Chapter 2861 — Little Seven? Yang Qiqi!

Over the past few days, Yang Qiqi had grown weaker and weaker, her face pale as paper. Apart from the times she ate, she spent most of her hours lying on the ground...

Wei Zhao saw it all and burned with anxiety, yet there was nothing he could do.

Today marked the twentieth day. If they still found no way out, Yang Qiqi would likely... Wei Zhao dared not let the thought go further.

"Qiqi, how are you feeling? Hungry?" Wei Zhao had started chatting with Yang Qiqi first thing in the morning, but mostly it was Wei Zhao doing the talking and Yang Qiqi barely responding. She was far too weak, with no strength left even to speak.

"Hungry? I suppose I am, very hungry... but I don't want grilled fish anymore. It's too dry, I can't get it down. I want something else..." Yang Qiqi said, her voice frail and listless.

"You don't want it... but there's only grilled fish here!" Truth be told, Wei Zhao had grown sick of it too after days of eating the same thing, which was why he ate so little each day. But he was an internal cultivator, sustained by the energy of his jade pendant; Yang Qiqi was different. Her strength could not be replenished by the spiritual energy of heaven and earth—only by food.

"Then I won't eat..." Yang Qiqi closed her eyes as soon as the words left her mouth.

"All right, I'll go figure out some other way to cook it, so the fish doesn't lose so much moisture." Wei Zhao thought for a moment, then rose to his feet.

"Mm... thank you..." Yang Qiqi was deeply moved. Wei Zhao's meticulous care over the past days had greatly raised her opinion of him. It was not the affection between a man and a woman, but she had come to regard Wei Zhao as her closest companion.

"Ha, it's nothing." Wei Zhao got up to catch fish, and as he walked he mulled over how to keep the moisture in the flesh. There was no pot here, nor any hollow in the ground that could serve as one—this ground was so hard that even Tianchan might not be able to smash out a pit, let alone Wei Zhao.

So Wei Zhao ruled out boiling the fish altogether and could only think of other methods... Suddenly, his eyes came to rest on the lake not far away!

The soil by the lake was true mud—but only right at the water's edge. Wei Zhao could not dig a pit here, nor could he use dan fire to heat the entire lake. Yet he suddenly recalled a survival training exercise on a deserted island from his childhood, when he had wrapped a whole fish in mud and roasted it over a fire; when the mud was cracked open, the flesh inside was tender and succulent, not the least bit dry, its moisture perfectly sealed in!

This, too, was an inspiration Wei Zhao had drawn from beggar's chicken. Back on the island, he had made this mud-baked fish, and it had tasted truly wonderful—so Wei Zhao decided to ply his old trade and make this kind of roast fish for Yang Qiqi.

After catching a fish, Wei Zhao cleaned it right there at the lakeside, then dug up some mud from the lake, wrapped the fish in it completely, and roasted it over the fire by the shore.

Half an hour later, Wei Zhao returned to the spot where he and Yang Qiqi had been resting, carrying an armful of mud balls.

"Qiqi, get up—time to eat something good!" Wei Zhao set the mud balls down on the ground and spoke to Yang Qiqi.

"Huh? Something good...? What's this?" Yang Qiqi stared at the mud balls Wei Zhao had dropped on the ground and blinked in confusion, unable to fathom what could possibly be edible about them.

"This is called mud fish. Crack open the hard shell of mud outside, and inside you'll find tender fish flesh, ready to eat. Roasting it this way means the moisture doesn't all bake away." Wei Zhao said. "Didn't you say you didn't want grilled fish anymore?"

"Ah..." At Wei Zhao's explanation, Yang Qiqi's eyes went wide with astonishment and disbelief. She stared at the mud balls on the ground, dazed and silent for a long while...

"What's wrong? Never seen it before? It's really good, let me show you!" Wei Zhao assumed Yang Qiqi was afraid to eat it, so he picked up one of the mud balls and cracked it open. Inside, sure enough, lay glistening white fish flesh, fragrant and delicious, its moisture completely preserved. "Here you go!"

Wei Zhao handed the cracked-open fish to Yang Qiqi.

"Mm..." Yang Qiqi felt as if she had drifted back to her childhood. Back then, her father had set them a test of survival on a deserted island, dropping her and the members of her squad at different spots on different islands. Yang Qiqi had been lucky—she and her Brother A-Yi had been left on the same island. Of course, whether that had been her father's deliberate arrangement, she never knew.

There was no food on the island, no drinking water either—it was even harsher than this valley. But Brother A-Yi had gathered dew from the leaves into plastic bags for drinking water, and caught fish in the sea and roasted them for her.

It was also after many days of eating them that Yang Qiqi had grown tired of grilled fish, so she wheedled Brother A-Yi for a change of flavor, and he had racked his brains and made her this very dish—fish wrapped in mud, tender and juicy, a taste Yang Qiqi had never forgotten!

What she remembered was not merely the deliciousness of that roasted fish, but the cherished memory of Brother A-Yi's tender care! Even then, Yang Qiqi had already given him her heart in secret.

Now, beneath the cliff, Yang Qiqi once again beheld that taste from her memories, and a flood of emotion swept over her. The maker was a different person, yet he too cared for her and protected her so gently...

Yang Qiqi took a small bite of the fish, and the taste brought tears to her eyes. It was no different from the flavor in her memory. In a blur, she seemed to return to her childhood, to that deserted island. Tears rolled down her cheeks and fell upon the fish, but she did not mind; she went on eating it carefully, bite by bite...

This fish was not merely food—it was longing and remembrance...

Yang Qiqi's tears gave Wei Zhao quite a fright! However bad the mud fish might taste, surely it wasn't bad enough to make a person cry? Wei Zhao scratched his head, at a loss. When Yang Xiaoxiao had eaten it as a child, she had said it was delicious—had his skill really regressed so much over the years?

The baleful qi of the Five Slays had seeped into Yang Qiqi's body, leaving her so weak she was on the verge of fainting—yet in this moment, she was happy.

What astonished Wei Zhao even more, though, was that this roast fish was not good... so why was Yang Qiqi eating it so quickly? Could it be delicious after all? Then why was she crying? Could it be that she feared the baleful qi entering her body would kill her?

After thinking it over, Wei Zhao concluded that was probably it, and hurried to console her: "Qiqi, don't cry. I'm here—we'll both be fine, we won't die, don't worry... If you really did die, I'd have no way to explain it to Master!"

Wei Zhao meant nothing by it, but the listener took it to heart. His meaning was plain: he had come out of the assassin corps, and was Master's direct disciple. If Master ever learned that a fellow disciple from the same corps had died at his side, Wei Zhao would lose face as well.

For the fastest updates, please read without pop-ups.