Chapter 46

Huo Jilin, hearing this, swung down from his horse and also loaded Chen Jue's basket onto the horse's back. The two walked for a while until they reached the mountain where they were to dig for herbs.

"Is the horse coming up with us?"

It couldn't run around up there, Chen Jue asked.

Huo Jilin grunted in acknowledgment: "It can haul stuff for us later. We'll dig up more today."

Sure enough, the horse followed them up the mountain. When they got to the digging spot, Huo Jilin just let it loose, taking off its reins and bit completely. He let it wander the woods, grazing on whatever it liked.

He helped Chen Jue dig for medicinal herbs. Since he wasn't planning to hunt anymore, setting traps was a no-go—he didn't have a clue how anyway. That pheasant the other day was a total fluke.

With Huo Jilin helping, the morning's haul was pretty good—close to forty caterpillar fungus roots.

They also grabbed whatever other herbs they ran into, filling another basket to the brim.

At noon, Chen Jue had lunch up on the mountain. He'd packed some dry food before leaving—boiled corn.

Huo Jilin chowed down on corn alongside him. Chen Jue had also picked a handful of hawthorns, just starting to turn red and looking bright and fresh. Huo Jilin watched Chen Jue pop them one after another, so he bit into one himself. His eyes squeezed shut on the spot—his teeth nearly fell out from the sourness.

What kind of person was Chen Jue? How the hell could he eat those?

Chen Jue ate another one, face completely straight. His taste had changed a lot; now he was really into sour and sweet stuff.

Huo Jilin glanced at his belly and couldn't help clearing his throat: "You into sour stuff now?"

Chen Jue said without any emotion: "I like spicy too."

Sour means a boy, spicy means a girl—that old saying.

That saying, from who knows where, was common knowledge. But for Huo Jilin to actually buy into it was weird.

And him trying to guess what was in his belly was even weirder.

Not that he had to guess.

If the baby followed this world's rules, it would be a gē (a male carrier)—he could confirm it by feeling his own pulse.

Huo Jilin didn't need to have high hopes for this kid. It was his own.

Huo Jilin knew Chen Jue didn't want to talk to him; he'd just been trying to make conversation. Honestly, he didn't care about the kid's gender—he didn't even like kids, so it made no difference.

Of course, now that Chen Jue was this far along, he had to accept it. If he had a choice, a quiet little girl would be nice.

Though Zhou Hehua was the exception to that rule.

Huo Jilin thought about how his cousins, fighting him for the inheritance, had popped out kid after kid, deliberately parading those boys in front of their grandpa, and he couldn't help shutting his eyes. He absolutely hated those little troublemakers.

Every time, he wanted to pack those kids off to the army.

He'd never liked kids.

Of course, he couldn't say that out loud—Chen Jue was about to have a baby. Maybe his kid would be different.

"Get some sleep. I'll dig up the rest of the astragalus for you." Huo Jilin pulled a jacket out of the basket on the horse's back. The weather was turning cold, and it was chilly in the forest.

Chen Jue accepted the gesture and leaned against a tree trunk, yawning. Once Chen Jue was asleep, Huo Jilin sat down next to him to block the wind. Before long, he dozed off too. If it weren't for the horse's whinny, he wouldn't have woken up.

"What's wrong?" Chen Jue woke up too. Huo Jilin was standing by the horse, staring toward the mountain with a slight frown. That horse's cry just now wasn't normal—it was a warning call.

It was autumn now; maybe the wildlife up there was getting active. Huo Jilin said: "Nothing. Rest a little longer. Once I finish these astragalus roots, we'll head back."

He stopped slacking off and picked up his hoe, digging hard. This patch of astragalus grew in rock crevices, so it took real effort to dig out. But the roots here were older—judging by the knobby sections, they had more medicinal strength.

Huo Jilin also gathered the astragalus seeds and said to Chen Jue, "Let's grow medicinal herbs."

Chen Jue paused: "Grow them?"

Huo Jilin nodded: "Yeah. That way you won't have to hike this far to pick them."

Wild herbs were pricey because they were old—they'd been through storms and frost, building up resistance to harsh conditions.

In the same environment, with the same seeds, going through the same years of wind and rain, the result would be the same.

Chen Jue had thought about growing them before, but by the time he considered planting in autumn, Huo Jilin had come back, and he couldn't stay here anymore.

Chen Jue looked at Huo Jilin with a complicated expression. Was Huo Jilin thinking long-term, and including him in those plans?

Why did he want to live with him?

Chen Jue couldn't wrap his head around it.

After all, they'd been enemies before. Though that wasn't quite right—a doctor didn't really count as a rival to the CEO of the Huo Group. At most, he'd been a roadblock in Huo Jilin's decision-making.

They couldn't stand each other. Was there any reason to be around each other again?

Since they'd both been reborn in a new world, there was no reason to end up together again.

Different paths, no shared goals.

With such different worldviews, they'd eventually end up at each other's throats again. The only reason they could get along now was that he barely talked.

He'd had enough of that life in his past life—living under the huge pressure of a sword that could drop at any moment. He didn't want to live like that again in this one.

So Chen Jue looked at him seriously and said, "You can try growing them. I'm not going to be part of it. I'm leaving in a few days."

Huo Jilin was just lifting his hoe to dig astragalus and didn't hear him. The hoe hit a rock, jarring his arm numb and sending a sharp pain through his shoulder blade. He gripped the hoe and stopped, catching his breath. He'd been too active today—taming that stubborn horse had worn him out.

Seeing no reaction from Huo Jilin, Chen Jue dropped it.

Huo Jilin was busy digging astragalus and didn't say much either.

When you don't talk, the work goes fast. Once all the astragalus in sight was dug up, they decided to head back down. Even though the deeper forest was still a ways off, they didn't want to take any chances.

On the way back, they could pick more stuff to eat. Autumn brought plenty of wild fruit—besides the sour hawthorns covering the hills, there were mountain pears the size of baby fists, orange persimmons, and wild jujubes everywhere, each about the size of a finger but sweet and tangy.

Autumn wasn't just for the fields—the mountains gave their share too.

Before they had the horse, Chen Jue would just eat whatever he picked on the way, since carrying it back was too heavy. Now that they had the horse, why not use it?

They hung everything on the horse's back, so they could freely gather these snacks. Even though she was past six months pregnant, Chen Jue hadn't eaten much fruit—besides cucumbers, there wasn't much around here. So whatever he could add now, he did it for the baby's sake.

As they came down, they ran into Zhou Hehua and her husband Zhao Chun, who, following Chen Jue's treatment advice, now exercised regularly and went up the mountain to pick chestnuts.

Zhou Hehua called out to Chen Jue from a distance: "Chen Jue, come pick chestnuts! There's a ton! My husband's up in the tree knocking them down—come quick!"

Zhou Hehua's husband, up in the tree, also greeted Huo Jilin: "Dalin, you're here too—keeping Chen Jue company up the mountain, huh?"

He grinned, flashing a mouthful of big white teeth. Zhou Hehua had been in a good mood lately, and of course he was happy to see that.

People used to say he was Zhou Hehua's little shadow, following her everywhere like a tagalong, but wasn't Huo Lin the same now? Such a formidable general, wasn't he also tagging along after his husband? Nothing to be ashamed of.

Chen Jue greeted him too—he was also fond of chestnuts.

Zhou Hehua's husband was quite a decent fellow, with a good temperament. It was said that in all these years, the two of them had never once had a falling-out.

Zhou Hehua often spoke without thinking, and her husband would smooth things over for her, chatting and laughing together.

The two couples picked chestnuts together and then headed home. On the way, Huo Jilin asked Zhou Hehua's husband, "Do animals ever come down from the mountains to your place?"

Zhao Chun thought for a moment and said, "Yes, sometimes. When heavy snows close off the mountains in winter, wolves come out and raid the village's chickens. My father-in-law said he even saw a black bear a while back."

Zhou Hehua looked at Huo Lin curiously. "Don't you live right at the foot of the mountain? You've been living there for years, so why ask my husband? He's only lived here seven years."

Huo Jilin shut his mouth. This woman who'd said 'plucking eggs' wrong was actually quite sharp—he'd been careless.

Zhou Hehua was only momentarily puzzled and didn't wait for Huo Jilin to explain. She went on herself, "I've seen plenty of squirrels and pheasants in the mountains, but I can't catch any of them. Oh, Dalin, haven't you caught a bunch? When you pluck the feathers, set some aside for me, will you? Pheasant feathers are long and pretty—I want to make a feather duster..."

Huo Jilin's mouth twitched. He hadn't seen so much as a feather either.

Oh, wait—he had seen one, once.

Seeing the look Chen Jue gave him, Huo Jilin knew he was thinking back to the time he stripped down to catch that chicken. That was his most embarrassing moment.

Had he been out of his mind, or had he eaten too much of Chen Jue's pig slop, that he lunged for that chicken before his brain could catch up?

Huo Jilin didn't want to think about it at all. He gave a heavy cough and said, "We'll see. I'm not keen on hunting small animals lately—there's no sport in it."

Then he glanced at Chen Jue. Chen Jue wouldn't expose him, would he? Fortunately, Chen Jue just turned his face away, pretending not to hear a thing.

Zhou Hehua went, "Ah!" and said, "So, Dalin, caught anything big? You killed a tiger the year before last—are you going after another one this time? When you get the tiger skin, can I feel it?"

Huo Jilin looked up at the sky. Rolling his eyes wasn't his style, but this woman just wouldn't quit.

Him, hunting a tiger? Did she think he was some kind of tiger-slaying hero?

Hehua's husband, Zhao Chun, seemed already used to the quiet, tight-lipped pair, Huo and Chen, and answered his wife on his own: "You can't hunt a tiger every year. Haven't you heard? There's only room for one tiger per mountain. There's probably only that one tiger around here. If Dalin wants to hunt again, he'd have to go for a black bear, but that's no easy feat. Actually, a wild boar wouldn't be bad either—the pelt isn't worth much, but you can sell the meat..."

Zhou Hehua immediately swallowed hard. "What you're saying is making me hungry right now. I haven't had pork in ages. If I eat wild boar, do you think I'd lose weight?"

She looked at Chen Jue eagerly, hoping he'd say wild boar meat won't make you fat. "If it won't make me fat, you've got to save me some of the good meat. It'll be just in time for New Year. Dalin, you can get a wild boar before then, right?"

Huo Jilin looked at Chen Jue, who was just spitting out a jujube seed. Luckily, the little wild jujubes were about the size of peanuts, so he didn't choke, but if Zhou Hehua kept talking like that, he might end up choking.

Huo Jilin patted Chen Jue's back, his expression dark. If he could, he'd want to skin the original owner of this body.

Why was that original owner so capable?

It made him look like a complete good-for-nothing.