I used rebirth to bury his captivating gaze.

Chapter 35 The Love Story of Two White Geese

Yang Yuhan picked up the little tiger, who had returned to normal, and gently stroked its fur with one hand. Its fur was so smooth, so soft, and so shiny. Then, she held the little thing tightly in her arms.

She couldn't let her freeze or starve to death; she had to find a place to raise her. She couldn't take her home either, as she was a protected animal.

She had made up her mind. That's it! There was only one place where she could safely raise the little tiger, and then release it back into the primeval forest once it grew up! After all, this was its true home!

She thought about how the little thing was suddenly no longer in her arms, so she named it Huwei and put the little tiger into the dream space to raise it!

At that moment, she saw a row of torches in the distance, slowly walking towards her, and the torches were getting closer and closer.

A line of people, carrying torches, trudged through the snow-covered mountains, shouting in unison, "Yang Zhanbei, Yang Zhi, Yang Jun, where are you?...

"Ah! The main force is here! Great, they've come looking for these three. These three are really troublesome. I was planning to deal with my unexpected gain, the little tiger, and then go find them, but where am I going to find them all by myself? If I wander around aimlessly, I might not be able to find them and end up losing myself."

After she finished talking to herself, she hopped around, eager to go outside, but she couldn't move.

She started shouting at the top of her lungs towards the person holding the torch, "Hey! I'm here. Come quick!"

In the blink of an eye, she shouted a few words, and the group of people, carrying torches, walked up to her.

"Little girl, who are you? What are you doing here in the middle of the night? It's not safe for a girl like you. Have you seen the three boys?" said the man leading the group, who was carrying a torch and wearing a long-haired black dog-skin hat.

"I saw them, I saw them a long time ago, but I don't know where they went. You guys should hurry up and look for them. But the three of them met here last."

"They made a secret signal under that old locust tree in front of us, and carved a character with a knife."

"Let's go, we'll split up. The first dozen or so of us will go to the east to search. The rest of you, a dozen or so, will go to the west to search."

"Okay, Captain Wang. Let's go."

At this moment, several men emerged from among the twenty-odd people carrying torches. He shouted, "Ah? You've finally arrived! I'm so hungry!"

"What are you doing wandering around like that, a girl? Aren't you afraid of getting eaten by wolves? Have you seen your fourth uncle, eldest brother, and youngest brother?"

"I saw it..."

Before the words were finished, just a few steps away from the leader, the sound of several people walking on the snow could be heard not far away.

"Father, Third Uncle, go quickly and see if the three of them have returned!"

"Ah!" Everyone was pleasantly surprised and went up. Yu Han called Captain Wang back.

Half an hour later, a man carrying a torch helped the three of them to this place, along with many different kinds of prey they had caught.

After more than three hours, the group continued to light torches and hunt, carrying three Yang family men on their backs, while Yang Yuhan walked on her own. The remaining dozen or so people carried the black wild boar, and finally returned to Daxingan Village.

The Yang family returned to the compound around 2 a.m.

That morning, before leaving, Yang Yuhan wrote down the story of the three of them going hunting in the primeval forest in the southwest of the village on a piece of paper and placed it in a corner of her study desk.

I deliberately let my family see the letter later. Finding it later would allow me to spend more time in the primeval forest.

Therefore, Liu Shulan accidentally discovered this piece of paper around 3 p.m. She told Yang Zhannan.

Yang Zhannan and Yang Zhanxi went to find the brigade leader, and Captain Wang immediately organized the villagers to take the pre-prepared handles and go to the forest to look for people.

Finally, Yang Hong wanted to give Yang Zhi and Yang Chong a good scolding, but considering that Lao Si had been home for many years and that he had reconciled with Yang Hong, he held back from doing so.

Yang Hong not only did not punish the three men, but also looked at the game they had hunted and the several kinds of game placed in the yard.

Yang Zhanbei caught three gray hares, Yang Chong caught three pheasants, and Yang Zhi caught four pheasants.

The big black wild boar was slaughtered and its meat was distributed to the villagers who participated in the torch-lighting last night. The Yang family only kept the wild boar's head, which they placed in the large pork vat in the west warehouse for Yuqiu to use when she needed it.

Time flies; several days have passed since that hunting scene.

The Zou family's wedding is in trouble. Heavy snow has blocked roads, paralyzing highways, bus stations, and train stations.

Relatives and friends from out of town couldn't attend Zou Jun's wedding. The wedding day, the 20th of the twelfth lunar month, is just around the corner.

In a typical wedding ceremony, today marks the start of the first day of preparations: setting up the alms table for the banquet. Local custom dictates that this process lasts for three days until the official wedding day. During these three days, relatives and friends from the surrounding village come to help with the alms, ensuring there's plenty to eat and drink.

Especially at the formal wedding banquet, busy women would bring their entire families, including their children, making the whole family a table full of people.

In the morning, Grandpa listened to the weather forecast on the small black radio Zhanbei brought over. The heavy snow had blocked the roads, and the fastest the high-speed rail would be open would take six or seven days.

The weddings of the Yang and Zou families had to be postponed. A few days later, it would be the Lunar New Year. After discussing it, the parents of both families decided that the weddings of the two children would have to wait until after the Lunar New Year.

We can set a wedding date after the Lunar New Year when the road is reopened. There are nine days left until Lunar New Year's Eve, and it will take six or seven days for the road to be fully operational. That leaves only two days until Lunar New Year's Eve. Relatives from other places can still take the train, but the bus stations are all closed for the holiday.

Having gotten what's coming to Yu Yanli of the Zou family, they had planned to celebrate the New Year with an extra person in the house, which would have made things more lively. But now, the Yang family had the perfect opportunity to have Yu Qiu stay at home for a few more days so they could have a family reunion. The Zou family didn't help the Yang family elders, but the heavens, by sending heavy snow, actually helped the Yang family to have a happy New Year together.

Grandma Yang and everyone else in the family were happy to have a reunion on New Year's Eve. Yuqiu didn't object either; everyone in the family had a youthful smile on their face!

The next morning, the old lady stood in the yard by the window of the east wing, looking at the pile of chicken feathers under the fat hen's nest, and started cursing endlessly.

"These past two days, I was thinking of putting this yellow hen in the west room to raise, but there have been too many troubles at home. Those rascals went hunting in the mountains, which made me so anxious that I forgot about the fat hen. I thought those rascals had been eaten by wolves, but the wolves didn't eat them, but they ate my yellow hen instead."

“The fat hen is hardworking. It lays eggs for me to eat in winter, unlike that skinny hen who is lazy by nature. It doesn’t like to lay eggs even in summer. It’s just too thin and has no meat. Otherwise, I would kill it and eat it right away.”

"The fat hen can guard the house, but when her aunt came a few days ago, it ran to the vegetable cellar in the backyard and suddenly flew out to scratch Director Wang's face? You tell me, why is it so hard to be a good person? How did it suddenly get plucked and eaten by some chicken thief?"

"Oh dear! My goodness, fat hen, how could you die such a tragic death! I must avenge you!"

The whole family came out to see what was going on! Everyone's eyes were fixed on the pile of old yellow hen's feathers, and they didn't care that the old lady was cursing. They all talked at once and made up a bunch of nonsense!

Yang Yuhan remained silent, looking at the pile of chicken feathers with a chill down her spine. If a thief stole a chicken, they shouldn't have left the feathers behind and let the thief escape. What animal ate the meat? How come there wasn't a drop of blood left? Could it be...? It must have been eaten by that thing?

The old lady was upset and cursed for a while, but after everyone comforted her, she calmed down and went inside.

Then they began preparing for the New Year's feast. The old man instructed Yang Zhannan and Yang Zhanxi to take all the dozen or so white geese raised in the wheat field outside the courtyard, kill them all, and prepare to eat meat.

Yang Chong and Yang Zhi also joined in the fun, busying themselves with catching geese. The four of them caught more than a dozen white geese in the wheat field and brought them to the courtyard. Of course, Yang Zhi was the one who snatched the last two white geese, a male and a female.

The other wives were boiling water in the main kitchen to prepare for scalding the goose and removing its feathers.

Yang Zhi hurriedly ran to the yard, carrying a white goose by its long neck in each of his two large hands, and handed it to his third uncle, who was holding a gleaming kitchen knife and had a terrifying face, in his free hand.

Uncle San took a large goose, pressed it onto the wooden chopping board, and without even blinking, swung a cleaver and chopped off its head.

Then, Uncle San took another white goose from Yang Zhi's hand, did the same thing, chopped off the goose's head, and then quickly threw the headless body to the ground.

The two white geese were instantly decapitated! Then, their bloodied necks and bodies darted and ran wildly around the yard...

All the braver children in the courtyard came out and stood aside to watch the excitement. Yang Yuhan was among them. As someone who had lived two lives, this was the first time she had ever seen a goose being slaughtered.

Two headless, fleshy white geese ran for a while, starting at a fast speed with their bodies far apart, then slowing down to a slower speed with their bodies close together, before stopping and finally their two bloody necks intertwined!

Yang Yuhan was somewhat terrified, but she finished reading it.

When she saw the final moment, she discovered that a wisp of white vapor shot out from the two hairy bodies pressed tightly together, rising straight into the sky until it disappeared without a trace!