Bang!
Xiao Ren was stunned when he realized that he was inside an unfamiliar room. Just now, he was exerting his body to move, which resulted in him splendidly fell down from the bed just now.
‘Ugh. Where’s this?’
Xiao Ren scanned the room with confusion. He was sure that he fell down to Huang River and considering how fast the current was; he shouldn’t have survived. Besides, the thick mud made it hard to stay afloat.
Furrowing his brows, Xiao Ren tried to remember the time when he felt his consciousness fading. Oh, right. If he was not wrong, there was a tree falling down when he was about to lose consciousness. He didn’t remember what happened afterwards.
Whether he fell down or stayed on top of the log was unknown.
“You’re awake?”
The voice jolted Xiao Ren from his daydream. He raised his head and saw a young woman, probably around 14 to 15 years old walked inside. She was wearing standard village’s clothes that didn’t seem to be really good. Her body also looked very skinny as if she didn’t live that well.
Xiao Ren opened his mouth and tried to speak, ‘Yeah.’
Huh?
He noticed that there was not even a single voice came out from his throat. His gaze darkened considerably. Did he lose his voice because he drank the water from Huang River?
This is bad.
“Anything wrong?” The young woman put down the basin she brought to the nearby table. She looked at Xiao Ren with her large eyes.
Xiao Ren opened his mouth and pointed inside. He was not sure how to explain his situation and writing was clearly not an option. There were many villagers who didn’t know how to write.
The young woman seemed to realize something as she smiled consolingly. “Do you lost your voice?”
Xiao Ren nodded.
“That’s too bad… I’m Ye Ning and this is my house. My brother is currently away, but he’ll return back soon.”
Xiao Ren nodded again to say that he understood. He was about to ask about this place when he saw Ye Ning already crouched near him and grabbed his hand. His body jolted slightly at the pain that suddenly coursed through his skin.
“Sorry, I’ll help you to get back to bed.”
As he tried to move on his own, Xiao Ren nearly yelped in pain (if only he could speak). He felt as if his entire body was broken and even a single touch was all that was needed to send pain to his body.
He felt really helpless as Ye Ning helped him to get back to the bed. He couldn’t even take care of himself and had to rely on a woman…
Agh!
He really wanted to bury his head in the mud right now.
“Ning’er, what are you doing?”
The sound of a man made Xiao Ren tilted his head. He could see a man, who had similar countenance with the young woman stood there. From his face and built, he should be around 18 years old or maybe older.
The man frowned when he saw Xiao Ren and Ye Ning in close proximity. “Did he take advantage of you.”
“Brother, you’re too much.” Ye Ning rolled her eyes. “He can’t even move around. How do you expect him to take advantage of me?”
“Did he truly can’t move?”
“Brother!”
Xiao Ren sighed internally when he was faced with the older brother’s suspiciousness. He couldn’t possibly tell them that his bones were broken, right? It was probably due to the impact because of the last fight with General Wang.
Thinking about General Wang, Xiao Ren’s eyes glinted with ruthlessness for a split second. He wanted to make that general paid for what he had done to him. However, Xiao Ren was more worried about his soldiers that he left behind.
But, they were also kingdom’s soldiers, so General Wang shouldn’t do anything, right?
3000 thousand were a large number and losing that number just because they had lost their commander might even incite trouble.
Ye Ning smiled apologetically at Xiao Ren. She knew how overprotective her brother could be. “This is my brother, Ye Lei.”
“What’s your name?” Ye Lei asked. He was bringing a large basket and put it down on the side. From the smell, Xiao Ren assumed that it must be a basket filled with fishes. Did Ye Lei work as fisher?
Xiao Ren tried to speak again, but he was frustrated to find that he was unable to utter any sound. How long would he lose his voice?
“He can’t speak.”
“Oh? Probably because he’s staying in the water for too long,” Ye Lei remarked bluntly. “I can’t afford doctor, so just stay there and lie down.”
Doctors were normally expensive, so many people in the village couldn’t even come to the doctor when they were sick. Xiao Ren frowned a bit, but then he recalled that he also didn’t have any money with him.
He rarely brought money, probably only several bronze knives* to buy some food if it was necessary. However, he was sure that his pouch was already lost when he was ‘swimming’ in the river. His armor was also gone.
Well, it was only cheap armor too, so he didn’t really care that much.
“Also, those are your belongings. I didn’t take any of them.” Ye Lei pointed to the bundle by the side.
Xiao Ren looked at his appearance. He was only wearing light shirt with his body full of bandages. After that, he looked at the bundle on the side and noticed that it was his armor with a small pouch.
‘It’s not lost?’
While Xiao Ren was bewildered, Ye Lei had already walked out of the house again while saying to his little sister, “I’m going to clean the fishes then head to the market to sell. You stay behind and guard that sickly useless man.”
“Yes, Brother.”
“Hmph!”
Xiao Ren had to admit, he didn’t have good impression of that Ye Lei. However, the arrogance that Ye Lei showed was nothing much compared to many other young masters that he met during his time as soldiers. They were stuck up and believed they were better than him because of their birth.
Ye Ning smiled apologetically once more. “Sorry, my brother is a bit blunt. Actually, he’s very kind. He’s the one who fished you out from the river and helped to treat your wound.”
Looking at his wound, Xiao Ren nodded. He knew that Ye Lei was not that bad. However, that young man truly need to fix his attitude if he wanted to get a woman.
If only Ye Lei could hear what he said, he would surely smack Xiao Ren’s head.
“I’ll prepare some food for you. Please wait a minute.”
With that, Ye Ning walked out of the house.
…
