Aniu didn't stop, continuing to sprint with Yang Guo on his back.
Turning a street corner, a medical hall with a sign reading "Baohe Hall" came into view.
Aniu didn't even bother knocking anymore, delivering a kick straight to the door panel.
Boom!
One of the door panels snapped on the spot, and Aniu barged straight into the front hall with Yang Guo.
An old physician who was organizing the medicine cabinet was scared out of his wits, grabbing an abacus to shield his chest:
“Are you... are you here to rob the place?!”
With all this commotion, Yang Guo slowly woke up as well.
Aniu placed Yang Guo onto a chair and frantically shouted at the physician, “Doctor, save my brother! Quick!”
The old physician glanced down and caught sight of Yang Guo's arm, which was as black as charred coal. He frantically waved both hands:
“No can do!”
“No can do!”
“I cannot cure this poison!”
Aniu's eyes instantly turned red. “Take a closer look!”
The old physician said, “I really can't!”
Aniu snatched the money bag from Little Shitou's arms and slammed it onto the table:
“I'll give you silver!”
Clatter!
The silver slammed against the tabletop with a loud thud.
Even the old physician was stunned for a moment.
Aniu's voice trembled as he said:
“There are fifty taels of silver here!”
“It's all yours!”
“Just save him!”
Yang Guo leaned against the chair, his eyes slightly open.
He watched Aniu—who usually argued with people for half a day over two copper coins worth of steamed cakes—being so generous right now.
Suddenly, a surge of sour emotion welled up in his heart.
The old physician shook his head frantically in fear.
Aniu lunged forward, grabbing the old physician by the collar and crying out:
“If you don't save him today, I'll set fire to your lousy shop!!”
The old physician was so terrified his nose ran with snot:
“My young master! You must not do that!”
“It's not that I won't save him, I genuinely don't have the ability!”
“My plaque outside states it clearly: 'Specializes in bruises and sprains, conditioning for women's ailments'!”
“All my life, I've only treated superficial injuries and irregular periods! What this young master was poisoned with is an exotic martial world poison!”
“Even if you put my old bones in a pot and boiled them into soup, I couldn't conjure up an antidote!”
Lying across the table to the side, Yang Guo coughed and cursed with a weak laugh:
“Aniu... let go.”
“When did you turn so reckless?”
“The old master is an expert in women's medicine. Forcing him to cure an exotic poison is a bit too unreasonable.”
He forced himself to push off the table and stand up, saying:
“Old master, my apologies.”
“My brother here panicked and lost his head.”
Aniu clenched his back teeth and released the old physician's collar.
He turned around, loaded Yang Guo back onto his back, and bolted out without looking back.
Little Shitou grabbed the money bag and followed closely behind.
As Aniu ran, he blurted out:
“There are more medical halls in the north of the city! I refuse to believe there isn't a single doctor in this whole city who can cure this poison!”
Lying on his back, Yang Guo feebly tugged at his ear:
“Aniu, stop. Don't waste your energy.”
Aniu didn't slow down in the slightest, his voice thick with tears:
“What if... what if the next medical hall ahead can treat it?!”
Yang Guo could clearly feel that Aniu was trembling all over.
It wasn't trembling from the exhaustion of jogging with Yang Guo on his back—he was simply terrified.
Running behind them, Little Shitou didn't say anything, but his eyes and nose were already rubbed red.
These two boys were genuinely afraid that he would die.
Yang Guo gathered a breath and said softly:
“Can you two stop wailing over me as if I'm already dead?”
“I'm not dying yet.”
“I've suppressed the poison in my arm with inner energy; it can't move an inch further.”
“What I practice... is a supreme yang inner technique, which happens to suppress this kind of cold poison.”
“It's just that my cultivation is still shallow, so I can't purge all the poison at once.”
“I definitely won't die. It's just a matter of slowly grinding it away.”
Aniu stopped in his tracks.
Little Shitou jogged up a few steps from behind, looking up at Yang Guo with wide, eager eyes:
“Yang Guo, are you telling the truth?”
Yang Guo twitched the corner of his lips and uttered two words expressionlessly:
“It's fake.”
Aniu and Little Shitou lurched violently, both of their faces draining of all color in an instant as their knees turned to jelly.
Yang Guo chuckled, summoning a tiny bit of strength to lightly rap Aniu's head:
“Would lying to you make me live to a hundred?”
“If I were really about to breathe my last, would I still be in the mood to banter with you?”
“Let's go back.”
Aniu let out a long, heavy breath, his whole body going limp for a moment.
Only then did he turn around and step toward the ruined temple.
...
Five li south of the city, in the desolate wilderness.
The night wind blew through the window paper of the ruined cottage, howling like ghosts and wolves.
In the underground vegetable cellar behind the house, Da Wu and Xiao Wu huddled together, cowering in the damp cellar where they had been staying for over two shichen.
Although the two of them couldn't be called pampered young masters of luxury, Wu Sanniang had always taken good care of them, never letting them lack food or clothing.
When had they ever suffered like this?
It was dark and freezing in the cellar, and both of them were ravenous.
Da Wu clutched half a wilted yellow cabbage stalk in his hand, while Xiao Wu crunched on a muddy radish.
Xiao Wu swallowed a mouthful, tears pattering down onto his knees:
“Brother... I want to eat roast chicken... Why hasn't Mother come to pick us up yet?”
“Has Mother abandoned us?”
Da Wu sniffled, forcing back the tears in his eyes as he stuffed the mud-free cabbage heart to his younger brother:
“Don't talk nonsense!”
“Soon. Mother must have been delayed by something.”
“Her martial arts are so strong, she'll definitely come looking for us very soon.”
Before the words were even finished...
...a series of heavy, muffled footsteps suddenly echoed from the damp wooden floorboards overhead.
The two brothers' eyes lit up instantly!
Da Wu threw down the cabbage stalk in his hand and yelled at the top of his lungs in wild joy:
“Mother! You've finally come for us!”
Creak.
The wooden trapdoor covering the cellar was yanked open.
Cold, ghastly white moonlight spilled down through the opening of the cellar.
Above the cellar opening, a head poked in.
A head of white hair, with twisted rolls of flesh on his cheeks covered in scars that looked carved by knives and axes.
Da Wu and Xiao Wu's cheers ground to a sudden halt.
They saw that the person before them had no dark pupils at all, only two ghastly white irises staring dead into the cellar!
Ke Zhen'e remembered Wu Sanniang's deathbed entrustment and dared not delay for a second, rushing over in anxiety all the way.
He was deeply afraid of scaring these two poor children who had just lost their mother.
The old man forced a kindly elder's smile onto his scarred, fierce face.
The corners of his mouth stretched almost to his ears, his facial muscles twitching.
Immediately after, Hero Ke strained his naturally gong-like raspy voice, pitching it into a high falsetto and putting on a soft, coaxing tone:
“Children... don't be scared...”
“Grandpa Ke... has come to pick you up...”
Splat!
The half-eaten raw radish in Xiao Wu's hand dropped straight to the ground.
A dead silence hung in the air for half a moment.
The next instant...
“AAAAAH--!!”
“A GHOST!!”
Da Wu and Xiao Wu were terrified out of their wits, clinging to each other for dear life.
Two streams of warm, pungent liquid trickled down their padded trousers, splashing all over the ground.
Rate on N.U.
