, they would bloom and then bear fruit.
Of course, this was all Chang'an's imagination. She didn't know if the newly transplanted trees would actually bloom and bear fruit.
Chang'an started seedlings for cotton seeds and sweet potatoes in her space first.
The sweet potatoes were the kind they had found in the mountains before. Chang'an had planted honey sweet potatoes in her space; they didn't bear fruit, but the leaves could be used as a dish.
Potatoes also needed to sprout first. When it was time to plant, they would cut them according to where the sprouts were, coat them with wood ash, and plant them in the ground.
Chang'an gave the wheat seeds to Old Six Father; she had never planted wheat and didn't know much about it.
The father and daughter pair began living a life of working from sunrise to sunset.
Sometimes they would also make time to go to the seaside, not because Chang'an particularly wanted to eat seafood, but because she enjoyed the process of gathering it.
This was one of their few entertainment activities. When they got tired of farming, they would go work on the boat as a form of rest.
They first planted wheat, then transplanted cotton from the space.
After planting vegetables, they started planting sweet potatoes. By the time they finished a round of planting, the father and daughter were both wondering if they really had to plant all this land.
After resting for two days, they were back to bouncing around, focusing on building the boat.
Chang'an had a bold idea: since they were building quite a large boat, why not add an entertainment project? Go out to sea to see foreigners?
Their life was stable, and they even had time to ponder about going out to sea.
The world outside the mountains had become a chaotic mess, with big fish eating small fish every day.
For the common people, it meant life-threatening incidents every day.
If those in power cared about the people, the people in that area would live more peacefully.
If they encountered rulers who didn't see the people as human, then the people would become playthings for those in power.
The people suffered unbearably.
More and more people became displaced, and the evils of the world were displayed in full.
The strong were the butchers, the weak were the meat.
Many people fled deep into the mountains, feeling that compared to the people now, even the fierce beasts of the deep mountains seemed gentle and kind.
They used to fear the mountains, but now the mountains had become their last refuge.
What had the outside world become? Chang'an didn't know.
She could guess though. It was probably nothing but smoke and fire everywhere, and the small neighboring countries would also jump out to pick up the pieces at this time. Who knows, maybe as they picked, they might even become great powers?
Chang'an was now only interested in her own little plot of land. She inspected her fields and felt somewhat insecure.
"Father, shall we also fence in the land where we planted crops?"
Old Gu Six also looked around and felt his daughter's words made sense. He had worked so hard to farm this land; what if animals coming down from the mountains ruined it?
The next day, the father and daughter pair began cutting trees, driving stakes, and building fences.
The silver wolf family saw that they were too busy to pay attention to them again, so they were very understanding and didn't go bother them. Every day, they took the wife and brother-in-law to the seaside.
Having seen Chang'an bring back seafood, they imitated her. Then, while picking up crabs, the silver wolf got its mouth clamped by pincers.
It jumped around on the beach with a crab dangling from its mouth, howling "Awoo awoo", while its wife and brother-in-law sat side by side watching the performance.
Now that's a loving wife.
When Chang'an had fenced in two-thirds of the area, their little valley welcomed a family.
