Part Three: The Second Night of Snow
He threw the pill in his hand, and the snow hawk swooped down, caught it, and brought it back to him, cooing smugly.
Throw it out again. Then retrieve it.
After playing this game for twenty-five rounds, Huo Zhanbai finally got bored.
After being struck by the flying needle, he slept like a dead man for two whole days. However, when he woke up, there was no one beside him. There was only a plate of cold food on the small table by the bed, a far cry from the pampered treatment he used to receive. Knowing that the woman was always acting strangely, he didn't ask any questions. He ate his fill, then slept, then ate again. When he was free, he played games with the snow hawk.
Three more days passed.
His patience was finally wearing thin, and he began to look around: the nine Heaven-Returning Decrees hung on the wall, and he still had one he had kept for eight years—he should have finished seeing all ten patients this year, but where were the people here? Where had they all gone? He was in a hurry to return to Lin'an to save Mo'er!
But even Greenie was nowhere to be found. He asked the maids who brought the food, but couldn't get any answers—he had witnessed firsthand how strict that woman was with her maids over the past eight years.
He's been cooped up here for three whole days.
"Where is he? Where is he?" He finally couldn't help but shout, sending dust flying. "Xue Ziye, if you don't come out, I'm going to tear this place down!"
"Oh, Seventh Young Master has quite the temper." The Lion's Roar was indeed effective; the person in question was immediately jolted out. Xue Ziye appeared for the first time in five days, pushing open the door and strolling in with a set of silver needles in her hand: "Want some acupuncture?"
He lost his temper the moment he saw her.
"Hehe... I missed you." He said in a humble, ingratiating smile, knowing he was still a fish on the chopping block. "Where have you been these past few days? Didn't you say you'd give me another acupuncture session? If you don't come soon—"
"Hmm?" Xue Ziye held the needle, gave him a cold snort, and glanced at him sideways.
"If you hadn't come soon, this wound would have healed on its own!" he continued with a forced smile.
Without even looking, she flicked her wrist and threw five silver needles into his chest, causing him to fall silent from the pain.
"He's almost recovered. He'll be able to get out of bed after a few more days of rest." She took his pulse and concluded expressionlessly, then tapped his chest. "You're almost thirty, and you still get beaten up like this all the time—are you really as tough as you claim? Don't try to fool this housewife with your bragging."
"Didn't you see my heroic figure as I conquered the world with a single sword? I was personally taught the Ink Soul Sword by the Master of Dingjian Pavilion back then!" He rolled his eyes and raised the pure black sword beside him to show off.
“I think your skill at taking a beating is the best in the world,” Xue Ziye said, but she had no time for jokes. She carefully reached around to his back and touched the spine below his shoulder blade, her brows furrowing slightly. “This place is injured again this time. If you’re careless again and end up paralyzed, don’t come looking for me—this is no joke.”
She knew his scarred body even better than he did: several long scars ran cleanly across his back, like the marks left when wings were severed with a "whoosh." That was her handiwork three years ago—when he was carrying the Seven-Leaf Ganoderma from the Southern Frontier across the Central Plains to the Valley of the Medicine Master, she dug out a full teacup of poisonous sand from his back.
Her fingers tapped lightly on his fourth vertebra, and pain shot through his back like lightning into his brain.
He screamed, his whole body drenched in cold sweat.
"Stop overexerting yourself." Xue Ziye sighed, her expression softening for the first time. "Your body has reached its limit—you want to save people, but you also need to think about yourself. I can't help you forever."
Huo Zhanbai was breathing heavily, clutching the bedding in his hands, when he suddenly had a bad feeling.
"What do you mean by that?" He looked up at her and noticed that her face was a little pale after not seeing her for a few days, and she lacked her usual vibrant and sharp demeanor. He felt uneasy. "What happened? Are you in trouble?"
She pulled her hand out from under the covers, smiled, and tucked her hair behind her ear: "No, because once you get the antidote, you won't have to come here to get scolded by me anymore... You can't afford such a high consultation fee anyway, so you should be more careful in the future."
He breathed a sigh of relief and laughed, "How could I not come? I've already paid off my debt with my body."
Xue Ziye smiled slightly, but there was no smile in her eyes—if…if he knew that the prescription from eight years ago, which gathered all the rare treasures in the world, was just a scam, what would he do?
Mo'er's illness was congenital. Qiu Shuiyin suffered greatly during her pregnancy, and the premature child was born with congenital deficiencies and could not possibly survive past the age of ten. Even she, with all her might, could only temporarily save the child's life, but was powerless to reverse the situation.
But at that time she had just become a doctor and had not been used to life and death. She was still soft-hearted and could not withstand his pleading. She was also unwilling to let them despair. So she had to bite the bullet and write a prescription that was almost impossible to write. Every single ingredient in the prescription was a rare treasure that everyone in the martial arts world dreamed of.
She was just giving him a chance to do his best so he wouldn't feel guilty.
—Because that child will surely die on his arduous journey to collect medicine.
However, she never imagined that as the years passed, this man would relentlessly pursue her, gathering every single ingredient from the prescription and bringing it to her. And under his meticulous care, the child had miraculously survived, clinging to life until this day. To this renowned healer, all of this was nothing short of a miracle.
Is there really someone in this world who is even more stubborn and deluded than myself?
She sighed softly. Now... what should she do?
Now that she's told him the truth, she simply can't imagine how Huo Zhanbai will react.
"Ouch! What's wrong?" In a moment of distraction, she heard him ask in surprise. Startled, she realized that she had unknowingly pressed the silver needle stuck in his chest all the way to the end.
"Oh dear!" she exclaimed. "Don't move! I'll pick it out right away, so whatever you do, don't use your inner energy!"
Huo Zhanbai looked at her with some surprise. In the past eight years, he had never seen this strong woman so panicked. He felt uneasy: something must have happened to her, but she was unwilling to say it.
Having known each other for so long, they had become practically each other's closest confidants. This lonely woman harbored many secrets, yet she never spoke of them. But some things, after all, couldn't escape the eyes of this seasoned veteran: for instance, he had seen her more than once lying on the frozen lake, murmuring to herself, while beneath the lake lay a person who had been dead for many years.
He looked on from the side but didn't go over.
He never even asked her about these things—just as she never asked him why he persisted in seeking medical help.
For eight years, he fought relentlessly. Every time he charged through the blood-soaked battlefield, she would be waiting at the end of that bloody path... He owed her so much.
My wish is about to be fulfilled. Is there any way I can do something for her?
“Well, I said,” he said, watching her carefully pry open the wound with her embroidery needle and pull out the needle that had accidentally gone in, enduring the pain, “how about we have a drink together tonight to celebrate my recovery?”
Xue Ziye paused for a moment, then looked up, her face extremely tired, but suddenly smiled: "Alright, who's afraid of who?"
Before going to the drinking party, she returned to Autumn Garden once.
Behind the heavy curtains, the aroma of nectar lingered, and the person was still fast asleep.
The bleeding at the back of the head had stopped, and the first gold needle from the Yuzhen acupoint had been removed and placed on a gold plate to the side. Black blood had congealed on the sharp needle, as if it had been forcibly pulled out of a blood-stained memory.
Darkness enveloped him like an iron shroud.