After everyone went back to their rooms, I deliberately made a detour to Lili’s room.
We didn’t talk about Xuanxuan—just circled around the topic and chatted about the past instead.
We all reminisced about childhood anecdotes.
At first, I was the one talking while Lili listened, but after a while, she began to open up too, recounting how she had a crush on the universally acknowledged “school heartthrob” from the class next door back in middle school.
At the more emotional moments, the two of us would fall silent for a long time, each lost in our own memories.
A person’s life isn’t exactly short, but the happiest time is probably that phase when you’re carefree and full of energy, like a young calf.
Once you grow up, you start thinking more, and there are fewer moments of pure, simple happiness.
By the time it was late into the night, we just decided to sleep together in the same bed.
Since we went to bed late, by the time we came downstairs the next day, everyone had already finished eating and were sitting in the living room staring at each other.
When they saw us, Taozi called out, “You two finally woke up! What happened to the outing we planned? Look what time it is! If Uncle Gazi hadn’t stopped us, we would’ve flipped your bed over.”
Only then did Lili and I remember the outing.
We hurried into the kitchen, grabbed a few quick bites, and ran out to get ready to leave with everyone else.
Chen Pu brought each of us a cup of milk.
I didn’t react at first, but when I felt the warmth of the cup in my hands, I remembered to pat his head and said with a smile, “Xiaopu is getting more and more thoughtful. Thank you.”
He slightly turned his head away to dodge my hand, revealing a small smile.
“I’m almost sixteen. And you’re praising me for something this small?”
But Xu Shu, who was standing nearby, suddenly changed expression.
She quickly stepped forward and snatched the milk from Lili’s and my hands.
Both of us were a bit stunned. “Xiaoshu… if you like it, just ask Xiaopu to make you another cup.”
Only then did Xu Shu seem to come back to herself.
She hurriedly explained, “No, it’s not that. This milk was made last night and just reheated today. It’s not hygienic—I don’t want you getting an upset stomach.”
As she spoke, she turned around, poured both cups of milk into the sink, and rinsed them away thoroughly.
After that, we confirmed everything we needed to bring, and then all headed out together.
Before leaving, Uncle Gazi and Yangyang seemed puzzled and quietly asked Chen Pu, “Xiaopu, what’s up with your sister? Didn’t you just make that milk?”
Chen Pu didn’t answer.
I was walking behind them, chatting and joking with Han Xue, but the moment I caught Yangyang’s words, my heart skipped a couple of beats.
Outside were two cars we had borrowed from Wenwen’s family and Bruno.
Traveling with so many people was lively, but always inconvenient.
Shen Feng and Jundi drove.
After locking the doors, our whole group set off in high spirits.
Sitting in the car and looking at the one following behind us in the rearview mirror, a sudden wave of familiarity washed over me.
It felt as if we were still on the road, wandering through unfamiliar places, waiting each night for Suo Tian to find a temporary place to rest and spend another not-so-comfortable night.
It was obvious that after what happened at the wedding last time, the number of guards outside had decreased.
Fighting off the walkers on the outskirts required manpower, so people had to be pulled from the city.
This base had never been particularly reliable to begin with—where there are many people, all sorts show up.
Now that the number of guards had dropped so sharply, who knew when another big mess would break out.
Since we were heading toward the suburbs, there weren’t many people along the road.
The lingering heat of summer hadn’t completely faded, but there was a slight coolness in the breeze.
The vegetation was still lush, making everything feel refreshing and pleasant.
The sky was bright blue with barely any clouds.
Watching the grass sway and birds flit about along the roadside, I couldn’t help but feel like breaking into song.
After driving a while longer, we could see a vast, flat meadow in the distance.
It looked like it had once been maintained.
Right in the middle of the grassland was a clear stream, about two to three meters wide and knee-deep.
Smooth stones lay along both sides of the stream.
Only a few scattered trees dotted the field, adding just the right touch of color—truly a beautiful sight.
This stretch was all dirt road, and in the distance, a few other families had already spread out blankets, sitting together chatting and laughing.
When they noticed our large group arriving, they all looked over from afar.
The moment Xiao Hu and Tingyun got out of the car, they went wild with excitement.
Yiyi followed close behind them, wagging his tail and bouncing around like he’d been injected with adrenaline.
We took out everything we had prepared and walked deeper into the meadow.
The stream acted like a dividing line, neatly splitting the grassland into two halves.
On the side closer to the road, there were already several families gathered, while the grass on the other side was thicker and there were fewer people.
After a moment’s thought, considering our large group, the noise the kids would make, and Yiyi—who occasionally forgot he was a dog—we decided to sit on the other side of the stream so as not to disturb others.
No one objected.
Jundi and Shen Feng each carried a child, took off their shoes, and waded through the water first.
The rest of us followed behind.
On the other side, Yiyi paced back and forth anxiously for quite a while, not daring to cross.
After we spread out the blanket and sat down, seeing him still hesitating, Jundi pulled out a bag of jerky from our supplies.
With the tearing sound of the package opening, Yiyi froze mid-motion, stared eagerly at the jerky in Jundi’s hand, and finally, as if steeling himself, leaped across from the opposite bank.
He misjudged it slightly, and his hind legs fell into the water.
Startled, he scrambled up and ran toward us in a flurry.
After feeding him a bit, it didn’t take long before his husky nature fully emerged, and he started playing around the grass on his own.
Tingyun and Xiao Hu couldn’t sit still either.
Since the area was open with a clear view, we just let them run around nearby.
All of us, immersed in such surroundings, felt like we ought to compose poetry or trade verses to do justice to the perfect weather and scenery.
Uncle Gazi, ever the practical one, kept thinking about the wild vegetables growing near the Chinese toon trees we had seen when we got out of the car.
After holding back for a while, he couldn’t resist and went off to dig some up.
After Jundi and Yangyang went off with Uncle Gazi, our group was immediately cut in half.
Shen Feng and Zhou Wen started talking about things at the training camp.
Once they got into more technical training topics, we couldn’t really follow, so under Taozi’s lead, we decided to go down into the water to play.
At first, I hadn’t planned to join them in the stream—I was worried about catching a cold.
But after just a few minutes, watching Xu Shu, Han Xue, and Taozi splashing around happily in the water, I started to feel tempted.
Seeing this, Lili laughed a little and said to me, “There’s a jacket I wore when we came out in the car. Go ahead and have fun. If you get wet, just wrap yourself in it to keep warm. Once we’re back, change your clothes right away—you won’t catch a cold.”
The moment she said that, I practically jumped up from the ground. “Sounds perfect!”
I scrambled into the stream and started fooling around with Xu Shu and the others.
At one point, I accidentally splashed water into Taozi’s ear, and he pinned me down in the stream, nearly drowning me.
After finally struggling back up, I clenched my fists and swore: if I didn’t make Taozi drink his fill of this natural spring water today, I, Chen Yang, would change my name to Erdan!
With that declaration, our “battle” instantly escalated into a full-blown clash.
Shen Feng, Zhou Wen, and Lili were drawn in by the commotion, occasionally reminding us to be careful, only to end up laughing so hard they were practically doubled over.
Uncle Gazi only returned after digging up a whole big bag of vegetables, following Jundi back in high spirits.
Seeing us splashing around in the water, he laughed and said, “Since you’re already in there, why not catch some fish or shrimp? We can make fish soup tonight.”
Just as he finished speaking, Han Xue suddenly let out a scream.
A frog by the shore was croaking loudly.
She couldn’t stand those kinds of things—she stepped back a couple of times and simply climbed onto the bank, refusing to stay in the water any longer.
We childishly teased her for a bit, then stopped splashing and began quietly observing the water to see if there were any fish or shrimp.
The three of us in the water also instinctively kept our distance from the spot where the frog had appeared…
While all of us were completely focused on the water, none of us noticed that some distance away, a patch of black soil—level with the ground and hidden among the grass, clearly freshly dug—twitched slightly.
Xiao Hu and Tingyun had been squatting on the ground playing house, one acting as the mom and the other as the dad, completely absorbed in their game.
But suddenly, they were drawn by Yiyi’s barking not far away.
The two kids held hands, dropped the little sticks they were using as pretend cooking tools, and ran toward him.
As they got closer, they noticed that one oddly flat patch of ground hidden among the grass, where nothing was growing.
Yiyi was baring his teeth and growling at it, his fur almost completely standing on end, yet he didn’t bark again.
“Puppy, puppy…” Xiao Hu stepped forward and gently stroked Yiyi’s fur.
Tingyun, watching the ground as it bulged and shifted, giggled and pointed at it, calling out to Xiao Hu, “Look, little brother!”
At that, Xiao Hu immediately stopped paying attention to Yiyi and ran over to Tingyun.
Following where she pointed, he looked—and then started giggling too.
Yiyi’s growl grew more and more tense, his whole body taut like he was about to enter a fight.
Meanwhile, after giggling for a while, Tingyun and Xiao Hu, still holding hands, took a couple more steps forward and crouched down beside that patch of soil.
The grass around it was fairly tall, and once they crouched down, their bodies were almost completely hidden.
The mound of soil, accompanied by Yiyi’s low growl, began to heave more and more violently…
— The end of the Chapter–
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