Chapter 153: Peace offering.

Chapter 153: Peace offering.When the three girls and Xiao Lian got down the cliff, the sight of Lee on the riverbank left them speechless.

If earlier he was covered in dreadtalon blood, then now he was bleeding all over from large open wounds, mostly on his extremities.

There were still around half a dozen dark colored palm-sized fishes biting down on Lee’s arms and legs, with one stuck dangerously close to his family jewels. And several more were lying at his feet – apparently he had removed them earlier, but the spots they had bitten at were currently profusely bleeding.

This was the reason why Xiao Lian panicked seeing Lee fall in the water, not the fact that he fell off the cliff. Breaking a leg or even both was nothing compared to jumping in those deadly waters – he and Lee tried it, except this time Lee looked beyond miserable.

Xiao Lian’s sigh of relief seemed completely out of place when he went to help Lee to remove the rest of the fishes. The three girls were completely blanked out and Lee had to call them several times until they heard him.

"Do you have any spare bandages?" Lee asked for the third time, "We used our last ones when we tested the waters yesterday."

"I’m sorry little L ... I’m sorry, Lee! I didn’t know there were ..."It slowly registered in Ling Xiaotao’s brain what exactly happened, and the shock was quickly replaced with panic.

She was young and playful, and didn’t intend to seriously hurt him, but she had never seen anyone injured so badly and it obviously was her fault.

"Don’t care!" Lee said, "Do you have any bandages or not? I need to stop the bleeding!"

His own clothing was in tatters and wet, and seeing there was no reaction from the girls, Lee began to tear off the sleeves and crudely bandage the wounds on legs first. With Xiao Lian’s help they patched him up, but had to use pieces of both of their clothing.

In the end the two boys were wearing something that resembled torn shorts and t-shirts, to not speak about Lee’s condition.



***

Because of Lee’s injuries, they camped for the night next to the cliff. To make sure no dreadtalons came close, they made a large bonfire, but cooked dinner at a smaller campfire few yards further away.

The three girls also settled for the night, but some thirty yards away. It looked like after Ling Xiaotao’s initial attempt to apologize they got upset for Lee not immediately forgiving her, but he couldn’t care less. For now he was in pain, but knew that in the morning the wounds would be fully healed.

Xiao Lian was sitting next to Lee, uncharacteristically silent. Obviously the encounter with the girl of his dreams didn’t go the way he hoped. More importantly, he was afraid Lee hated her now and that would complicate things even more.

The two groups sat at their own campfires, with a larger bonfire separating them, but to Xiao Lian it felt like they were miles and miles apart.

"How many eggs we still have?" Lee asked, "Let’s leave few for the morning and eat the rest now. I’m really hungry."

Despite the fact that he was the only one injured, out of five people he also was the only one not in a foul mood. In fact, his mind was busy with making plans on how to cross the river.

"Six each." Xiao Lian said after checking the bag, "Brother Lee, I’m... oh, no! She’s coming! What do I do?"

He intended to say something apologetic at first, but Qin Yujian coming their way threw his mind in chaos.

"Stay cool! Breathe!" Lee immediately instructed, "Don’t say anything. Clean your sword! Right! Focus on cleaning your sword no matter what happens!"

"But I already cleaned it ..." Xiao Lian said, already blushed all over.



"Doesn’t matter. Trust me." Lee said.

He could swear he heard how loud Xiao Lian’s heart was racing, and it was a wonder the guy didn’t faint or get a heart attack. The main thing now was to not let him mess everything up. Young people tend to say or do foolish things, as it was clearly displayed by Ling Xiaotao earlier.

Lee was glad to help his buddy out and knew that the next part was much more important than their dinner or him being hurt. But he had to play the cards right. In fact, his guess was that the previous awkward situation might turn out to be a blessing.

Qin Yujian slowly walked over, but hesitated the moment she arrived.

"Want some eggs?" Lee casually asked, as if nothing happened, "We don’t have too many, but we can share."

Lee’s sudden question threw her off completely. She came in order to say something, probably words of apology, but not only the girls expressing how they felt didn’t matter to Lee, to allow the things flow the regular way could leave the wrong impact on Xiao Lian’s future.

She stood few yards away from the two, confused, but Lee pretended to not notice it.

He said, "Come, sit. Are you hungry?"

"No." Qin Yujian said.

With a corner of his eye Xiao Lian caught the sight of it, and almost cut himself on his own sword, distracted by the way her four braids swung as she shook her head.

"I hope you brought enough spices from home." Lee nonchalantly continued, "The eggs alone are passable, but with a bit of salt and chili they become a godly delicacy!"

Clearly cooking wasn’t one of her strengths and Qin Yujian watched Lee fiddle the batch of eggs in the hot ashes under the campfire in confusion.



Lee didn’t know, but during the survival training the girls mostly used the provisions they brought from the sect. All three of them were from large clans and could afford spatial treasures to bring along everything they needed for the whole six months.

They didn’t talk, but stared at the fire, each thinking their own thing, except for Xiao Lian, who didn’t dare to lift his eyes.

"Let’s see it. Ouch ... ouch ... it’s hot!" Lee said, and fished out one of the eggs. These were from the green dreadtalons and larger in size compared to the ones the brown raptors had.

"Lian, could you make another spoon?" Lee asked, but then turned to Qin Yujian, and said, "He likes to peel the shell off. Me – I prefer to cut them in halves and eat with a spoon. How would you prefer?"

Lee didn’t expect an answer and unsheathed the sword, with a quick motion cut the egg in halves, and passed one to Qin Yujian. Meanwhile Xiao Lian, realizing he just had received the most important task of his life, already finished carving an elegant spoon from a piece of wood.

Lee took it and passed to Qin Yujian, and said, "Now take a pinch of salt and a bit of chili, like this, see? And then try it."

He demonstrated the way he was normally eating the dreadtalon eggs, but while Qin Yujian stared at the half egg in her hand, Lee fished out another one and rolled it over to Xiao Lian. The guy was nervous, but seeing Lee wink at him helped to calm down a bit.

Lee wasn’t trying to show off. These weren’t some dragon eggs or anything, but they did taste good. Especially for someone who had been away from home for a long while.

And Qin Yujian’s exclamation Heavens! It’s so good! was the best proof.

Lee knew that apart from jewelry and flowers, something tasty was the best peace offering one could give to a girl, except the former was more effective in later years when they got a bit older. Better than the sweet and slightly minty dreadtalon eggs in the current situation could be only a box of chocolate.

Hearing their friend’s ecstasy, Ling Xiaotao and Shu Ying couldn’t resist and came over. And they got their spoons and half eggs as well, and soon soft moans of pleasure echoed across the dark river.

Lee had been around long enough and knew that it didn’t matter if the man was in the right. If he wanted to keep a good relationship with the woman, he had to apologize. It’s just one of the nature’s laws.