Chapter 35 The Bad Guys (Part 1)
Holding an oil lamp, Li Sanniang lightly kicked the bucket aside and sniffed the bloody smell in the kitchen.
Found it!
There was a drop of blood that hadn't completely dried right next to the stove, and if you looked further, there was another drop near the threshold at the door.
"Something's not right!"
Li San Niang blew out the oil lamp, left the kitchen, and followed the smell of blood to the gate of her parents' courtyard, where she stopped.
Turning her head, Li San Niang strode quickly toward Li Da Xiong's house.
Li San Niang knocked lightly twice on the door. In the quiet night, she heard someone getting out of bed and putting on their shoes, followed by the dim light of a lamp. "Who is it? Who's outside?" Li Da Sao asked cautiously from inside the door.
"Sister-in-law, it's me, Third Sister. Isn't my eldest brother here?"
Upon hearing that it was Li San Niang, Sister-in-law Li hurriedly held up an oil lamp and went to open the door. Li San Niang entered the house and found that her elder brother Li was not there. "Elder brother, why aren't you here?"
Sister-in-law Li pulled Li San Niang down to sit. Seeing Li San Niang's slightly anxious expression, she took her hand and patted it to comfort her. "Your eldest brother went to see your parents, saying he had something to say. What happened? He came over in the middle of the night? How is Dewdrop?"
“Sister-in-law, Luzhu is fine and sleeping soundly. When I went to the kitchen to get hot water, I smelled blood and felt something was wrong. I lit the oil lamp and found bloodstains. I followed the bloodstains all the way to my parents’ door. I was scared. Had a thief broken into the house? That’s why I thought of asking my brother to go and check with me.”
"Bloodstains? Don't be afraid, Third Sister, it's not a thief. I'll take you back to your courtyard. You can stay with Dewdrop and go to sleep. Everything will be fine by tomorrow morning."
As she spoke, Sister-in-law Li was about to get up to get the oil lamp so she could take Li San Niang back home.
How could Li San Niang let this go so easily?
On one hand, they were worried about Li's father, mother, and elder brother; on the other hand, they wanted to know what the group was hiding.
What else could this family possibly be hiding? The smell of blood is there, so what are they trying to conceal?
What can be hidden must be a secret, and a secret that cannot be made public.
However, in Li San Niang's view, all family members, whether good or bad, should have the right to know and should share the responsibility.
A white lie cannot hide the fact that it is still a lie.
Seeing that Li San Niang was sitting still, Sister-in-law Li reached out and pulled her up. Li San Niang obediently got up, but her steps led her towards the courtyard of Li's parents.
Seeing Li San Niang's state, Sister-in-law Li still wanted to forcefully coax Li San Niang back first, so she dragged her into Li San Niang's courtyard.
Before Li Dasao could react, Li Sanniang knocked loudly on the courtyard gate of Li's parents and said, "Father and Mother, are you asleep? I have something to tell you, please open the door."
Li Dasao was so angry that she lightly slapped Li Sanniang's arm twice. Helpless, Li Dasao stayed outside the door with an oil lamp, waiting for Li Sanniang to open the door.
The creaking sound of the old wooden door opening and closing was quite noticeable in the still of the night.
The person who opened the door was neither Li's father nor Li's mother, nor Li's elder brother, but a hunched-over man.
He opened the door without saying a word, and just stood there waiting for the two of them to come in.
Li Sanniang glanced at him and saw that he was a man in his thirties with a hunched back, which was probably due to a congenital spinal curvature. His upper arm muscles were prominent, indicating that he often did heavy lifting, but he must be enduring pain that most people could not bear every day.
Li San Niang took the oil lamp from Li Da Sao and took her arm as they walked into the house.
As soon as she pushed open the door, she saw the profile of a young nobleman drinking tea with his head down. Opposite him sat Brother Li with a serious expression. Li San Niang was about to ask where Li's father and mother were.
Why is he described as a noble young master?
After all, the fabric of those clothes was not something an ordinary family could afford. Under the dim light, one could vaguely see dark patterns, and a quick glance revealed that the jade hairpin in the man's hair looked very valuable.
Preliminary assessment suggests he is around 25 or 26 years old, well-educated, rarely sees sunlight, and lacks exercise.
In the next room, Li San Niang saw Li's father, who was wearing a slingshot and tending to the shoulder injury of the man in black lying on the bed. Next to him was Li's mother, who was also wearing a slingshot and handing a handkerchief to Li's father.
"Father," Li's father responded without speaking, gesturing to Li San Niang to look at the man in black sitting on the chair in the corner.
Only then did Li San Niang notice another person on the chair in the shadows. The person was wearing a black face mask, only revealing their eyes, and their face was not visible. At this moment, the person was covering their upper arm with one hand, and it could be seen that there was also a blood-soaked wound on their right calf. The smell of blood was so strong that it was unpleasant.
How should I put it?
Li San Niang felt that the smell of blood from her mother's childbirth was different from the smell of blood from this wound; perhaps it was because she had a naturally sensitive sense of smell.
Without saying a word, Li San Niang also tied on her armband, took a set of Li's father's tools, and went to the man in black.
They cut off the clothing at the wound with scissors. It looked like they had applied wound medicine to stop the bleeding. The wound on the calf wasn't serious, and the bleeding had stopped. The cut on the left upper arm was a bit deep and would need at least three or four stitches.
"Brother, bring me a bucket of hot water and some soap; I need to wash my hands."
Upon hearing Li San Niang's words, the young nobleman, Mr. Bu Ke, raised his head and glanced at Li San Niang. He then turned and nodded to the hunchbacked man, allowing Brother Li to walk out of the door.
Sister-in-law Li was worried, so she went out with her.
After the hot water was brought back, Li Sanniang washed her hands and forearms. There were no latex gloves to wear, and it was really hard to guarantee that the man in black in front of her did not have any infectious diseases.
However, conditions did not allow it. Despite her obsessive-compulsive disorder, Li San Niang forced herself to clean the wound and asked her mother for a piece of catgut suture. She did have a curved needle readily available, probably because Li San Niang and her father had it made by Li's father after Li Er Sao's episiotomy during childbirth, when Li San Niang complained that it was inconvenient to suture without a curved needle.
Thinking of this, Li Sanniang regretted not having someone else get a complete set of equipment from all the items in her system inventory beforehand. She would definitely have to get some later.
The curved needle is a bit too big, and there are no needle holders, so I'll just have to make do with it.
Here, Li San Niang had to admire the man in black. Her father's shoulder wound was close to his chest, so there should have been no anesthesia. He just stitched it up directly without making a sound.
Impressive! Ruthless!
So Li San Niang felt relieved. After cleaning the wound, she said, "I'm going to stitch you up now, bear with it," and started pricking the flesh directly.
Except for the first injection, when the man in black trembled slightly, he didn't make a sound or move at all when the second injection started. Apart from the blue veins showing on the skin around his eyes, which showed that he was enduring the pain, there was really no other reaction.
While stitching, Li Sanniang wondered, "What kind of fancy trick is this?"
What's going on here on the night of the Ghost Festival, with two men in black who clearly have metal weapon wounds coming to Li's father's door for treatment?
Bandits? Thieves?
At this point, Li San Niang understood why her parents hadn't revealed these secrets, and she also found out why her sister-in-law had stopped her from coming to her parents' courtyard.
Given this situation, no one who cares about their family would want to involve them!
Am I in deep trouble?
After Li San Niang finished stitching up, she still felt that she should come. If she didn't come, she might be kept in the dark forever. Her father, mother, elder brother, and sister-in-law loved her so much, how could she bear to let them bear all the burdens?
The black-clad man was neatly dressed, with a knot tied, medicine applied, and bandaged. Before Li San Niang could even warn him not to get the area wet, to take precautions against infection, and not to move around too much, he stood up abruptly, acting as if he hadn't been injured at all.
The first man in black, the one Li San Niang had treated with minor injuries, immediately got up and carried the second man in black, the one Li's father had treated. The first man, carrying the second man, nodded to Mr. Bu Ke and then opened the door and left.
They just left like that.
They're gone.
"Third Sister is amazing, she has surpassed her teacher! I will send you the waist token later."
Then, he was pushed away by the hunchbacked man.
Yes, it was pushed away.
It turned out he was sitting in a wooden wheelchair.
He's a cripple!
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