Suddenly, Uziel shivered. He felt the space around him suddenly turn cold.
Inside the cave, it was just him and Paige. Could it be...?
Uziel looked clearly at the person. It was Paige.
She had actually come here in broad daylight.
But when he felt the coldness on Paige's body, Uziel understood. He must have been sleeping too cold.
In such cold weather, he and his brother used to like sleeping huddled together. It saved firewood and kept them warmer.
Even though he thought that, Uziel still didn't know where to put his hands and feet properly, since Paige was lying in his arms wearing only her underclothes.
Right now, both of them were only wearing thin inner clothes.
Paige pressed her icy cold hands and feet against Uziel's body and let out a sigh of relief.
Even though she didn't feel cold when bathing in the river, the coldness in her body didn't go away.
She had been lying in bed for a while but still felt chilly.
Right away, she thought of the human-shaped heater next to her.
In her past life, when winter came, they would always help warm up her feet.
Slightly rough and icy hands and feet were now drawing warmth from Uziel's body.
Uziel was startled by the freezing touch. What followed was a mix of cold and heat all over his body.
The cold came from Paige. The heat came from his own body.
A young man who just came of age couldn't resist this kind of temptation.
His warm hands tried to heat Paige's body.
He found her whole body was ice cold.
The ripple in Uziel's heart disappeared instantly and was replaced by deep worry.
"Why are you so cold? Don't bathe in cold water next time. Even if you're not afraid of the cold, you could still get sick, and then you'd be the one suffering."
After speaking, he pulled Paige into his arms, as if hugging a big popsicle.
Paige comfortably curled up in his embrace and mumbled, "There's no bath bucket in the cave. Washing with a basin doesn't feel good."
"Later, my brother and I will help you make a wooden bath barrel. From now on, we can soak in hot water." Men in the countryside generally knew some carpentry. The only difference was how good they were at it.
"Okay!" Paige agreed cheerfully.
Being able to take a bath in the cave was much more comfortable. There was no need to stay on alert while bathing. Also, just because you weren't afraid of the cold didn't mean taking cold showers was enjoyable.
After Paige's body warmed up, she thought again about her guess regarding her powers.
Now was the perfect time to test it out.
Uziel was already starting to feel very sleepy.
He didn't have as much energy as Paige. After staying up all night, he was already exhausted.
In his sleep, Uziel felt something strange, but his mind was still fuzzy, and he didn't react.
Not until his awareness slowly returned.
Uziel suddenly woke up. Once he was awake, he realized what the two of them were doing.
"Paige?" Uziel called out hesitantly. He was afraid Paige had lost control again.
"Yeah," Paige answered.
Hearing her respond, Uziel relaxed. As long as she was clear-headed, it was fine.
But at the same time, he couldn't stay calm.
Paige was awake, right?
So that meant~~~
Since the beauty was being active, Uziel naturally had no reason to refuse.
Paige could feel the power flowing through her body. This damn ability, it really did have to be activated this way!
No wonder her power hadn't improved at all after two days of hard training.
Turns out she had been using the wrong method.
But this way of upgrading the ability was a bit exhausting.
After all, it wasn't something she could practice all day long.
Winn stood at the entrance of the cave, holding the firewood he was going to bring back. But now, he didn't know whether to go in or stay outside.
He didn't expect to come back and see something like this.
In the end, he just dropped the firewood beside the entrance and left with the empty baskets.
He couldn't stay there too long. If Ely came looking for him, it would be troublesome.
But still, why did he feel so uncomfortable inside?
Except for when they first woke up and talked about this, the two brothers had deliberately avoided the topic afterward, so things had been relatively smooth between them.
Now that Paige had broken the balance, the conflict started to show.
Could they really accept sharing the same wife?
Could Paige handle society's judgment?
There hadn't been much movement down the mountain these past two days. Some people had already moved back to live down there.
But their house in the village was already gone. If they wanted to return, they'd have to rebuild a thatched hut.
Since they still had shelter in the mountains, they weren't in a rush to move.
Still, they couldn't hide forever. People are social creatures and will eventually have to deal with others.
After spending enough time together, others would start to notice what was different about them.
And what about Ely? Could he accept having two brothers-in-law?
Winn thought about a lot on the way.
All those problems they had tried to ignore now had to be faced.
After meeting up with Ely again, the two of them continued gathering firewood.
"Ely, if brother doesn't come back, would you agree to let your sister find someone new?" Winn asked casually while picking up wood.
Ely was the only remaining boy in the Rin family, so his opinion still mattered quite a bit.
Even though he was still just a teenager.
Ely paused for a moment. To be honest, he didn't have many clear memories of brother anymore.
Brother left four years ago. At that time, he was only eight years old. Because there was a big age gap between them, he never really played with brother.
What he knew about this future brother-in-law came from his sister, parents, and neighbors.
He only knew that brother was an excellent person, at least, in their village, he was considered outstanding.
However, after the first year when a letter came, there had been no news for the next three years. No one knew if he was alive or dead.
So, if his sister wanted to find someone new, he supported that.
"As long as my sister likes him, it's fine with me," Ely replied.
Winn let out a small sigh of relief. With so many years of friendship between them, if he really became his brother-in-law, it should be acceptable.
"Winn-ge, if you like my sister, then you better work hard for her.
But don't worry, I won't be a burden. I'm already twelve.
Even if my sister gets married, I can take care of myself." Ely patted his small chest and said proudly.
"You little kid, why are you thinking so much? With the three of us adults around, you won't go hungry." Winn knocked Ely on the head.
"Don't hit my head. If you hit it, I'll become dumb." Ely looked at Winn with a wronged expression.
"Don't worry, you're already dumb enough." Winn laughed and tapped his head again.
Over here, the two of them were playing around.
On the other side, Paige and Uziel had finished their business and were happily drifting off to sleep.
Paige happily felt her powers, they were great. Just a few more times and she'd reach level two.
They both slept until the afternoon. Uziel was the first to open his eyes.
Then, holding the person in his arms, he felt a deep happiness in his heart.
Was this what people meant by the joy of having a wife and kids and a warm bed?
Oh right, kids.
He wondered what kind of children he and Paige would have in the future.
Uziel woke up not long before Paige also woke up.
Uziel felt a bit unsure of what to do at first.
"You're awake!" Paige greeted Uziel naturally and rubbed her little head against his chest without thinking.
At that moment, Uziel's heart melted.
"Get up and get dressed. They'll be back soon." Even though Uziel enjoyed spending time alone with her, he was still worried someone might walk in and see them like this.
"It's fine. The two of them are outside making dinner," Paige said.
But it was about time to get up anyway because she was starting to feel a little hungry.
After both of them got dressed, they walked out of the cave.
Because Paige had dark skin, it was hard to tell that her face was glowing, but you could see that she looked full of energy.
For dinner, there was still rice, plus the braised pork that Paige had been craving, and a plate of boiled wild vegetables.
The flour they received yesterday had already been made into steamed buns, and they had eaten more than half of them with the pork-and-vegetable stew that morning.
Now they were letting more dough rise. Winn thought they should steam more buns to keep on hand.
If they didn't have time to cook, they could just reheat the buns and eat them.
After all, steamed buns could last a month or two without going bad.
There weren't many good wild vegetables to eat in the winter—most of them had a slightly bitter taste.
Still, it was already lucky they had any at all.
But since all their stored food had been blown up, they could only eat whatever they could find.
Now that Paige and the others had woken up, they decided to move everything back inside the cave.
It was freezing cold outside, and no one would stay out there unless they had no choice.
Paige took a bite of the vegetables and didn't want to eat them anymore.
She started eating big spoonfuls of white rice and braised pork, and even gave Winn a thumbs up.
"I didn't expect your cooking to be this good," Paige praised him.
"This is actually my first time making braised pork. There's still a lot I need to improve. I'll keep trying and make it even better," Winn said shyly.
"Yeah, keep it up. I'll be eating well from now on," Paige nodded.