Baozi was extremely excited. Especially when Xiao Tian held his hand and shot a hare with a bow, his little face flushed with excitement.
"Do you want to keep playing?" Xiao Tian asked him, looking down.
"Yes, yes." Baozi nodded repeatedly.
"Okay, hold on tight! Let's go, giddy-up—"
"Hey, hey, hey, Xiao Tian, wait for me!" Huang Xu spurred his horse and followed closely behind. Then he murmured in a low voice, "It's like he's his own son!"
Huang Xu felt that even he, a real father, wasn't as nervous as Xiao Tian.
Two hours later, they came out of the forest with a bountiful harvest.
Xiao Tian wiped the sweat off Baozi's face and wrapped him tightly in a fox fur cloak. "Don't move around. If you catch a chill after sweating, you'll get a fever when we get back."
Baozi obediently stayed still, his black eyes blinking as he kept looking at the prey.
Xiao Tian said, "I promised to bring venison back for your mother to cook hot pot. Fortunately, we met a deer. Otherwise, she'd surely laugh at me."
Baozi said excitedly, "You can also make me a pair of deer - skin boots like Uncle Huang's."
Just now, Xiao Tian's arrow had shot into the deer's eye, killing it instantly with an intact deer - skin. Baozi was extremely in awe of him.
"Okay." Xiao Tian replied with a smile.
"Eating venison hot pot!" Huang Xu rode his horse closer. "I'll go and join the fun too. Would you welcome me, Baozi?"
Baozi wasn't that familiar with him. After thinking for a while, he answered honestly, "I'll welcome you if Uncle Xiao does, but my mother may not."
Huang Xu laughed heartily. "I'm so handsome, elegant, and charming. Your mother will surely welcome me."
Xiao Tian gave him a glare. "Go home quickly. Stop fooling around. If you cause any trouble, you'll be in for an earful."
Baozi's eyes were calm as he listened to their conversation.
Huang Xu said, "We're already out. Who cares what they say? I'll go and have a meal first. Baozi, is your mother a good cook?"
"She is, but she may not let you eat."
Huang Xu: "… Is your mother's name May - Not?"
Baozi paused for a moment. "It might be more appropriate to say 'Definitely - Not'."
Huang Xu was stunned for a moment, then burst out laughing again, patting the horse's back. "Xiao Tian, you've struck it lucky with such a big and interesting son."
Baozi seriously corrected him. "Uncle Huang, my father is Xiao Jinghan, not Uncle Xiao."
"Right, right, right," Huang Xu winked at Xiao Tian. "I said the wrong thing."
Xiao Tian said to Baozi, "Uncle Huang sometimes has a screw loose. Just ignore him."
Baozi nodded solemnly - he felt the same way!
Huang Xu: "… Humph, anyway, I'm going to have this meal today no matter what. I'll go wherever you go! I don't believe my Benxiao can't catch up with your White Rabbit."
Xiao Tian's horse was pure - white without a single stray hair and was named White Rabbit.
"Giddy - up!" Xiao Tian ignored him and rode his horse forward slowly.
Huang Xu raised his eyebrows and followed proudly, trying to chat with Baozi from time to time. But the latter wasn't very cooperative. All the excitement from the hunting was gone, and he was very sparing with his words.
Huang Xu wasn't angry. Instead, the smile on his lips grew wider. Stroking his chin, he said, "Xiao Tian, this awkward look is exactly the same as when you were a kid!"
Xiao Tian ignored him too.
To avoid being too conspicuous, they had already dismounted. They left their horses with their guards in an alley two streets away. Only Xiao Tian, Baozi, and Huang Xu came back.
Finally, they got home. There was a donkey tied to the door, nibbling at the bark of the Chinese parasol tree in front of the door.
"Yo, there's a guest at home!" Huang Xu said.
Xiao Tian was also a bit surprised. The door was ajar without a latch. He carried the seventy - or eighty - jin deer in one hand and let go of Baozi's hand with the other, then pushed the door open.
"Are you even a man!" Yi Qing's scolding voice came from the yard. "Hurry up, take your pants off!"
Huang Xu stopped in his tracks and stared at Xiao Tian in disbelief, as if he could see a green cuckold's hat on his head.
All he wanted was to have some venison hot pot. This was too explosive for him. He'd get indigestion.
Xiao Tian walked in front. It seemed he already knew what was going on inside. He reached out to stop Baozi and Huang Xu and said in a low voice, "Wait a bit before going in."
Baozi nodded obediently, but Huang Xu stared at him in shock.
Good heavens, was this still the Xiao Tian he knew?
Wait for what? Wait for the food?
Did they have to wait until the man and woman inside took off their clothes and finished their business before going in?
Even an aunt couldn't bear this, let alone an uncle.
A sense of responsibility that "I have to get an explanation for my brother" welled up in Huang Xu's heart. He roared, "Get out of the way!"
Then, he actually pushed Xiao Tian's arm aside and walked in indignantly.
Xiao Tian tried to pull him but missed.
When Huang Xu reached the screen wall, he saw four or five people, both men and women, dressed like villagers, surrounding a door plank in the yard.
On the door plank lay a fifteen - or sixteen - year - old boy. His trouser legs were rolled up to his knees, and his hands tightly grasped his waistband and refused to let go. His face was also flushed red.
The boy's leg, from his ankle to his knee, looked as if it had rotted. Even in winter, it was still oozing pus, which was extremely unpleasant to look at.
Huang Xu turned around and vomited against the screen wall.
How could there be such a disgusting wound!
And squatting in front of the boy, holding a "murder weapon" - a dagger, with a graceful figure even from the back, must be Yi Qing.
This woman was so fierce. He was really in awe of her.
Yi Qing didn't even turn her head to look at them. She said coldly, "Since you don't want to be treated, I won't force you. Leave."
The boy trembled and looked at his relatives beside him. "Mother, let's go. Even if I die, please let me keep my whole body."
The woman was crying, the man was sighing and pleading, while Yi Qing had already stood up as if nothing had happened and looked outside. "You're back?"
Xiao Tian walked in with the deer in one hand and Baozi's hand in the other. "Yes."
Huang Xu was still vomiting uncontrollably. While vomiting, he said, "Xiao Tian, you can't ignore me. Ugh—"
Yi Qing frowned and said disgustedly, "All of you are dirty. Go and wash up first. If you don't want treatment, leave early."
The woman said, "Miss Yi, we won't disturb you anymore. I'm sorry, I'm sorry…"
Yi Qing said coldly, "Go back and prepare for the funeral."
The woman burst into tears. "My poor son!"
Yi Qing walked directly into the house.
Huang Xu watched and said, "She's really heartless and cruel."
Fortunately, the boy had already pulled his trouser legs down, so he finally stopped vomiting.
After the family left, he quickly took the water Xiao Tian offered and rinsed his mouth.
Unexpectedly, Yi Qing said coldly, "Clean up after yourself."
Huang Xu: "… You didn't even ask who I am and just told me to clean up? Is this how you treat guests?"
"Coming uninvited and still having the nerve to call yourself a guest?" Yi Qing didn't give him any face.
Huang Xu: "…"
The guards who had followed them had already fetched clothes. He told them to clean up and went into Xiao Tian's room to change his clothes.