Chapter 10

“Why has Big Senior Sister come?”

The crisp voice of the little girl interrupted her thoughts. Qu Yan came back to her senses and looked at Ren Ling’s excited face. She suddenly remembered that she had promised to come and teach a few days ago. She had been so busy these days that she had completely forgotten about it.

Qu Yan pondered for a moment, “I came to look for some things. Remember to review your lessons well these days. I’ll personally test you all in a few days.”

Sure enough, Ren Ling’s little face immediately fell. No disciple wanted to be suddenly tested on their lessons, and she was no exception. But since Big Senior Sister had said so, she could only nod reluctantly.

But she remembered the gossip she had heard two days ago, and her round eyes looked at Big Senior Sister with a mixture of curiosity and timidity.

“What do you want to ask?” Seeing Ren Ling’s hesitant look, Qu Yan spoke for her.

After much hesitation, Ren Ling’s curiosity slightly outweighed her reservations as she recalled those rumors, “Senior Sister, is it true that the person you saved that day was a young man?”

Qu Yan glanced at the little girl, suddenly interested, and said with a smile, “Where did you hear this from?”

“I… I overheard it by accident.” Ren Ling quickly changed her tune, timely holding back the name that was about to slip out, looking extremely innocent.

Qu Yan looked at her amusedly. She was quite clever, not foolishly giving away the source. If even Ren Ling could come to her to ask, one could imagine how it had spread among them in private.

She smiled on the surface, but her words were quite merciless, “He has no family and a pitiful background. If you have nothing better to do, go copy the ‘Treatise on Typhoid Fever’ twice and submit it to me. Tell the others to join you.”

Seeing Ren Ling leave with her head hanging low, Qu Yan turned and pulled open the wooden door of the storeroom behind her.

A woman in dark clothes was standing inside, leaning against the door and listening with great interest. Seeing Qu Yan give her a cool glance, Wei Yu finally straightened up and followed her inside.

“I never knew Senior Sister could be so kind-hearted.”

Qu Yan casually flipped through the dusty books, her expression unchanged as she said, “I’ve always been like this.”

Wei Yu didn’t think so. The last time her senior sister was this kind-hearted was when she brought back a nest of snake eggs from the back mountain, saying that the mother snake was gone and the little snakes looked pitiful, so she wanted to hatch them herself. Later, when Wei Yu curiously asked a question, she looked at those dried and twisted medicinal materials in silence for a long time.

Wei Yu changed the subject, “What is Senior Sister looking for here?”

“Forgetting Pills. Do you know where they are?” Qu Yan brushed the dust off her fingertips and turned to look at Wei Yu. She didn’t often come to the front hall, so Wei Yu should be more familiar with this place than her.

Wei Yu thought for a moment, then walked towards a corner of the room. There was a heavy wooden box there, covered in a thick layer of dust. When it was opened, it inevitably stirred up some dust.

Qu Yan narrowed her eyes and stepped back along with Wei Yu. When they saw clearly what was inside the wooden box, her eyebrows raised slightly. It was filled with rare medicines and poisons that she had sought out in her youth.

“I thought they had all been thrown away. Who put them in this dusty place?”

Qu Yan bent down to rummage through the bottles and jars inside. When she heard Wei Yu’s answer, the smile at the corner of her lips disappeared. She said:

“Xu Zong’er.”

Qu Yan’s fingertips pinched the inconspicuous small bottle, which was covered in dust. She wrapped it in a handkerchief with some disgust before gripping it in her hand again, then turned to leave towards the door.

As she passed Wei Yu, she said lightly, “He’s quite thoughtful.”

Qu Yan had come wearing light-colored clothes, but after turning around in the dust-filled room, she left with her clothes unstained. Wei Yu patted her own clothes, and only after Qu Yan’s figure had disappeared did she turn to close the door of the storeroom.

Those Forgetting Pills were at least five or six years old. At that time, for the convenience of research, she had ground all the pills into powder. Qu Yan pinched some and held it under her nose, then put it down and wrote something on a piece of paper.

Early the next morning, before dawn, everything was still shrouded in a haze. Fortunately, the fog wasn’t too thick today, and people could still be seen clearly. Therefore, Qu Yan saw him at a glance.

Qi Ying was sitting on the stone steps under the eaves, looking quietly at the distant mountains. The black dog was lying at his feet, chewing on some vines it had bitten off from under the eaves. It was playing with great enjoyment, shaking its head back and forth.

Qu Yan gently stopped her steps, watching this scene with interest, until he turned his head to look at her. Although Qi Ying’s face was expressionless, Qu Yan somehow saw a hint of loneliness.

Her fingertips moved slightly, and then she smiled brightly at him. He was stunned for a moment, then averted his gaze to look at the black dog, that movement showing a barely perceptible fluster.

Qu Yan knew he had always been a light sleeper, but given the current time of day, she couldn’t tell if he had been up all night or had woken too early. She simply sat down beside him, joining him in watching the black dog in front of them. It was playing like a carefree, silly dog, looking quite adorable.

“Ah Hei seems to like you very much.” Qu Yan watched the man’s slightly changing expression, then suddenly stood up, only leaving a soft sentence, “Wait a moment.”

Under Qi Ying’s gaze, Qu Yan turned into a small cabin, and came out not a moment later, but with something in her hand. As she got closer, he saw that it was some dried meat jerky.

Qi Ying looked at the jerky in her hand, and Qu Yan suddenly remembered that the person in front of her seemed to love eating meat as well. “… This jerky has been dried for too long, humans can’t eat it.”

Qi Ying’s movements paused, and he looked away again towards the ground, only giving a light “Mm” in response.

The black dog nearby had already smelled the scent and stood up, wagging its tail non-stop. Qi Ying was watching from the side, but the next second the jerky was in his arms, and the black dog also plunged its head into his embrace.

Qi Ying stiffened all over, about to push away the head rummaging in his arms, when he heard Qu Yan lightly scold. Ah Hei whimpered twice, very reluctantly leaving the young man’s arms, only sitting in front of him wagging its tail obediently, still whimpering, just short of drooling.

“Dogs don’t understand rules. If you feed it more, it will become close to you.”

Qi Ying didn’t quite understand at first, but after hearing Qu Yan’s words and looking at Ah Hei in front of him, he turned his head and asked, “Feed it all of these?” He remembered there were three dogs in this courtyard, although the other two weren’t willing to get close to him.

Unexpectedly, Qu Yan’s expression was quite surprised. She paused for a long time before saying, “Of course, you can’t eat it.”

Although this stuff hadn’t gone bad, it would be difficult for humans to digest, especially since he was already injured.

Qi Ying’s hand holding the jerky paused, and the jerky fell to the ground, instantly snatched away by the black dog to gnaw on the side. He remained quiet for a long time before speaking, “I know, but aren’t there three dogs in the courtyard?”

That tone hid a barely noticeable hint of grievance. Qu Yan then realized she had misunderstood, and couldn’t help but laugh out loud. Her laughter attracted the two dogs that were curled up sleeping in their nests.

Qu Yan looked at the three dogs sitting in front of him, her smile not diminishing, “It’s up to you, you can feed whichever one you want.”

Qi Ying was clearly a bit awkward. He held the jerky in his left hand, and with just a slight movement, the three dogs staring intently seemed about to pounce. In the end, he fed two pieces to each, and left the last one for Ah Hei. Qu Yan glanced at his action of petting the black dog, then looked up at the sky.

After this delay, the sky had already turned a misty blue, not far from daybreak.

Qu Yan stood up and said to him, “The weather is nice today, want to go collect morning dew together?”

Qi Ying looked a bit confused. He had been awake for nearly ten days but had never left this courtyard, or rather, he had rarely even left his room. But upon hearing that collecting morning dew was for making the antidote for the Forgetting Pills, he stood up without any hesitation.

The two walked out of the courtyard one after the other, with him walking to the right and behind Qu Yan. But he could only hear her footsteps. Even with his martial arts gone, he could achieve this level of silence. What would it have been like at his peak?

Only when they reached their destination did Qu Yan suppress her thoughts and divide the tall bamboo containers in her hand, giving one to him. This place was a bamboo forest on the back mountain, with a quiet and elegant scenery. Usually, no one else came here, making it very suitable for relaxation.

Seeing the man holding the bamboo container with a bit of confusion, Qu Yan led him to a place under some bamboo leaves, raised her hand to grasp his wrist, and then gently used the bamboo container to bend the leaf. The water droplets on the leaf then rolled into the container.

“Do you understand now?”

Qi Ying nodded. He picked it up very quickly, only being a bit unfamiliar at the very beginning. Later, when he got up to speed, he was not much slower than Qu Yan.

When the first ray of sunlight spilled into the bamboo forest, Qu Yan was just putting away their bamboo containers. Qi Ying raised his head to look at the sun. The scattered bamboo leaves above shielded the sunlight, breaking it up, but there were still a few rays shining on his face.

Qi Ying rarely narrowed his eyes, stubbornly refusing to close them.

How long had it been since he had stood so openly in the sunlight, without worrying about dying the next second? Even he couldn’t remember clearly.

The warm sun cast a light golden outline on the man’s body. From Qu Yan’s angle, she could see clearly even his slightly trembling eyelashes. Her gaze followed downwards, to his straight and delicate nose bridge, the thin lips he always liked to purse, and the fair neck exposed as he tilted his head back.

Qu Yan’s gaze focused, her eyes narrowing as she looked at the tiny red mole on his Adam’s apple.

Qi Ying usually had a habit of lowering his eyes, and this was the first time she had seen this red mole. Her mind inappropriately recalled the cinnabar mark on his chest, equally bright red, covering his fair skin.

The moment Qi Ying turned his head, Qu Yan hurriedly averted her gaze, suppressing the darkness in her eyes. “You can sunbathe more often during the day. It’s good for your body.”

“Alright.”

He was always sparing with words, saying one word when he could avoid saying two. Fortunately, Qu Yan was already used to it. She walked unhurriedly back the way they came, deliberately slowing her pace, with the purpose of waiting for him to walk alongside her.

“I forgot to ask you last time, besides drunken grass, what other medicines are you insensitive to?”

Qi Ying’s footsteps paused, and he didn’t immediately answer. Instead, he tilted his head to one side, seeming to be trying hard to recall. Qu Yan didn’t rush him, only reminding him again as they were about to step out of the bamboo forest.

“You’d better tell me honestly. If there are ineffective medicines in the antidote, we’ll need to do this again. You should know we don’t have much time.”

Qu Yan didn’t say “you”, but “we”, referring to binding the two of them together with a calm expression. As for Qi Ying, his expression was serious, his lowered left hand tightly clenched into a fist. She glanced at the man’s fingertips that had turned white from the force, and it aroused some curiosity in her heart.

What kind of medicine that couldn’t be mentioned would make him struggle so much?

The moment they walked out of the bamboo forest, dazzling sunlight poured onto the two of them. Although he was surrounded by warm sunlight, his heart felt as if it had fallen into an ice cellar. Yet he couldn’t help but recall those experiences from his childhood. Qi Ying took a light breath, his gaze fixed on the grass ahead.

“Itching powder, knock-out drugs…” He listed several names, mostly harmless low-level poisons. Although not fatal, they were still difficult to endure when they took effect. Towards the end, that steady voice actually mixed in a slight tremor. Qu Yan also noticed his emotional change. She glanced sideways at the man, her voice softly rising.

“What else?”

Qi Ying’s Adam’s apple bobbed, his jet-black eyelashes trembling along with it. His tongue rolled around in his mouth twice before finally spitting out those two words he was reluctant to mention.

“Also… aphrodisiac.”