Chapter 2861 — Little Seven? Yang Qiqi!
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
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...