Chapter 399 - 395: Stunned

Chapter 399: Chapter 395: Stunned

Gu Nuan Nuan returned so quickly it caught Qi Guoqing and Jiang Wenhao completely by surprise.

Jiang Wenhao had only just started skinning the wild deer when they saw Gu Nuan Nuan approaching. Her clothes were still impeccably clean, yet she was dragging two enormous adult wild boars, one in each hand. She held them by their hind legs, each beast estimated to weigh a good three to four hundred pounds. The ferocious, tusked creatures were already dead as doornails as she hauled them in.

The two men froze, dumbfounded. They could only stare at Gu Nuan Nuan with bewildered eyes.

’We knew her Combat Power was high, but what is this? Two boars this size, in such a short amount of time... taken down and dragged back by a single ’delicate woman’?’ ’Even if two of our own squad members encountered beasts this big, they’d be hard-pressed to deal with them so quickly and easily.’

’You have to understand, the fighting prowess of a wild boar in the jungle is nothing to scoff at. They can snap trees as thick as a bowl. If a lion or tiger encountered two of them, even they would probably have to back off.’ ’But if a lion or a tiger were to encounter our formidable Sister-in-law, they’d probably have no choice but to meekly surrender.’

A shiver went down their spines, and their gazes toward Gu Nuan Nuan filled with reverence.

"I ran into them not long after I walked off. It’s a good thing they were close, so I brought them back first. Perfect timing. We can make jerky out of them, and then you’ll have rations for the journey ahead. I still have to go out again; we don’t have any firewood yet. Fifth Brother, you should bleed the boars quickly, or the meat won’t be as good."

Gu Nuan Nuan dropped the two boars by the creek, washed her hands in the stream, then stood up, flicked her hands dry, and patted them on her hips. "By the way, did you save the deer blood from earlier? That stuff is highly nutritious. You’ve all lost a fair bit of blood recently, so it’ll be perfect for replenishing it."

As Gu Nuan Nuan spoke, she glanced over without waiting for an answer. Seeing the large stone pot completely full of deer blood, she nodded in satisfaction. "Nice." Then she turned and left again.

Qi Guoqing and Jiang Wenhao gulped several times. Pointing a trembling finger at the two massive boars, Jiang Wenhao asked Qi Guoqing, "This... this is too much for my ego. How are we supposed to live this down? Hey, Second Brother, do you think our captain knows his wife is this formidable?" Without waiting for a reply, he muttered to himself, "This won’t do. I have to remind the others later. From now on, we’d rather offend the captain than Sister-in-law."

Qi Guoqing’s eyes went wide. "..."

After a long moment, he smacked Jiang Wenhao on the head, scolding him with a mix of amusement and exasperation. "What are you waiting for? Get back to work instead of letting your mind wander. We can’t afford to offend either of them. Have you forgotten how ruthless the captain is? You’d have to have a death wish to want to get on his bad side."

"I seem to recall someone saying that if the captain weren’t so ruthless and never went easy on us during training, none of us would have survived this ordeal. Have you forgotten?" Jiang Haowen said, clutching his head as he couldn’t help but defend Luo Hongyi. "The captain’s only hard on us during training, and he’s even harder on himself. He’s actually great to us the rest of the time."

"Good, you’ve got a conscience after all. Now get to work! If you keep dilly-dallying here, I’m going to start myself."

"No, don’t! Even if you won’t think about your own condition, think about me! If the others get back and see I let you do any work, do you think I’ll live to see the sunrise? I was just stunned by Sister-in-law for a second! How is that dilly-dallying?"

Jiang Haowen immediately got back to work, trading barbs with Qi Guoqing as he did. "Wow, Second Brother, you really hid your true colors. I can’t believe I never realized you were the real Zhou Bapi around here."

"Get outta here. Ugh, it’s painful just watching someone else work. Why have I never noticed how slow you are before? Hurry up and bring me that deer meat. I’ll slice it. You go handle those two boars," Qi Guoqing said, unable to bear sitting idle while his teammate worked. He drew the dagger from his belt.

"Fine, fine. With the captain away, you’re the boss. But give me that knife so I can give it a good wash first. We might not care, but when Sister-in-law gets back and finds out you used an unwashed knife... tsk tsk... are you trying to stop her from eating?"

Instead of retorting, Qi Guoqing just nodded. "You’re right. I was about to say the same thing."

So Jiang Haowen grinned, took Qi Guoqing’s dagger over to the creek, and washed it clean. He then brought it back along with the deer meat and a long, flat stone slab perfect for grilling. Even though they bickered as they worked, the chance to finally relax their frayed nerves actually made them much more efficient.

Gu Nuan Nuan wasn’t as quick the next time she returned. This time, she brought back two wild pheasants, over a dozen wild chicken eggs, and plenty of bamboo bowls and chopsticks, all carried in a makeshift woven basket on her back. On top of that, she carried two large bundles of branches of varying thickness, along with dry grass for tinder.

She saw that Qi Guoqing and Jiang Wenhao had already processed the game and made most of the other preparations; all that was missing were the branches for the fire. Satisfied with their efficiency, she set her things down. "We still have plenty of time before we’re supposed to meet up with the others. I think I’ll go gather some more branches nearby, otherwise we might not have enough. The weather’s warm, so we should roast all this meat today before it goes bad."

"Sister-in-law," Jiang Haowen called out quickly as Gu Nuan Nuan turned to leave again. "How about I give you a hand? The stone pot is full of deer blood, so we can’t cook the chicken soup right away. There’s no hurry to process the pheasants. The rest of the work, like roasting the meat and boiling the blood, doesn’t require any big movements. Second Brother will be fine handling that."

"Alright." Gu Nuan Nuan saw the restless Qi Guoqing nodding emphatically and agreed after a moment’s thought. "We don’t have to go far for firewood anyway, so let’s go together. It’ll be a good chance for me to familiarize you with the routes in and out of this area."

「On Luo Hongyi’s end.」

After the interrogation was over and everything was dealt with, Luo Hongyi, Zhang Huai, and Liang Changsheng were all beaming. Liang Changsheng spat hard on the ground. "That medicine pill Sister-in-law gave us is a godsend. The moment those two bastards swallowed it, they couldn’t wait to spill their guts before we even started asking questions. Damn it, why was every single one of them so tight-lipped before? They used their knowledge of the terrain to run us ragged, and even though we made them pay dearly each time, it was still so damn frustrating."