I woke up to find myself transmigrated into a disabled child.

Chapter 148 Lei Xiu's Decision

Shaking his head with amusement, Qinglin raised his hand and patted Lei Xiu's shoulder. "You know, I'm not saying this to be mean, but maybe you've been spending too much time with Lezhi, so you're a bit blind and can't see things clearly. Lezhi is much stronger than you think."

Qinglin even had a terrifying thought: if Lezhi were to face the threat of the insects alone, he wondered how the wingless Lezhi would save himself. He believed that Lezhi was not the type to sit idly by and wait for death; given Lezhi's personality, he was more likely to unleash his talents in dire circumstances.

However, this is just wishful thinking. Let alone Le Chu and Lei Xiu, who are fiercely protective of their offspring, even any ordinary tree spirit would never allow such a thing to happen.

“I know.” Lei Xiu shifted his body, avoiding Qing Lin’s arm, and responded indifferently. Of course he knew that Le Zhi was actually very powerful, perhaps even more powerful than everyone present.

However, being strong is not a reason to suffer.

Lei Xiu silently rebuked himself, completely forgetting the ruthless things he had done in his pursuit of becoming stronger. Deep down, Lei Xiu only wanted Le Zhi to live a peaceful life under his protection.

Although he knew that hardship was essential for Lezhi to become stronger, Lei Xiu just couldn't convince himself to let Lezhi suffer any hardship. All of this was because he wasn't strong enough.

As an elder in the clan, Le Chu saw through Lei Xiu's thoughts. Although she agreed with Lei Xiu to some extent, reason prevailed over emotion. "Lei Xiu, I know what you're thinking, but don't go too far. No matter how close the relationship or how deep the bond, Le Zhi is still an independent individual. He needs to grow, and no one, not even you, can stop him from doing that."

Knowing that his secret had been exposed, Lei Xiu frowned but did not answer.

"Here's what you've thought about my suggestion. The hunting tournament starts today, so I suggest you take advantage of this time to come and help me out. You have Le You and the others with you, as well as Qing Ze and Qing Ping to help you. As long as you stay within the Windwalker Clan's territory, there shouldn't be any problems," Le Chu suggested.

His purpose was clear: he wanted Lei Xiu to give Le Chu some space, "so that we can see what Le Zhi can do on his own without you. That way, you won't have to follow Le Zhi around like a frightened bird all day long. He will soon be past his cub stage, and when he officially enters his pre-adolescent stage, Le Zhi will have to face even more things. So it's time for him to take on some things on his own, isn't it?"

Le Chu's words weighed heavily on Lei Xiu's heart. He had indeed been keeping a close eye on Le Zhi lately, to the point that even Le Chu couldn't stand it anymore.

Lei Xiu closed his eyes with difficulty, thought for a while, and nodded, agreeing with Le Chu's suggestion, "I understand."

Lezhi, who inexplicably became the center of attention, had no idea what had happened. From that day on, Lei Xiu stopped being inseparable from him and started leaving early and returning late. This continued for two days, and today Lei Xiu even went further, directly asking Qinglin to convey a message that he was going to leave the clan for a few days and would not be returning for the time being.

"Lei Xiu just disappeared without a word, without even telling you what happened?" Le You stirred the bubbling meat sauce in the pot while glancing at Le Zhi's expression out of the corner of his eye.

"No." Lezhi propped himself up on his arms and kneaded the dough in his hands, trying to make it more elastic. A couple of days ago, he finally remembered how to make sourdough starter and successfully rose a lump of dough. Today, he was going to try making some leavened pastries.

The simplest of all is steamed buns. The dough in his hand was the last bit of flour he had left; the rest of the wheat hadn't been husked and ground yet. Lezhi was waiting for Lezhong's results, which, according to the information he sent, should be completed in the next day or two.

By digging out the general process of making steamed buns from the remaining memories, Lezhi realized that this was her first time making them, so she could only learn by trial and error, and so far it seems to have been a success.

Moreover, kneading dough requires strength, which would allow Lezhi to vent his frustrations. Lei Xiu had mentioned it to him before, saying that he would be helping the clan leader with something related to the hunting tournament.

"He's probably busy. I asked Qinglin, but he didn't know either. He can only be sure that he's not in the Fengxing Clan's territory."

Lei Xiu seemed a little absent-minded at the opening ceremony of the hunting tournament that day. Although his expression remained unchanged as usual, Le Zhi intuitively felt that something was wrong with Lei Xiu, but he couldn't guess exactly what was wrong unless Lei Xiu said so.

Originally, I was planning to observe them more closely when they were alone together, and I would be happy to help if there was anything I could do.

As a result, Lei Xiu did not give him the chance at all. As soon as the opening ceremony ended and the Qinglin clan chief announced this year's theme, the participants began to prepare for team formation in a hurry. Lei Xiu was also called away by someone. It wasn't until late at night that Le Zhi finally fell into a deep sleep and returned home through the fog.

Thus, Lezhi, whose plans had been interrupted, had not found a suitable opportunity to talk to Lei Xiu. Today, things got even worse; Lei Xiu had simply disappeared without a trace, which was driving Lezhi's obsessive-compulsive disorder to the brink of madness.

So, she hadn't originally planned to make pastries, but in order to keep herself occupied, Lezhi started experimenting anyway.

Seeing the emotions in Lezhi's subordinates, Leyou quickly looked away and thought to himself, "Never mind, I don't dare to ask any more questions. Let Lezhi do what he wants. It's better for me to mess with dough than to mess with people."

Meanwhile, Lei Xiu, who had been trailing several squads for miles, felt a sudden itch on his nose and a strange urge to sneeze. However, he was on a mission and his strong self-control allowed him to suppress it.

The sneeze that was about to come out didn't come out. Even Lei Xiu's eyes were slightly moist, and his nasal cavity felt sore.

Having no idea about Lei Xiu's movements, Le Zhi finally calmed down a bit during the tedious and repetitive work. After putting the shaped and successfully fermented steamed buns into the steamer, Le Zhi asked Le You to help keep track of the time before taking Le Ting to find Le Zhong.

Just now, Le Zhong specifically sent someone to inform them that the shell-removing machine they had agreed on was ready, and that Le Zhi should come to see him when he had time. Le Ting, who was in charge of delivering the message, was in high spirits. He successfully defeated Le You and Le Nian, who were also going to see the machine, and with Le Ju's leniency and concession, he won the right to be the first to see the machine.

"I wonder if Uncle Lezhong's machine will be easy to use. I'm really looking forward to it."

"It should be fine. I even gave Uncle Lezhong some prickly prickly seeds so he could do some experiments."

"Hopefully. By the way, Lezhi, Uncle Lezhong is helping with this. How much supplies will you be contributing? Shouldn't we share the cost? We can't let you pay for it all yourself."

Le Ting was unaware of the agreement between Le Zhong and Le Zhi, so when she suddenly thought of this, she began to calculate in her mind the profits they had made since they started their stall, trying to persuade Le Zhi to share the profits.

Seeing Le Ting's wrinkled little nose, Le Zhi shook her head, "No need, Uncle Le Zhong and I have an agreement, I can do this machine myself. Besides, the wheat is mine too, at worst we can exchange the flour I provide with public supplies."

This suggestion is much more reliable than pooling money to buy machines, since their stalls have a limited lifespan, and simply purchasing consumable supplies is more cost-effective.