Chapter 295: Chapter 287: A Beautiful Body

The crayfish were the first to cook. Their delicate, pale meat was flecked with a bit of ash from the firewood. She carefully removed the ash before handing one to Hu Feng.

Hu Feng was always particular about cleanliness. No matter how old and worn his clothes got, he always kept them clean. She imagined he was the same way when it came to food.

Hu Feng took the crayfish she offered and said gently, "A little ash from the fire is fine. You don’t have to clean it off for me."

She smiled. "You’re the one who said it. Don’t come crying to me later if you see the ash and can’t bring yourself to eat."

Hu Feng shook his head. "I won’t." He replied with a faint smile, then lowered his head and took a bite of the delicate, pale meat. There was no salt, no chili, and certainly no oil. He’d expected it to taste awful, but to his surprise, it was incredibly fresh and sweet. The meat was tender—far more tender than any he’d ever had before.

After finishing his crayfish, Hu Feng asked Bai Zhi, "I’ve caught crayfish like this before in the river by the village. They looked exactly the same. So why was the meat tough and stringy when we ate them, but this one is so sweet and tender? What’s the secret?"

Bai Zhi smiled, gesturing with another crayfish she was still roasting over the fire. "The secret is simple. You must have just thrown them in boiling water and cooked them for a very long time. Crayfish meat is naturally tender, but if you overcook it, it becomes tough and stringy and loses all its fresh, sweet flavor."

’So that’s how it was.’ Hu Feng finally understood. Bai Zhi had told him before that cooking wasn’t just about getting the steps right; you also had to master the timing and heat. When to put something in the pot, when to stir-fry it, when to add seasonings, when to take it off the heat—it was all a delicate art. No wonder he’d always failed whenever he tried to cook. He had followed the steps his father taught him to the letter, but the result was always disappointing.

The crucian carp wasn’t nearly as good as the crayfish. Though its meat was tender, it was a pain to eat because of all the tiny bones. On top of that, with no seasonings, it completely lacked the fresh sweetness of the crayfish. After eating one, Hu Feng didn’t want another.

His head was spinning, and his eyelids felt heavy as lead. He lay down beside the fire, closing his eyes to rest. ’I should get some sleep while it’s still light out,’ he thought. ’I have to be alert tonight. If a wild animal shows up, how could someone of Bai Zhi’s small build possibly be a match for it?’

As the warm sunlight faded, Hu Feng’s body grew hotter and hotter. He began muttering things in his sleep that she couldn’t understand, tossing and turning fitfully. She had no idea what he was dreaming about.

Seeing the sky about to go dark, she used the last vestiges of twilight in the valley to gather another pile of firewood. ’The night will be long,’ she thought. ’This bonfire cannot go out, no matter what.’

There was a technique in acupuncture specifically for reducing fevers. However, it could only be used when the patient’s temperature was above forty degrees Celsius. Using it on someone whose fever hadn’t reached that point could trigger sudden, severe dehydration. This was not something to be taken lightly.

She tried using a cloth soaked in water as a cold compress to bring his temperature down, but it had little effect. His fever just kept climbing.

"I can’t wait any longer." She quickly took out her needle bag. ’Even without a thermometer,’ she thought, ’my experience tells me he’s probably already at forty degrees.’

She unfastened his clothes, revealing a strong, well-built physique. This wasn’t the first time she had seen his bare torso, but it was the first time she’d been this close—close enough to reach out and touch him.

Her face flushed a fiery red, and her heart began to hammer against her ribs like a startled rabbit. THUMP-THUMP-THUMP.

She shook her head. ’Bai Zhi, oh Bai Zhi, you’re shameless! A handsome man is right here in front of you, sick as a dog, and you’re still having these kinds of thoughts?’

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