Sons of Nature

3 The Witch's Dance (5)

By the time the rice had finished cooking, Zhan Cheng wasn't doing that much better. When Gongliang Ye came over and helped him up, Zhan Cheng realized that he was probably right: Even though the witch was quite tall, he clearly lacked physical strength. That so-called help that he was currently rendering him really didn't amount to much. He was at most able to support him a bit while he walked over on his own.

But still, he would not be ungrateful and say anything about that. He was merely even more convinced that he should try and help him out a bit. After all, after these few hours, he clearly realized that had this gone on any longer, he would have died sooner or later with none being the wiser. He owed his life to Gongliang Ye. How could he not try to help his savior out?

Zhan Cheng still kept his thoughts to himself and just tried not to put too much of his weight on Gongliang Ye before he sat down at the table and started to eat with him.

Maybe it was because he had expended so much energy but he actually felt that the plain rice tasted especially good. He wolfed down the whole bowl in a matter of minutes and only then realized what he had done. When he raised his gaze, he met the eyes of Gongliang Ye and his ears reddened again. He wanted to say something but no words wanted to come out. In any case, that probably hadn't been very polite.

Gongliang Ye kept quiet for a moment and then put down his own bowl, getting up and picking up Zhan Cheng's. Without waiting for him to say anything, he refilled it and then put it down in front of him again. "You will notice in the next few days that you are still lacking a lot of the strength you are used to. You will have to slowly make up for what you lost.

"That isn't strange in cases like yours. The longer the ghost was haunting you, the more was lost and needs to be made up for. Just make sure that you eat well and rest well if possible. After a while, things will normalize again and you won't notice a difference from before. It will feel ..." He pondered for a moment, his long fingers fiddling with the chopsticks. "As if you had been sick.

"The kind of drawn-out illness that leaves you bedridden for a bit even after the root has been dealt with and where you slowly have to nurse yourself back to full health. If you've ever been through something like this, you will probably recognize the similarities.

"In case you haven't, there is one thing I should mention: It could be that after you lie down to sleep initially, you won't wake up for a long time. Ten, twelve, maybe fourteen hours of continuous sleep wouldn't be strange. And even after that, it could happen that you will only be awake for a few hours before you have to go back to rest. You should make sure that you eat enough in that time so prepare something in advance if possible."

Zhan Cheng nodded and then stared at his bowl with complicated feelings. Prepare food in advance ... he should have thought of these things sooner. Then he could have brought some more food instead of that small package of buns that was already eaten.

He was incredibly hungry right now but he didn't know how much Gongliang Ye had stored. Taking a full second bowl of rice seemed a little ... wrong. He glanced at the witch again and then cleared his throat. "Is it really alright to take more?"

Gongliang Ye just faintly raised his brows. "It's already in your bowl. Do you want me to eat out of that?" He shook his head and then motioned for him to just continue. In any case, he wasn't doing things halfheartedly. Since he had helped him this far, he would help him the rest of the way as well.

Gongliang Ye finished his own rice and then got up, putting the bowl down at the side to clean it up later, and then went to search through the shelf, trying to find a second blanket.

Usually, nobody would stay at his place so it wasn't like he had anything ready. And considering Zhan Cheng's current situation he also didn't want to have him sleep without. If he really got sick, he could imagine the fallout.