The Spirited Daughter-in-law and the Mountain Man

In the morning, the warm sun shone on the earth, with thousands of rays of sunlight, and the weather was clear.

Su Qingyue was in the yard, and she saw a tall figure in the distance carrying two roe deer, a big bunch of prey tied together with tendrils, which were wild rabbits, wild pheasants, and a pangolin.

She paused for a moment, realizing her second brother had returned from hunting for seven days. She called out, “Second brother!”

“Wife, I’m back!” Xiao Yishan shouted back from afar, his voice drowning out Qingyue’s call.

After entering the yard, Xiao Yishan dropped his prey and tools on the ground with a few heavy thuds, then rushed towards her with excitement, taking three steps at a time.

It had been seven days since he last saw her, and she was still skinny, but no longer as bone-thin as before. Her eyes seemed to be even brighter and clearer, and just looking into her eyes made his heart race. Suppressing the urge to embrace her, he asked hoarsely, “Are you… alright?”

She looked up at his face, noticing his stubble had grown a bit, and he appeared tanned from days spent in the deep mountains. His skin was darker than before, which made him look even more rugged and strong.

After understanding his words and feeling his burning gaze, she nodded uneasily.

“Wife… breakfast is ready, come and have breakfast!” Xiao Yuchuan called out from the kitchen.

Not getting a response, he shouted again, “Wife, I’m calling you to have breakfast, why don’t you answer? Are you ignoring me?”

Xiao Yishan heard Yuchuan’s thundering voice, yet Qingyue didn’t react at all, making his heart skip a beat.

Xiao Yuchuan came out of the kitchen and saw his second brother, happily saying, “Second brother, you’re back.”

He nodded.

Yuchuan complained, “Even though Qingyue is usually cold to me, she should at least respond when I call her to eat.”

“Call her again and see,” Xiao Yishan said in a deep voice.

Standing behind Su Qingyue, Yuchuan yelled at the top of his lungs, “Wife, wife, wife, wife!”

His voice went hoarse from shouting, and he muttered, “Su Qingyue, are you really not hearing this…” Before he could finish, a bad feeling rose in his heart,

and he looked at Xiao Yishan. “Second brother, it seems like she can’t hear us…”

Xiao Yishan thought about the gesture his wife made a few days ago, his expression solemn. “She’s deaf, and she was deaf even before I went hunting this time. She communicated with me using gestures, but I misunderstood her back then, thinking she was saying she was tired…”

Xiao Yuchuan’s face fell. “Damn it! She made gestures to tell me she was deaf too, and when I asked if she was deaf, she nodded. I thought since she could nod, she must have heard me, so I thought she was tricking me…”

“She probably understands very short phrases by reading facial expressions and lip movements,” Xiao Yishan suggested.

Seeing her brothers’ serious expressions, Su Qingyue was about to say something when Yuchuan asked solemnly, “Can you really not hear?”

She nodded.

His face fell again, and he asked, “Second brother, what should we do?”

“I’ll go find Doctor Sun.” Saying that, Xiao Yishan strode out of the yard.

Not understanding why her second brother left without eating breakfast, Su Qingyue wondered when he would come back. Since she didn’t cook enough for him, and Imowing his large appetite, she headed into the kitchen..