Because Jingchen's injuries were extremely serious and it was inconvenient to move, Yu Shu lived in the cave with four people and a mouse, and lived every day by roasting sparrows, digging birds' eggs, and picking wild fruits.

Yu Shu decided to go on the road the next morning, leave the woods, go outside to find the village, and inquire about the road to the capital.

The day before leaving, Yu Shu made all preparations, a bag of fresh bird eggs and wild fruits, acting as a godmother on the road, washing and drying herbs, and a crutch that Jing Chen sharpened in the past two days.

That night, Yu Shu asked Xia Mingming and Yu Xiaoxiu to take turns keeping vigil, and she slept well, because tomorrow she had to lead the way out of the forest, and she needed to nourish her spirit so that she could use the six lines to seek the direction of fortune.

The next day, at dawn, Yu Xiaoxiu, who had been guarding the second half of the night, woke up Yu Shu, and a few people cleaned up, Yu Shu led them out of the cave, went to the stream, freshened up, loaded a leather bag of water, and they walked towards the east where the sun rose according to Yu Shu's hexagram.

Jing Chen's body was weak, Yu Shu and Yu Xiaoxiu supported him instead, whenever his steps slowed down, Yu Shu would take the initiative to stop, find a shady tree to rest, and wait for Jing Chen to recover his strength before continuing to move forward.

Only Jinbao was the most relaxed, sitting on Yu Xiaoxiu's shoulder and looking around, without a little effort.

It is easy to get lost walking in the forest, but fortunately, Yu Shu can pinch and calculate, they stop and stop all the way, sleep in the forest for a night, and another day, on the third day, at dusk, over a small hill, and finally see the smoke of the fields in the distance.

Yu Shu and several people were overjoyed, quickened their pace, towards the village, when they passed through the ridges, they saw the villagers doing farm work in the fields, Yu Shu took the initiative to go up to talk, claiming to be a traveler who unfortunately sank a ship on the river, and went to this place and asked the villagers to stay overnight.

The small village that deviated from the town, because of its self-sufficiency and simple folk customs, heard that Yu Shu was very sympathetic to their plight, and at that time there was an enthusiastic villager who resisted the farm tools and led them back to the village chief to discuss.

The four of them, although they were ragged and in shape, were neatly born, and their manners were polite and polite, and the village chief was old and had some knowledge, and when he saw them, he asked them to clean up the empty house and make their beds, leaving them to stay overnight, and also provided meals in a thoughtful manner.

Yu Shu and the others have eaten in the wild for more than ten days, and their tongues are rotten, and they can finally have a hot soup and rice, except for Jing Chen, they all ate to their heart's content.

After dinner, Yu Shu took Xia Mingming to the village chief's house to thank him, and inquired about the way to Beijing, and the village chief couldn't tell where the capital was, so he suggested that they go to a nearby town to inquire, and at Yu Shu's request, he promised to send someone to give them a ride tomorrow.

At night, sleeping is a problem again, there are only two board beds in a room, but there are four of them, Jingchen must not be able to lay on the floor, Xia Ming is obviously not a girl to sleep on the ground, Yu Shu is so tired that he finally saw the bed, of course he is not willing to make a bunk, let alone let Yu Xiaoxiu sleep on the ground.

"No way, just squeeze it." Yu Shu said.

Xia Mingming hesitated: "That bed can't sleep the three of you." ”

Because of Yu Shu's calm and strong performance these days, Xia Mingming has never doubted her gender at all, and has always regarded her as a boy, in her opinion, she is the only girl in this house, and if she wants to squeeze, it can only be Yu Shu and the three of them.

Yu Shu glanced at her with a smile, walked over and sat on an empty bed, patted the position next to her, and said to her, "Obviously sleep with me." ”

Xia Mingming, who was still thinking about whether he could squeeze three people out of a bed, suddenly turned half of his face red, and said to Yu Shu angrily:

"You scoundrel, who's going to sleep with you!"

After that, he opened the door and ran out, not giving Yu Shu a chance to finish speaking.

Yu Shu rubbed his eyebrows, got up and chased after him.

Seeing this, Jingchen stood up from the side of the bed and wanted to keep up with Yu Shu, but was pulled by Yu Xiaoxiu: "Brother Jing, don't go, you have been walking for a day, you should rest early." ”

…

Yu Shu found Xia Mingming by the well in the village, she was leaning against the tree, bowing her head and kicking the small stone under her feet, Yu Shu said something in his heart, stepped forward, and said:

"Obviously, I have something to say to you."

Yu Shu wants to admit that after living in the cave for a while, she deliberately concealed that Xia Mingming was a woman, firstly, because she had to take care of Jingchen, she felt that telling this matter would make several people uncomfortable, and secondly, because she was not at ease with Xia Mingming, who was unknown, and there was always a trace of vigilance.

But this period of getting along made Yu Shu find that Xia Mingming was not so squeamish and willful on the surface, she would follow her to fight in the forest all day without shouting tired, scratching her hands when picking herbs, and not wiping her tears squeamishly, not to mention that because she was a girl, she just sat and waited to eat white food, and Yu Shu explained to her, except for taking care of Jingchen, she would be honest and obedient.

At her age, it is quite rare to be able to do this, Yu Shu admires people with strong temperaments, and Xia Mingming has won her respect at this point.

Yu Shu is not blind, the little girl is kind to her these days, she is more or less aware of it, she doesn't want Xia Mingming to misunderstand, so as not to inadvertently hurt her heart in the future, so when leaving the cave, Yu Shu planned to find a suitable opportunity to make it clear to her, so just now the bed was assigned, and Yu Shu took the opportunity to bring it up.

Xia Mingming quickly glanced up at Yu Shu, thinking that she would say something to her, the girl Qisi, she couldn't help but have illusions, suddenly felt shy, and pouted:

"Say what?"

Seeing her like this, Yu Shu secretly had a headache, and the words that came to his mouth turned twice on the tip of his tongue before he said:

"Actually, I'm a girl."

She pronounced the words clearly, and Xia Mingming, who listened to it without falling a word, was stunned for a moment, the flush on her face did not fade, but a layer of stiffness floated, she slowly opened her eyes, stared at Yu Shu, and stammered:

"You, you say you are, you are?"

Yu Shu smiled bitterly: "I'm sorry, I've been hiding it from you on the road, Xiao Xiu and I are sisters and brothers, I'm not his brother, I'm his sister." ”

Afraid that she wouldn't believe it, Yu Shu took a step forward, took Xia Mingming's hand, and pressed it on his chest that was not obviously undulating, but still existed:

"I'm just like you."

The thing that the palm touched was really real, Xia Mingming's face was red and white, she raised her hand to cover her mouth, shook her head, staring at Yu Shu's delicate face between a teenager and a girl in disbelief, her eyes gradually turned red, and in the blink of an eye, two crystal tears fell.

Seeing this, Yu Shu didn't know how to deal with it for a while, she thought that after telling Xia Mingming, she might be angry or angry, but she didn't expect her to cry.

"Uh, Mingming—"

Yu Shu stretched out his hand and wanted to comfort her, but was slapped away by Xia Mingming, pushed her away violently, and ran away from her.

Yu Shu turned around and chased a few steps, watching her rush into the hut where they were staying tonight, so he slowed down, walked to the door, and stood quietly for a long time before entering.

Inside the house, Xia Mingming was lying on the bed, with his back to the direction of the door, motionless, as if he was crying and sleeping.

Jing Chen and Yu Xiaoxiu looked at her in confusion, and when they saw Yu Shu coming in, they shifted their confused gaze to Yu Shu together.

Yu Shu didn't have the energy to explain to them at this time, waved his hand and said to them, "Go to bed early." ”

After speaking, he went to get the straw mat behind the door, spread it on the ground, shook off the thin quilt piled at Xia Mingming's feet, lightly covered her, turned around and lay down on the hard mat, pillowed his arms on his side, and closed his eyes.

After a while, she heard the sound of footsteps on the ground, her eyes opened a slit, and she saw Jingchen spread another mat beside her, sat down slowly, lay down slowly, turned sideways, faced her, pillowed her arms like her, and looked at her with bright eyes.

Yu Shu chuckled in a low voice, stretched out his fingers, poked his shoulder, and whispered, "What are you doing, go to bed and go to sleep." ”

Jingchen held her fingers, opened her palm, and wrote on it:

I want to sleep with you. ’

Yu Shuzhen didn't know whether to cry or laugh, glared at him angrily, turned over and got up from the ground, rubbed his face, and was disturbed by Xia Mingming for some reason.

Yu Xiaoxiu frowned and looked at Xia Mingming, who had occupied a bed by himself, and was about to ask her to get up and move the place, when he saw Yu Shu get up from the ground, walked to the side of the bed behind him, rolled down the futon on the bed, and urged Jingchen to get up from the ground, spread the thin futon horizontally on the two straw mats, and pointed to the paving that was much wider than the bed:

"Xiao Xiu sleeps in the middle, Jingchen sleeps over there, and I sleep here."

After that, he took off his shoes first, lay down on the ground, stretched, yawned and said to the two:

"Pinch the oil lamp, go to sleep, and get to town early tomorrow."

Jingchen lay down obediently, leaving the vacant seat in the middle for Yu Xiaoxiu, Yu Xiaoxiu looked at this, looked at that, touched his head, went to extinguish the oil lamp, held the lazy Jinbao, lay on his back between Yu Shu and Jingchen, rubbed the fluff on Jinbao's back, and put it on his stomach, Jinbao flicked his tail, his chin rested on his two front paws, and his eyes blinked.

Soon, they fell asleep one after another.

This is the first time in more than ten days that Yu Shu has fallen asleep with them, and he doesn't need to stare at the fire to add firewood, think about what to eat tomorrow, and wait until dawn alone.

Nothing was said all night.

The next day, Yu Shu was the last person to get up, and Yu Xiaoxiu, who woke up early, called Yu Shu up, and pushed her to get up: "Go over there and sit on the bed, I'll lay out the futon."

"Oh" Yu Shu stepped on his shoes and walked to the bed, sat down next to Jing Chen, swept around the house, didn't see Xia Mingming, frowned, and was about to ask Yu Xiaoxiu, when he saw Xia Mingming walking in from the door with a basin of water.

Looking at Yu Shu, Xia Mingming turned his head a little embarrassed, walked in and put the basin on the table, twisted the hand towel in the basin, turned around and strode in front of Yu Shu, handed the hand towel out, and said to her in a vicious voice:

"Wake up so late, wash your face!"

Yu Shuleng paused, quickly reacted, reached out to take the handkerchief, and thanked her with a smile.