Liang Qi leaped into the room, and Xiaoyue silently closed the door. Before the soldiers outside could react, the two of them slipped into the hole one after the other.

Xiaoyue crawled into the hole before Liang Qi, and Liang Qi followed shortly after. Liang Qi practically slipped down, and Xiaoyue, using the firelight, quickly caught him.

At this moment, Liang Qi, who had slipped into Xiaoyue's arms, had a pale face, and his tightly closed eyelashes, like a crescent moon, trembled uneasily. His lips were pressed together, turning white.

His fists were clenched so tightly that his clothes were frozen stiff to the touch, with ice crystals still clinging to them.

Xiaoyue dragged Liang Qi to the fireside and sat him on the quilt against the wall.

Xiaoyue took off Liang Qi's shoes, removed Ge Bu's socks, held her feet in her hands, and sat on the bundle of firewood that had been pulled towards her.

Xiaoyue kept rubbing Liang Qi's big feet with her hands. After rubbing for a while, she found that his feet were bleeding. She then put his feet on the firewood where she was sitting.

Xiaoyue noticed that Liang Qi's little toe cap was split into two pieces, and his index finger was longer than his big toe. His feet were both narrow and long. Xiaoyue then held both feet in her hands to test their temperature, and they were already warm.

Xiaoyue took off Liang Qi's outer coat, leaving him only in his undershirt and trousers. The hemp cloth undershirt and trousers were also wet, but Xiaoyue couldn't take them off any further.

Xiaoyue took out two more pieces of firewood, put them in the fire to start a fire, and placed the new fire behind Liang Qi so that he could warm himself from both sides.

When Xiaoyue lifted the quilt and waited for the initial fire to burn out, she moved the firewood under the quilt back to the spot where the fire had just been extinguished. This firewood had already been baked once, and this time she moved it to a warm spot underneath.

The mattress on top was also very warm. Xiaoyue then touched Liang Qi's undergarments and found that they were almost dry. She then helped Liang Qi with both hands and moved him from the simple stool to the bed, which was barely swaying.

Xiaoyue covered Liang Qi with the quilt again, and after finishing these tasks, she set up a tripod on the ground with firewood and put the clothes in front of the fire to dry.

After Xiaoyue finished tidying up, she boiled water in the kettle that Liang Qi handed her, and then sat down quietly next to Liang Qi, placing one hand on his forehead.

It wasn't hot, which reassured Xiaoyue. The firelight shone on Liang Qi's face, and he looked a bit healthier than when she had first seen him. Xiaoyue touched Liang Qi's broken eyebrow, wondering what had happened. There was a small scar on his eyebrow, which was particularly noticeable in the firelight.

His straight nose, with each breath, and his slightly parted lips, already showed signs of color.

Xiaoyue took the bowl, poured in some water, and fed it to Liang Qi with a spoon.

I don't know if I was really thirsty or if it was because of a cold, but I drank half a bowl of water.

His sunken eye sockets opened a crack, he peeked out, exhaled, and then closed them again.

He opened his eyes again immediately, and without saying anything, he simply hugged Xiaoyue, spilling the water Xiaoyue was carrying all over the floor.

Xiaoyue nudged him while asking, "What's wrong?"

Liang Qi held her tightly without saying a word. Xiao Yue, who had built a strong shield around herself, immediately broke down and hugged Liang Qi back tightly.

Liang Qi said softly, "I dreamt that you became a paper effigy and walked into a red box. I felt my blood freeze."

Xiaoyue pushed Liang Qi away, smiled at him, and put Liang Qi's hand on her face, saying, "Try pinching it, I'm still flesh and blood, aren't I?"

Then Liang Qi lay back down on the bed, took Xiaoyue's hand, and murmured, "It's strange. After those people leave, I also want to go to the west wing of Old Madam Ge's house to take a look. I wasn't there on the day Ge Erping got married, and later I heard you mention the red chest."

I dreamt that the box was half a meter high, one meter wide, and one meter long, a red box with black lines drawn on it. You've seen the Red Box before, am I right?

Xiaoyue stared at Liang Qi in horror, especially at Liang Qi's eyes. Xiaoyue saw her own fear reflected in those dark, bluish-black pupils. Xiaoyue could clearly feel her own tension and fear, and her voice trembled violently: "Yes, the same."

"What!" Liang Qi was so shocked he almost shouted.

Xiaoyue quickly covered Liang Qi's mouth, listened carefully to the sounds on the ground, and breathed a sigh of relief when she found that no one was coming this way.

Suddenly, the sound of horses' hooves came from above, and someone shouted, "Scholar, scholar, the doctor has arrived! Quickly, quickly, go and see the centurion!"

The scholar pushed open the door to the landlord's room, went to the kitchen, then opened the doors to the kitchen and the storeroom, and finally came out from the storeroom.

The man named Tian Wu helped the doctor down from his horse, which still had a bag of herbs tied to it. They dragged themselves into the east room.

Inside the room, the centurion lay on the kang (heated brick bed) with his eyes closed, while Hei Zi, snoring loudly, lay at the end of the kang.

The doctor first took the centurion's pulse, then picked out several kinds of medicinal herbs from the bag, divided them into ten doses, took out one dose, and instructed Tian Wu to brew the medicine for the centurion.

He took Hei Zi's pulse again, and the man named Hei Zi sat up abruptly, almost knocking the doctor over. The doctor had a pointed mouth and monkey-like face, and a pair of dead fish eyes that kept darting around.

The scholar stopped the doctor: "You don't need to take his pulse anymore. Just give them both the medicine for their injuries."

Watching the doctor apply medicine to Hei Zi, the scholar said indifferently, "It'd better be effective. If they don't get better, your life will be in danger too."

The doctor was so shocked that the scholar knelt down with a thud, sobbing and crying as if tears were flowing freely: "I told you I don't know how to treat illnesses, but you insisted that I do it."

"You're a doctor, who are you trying to fool if you can't cure illnesses?" The scholar was impatient with the doctor's rambling. Although he didn't kick him, he didn't give the doctor a friendly look either.

"When that man came to me, I told him that I could treat pigs, cure sick chickens, shoe donkeys, and treat cattle in my village," the doctor said, wiping away tears.

The scholar could no longer contain himself and kicked the doctor to the ground: "So you're a veterinarian? Then why are you taking the centurion's pulse?"

The scholar was so angry that he spun around on the ground, rubbing his hands in frustration.

“I’ve noticed that doctors always take a patient’s pulse before treating them, so I took that person’s pulse.”

"So what did you produce?"

"He's still alive." The doctor was honest and never lied.

The scholar was so angry that he kicked the veterinarian on the ground repeatedly.

The veterinarian on the ground, clutching his head, cried out in agony, "It's all the same! Animals bleed when they're injured, and the two adults bleed when they're injured too. It's all the same, it's all the same."

The scholar kicked the veterinarian again, leaving his face covered in blood.

The veterinarian said, "I'm not going to treat you anymore. Whether you treat me or not, I'll still die. It's the same as dying anyway, so I'm not going to treat you anymore." The doctor then started rolling around on the ground.