Chapter 30 – Wild Strawberry

The trail on Mount Maier is steep, but after some reconstruction, the mountain road became rougher and more uneven, but it also became easier to walk. To climb the mountain, firstly, they need to take the cable car to reach the starting point at 800-meter high. If they walk up for the rest of the way, it will take about two and a half hours at the speed of an adult.

    Little Red Riding Hood and Brother Wolf brought a bunch of things to climb the mountain because they were going to spend the night on the top of the mountain, but most of the things were on the body of the two bodyguards. The two of them were empty-handed, but they still took their time climbing up the mountain.

    At the beginning of the period, Little Red Riding Hood thought it was because the sun was too hot. Maybe Brother Wolf wanted to save his strength, but he just climbed for a few minutes before taking a 10-minute rest each time. Isn’t it too much? She was not even sweating yet, but Brother Wolf would keep hiding to the side to enjoy the shade.

    “That… Brother Wolf, if we go on like this, we won’t be able to reach the top of the mountain even when the night comes.” Little Red Riding Hood reminded cautiously.

    “I know.”

    You know? But did you know you’re walking so slowly?

    “Then… can we walk a little faster so that we can catch up with the sunset.” Little Red Riding Hood suggested politely.

    Brother Wolf glanced at Little Red Riding Hood and said nothing.

    At this time, bodyguard A handed over two bottles of water, and Little Red Riding Hood took them and thanked him: “Thank you.”

    “Boss hasn’t had any intense exercise for a long time.”

    “Still not recovered yet?” Little Red Riding Hood stared blankly at Brother Wolf’s long straight legs.

    “Yes.” Bodyguard A explained conscientiously, “Mr. Hui’s legs are still in the recovery period. The doctor explained that Mr. Hui can walk for no more than two hours a day, and it must be on flat ground, so things like mountain climbing are not for Mr. Hui, it was too much for his condition.”

    “Then…then why did you agree to climb the mountain?” Little Red Riding Hood immediately asked Brother Wolf nervously, “Your legs can’t climb the mountain, why don’t you tell me.”

    “I promised you that I would cooperate with the treatment.” Brother Wolf said lightly.

    “If you told me that your legs can’t climb the mountain, then I won’t suggest this idea. No, you proposed the idea yourself.” Little Red Riding Hood was stunned for a while before she remembered, “You have bad legs, why do you propose to climb the mountain??”

    Brother Wolf glanced at Little Red Riding Hood. He didn’t want to admit that he just brought it up to tease her, but instead, he said: “Didn’t you will always let me do what I want to do?”

    “Even if you want to do it, you can’t handle it. Do you take your legs as a joke when it was finally cured to this extent?” Little Red Riding Hood had read the information about Brother Wolf and knew that in that accident, Brother Wolf’s legs could hardly be saved. To be able to recover to this level, must take a lot of effort and hardship to achieve.

    “Are you worried?” Brother Wolf asked.

    “Of course.” Little Red Riding Hood replied without thinking.

    Hearing Little Red Riding Hood’s answer without thinking, Brother Wolf suddenly felt a little happy, flicking the dust from his cloth, Brother Wolf stood up straight and said, “Let’s keep going up.”

    “No, let’s hurry back.” Little Red Riding Hood dragged Brother Wolf and wanted to turn around. “It’s better to stop now before we climbed too high.”

    “I just can’t keep walking for a long time. Climb slowly, and we can still reach the top.”

    “But your legs will hurt. Every ten minutes of walking your legs will hurt. It will be very hard to climb to the top of the mountain.” Little Red Riding Hood felt hurt just thinking about it.

    “It’s alright.” Brother Wolf suddenly laughed. He looked at the top of the mountain and said, “Since I was a kid, there are only things I need to do and don’t need to do. I have never worked for something this hard.”

    Are you still showing off?

    “It is said that the rainbow can only be seen after the wind and rain, but I want to know if the scenery I see will be different if I climbed this mountain by myself.” Brother Wolf said.

    Little Red Riding Hood was stunned for a second and found that she was suddenly persuaded by Brother Wolf. Brother Wolf’s life was too smooth and excellent. Others seemed envious of it, but it was boring from Brother Wolf’s perspective.

    Because he has everything at his fingertips. Less struggle, less hard work, and of course, no sweetness of his fruit of labor.

    “Then we’ll climb slowly. When the sun starts to set, we’ll just watch it wherever.” Little Red Riding Hood replied with a smile.

    “Let’s go.” Brother Wolf let go of Little Red Riding Hood and walked to the top of the mountain.

    Knowing the reason, Little Red Riding Hood not only stopped complaining about Brother Wolf’s slow speed, but even asked him if he was tired every time he walked one or two hundred meters, and reminded him to stop and rest. Brother Wolf was annoyed by her, but he just ignored her and continued climbing slowly to the top of the mountain at his own speed.

Please read The Attack on Little Red Riding Hood at ibastranslation.wordpress.com

    “Hey, there’s mint leave here. Smell it.” Little Red Riding Hood picked a leaf from the grass beside the stone steps and handed it to Brother Wolf.

    Brother Wolf saw the mint handed over by Little Red Riding Hood, took it, and smelled it. The refreshing minty smell instantly made people sober a lot.

    “There seems to be something there too.” Little Red Riding Hood took a few steps forward and plucked a plant from the ground, “This is Houttuynia cordata1, this is edible, but it tastes very strange.”

    Brother Wolf smelled a heavy fishy smell, causing him to frown and moved the plant away a bit: “How do you recognize so many wild plants and weeds?”

    Along the way, Little Red Riding Hood picked some plants from the grass around them and gave Brother Wolf some herbal knowledge. Because of this, there are at least a dozen or so plants that Brother Wolf learned from her. Most of them were edible wild vegetables and herbs to stop bleeding. Brother Wolf felt that with her knowledge, it is enough for her to survive in the jungle.

    “How do you know so many plants.” Brother Wolf asked curiously.

    “I learned it from my dad.” Little Red Riding Hood took back the Houttuynia cordata when he saw that Brother Wolf didn’t like the smell of it.

    “Your father studies plants?”

    “No, my dad is an archaeologist.” Little Red Riding Hood laughed. “He often goes to the deep mountains for archaeology, and he has come to know these things over time. When he took me out to play when I was a child, he liked to introduce these things to me and then talk about his archaeology experiences.”

    “You two have a very good relationship.” Brother Wolf doesn’t know what kind of experience it is to be taught by his own parents. He has been very smart since he was a child, and his parents are busy taking care of the family business, so he never had this experience. But such a normal child must have a good relationship with her parents.

    “It’s alright, my dad basically complied with me, but my mom said that my dad did it because of guilt.” Little Red Riding Hood said.

    “Guilty?” Brother Wolf was puzzled.

    “Well, because my dad is an archaeologist, he usually doesn’t come home for more than half a year whenever he started a project. Sometimes when he encounters a major archaeological discovery, it’s common to not go home for a year or two.” Little Red Riding Hood said, “Because of that, my mother decided to divorce him.”

    “Your parents are divorced.” Brother Wolf said in surprise.

    “Yeah, they got divorced when I was eight years old.” Little Red Riding Hood said indifferently.

    “Sorry, I don’t know.” Brother Wolf really didn’t notice it. Because no matter how you look at Little Red Riding Hood’s character, she looked like someone from a normal family.

    “It’s alright, it was more than ten years ago. Anyway, my dad wasn’t at home very much when I was a child. In fact, they had been divorced for a long time and I still didn’t know about it. I didn’t realize it until my mother remarried.” Little Red Riding Hood remembered this incident. She felt that she was stupid enough, “Let’s not talk about that. I saw a wild strawberry over there just now, I’ll go pick some and give you something to eat.”

    Little Red Riding Hood walked to the area outside the stone steps. Brother Wolf seeing that Little Red Riding Hood was getting further and further away suddenly stood up worriedly and said, “Don’t go too far.”

    “It’s alright.” Little Red Riding Hood waved her hands, said nonchalantly, and then squatted down to pick wild strawberries.

    Brother Wolf frowned, turned around, and followed.

    Little Red Riding Hood picked a dozen wild strawberries and got up and was about to go back, only to find that Brother Wolf had followed her, and she was surprised: “Why are you here? Just in time, these are for you first, and I’ll go pick some more.”

    Little Red Riding Hood said and took a few steps out, putting all the red wild strawberries into Brother Wolf’s hand.

    “These are sweet, sweeter than the strawberries in the market,” said Little Red Riding Hood.

    Brother Wolf looked at the finger-sized red strawberry rolling down from the palm of his hand and was suddenly a little stunned.

    “Look, this is the candy my mother gave me.”

    “Wow, it looks delicious.”

    “My mother said that as long as I get 80 points in the exam, I will be rewarded with candy. Little Wolf, you got 100% on every test, do your uncles and aunts give you candy every day?”

    Little Wolf looked at the bright candy in the hands of his tablemate and said, “I have a lot at home.”

    “Wow, I’m so envious.”

    Yes ah, I have a lot of those at home, all of which are bought by the housekeeper, but no one will praise Little Wolf for his good work and reward him with such cheap candy.

    Yes, there is nothing to envy about such cheap things.

    “You have a taste.” Little Red Riding Hood picked out the plumpest strawberry and held it to Brother Wolf’s mouth.

    Brother Wolf was stunned. He stared at Little Red Riding Hood, not moving.

    “Are you disgusted because I haven’t washed it? It’s alright, you will not get sick if you eat it even if you don’t clean it.” Little Red Riding Hood continued.

    Brother Wolf looked down at the red strawberry at Little Red Riding Hood’s fingertips. Just when Little Red Riding Hood thought that Brother Wolf didn’t want to eat it and wanted to withdraw her hand in embarrassment, Brother Wolf suddenly opened his mouth.

    “!!” Little Red Riding Hood blinked in surprise, then quickly put the strawberry into Brother Wolf’s mouth. After Brother Wolf swallowed it, she asked with a smile, “Is it delicious?”

    “Yeah.” Brother Wolf gave a faint hum.

    “Then I’ll go pick a little more, there’s a lot over there.” Little Red Riding Hood said, turning around and going back to continue picking.

    As the saying goes, happiness can lead to sadness. Little Red Riding Hood took two steps before the stone under her feet collapsed. Her center of gravity was unstable and she was about to fall.

    “Be careful.” Brother Wolf reacted quickly, reaching out to pull Little Red Riding Hood, but he himself was standing on a sloping hillside, and his center of gravity was also unstable. As a result, the two fell down together, and the wild strawberries were also scattered all around.

    Bang!

    “Ughh!” The sound of heavy objects falling was accompanied by a painful groan. Bodyguard A and Bodyguard B rushed over and pulled up the two who fell on the grass.

    “Brother Wolf, are you alright?” Little Red Riding Hood fell directly into Brother Wolf’s arms, so apart from being a little frightened, she didn’t feel uncomfortable there, but Brother Wolf somehow became her a meat pad as he fell directly to the ground.

    “Sir, the wound is open.” Bodyguard A helped Brother Wolf up and saw that Brother Wolf’s shoulder was stained with blood. That was where the burn wound is and it was opened again.

    After a period of chaos, the bodyguards helped Brother Wolf back to the main road, administered medicines for Brother Lang, and wrapped the gauze again. Throughout the whole process, Brother Wolf’s expression was indifferent, he didn’t blame Little Red Riding Hood, and he didn’t feel unhappy because of the sudden injury.

    “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, it’s all my fault. You shouldn’t have saved me just now. I’ll be fine if I’m the only one who fell.” Little Red Riding Hood kept apologizing beside him.

    “That’s why I meddle in my own business and don’t care about yours.” Brother Wolf was annoyed by Little Red Riding Hood.

    “I… I didn’t mean that.” Little Red Riding Hood choked.

    “It’s just a wild strawberry from you but the price is so high.” Brother Wolf said complaining, “I’ll pay for what I want to eat in the future, don’t bother me.”

    “…” I really didn’t expect it will be like this.

    Brother Wolf looked down at the palm of his hand, where it was stained with strawberry juice. Even though the strawberry had already rolled to the ground when he fell, the redness was still very much like the candy in the hand of his tablemate.

t/n:

1. Houttuynia cordata also known as fish mint, fish leaf, rainbow plant:

When they are finally about to bond…