The yellow dog, caught red - handed by Ye Wanmian, was inevitably beaten up again.
"Humph." She slapped the wooden stick in her hand into her palm, looked down at the yellow dog and said, "Do you know your mistake now? If you do, promise me you won't do it again and will listen to me obediently. Then bark twice."
Xiao Jingcheng didn't think he had done anything wrong at all. He held his head up proudly and didn't utter a single sound.
Ye Wanmian was furious.
What a stubborn brute!
"Then you won't get any dinner tonight." Ye Wanmian tossed out this sentence, then huffed off to the outside to deal with the prey they had hunted in the mountains, leaving the yellow dog in the house.
After salting all the prey, Ye Wanmian chopped up a mountain rabbit into small pieces, threw them into the pot along with some seasonings and started to stir - fry.
The rabbits in the mountains were lean with little fat, but their meat was firm and tender. The moment the rabbit meat hit the hot pan, along with a sizzling sound, the aroma of the meat immediately wafted out of the pot.
Xiao Jingcheng was drawn in by the delicious smell. He twitched his nose, and saliva automatically pooled in his mouth. The familiar feeling of hunger also came over him.
He quietly shuffled forward a few steps, quickly grabbed his silver bowl in his mouth, then came to squat behind Ye Wanmian.
The rabbit meat in the pot was soon cooked. Ye Wanmian dished it up and turned around. She saw the yellow dog holding the silver bowl in its mouth, looking at her longingly. She couldn't help but find it rather amusing.
She deliberately put on a straight face, let out a cold snort, then walked into the house with the rabbit meat, not even glancing at the dog.
Xiao Jingcheng immediately grabbed the silver bowl and chased after her. He jumped onto the dining table before she could, his eyes fixed intently on the porcelain plate in her hand, trying to figure out how he could snatch the food from her later.
Ye Wanmian had already seen through his little plan. She deliberately stopped in her tracks and stared coldly at the yellow dog standing on the table, looking right into its eyes.
"Get down. Did I say you could get on the table?"
The feeling of hunger welled up continuously, accompanied by a strong desire to eat and an inexplicable restlessness. Xiao Jingcheng impatiently scratched the table with his paw and barked at Ye Wanmian.
[Give me the food quickly.]
Ye Wanmian snorted: "Don't think that just because you're the dog king you can do whatever you want. I'm the head of this household. Without me, you'd still be fighting with the stray dogs outside for food and territory. You can either be kicked out to be a stray dog or listen to me obediently. It's your choice."
"Don't pretend to be deaf and dumb. I know you understand human speech."
"Get down!"
Xiao Jingcheng gritted his back teeth, looked at the plate in her hand, and finally gave in to hunger. He leaped off the table.
He thought that once he got off the table, Ye Wanmian would tear the rabbit meat into pieces for him and hand it over like she usually did. However, Ye Wanmian pointed at him and said:
"Sit down."
This可恶的little village woman was really treating him like a dog and training him!
Xiao Jingcheng had a fiery temper. He had just been chased and beaten by her, and his buttocks were still burning with pain. He really decided not to eat today...
But his eyes widened instantly when Ye Wanmian deliberately waved the rabbit meat in front of his nose. There was a bit more of a smile on her face than before.
"Big Huang, do you want to taste the rabbit meat you hunted yourself?"
Saliva gushed out, and his stomach let out a clear "growl" due to hunger. Xiao Jingcheng couldn't help but whine at her, trying to gain her sympathy by showing weakness.
Ye Wanmian remained unmoved. She smiled and said, "I said, sit down first."
She pointed at his buttocks, which she had been chasing and whipping for a long time.
Xiao Jingcheng reluctantly sat down slowly, his eyes still firmly fixed on the rabbit meat in her hand.
Seeing it sit down obediently with her own eyes, Ye Wanmian let out a sigh of relief in her heart. She reached out and gently rubbed the yellow dog's head: "Good dogs are the ones that listen to their owners. I like Big Huang like this the most."
Her voice was soft and gentle. Her fingers rubbed the roots of his ears, and that tingling sensation came back again. Xiao Jingcheng could feel his tail behind him starting to wag vigorously.
Damn it...!
Ye Wanmian was fair in rewarding and punishing. Since the yellow dog had obeyed her order, she picked up a piece of rabbit meat and handed it over. The next moment, it was quickly snatched into the yellow dog's mouth and chewed vigorously.
Just one piece of rabbit meat was far from enough to fill Xiao Jingcheng's empty stomach. He immediately nudged Ye Wanmian's hand with his snout. Ye Wanmian said to him with a smile:
"Shake your left paw."
Xiao Jingcheng: …
She was really getting carried away!
After a brief pause, the yellow dog slowly lifted his left paw. As expected, he got another piece of rabbit meat as a "reward".
"Right paw."
"Turn around."
"Lie down!"
"Stand up!"
Xiao Jingcheng endured the pangs of hunger in his stomach and fulfilled every order Ye Wanmian gave.
For the crown prince of a country to be forced to "perform" here just to fill his stomach was truly a great humiliation! Once he got back into his own body, he would surely teach this little village woman a lesson!
As night deepened, the summer heat in the air faded a lot. The sky was dotted with stars, and the chirping of insects filled the surroundings.
Xiao Jingcheng, having eaten and drunk his fill, lay in the yard enjoying the cool night air. The familiar sound of Ye Wanmian's footsteps came from behind. Hearing that the footsteps were coming towards him, Xiao Jingcheng instinctively jumped up from the ground. Just as he was about to run away, Ye Wanmian, who had already noticed, grabbed him.
"Okay, Big Huang. I hit you too hard today. I'm sorry."
Xiao Jingcheng stiffened his neck and let out a puff of air from his nose, as if he was giving her a cold snort.
The beating was already done. What was the use of apologizing now?
He had made a mental note of this debt!
"I did this for your own good. Other people keep their dogs tied up with ropes. The dogs can only move within a small area. They may never be able to leave that place from birth to death."
"But I don't want to restrain you like that. I'm free, and you should be free too."
The young girl was sitting next to him. Her embrace was warm and soft, and there was a faint, refreshing fragrance coming from her.
He didn't know if it was because her voice was too gentle or because he could always smell the refreshing fragrance from her. Xiao Jingcheng's anger inexplicably faded away.
"But if one day, this freedom I give you ends up hurting both of us, it will be too late to regret."
"Life is only once. You and I should both cherish it."
Xiao Jingcheng silently agreed with this statement in his heart.
Life was only once, and they really should cherish it.
Although he still couldn't guess what her identity was and what her connection was with the King of Mu, the King of Xuan and others, the only thing he was sure of was that they were on the same side at the moment, and they both had the same people to guard against.
He turned his head and nudged her arm with his nose. Ye Wanmian knew that he understood and smiled relievedly.
With the arrival of the King of Mu and the others, the nights in Dongli Town seemed to become even quieter than before. Ye Wanmian had something on her mind and couldn't concentrate on the medical book at all. After hearing the night watchman strike the wooden clapper twice, she simply packed up her things and lay down to sleep.
Before long, she fell into a deep sleep.
After confirming that her breathing had become steady and that she wouldn't wake up for a while, the yellow dog sleeping at the foot of the bed opened its eyes, jumped off the bed, pushed open a crack in the door, and quickly slipped out.