Why did you provoke me?

After the melee, the three men leaned against the courtyard wall, panting heavily.

"Young man, you need to train harder. You can't even beat the two of us girls, how can that be acceptable?"

Yu Hai laughed in exasperation. "You two girls? Are you even normal girls? Even your big black cat knows how to help you. I even caught so many little fish for it before, what an ungrateful cat!"

Yu Hai wasn't cursing the cat, but rather that the black cat had grown up over the years, and a ring of white fur had appeared around its big eyes at some point.

The big black cat perched on the tree, its body arched high and its tail held straight up, facing the sea. Clearly, it regarded Yu Hai as an enemy.

Yu Meng pouted. "If you can't beat them, just say you can't beat them. Don't make excuses."

Years have passed, and Yu Meng is now willing to communicate with those close to her, but her words are still very sharp.

Sister Xiu always knew that the brother and sister had an exceptionally good relationship.

The three people went inside, changed their clothes, and then sat down at the table.

"Little sister, what are your plans now? Are you going to join a mining group like your older sister?" The young man kept talking nonstop.

Yu Meng looked at Sister Xiu. "Sister Xiu, what are your plans?"

"I want to join the mining group, like my eldest sister." He didn't elaborate on what he wanted to do like his eldest sister. Whether it was to shine like her, marry a good man like her, or dedicate himself selflessly to his family like her.

Yu Meng nodded, without saying anything more. After all, Sister Xiu wasn't a real child of the Yu family, so she couldn't ask for too much.

"Little sister, you still haven't told me what you're planning to do?" Yu Hai looked at her expectantly.

"I haven't decided yet." Yu Meng stood up. "I'm going to take a walk along the river."

For the past few days, Yu Meng has been trying to memorize the last few lines, but for some reason, she just can't seem to get the last two lines right.

The scenery along the river is actually quite beautiful. Large red willow trees line both sides of the river, their long branches almost touching the water. Their trunks all lean towards the river, like a row of soldiers saluting the water.

This river nurtured them, and they protected this river in return.

These red willows certainly have a second face, but Yu Meng never had any designs on them.

It was all because her father had once told her that without these red willow trees on the riverbank, who knows what would have become of the river? They were the river's guardians.

Yu Meng walked slowly. Every now and then, she would pluck a layer of grass from the grass beside her and quickly gather it into green beads in her hand.

She already had a lot of these green beads. She had been controlling the number of green beads in the town.

Sometimes she would make them into bracelets or necklaces, but she didn't sell them.

She knew the town was still too small, and if something like this were to leak out, it would definitely attract attention. She didn't want to draw that much attention.

Actually, she had a plan in mind. However, because she didn't understand this world, she temporarily put it on hold.

There were two lines she couldn't quite grasp. She had a guess about it, because she had inadvertently drawn two lines from her older sister's number book. Perhaps that was why she herself had two lines left in her own number book.

But she had already removed those two threads from her body. They became the two white circles under the black cat's eyes.

The big black cat was now walking slowly behind Yu Meng. Yu Meng suddenly turned around and stared intently at the big black cat.

There's one more thing this cat didn't perfect: the black cat's paw pads. She only used one layer of thread there.

Suddenly, a crazy idea popped into her head. She wanted to connect all the threads in her mind to that footpad.

She decided to act on her impulse and found a large tree to lean against. She didn't know what would happen if she removed all the lines from her mind, so she needed a support. Just in case she fell.

She took one line from her mind and patiently began weaving it onto the black cat's front paw. Now she had eight lines left in her mind, enough to weave two for each paw.

It took her the entire afternoon to finally free herself from the four threads in her mind and to complete the paw pads under the black cat's two front paws.

Yu Meng shook her head. Her mind felt empty, as if something was missing. But she felt no physical discomfort.

She returned home, ate a few bites of food, and went straight to sleep. Her mother glanced at her with some concern.

When asked, Sister Xiu and Yu Hai didn't know what had happened to Yu Meng either; they only said that she had spent the whole afternoon by the river.

Yu Meng woke up feeling incredibly refreshed; she was amazed at her own condition.

After breakfast, Yu Meng arrived at the place from yesterday early. She was going to add the remaining four lines to the black cat's hind paw pads.

The process went very smoothly, but Yu Meng was extremely tired. She forced herself to walk home, collapsed onto the kang (a heated brick bed), and fell asleep immediately.

She slept until breakfast the next morning when Yu Hai woke her up.

She got out of bed, stretched out a long yawn, and her body made a cracking sound.

Her mind was clearer than ever before. After finishing her meal, she picked up the line drawing book and looked at the last two lines on it.

She had memorized the trends of these two lines so well that she could trace their paths with her eyes closed.

Yu Meng closed her eyes, cleared her mind, and her hand habitually traced lines on the book.

This time it went smoothly, and she managed to memorize both lines.

She looked at the two lines undulating in her mind, and wondered what would happen if she pursed her lips and wove these lines onto the cat.

This idea grew uncontrollably and wildly. In the end, Yu Meng could no longer suppress her thoughts.

She pulled the last two threads out of her mind. But the cat's body was already perfect. So she used those two threads to make a cat bell and tied it around the black cat's neck.

After finishing her task, Yu Meng clapped her hands and looked at her work with great satisfaction.

Suddenly, it dawned on her. There were 99 lines on her book, enough to make a small item, but she had two extra lines, which resulted in the cat bell.

So, could the lines of the eldest sister and the beautiful sister be made into some kind of small object?

If the eldest sister is missing two lines, will her work be less perfect?

Yu Meng suddenly felt a little embarrassed that she had unknowingly absorbed her older sister's features into her mind.

But then she thought again, with her older sister's talent, how could she possibly have memorized all the lines?

At this moment, Yu Meng felt at ease. Her older sister couldn't use it, but she could. Actually, it wasn't a waste. Selfishness took over Yu Meng's mind at this moment.

In fact, Yu Meng had an even more terrifying thought. Just thinking about this possibility made her feel like she was going crazy.