Ancient Eden

The women kept cursing as they picked up the fence and began to repair it.

Mu Qing helped them by handing branches over to them, after the fence was repaired, she squatted on to the ground with them to take out some weeds. Later, they all scattered into the nearby woods to pick wild fruits and vegetables.

Mu Qing followed Youyou’s mother outside, they walked very far away, and when they returned, it was evening again.

Chapter 29

(9.3)

People here probably only ate two meals a day, one in the morning and one in the evening. At noon, Mu Qing was so hungry she felt a bit unwell, she originally wanted to eat a few of the wild fruits in the basket that she had picked but seeing that Youyou’s mother did not have the slightest intention of doing that, she was unable to reach out her hand.

Later, when she was really too hungry, she tucked her shirt into her pants, and secretly hid a few fruits she had picked into her waist, and then when Youyou’s mother was not paying attention, she hid herself behind a large tree to eat them.

When Mu Qing and Youyou’s mother came back, the other women also came back one after another. Mu Qing noticed that they did not take the things they had gathered today into their own huts, but mostly handed them over to the woman who had watched her bath that day, they only brought back a few things to their huts. None of the men had returned yet.

Youyou’s mother was busy cooking dinner. At that moment, the clouds in the sky were still inlaid with the gold of the sunset glow, they looked like colorful burning fires, so beautiful it seemed like the background of a fantasy world.

Today was the fourth day since she had been struck by lightning. In these four days, she only took a shower once, she had not brushed her teeth, and in the morning, even washing her face had been omitted.

Today, while gathering wild fruits, she found a strange plant with hairy branches that looked like fingers. Those hairs were a little hard, the best part was that when she touched them, they didn’t prick her hands. She thought it could be used as a toothbrush and cut a large section of it to bring back. When Youyou’s mother saw it, she was a bit puzzled, but didn’t stop her.

Today could be said to have been a long and arduous day of word, and she was a little sleepy. But her whole body felt sweaty, it was very uncomfortable.

She thought of the place where she had taken a bath the day before and hesitated a bit, but finally she couldn’t resist, she broke off a branch of that plant to use as a toothbrush and went in that direction.

(10.1)

Mu Qing arrived at that stream from before, which was deserted at the moment. She thought about it, and specially walked up the stream for about two hundred meters. She chose a large rock as a shelter, took off her clothes and went into the water.

She first dipped her shirt and panties in the water and washed and scrubbed them a little, she then wrung them out and then shook them to make them flat, before laying them on that rock. Although there was no sun, but the remaining heat absorbed during the day made that stone still very hot to the touch, she estimated that by the time she would be done washing, her clothes would be more or less warm.

Mu Qing tried to use the branch as a toothbrush, the effect was basically satisfactory, except for the fact that it easily lost its hair. After washing her mouth, Mu Qing washed her head, and then washed her body. When she looked up, she saw that the sky was now flooded with a greyish blue color. A lot of mosquitoes and flies-like insects also were starting to gather, fluttering, around the riverbed. Remembering her previous encounter on the river with those oversized mosquitoes, her heart still held some lingering fear and she hurriedly got out of the water.

She grabbed her shirt hastily and dried the water beads on her body with it, before putting it back on. However, her cotton underwear was still slightly humid, she hesitated, and then decided to only put back on her jeans. She folded her underwear and carefully stuffed it into her pants pocket. She planned to hang it in the hut to dry when she goes back. Tomorrow morning, she would probably be able to wear it. At that moment, her fingertips touched a few buttons in the pocket of her pants.

Mu Qing feared that she would encounter some wild beast in the darkness, so she was rushing towards the direction of the settlement, while thinking about whether she could borrow needle and thread from Youyou’s mother tomorrow, in order to sew the buttons back on the clothes. She noticed that on that piece of clothing wrapped around Youyou’s mother lower body, there were some signs of sewing, but the thread looked like it was made of bark.

Mu Qing walked a few steps, when she suddenly heard the sound of people talking. She paused to look in the direction of the sound. That’s when she saw, a dozen steps away from the stream, two people who were entangled with one another. It was a couple, a man and a woman.