She wasn't worried at all about where the rabbit came from. After all, she often hunted in the mountains. Having a rabbit at home was not strange.
Ran went to the kitchen and took out a knife. She carefully cut up the rabbit. There were still two jin of rabbit meat left.
After finishing, Ran put down the knife. She sat on a chair in the yard and quietly drank some tea. Simeon had been reading inside the house.
He knew she had come out just now but didn't disturb her because she seemed busy. Now seeing her calmly drinking tea, he rubbed his tired eyes. He stood up, stretched, opened the door, and walked outside.
"Oh, Simeon, you're home?" Hearing the door open behind her, Ran turned around. She saw Simeon standing in the sunlight, looking like a gentle spirit.
She paused slightly, then smiled and quickly asked. "Yeah, I was reading inside." Simeon sat beside her and poured himself a glass of water.
He looked at her carefully. Seeing she wasn't hurt, he relaxed and smiled. "You weren't around all day. What were you busy with?"
"I went to the mountain to cut some big trees to use as beams for the house." Ran knew he was caring about her, so she smiled and explained. Then she looked at Simeon and asked curiously.
"Didn't you say you'd go back to the academy today? Why haven't you left yet?" Ran glanced at the time. The sun was setting.
It wasn't early anymore. It took at least two hours to walk to the academy from here. The He family had a carriage.
But even with the carriage, it would take nearly half an hour. Besides, the city had a curfew. The city gate would close soon and no one could enter after that.
Simeon looked at the time. It was already late afternoon. He really couldn't delay any longer.
But he didn't know why he just wanted to wait for her to come back. He wanted to talk to her before leaving. He didn't expect that after seeing her, he would want to stay even more.
He was shocked by his own thought. He looked at Ran with a faint expression. Then quickly looked away, embarrassed.
He suddenly stood up and hurried to the stable. "I'll leave first. It's almost too late." His things were already packed in the carriage.
He got in and told the driver to leave quickly. Ran didn't expect him to be in such a hurry. She quickly stood and saw him off.
She waved at his carriage and shouted, "Goodbye!" Simeon didn't say anything. He just waved his hand from the window.
Ran stayed at the door, watching the carriage disappear. Only when she could no longer see it did she turn back and go into the kitchen. Winter was coming soon.
The nights grew darker earlier. People here ate dinner early to save lamp oil. It was cheap, and they didn't want to waste it.
Because materials were scarce, Ran simply blanched the rabbit meat. She added some spices from her space and made braised rabbit meat.
Because there was braised rabbit meat for dinner that night, Aunt He Hua, who had never shown up before, came out for the first time to eat with everyone. Ran had always been very curious about the women in this world. After arriving here, besides seeing a few elderly grandmothers, the only other woman she had met was Lady Bao, whom she bumped into by accident in the city.
Although Lady Bao was a little spoiled, she wasn't a bad person. At least when Ran accidentally bumped into her, not only did she not get angry, but after finding out she was a broken-off groom, she even gave her ten taels of silver. That showed she was a kind-hearted lady.
As for her looks, not exactly stunning, but she could be considered a delicate beauty. She hadn't seen any other ladies. Even though no one dared to restrict a lady's movements, many families still preferred not to let their wives go out.
Part of it was because they worried their wives might bring another brother home after going out. But more importantly, they were afraid their wives might be kidnapped by criminals. After all, not every man could get married, so some took desperate measures, ignoring the law to kidnap women and force them to bear children.
Even though the laws clearly forbade this, there were still many cases of missing women every year, making it hard for anyone to feel safe. Because of that, even when a woman went out, she would bring along many attendants and guards to protect her from harm. Thinking about it now, it was really lucky she happened to bump into Lady Bao that day.
Ran quietly glanced at Aunt He Hua, who was sitting at the seat of honor. Her appearance was average, and she was about 160 cm tall, probably weighing over 200 pounds. Noticing Ran looking over, Aunt He Hua didn't show the slightest displeasure.
Instead, she smiled kindly and asked, "You must be Ran, the one staying at my house for now?" "Yes, thank you for taking me in, Auntie," Ran put down her chopsticks and thanked her with a smile. "I heard you've been learning to read with Simeon lately. How's it going?"
Seeing how polite she was, Aunt He Hua looked even more pleased. "Just trying to learn a few basic characters, so I'm not completely illiterate and easily tricked," Ran replied with a smile. "Still have to thank Simeon for being willing to teach me."
Aunt He Hua asked a few more questions, then finally started eating. After dinner, since it wasn't dark yet, Ran quickly washed up and finally had time to return to her room. She lit a candle and went to the desk.
She was just about to pick up her brush to practice the characters she had just learned, but when she picked up the book, she saw a practice sheet underneath. She immediately realized it had been left there by Simeon. Even though she didn't recognize some of the characters, it didn't stop her from practicing.
So Ran took out a piece of paper and started copying the characters from the practice sheet. For the next few days, except for occasionally going out to check on the progress of the house being built, she spent most of her time in the room copying the practice sheet. After another two days, Ran finally learned all the characters from the sheet.
She put down her brush, stretched, and looked at the elegant handwriting on the paper with satisfaction. She opened the door and walked outside. As soon as she stepped out, she saw the village chief relaxing on a lounge chair in the courtyard.
The weather was nice that day. The warm sunlight gently pushed away the chill and made people feel drowsy. The village chief lay on the lounge chair, holding a book in his hands, reading it leisurely.
Hearing the sound of the door opening behind him, he put down the book and sat up. He turned to look at Ran, then lay back down and asked, "What made you want to come out today?"
It wasn't that he was teasing her. It was just that she had barely gone out these past few days except to eat, spending all her time copying character books. Ever since she found out he also knew a few characters, she came to him whenever she couldn't recognize one.
"Hehe..." Ran smiled as she moved closer to him. "I've already learned all the characters Simeon left behind in the copybook, so I came out to take a break."
"You really like to study. It's just a pity..." The village chief looked at her with admiration in his eyes.
He had studied in a private school before, so he naturally appreciated Ran's attitude toward learning. Still, he felt regret deep down. If Ran hadn't been a discarded bride, with her learning attitude and ability, she could have achieved something.
Ran understood what he meant by pity, but she didn't care at all. Before the apocalypse, she had already studied for many years. She really didn't want to keep studying.
If it weren't because she needed to quickly learn this world's writing to avoid being tricked and later make money by copying books, she wouldn't want to study at all. For her, she just wanted to live happily, without worries.
Ran looked up and saw that it was still early. She carried her bamboo basket and took her machete, then said to the village chief, "Uncle Village Chief, I'm heading into the mountains. If I come back late, don't wait for me."
"Alright. Be careful." The village chief had recently heard from the people who went up the mountain to cut trees that she was very capable. But since he hadn't seen it himself, he still had doubts.
Hearing that she was going back into the mountain, he couldn't help but give her a reminder. "Got it!" Ran waved at him and walked away quickly.
As she passed the house at the foot of the mountain, she saw that it was already more than halfway built. Ran suddenly felt full of energy.
"Boss, where are you going?" Master Chen was resting. When he saw Ran walking by, he quickly stood up and greeted her.
"Master Chen, take your time to rest!" Ran saw his face covered in sweat and waved at him to keep resting. She smiled and said, "It's nothing, I'm just going for a walk in the mountains today."
"The weather is getting colder, and there are fewer wild animals in the mountain now. Everyone needs to be a bit more careful." Thinking about the wild boar tracks he had seen at the foot of the mountain these past two days, Master Chen couldn't help but kindly remind her.
"Alright. I'll be careful. Thank you, Master Chen!" Ran thanked him for his kind reminder, then looked at the house and asked, "Master Chen, when do you think the house will be finished?"
"It's almost done. The beam will be placed the day after tomorrow!" Master Chen looked at the house too and smiled happily. "If the boss hadn't brought in more workers, it might not have been finished before the ground froze."
"Now that over a dozen more people joined in, the speed is faster than I expected." It really had sped up a lot. It had only been ten days since they started building the house.
Once the beam was placed, it would basically be complete. "Master Chen, are there any customs for setting the beam?" Ran didn't know anything about this.
She had only heard before that people would light firecrackers and scatter candy and peanuts. But she wasn't sure if that was needed here.
"Nothing special. The boss just needs to buy some firecrackers and light them when the time comes to make things lively." Master Chen replied while standing.
"Alright. I'll go into town tomorrow to buy them." Ran nodded to show that she had remembered. After chatting with Master Chen for a while, Ran finally went up the mountain quickly.
Since she was going into the city tomorrow, she planned to catch more wild animals today and sell them at the Delicacy House while she was there.