Into the Inner Room

Lin Chongshu stood at the village entrance for a while.

He took off his coat, turned it inside out, and put it back on to hide the bloodstained bandages, making himself look more like someone traveling with a merchant caravan.

The village was small, with a few scattered households lined up along the puddles.

There was a small mud-brick shop at the entrance. A pot was set up outside, steaming away, while a middle-aged man arranged rice balls that had been prepared earlier on the counter to reheat them.

Lin Chongshu had not eaten a proper meal in days. Just looking at them made it hard for him to move on.

When the middle-aged man saw Lin Chongshu approaching, he merely looked him over.

Lin Chongshu had no cash on him, so he casually took out a thumb-sized gold coin and tossed it onto the table. "Two rice balls. That's enough, right?"

The owner took the gold coin, turned it over in his hand, then held it up to the fire beneath the pot to inspect its quality.

Just as Lin Chongshu reached for the rice balls, the man suddenly kicked at him.

Lin Chongshu twisted aside, and the kick brushed past his ribs. He took two steps back and glared angrily at the owner.

The man weighed the gold coin in his hand with a smile on his face.

He had been here for so long that he could tell at a glance whether someone belonged to a caravan.

A kid carrying gold, appearing alone in a rundown border village—if he did not rob him, all those years squatting here would have been for nothing.

"The quality's mediocre. This isn't worth two rice balls." He put the coin in his mouth and bit down on it, his eyes fixed on Lin Chongshu.

He was probably thinking that if this kid could pull out one gold coin, he might have more on him.

Lin Chongshu, who had been staring at the middle-aged man warily, suddenly relaxed when he saw him bite the coin.

"Didn't your mother teach you not to eat things strangers give you?"

Before the owner could react, he felt something slide down his throat. The gold coin clenched in his hand vanished as well.

"What's going on?" He looked down at his stomach, then back at Lin Chongshu.

Lin Chongshu stared at him and flexed a finger slightly.

The Gold Sand that had burrowed into the man's stomach suddenly churned, crashing wildly against the walls of his stomach.

The owner's face instantly turned liver-colored. He doubled over, clutching his stomach, and let out a hoarse howl.

Lin Chongshu walked over and fished two freshly reheated rice balls from the pot. He broke one open, revealing a small pinch of pickled vegetables inside, then took a bite.

After chewing Military Ration Pills and dried tobacco leaves in the desert, this mouthful of hot rice tasted better than anything.

[Detected that the host has bullied Shan Tianzhu. The target has lost the ability to resist and developed intense fear. Reward draw complete.]

[Obtained: Constitution +0.5]

Lin Chongshu chewed the rice ball and glanced down at the owner, who was still curled up on the ground.

The man's face was buried in the sand. He clutched his stomach and did not even dare breathe too loudly.

Lin Chongshu swallowed another bite, walked over, squatted beside him, and patted the sand from his shoulder.

"We're so fated to meet. Why don't you take me in for a few days, Shan Tianzhu?"

The owner lay prone on the ground, terror showing in his eyes as his lips trembled.

He wanted to speak, but the Gold Sand lodged against his stomach wall had not settled down. Even the slightest movement sent twisting pain through him.

He could only force a few muddled words from his throat. "You... you..."

"Don't mention it." Lin Chongshu stood, clenched the rice ball between his teeth, and headed toward the yard behind the shop.

The yard was not large, enclosed by mud-brick walls, with several bundles of firewood piled in one corner.

The door to the main house was ajar. Lin Chongshu pushed it open with his toe. The room was dim, the paper pasted over the windows yellowed with age, with only a few strands of sunlight leaking through holes.

A woman was sitting by the bed, breastfeeding.

She looked to be in her early twenties. Her skin appeared very pale in the dim light, and her features were delicate. Her hair was casually twisted into a bun behind her head, with a few loose strands hanging by her ears, stuck to her neck with sweat.

She wore a coarse cloth dress washed nearly white, and held an infant just a few months old in her arms.

Her body had not fully recovered from childbirth. Her waist was fuller than that of an ordinary woman, and the fabric stretched across her chest, rising and falling gently with each breath.

The delicacy of a young girl mingled with the ripe charm of a married woman, like fruit that had just ripened but was not yet fully mature.

Hearing the door, she looked up and saw a filthy teenage boy with sand still stuck to his face standing in the doorway. She was so startled that she nearly dropped the child in her arms.

She instinctively shrank toward the corner of the bed, protecting the baby's head with one hand while hurriedly pulling her collar closed with the other. "Who are you? How did you get in?"

"Let me use your place to heat a basin of water. I need a bath." Lin Chongshu stuffed the last bite of rice ball into his mouth and tipped his head toward the yard. "Your husband's lying outside. Go ask him."

The woman froze, her lips moving twice without making a sound.

Holding the baby, she rose and carefully slipped around Lin Chongshu, keeping as much distance from him as possible.

When she reached the doorway, she peeked outside and saw her husband curled up beside the stove, his face buried in the sand. One hand clutched his stomach while the other clawed at the ground. He wanted to get up but did not dare move.

"Go on." Lin Chongshu leaned against the doorframe, his tone even. "Heating a basin of water isn't much trouble."

The woman bit her lip, put the baby in the cradle beside the bed, and lowered her head as she passed Lin Chongshu.

She crouched before the stove and began lighting the fire to heat water. Her movements were light, as if she feared making any noise.

The flames leaped up, and steam slowly rose.

She crouched beside the stove, occasionally looking back toward the main house. Her gaze swept over the cradle before quickly withdrawing.

Lin Chongshu sat beside the stove and waited, taking off his coat and laying it over his knees.

The bloodstains on the clothes had long dried into hard crusts, mixed with sand. Whenever he shook them, dust fell in streams.

Two wounds, one on his chest and one on his back, were wrapped in bandages. The edges had yellowed from sweat and blood. Tearing them off pulled at his flesh painfully, but he gritted his teeth without making a sound.

If he screamed at a time like this, it would ruin his cool image.

The water was ready.

He found a wooden tub and immersed his whole body in it.

When the hot water washed over his wounds, the pain made him suck in a sharp breath. His fingers gripped the rim so tightly that his knuckles turned white.

But after the first wave of pain passed, the warm water wrapped around his skin. The sand, blood scabs, and sweat stains accumulated over the past few days melted away layer by layer, leaving a grayish-yellow foam floating on the surface.

He soaked with his eyes closed for a long while before finally scrubbing the grime from his body.

The woman made another pot of hot soup, a mixed porridge made by boiling leftover rice and vegetable leaves together, with a few thin slices of meat floating on top.

When she brought it over, she kept her head lowered and did not dare meet his eyes.

"You drink first!"

The woman looked confused. She clearly did not understand what Lin Chongshu meant, but she did not dare defy him, so she only took a small sip from the edge of the bowl.

Only after seeing her drink did Lin Chongshu pick up the bowl and noisily shovel down more than half of it.

Full and satisfied, he set the bowl on the table, stood, and walked over to the cradle. He looked down at the baby blinking inside.

The baby's skin was still wrinkled. Both tiny hands were raised beside its head, and its dark eyes stared at him.

He waved his index finger in front of the baby's face, then turned to the woman. "I'll hold the child for you. Let's go into the inner room."