Just as the winner was about to feast, a blinding golden light accompanied by a powerful force sent the surrounding chickens flying. Several of them tumbled on the ground and fainted.
It was then Di Yao realized those golden roosters couldn't peck her. She didn't know why, but it delighted her immensely.
After that, she wasn't afraid of them anymore. Once she recovered and stood up, she even had the mind to chase the fattest, loudest ones. Seeing how the flock's arrogant demeanor had completely changed, she found it amusing.
"If they can't hurt you, how did you end up like this?" Wei Xunzhou noticed water drops from the umbrella landing on her shoulder and tilted it further toward her.
"I might look a bit disheveled now, but I think everything is fate."
Back then, fearless Di Yao had walked deeper into Golden Rooster Ridge, keeping an eye on the ground. Whenever she spotted a grain of food, she quickly picked it up and put it in her pouch, not letting any other chicken get it first.
Then, a miserable cry sounded not far away. Di Yao went over to investigate and found a small slope. At the bottom, a group of golden roosters surrounded a dying one covered in blood on its head.
Most of those chickens had blood on their beaks—clearly, these wild and ferocious roosters bullied even their own kind.
The chicken in the middle soon stopped breathing. The surrounding flock rushed in and, in moments, devoured their companion completely.
Di Yao hadn't intended to meddle, but she suddenly noticed that beneath the dead chicken lay an egg. The other chickens were pecking at it, turning it over and over.
Just as the egg was about to break, Di Yao couldn't bear it. She stepped down the slope.
But her foot got caught in the creeping grass on the slope. She lost balance and tumbled down the dirt slope. The commotion scared the flock away, giving her a chance to protect the egg.
"Was it worth it?" Wei Xunzhou spotted a chicken feather hidden in her hair and, without thinking, raised his hand to remove it.
He held the feather in front of her eyes, shook it, then let go.
Di Yao lightly blew it off. The feather drifted beyond the umbrella, then was hit by raindrops and fell to the ground.
"Of course it was worth it! You didn't see it—the mother chicken protected this egg until her death. Husband, you don't know how vicious those evil chickens were. It was truly pitiful. The poor mother didn't even leave a whole corpse.
"Besides, I've always hated the strong bullying the weak. No matter what, I couldn't stand by. And I happened to know I was capable of saving it. Isn't that fate? Anyway, I feel this egg and I are fated—Heaven wanted me to save it."
Wei Xunzhou looked up at the raindrops falling in strings from the umbrella edge, almost to himself: "Maybe it's just coincidence."
He didn't believe in vague concepts like fate that make people automatically beautify things in their hearts and willingly bind themselves to others or objects.
No one was destined to meet someone in this life, nor was anyone destined to save someone.
If it happened, it was just coincidence. After all, he had never had such luck.
"Coincidence is also a kind of fate."
Wei Xunzhou's cold, gloomy gaze froze. Looking at the beaming Di Yao, an acidic tightness rose in his throat.
Is that so? he murmured softly to himself.
Di Yao carefully carried the egg home. She took a small mattress from the cabinet and made a little nest for it.
After doing all that, she thought of taking off her cloak and hanging it next to Wei Xunzhou's. As she moved, the back of her hand brushed against his cloak and found it soaked through, especially on the shoulders.
She touched her own cloak—dry, soft, and still warm.
A sour feeling rose in her heart. He wasn't in particularly good health himself. Di Yao went out to wash up briefly, then found some scrap wood in the side room, lit a fire, and boiled hot water for Wei Xunzhou to drink.
When she first arrived here, the large courtyard didn't even have a stove. Considering they would need to boil water for bathing and such, she had dragged the ever-lazy Wei Xunzhou to set up a small stove in the side room. At the time, he had said it was completely unnecessary, but now, it was clearly very necessary.
Unfortunately, there was no ginger, so she could only give him plain hot water.