[Alternate t.i.tle: I'm Here

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Jiahui wanted to pull her hand off, but half a day later, it still hadn't budged. She really is a great general; injured and almost drowned, yet still so strong right now!

Noticing that the people before her immediately started to unveil somewhat skeptical expressions, Jiahui had no better option than to sob again and keep making stuff up. “This… this one can't swim, but her husband is… is a good swimmer… after we were thrown off by the bandits, he pulled this one through, not letting her drown. He's fainted now, and probably… probably thinks we're still in the water, and wants to save her…”

Weeping miserably as she talked, Jiahui can't help but admire herself. Her hanging around the back of her home for a lifetime is a exceptional waste of her talent. Ah, she should go write a novel. Those have always been made up stories by extremely pedantic scholars since time immemorial anyways, and she conjured up a bunch of nonsense just then. Is that not the same thing?

The people saw her weeping and sniveling and were successfully fooled once again, only thinking that the deep bond of this married couple was genuinely touching.

As a result, Jiahui still had to endure the hards.h.i.+p of dragging Zhongli Luo along. Though nothing leaves her mouth, she's already mentally using every curse she knows to viciously give Zhongli Luo a good scolding.

As the group went along, the hunter asked her again, “Little lady, what do you go by?”

Jiahui stared, then answered after a slight thought. “This one's husband is surnamed Li, and his single courtesy is Zhong. This one's maiden name is Jia. You may call this one Li Zhong's wife.”

Jiahui is on a seldomly-strong sense of alertness, her worries boundless, and she doesn't dare to currently say their real names and surnames. She turned the characters Zhongli (鍾離) around and changed them to Li Zhong (李忠), and for her, she changed the p.r.o.nunciation of Jia (嘉, jiā) to another Jia (賈, jiǎ). It's pretty clever for being complete bogus.

“Ah, okay.” The hunters didn't sense anything amiss from that.

After they all entered the village, Rong Jiahui and Zhongli Luo were invited to the home of the one who said they had a vacant room. Jiahui had just docilely laid her on the bed when she heard something from outside the doorway, “Goudan [1], have you come back?”

Afterwards, they saw an old woman of about 50 years of age come in. Jiahui tapped her foot to think, guessing that this was probably that hunter's mother.

Fearing that they'd be driven away, she wiped her tears and flung herself to hug the lady's thighs, crying as she spoke of the crime her Zhongli Luo had suffered.

The old madam had just gone through the door and had spontaneously acquired more weight on her legs, then heard a bout of tearful complaining, and couldn't break out of her daze for a very long time. Jiahui noticed the other being struck dumb and quickly changed her att.i.tude, looking at the old lady with sparkling, grat.i.tude-filled eyes, as if the person before her was Guanyin's reincarnation.

“That this one and her husband could escape danger is all thanks to the help of you good-hearted people! Amitabha, thank you for your kindness and mercy, we would have likely died over there otherwise…”

Hearing all that she'd said so conscientiously, if the lady who wasn't even thinking to drive them away at all actually wanted to do so, she'd probably be unable to say so anymore.

Jiahui succeeded in getting to stay from her sky-startling, earth-moving banshee wails. She also asked and learned that this village was named Liujia, and the origin of the name is obvious; most of the people here are surnamed Liu (劉).

[T/N: It's a different surname from Liu Qianchen. Liujia literally mean “Liu family”.]

After Jiahui saw to it that Zhongli Luo was arranged nicely into bed, her heart softened up for a good moment. Being somewhat concerned for the condition of Zhongli Luo's wound, and currently seeing Aunt Liu carrying in some food for her, she quickly accepted it, then asked with worry, “Aunt, this one wants to ask… is there a doctor here?”

Aunt Liu glanced at Zhongli Luo, her face betraying some difficulty. “A doctor…”

Jiahui's heart sank. “Aunt, do you all not have a doctor here?”

“There's Master w.a.n.g at the village gate,” Aunt Liu said. “He usually takes a look if one has a headache or slight fever…”

Rong Jiahui: ……

“There's also Great Immortal Zhang who has a procedure…”

Procedure…

Jiahui just wants to cry without tears, t-th-this… what is all this?!

“Then, Auntie, is there some herbs for treating wounds?”

“There's some.”

There might not be a decent physician in this village, but there's still medicine for treating injuries. How could no one ever be injured growing up in the village? Staying in this dest.i.tute place with no doctor, all Jiahui can use is this.

Aunt Liu very quickly brought back medicine and strips of cloth for dressing, then two sets of dry and clean clothes. They're both dirty right now and really should be freshening up.

Thinking it over, Jiahui took the jade bracelet off of her wrist. When she had woken up from her dreaming, she didn't have a piece of jewelry on her head, let alone any money. Fortunately, she forgot to take off this bracelet and it was still hers. This could be used as money!

She wiped off her tears. “Auntie, all of our money was robbed by the water bandits, and they only skipped over this bracelet. As an apology for inconveniencing you for us to to eat and stay here, you must take it.”

Where had Aunt Liu ever seen such a rare item in her whole life, verdant green, clear and sparkling like water? She doesn't dare to take it for fear of a b.u.mp breaking it.

She knew that this bracelet was likely extremely expensive, and quickly declined it. “It's nothing more than two more mouths to feed, how could I want your bracelet? It's too expensive, little sister, take it back.”

Jiahui smiled and placed the bracelet directly into Aunt Liu's hand. “You must take it, Auntie. It's this one's wish. If you don't take it, I'll always feel like I've let you down.”

Jiahui doesn't have much of a concept of wealth and has no idea at all how many years this bracelet would allow a villager to eat, so she just doesn't think about it at all, giving it away while smiling ear to ear. She has another bracelet on her other hand anyways. They've always been a pair and she wouldn't only have one.

As she said that, Aunt Liu takes it without really taking it, only holding the trinket in her trembling hand. After she got back to her room, she took it and wrapped it in layer after layer so as to avoid a single tap breaking it, not even thinking to use it as a family heirloom.

Watching the other leave, Jiahui then looked at the wowotou and two side dishes before her and couldn't help but gulp. Even if she's never seen this kind of plain fare before, she's ravenous right now, and quickly starving to death!

She picked up the wowotou and nibbled at it, not expecting that this yellow-ish stuff would actually be so delicious!

Finished eating and drinking, she made up a large tub of water that Liu Goudan helped with, then washed herself and put on the clothes Aunt Liu had given. She immediately felt much more refreshed.

After that, it's Zhongli Luo's turn.

Jiahui looked at her former sweetheart, expression complicated. What an extremely absurd thing. Why did it have to happen to her of all people? What ‘extreme sorrow turning to joy'? If something happens once, it'll happen twice, then thrice, then a fourth time. Ah, tragedy is biased towards her. Bad luck is just bad luck in the end.

However, the most shameful thing yet is that apart from her outburst at the start, her mood is now bafflingly calm, like she doesn't mind. That frightens her a bit; has she forgotten? Forgotten that she's already pa.s.sed the eighteen mark? Are there still any appropriately-aged men in the capital that haven't been married yet? Is she going to have to be a gold-brick layer? [2] Is she going to have to look for kids even younger than her little brother? No, no, she doesn't want to find that kind of little brother… but looking at Zhongli Luo who happens to be three years older than her, her thoughts inevitably turn gloomy. Hmph, this is a gold brick she doesn't want!

She seethed as she carried in water, sitting at the edge of Zhongli Luo's bed and carefully wiping off the dirt from her face, which is… as white, delicate, and fair as it's always been, and with how she looks sleeping now, it has a bit of childishness that wasn't seen before. She's very good-lookng, and very elegantly handsome when disguised as a man. It's hard tell whether she'd be fetching dressed in women's clothes.

Don't think about it, don't think about it, she doesn't care about the rest of it. At least since she's learned the other's a girl, there's no such thing as impropriety between men and women, and it makes some things a lot easier. While trying not to look at her as much as possible, she helped wipe Zhongli Luo's body down, then applied the herbal remedy. She doesn't know if it'll have any effect, but she has no choice but to try it in such a desperate situation.

She rushed in and out for half the day on Zhongli Luo's behalf. Wiping off the sheen of sweat from her brow, she can't help but miserably think of how in her thirty total years of life she'd always had others serving her. What other time would she ever have to serve someone else like this? Even if she wanted to fill the role of a perfect traditional wife by changing her clothes for her husband when he came home, she'd actually need to have someone who'd be willing to come home!

Ah, that scoundrel doesn't matter anymore, it was all in the last life. She should have forgotten about it long ago. Now she's only requesting Zhongli Luo to not go for anyone else, and having fallen into this plight, Zhongli Luo being alive is presently her only existing ray of light.

She had gone to some far-off land for the first time in her thirty years and was terrified by the many things that had happened before; if Zhongli Luo hadn't been once again by her side, how would she still be okay? If that weren't the case, there likely wouldn't have been a trace of light to be seen.

Such a shame that she's ended up being this unlucky. What she fears is what comes.

When night came, Zhongli Luo suddenly took to a high fever.

The burst of heat rushed forward like an exceptionally dangerous wave.

Jiahui, who had been constantly keeping watch at Zhongli Luo's bedside, was just about to doze off. Due to the fear, she was exhausted, but didn't dare to have a true sleep. When she was getting groggy, she caught the sound of what seemed to be a voice.

She was pleasantly surprised at first, thinking Zhongli Luo had awoken, but she called and called for her with no response. Her face slowly turned white. Trembling, she reached out a hand to feel Zhongli Luo's forehead, only to withdraw it out of fright from how alarmingly scalding it was.

She panicked at once. She didn't know anything about this and didn't have an inkling of what should be done in this situation. When she went to stand up and leave to get someone to help, her neck was then embraced, and after that, her entire head was stuck to Zhongli Luo's chest.

With it came the thump, thump, thump of Zhongli Luo's heart, then her low mumble.

“Jiahui…”

Jiahui was startled, and soon after couldn't staunch her flow of tears. Drop after drop soaked through layers of clothing, dripping straight through to the center of Zhongli Luo's chest.

“Don't call for me! I'm obviously nothing more than a self-centered disgrace! I'm just after your future! Why in the world do you– always care about me so much…

I've obviously never been smart, and I'm not a kid anymore, but I'm just as recklessly stupid as I was before! All I'll do is get in your way and hurt you!

Why are you so good to me…?”

Jiahui choked up. She's flat-out unworthy of someone like Zhongli Luo being so good to her. Her going through suffering after suffering serves her right, but not Zhongli Luo! She's clearly a much better person!

“You shouldn't be so good to me…”

Zhongli Luo, delirious in her fever, didn't respond, only continuing to mumble. “Jiahui…”

“Mn. I'm here…” Jiahui whispered, returning her embrace tightly. “I'll always be here.”

The author says: Today's young big sister is still pa.s.sed out~ I originally wanted to write about a Widow Li at the village entrance, but I pulled out my smarts and changed her to Master w.a.n.g. A sentence also sprang up from the back of my mind that not only can he treat headaches and fevers, but he can do perms. [T/N: the characters for ‘fever' and ‘perm' both roughly translate to ‘hot head'.] Watching The Eagle Shooting Heroes might have scrambled my brains lololololol

The translator had a heart attack.

[1] 狗蛋 = …Dog egg. Why would you name your child this.

[2] An old term for a wife that three or more years older than her husband, which I thought was hilarious.