Xiao Li looked at Wen Yu’s skin tone that had darkened a shade, as well as those red dots on her face, and asked hesitantly, “Your face…”

On that rainy night when they were being pursued, under the firelight, the rash marks on her face had clearly faded to the point of being almost invisible. Now they looked much worse again.

Wen Yu explained, “To avoid complications, I applied pot ash and flower petal juice.”

Only then did Xiao Li feel relieved. It was good that she wasn’t using cat fur to make herself allergic anymore. Not only would that be suffering, but those rebels searching with her portrait didn’t seem to just give a cursory glance before letting people go—they would carefully compare facial features and contours against the portrait.

Even if she ruined her own face, she probably couldn’t evade the searches.

Wen Yu simply heated up some food for Xiao Li, then went to the courtyard again to help.

The youth called A’niu followed the scent and glanced toward the kitchen. Looking at the bowl in Xiao Li’s hands, he swallowed with difficulty. Only when the old woman called him did he rather unhappily purse his lips, turn his head back, and continue working.

Xiao Li had only thought this youth had a childish nature, but soon he discovered that the youth very much liked to stay close to Wen Yu.

Precisely because of his childlike temperament, Wen Yu didn’t show any distance toward him either, but instead spoke to him in gentle tones.

That youth would also find opportunities to fiddle with the carp pendant hanging at Wen Yu’s waist. Wen Yu would only smile and shake her head, saying something to the youth, who would then blush and scratch his head with an honest smile.

Xiao Li found it inexplicably grating to watch.

He hastily finished his meal and also went over to help.

When the old woman saw him, she repeatedly refused, saying, “Young man, your injuries haven’t healed yet. Go back to your room and rest. How can we let you do these things?”

Xiao Li calmly sat down right next to Wen Yu, picked up fresh medicinal herbs scattered on the ground, and said, “I’ve been lying down for two days. My bones feel like they’re falling apart. Doing some work to stretch my muscles and bones is good.”

Unable to persuade him to leave, the old woman smiled and taught him how to process the herbs.

During this time, A’niu found an opportunity to try to pull at the wooden fish pendant hanging at Wen Yu’s waist. Suddenly feeling a chill at the back of his neck, he turned around to see that man who had recently awakened looking at him with a cold smile.

A’niu instinctively withdrew his hand, like a child caught doing something bad, lowering his head to continue cleaning the medicinal herbs.

Seeing that it was getting late, the old woman went to the kitchen to prepare dinner. Wen Yu followed in to help. A’niu seemed to feel inexplicably afraid staying with that injured young man, and his palm-leaf-fan-sized feet shuffled a bit, wanting to go to the kitchen.

But that young man called out to stop him with a clear and bright smile: “There are some other medicinal herbs over here. I don’t know how to process them. I must trouble little brother to stay and teach me a thing or two.”

Although A’niu was somewhat afraid of him, his mind was simple and straightforward. Hearing that he wanted to learn how to process medicinal herbs, he picked up a plant to demonstrate: “You have to do it like this…”

Xiao Li watched with a warm smile, then suddenly asked, “Why do you always fiddle with the things that sister is wearing?”

A’niu’s face immediately flushed bright red. He also stopped processing the herbs and said in a muffled voice, “I… I’ll go to the kitchen to help my grandma…”

He wanted to get up, but that young man with a smile on his face placed a hand on his shoulder. He tried his hardest to push up, but couldn’t stand up at all.

Looking again at that young man’s clear and handsome face, A’niu suddenly felt even more afraid. Like a bullied child, he asked aggrievedly, “Why are you pressing on me and not letting me get up?”

Xiao Li didn’t remove his hand from his shoulder, maintaining an extremely reasonable demeanor: “It’s because you haven’t answered my question yet.”

A’niu lowered his head and refused to speak further. His massive body curled into a ball, actually carrying a rather pitiful air.

Xiao Li raised an eyebrow slightly and said, “A dignified seven-foot man—surely you’re not going to cry, are you?”

A’niu said in a muffled voice, “I… I am not!”

The evening breeze stirred the hair at Xiao Li’s forehead. He stared at the big youth before him and said, “That sister is a young lady. She treats you as a child, which is why she indulges you in every way. But you’re not actually a child—how can you be so handsy with her? In the future, if you act this way toward other young ladies, they’ll report you to the authorities, and you’ll have to take a beating!”

A’niu became somewhat anxious and tore apart the medicinal herb in his hands, saying with his head lowered, “I didn’t…”

Xiao Li said, “I saw it.”

A’niu sniffled and confessed, “I… I wanted sister’s wooden fish pendant, but sister said it was given to her by a very important person and she couldn’t give it to me.”

Xiao Li froze.

Just then, Doctor Tao returned from the medicine field with a bamboo basket hanging on his hoe handle. Seeing his foolish grandson tearing at the herbs, he immediately huffed and glared, scolding, “You wastrel! Are those herbs for you to tear apart and play with?”

A’niu was so frightened that he immediately hid the torn herbs behind his back, weakly saying, “A’niu… A’niu didn’t…”

Probably because of being misunderstood repeatedly, his eyes even reddened a bit, looking very much like if Doctor Tao scolded him one more time, he would burst into tears.

Xiao Li intervened at the right moment, standing up and cupping his fists toward Doctor Tao: “So it was you who saved this youngster’s life.”

Doctor Tao looked at Xiao Li’s complexion and stroked his beard, saying, “You can get out of bed this quickly? It must be because you martial artists have your own internal cultivation methods for tempering the body. Ordinary people injured as severely as you couldn’t recover this fast.”

Xiao Li was quite confused: “Tempering the body?”

Doctor Tao looked at him rather strangely: “When I took your pulse earlier, I could see you should be a practitioner with solid internal martial arts skills. Your physique far exceeds ordinary people’s. Yet you don’t know about the martial arts you yourself practice?”

Xiao Li thought back to those years in prison being taught by that crazy old man in a delirious manner, and said, “The elder who taught me had gone mad. I followed him and learned martial arts for several years in a half-understanding way, and I don’t know anything about internal martial arts. It’s just that whenever I channeled my energy, that elder would instruct where to channel the energy, where to store it, and where to release it from.”

To say “instruct”—in reality, whenever he did something wrong, the chains on the crazy old man’s body would strike heavily at the place where he needed to channel his energy.

That pain sensation, like his bones were being shattered—after experiencing it once, he never wanted to experience it a second time.

He remembered the pain, so later when practicing boxing and channeling energy, he always got it right in one go.

Doctor Tao stroked his beard and said, “That’s it then. When practicing martial arts, the energy flows through the body’s meridians—that is tempering the body. It’s much stronger than relying solely on brute force.”

He put down his hoe and medicine basket, walked over, and said, “Come, come, let this old man take your pulse again.”

Xiao Li extended his hand. After Doctor Tao’s hand rested on his wrist for a moment, he looked at him strangely: “Did you use forceful strength after waking? How is it that from your pulse, your blood and energy are chaotic, and the wounds on your body seem to have seeped blood?”

Xiao Li thought of how he had used some force earlier to hold down that youth, and coughed lightly: “Perhaps I inadvertently pulled at my wounds when getting up.”

Wen Yu came out from the kitchen, calling A’niu to help move a table to the courtyard. A very faint smile seemed to linger at her lips as she said to everyone, “Let’s continue processing the medicinal herbs later. Dinner will be ready soon.”

After she went inside, Doctor Tao sighed and said, “Your physical foundation is good, but you must also take care. During the two days you were unconscious, your wife’s face didn’t show a smile even once. Even if not for yourself, you shouldn’t make her worry. A’niu’s father died in conscription more than ten years ago. When his mother learned the news, she fell ill and couldn’t recover. Later she passed away, leaving only me and the old woman—these two sets of old bones—to raise A’niu.”

Although he knew that Wen Yu and he were only putting on an act, hearing that Wen Yu had been melancholy during his injury and coma, Xiao Li still felt his heart being forcefully gripped by something.

He felt he was somewhat like drinking poison to quench thirst.

Knowing full well it was wrong to sink deeper, yet that little bit of care seemed to become spider silk binding its prey.

He had merely been touched by a single strand, yet couldn’t break free, left only with the fate of being defeated and stripped of armor.

After dinner, Wen Yu probably understood that facing the rescue and shelter provided by Doctor Tao’s family, they currently had no way to repay this kindness. When she wanted to take on the task of cleaning up the kitchen, she was taken over by Xiao Li.

When he finished cleaning up and went outside, the medicinal herbs outside had been processed, and those dried in winnowing baskets had also been brought inside.

The old woman sat on a low stool mending clothes. Wen Yu was learning to recognize more medicinal herbs with Doctor Tao. A’niu sat on the doorstep like a pug dog, looking at the old woman for a while, then looking at Wen Yu and Doctor Tao.

When Xiao Li called out to him while leaning against the kitchen door, he instinctively wanted to run into the house.

But Xiao Li asked him, “You also want a wood carving pendant?”

The foot A’niu had stepped inside withdrew again. Looking at Xiao Li with a mixture of longing and fear, he nodded.

Xiao Li took out a kitchen knife and a section of wood he had found in the kitchen, asking, “What kind do you want?”

A’niu’s pair of bright, round eyes stared at the wood in Xiao Li’s hands, all his thoughts written on his face.

He wasn’t afraid of Xiao Li anymore and sidled over like a little dog, saying, “A’niu… A’niu wants a big tiger!”

Xiao Li refused without mercy: “Can’t do that. Choose something simpler.”

A’niu scratched his ears and cheeks thinking for a while, then gestured: “Then I want a little dog!”

The corners of Xiao Li’s lips seemed to lift slightly as he said, “Wait.”

He picked up the knife and in the darkening twilight, carved into the wood with extreme focus.

—

Wen Yu bid farewell to Doctor Tao and his wife the next day, and also used the only remaining valuable items on her person to exchange with them for some medicines that might be useful on the road.

Granny Tao had originally wanted to just give them to her, but Wen Yu knew well that the old couple were already elderly, and A’niu was a simpleton. Survival wasn’t easy for this household of old and young. They couldn’t yet repay the kindness of rescue and shelter—how could they take people’s things for free on top of that?

Learning that they were leaving, A’niu’s eyes turned red with urgency. He returned the little dog wood carving that Xiao Li had carved for him: “A’niu doesn’t want it anymore. You… don’t leave!”

Amid her sadness at parting, Wen Yu was also somewhat surprised. She hadn’t known when Xiao Li had carved a little dog for this youth.

Xiao Li stuffed the little dog carving back into A’niu’s hands, patted his shoulder, and said, “Silly boy, I originally had a younger brother too, about your age. But he never cried. From now on, don’t cry at the drop of a hat either. Take good care of your grandma and grandpa.”

A’niu held the wood carving and haphazardly wiped his eyes with his elbow: “A’niu… won’t cry.”

Xiao Li said, “If there’s a chance in the future, I’ll come back to see you.”

After speaking, he looked at Doctor Tao and his wife: “You two elders need only see us off to here.”

Wen Yu didn’t know when going to Southern Chen, how long it would be before she could return to the Central Plains. She didn’t dare make the same promise as Xiao Li to come back and see them. She could only look at the old couple and say, “Take good care of yourselves.”

Granny Tao wiped her eyes and said, “You must be careful on the road and not encounter bandits again…”

Doctor Tao scolded, “You old woman, mentioning whatever shouldn’t be mentioned!”

“You old codger, I’m just telling the two children to be careful…”

Listening to the old couple bicker, the sorrow of parting in Wen Yu’s heart dissipated somewhat. After bidding farewell to the Tao household of three once more, she set out with Xiao Li on the road to continue south.

The early spring flowers in the mountains and fields had already bloomed. Walking on the road, she asked Xiao Li, “Why did you suddenly think of carving a wood carving for that child?”

Xiao Li looked straight ahead and said, “Didn’t he always want your carp pendant?”

Wen Yu didn’t know how he had gotten A’niu to talk, and decisively dropped this topic.

But the two of them probably truly had bad luck. Every time they found shelter after difficulties, they said they had encountered mountain bandits. Who would have thought that several days later, passing through a mountain ridge, they actually encountered highway robbers.

Fortunately, they were only three small-time bandits who posed no great threat.

After the realm fell into chaos, local government offices and mountain chiefs everywhere had raised their flags, leaving ordinary common people with no way to make a living. So those who joined the military joined the military, and those who became bandits became bandits.

These three had originally been mixing in a mountain stronghold to make a living, but the local uprising government office and mountain chiefs fought over who was stronger. In the end, the mountain chief was defeated.

These small-time thugs, seeing the situation was bad, quickly ran away. Using their former reputation, they took up the trade of highway robbery.

Although Xiao Li was injured, he still easily dealt with the several men.

Seeking to preserve their lives, the men pulled out the few taels of broken silver they had on them. Crying and kowtowing, they said, “Hero, we won’t dare again! We’re just trying to find a way to survive! We haven’t harmed any lives yet. We beg the hero to be merciful and spare our lives!”

Xiao Li handed the silver the men offered to Wen Yu, waiting for her decision.

After hearing the men recount the circumstances of their highway robbery, Wen Yu’s thoughts became more active. She asked, “Pei Song has already broken Mengzhou, and Xiangzhou is also besieged. The entire area south of the Wei River is already in his pocket. His troops have also been constantly appearing in various major prefectures recently. You say the Prefect of Xinzhou proclaimed himself King of Anshan—does he have the guts to clash head-on with Pei Song?”

The small-time thugs kneeling and kowtowing on the ground didn’t dare raise their heads, crying, “What the King of Anshan is thinking… we don’t know either. However, we heard that Pei Song seems to have been assassinated in Dingzhou. Xinzhou is quite far from the Wei River area where Pei Song has stationed his troops, so the King of Anshan probably wanted to take a gamble…”

Hearing that Pei Song had been assassinated, Wen Yu’s expression immediately changed!