Lost Forest 02: Her Name Was Ye Chuqi [Second Update]...

"That'll be ten gold coins, please."

Ye Chuqi could see perfectly well that the boy had nothing on him—not even a pocket. Unless he had a Portable Space too, he was even worse off than she had been at the start. Forget gold coins; he probably couldn't produce a single copper coin, let alone anything else to settle his debt.

The boy lowered his eyes. Without that vicious glare, he looked rather pitiful. Only then, in the dim light, did Ye Chuqi notice that his hair was gray too, with a strange sheen.

"It's fine if you don't have any money. You can owe me for now and pay me back once you've saved enough. I won't charge interest."

The boy: "..."

San San was already laughing like a squawking chicken in Ye Chuqi's sea of consciousness. Now this was the Ye Chuqi it knew. As long as she could talk, that little mouth of hers never stopped chattering. The language barrier must have had her practically bursting before.

Now that she had the chance, here she was picking on a kid. Hahahahaha!

Ye Chuqi casually snapped off a branch and handed it to the boy to use as a crutch. His legs were injured too, which was bound to hamper his movements.

"You'd better take good care of those injuries so you can earn some money and pay me back soon. Otherwise, all my medicine will have gone to waste."

That was a fair bit of money. Ye Chuqi wasn't opening a lion's maw and demanding an outrageous price, either. All the medicine she had used on the boy was top quality. Ten gold coins was already the friends-and-family rate.

Ye Chuqi took a few steps forward and noticed the boy following behind her on his crutch, his head hanging dejectedly. She smiled and quickened her pace.

Under San San's guidance, she quickly left the danger zone. Only after confirming that the high-tier magic beast hadn't been disturbed did Ye Chuqi breathe a sigh of relief. She also heard the boy's breathing growing increasingly labored behind her.

Finding a reasonably safe, level spot, Ye Chuqi stopped. "We'll rest here."

Only after acquiring this little shadow did Ye Chuqi realize she could no longer slip into her space to rest alone.

"Hahahahaha, you brought this on yourself," San San mocked her outright. "You're the one who saved him. You'll have to see it through, even if you cry the whole way. Hahahahaha!"

Ye Chuqi pursed her lips and turned to look at the boy. He stood there in an even sorrier state, stubborn yet fragile. She hadn't walked slowly along the way, and despite being covered in injuries, he had kept close behind her. Cold sweat now covered his forehead, washing streaks through the grime on his face, while his tightly pressed lips had turned a deathly, almost translucent white.

Ye Chuqi flicked a pebble at the boy's shoulder. There wasn't much force behind it, yet he toppled straight backward and hit the ground with a thud.

Ye Chuqi: "..." Was he trying to scam me?

Only when she approached to take a look did she discover that the boy had lost consciousness. His heavy breaths carried a scorching heat. He had a fever. Yet he hadn't made a sound the entire way. Stubborn indeed. Ah, being too stubborn only made it easier to suffer. It was the crying child who got the candy.

Ye Chuqi moved the boy onto level ground and covered him with a blanket before lighting a fire, boiling water, and brewing medicine. Though the medicinal powders she mixed weren't particularly effective, her decoctions worked quite well. Red Beard had been the perfect test subject—though the ingredients she was brewing this time weren't spirit plants, the results probably wouldn't be too different?

When the boy woke again, a rich aroma of food filled his nose, but an indescribable, sharp bitterness lingered in his mouth. His tongue was numb, and that numbness seemed to be spreading toward his throat. It was terribly uncomfortable.

He was hungry, so hungry that his insides were cramping, yet the bitterness made him want to vomit.

Ye Chuqi's voice came from nearby. "If you're awake, get up. I made meat soup."

The boy: I don't want to move. Everything is hopeless.

It felt as though no amount of delicious food could fill that hollow in his chest where the wind was pouring through.

"You're not expecting me to feed you, are you?" She had personally poured that bowl of medicine down his throat earlier. Pouring a bowl of meat soup down after it didn't seem out of the question.

The boy silently sat up. After a moment of blankness, he realized that the girl before him must have given him more medicine. The pain from his injuries had faded, and the sensation of his whole body burning had vanished too. Apart from the bitterness and hunger, nothing else seemed wrong.

He silently crouched opposite Ye Chuqi and stared blankly at the meat soup over the campfire.

When he wasn't losing his temper, the boy seemed gentle and docile through and through. But the moment he looked up, the sharp corners of his eyes revealed a viciousness steeped in hostility.

This boy had a pair of eyes that were particularly good at inviting hatred.

"There's water over there. Wash up first." He was so filthy that Ye Chuqi almost couldn't bear to hand him a bowl.

The boy silently walked aside again and washed his hands and face. His movements were a little too rough, reopening the wound on his face. Scarlet blood slid down his cheek to his chin, then dripped onto the hand he had just washed.

A trace of bewilderment flashed through the boy's fierce gray eyes. Only then did he raise a hand to cover his face, hiding the bleeding wound, and steal a cautious glance at Ye Chuqi.

Ye Chuqi suddenly understood that look. Her lips curved into a wicked smile, but her voice remained sweet and gentle. "You fainted from a fever earlier, so I brewed some medicine for you. Those medicinal ingredients cost about ten gold coins. Remember to add that to your tab."

The boy: "..."

"Come have some soup. This is free."

Seeing how the boy hid his wound, clearly unwilling to let her treat it, Ye Chuqi figured that if she said the meat soup cost money too, the kid wouldn't drink it even if someone beat him to death.

Chapter 18: Lost Forest 02: Her Name Was Ye Chuqi [Second Update]...

Red Beard's group had been a little luckier. Not only had they avoided being separated during the sudden mishap, but they had also been transported to the outskirts of the Lost Forest, not far from their destination, Monte City.

Their only loss was Ye Chuqi.

Even with his thick beard obscuring most of his face, it was obvious that Red Beard was in a foul mood. Although he had great confidence in Ye Chuqi's abilities, at a time like this, he couldn't forget that she was only a fifteen-year-old cub, and a seriously injured one at that. This was the Lost Forest, too. She was all alone, and he had no idea where the turbulence had thrown her.

Rankings

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Pocket dimension fiction

Transmigration and rebirth romance

Big Black Loves Eating Fish