With the wilderness survival expert leading the way, the few children sat in a circle, all waiting to eat the meat.
Worried that there wouldn't be enough meat, Savi even went back to bring more food.
The three children continued warming themselves by the fire.
The little child's conversation either revolved around his family or school.
The little child, beaming with joy, talked about his dad: "I brought Dad lots of delicious food. He’s definitely going to praise me!"
Wagner was learning from him and also planned to bring something to his dad.
Lele sat on the ground, hugging his legs, without saying a word.
He also wanted to bring something delicious to his mom, but... but his mom didn't want him anymore.
Noticing that Lele's little face seemed a bit off, the little child quickly changed the topic: "By the way, Wagner, when school starts this time, are you really not turning in your winter vacation homework?"
"I'm just going to say I lost my homework."
Wagner didn't seem worried at all: "Even if the teacher asks my dad, he won't be able to find my homework. I buried my school bag deep!"
The little child hadn't buried his school bag. His dad had a firm grasp on him.
He didn't like doing homework, but he would never dare not to turn it in.
Seeing Wagner so confident and resolute, the little child's energy faltered a bit: "If my dad finds out I buried my school bag, he'll spank me."
"It's no big deal. Even if you don't bury your school bag, you'll still make some other mistake and get spanked."
The little child: "..."
He frowned: "Before I started kindergarten, I didn't get spanked this much."
Before going to kindergarten, he used to plant vegetables for his dad to eat.
His dad said he was a little angel, the best child in the world.
Wagner's eyes were fixed on the rabbit, his attention all on it, and he half-heartedly said, "Stop overthinking. What child doesn't get spanked?"
The children continued talking about getting spanked and going to school, as the rabbit slowly roasted to perfection—
All of the little child's bad habits, like being at the bottom of the class, not liking to do homework, and dreading the start of school, were completely laid bare.
Lele had never been to kindergarten, so he couldn't join their conversation.
"The rabbit smells kind of good."
Lele, also staring at the rabbit, caught a whiff of the delicious aroma.
The little child squeezed the sweet fruit he had in his pocket and smeared it on the rabbit again. With his chubby face calm, he continued roasting the rabbit: "It needs to cook a bit longer. It'll taste better when it's fully cooked."
While waiting for the rabbit to roast, the little child didn't stop snacking; he ate quite a bit more fruit.
Time passed bit by bit.
Savi soon returned, bringing fish and shrimp with him. Both of these cooked quickly, especially the shrimp, which were ready after just a brief roast over the fire.
"The shrimp here have a bit of sweetness."
Savi fed the roasted shrimp to Lele, who was too clumsy to peel them himself. "Isn’t it delicious?" he asked.
Lele nodded, "Delicious!"
The few little children had a great appetite, and they finished off all the meat that the little children had cooked, leaving nothing behind.
After eating and drinking their fill, the little child yawned. "I’m sleepy."
Savi: "..."
Eating and then getting sleepy—Ning really resembled a piglet.
“There’s no place to sleep here. Hang in there a little longer. Once the festival is over, we can go back home and sleep.”
Savi looked at the drowsy Ning and handed him a fruit. "Here, eat something. If you eat a bit, you won’t feel so sleepy."
The little child: "..."
The little child ate the fruit in child bite and firmly declared in his soft voice, "Still sleepy."
Savi was speechless.
The festival wasn’t going to end anytime soon, and they couldn’t just run back home halfway through.
"We’ll just find a place to sleep."
The little child, full of practical experience, dusted off his clothes and led the way to find a place to nap.
Once they woke up, they could join the adults for dinner.
The moment the little child decided to go, Lele was naturally the first to follow.
Since Lele followed, Savi had no choice but to tag along as well.
Wagner had been quite energetic at first, but after seeing Ningning yawn a few times, he also started yawning.
"Savi, I want to sleep too. Let’s follow Ningning and take a nap."
Since all the children needed their nap, Savi had no choice but to join in.
After searching for a while, the little child really did find a spot.
There were many caves in the mountains. Some of the caves were naturally formed, while others were carved out by human hands. Despite their narrow entrances, the interiors could actually be very large.
The tomb of Aunt Ai Wei had an entrance that was nothing more than a small, inconspicuous opening.
The little child had been there before with his older brother, and after Aunt Ai Wei woke up, his brother took him to the empty tomb once again.
In the empty tomb, his father had left many treasures. The young prince had brought the little chiild there to pick out something he liked.
"You go in from here."
The little child found a hole, and for some reason, as soon as he saw it, he felt an urge to crawl through it: "You all wait outside, I'll go in first!"
The little child eagerly took the lead and crawled through the hole he had discovered.
He was gone for quite a while. Just as the children waiting outside started to get anxious, a voice finally came from inside: "You guys can come in now!"
It was very safe inside!
Not only was it safe, but it also reminded the little child of the place where Aunt Ai Wei used to sleep.
The little child had always referred to Aunt Ai Wei's tomb as her sleeping place. After all, he had spent several days lying in the coffin with her.
He wasn’t afraid of places like this at all.
While the little child wasn't scared, the other children who followed him inside were so frightened they plopped down on the ground.
"N-Ningning, this-this place is—"
"It's a sleeping place!"
The little child helped Lele up and then, with bright, shining eyes, explained, "I’ve been to places like this before. It's not scary."
The "sleeping place" that the little child referred to was very large, filled with all sorts of treasures that looked extremely valuable.
However, the little child didn't take anything, and he wouldn't let the other children take anything either.
"None of this belongs to us, so we can't take it."
Lately, the little child had been quite obsessed with making money, but he understood clearly—
It's fine to accept red envelopes from adults, but you can't take things they haven't given you.
Everything here belonged to someone else, and since they hadn't seen the owner, they couldn't secretly take anything.
They couldn't take anything, but it was fine to take a nap here.
"Lele, come over here, I've laid it out for you."
There were soft layers of fabric here, and no child knew how long they had been there or what material they were made from. Regardless, apart from gathering a little dust, they still looked as good as new.
The little child spread out the fabric layer by layer, then patted it down and called out to Lele, "Go to sleep. When we wake up, we’ll go outside."
Upon seeing this, Savi and Wagner also laid out some blankets for themselves.
The three children lay down on the fabric. The little child who had been fussing about being sleepy at first started to take in everything around him and suddenly didn’t feel so sleepy anymore.
He began exploring, and upon closer inspection, this place was quite different from Ivy’s burial chamber. It seemed more like a livable space, matching what the little child had called a "sleeping place."
To the little child, this indeed seemed like a place to sleep, but he couldn’t find anyone else who might have slept here.
After searching around for a while, he stood in front of a wall. His chubby hand rested on the wall, and inexplicably, his heart began to race.
Through the wall, the little child had a feeling that someone might be living behind it.
He scratched the wall with his chubby hand and softly whispered to it, "Hello there."
