Chapter 58: Catching Wild Rabbits, The Junior Disciple Was Tossed Away

Zimo smiled gently and continued humming a little tune as she busied herself. "I think you're different too. We're two of a kind," she said.

The boy, after speaking, once again turned his gaze to the wild rabbit in his hands. No one noticed the shadow that crossed his face, nor the secrets hidden in those dim eyes.

Chu Junhan took a deep breath and softly asked, "Do you believe in the next life?"

She wanted to know if the boy before her, like herself, had been reborn here. She couldn't believe that a seven-year-old child could be so shrewd.

"If there's a next life, I would never want to be Zimo," the boy replied, head bowed, his voice cold and layered with complexity.

Clearly, his answer showed that he was not the same as her.

"You're just a seven-year-old child," Chu Junhan murmured, almost to herself.

Zimo stood up, turned his head to look at the little one, the smile still lingering at the corner of his lips. "And you are only a five-year-old," he said.

With that, the boy picked up the rabbit and moved aside to start building a fire.

Soon, the flames roared. The boy spun the wild rabbit over the fire, swallowing hungrily, seeming a completely different person from the gloomy child moments before.

"Little brother, come here and watch the fire for me—I need to go," Zimo called to Chu Junhan, his face flushed red as he dashed off into the distance.

"After all, he’s just a child, perhaps a bit more clever than most," the little one muttered to herself, gripping a twig and turning the roasting meat.

Suddenly, Chu Junhan's lips curled into a sly smile. She scanned her surroundings, picked a few wild fruits, and squeezed their juice onto the rabbit meat. "If you try to poison me, I'll show you what I'm capable of," she whispered.

Dragon-serpent berries looked like strawberries and grew wild everywhere, said to sprout wherever a snake had spat. They contained a small amount of toxin—not enough to kill, but enough to upset the stomach, commonly used as a laxative.

"Brother, you taught me this trick the other day. Today, I give it back in full," she murmured, her eyes gleaming with pride.

The sun quietly set, its afterglow bathing her face. The little one wore a gloomy expression.

Zimo, you wretched brat—he really abandoned me!

Chu Junhan held the roasted rabbit, golden and crispy, and sighed at the sky. "How can a child be so wicked?"

The sunset stretched her shadow long and thin. Dejected, she made her way back, growing more doubtful by the minute—how could she have lived two lifetimes and still be toyed with by a child?

Fortunately, she wasn't completely foolish. She had marked her path earlier, and by following those signs, she soon spotted smoke rising from the thatched cottage.

In the courtyard, Cen Song sat fanning himself, a pot of tea placed on the stone table.

"Teacher, where is my senior brother?" Chu Junhan pushed open the fence, burning with anger, barely restraining herself from stuffing the roasted rabbit into the boy's mouth.

Cen Song's cloudy eyes sized up the little one, not quite catching what she said, but he looked at her kindly. "Ruyan, why do you look like a little wild cat? Where did you go play with your senior brother?"

Chu Junhan set the roast rabbit on the stone table, wiped her face, and glanced around. "We went to roast wild rabbit. Didn't my brother tell you?"

"Your brother hasn't returned yet. This meat smells delicious," Cen Song replied, and at some point, he had already picked up a rabbit leg and started chewing.

"Teacher, you mustn't..." she exclaimed, reaching to snatch the rabbit leg from Cen Song's hand.

But it was already too late.

Cen Song's expression changed. He tossed the fan aside, clutched his stomach, and hurried off toward the latrine.

Uh... Chu Junhan was left speechless, a dark line across her face.