Night Thief

Li Yuan felt as if he were about to die. His consciousness was hazy, his forehead scorching hot, and he was wracked by violent coughs.

Aunt Wang helped boil hot water.

Yan Niangzi cleaned his body, changed him into clean clothes, and let him lie down on the bed.

There was no doctor in Little Ink Village, so Yan Niangzi gave Aunt Wang a Big Coin and had her go to the county to fetch one.

A long while later, the County Doctor arrived.

But after arriving, he said nothing and did not sit down. He merely stood there impatiently, looking as though he would leave at any moment.

Seeing this, Aunt Wang hurriedly pulled Yan Niangzi aside and spoke to her.

Only then did Yan Niangzi understand. County doctors were unwilling to travel to places like Little Ink Village. Aunt Wang had only said the house-call fee was two Big Coins before he agreed to come.

Yan Niangzi hurriedly offered the doctor another Big Coin.

Aunt Wang watched from the side with an aching heart.

Two Big Coins... If spent carefully, that could feed them for half a month. What kind of house-call fee cost so much?

Only after seeing the money did the doctor sit down. After examining him for a while, he said, "It's not an illness. He is merely excessively starved, with depleted qi and blood. And from the looks of it, he may have encountered something and suffered excessive fright.

Since he is a hunter, perhaps he ran into a tiger, a Blind Bear, or something of the sort in the mountains. That would explain it."

Yan Niangzi froze.

A tiger? A Blind Bear?

Her man had tamed a tiger. Would he still be afraid of one?

But what had he seen that could frighten him so badly?

She remembered what Li Yuan had said that night about exploring deeper into the mountains. Suddenly, a shiver of dread rose in her heart.

Among the villagers, there was never any shortage of strange, taboo tales of spirits and ghosts.

Yan Niangzi suppressed the thought and asked, "Then, Doctor, what should we do now?"

"First, nourish him with rice porridge. Once his body recovers, then you can give him supplements."

"Does he need medicine?"

"His condition is rather serious. Ordinary medicine will not work. If you want medicine, it has to be good medicine."

"How much is one dose?"

"There are premium medicines.

But there are also medicines made specifically for Ranked Martial Warriors. They are more expensive, but their effects are better."

"How much?" Yan Niangzi looked at the doctor eagerly.

The doctor glanced at her twice and said, "The premium medicine costs three Big Coins per dose. To fully recover, he will need ten doses."

"What about the more effective kind?"

The doctor gave a low chuckle, contempt in his expression, as if saying, Can you even afford it?

But remembering that this household hunted for a living and might have some spare money, he said, "The medicine for Ranked Martial Warriors costs twelve Big Coins per dose. But it works quickly. You can try a few doses first."

Aunt Wang muttered, "Twelve Big Coins? Th-That's more than one tael of silver. Who can afford to treat such an illness? Are you taking advantage of us not knowing the market rates and deliberately overcharging us?"

The doctor felt a little guilty, but immediately said impatiently, "That is medicine for Ranked Martial Warriors. It works well. As for you people, you can simply choose not to buy any medicine."

With that, he hurriedly rose to leave.

He did not want to stay in this wretched place a moment longer.

Yan Niangzi looked at the doctor, then at Li Yuan lying on the bed.

Li Yuan had delivered goods to county restaurants with Uncle Wang several times before, so the family had indeed saved up some money.

But both she and Li Yuan knew that they could not casually reveal their wealth.

Yet things had already come to this...

What if Yuan Ge'er failed to pull through because of one wrong decision from her?

She looked at Li Yuan again, forced out a smile, and said, "Doctor, we'll buy it! Could you make it a little cheaper?"

The doctor asked, "Which one are you buying?"

Yan Niangzi gritted her teeth. "The best one."

"The best?" The doctor stared at her suspiciously, then said, "If you truly mean it, buy five doses first. I'll charge you fifty-eight Big Coins, two Coins off."

"Would fifty-five work?"

The doctor said, "Do you want it or not?"

"Make it a little cheaper."

"If not, I'm leaving."

Yan Niangzi said helplessly, "We'll take it."

"Where's the money?"

"We have it."

Afterward, Yan Niangzi took out the money and gave it to Aunt Wang. Aunt Wang then left her two children at Li Yuan's home, called over two men from the village, and went to the county with them.

By evening, Aunt Wang returned carrying five doses of medicine.

Yan Niangzi had already cooked foxtail millet porridge.

The two children had long since eaten every last drop of the porridge, even licking their bowls clean.

When Aunt Wang returned, Yan Niangzi served her another bowl of porridge, then went to brew the medicine herself.

The two women bustled about until Two Watches of the Night before they managed to help Li Yuan drink the medicine and settle down properly.

Yan Niangzi opened the door and saw Aunt Wang and her two children off to the fence. "Aunt Wang, thank you for your hard work."

Seeing the grief on her face, Aunt Wang comforted her. "Don't overthink it. It's good enough that your man came back. Not like mine... Ah."

After Aunt Wang left, Yan Niangzi tightly shut the door, placed a kitchen cleaver and a laundry beater beside the bed, then pulled out a bag of Lime Powder from beneath it. She had secretly obtained the Lime Powder in the village after Zhang Shisi's nighttime attack.

Then Yan Niangzi rustled out of her clothes, undid the seal around her chest, and climbed onto the bed.

The doctor had examined him. Yuan Ge'er was only depleted in qi and blood, so sleeping together should still be fine.

In the darkness, seeing her man lying turned inward, Yan Niangzi raised her hand. Her slender fingers gently curled around his waist as she embraced him from behind, and the two pressed tightly together like two shrimp huddled side by side.

Li Yuan did not sleep comfortably. The medicinal effects intended for Ranked Martial Warriors rapidly spread through his body, driving out the chill within him.

In the middle of the night, his entire body turned icy cold.

Even wrapped in a cotton quilt, he was still cold.

That cold aura from Deep Mountain Ancient Manor was seeping out and spreading.

Yan Niangzi woke from the cold. When she touched her man, her face immediately drained of color.

She gritted her teeth, hurriedly freed herself again, turned herself into a great furnace of warmth, and pressed herself against her man's chest to warm him.

Li Yuan dreamed that he was in an icy hell when suddenly... a sun appeared in that hell.

He desperately hugged that sun and squeezed it, drawing warmth from the only source of heat.

The next day, when he woke up.

Li Yuan was drenched in sweat and felt as though he had come back to life.

Yan Niangzi bustled around, cooking him meat porridge.

Smoke curled from the stove, footsteps came and went, and Yan Niangzi's pretty village-girl figure darted here and there. The mud-brick house was filled with the living breath of the human world.

That feeling was what pulled Li Yuan back to reality.

Yet his heart still felt heavy.

That corpse-like mountain manor deep in the mountains, along with that eerie sound of a door opening, gave him an overwhelming sense of terror and suffocation.

This world was extremely, extremely frightening, completely unlike what he had initially imagined.

If he had not stumbled onto that crooked trick of gaining memories through adding points and forcibly filled his mind with new awareness, he probably would have died on the road long ago.

"Sister Yan."

"Yuan Ge'er, are you feeling better?"

"Much better."

Li Yuan paused, then said solemnly, "We can't go into the mountains."

Yan Niangzi fell silent. "Then we won't go. Just focus on recovering."

Li Yuan answered softly and glanced at the data by his side.

Without a bow, his value had actually changed from "9~10" to "4(9)~5(10)."

It seemed injuries really did lower one's strength.

He looked into the distance again. While fleeing back, he had lost his bow, arrows, and Firewood Chopping Knife.

No matter what, he should recover first.

At least this time, he had not gained nothing. He had glimpsed one corner of this world's terror.

Li Yuan clenched his fists.

Since such terrifying things lurked in the deep mountains and old forests, there was only one path left: make money, then move to a residential area with better security and greater safety.

Night fell.

The moon was dark, and the wind was high.

Li Yuan had lain in bed all day, and his value had changed from "4(9)~5(10)" to "5(9)~6(10)."

Clearly, his body was not seriously injured. His recovery was remarkably fast.

At midnight, after a gentle and ordinary bout of lovemaking with Yan Niangzi, they rested.

But as he slept, Li Yuan's eyes suddenly flew open.

He was a Ranked Martial Warrior. Even injured, he was still one, and his five senses surpassed those of ordinary people.

At that moment, he clearly heard faint footsteps outside the door.

The footsteps stopped before the window for a while.

Through the oiled-paper window, Li Yuan could even see the shadow of a face pressed against it.

That face seemed to be peering inside through the gaps in the window.

After looking for a while, the face withdrew, and a finger lightly pressed against the oiled paper.

With a soft pop, the window paper was poked through.

Immediately afterward, a thin hollow tube slipped inside.

From the tube, streams of dizzying smoke were blown out.

Li Yuan's expression turned cold. He held his breath and pulled up the quilt, gently covering Yan Yu beneath it.

Yan Yu immediately woke, only for the man to cover her mouth.

A moment later, a soft clack sounded at the front door. The wooden latch was pried open, and a shadow darted inside.

By the dim moonlight, Li Yuan saw that the shadow held a kitchen cleaver gleaming with cold light, with "1~2" floating above his head.

The moment the shadow entered, he headed straight for the closed chest in the corner of Li Yuan's home.

He opened the chest and reached inside, about to feel around, when he suddenly sensed that something was wrong.

But before he could turn around, he felt something seize his head.

In the darkness, Li Yuan gripped the shadow's head with five fingers and violently slammed him downward.

Bang!!

The shadow crashed down onto the ground, his head striking the packed earth with a thud. He was left dazed and terrified out of his wits.

Malice surged in the shadow's heart. He grabbed the kitchen cleaver in his hand and hurriedly slashed backward.

But before he could strike.

Crack!!

A massive force hit the bend of his arm.

A crisp crack sounded from his arm. It had not broken, but it was dislocated.

The kitchen cleaver flew from his hand.

The shadow screamed.