A life of two souls traveling through time

On the day of hunting, before dawn, the poultry in the cages kept chirping, and the hunting god's shrine was already filled with candlelight and crowded with people.

Each hunter who went into the mountains held three burning incense sticks in his hands and worshiped solemnly in front of the hunting god statue. The women and children gathered outside the ancestral hall also clasped their hands in front of their chests and prayed silently that their men would be safe and return with a good load.

"Ayao...you will follow me in a while."

After the worship, the hunting team gathered outside the temple and got ready. Lian Qi looked at Si Yao, who was dressed as a hunter, and smiled gently.

"Uh...uh uh..." At this time, Aunt Ya staggered in front of the two of them, pointed at Si Yao and handed the package in the bamboo basket forward to Lian Qi.

"Aunt, we have enough dry food." Lian Qi took the package and smiled helplessly, and continued: "Don't worry, I will protect A Yao."

It was Si Yao's first time going hunting. Although she was nervous, she forced a smile and nodded to Aunt Ya to reassure her.

"Brother Lian Qi, you must also pay attention to safety." Narcissus suddenly jumped to Lian Qi and warned him.

Although it was not Lian Qi's first time to go into the mountains to hunt, the mountains were even more dangerous during the winter snow. In addition, she had to protect one more person this time, so she was naturally more worried about Lian Qi than her father.

"Don't worry." Lian Qi also smiled back at Narcissus.

The surrounding villagers all focused their attention on Si Yao. This mysterious girl who had only been in the village for less than a month actually broke the long-standing tradition and followed the men into the mountains to hunt. Although many people did not understand, they could not say anything because the village chief agreed.

"Okay, it's getting late, let's go!"

Outside the crowd, the village chief gave a call, and those who were going to participate in the hunt followed the village chief to the back mountain, carrying dry food and bows and arrows, holding spears and other hunting tools.

After watching the hunting team go away, the women, children, and young people in the village slowly dispersed, but a few women still gathered there and whispered:

"How can the village chief allow a girl to go hunting with the men?"

"Yeah, this is so unruly in the middle of nowhere!"

"I followed the men out hunting today, and who knows what kind of trouble they might cause tomorrow."

"This girl doesn't look like the daughter of a decent family. Aunt Ya shouldn't have picked her up in the first place..."

"Hey, hey, hey, what are you guys gossiping about again?"

The village head's wife was about to go home with her daughter. When she heard the conversation behind her, she couldn't help but frown. She glanced at Aunt Mute who had already walked away, and secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

"My dear aunts, is it true that Auntie Ya has done a good deed and still deserves to be insulted by you? After all, it is a life that you can just watch it die without helping?" Narcissus also continued with an indignant look: "Besides, Miss Si Yao has only been concentrating on practicing archery since she came to the village and has never caused any trouble. Why do you say such harsh words?"

"Narcissus's mother, your daughter is young and inexperienced, but why aren't you anxious? That Si Yao drags Lian Qi to practice archery with her every day. This single man and single woman... They are so close, but you are not anxious at all?"

"That's right, everyone in this village knows that Shuixian and Lianqi have been a perfect match since they were young. Now, a pretty girl with an unknown origin has appeared halfway through. Aren't you afraid..."

"That's enough!" Without waiting for the other party to finish, Narcissus blushed and yelled angrily, then pulled her mother away: "Mom, let's go home and ignore them."

The wife of the village head wanted to say a few more words, but when she saw her daughter's face flushed, she calmed down and thought that Narcissus and Lian Qi had not yet been engaged, so it was not appropriate to say too much in public.

As soon as the hunting team entered the forest on the thick snow, they, led by the village chief, quickly selected several places with animal footprints to set traps.

Si Yao watched in amazement as the villagers quickly dug holes and set traps, and couldn't help but secretly admire the wisdom of the ancients.

"These traps are mainly used to lure large prey..." Before Lian Qi finished speaking, a howl suddenly sounded not far away.

"It's a wild boar, everyone hide quickly!" The experienced village chief reacted quickly, lowering his voice and asking everyone to find a place to hide. He then placed several sweet potatoes that he had prepared on the trap and quickly hid behind a snow-covered thorn bush.

Not long after, a mature wild boar that had separated from the group came grunting from a distance. Perhaps it was extremely hungry, and when it saw the sweet potatoes on the snow, it threw away even basic vigilance and ran straight towards them.

The result is predictable. The trap collapsed with two screams, and the wild boar's abdomen was pierced by several short spears in the pit.

Ten miles away from Lianjia Village, Mucheng is also the southeastern border of Xiyue Country. There is an army stationed outside the city. The young man Arnold rushed into the tent in a hurry:

"It's bad, Your Highness. The scouts discovered bandits."

"Just a bunch of bandits. Does that make you so anxious?" Inside the tent, Mr. Fan put down the map in his hand and smiled disapprovingly.

"But they are not heading for Mucheng. It seems they are heading towards Lianjia Village."

"Go quickly and ask Yu Cheng to dispatch a team of soldiers to Lianjia Village." The stern-faced man sitting in front of the main desk stood up hurriedly.

"Yes, Your Highness!" After hearing the order, Arnold turned around and ran out of the tent impatiently.

"These bandits are so bold and presumptuous. They know that your Highness's army is stationed in this border city, yet they dare to come out and harm the people. Are they trying to provoke your Highness?" Mr. Fan put the rolled-up map back on the wooden rack, then picked up the black cloak beside him and handed it to the cold-faced man.

"Hmph, you've come just in time, saving me the trouble of wasting troops searching everywhere." The man put on his cloak, sneered and strode out of the tent.

Deep in the snow-capped mountains, a pair of gorgeous long-tailed birds were frolicking on the bare branches. Lian Qi and Si Yao were lying in ambush behind a nearby tree.

"Ayao, just draw the bow to its full length like you normally practice and concentrate on releasing the arrow."

Si Yao nodded, slowly took out an arrow from her back, and her hands began to tremble slightly as she aimed. Before this, she had never killed a fish in a civilized city. Although she was forced to come to this ancient era and had prepared herself mentally many times in advance, she still felt pity when she was faced with the fact that two fresh and free lives on the tree had to be strangled by her own hands.

"It's okay. I was more nervous than you when I went hunting for the first time as a kid. Just release the arrow." Lian Qi encouraged Si Yao patiently, thinking that she was nervous about her first hunt. However, as he grew up in an environment where people made a living by hunting, he could not understand Si Yao's inner struggle at this moment.

With a whoosh, the two birds on the branch were frightened and flew away. The arrows they shot were obviously off target, and their deviation was outrageous.

"It's okay... It's okay, Ayao..." Lian Qi was stunned at first, but when he saw Si Yao's depressed face, he hurriedly comforted her in a gentle voice.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you as your disciple." She was always confident and thought she could overcome the obstacles of modern civilized thinking and successfully complete the hunt. After all, here, learning the most primitive survival skills was her first step out of Lianjia Village to find Jiang Siyao.

"It's your first time hunting and you'll be nervous, so it's inevitable that you'll miss the target. And shooting a living thing is not as easy as shooting a dead thing. But practice makes perfect. It's okay, we'll try again." Although Si Yao didn't use half of her archery skills, Lian Qi still encouraged her.

"Lianqi! Lianqi!" Suddenly, two anxious calls broke the tranquility in the snow-capped mountains.

"Uncle, we are here, what happened?"

It turned out that the village chief and two strong hunters were searching for them in the forest.

"Go home quickly, something's wrong!"

"What happened?"

"Just now, a little boy ventured into the mountains to find us and said that the village was attacked by bandits."

Lian Qi and Si Yao were shocked when they heard this. Without time to ask any more questions, they hurriedly ran down the mountain.