"One should be enough for the two of us." Nan Luo grinned. "How about if we roast this rabbit and then eat?"
"Not here."
"Right, let's move to the wall and just eat it right beyond the wall. If we bring this inside, who knows what the servants would say." Nan Luo grumbled just at the thought of the servants annoy them. He naturally understood that it was uncommon for the young master himself to hunt.
Well, not exactly uncommon.
But this area was not completely safe. If they knew that he sneaked out with Nan Hua, who knew what they would say. He absolutely would never let them spread bad news regarding his twin sister.
"Let's go."
Swish!
They grabbed some branches on the way and stopped before the wall where they jumped out. Nan Luo looked at the branches then at his twin sister. "Hua'er, do you want me to make the fire, or you?"
"I'll make it."
To make fire, the easiest way was to use friction. Nan Hua grabbed a thicker branch and split it into two vertically, that way there was a half cylinder in front of her. Afterwards, she took a long and thin bark before gathering some small wood powder. She used a stick that was placed on top of that half cylinder and the long and thin bark to start making the fire.
Her legs kept the stick and half cylinder in place while her hand moved the long and thin bark to create friction. Her movement was fast and precise, so before long part of the stick had turned black and sparks began to form.
While using the small wood powder, which could easily ignite, Nan Hua put them near the area of friction. They quickly set in fire and she put it near the branches nearby, allowing the fire to grow bigger.
While Nan Hua was working, Nan Luo was not idle. He was skinning the rabbit and threw out the organs. He knew very well that the two of them would not eat those part and only kept some part of the meat that they could eat.
By using stick, he could barbeque them.
"Hua'er, you're done?" Nan Luo was surprised when he saw Nan Hua had made the fire.
Nan Hua nodded. She glanced at the pieces of meat that Nan Luo had stabbed with stick and stabbed the other end to the ground near the fire. It would allow the meat to be cooked after some time.
"We can't stay for long." Nan Hua looked at the smoke and wondered whether the people outside would notice. The trees were thick and the wall was pretty high, though. It should be able to cover it up since there were not many people who usually came to the Southern Quarter.
"Don't worry, once we're done cooking, I'll put out the fire." Nan Luo grinned. He was not stupid enough to let the fire going on and on when they were in this place.
The twins waited until the meat was cooked then they decisively put out the fire. The roasted meat tasted good, though as the two of them finished all the meat there. Though, it would taste better with some spice.
"Next time, I'll bring some salt." Nan Luo licked his lips.
Nan Hua nodded. "Pepper and honey will be good too."
"Oh, you're right! We should try it next time."
"Mhm."
They cleaned up the mess and made it so that no one would be able to know that they were making this place as their barbeque place. After making sure that everything was good, they climbed up and returned to their respective place.
In the darkness, Hou Liang sighed and jumped down. "Lin, what do you think we should do about this?"
"Leave it be."
Hou Liang glanced at the trees helplessly. He knew that his brother didn't want to show himself, but letting these two break the rules would not end that well either. The twins should know that it wouldn't end too good for them.
But he watched the two of them have fun like this and really didn't have the heart to stop them.
They were already forced to grow up much faster than normal children.
Letting them have fun should be fine, right?
Hou Liang sighed and took the ashes in order to scatter it further away. He would not let anyone to disturb these two when they were having fun with each other.
Swish!
Nan Hua acted as if she was walking around as she returned to her room. She could see that there were several servants around who were watching her, but she acted as if she didn't notice them. Her heart was silently counting them and watched them back.
"Miss, you're back." Xiao Yun smiled when she saw Nan Hua got closer. She stepped forward and helped Nan Hua to enter the room.
Nan Hua nodded.
"Miss, did you play with Young Master again?" Bai Yin asked and looked at Nan Hua while scrunching her face. "But Miss, if you continue to play around with Young Master, you wouldn't be able to do what you want."
The scripture that Nan Hua read was left behind on her table.
Xiao Yun glared at Bai Yin. "What Miss wants to do with Young Master is not our business. Why do you sound as if you don't want Miss to have fun?"
"I never said that. I only feel that Miss should not interact with Young Master too much because it'll affect her when she does what she liked," Bai Yin defended herself.
"Miss likes it when she plays with Young Master." Xiao Yun looked at Nan Hua, "Isn't that right, Miss?"
Nan Hua was silent for a moment before answering, "I don't dislike it."
"She didn't say that she liked it," Bai Yin protested.
"Isn't it the same?" Xiao Yun rolled her eyes. She crossed her hands. "I'll prepare Miss's bath, you should tell the kitchen to prepare her dinner to be a bit late today."
"Yes."
Nan Hua watched the two of them argued calmly. She had been watching these two quarreling against each other a lot for the past few weeks. In fact, it was quite amazing that these two who always had different opinion with each other could work together.
However, Nan Hua also remembered that in the original novel, the servants around Nan Hua had changed.
She said nothing and simply did her activity.
After eating with Nan Luo, she couldn't eat too much for dinner since her stomach would be stuffed full. It was the same case for Nan Luo, which made the servants who served in the kitchen to worry about their health.
The next day, they did their separate activities before heading out to hunt once more. The same thing continued for more than two weeks as the two of them would always head to the wilderness. They only hunted for one rabbit each time since they wouldn't be able to eat more if they hunted more than one.
By trying the spices one by one, they gained several tastes of the rabbit meat. In fact, it seemed that their roasting skill also improved tremendously.
By now, they already could force themselves to eat more during dinner so as to not cause suspicion. Hou Liang was always glaring at Nan Luo during practice and forced him to train more, though.
Long Xu Nian came to Eastern Courtyard.
Nan Hua and Nan Luo didn't even bother come to greet her. But this also allowed them to know that Long Xu Nian had some friendship with Princess Yue. If she didn't have some kind of friendship with that princess, there was no way she would be allowed to stay in Eastern Courtyard.
"Tsk, relying on backing." Nan Luo grumbled when he saw Long Xu Nian flaunting from a distance yet flattering Princess Yue.
Nan Hua looked at the group and felt nothing. "If you're not strong enough, you'll need a backer to make you feel that you're strong and can do anything."
In order to satisfy their ego, a lot of people didn't mind throwing away their pride and became nothing more than lackey. Even if the person whom they claimed to be their leader actually cared nothing for them, they needed backing to do many things.
"Long Family is quite strong, though?" Nan Luo was confused.
Nan Hua looked at her twin brother and didn't explain more. Long Family might look to be strong and all but their family was not that big. Besides, Long Xu Nian's status was far lower than her brother. Why?
With General Long rarely stayed at the house, the one who took control of the residence was usually the Old Madam. And the Old Madam didn't like Long Xu Nian.
But of course, it was Long Family private matter and Nan Hua didn't have any plan to explain more.
However, their leisure routine was broken on the third week when Nan Hua received an invitation from Princess Yue.