Heart Protection (Back from the Brink)

CHAPTER 5

Night, a mountain peak, vegetation all around. An enormously large moon was suspended overhead, lighting up the snow. The space between heaven and earth was like a cage with a spell to make her lie asleep on the ground.

Yan Hui laid on the ground. She felt bone-chilling cold, like it could pierce into her heart.

She watched the snowflakes fall down onto her face. When they touched her skin, they quickly melted into drops of water and one by one rolled off her face.

"Why......"

She heard herself asking, but the strange thing was, she didn't know what she was asking about. She turned her head and saw a hazy figure. Behind that hazy figure was the enormous moon, illuminating from behind. She couldn't see the person's face, but she could clearly tell the person was holding a jian.

Yan Hui's pupils contracted.

The jian swung down!

Yan Hui only knew she felt her heart clench. A sharp pain caused her entire body to tremble. Then......

"Cock-a-doodle-doo!"

She woke up.

It was pitch black before her eyes. The room had the scent of firewood, a year-round smell for rural villages. Her heart was still beating frantically. Sweat soaked the hair around her temples.

She absent-mindedly covered the area over her heart. It seemed like there was a sharp needle still making her feel pain.

This nightmare was too real. So real, that it seemed like just yesterday she experienced that horrific scene. Snow-covered mountain. An enormous moon. And an indistinct figure. Yan Hui furrowed her brows. This figure, now she recalled, why did it feel so familiar? But after thinking about it, she couldn't match the figure with anyone she knew.

After thinking for a long time, Yan Hui suddenly collected her thoughts. What was she doing, treating a dream so seriously?

Curling her lips, Yan Hui turned around to go back to sleep.

But she forgot, the chickens outside started to crow......and wouldn't stop.

Yan Hui endured it. She clenched the quilt in her fists. This was the third day......She hadn't been sleeping well. Before, she thought she wouldn't be staying in the village for long, but now the current situation has changed. Recovering her inner breath would take a few days. If the chickens couldn't be eliminated......

It would be terrible!

It was early morning, so the sunlit courtyard was still chilly. Grandma Xiao's constantly clucking chickens suddenly fell completely silent.

When Grandma Xiao came out of her room, she smelled something strange, like burning feathers: "A'Fu, A'Fu?" She called. Then A'Fu also came out of a room. He saw Yan Hui in the courtyward, and his steps paused. His expression clearly started to darken.

"What's that smell?" Grandma Xiao asked.

"I slaughtered those chickens." Yan Hui didn't wait for A'Fu to answer. While scooping the chickens out of the pot to pluck the feathers, she continue to carelessly reply: "I'm scalding the chickens to pluck the feathers. Today I'm going to make a huge pot of chicken soup. I learned how from Fatty Zhang. It won't go bad."

"You......you slaughtered the chickens?" Grandma Xiao's voice trembled. "All of them?"

Yan Hui turned to look at the completely empty chicken coop: "Ya, all of them. Originally I just wanted to kill the rooster, but I didn't know that when the rooster crowed, the two old hens would also join in. It's easier to slaughter them all. This pot of chicken soup will last for a long time." Yan Hui said that and licked her lips.