Shen Yuan squatted down and pulled the rag out of Chu Qiuyue's mouth.

Seeing that she could speak, Chu Qiuyue hurriedly shouted towards the cave entrance, "Help! Help me! Brother! I'm here! Please come and save me!"

Hearing Chu Qiuyue's voice, Xiao Ling, who was guarding outside the cave, turned around and glanced at Chu Qiuyue. His gaze was filled with a sharp killing intent, which frightened Chu Qiuyue into shutting her mouth immediately.

Shen Yuan chuckled: "Why did you stop shouting? Keep shouting! Don't say this is the back mountain. Even if you shout until your throat is hoarse, no one will hear you. And even if someone does hear you, the villagers won't dare to come out of their houses, and the guards outside the village won't dare to enter. Who do you expect to come and save you?"

"Where's my brother? He'll definitely come looking for me if he knows I'm missing!"

"You mean him! He was so angry after he found out you stole his money that he fainted. I'm afraid... he won't wake up."

Upon hearing that her brother had fainted from anger, Chu Qiuyue lowered her head in shame.

The only person she can rely on to save her now is her brother, but now that her brother can't save her, who else can save her?

Shen Yuan hates her so much, so why did she tie her up here? Is she planning to use this opportunity to kill her silently and silence her?

Faced with death, Chu Qiuyue finally learned what fear was.

She pleaded with Shen Yuan in a low voice, "Don't...don't kill me! Murder is illegal! Murderers will pay with their lives!"

“You ran away on your own, and no one but me knew where you were. I killed you, cut you into pieces, and threw you into the mountains to feed the wolves.”

The wolves will gnaw your bones clean, leaving not a single scrap. Your corpse will be gone, so no one can trace it back to me, and I won't have to pay with my life.

Shen Yuan spoke to Chu Qiuyue as if they were having a casual chat about how to dispose of her body. The more Chu Qiuyue listened, the more frightened she became, and she trembled like a leaf.

"Sister Yuan, I know I was wrong! I really know I was wrong! Please forgive me this once, I'll never do it again!"

Chu Qiuyue begged for mercy while kneeling on the ground and kowtowing to Shen Yuan. She slammed her head against the ground with loud thuds, and blood quickly appeared on her forehead, but she did not stop even so.

He seemed genuinely aware that he had made a mistake.

But Shen Yuan knew that Chu Qiuyue didn't really know she was wrong; she was just afraid!

Although Chu Qiuyue is only nine years old now, Shen Yuan knows that in a few years, she will become a demon.

She would never give her another chance to become a demon!

Shen Yuan picked up the bundle scattered on the ground. Inside the bundle, apart from a few packets of medicine, was the money she had stolen from Chu Yuning.

"Sister Yuan, I'll give you all this money, can you please let me go?" Chu Qiuyue pleaded, crawling on the ground.

Shen Yuan looked at the money and chuckled softly, "Let me tell you one last thing. This money was obtained by your brother through a lot of trickery to save for his studies and the imperial examinations. You took it all. Do you know how much he hates you now?"

"He didn't even ask us to find you; he only wanted to find the money you stole. It seems that in his eyes, you, his sister, aren't that important. He cares most about himself!"

Chu Qiuyue bit her lower lip tightly, remaining silent.

Of course she knows!

From the moment Chu Yuning insisted that she brave the heavy snow to return to Chu Family Village with him, and from the moment Chu Yuning made her drink one packet of medicine as if it were three, she knew that she didn't hold much weight in her brother's heart at all!

That's why she ran away with the money. Everyone is selfish, and she knew she couldn't rely on her brother, so she thought about making plans for herself.

Unexpectedly, all her scheming and plotting ended up being for naught.

The money she managed to steal all ended up in Shen Yuan's hands!

Now even their lives hang by a thread; whether they live or die is just a matter of a single word from Shen Yuan!

She's so stupid!

As dawn approached, Shen Yuan returned to the ancestral hall.

When Shen Yuan went to the back mountain with Xiao Ling last night, Chu Yuning had already gone to sleep, so he didn't know when Shen Yuan went out.

Upon seeing Chu Yuning return, they quickly approached and asked, "Have you found Chu Qiuyue?"

He didn't even want to call her "sister" anymore, and directly named her by her surname, because he deeply resented his sister.

Upon hearing this, Shen Yuan shook her head and said, "No!"

"Why haven't we found her yet? Since she hasn't left the village, she must be here. How can we not find such a big, healthy person?"

“It’s dark and the roads are slippery. Maybe she fell into the river and drowned the night before, or fell to her death from the mountain. This village is so big, how can we just find her like that!” Shen Yuan shrugged, her attitude very perfunctory.

Upon hearing that Chu Qiuyue might be dead, Chu Yuning was stunned for a moment, then roared, "I want to see her alive or dead! Even if she's dead, my things are definitely still on her. I have to go out and find her! I must find her!"

Shen Yuan said, "Then go out and look for it!"

Upon hearing this, Chu Yuning turned and ran out of the ancestral hall.

But before he could even cross the threshold of the ancestral hall, Shen Yuan's threatening voice rang out behind him.

"Once you leave this door, I will no longer be responsible for your illness."

Chu Yuning's leg, which had stepped out of the threshold, stopped in mid-air before finally stepping back into the ancestral hall.

Seeing that Chu Yuning dared not cause any more trouble, Shen Yuan ignored him and walked to the well in the courtyard to clean the few drops of blood that had stained her skirt.

The chill has dissipated, and spring is gradually intensifying.

In the blink of an eye, Shen Yuan had been staying in Chu Family Village for over a month.

As spring arrived and the weather warmed up, the villagers, who had recovered, gradually returned to their previous health condition.

In the plague that struck Chu Family Village, only seven people died, including the old clan chief, and all seven were elderly. The remaining sixty-three people who were infected with the plague have recovered under Shen Yuan's treatment, and another forty-five people did not contract the plague because they stayed at Liu's house and took medicine as arranged by Shen Yuan.

This achievement was unprecedented in the history of the Great Yan Kingdom.

After the prefect Jiang sent a physician from the city to examine the villagers of Chujia Village and confirmed that no one in Chujia Village was infected, he relaxed his guard over Chujia Village.

Shen Yuan and Xiao Ling were finally able to leave Chu Family Village and return to Jian'an City.

When Granny Liu learned that Shen Yuan was coming back, she and Tian Tian waited at the city gate early in the morning.

But besides Granny Liu, there was also a carriage sent by Magistrate Jiang to greet them at the city gate.

Shen Yuan knew that Prefect Jiang wanted to know about the plague in Chu Family Village, so she didn't dare to delay. After having the coachman take Granny Liu back to the pharmacy, she followed Prefect Jiang's men to the Prefect's mansion.

The news of the plague in Chu Family Village was kept secret from the outside world, so the people of Jian'an City were unaware of it. Apart from some important officials under Prefect Jiang, no one else in the city knew.

Therefore, no one knows what Shen Yuan did during that month.

When Shen Yuan, a commoner, was invited into the prefect's mansion, the people inside assumed she was a distant relative and led her to the backyard.