The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 194 - 183: Panic (Additional update for 150,000 recommendation votes from Yunqi)

Chapter 194: Chapter 183: Panic (Additional update for 150,000 recommendation votes from Yunqi)

The three brothers quickly buried the fire and, grabbing the rhizomys, ran back the way they had come. When they arrived at the base of the big tree, they saw that it was desolate and empty, and no one was there.

The Zhou brothers glanced at each other and shuddered in unison. They were in the mountains, after all!

Zhou SiLang’s face turned pale as he stuffed the rhizomys into Zhou Liulang’s hands, saying, "Run back home immediately. If you run into Manbao on the way, bring her back with you. If you don’t see her, go home and call our eldest brother and the others to come search."

Zhou SiLang and Zhou Wulang said, "Let’s split up to search for her. She has short legs and can’t run fast. If you find her, bring her back here."

Zhou Wulang and Zhou Liulang both agreed and ran off in different directions.

Zhou SiLang searched the nearby area first and as soon as he saw the pile of fire in the bamboo that had gone out, his eyes widened. This had not been there before.

Could it be that someone had been here?

And Manbao...

Zhou SiLang felt his legs weaken, the first thing that came to mind was the fear of punishment.

With a shiver, he disregarded searching in the mountains and bolted down towards the foot of the mountain, aiming to search along the main path.

Zhou SiLang called out for Manbao as he looked along the mountain path, while Zhou Wulang had also begun to shout within the mountains.

After searching for a long time without seeing anyone, he was both anxious and angry. He stood still, took a deep breath to gather his strength, and then roared to the heavens, "Manbao—"

Manbao, who was tired and sitting on the ground feeling heartbroken, faintly heard the shouts and immediately jumped up, perking up her ears and then asked, "Keke, do you hear someone calling me?"

After a moment of silence, Keke replied, "Yes, to the west of the host."

Manbao turned in circles on the spot, then asked, "Which way is west?"

Keke pointed her in a direction.

Manbao started running in that direction, with the rhizomys, tethered by a rope, being dragged on the ground and rolling over as it went.

After running for quite some time, Manbao became so tired she could hardly walk and let out a big yell, "I’m here—"

"Manbao—"

"I’m here—"

When Zhou Wulang, who was hopping and searching for her by following the sound, found her, Manbao was already covered in mud, face and all. There was no help for it, she had dug up quite a lot of mud for Keke. Just as she had looked up and realized her brothers were gone, she didn’t even bother to clean her hands. All this while, she had smeared some on her face and clothes.

Zhou Wulang found her pitiful state heart-wrenching.

Zhou Wulang ran up to her and hugged her, laughing and crying at the same time, "Where did you run off to? We’ve been looking for you everywhere."

Manbao burst out crying, angrily saying, "I was right under the tree the whole time. It was you who disappeared."

Zhou Wulang felt a bit guilty. When the rhizomys dashed through the bamboo, they could only see the rhizomys and instinctively gave chase, completely forgetting about their little sister playing with mud under the tree.

Zhou Wulang quickly apologized, embracing her and saying, "It’s our fault. Don’t cry. Later, you can take your anger out on us."

Manbao, sobbing intermittently, handed the rhizomys that was tied to her hand to him, and asked, "Where are Fourth Brother and Sixth?"

Zhou Wulang was surprised to see the rhizomys, "Where did you get this from?"

And upon hearing her question, he shuddered and exclaimed with eyes wide, "We’re done for. Sixth will definitely tell our parents when he gets home."

Without taking the time to ask for details, Zhou Wulang crouched down, hoisted Manbao on his back, grabbed the rhizomys, and started running down the mountain, calling out for Silang as he went.

Unfortunately, by the time he got back to the big tree they still hadn’t heard any response from Zhou SiLang.

Zhou Wulang felt he couldn’t just stand by and do nothing, so he nervously paced around in place and after a moment said, "Let’s leave a message for Fourth Brother, then head home first."

He rummaged through the bamboo and found a half-burnt stick, then took a large leaf and began to write on it.

Manbao watched, widening her mouth. Of course! Why hadn’t she thought of that? She could have left a message for them earlier. She knew how to write, and the Zhou brothers could all read.

Manbao wiped her tears and blamed herself, "Keke, I’m really too stupid."

Keke remained silent and did not speak.

Zhou Wulang, anxious and covered in sweat, finished writing the message, placed the large leaf under the tree, and fearing that Silang would miss it, he even stacked a few stones beside it.

After all this was done, he picked up Manbao and ran towards home.

He had to intercept Sixth before he reached home, otherwise...

With that thought, Zhou Wulang’s feet flew even faster.

At the same time, Zhou Liulang was also running fast towards home, but he at least remembered Silang’s words, to check on both sides of the path for Manbao.

Thus, he ran while calling Manbao’s name, occasionally stopping to look in the lush foliage, afraid of missing her.

These stops along the way caused some delay, allowing Zhou Wulang to catch up to him.

Zhou Wulang, breathless with his throat burning, had no energy to speak. From a distance, Manbao, on his back, saw Zhou Liulang running ahead and immediately shouted, "Sixth Brother, Sixth Brother—"

Zhou Liulang, who was focused on running ahead, stopped in his tracks when he heard the voice, turned around instinctively, and saw Manbao waving at him from behind Wulang.

Zhou Liulang’s eyes lit up, and he turned and ran back. When the three siblings finally reunited, Zhou Wulang sat down on the ground, heaving for breath and unable to speak.

Zhou Liulang quickly supported him, checking Manbao for injuries while asking anxiously, "Where did you go? We thought we had lost you. You scared me to death."

Manbao smoothed the air for Zhou Wulang and took out a peppermint candy for him to eat.

Zhou Wulang, parched, felt better after sucking on the candy as it stimulated his saliva flow. He waved his hand and said, "We found her in the mountains, she went looking for us."

The brothers shared a feeling of having narrowly escaped disaster and sat down on the ground to catch their breath.

Zhou Liulang, who had also run hard and turned pale, reached out to Manbao, "I want a candy too."

Manbao felt somewhat guilty, thinking that it was all because she hadn’t been clever enough to think of leaving a message that had caused everyone such panic.

So whatever her brothers said now, she readily fished out another piece of candy from her pocket and gave it to him.

With candy in their mouths, the color slowly returned to the brothers’ faces. Once Zhou Wulang had caught his breath, he took the opportunity to scold Zhou Liulang, "You ran too fast. Didn’t we say to check both sides? What if Manbao had been right by the road?"

"I checked. The mountains are so dangerous. If I didn’t hurry back to tell everyone and Manbao really got snatched by a wolf, what then?"

The brothers sat sighing together. Zhou Wulang asked, "And Fourth Brother?"

Zhou Liulang nonchalantly waved his hand, "He’s still searching in the mountains. I didn’t find him, but I left him a message."

"I was afraid you would go back and tell our parents. We would definitely get a beating then," he said.

Zhou Liulang also felt relieved. There they were, just outside the village. It was just a close call, wasn’t it?

Then Zhou Liulang noticed the rope in Wulang’s hand, and connected to it was a plump rhizomys. His eyes bulged and he asked, "Where did the rhizomys come from?"

Zhou Wulang looked at Manbao. Yes, where did the rhizomys come from?