Lu Liding was left somewhat stunned by what he heard.
"A past life?"
He looked the boy over again, layers of shock mounting in his eyes.
He suddenly felt this child was rather strange.
At only twelve or thirteen years old, one moment he spoke like a street rascal.
The next moment, he displayed an indescribable sharpness and understanding.
Just earlier, he had dared to talk back to Li Mochou and risked his life to block the Ice Soul Silver Needle.
After being poisoned, he hadn't cried or made a scene, and was even sitting here making jokes now.
An absurd thought even popped into Lu Liding's head.
"Could this kid... be some senior martial arts master who regained his youth?"
He stared at Yang Guo for a long moment.
He stared so long that Yang Guo began to feel unsettled:
"Manor Master Lu, is there something on my face?"
Lu Liding snapped back to his senses. "No."
Yang Guo rubbed his face.
"Then why are you staring so long?"
Lu Liding let out a cough and turned to shout:
"Uncle Fu!"
"Go to the accounting room!"
"Fetch fifty taels of solid silver!"
The moment these words were spoken...
...the heads of the three little beggars beneath the tree jerked upward in unison!
Their movements were completely in sync, no different from frogs suddenly poking their heads out of a mud pond.
The old housekeeper had just taken his order and jogged off.
Aniu immediately pressed his head to Yang Guo's ear, swallowing hard as he whispered:
"Yang Guo... my ears aren't playing tricks on me, are they? Did he say fifty taels? Not fifty copper coins?"
Yang Guo glanced at him sideways.
"Yeah, bright white solid silver."
The tattered cattail fan in Little Shitou's hand froze midair, his eyes wide and round:
"Fifty taels..."
"How many meat buns can that buy?"
Yang Guo was originally rolling his eyes from the pain, but hearing Little Shitou's words, he was coaxed into laughter despite his annoyance:
"Your ambitions in this life stop right at meat buns."
"No wonder your face is lined with bun folds."
Before long, the old housekeeper came running back panting, cradling a heavy black cloth bag in his hands.
Lu Liding took it and presented it to Yang Guo with both hands.
"Little Brother, these fifty taels of silver are not meant to repay your life-saving favor."
"A life-saving grace is greater than heaven itself; calculating it with money would be degrading to you."
"You were poisoned by Li Mochou."
"However, my martial arts are modest, and I do not know the ways of neutralizing poison."
"Take this silver and go seek out the best medical hall in Jiaxing City to buy the finest herbs to treat your poison."
"If it isn't enough to spend, as long as Lu Manor hasn't fallen, you may come fetch more at any time!"
Yang Guo gave Aniu a look beside him:
"What are you standing there for? Take it."
Aniu hurriedly reached out with both grime-covered hands to receive it.
The moment the bag hit his hands, its heavy weight nearly pulled him forward off balance.
Yang Guo slowly raised his uninjured left hand and solemnly cupped his fist:
"Manor Master Lu is straightforward; I accept your generous gesture."
"The three of us are indeed short on money to survive."
"If I tried to act like those noble heroes who perform favors expecting nothing in return and adamantly refused to take it, that would be fake hypocrisy."
"And pretty stupid, too."
Lu Liding hadn't expected him to be so blunt and was stunned for a moment.
Yang Guo continued:
"I will use this money to heal my injuries."
"Whatever is left will be enough for us to live well for a while."
Lu Liding looked at him and suddenly smiled:
"Good. Since Little Brother is willing to accept it..."
"...it actually makes my heart feel more at ease."
Lu Liding originally wanted to have someone escort them out, but Yang Guo waved his hand in refusal.
After the three of them took a few steps, Yang Guo stopped again.
He turned back to glance at Lu Liding and his wife; both of their complexions looked grim.
Lu Liding in particular kept casting his gaze beyond the courtyard wall.
Yang Guo understood at a glance, squeezing out a thread of strength to speak:
"Manor Master Lu, set your mind at ease."
"I don't think Li Mochou will harm your daughter and niece."
Lu Liding abruptly turned his head back, tears welling up in his eyes:
"Why do you say that, Little Brother?!"
Yang Guo twitched the corners of his lips:
"If Li Mochou really wanted to kill them..."
"...she could have killed them right here. There would be no need to go to the trouble of carrying them away."
"Since she took them, it means that after seeing that embroidered handkerchief..."
"...she still had other thoughts in her heart."
"She acts recklessly and violently, but she does not kill purely for the sake of killing."
"If she truly disregarded all past affection..."
"...there wouldn't be so many survivors left at Lu Manor today."
These words were indeed something Lu Liding could not refute.
Yang Guo shuffled half a step forward:
"Heal your injuries first."
"As long as people are still alive, there is always a chance to meet again."
Lu Liding's body trembled violently. The tears in his bloodshot eyes could no longer be contained, streaming down through the bloodstains on his face.
All day long, his ears had been filled with disastrous news of death and extinction.
Yet these few sentences spoken by the youth before him were vastly different from his wife's grim assumptions.
Instead, they became a lifesaving straw keeping his hope alive.
"Thank you... thank you, Little Brother!"
...
Yang Guo and the other two stepped out of the grand entrance of Lu Manor.
Just as they turned past the front street, Yang Guo's legs wobbled violently, his knees giving out as he was about to collapse forward.
Aniu was quick on his feet, stepping forward so his broad back pressed right against Yang Guo's chest.
"Yang Guo, get on, I'll carry you."
Yang Guo said, breathing heavily:
"I'm fine, my foot just slipped."
Little Shitou lowered his head and rubbed his foot against the ground. "It isn't slippery here."
Yang Guo wanted to flick Little Shitou on the forehead, but unfortunately didn't have the strength to reach him:
"You kid, did you really have to expose me?"
Aniu turned his head and patted his shoulder:
"Get on. In the past when I was sick and couldn't walk..."
"...wasn't it always you carrying me?"
"Today it's my turn to carry you."
Yang Guo said no more, obediently resting against Aniu's sturdy back.
Little Shitou supported him with one hand from behind.
With his other hand, he tightly clutched the cloth bag filled with fifty taels of fine silver to his chest.
The moon was completely obscured by dark clouds.
The three young boys stumbled forward against the piercing, icy night wind, heading toward the medical halls in Jiaxing City.
Lying on Aniu's back, whether from sheer exhaustion or the poison taking hold, Yang Guo gradually fell fast asleep.
Seeing Yang Guo fall unconscious, Aniu thought he was dying and began jogging even more anxiously.
By now it was late into the night, and all the medical halls in Jiaxing City were closed.
Even the dogs on the street had curled up in their dens.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
A desperate pounding on a door suddenly shattered the quiet.
Little Shitou threw his whole body against the wooden door, pounding frantically with his fists.
"Open up! Doctor, save a life!!"
A rustling sound came from inside, accompanied by an impatient curse:
"Are you trying to summon ghosts?! It's the middle of the night! If you're not sleeping, come early tomorrow!"
Aniu's eyes turned red with anxiety, and he raised his leg to deliver a violent kick.
Bang!
The whole wooden door shook violently, the bolt creaking loudly.
"He'll be dead and cold by tomorrow!"
"What the hell are we seeing you for then?!"
The door was finally pulled open a half-finger-wide crack.
A physician draped in a padded coat held up an oil lamp, poking out half of his sleep-deprived face.
The lamplight swept downward, falling right upon Yang Guo.
Yang Guo was slumping over Aniu's back, his face pale and his right arm tinged with greenish-black.
The physician's eyelids twitched violently as he asked:
"Th-This... what bit him?"
Little Shitou cried out with tears in his voice:
"He wasn't bitten! It's the Scarlet Maiden's Ice Soul Silver Needle!"
All drowsiness vanished from the physician's face instantly.
"The Scarlet Maiden?!"
The physician's hand trembled so badly he didn't even bother with polite excuses.
Bang!
The door slammed shut on the spot.
Little Shitou hurriedly kept pounding on it:
"Hey!"
"Open the door!"
A voice came from inside:
"Can't treat it!"
Aniu bellowed angrily:
"You didn't even take a close look!"
The physician inside said, "Hearing the name is enough!"
Aniu had no choice but to rush toward a second medical hall.
This time, the people inside stubbornly refused to open the door, shouting through the wooden planks to interrogate them:
"Who is it? What terrible illness is it?"
Little Shitou yelled through the crack of the door:
"It's a poisonous needle from the Scarlet Maiden, Li Mochou!"
Silence fell inside.
Little Shitou shouted:
"Doctor, open up!"
The person inside said:
"How unfortunate, there's no doctor in here."
Aniu was so furious his nose went crooked, pointing at the door crack as he hollered curses:
"Wasn't that you answering just now?!"
The person inside said:
"I'm just a sweeping apprentice. I don't know medicine, so I can't help."
"Go look somewhere else."
Aniu was so enraged he was about to pound on the door again, but Little Shitou stopped him, saying:
"Don't waste breath on him, let's go look somewhere else."
They ran to seven medical halls in a row.
It was as if all the medical halls in Jiaxing City had reached some kind of tacit agreement.
The moment they heard "Li Mochou" or "Scarlet Maiden," they even blew out their oil lamps.
They weren't willing to risk their own necks for a few poor beggars.
Rate on N.U.
