“I give up.” Fang Liu looked at Xiao Ren in confusion. Why is it so hard just to guess one person’s name?

Xiao Ren smiled bitterly. He didn’t know that his name would be that hard to guess. Was his surname rare? He didn’t think so because he had met with a lot of people who had the same surname.

“Can you repeat it again?” Ye Lei asked. He still wanted to try.

‘Xiao Ren.’

“Xiao?”

Xiao Ren’s eyes lit up when he finally heard the right surname. He nodded his head as he repeated mouthing out his name once more.

“His surname is Xiao?” Fang Liu asked.

“I think so.”

Fang Liu watched Xiao Ren tried to mouth out his name and frowned. “Why do I have the feeling that he’s saying Xiao Ye?”

Punch!

Ye Lei punched Fang Liu because he saw that Xiao Ren was glaring. It was clear that it was not Xiao Ren’s name. However, they would need to find the correct word that sounded similar with it.

“Xie? Lei? Liu? Xia?”

Seeing Xiao Ren continued to shake his head, they frowned. Xiao Ren then pointed at himself then at Ye Lei, Ye Ning, and also Fang Liu as he mouthed, ‘Ren.’

“Why is he pointing at us?”

Ye Ning thought for a moment before she replied, “Xiao Ren?”

Xiao Ren nodded.

“How do you guess it?” Fang Liu was stumped.

“Well, Ren meant people and seeing how he pointed at us in different angle, I think that he’s trying to convey that his name meant people,” Ye Ning explained.

“Xiao Ren, right? Why do I feel this name is familiar?”

“Huh, really?”

“Yeah.”

Xiao Ren stayed silent while Fang Liu was in deep thoughts. Those who lived near the northern border might find his name quite familiar. After all, he was one of the young commanders there who had been going to several campaigns. His name should have already resounded in the local area there and some small cities nearby might have heard it.

“We’ll arrive soon, youngsters,” Old Fang suddenly informed them.

“Ah.”

They turned their head to look at the gate and wall before them. The wall was not that good as Xiao Ren could see many stones that didn’t seem to fit in the place. If he was told to climb the wall, he was sure that he would be able to do that with no problem.

Of course, it was only if he had healed from his wound.

There were some guards guarding at the front of the gate, but they were doing so as merely formality. Judging from how relaxed they were, Xiao Ren knew that the guards didn’t really do their job that well and only there for the sake of money and appearance. After all, the pay was quite generous for guards and soldiers.

They entered the city without any problem and stopped not far from the entrance.

“I’m going to find some work,” Fang Liu said carelessly as he jumped off the cart. His movement was agile, which was quite unexpected considering his slender figure. It seemed that despite having small body, Fang Liu was actually quite powerful.

“Take care.”

“Do you need Big Brother to carry you?” Ye Ning asked in curiosity.

Xiao Ren shook his head. He slowly stood up and even though his legs still feel fairly weak, he still could walk just fine. It was just his speed was much slower compared to ordinary people.

“Old Fang, do you know the direction to clinic or doctor’s place?” Ye Lei asked while still watching Xiao Ren who tried to stand up.

“Just go straight,” Old Fang replied. “There should be a house where Physician Hong stayed.”

“Got it, thanks Old Fang.”

“Come on, Xiao Ren.”

Xiao Ren nodded. He started to walk in slow pace. Even though his muscle still felt hurt, he didn’t really have much qualm if it was only walking in a short distance. His eyes scanned the people around him as he tried to look as inconspicuous as possible with the two siblings near him.

“Ning’er, try to look at the front to find out how long is the distance to Physician Hong’s house.”

“En.”

Ye Ning walked ahead slowly. She was scanning the plates in front of the houses, but didn’t ask anyone. The last time she tried to ask someone, the man thought she was hitting on him, which resulted in a fight between her brother and that person.

It ended up quite a problem, so Ye Ning stayed away from strangers at all cost. Unless there was no other choice, she would not try to initiate talk with other men in the city without her brother beside her.

Xiao Ren nudged Ye Lei.

“What is it, Xiao Ren?”

Pointing at Ye Ning, Xiao Ren rolled his eyes. Ye Lei didn’t seem to understand as he quickly turned his head around. It was then he saw that a man was approaching his sister. In that moment, his face turned dark as he strode to the front, ready to give the man a piece of his mind.

‘Yep, truly overprotective siblings.’

Xiao Ren smiled at the sibling’s relationship as he continued to walk in an unhurried pace. His body was still aching because of the bruises he received when he fought those soldiers, so he didn’t want to aggravate his situation. Looking to the people around him, he wondered whether there would be an arrest warrant for him or not.

Well, they might think that he had already died because he fell to the river in that condition.

Normally, he wouldn’t have survived either. It was truly a luck for him to be able to survive from that place.

“I’m fine, Brother,” Ye Ning was trying hard to convince her brother that she was fine.

Ye Lei glared at the thugs before him. He might not be that strong, but it didn’t mean he would let his sister get taken advantage of. “Get lost!”

“Who do you think you are, huh?” The thug asked back. It was just a small city and there were a lot of unlawful people. People like him were extremely common. Besides, the two brats in front of him was nothing more than countryside children.

“Don’t bother us!”

Ye Lei’s hand was blocking them from his sister. This was one of the reasons why he didn’t want to bring his sister out of their houses. Many people aimed for her beauty and tried to take advantage of the young girl.

“Heh, she’s pretty cute.”

“Yeah.”

“Do you think she’s worth it?”

From the back, Xiao Ren frowned when he saw the men leered at Ye Ning. He had seen a lot of people like them, but he was incapable to fight directly right now. His eyes landed on the stones below him. He only wore sandals since his shoes lost somewhere when he was in the river.

Thuck!

Using his feet thumb, he made the rock hit the man’s arm as he was about to move forward. The pain stopped the man’s movement as he screamed, “AAh!”

“Who’s that?”

“There’s no one here?” the third thug, who was far smaller than the others said timidly.

The one who got hit glared menacingly. He was about to say something when he felt pain once more on his forehead. Blood oozed out from the place where he got hit.

“Boss…”

“Let’s go!” The man who got hit was the boss. He knew that his opponent must be very powerful if he was unable to see the other party even after gotten hit a few times. In that moment, he decided to leave.

His men looked at him in disbelief. Even though they were disgruntled because it was rare to see beautiful chicks that was so naïve, they followed their leader.

Ye Lei frowned and looked around. He could see Xiao Ren walking towards them unhurriedly, slightly dragging his legs. There were a lot of people on the street, so he didn’t know who had helped him too.

“Brother…” Ye Ning called out.

“Let’s continue searching.”

“En.”