Qin Yining had thought her own hiding place was already quite remote and desolate, but she didn’t expect Xiao Lian’s dwelling to be even more distant.

The two walked hand in hand, groping through the darkness in the forest where moonlight was blocked by tree shadows. Xiao Lian seemed long accustomed to such conditions, deliberately slowing her pace to wait for Qin Yining, and when they encountered difficult terrain, she would actively pull her along to climb.

After walking like this for nearly half an hour, Qin Yining saw a wooden house.

The wooden house was simple yet ingenious, using mortise and tenon techniques to fit semicircular logs together. From the front, it looked like two enormous wooden planks leaning against each other to form a “person” shape standing on the ground, while from the side it appeared rectangular.

“House, Uncle made it.” Xiao Lian’s dirty little face was full of pride.

Qin Yining touched her greasy, messy hair and smiled: “Uncle was a very clever and capable person.”

To be able to bring a small child and single-handedly fell trees to build a house—upon careful observation, Qin Yining noticed the entire wooden house used not a single nail but was constructed entirely with mortise and tenon joints. For one person to build such an ingenious house was sufficient proof of both his strength and wisdom.

Qin Yining pinched Xiao Lian’s soft little cheeks.

This little girl’s background must be extraordinary.

Otherwise, she wouldn’t have hidden in the deep mountains with such a capable person, and that person had perished together with three Zhou Dynasty soldiers at a place two hours’ journey from here.

Qin Yining sighed with emotion.

Xiao Lian had already stepped through the snow to the door, lifted the animal hide covering the entrance, pushed open the door, and with bright sparkling eyes, smiled while gesturing to invite Qin Yining inside.

Qin Yining came back to her senses and immediately followed her through the door.

The wooden house was pitch black. In the blink of an eye, Xiao Lian had disappeared, and then Qin Yining heard the sound of wood rubbing against wood.

Qin Yining took out her fire starter and lit it, discovering Xiao Lian crouched in the center of the floor, her small hands pressed together, holding a sharpened small wooden stick, rubbing it in a groove on another piece of wood. Fine dry grass had been placed in the groove, and when sparks from her rubbing scattered onto it, the grass immediately began flickering on and off.

Xiao Lian carefully used two wooden sticks to pick up that handful of flickering dry grass and placed it under the earthen stove piled with firewood. The firelight immediately brightened.

Xiao Lian stood up and pointed at the fire on the ground: “Warm warm.”

Then her large eyes suddenly widened as she saw the fire starter in Qin Yining’s hand.

“Fire?”

Qin Yining nodded, smiled as she covered the fire starter, and handed it to Xiao Lian: “I’m giving it to you.”

“For me?” Xiao Lian joyfully accepted it and pulled off the cover.

Qin Yining then taught her how to light it.

Xiao Lian treasured it like a precious gift, carefully tucking the fire starter into her bosom. When she looked at Qin Yining again, her delighted eyes were shining.

Qin Yining could tell that Xiao Lian truly liked her very much.

Such a purely kind child, using the most innocent heart, was trying hard to reach out to this world that wasn’t full of goodwill.

Perhaps she had been alone in the deep mountains too long, and seeing another of her kind, couldn’t help but offer food to show friendship?

Qin Yining took Xiao Lian’s hand and sat down beside the bonfire.

She couldn’t help feeling somewhat fortunate that it was her whom the child had encountered today. If it had been someone with evil intentions, with Xiao Lian being so innocent, she would have been in danger.

After all, the evil in human hearts was worse than that of wild beasts.

Xiao Lian then stood up and from a pile of messy things in the corner, brought out a dirty cotton quilt, presenting it like a treasure as she carried it over and piled it in front of Qin Yining.

“Sister, warm warm.”

Looking at that quilt so dirty its original color couldn’t be seen, then at the child’s bright eyes, Qin Yining felt so heartbroken she nearly cried.

She smiled and nodded, unfolded the quilt, pulled Xiao Lian to sit beside her, and covered both of them with the quilt.

Xiao Lian laughed happily, extending her small dirty hands to warm them over the bonfire.

That night, Qin Yining was much more comfortable than the previous day.

Because of this wooden house, this pile of bonfire, this dirty cotton quilt, and a small child sleeping squeezed beside her and drooling, she slept extremely peacefully, no longer having to fear that wild beasts might suddenly come to eat her.

The next morning when dawn broke, Qin Yining woke from coughing. She felt her cold had worsened somewhat, though it was still within bearable limits.

Sitting up, she discovered that although the house had no windows, only one door, the interior wasn’t completely dark.

Looking up toward the light source, she found there was a skylight the size of a bowl opening in the roof.

Looking around, she didn’t see Xiao Lian and wondered where the child had gone.

However, this house was truly both dirty and messy! The dust on the floor was probably three inches thick!

Qin Yining stood up to look around. Although the wooden house had no furniture, the floor had originally been designed for a heated kang bed-stove, but the kang hadn’t been completed. Apparently, the “Uncle” Xiao Lian spoke of hadn’t finished this work before he died.

Besides the unfinished kang, Qin Yining also found a dirty bundle piled in the corner.

The bundle had been opened, and several pieces of men’s clothing from inside were scattered around.

Qin Yining crouched down to examine them and discovered that among these clothes was actually a fourth-rank military officer’s uniform from the Northern Ji Kingdom!

Northern Ji Kingdom’s military officer uniforms were quite distinctive: bright red round collar with narrow sleeves, leather soft armor, and a palm-wide cowhide belt.

Qin Yining’s expression became grave.

It seemed that the “Uncle” Xiao Lian spoke of was a fourth-rank military officer from the Northern Ji Kingdom.

Then Xiao Lian’s background must be quite extraordinary!

Qin Yining felt some admiration for this general who had brought Xiao Lian to hide in the deep mountains.

She didn’t know when they had come, but judging from the degree of clothing decay on that corpse, he had been dead for at least three or four years. With Xiao Lian now being nine years old, that meant when that Uncle brought Xiao Lian to hide in the mountains, she was only five or six years old.

What kind of force could make a military officer bring a five or six-year-old little girl to hide in the deep mountains, build a house, feed this child, and protect her from pursuit and assassination?

Qin Yining gathered all those clothes and rewrapped them in the bundle. She also tidied up the disorder inside the house, took a piece of torn cloth, wrapped snow from outside, heated it over the fire to melt, then began cleaning.

After repeating this process several times and discarding several cleaning cloths, Qin Yining finally wiped the originally wooden floor back to its natural color.

However, only after she had swept away all the dust did she discover an inconspicuous crack in the floor near the wall corner.

She walked over puzzled and used her dagger to insert into the crack and pry at it twice. Unexpectedly, she actually pried up that square piece of flooring, beneath which was placed a square wooden box.

Qin Yining puzzledly took out the wooden box.

The wooden box felt quite heavy in her hands, making her wonder what was inside.

Opening the lid, she found a letter placed on top with four characters written: “Jin Xuan’s Personal Opening.”

Qin Yining picked up that letter, and when she saw the item placed beneath it, she couldn’t help being somewhat surprised.

This was a large jade seal, most distinctive for having a coiled dragon carved on top!

Qin Yining picked up that large seal the size of a man’s fist, and when she saw the four seal script characters “Northern Ji’s Treasure” carved on it, she was truly shocked beyond measure.

This was clearly an imperial seal! The imperial jade seal of the Northern Ji Kingdom that had been destroyed by Great Zhou four years ago!