SDIWD - Chapter 46
Chapter 46
For Bai Zhen, Hua Mu's "I'm not talking to you" was no small blow. If she could, how could she ever bear to let Hua Mu do these things or touch these objects?
But the situation was more urgent than she had imagined. Turning a delicate noble lady into a wilderness survival expert in less than a month was a task as difficult as resisting a binding heat.
Bai Zhen stood for a while, thinking that she would have to muster her courage to speak to Hua Mu later.
"Miss…"
Hua Mu sat on the bamboo bed hugging her knees, sulking. She pretended not to hear her, and when Bai Zhen approached, she deliberately turned her face away.
What little courage Bai Zhen had mustered vanished completely at Hua Mu's reaction. She stood there for a moment with her lips pressed together before finally shouldering the fishing rod and retreating to the side.
Forcing Hua Mu was never her intention, but she didn't know how to explain it to her. She didn't want to tell her, nor did she dare to, that if rescue didn't arrive after a month, she would no longer be able to accompany her or protect her.
Hua Mu waited for the Sentinel to come and coax her, but to her surprise, the other woman just left without a word. She flopped onto the bed in exasperation.
Hardship could be overcome, fear was more difficult, but disgust was simply impossible to conquer! She had already compromised by being willing to accept earthworms, so why did Bai Zhen have to insist on using those disgusting grubs!
Thinking about it now, Hua Mu still felt a shiver of revulsion.
It wasn't her fault. It was the Sentinel's fault for not knowing how to be gentle with a lady!
The more Hua Mu thought about it, the more wronged she felt.
She had been working so hard these past few days and hadn't lost her temper with Bai Zhen at all. Fishing was fine, but why use that kind of bait? And she had to show it to her, and then when she knew she was angry, she didn't even come to comfort her!
Hua Mu shed a few tears. Seeing that Bai Zhen was still ignoring her, she felt incredibly heartbroken. She couldn't help but sit up and peek out of the shelter entrance to see what the other woman was doing.
Bai Zhen seemed to be roasting breadfruit. When the familiar aroma wafted over, Hua Mu's heart sank.
She was over here, angry and crying, and that damned Sentinel actually had the mind to eat?
Hua Mu was so angry she wanted to hit someone. She casually reached for the axe by her feet… then put it down. She picked up a piece of firewood… but didn't throw it. Instead, she grabbed a handful of sand and flung it at the Sentinel.
The sand was too light and didn't reach its target, but it did get Bai Zhen's attention. She heard the noise and turned around, only to see Hua Mu rubbing her eyes while spitting. She ran over nervously.
"Miss, what's wrong?"
Hua Mu wanted to die. She had failed to hit her target and gotten sand in her own eyes instead. Could she be any more miserable?
"Leave me alone!" Hua Mu shook off Bai Zhen's hand, unsure if she was angrier at the other woman or at herself.
She should have just thrown the firewood. Bai Zhen was thick-skinned and tough, so why had she felt sorry for her!
Seeing the tears streaming down her face, Bai Zhen ignored her command for a moment. She leaned closer to Hua Mu and asked softly, "Why are you crying? Are you hurt somewhere? Let me take a look."
"Who said I'm crying! I-I got sand in my eyes!" Although she had been crying earlier, the tears now were genuinely because of the sand.
"Don't rub them. Just blink slowly," Bai Zhen said, holding Hua Mu's hands to stop her from moving. She cupped her chin and tilted her face up. "If that doesn't work, I can rinse them with some fresh water for you."
With Bai Zhen's concern, Hua Mu's small grievance immediately fermented into deep sorrow. She kept her eyes closed, tears streaming down, and said, "Why are you even bothering with me? Just let me cry myself blind."
The Young Lady had completely forgotten that she had just claimed she wasn't crying, now demanding more care from the Sentinel.
"You won't go blind. Just blink gently, and let the tears wash the foreign object out."
The Sentinel's comfort was so matter-of-fact, which was not what Hua Mu wanted to hear at all! She wanted something gentler, more indulgent, more irrational.
"It's not coming out. Blow on it for me."
"Let me wash it for you," Bai Zhen suggested. Blowing on an eye with a foreign object in it was actually useless and could potentially cause more damage. "Blowing isn't good for your eyes."
Wash it? It didn't hurt that much anymore. She just wanted someone to blow on it.
"Then you can blow on it while my eyes are closed."
What was the point of that?
Bai Zhen didn't understand.
But as she looked at Hua Mu's upturned face, at her elegant and beautiful features, at her lovely, tear-streaked appearance, the question vanished into thin air.
The Young Lady's thick, long, pale-gold eyelashes were like the gently fluttering wings of a butterfly, mesmerizingly beautiful and alluring. Her delicate, fair skin was as thin as melting snowflakes, translucent and glowing softly. Her moist, vibrant pink lips were like the cherry blossoms of March, passionate and pure, full of amorous charm.
Bai Zhen couldn't help but swallow.
S-since the Young Lady wanted her to blow on her eye, then of course she shouldn't refuse.
Cautiously and nervously, the Sentinel blew gently on Hua Mu's eyelid. For some reason, her own heart felt as if someone had blown on it, leaving a tingling, itching sensation.
It didn't hurt much anymore. The copious tears had probably already washed the fine sand from her eye.
"Blow again."
Bai Zhen blew several more times, not stopping until Hua Mu was satisfied.
"Are you all right now?"
What did she mean, was she all right? Her problems were just beginning!
"I'm not all right!" Hua Mu pouted, her voice tinged with anger. "Why did you have to scare me? I hate those disgusting bugs. Isn't there anything you hate? If I used it to scare you, wouldn't you be angry too?"
Because the Sentinel had been cold to her, the Young Lady was now trying hard to prove she wasn't throwing a tantrum for no reason.
Bai Zhen naturally felt very guilty. "It was my fault. I didn't consider your feelings, and I scared you. I don't really have things I'm afraid of, so I was momentarily thoughtless… But no matter what you do to me, I will never be angry with you."
The Sentinel's hasty pledge of loyalty left Hua Mu, who had wanted her to see things from her perspective, in an awkward position. Although she knew the other woman meant no harm, it made her feel as if she shouldn't have been angry either.
"Hmph, then we'll let this matter go. But why were you ignoring me and roasting breadfruit all by yourself!"
"I-I wasn't ignoring you," Bai Zhen explained helplessly, afraid of being misunderstood. "I was just afraid of being an eyesore. You said you didn't want to talk to me…"
"I said I didn't want to talk to you, but I didn't tell you not to talk to me! You're the one who did something wrong. Shouldn't you come apologize to me and try to please me until I forgive you?"
Bai Zhen, a capable and powerful Sentinel standing at one-point-eight meters tall, now looked at Hua Mu with a timid expression.
"But wouldn't that annoy you? I'm clumsy and always say and do the wrong things to make you angry."
"That's still better than doing nothing! Anyway, I can ignore you, but you can't ignore me. Even when I'm angry, you have to sit next to me!"
She knew Bai Zhen was clumsy, so she didn't expect her to be an expert at pleasing her. But she couldn't even let her see her trying? It made her overthink things!
"I understand…"
Bai Zhen was still a little confused, but since the Young Lady had said so, she should overcome her worries and have the thick skin to stay by her side.
Hua Mu was satisfied. "Are the breadfruit slices you were roasting ready? I happen to be hungry."
Getting angry had made her stomach growl.
"Ah… I used that to make bait. If you want to eat, I'll roast some more for you."
"Bait?"
"Yes. If I make it into a mixed bait, it won't disgust you. We can also just use breadfruit with some spices. We can try a few different kinds of bait to see which one the fish here prefer."
The Sentinel hadn't been doing nothing. She certainly hadn't been roasting breadfruit for herself while she was angry.
Hua Mu knew it. Bai Zhen couldn't speak with flowery words and was honest to a fault. She only knew how to correct her mistakes with practical actions. In that respect, she was a thousand times better than those who either refused to admit their mistakes or only paid lip service!
That was what she liked about her—in a normal, appreciative sense of the word, of course!
"Have you made it yet? Let me see. Show me how to do it, as long as it's not disgusting."
"It won't be, it won't be!"
Bai Zhen had already thought it through. Bait didn't have to be meat; it could also be made from beans and powders. Although the breadfruit trees were some distance away, the path wasn't too difficult. The biggest problem with the Young Lady relying on it as a staple food was probably that she couldn't climb trees, but that could be solved with a long-handled knife.
Of course, she still had to teach her how to climb trees; it could be a lifesaver in a dangerous situation. She also had to teach her to identify edible plants and stay away from dangerous areas. Oh, and she had to take apart the military boots and modify them to make a pair of shoes for the Young Lady.
She had thought of so many things, and the more she thought, the more she felt that time was running out.
The bait wasn't difficult to make. This time, Bai Zhen had already prepared it, mashing up the sandworms and mixing them into the breadfruit to form balls, then adding some dried spices.
The bait needed to be granular so it could disperse in the water. The dispersal was to attract fish to swarm around the hook without letting them get full, while the granular part was for the fish to bite the hook. Fish were most sensitive to the colors red, white, and yellow, and the bait needed to be fragrant, fishy, and stinky.
Bai Zhen made several types of bait. The two of them took plenty of water and snacks and poled the bamboo raft out to a deeper area to fish.
Hua Mu had been learning how to pole the raft from Bai Zhen for several days. Although she often couldn't control the direction due to her lack of strength, she had memorized the basic techniques. She was not an impatient person. While she had only treated fishing as a pastime with her friends, it was now a serious matter concerning their food source, and she fished with intense concentration all afternoon.
They tried several kinds of bait and eventually found that the one with dried lilac flowers worked best, catching more than a dozen large fish in one afternoon. The fishing net was woven by Bai Zhen from vines; it was not only sturdy but also had a fine mesh, so there was no worry of the fish escaping.
They returned with a full load for the day, but Hua Mu had a new problem. They couldn't possibly eat all those fish, it was a pity to release them, and they probably couldn't keep them alive. What should they do?
"Miss, let's make smoked fish."
Bai Zhen wanted to store as much food as possible for Hua Mu within this month, but they were in the tropics, and without a refrigerator, food couldn't be kept for long. As for whether smoking, air-drying, or salt-curing was better, she could only try them all first.
She only hoped that the preserved food would help Hua Mu get through the initial difficulties.
Comments
Post a Comment