Lin Yu turned to look at the boy, squatted down, and seeing that he was still breathing, used his supernatural powers to stop the bleeding.
With his strength restored, the boy asked in a hoarse voice, "Who... who are you? Why are you helping me?"
"I'm just a passing cultivator. This black bear has harmed many villagers, so naturally I have to intervene."
Although Lin Yu stopped the bleeding, his injuries were too severe; almost all of his internal organs were ruptured. Without Lin Yu, he wouldn't have lasted even half an hour.
"Do you have a grudge against it?"
Upon hearing the word "hatred," tears suddenly welled up in the boy's eyes. "That beast killed my father!"
"Last week, my dad went up the mountain to pick mushrooms and was captured by it. I searched for three days and only found my father's bloodstained clothes on the mountain..."
The boy suddenly sat up, pointing at the black bear. "Zhuzi and Ali's families were all killed by this beast! We promised to avenge them together! But... but they're all dead..."
Tears streamed down his cheeks, but he was completely unaware.
Lin Yu, a wisp of Spiritual Power gathering at his fingertips, gently touched the boy's chest to help him catch his breath. "Your injuries are too severe; your internal organs have ruptured. Even if the bleeding stops, you won't last half an hour."
"Am I... am I going to die?" The boy was stunned for a moment, the hatred in his eyes slowly fading, replaced by a deep despair.
He gazed towards the village at the foot of the mountain, his voice as soft as the wind. "My mother is still waiting for me to come back... She doesn't know Father is gone. If I leave too, how will she and my sister survive?"
Lin Yu was silent for a moment, then asked, "Do you have any last wishes?"
"Young man, could you please take care of my mother and my sister?" The boy pleaded with Lin Yu, knowing that if he died, there would be no man left in his family.
Lin Yu shook his head. He still needed to gain experience and couldn't stay here for too long, so he wouldn't grant the request.
Upon seeing this, the boy's eyes dimmed, as if he were about to die at any moment.
Looking at the deathly look in the boy's eyes, Lin Yu slowly said, "I can extend your life by three days, but this will deplete your life force. After three days, you will be completely exhausted, with no chance of recovery."
The boy suddenly looked up, a glimmer of light flashing in his eyes. "Enough! Three days is enough!"
Lin Yu raised his hand to support him, and a gentle stream of Spiritual Power flowed into his body from his fingertips.
The boy felt a warm current spreading through his limbs and bones, the tearing pain gradually disappeared, and a rosy glow returned to his pale face. He could now lift his arm, which he couldn't lift before, with a little strength.
He tried to stand up, and although he was still a little unsteady, he could walk steadily.
The young man knew he had encountered a master, so he immediately knelt down and kowtowed, his forehead hitting the bluestone with a "thump, thump": "Thank you, immortal master! Thank you, immortal master!"
"Go, but remember you only have three days." Lin Yu picked up the wood-chopping knife from the ground and handed it back to the boy.
The boy gripped his wood-chopping knife and walked heavily down the mountain, glancing back at Lin Yu every few steps.
After the boy left, Lin Yu also concealed himself and quietly followed behind him.
As we approached the village entrance, the setting sun was already hanging over the mountaintops.
The boy saw from afar that a woman in patched clothes was sitting on the threshold of his own yard, sewing clothes.
"Mother!" the boy cried out, his voice filled with barely suppressed sorrow.
The woman turned around abruptly, saw her son, and her face showed both joy and anger. "You child, where have you been? I've been looking for you all day, I thought you..."
Halfway through her sentence, she noticed the strip of cloth on the boy's arm and his blood-stained clothes, and immediately panicked. "What happened to you? Did you encounter a wild animal?"
"It's nothing, Mom. I just tripped and fell."
The boy smiled, placed the wood-chopping knife in the corner, and went to help his mother. "I'm hungry, let's cook. I'll make you your favorite corn porridge."
The woman was skeptical, but she didn't ask any more questions. Her son's safe return was the best thing ever.
Just then, a little girl of about ten years old ran out of the house upon hearing her brother's voice.
"Brother! You're back!" The little girl ran over and hugged her brother as soon as she saw him.
"Yes! Brother's back. Brother's going to cook for you." The boy patted the little girl's head.
At dinner, the boy served his mother a full bowl of porridge and gave her the only two eggs left in the bowl.
This made the younger sister jealous. She looked at the egg in her mother's bowl, then at the corn porridge in her own bowl, and looked at her brother with a wronged expression.
"Here's yours, brother's." The boy looked at his sister with affection and handed her his share.
The woman felt uneasy seeing her son's unusual behavior, but she assumed the child was just frightened and said nothing more.
At night, the boy brought a basin of warm water and knelt down beside his mother's feet. "Mom, let me wash your feet."
The woman's feet were rough, with several cracks on her toes, marks left from years of working in the fields.
The boy gently rubbed his mother's feet, tears silently falling into the warm water. "Mom, don't work too hard in the future. If you can't finish the work in the fields, ask the neighbors for help."
"Silly child, your mother isn't tired."
The woman stroked the boy's head, suddenly feeling that her son seemed to have grown up overnight. "When you're older and get married, your mother will have less to worry about."
The boy didn't say anything, but simply wiped his mother's feet clean.
Then he went to his sister's room, took out the few silver coins he had hidden under her pillow, and stuffed them into her hands. "Ni'er, keep this money. Use it for the family in the future. Study hard too, don't end up like your brother, uneducated."
The little sister, only ten years old, clutched the silver coin and blinked, asking, "Brother, where are you going?"
"I'm not going anywhere. I just want Ni'er to take good care of Mother." The boy patted his sister's head and turned to go back to his room.
Lin Yu remained hidden among the clouds all day, silently observing the every move of a dying man.
He saw the boy turn around and go back into his room, then slowly slide down to sit with his back against the door, covering his face with his hands, his shoulders trembling slightly.
Lin Yu did not step forward, but stood quietly on the cloud.
The next morning, the boy got up before dawn, carried a ladder, and climbed onto the roof.
His roof leaks, and every time it rains, he has to get up in the middle of the night to move basins to catch the water.
He borrowed tiles from his neighbor and repaired the roof brick by brick. Sweat streamed down his face, soaking the back of his clothes, but he smiled with a particularly contented expression.
While the boy was carrying a ladder to repair the roof, Lin Yu was sitting on a cloud.
He watched the boy climb up and down, his back soaked with sweat, but he didn't stop what he was doing.
Lin Yu raised his hand and summoned a cloud to shield the boy from the scorching sun. There wasn't much he could do; he could only try to reduce the sun's exposure in the boy's final days.
The woman stood in the yard with a bowl of water, watching her son's busy figure, and her eyes suddenly reddened.
She wanted to tell her son to rest, but she couldn't bring herself to say it. She felt as if her son was giving his last instructions.
On the third day, just as dawn broke, the woman pulled the boy to sit on the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed) and they began to talk.
She held the unfinished cotton-padded jacket in her hand, rambling on about her childhood.
The boy leaned against his mother, listening attentively, nodding occasionally. "Mom, I remember."
"If your father were still alive, he would definitely want you to be well."
The woman wiped away her tears. "From now on, your mother will rely on you. You must take good care of yourself."