Chapter 9 Does this man look more manly than he does? ...
The moment he finished speaking, Li Chen heard the sound of people kneeling and kowtowing. When she looked ahead, she saw that the people had already knelt on the ground and were frantically kowtowing to her, shouting, "No, we won't!"
"I swear, I will never draw your portraits, and I can't draw at all! Please, please spare me!"
"Senior, senior, spare my life! I will definitely repent and start anew!!"
"Senior, spare my life!"
"senior!"
Those people were frantically kowtowing and begging, and Shen Zhengyuan saw it all, but his expression remained unchanged. His eyes showed no hesitation or pity. Looking at her, he said firmly, "Kill them."
"No, no! Senior, please have mercy!!"
"Master, please spare us! We really didn't mean to rob us!"
"Spare me! Spare me! I have a two-year-old daughter to raise. If I die, my daughter will starve to death. Please, senior, spare my life!!"
On one side, she was being asked to kill someone; on the other, they were begging her to release the person. Li Chen was caught in the middle, but her face showed no sign of confusion or impatience.
She glanced at Shen Zhengyuan, then turned to the others and smiled slightly, saying, "You may leave now."
Upon hearing Li Chenjin's words, those people immediately raised their heads, each looking overjoyed. They were clearly surprised and delighted that they had been able to escape with their lives. After kowtowing three times, they hurriedly got up and fled without looking back, as if afraid that she would regret it.
Shen Zhengyuan watched their departing figures, confused yet filled with resentment and anger. "Why didn't you kill them? Do you know how much trouble we'd be in if they told others and more people came? If you really wanted to show mercy, couldn't you have used it somewhere else?!"
Li Chen lowered his head, coughed once, and said softly, "As the saying goes, Heaven cherishes life. If I let them go today, who knows, they might really repent and start anew? Besides..."
"Besides... I really don't have any strength left..."
Before Shen Zhengyuan could understand the meaning behind her words, he saw her suddenly spit out a mouthful of blood, her body sway, and she collapsed to the ground.
Upon seeing this, he immediately squatted down and looked down at the person in front of him.
Li Chenjin's lips were still stained with bright red blood, and his white dress was stained with dust and his own blood. His face was paler than usual, but his lips were exceptionally red because of the blood.
His hand had just touched her shoulder, and before he could even ask her how she was feeling, he saw her struggle to look up in the direction the people had left in. Seeing that they had all disappeared, she seemed to relax, her eyelids drooped, and she fell back to the ground, completely unconscious.
"...Li Chenjin, Li Chenjin?"
"..."
Li Chenjin naturally showed no reaction at this moment. He imitated the way Li Chenjin usually took her pulse and pressed his hand on her wrist.
But someone who doesn't know medicine simply doesn't know medicine. Even if they could feel her pulse, they could only tell that her pulse was still beating and that she wasn't dead yet; they couldn't tell anything else.
He withdrew his hand, looked at the unconscious person, and pondered whether he should leave now.
He found it hard to fully trust someone who had suddenly appeared like her, especially since she was a doctor herself. If she could treat others, she should be able to save herself too.
Thinking this, he stood up. Just before leaving, he thought for a moment, turned around, took out another white cloth bag from the Qiankun bag at his waist, and stuffed it into her hand.
After doing all this, he stood up and walked away into the distance without looking back.
He left her a storage bag and this small building as her place to stay. By all accounts, he had done everything he could to be kind and generous. Now he is just getting back on track.
After an unknown amount of time, the dark, overcast sky finally began to rain. The rain was torrential, with raindrops pounding on the ground and rooftops, making a series of dense, muffled sounds. When they hit your skin, you could feel a slight pain and an intense chill.
In the continuous rain, Li Chen seemed to open his eyes in a daze.
She stared blankly at the gray sky before her, trying to get up, but felt as if her body weighed a ton, and every part of her body ached from head to toe. Even moving a finger was extremely difficult, so she could only lie quietly on the ground, waiting for the chill brought by the rain to seep into her bones little by little.
As she struggled to turn her head and make out her surroundings, she found herself in a valley. She was stunned for a while before finally realizing that she was dreaming again.
This is one of her recurring dreams: lying quietly in a valley, with no shelter above her head, unable to move, only able to watch the rain fall continuously, relentlessly pelting her.
Although she did say a lot of things on the spot after meeting Shen Zhengyuan, there were some things she didn't say nonsense, such as that she was indeed homeless and that she was indeed kicked out by her family.
It's not quite accurate to say she was chased away; it was more of a scheme. When she trusted someone implicitly, she was betrayed by that very person.
After being betrayed by the person she trusted most, she was too injured to move and lay in a place not far from her home for four days and four nights.
She remembered that during that time, she kept hoping that someone would come to see her, even just one person, but for four whole days, no one came to see her.
Neither those who had previously professed their love for her nor those who had vowed to follow her appeared.
She vaguely remembered that the rain seemed to have lasted for four days in a row, as if God was weeping for her.
Then she lay in God's "tears" for four days and four nights, and in the end, her injuries not only did not heal, but became more serious.
Fortunately, her desire for revenge was too strong at that time, and she was unwilling to die there. After her body could barely move, she slowly crawled out of the valley, and then...
She couldn't quite remember what happened after that, or why she didn't want to take revenge. Perhaps it was because her injuries had relapsed and she was in so much pain that her mind was a bit muddled, and her memories had become blurry.
I wonder if she can withstand lying in the rain for another four days and four nights...
………………
When Shen Zhengyuan returned, the torrential rain was still pouring down, and Li Chenjin was still unconscious. Her clothes were completely soaked. If he left her like this, she might not be able to save herself before he had to go down to the underworld to take her pulse.
He stood beside Li Chenjin and quietly watched her for a moment. After confirming that she really wouldn't wake up anytime soon, he reached out and picked her up from the ground, then walked into the small building.
He originally intended to take care of her first, and then leave when she woke up and was too weak to care for him. However, Li Chenjin seemed to be very ill and had not woken up for a whole day, which made him think of what she had said to him before.
"I do have some old ailments, and they're quite serious. If they flare up, and you know nothing about medicine, even a regular doctor might not be able to treat me. If I fall into a coma again, I could easily die."
She had clearly said it casually before, but little did she expect that it would come true.
He knew nothing about medicine, and there was no doctor to be found here. He could only take out the spiritual medicines and herbs left behind by the previous people, pick and choose, estimate which ones were usable, and then force-feed the unconscious person whatever he thought was usable.
Li Chen remained unconscious for three whole days. During these three days, she would talk in her sleep from time to time, and at night she would suddenly develop a high fever. Occasionally, she would vomit a mouthful of blood or two. Shen Zhengyuan was at a loss, sometimes wondering if the people left behind poison, and sometimes wondering if he had given her the wrong medicine and was going to kill her.
After much deliberation, he dared not give her any more medicine haphazardly. He could only stay by her bedside day and night, feeding her water from time to time.
Fortunately, he had collected quite a few clothes along the way, and he was able to change her into clean clothes in time after her clothes were soaked with sweat from the high fever at night.
Actually, this was something he shouldn't have done, but if he didn't do it, she might die at any moment. So he could only recite the Pure Land Sutra in his heart while changing her sweaty clothes.
At first he was a little apprehensive, but when he actually undressed her, he didn't even recite the sutra of tranquility.
He looked down at the person in front of him, his brows furrowing slightly. His mind was at peace, and he felt that Li Chenjin was indeed not the type of person he would like.
Li Chenjin's skin was very white, an unhealthy, abnormal paleness. It was obvious that she had been suffering from illness for a long time. Although she seemed to move freely, her body was already depleted. An ordinary person would probably have difficulty walking if they were sick like this, but she could run, jump, and even carry a cabinet. Her strength was so great that it was hard to believe that she was really sick.
He hadn't understood it before, but now that he saw her body, all his questions were answered.
Li Chen's pale skin was covered with many scars, some long and some short, large and small. These scars were obviously old wounds that had long since healed, but one could still vaguely see the danger of the time when he was injured.
She usually wore loose clothing that obscured her figure, but now that she had undressed, she was different from the soft, fragrant woman he had imagined. Her body was more streamlined and firm. Although she didn't look as bulky as those body cultivators, but...
Shen Zhengyuan remained silent for a moment, unsure how to describe this feeling.
Upon careful consideration, it must be because he had no doubt that if he were to have any conflict with Li Chen, she could easily kill him with a single punch.
She usually looks very gentle and soft, so how come she looks more masculine than him after taking off her clothes?
A note from the author:
It's really hard to not develop muscles from practicing swordsmanship. I've got muscles from practicing Tai Chi and lifting weights [doge emoji].
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