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"Stop blathering and fix the flood already, and come back soon!" That did sound like her style, but Lin Yuan shook her head. It was her first time writing to Xia Zheng, and she didn’t want to scare him off by being too domineering, did she?

"Oh my, how should I write this?" Lin Yuan scratched her head in frustration, feeling as if she’d returned to her high school days, facing a pile of literature homework and essays, desperate and clawing at her head.

The little green bird perched on the window lattice, bored, preened its emerald feathers, twisted its body, and disdainfully presented Lin Yuan with its rear.

Outside the window, Lin Yi, who was dressed in simple work clothes and busying himself with sorting wood in the new room, carefully inspected the wood for dryness while his eyes occasionally flicked to the window.

Bending his head down again, he muttered, "She’s crumpled up eight pieces of paper already, can she even write? "

Inside, after crumpling up the fourteenth piece of paper, Lin Yuan finally nodded in satisfaction and gently blew on the few words on the small slip of paper: "I am well, take care of yourself, and I hope you will return soon."

She carefully rolled the note into a tiny scroll, cautiously took the little green bird out of its cage, and stuffed the scroll into a small cylinder on its leg.

Gently patting the bird’s round head, Lin Yuan giggled, "Little Green, be good, okay? This is your first mission, so you have to make sure these secret instructions reach Xia Zheng safely and successfully."

Little Green Bird, disdainful of the name Lin Yuan had given it, chirped twice and flapped its wings, ready to leave.

Suddenly, it was seized again, and Lin Yuan couldn’t help but add, "Oh Little Green, I forgot to tell you, you must watch out for hawks and doves and such on the way; those birds are way too big. It would be a mess if they ate you! I couldn’t care less about them eating you, but if my letter doesn’t reach Xia Zheng, I would be absolutely devastated.

So, Little Green, you have to be clever and make damn sure you don’t get caught and end up plucked and stewed, okay? "

The Little Green Bird’s legs went weak, and it pecked Lin Yuan’s fingertip ferociously in return. This silly owner, why was she so finicky? It was no ordinary bird; it had been on the battlefield delivering military intelligence before. Humph, she didn’t really give it enough credit!

Watching the Little Green Bird fly out the window, Lin Yi, who had conscientiously been checking the wood, suddenly held his stomach and hurried out of the yard.

Thinking he had a stomach issue, Lin Yuan didn’t say anything and went straight to the kitchen.

In a small grove nearby, Lin Yi called over another little bird, and detailed everything he’d seen Lin Yuan do while she was writing the note at the window—crumpling fourteen pieces of paper, scratching her head eighteen times, biting her writing brush twenty-three times, sighing thirty-six times.

He didn’t leave out a single word from what Lin Yuan said when releasing Little Green Bird and filled the tiny note back and front with dense writing before solemnly placing a period at the end.

After releasing the bird, Lin Yi let out a sigh, "Here I am, the Deputy Commander of the Hidden Guards, caught up doing housekeeper’s chores. Ah, a hero with no place to exert his skills!"

Unable to go into town, Lin Yuan was bored at home and suddenly thought of making some delicious treats for her younger sisters. She hadn’t had spicy strips in a long time, so she decided to start by making those. Then she could serve them with meals.

She used to adore spicy strips, but after foolishly learning how they were really made, she never bought the ready-made ones from the streets again.

But her cravings were intense, so during her free time, she figured out how to make spicy strips herself.

As she ground the soaked soybeans into soy milk, Lin Yuan imagined the spicy, chewy texture of the spicy strips and couldn’t help but drool.