Under the shades of the trees, a rustles rang from the bush beneath.
"It couldn't be too far away." Li Kong said as he looked at the trail of blood on the ground.
Ye Cheng nodded at Li Kong's assessment.
"Let's quickly chase after it before it's gone." Ye Cheng instructed.
The pair of hunters danced their way through the wood, following closely the bloody red stains on the ground.
The trail of blood extended deep into the forest and soon after, they found a deer laying on a pool of blood with an arrow pierced through its neck.
"Woah, this deer is pretty strong." Li Kong said while fiddling with the arrow, causing it to wiggle wildly.
Ye Cheng reached out towards the deer and pulled out the arrow from its hide and said to Li Kong, "Help me tie up the legs."
Li Kong grouped the deer's legs and tied it up with a rope.
"Done." Li Kong wiped off his hand and then looked at his uncle.
"Good" Ye Cheng nodded. He pulled out one of his knives and started to removing the deer's innard.
Ye Cheng started to opened the deer's stomach with his knife and then, he inserted his hand to the deer's guts before grabbing something and cutting it off. Almost immediately the innards came out easily as Ye Cheng retracted his hand back.
Ye Cheng gave an empty hand to Li Kong and without any words being spoken, Li Kong placed a pouch of water on his uncle's hand.
While his uncle was washing hands, Li Kong squatted and looked inside of the deer and it was completely hollowed out. Uncle indeed skilled with knives. Not even a minute had passed and the deer completely hollowed.
"Now let's carry this out of the forest." Ye Cheng said while swatting his hand on the air.
Li Kong straighten his posture and placed his right hand diagonally on his forehead.
"Yes, sir!" Li Kong's voice filled with vigor.
Ye Cheng was already numbed at Li Kong's weird action. The salute was just one of many weird things he would done on the spur of moment. As long as it didn't annoyed him too much, he wouldn't be bothered to smack some senses into Li Kong.
Ye Cheng lead the way in the front while Li Kong was busy carrying the deer in the big leather bag, looking out of breath.
"Uncle, isn't it not fair that it was always me who carrying the spoils?"
Ye Cheng snorted. "Just a little bit of exercise and you're already complaining? You're still young. Where all of those youthful muscles at? That's why you have to move a lot so that you can grow."
Li Kong feeling indignant and said lowly, "You and Uncle Zheng was all the same. I swear you two are just using me for free labor."
Ye Cheng was caught off guard by Li Kong's sudden outburst. But after that, he laughed and ruffled Li Kong's hair.
"Free labor, huh? I like how it sound. Don't you like how it sound too, Li Kong?" Ye Cheng grinned.
Li Kong was about to open his mouth before he signaled to Ye Cheng to be quiet. Li Kong let go of the leather bag and slowly walked toward a bush soundlessly while slowly withdrew one of his daggers.
Not far behind the bush, a rabbit with a fur as white as the full moon was hopping around before it suddenly stopped and looked around for a moment. But even a moment of stillness could spelled eternal sleep to the bunny.
Li Kong saw through that moment of stillness and shot his dagger forward. The dagger hurled toward its target and flawlessly pierced through the rabbit's neck and planted it on the tree nearby.
Looking at his successful attempt, Li Kong made a "yes" gesture and looked at Ye Cheng with a smile.
Ye Cheng respond it back with another smile.
"Quick, grab it. After that, we're going back immediately to the village. It's starting to get late."
Li Kong happily pulled out his dagger. He quickly gutted the rabbit before putting it inside a leather pouch he brought with him. He quickly went back to Ye Cheng's side and they walked toward the exit.
"I can't wait for Granny Qing's rabbit stew tonight! Just thinking about it already makes me drool."
"Just don't forget to leave some for your old man, okay?" Ye Cheng nudged him.
"No worries, Uncle Ye. I'll leave you the bones later." Li Kong said while grinning.
"It seems like you really missed my beating." Ye Cheng cracked his knuckles.
"Beat me up and I'm telling Auntie Feng you bullied me!" Li Kong threatened him fearfully.
Hearing the sacred word was coming out from Li Kong's mouth, shivers ran through his back and he immediately fell silent.
"Hahaha!" Li Kong laughed for a while before stopping to wipe off his tears.
Ye Cheng, looking slightly disturbed, arrived on Li Kong's side.
"You were just joking about telling your auntie, right? " Ye Cheng probed meekly.
"Of course not. I love my uncle after all." Li Kong flashed him another grin.
Ye Cheng pulled him into his side and ruffled his hair once more.
"You rascal. Now you dare to try to tease your uncle, huh?"
"Uncle, your hand is still wet!" Li Kong pushed his uncle way but his uncle refused to release him and they continued to walk on.
Later, despite Ye Cheng's warning it was getting late, Li Kong managed to caught four more rabbits and they reached the village's entrance just a moment the sun starting to set.
...
In the middle of the village, Yu Mei was walking hand-in-hand and chatting with the little children. The children were twin named Xiao Jia and Xiao Fang. Xiao Jia was a little shy and meek while Xiao Fang was the very opposite of Xiao Jia with his confident pose. It was unknown whether Xiao Fang absorbed all the bravery and confidence out of Xiao Jia when they were in the womb.
But while chatting one of the children suddenly pulled her sleeves.
Yu Mei looked at Xiao Jia's big round eyes and asked with a smile. "What's wrong, Xiao Jia? Do you want to be carried?"
Xiao Jia shook her head then silently pointed her finger on a direction.
Yu Mei's eyes traced the direction where her finger pointed at and when she arrived at her destination, appeared a youthful figure. It was Li Kong.
At the distance, Li Kong could be seen waving his hand side to side at their direction cheerfully, already cleaned up from his hunt. Yu Mei's expression immediately soften.
"Look who's back. Why don't you two go and greet him?"
Xiao Jia was shaking his head while the other twin had rushed before Yu Mei finished her sentences.
"Li Kong!" Xiao Fang shouted.
"Woah, woah, careful right there!" Li Kong lowered his body and opened his arms forward.
When Xiao Fang was within reach, Li Kong immediately carried him upwards and grinned mischievously.
The smile was the most sinister Xiao Fang ever witnessed in his entire life. Colors faded from his face as he nervously tried to stop him.
"Li Kong, n-" His words was cut off short.
While Xiao Fang was still in mid-air, Li Kong pivoted and spun his body as fast as possible. The world promptly became blurry and all Xiao Fang saw were straight lines.
"Aaaaaaaaaah! Stop! Stop!" Xiao Fang could felt that the feeling of nausea was building up inside of him.
But rather than slowing down, Li Kong accelerated even further. The child's scream echoed through the village for another seconds before Li Kong finally dropped him down and in an instant, they both fell on their knees.
"Uwek!" Xiao Fang felt something was churning out his stomach but there was nothing.
"Ugh." Li Kong hurriedly covered his mouth while staying calm with all of his vision was spinning uncontrollably.
While on the other side, there were Yu Mei and Xiao Jia witnessing the stupidity that had just transpired with the culprit and victim desperately holding something from coming out from their stomaches.
"Sigh. Seriously, what do you think you are? Four?" Yu Mei released Xiao Jia's hand and slowly approached Li Kong.
Li Kong looked at what he thought was Yu Mei and said, "Fourteen, to be exact."
He tried to straighten his back but his attempt left his body becoming wobbly but he still managed to give "one" and "four" hand signs to Yu Mei before collapsed out of nausea.
Yu Mei sighed again, "I couldn't believe you still the energy to crack some jokes."
"There, there." After that, Yu Mei didn't say anything more and started patting Li Kong's back.
While on the other side, Xiao Jia observed her sister's movement carefully and then, she shifted her gaze back to the kneeling Xiao Fang.
Xiao Jia raised her hand and stared on it a little before raising it a little but higher and tried patting Xiao Fang.
Unfortunately for Xiao Fang, it seemed his older sister concern was too enormous for him to bear as a "pat" from his sister slammed on his back.
Pa!!!
Xiao Fang let out a manly scream from his mouth and following his scream, all sense of nausea immediately dispersed from Xiao Fang as an entirely different type of pain greeted him instead.
Xiao Fang jumped from his positions and then rubbed his back furiously. He hissed repeatedly to ease the pain and when the pain started to subside, he turned his head to looked at Xiao Jia.
"Xiao Jia, what are you doing?" He spoke with a seething voice.
"I- I just copied what Sister Yu do." Xiao Jia said while looking down below and fiddling with her fingers.
"You were supposed to do it slowly. Not destroy my back!" Xiao Fang stared at his sister begrudgingly.
Unable containing her guilt, Xiao Jia dropped drown and wailed.
Xiao Fang cleared out any semblances of pain by the time his sister's cry had reached him.
"I'm sorry, Xiao Jia. I didn't mean it that way. Don't cry! Look at me, look at me! I'm fine now. It doesn't hurt anymore!" Xiao Fang frantically tried to comfort her as he rubbed his back, trying to show Xiao Jia that he was fine, but unfortunately his attempt ended up in a failure as Xiao Jia continued to cry.
Yu Mei, who had already done taking care of Li Kong, kneeled on Xiao Jia's side. She then took Xiao Jia to her embrace and caressed her back softly.
"Xiao Jia, it's okay. You don't need to cry anymore." Yu Mei whispered gently.
"B-but... Sister Yu... Xiao Jia... Xiao Jia hurt Xiao Fang!" Xiao Jia sobbed loudly.
"It's okay. It's okay." Yu Mei caressed her head before she let Xiao Jia out from her embrace and put her hands on Xiao Jia's shoulder.
"Xiao Jia, look at me." Yu Mei said with the gentlest voice she could utter.
Xiao Jia's sobs had subsides and she lifted her chin up to meet Yu Mei's eyes. Her eyes filled with affection for the crying girl.
"A little mistake once in a while was alright, but the most important was you should learn from that mistake and never repeat it again. Do you understand?" Yu Mei said while wiping off tears from Xiao Jia's eyes.
Xiao Jia's wept had subsided and she nodded her tiny head at Yu Mei's words.
"And wasn't Xiao Fang already said that it didn't hurt anymore?"
Xiao Jia further nodded.
"Not only it didn't hurt anymore, it also chase away his headaches. Am I right, Xiao Fang?" A hand patted Xiao Fang's shoulder and he turned to the side to found the smiling Li Kong looking down at him.
Xiao Jia's two round jewels brighten instantaneously and with sobbing, she asked, "Is it true?"
"Mhm, mhm." It seemed like Xiao Fang's mind had already long gone and he was possessed by the spirit of a woodpecker as he repeatedly bang his head.
Shortly after, Xiao Fang managed to exorcise the spirit.
"Xiao Jia. I'm sorry for shouting to you like that."
Xiao Jia wiped off the remaining tears from her eyes. Then, she shook her head and said, "Mhmm. I'm sorry too. I shouldn't hurt you like that."
She slowly walked to Xiao Fang and opened her arms wide while staring at Xiao Fang with teary eyes, asking, "Hug?"
Xiao Fang hesitated for a bit but after a little nudge on his back, he hugged his older sister and they shared the embrace for a moment before parting.
While the siblings still hugging, the perpetrator on the back started to whistling and clapping.
"More happy ending for the Ruman Village! Hooray!" Li Kong whistled at the beautiful bonds between the sibling. "But unfortunately the sun has started to set. So let's us go back each of our home and I hope you all a good night!"
Li Kong had started retraced his steps back home but suddenly he felt something gripping his shoulder with enough force to completely rip off his shoulder.
"I think you might be forgetting a little thing now, aren't you Li Kong?" Yu Mei said calmly, with a crushing force behind her voice.
Li Kong turned his head to face Yu Mei and he started to sweat a little. The grip starting to get more dangerous each seconds pass by.
He coughed a bit before walking through the pair of twins. He lowered his body to meet the twin's somewhat unwelcoming gaze.
Xiao Fang was understandably mad and stood behind Xiao Jia while Xiao Jia was looking at Li Kong with an expression he never seen before.
Li Kong felt a little bit of pinch in his heart but he ultimately resigned to his fate.
"I'm sorry for making Xiao Fang hurt, okay? I promise I'll never do it again."
Xiao Jia was unconvinced.
Li Kong was looking troubled before inspiration surged in his brain.
"Um, how about as a payback I'll buy you two tanghulus from uncle Qin tomorrow? Deal?"
Xiao Jia was impressed and completely convinced.
She nodded her head while Xiao Fang behind his sister's back also followed his sister's gesture.
"It's okay, Li Kong. Yu Mei said what's more important is to never repeat the same mistake." Xiao Jia clearly wasn't being bribed.
The two sides reconciled and started to talk with each other again while Yu Mei at the distance was utterly disappointed with humanity and pondered for the future of her kind.
Not long after that, the twins bid their farewell and went to their home and Li Kong saw them off with smile on his face but suddenly he felt something nudged him on his side.
"Crafty, aren't you?"
"I prefer to call it—" Li Kong pinched his clothes and pulled it forward. "Resourceful."
Yu Mei snorted but didn't chase him further, instead she got to his side and walked with him.
"So how was today? Did you get scold a lot?" Yu Mei asked half-joking and curious.
"Uncle Ye was mad at me because I didn't bring the bow."
"Hmph... Served you right."
"Is that what a friend should say at their friend suffering?"
"If the friend's head was as hard as rock and as stubborn as you, then everything was fine." Yu Mei paused and scrutinized him.
"And it's not like you'll remember it tomorrow. So..." Yu Mei easily shrugged it off.
Li Kong felt wronged and sulkily hastened his walking pace leaving Yu Mei who was still busy giggling.
Yu Mei pushed her body forward, mischief colored her delicate face as she walked beside him.
"Is our promising young hunter sulking right now, hmm?"
Li Kong's temper finally wasn't going to having it anymore and he flicked her nose causing an "Aiya" sound to be heard.
Looking at Yu Mei rubbing her nose made Li Kong finally felt satisfied.
'Consider this a revenge for what you've done in the afternoon.' Li Kong met her angry gaze triumphantly.