Returning Home

Qin Fengming's safe return home filled his mother with wild joy. She gathered him into her arms, choking with sobs and unable to speak.

"Mother, I'm fine. Haven't I come back safely?" Qin Fengming comforted his mother through his tears in her embrace.

"It's good that you're all right, good that you're all right." His mother touched him all over with both hands and examined him carefully. Finding no injuries besides his torn clothes, she finally set her mind at ease.

Qin Fengming wiped away his tears and asked, "Where is Grandpa? Are his injuries serious?"

"Grandpa injured his leg and is lying in bed. Go see him quickly, so he can stop worrying."

Qin Fengming did not delay. He darted into Grandpa's room and saw Grandma sitting by the bed, helping Grandpa drink water.

"Grandpa, Grandpa, I'm back! How are your injuries?"

Hearing Qin Fengming call out, Grandpa propped himself up on his elbows and forced himself into a sitting position. He rubbed his eyes, and once he recognized Qin Fengming clearly, his face immediately blossomed with smiles, as though even his injuries had grown much lighter.

Grandma immediately pulled Qin Fengming into her arms, weeping as she asked whether he had been hurt.

It turned out that when the wild boar had knocked Qin Fengming off the cliff, Grandpa and his father had just closed in on it. Seeing Qin Fengming tumble down the precipice, both men were seized with panic and attacked the boar fiercely from behind with their steel forks.

Qin Hong stabbed the wild boar in the rump, only making it angrier. It spun around and charged straight at Grandpa. Grandpa remained calm and thrust his steel fork with all his strength at the boar's approaching eye.

Amid a spray of blood, one of the wild boar's eyes was pierced by the fork.

In its terrible pain, the wild boar still injured Grandpa through the force of its momentum. Its tusk tore open a huge gash in Grandpa's calf, exposing gleaming white bone within.

The wild boar was grievously wounded as well. Unable to spare any thought for attacking the two men again, it fled straight into the depths of the mountains.

Seeing his son fall off the cliff and his father injured, Qin Hong's heart ached beyond measure. He hurriedly inspected his father's wound and, seeing how serious it was, immediately found some medicinal herbs nearby. He chewed them into a pulp, applied them to the wound, and wrapped it with strips of cloth.

He then went to the cliff's edge and looked down, only to find it bottomless. He shouted downward several times, but received no reply.

Faced with that towering cliff, Qin Hong had no way to descend for the time being. He could only suppress the grief in his heart, move his father to a safe place first, then run back to the village to report the matter to the clan chief and request reinforcements.

As the grandfather and grandson recounted what had happened, Qin Hong and the villagers also received the news and gradually returned from the deep mountains.

Yet when they saw Qin Fengming, everyone discovered that there was not the slightest sign of injury anywhere on his body. At this sight, they were all greatly astonished.

Under everyone's questioning, Qin Fengming briefly recounted what had happened after he fell off the cliff. However, he skipped over the matter of eating the vermilion fruit and finding the little gourd. As for why, even Qin Fengming himself could not explain it.

When the villagers heard that Qin Fengming had killed a python nearly two zhang long by himself, they were all amazed and revealed looks of disbelief.

Qin Fengming did not argue. He simply took out the bag containing the snakeskin and gallbladder and placed it before them.

Seeing such a long snakeskin, everyone was dumbstruck. If an adult encountered such a massive python, fleeing for their life would be their only option. How could they not be astonished that a ten-year-old child had killed it?

Only then did Qin Hong have time to examine his father's injury. At first glance, he was shocked. Though medicinal herbs had already been applied to the wound, the injury was far too severe. Relying solely on the crude methods of mountain folk, it would be absolutely impossible to heal it.

After giving the family a few instructions and asking the villagers to look after them, Qin Hong immediately set off for a physician dozens of li away without wasting a moment.

Everyone waited until evening before they saw Qin Hong return, leading the village's old horse. Seated on the horse was an old gentleman of seventy or eighty, holding a small case in his arms. Though advanced in years, he was remarkably hale and hearty.

After carefully examining him, the old gentleman found the wound extremely serious. He pondered for a long time before prescribing a formula, with medicines for both external application and internal consumption.

Pointing at the prescription, the old gentleman said with hesitation on his face:

"Other than Dragon Tooth Grass—also called Immortal Crane Grass, which stops bleeding, strengthens the heart, fights bacteria, and expels parasites—the rest of these herbs should all be available at the medicine shops in Tenglong Town. As for Dragon Tooth Grass, we can only try our luck. If we truly cannot find it, then we will think of another way."

After dinner, Qin Fengming went to his father's room and heard his parents discussing their trip to Tenglong Town the next day to buy medicinal herbs.

Qin Hong sat on a small wooden stool and pondered for quite a while before saying, "If we sell the snakeskin and gallbladder Little Sanzi brought back, along with that mountain marten, the silver we get should be enough to buy the herbs. But whether we can find the Dragon Tooth Grass the old gentleman mentioned, we can only try our luck."

Listening to his parents' discussion, Qin Fengming became eager to go.

"Father, let me go with you tomorrow. I haven't been to town in a long time, and I miss Second Brother too."

Before Qin Hong could speak, his mother, seated beside him, said, "No. You just got back. You spent three days and three nights alone in the mountains, so you must be exhausted. You should stay home."

"I'm not tired. After one night's sleep, I'll be fine. Besides, I didn't suffer much in the mountains. Let me go, Mother." Qin Fengming hugged his mother and began to plead coquettishly.

After arguing for a long while, his mother saw that Qin Fengming truly wanted to go and said no more. She only gave him a round of instructions, telling him not to run around once they reached town.

Hearing this, Qin Fengming returned to his room brimming with joy. He sat by the bed, thinking about going to Tenglong Town the next day.

As he pondered, his hand unconsciously brushed against something on his chest. Startled, Qin Fengming remembered the little gourd. He shut the door, checked that no one was around, then took out the emerald-green gourd and placed it beneath the pine-oil lamp.

Under the lamplight, the entire gourd looked delicate and exquisite, an unusually lustrous green. The five clouds upon it shimmered with flowing radiance, as though they were drifting.

Holding the little gourd, Qin Fengming was filled with delight. He knew this little gourd had to be a treasure. Though he had the temperament of a child, he also knew that wealth should not be displayed. He made up his mind never to let anyone else discover its existence.

He picked up the little gourd and shook it hard. It seemed as though something was inside, though he could not be certain. He gripped the gourd in one hand and the stopper in the other, twisting with all his strength, but it still would not budge in the slightest.

What exactly was inside the gourd? That thought continued to tempt Qin Fengming.

So he found a small pair of fire tongs, clamped the stopper with them, and tried again with all his strength. Still, there was no sign of it opening. Looking at the emerald-green little gourd before him, Qin Fengming had no solution for the moment. He could only wait until he was stronger and try again to see whether he could open it.