Which Sweetheart Was That?

The Peddler's face was blackened and scorched, smoke rising from his hair as he pushed his cart forward.

The cart was not in much better shape. Its axle was crooked, both wheels were chipped, and it wobbled as it rolled.

A-Yi had shielded her face, leaving her looks unharmed, but her clothes had been blasted to shreds, barely covering the vital parts.

Cui Tike had injured his leg and limped along behind them, complaining all the way.

"Everything had been going extremely smoothly. At least a third of the people in the camp had already been infected with the lesion of Oral Instruction and Heartfelt Teaching. Who could have imagined an earthquake would suddenly happen? Who could have imagined you caused that earthquake!

"I had been running in an extraordinarily difficult posture at the time. Because of the earthquake, I fell straight to the ground and injured my leg.

"Many of my patients also fell to the ground. That had an extremely bad effect on the further spread of the disease!"

The Peddler said impatiently, "You've been nagging about this little crap the whole way. How was I supposed to know that explosive was so powerful?"

Cui Tike looked at A-Yi. "He didn't know. Did you not know either?"

A-Yi thought it over carefully. "I added some new ingredients to this batch of explosives. They were a little stronger than the explosives Li Qi used to blow up the altar. Honestly, I hadn't tested them before!"

Cui Tike grew somewhat angry. "Is that how you treat warfare? You brought an untested weapon onto such an important battlefield?"

A-Yi replied indignantly, "So what if it wasn't tested? It worked, didn't it!"

Cui Tike did not approve of A-Yi's thinking. "This isn't merely a matter of whether it works well or not.