The world is broken, the cubs mend it

"It doesn't hurt..."

Yuanyuan clenched her fingers firmly, her eyes gradually becoming moist. She was pulled out of the mud pit by the old man's hand, and mud and water were dripping from her skirt.

"Really? It doesn't hurt?"

Pei Zhiyan looked at her tearful eyes and knew that she had fallen quite hard, so she didn't need to be so proud.

“No…it hurts…”

Yuanyuan gritted her teeth stubbornly. She tried to attack the old man but ended up falling down. It was a bit too embarrassing for a child.

Caizhi hurried over, carried the child covered in mud and water, and quickly went to the bathroom. She skinned the child clean and put him into the steaming hot bath.

She carefully wiped the dirt off the child's neck and hair, but found that the child's shoulders were trembling. Thinking that the water was too hot, she tried again to find a moderate temperature.

When I turned around, I found that the child was crying with tears and snot, but his mouth was pursed and he didn't cry out.

"Girl. What's wrong with you? What has wronged you?"

Caizhi was startled and quickly took a clean handkerchief to wipe her face.

"Sister Caizhi, it hurts so much when I fell..."

Yuanyuan covered her mouth and cried, afraid that she would cry too loudly and be heard by the old man outside.

"Let me see where I hit you."

The child's body was covered in mud. Usually, he would cry to her whenever he felt pain somewhere, but this time he didn't say anything so she didn't check him carefully.

"My Bolengai..."

He lifted up his injured calf from a distance to show her, but unfortunately the leg was too short and only the calf was visible.

"?"

She scooped up the water at her knees with her little hands and sprinkled it aside. Even after scooping up several handfuls of water, she still couldn't expose her knees.

Caizhi wiped her body dry and picked her up to look at her. There was a bruise on her knee that had turned purple.

"How did you fall so badly? I'll go get you some medicine and rub it on you."

She quickly dressed the child and ran out of the shower room to ask the accompanying Jinyiwei for some plaster for bruises and injuries.

But I saw a bottle on the wooden table in the hall, with a red cloth underneath, as if it was done to make it conspicuous.

Caizhi could probably guess who put it there, so she took the ointment and went back to rub the child's legs.

The blow was quite heavy and I felt slight pain when I walked.

Yuanyuan limped along half a leg as he went to look for his old father, his calf dragging behind him, which looked very funny.

"..."

Pei Zhiyan glanced at the lame child, then turned his attention to the wooden sword in his hand, carefully carving the patterns on it.

The above is a small statue of a child. His carving skills are so exquisite that he can probably make it look 80% similar.

Seeing that the old man ignored her, Yuanyuan went up to him and tugged at his clothes: "Bad father, don't you find anything different about me?"

"What's the difference?"

Pei Zhiyan asked knowingly, knowing that she was trying to play the victim to him.

"Can't you see?"

Yuanyuan dragged her legs and took two more steps, her calves limping.

“I can’t tell…”

Pei Zhiyan shook his head and continued to do his own thing.

"?"

Yuanyuan tilted her head and looked at him for a moment, then walked up to him and stood in front of him, raising her two little hands high and pressing them on his shoulders.

"You scared me so much!"

"You're talking nonsense again."

Pei Zhiyan didn't take the blame, it was obvious that she was the one walking without looking at the road.

"I didn't. I was afraid you would hit me so I ran very fast, and that's why I fell."

Yuanyuan's words made sense. She felt that the old man should give her something as compensation.

"That's because you're a coward. What does it have to do with me?"

Pei Zhiyan shook off the broken pieces of the wooden sword, and the small portrait of the child had been completely carved.

"Give me some of that boiled meat you had last time, and I'll be well again in no time."

When Yuanyuan arrived in Lizhou, she was still thinking about hotpot and shook his fingers.

"Go back and rest."

Pei Zhiyan stood up, released her fingers, and walked outside.

"..."

Yuanyuan felt a little lost and dragged her slightly lame leg towards her residence.

"..."

Pei Zhiyan took only a few steps before turning around to look at her back. Her legs were indeed a little unsteady when she walked, but not as badly as before.

The little guy returned to the room sadly, climbed onto the couch, pulled the quilt to cover himself, closed his eyes, and slowly fell asleep.

Most of the time she listened to Pei Zhiyan and did whatever he asked her to do.

It was just that she dreamed about the food she had been thinking about before going to bed. When Pei Zhiyan came to call her to eat, he happened to see her smacking her lips.

Looking at the child like this, he began to have serious self-doubt.

She should have had lunch at noon, right?

"Wake up, it's time to eat."

He lifted the quilt, took the little girl out of the bed, and wrapped her in a small cloak.

"Emm...you...meat..."

Yuanyuan mumbled half asleep, twisted her neck and opened her confused eyes, her chubby little face resting on his shoulder.

"Are you that greedy?"

Pei Zhiyan listened to her mumbling about wanting to eat meat, and he suspected that it was not her who ate two large pieces of Dongpo pork at noon.

“I want to eat…”

"The copper pot in the front yard is already boiling. You can go over there and eat the pork slices."

"Uh-huh?"

Yuanyuan perked up immediately and her eyes widened a lot.

"Daddy, you are so good to me."

"You still know that I'm good to you? And you're trying to put a accusation on my head."

Pei Zhiyan had a bit of dissatisfaction in his tone and carried her to the front yard.

"I won't slander Daddy anymore."

"You still know that you are slandering me?"

“……” Yuanyuan closed her eyes guiltily and buried her head in his neck.

The father and daughter talked all the way. Yuanyuan naturally couldn't win the argument. Knowing that she was in the wrong, she lowered her head lower after being criticized by the old man.

There have been many rainy days in Lizhou near the water recently. After dark, the fog is very heavy, and the cold wind blows over, making people feel as if winter is approaching.

The copper pot stand with a charcoal basin under the corridor was not cold. The hotpot tasted better when there were more people eating. Caizhi and Xiaofuzi joined in without any hesitation.

Yuanyuan also followed the others' example and picked up a piece of beef slice and put it in, then rinsed it for a while and put it into the old man's bowl.

"Daddy, eat more."

"Um…"

Pei Zhiyan responded indifferently, which was considered as a filial act in the form of food.

“Can these be eaten?”

Caizhi looked at the offal on the plate, thin slices of black and gray with small bumps on them. Normally no one eats these things.

In the evening, she saw Zhang Yin carrying a bunch of cow meat back from the water. She thought he was going to feed them to some animals, but she didn't expect him to put them on a plate and cook them here.

"It's edible. Try it."

Pei Zhiyan's tone was calm as he picked up a piece and put it into the copper pot to blanch.

When he went to the market to buy vegetables, he happened to see a butcher slaughtering cattle, so he bought the offal at a low price.

Most of these things were thrown away. When he was on the run, he was starving and came across some beef offal thrown away by a butcher, so he picked it up out of hunger.

We took them to the river, cleaned them, and roasted them over a fire. They tasted surprisingly good.

I happened to come across it today, so I thought of putting it in the copper pot and rinsing it. It shouldn’t taste too bad.