Yu Liang spent the majority of the next day resting his ankle. When he set out the following day, he didn’t even make it far before he stumbled into an obviously occupied camp. There were tents up and a fire with embers still burning. The people who had set up here hadn’t left… perhaps, they were out searching for food. Carefully, Yu Liang surveyed the small camp and even checked out the tents. What he didn’t expect to find was a sleeping person!

!! Li Qiuyue!!

Li Qiuyue was clearly unconscious or sleeping deeply; her chest rose and fell steadily, but even with a quick glance, Yu Liang could tell that she was rather severely injured. She had bruises and cuts all over her body, and her hair was a tangled mess. However, the messiness of her appearance still didn’t detract from her beautiful appearance, making one’s heart grow soft with pity for the injured woman; what a strong protagonist halo!! She was able to even stir the hearts of others while unconscious!!

Suddenly, Yu Liang heard footsteps nearing the camp. But before he could run away, a sharp and cold object was pressed against the side of his neck. “Identify yourself!” shouted a young man’s voice. 

“My name is Yu Liang. I’m an outer sect disciple from Mountain Wu Sect!” He obediently identified himself with his hands held up in a display of peace. 

“Turn around.”  The young man’s voice commanded as the pressure of the sword at his neck was moved away. 

Yu Liang slowly turned around to face the speaker. It took him a few seconds before he finally realized who he was staring at. A young man was wearing heroic dark blue robes with the Mountain Wu sect insignia sewed on the sleeves; the young man was probably around the same height as Li Qiuyue at half a head height shorter than Yu Liang. The young man’s hair was a fluffy brown, and he had a cute round face with chestnut shaped eyes the color of wheat. This cute puppy-like appearance… Of course, it had to belong to his favorite Wang Jin!! Yu Liang’s breath stopped as he gazed at the 3D version of his type… Oh god, even if this was a dream, please don’t let him wake up!!

Wang Jin gave Yu Liang a once over, taking note of his familiar grey robes. The originally cautious young man relaxed into a smile as he recognized the clothing. “Junior brother Yu, please forgive me for scaring you.” He sheathed his sword and held up a polite hand gesture in greeting. “My name is Wang Jin, and I’m an inner sect disciple also from Mountain Wu Sect.” 

Yu Liang instantly gave a respectful gesture before Wang Jin. Unbeknownst to Yu Liang, his facial features were a little stiff so although he was screaming internally, he looked outwardly calm and collected, maybe even a little cold. “This junior brother greets senior brother Wang. Forgive me for intruding into your camp.” 

Wang Jin smiled at Yu Liang’s polite attitude. “No need to worry, feel free to get comfortable. I just came back after grabbing some herbs.” Wang Jin gestured for Yu Liang to follow him over to the fire as he sat down. He began pulling out some herbs from his satchel along with a mortar and pestle. 

Yu Liang awkwardly sat down, unsure of what to do now. “Um, is there anything I can help with?”

Wang Jin shook his head as he continued to prepare the herbs. “Thank you for the offer, but I can only really manage to make a simple poultice to aid in healing wounds.” He glanced over at the tent where Li Qiuyue was sleeping and there was a sort of pitiful look in his eyes. Yu Liang also glanced over, thinking that the protagonist really had great luck to be picked up by the cute senior brother Wang Jin instead of some pervert like the silver-haired demon he had encountered… His face flushed slightly remembering the thought, and he cleared his throat a little bit. 

“My team was returning back to the sect after a mission. We were side-tracked by the stampede of spirit beasts and happened to find junior sister Li who was severely injured…” Wang Jin looked worried, shaking his head slightly. Then he turned to look at Yu Liang with those big doe eyes. 

Pah! Yu Liang felt the hit from Wang Jin’s secret move: puppy eyes! He felt an immense sense of guilt wash over him… He almost wanted to spill out the truth and admit to all his wrongdoings right there! Honestly, once Li Qiuyue woke up, he couldn’t avoid it anyway… At least he could sort of plead his case beforehand. “Senior brother Wang is really kind,” Yu Liang started out, sniffling a little bit as he prepared himself to confess. “This younger brother has a confession to make.” 

Wang Jin’s big brown eyes looked surprised by Yu Liang’s words, but he didn’t say anything and just listened earnestly. 

Yu Liang moved into a respectful sitting position, ignoring the pain in his ankle as he spoke. “This younger brother knows what happened to sister Li for her to end up in such a state. A few days ago, sister Li and a couple of other new sect disciples set out on a training mission.” Yu Liang’s heart thumped furiously as he continued. “Senior brother Ma has bad blood with sister Li when she beat him during the new disciple examination, so senior brother Ma took a few people to follow them and to teach them a lesson outside of the sect’s protection.” 

Wang Jin’s eyes remained fixated on Yu Liang’s face. The young man took a good look at this younger brother to discern the truth of his words, and he could see the earnest and calm expression on the younger brother’s face. There was no doubt that this was the truth, however… “How do you know this?” Wang Jin asked curiously. 

Yu Liang gulped. Well… here goes nothing. “The truth is that senior brother Ma recruited me to help him in getting revenge against Li Qiuyue. In my heart, I was unwilling, but I couldn’t refuse him because senior brother Ma would beat me up along with some of his people.” 

Wang Jin was shocked at Yu Liang’s open admission, but then his expression turned pitiful as he looked at this earnest young brother. “Although you were wrong in your actions, it was a situation that could not be helped. In the future, do not allow yourself to be tangled with such evil people. You can always report the situation to a higher power if you cannot do anything yourself.”

Yu Liang nodded obediently. “This younger brother knows his mistakes and thanks older brother for his wise words of advice.” He prostrated himself before Wang Jin in a respectful manner.

As Yu Liang knelt down, a piece of his robe shifted slightly to reveal his neck and shoulders; Wang Jin saw the marks and bruises and looked quite shocked! It was at this moment that Wang Jin had a huge misunderstanding that Yu Liang was being horribly abused sexually by this senior brother Ma, and the pity in his heart for this earnest and respectful younger brother deepened. “Please get up! There’s no need for such formalities. Just sit comfortably here!” Hesitantly, he asked carefully, “Are there any wounds on your body that need tending to? I can try to find something to help.” Wang Jin’s face flushed slightly, but then the blood drained from his face as he thought of the horrible suffering that this younger brother had probably endured. Whoever this ‘senior brother Ma’ was, he would not escape from Wang Jin’s wrath of justice!

Yu Liang lifted himself back to an upright sitting position and caught the pitying gaze from Wang Jin. He pursed his lips slightly and then moved to a more comfortable sitting position in which his ankle would not be as strained. “This junior brother thanks senior brother Wang for his kindness. I only have an ankle injury after escaping the stampede of spirit beasts.” Yu Liang thought that Wang Jin really had a sharp eye to know that he was also injured! However, surprisingly, Wang Jin’s big brown eyes teared up a little bit while staring at Yu Liang, causing the latter to become extremely shocked! What had he done to make this puppy-like person cry like this!? Yu Liang was flustered and didn’t know what to say. 

However, Wang Jin wiped his face with the sleeve of his robe and gave a wide smile. “Forgive this senior brother for scaring junior brother Yu! The herbs have a slightly spicy effect that causes one’s eyes to water.” However, deep in his heart, he was really pitying Yu Liang who retained a respectful and earnest nature even through such horrible things… Ah, Wang Jin’s heart really did ache for this junior brother! 

“I have some restoration pills that should help your body recover faster.” Wang Jin said with a smile as he pulled out a small bottle filled with light yellow pills. “Please take however many you need!” 

Yu Liang’s eyes lit up with gratitude. Although he wanted to refuse, he knew that he needed to quickly heal this ankle if they were going to make it back to the sect sooner rather than later. “Thanking senior brother Wang for his kindness!”