Chapter 11  

At the inn where Xue Feifeng was staying.  

“General insists on going to the Water Transport Gang himself?” The Miracle Doctor stroked his beard, narrowing his fox-like eyes, accidentally pulling off half of it before calmly sticking it back on.  

Xue Feifeng pretended not to notice. “Yes, I’ll trouble you, Miracle Doctor.”  

“Then I’ll have to administer a strong dose to prevent the General from overexerting himself midway.” The Miracle Doctor smiled as he spoke, picking up a silver needle two fingers long and casually inserting it into Xue Feifeng’s knee.  

“This might be a bit uncomfortable. Please bear with it, General.”  

Xue Feifeng remained expressionless. “It’s fine.”  

A dense, stinging pain spread from his joints, soon reaching his internal organs, as if he had returned to the days just after his injury. Xue Feifeng closed his eyes, his drowsiness deepening amidst the swirling herbal fumes. Perhaps the familiar pain made him dream of the day he had mistakenly believed Shen Qingran poisoned him.  

The dream was chaotic, filled with noise, yet the days in Li Family Village interspersed within the fragmented scenes were rare moments of peace on horseback.  

The final image froze on Shen Qingran rushing in with a sword scabbard in hand. After a flash of worry, his expression turned hopeful as he asked, “If I’m bullied, will you help me?”  

Xue Feifeng abruptly opened his eyes and called out, “Chang Bai!”  

“Your subordinate is here.”  

“Go to Li Family Village and keep watch over Shen Qingran.”  

Xue Feifeng clasped his hands behind his back and walked to the window, staring at the yellow dogs chasing each other outside, his sword-like brows furrowing deeply.  

Apart from complaining about being tired from work, Shen Qingran never told him about what happened outside.  

But if no one had bullied him, why would his first reaction upon learning of Xue Feifeng’s martial skills not be anger at being wronged, but instead asking if he would help him?  

If Xue Feifeng had cared enough at the time, he should have pressed further.  

But he hadn’t.  

Xue Feifeng was filled with regret, as if he had misjudged the enemy’s situation in battle, leaving him with nothing but remorse.  

……  

Shen Qingran kept early hours, his lifestyle fully integrated with the working class. With no one at home to keep him company, he sat bored on the doorstep.  

He felt a little disgusted with himself because he had developed a subtle thought—he wanted Xue Feifeng to return and see him in a new light.  

To prove he wasn’t just a freeloader!  

Shen Qingran clenched his fists. It was time to work in the fields.  

He remembered the first day Xue Feifeng returned. When he woke up, Xue Feifeng was already in the yard chopping firewood. A pile of logs as tall as a person was neatly stacked. He guessed Xue Feifeng had seen the empty kitchen upon his return and had dragged himself up the mountain to chop wood before dawn.  

Compared to that, he really was useless—couldn’t cook, couldn’t chop wood, and refused to work in the fields.  

He couldn’t let Xue Feifeng chop wood again. What if he accidentally tumbled down the hillside and made things worse?  

Shen Qingran headed to the sugarcane field empty-handed. Before leaving, Sun Lao Er had instructed him that sugarcane needed its leaves stripped. Each segment was wrapped in two leaves, and once the inner cane grew thick and sturdy, the outer old leaves had to be peeled off to ensure the segments grew straight and strong.  

Dried sugarcane leaves made excellent kindling, highly flammable, which meant less firewood needed to be chopped.  

Five acres of sugarcane—Shen Qingran’s resolve wavered.  

The leaves had tiny thorns, and their serrated edges were sharp. Shen Qingran looked at his fair, delicate hands and tried stripping one segment.  

It was no different from rubbing against sandpaper!

Shen Qingran didn’t have gloves. He peeled three sugarcane stalks barehanded, his palms covered in a dense, stinging pain with fine crisscrossed blood streaks. Soon, his hands were so sore he couldn’t even clench them.

Gritting his teeth, Shen Qingran pushed through and peeled an entire row. Following Sun Lao Er’s instructional manual, he took three long sugarcane leaves, twisted them into a rope, and bundled the leaves together before carrying them to a sunny spot to dry.

Shen Qingran beamed as he looked at the neatly lined-up… well, three bundles of sugarcane leaves—his bountiful labor achievement for the day!

He really wanted to show off to Xue Feifeng!

Picking at his fingers, Shen Qingran thought that by the time Xue Feifeng returned, the leaves would be dry. He’d burn them right in front of him, listening to the crackling sound.

He silently reveled in the idea, careful not to laugh out loud. Ever since yesterday, he’d been afraid someone might be eavesdropping, making it impossible to clear his name even if he jumped into the Yellow River.

With the mountain tiger gone, the monkeys played king. Once Xue Feifeng left, Shen Qingran dragged out his men’s clothes to wear. Rolling up his sleeves, he gently rinsed his hands in the river. The inflamed, burning cuts soothed instantly under the cool water.

Shen Qingran treated Xue Feifeng’s clothes far more carefully than his own, avoiding branches that might tear them as he walked. Swinging his hands, he headed home—only to freeze, his pupils shrinking as he ducked behind a haystack.

A group of rowdy young men had gathered in front of the rundown house. They’d pushed open the courtyard gate without permission, scrambling inside in such a hurry that they’d knocked over the fence, as if afraid someone else would snatch the good stuff first.

Shen Qingran’s heart sank. He didn’t dare breathe too loudly. Alone and outnumbered, he knew these were the same people who’d stolen the original owner’s money pouch—they had no moral bottom line. Being mute, his words could easily be twisted, so it was better to stay hidden until they left.

Led by Li Qiusheng and Li Chunsheng, the hooligans grew impatient waiting for Shen Qingran to return and began chatting idly.

“Has anyone seen Shen Qingran since Fengzi came back? Tsk tsk tsk, he’s nothing like before—I almost didn’t recognize him.”

“We all thought Shen Qingran was dumb, but who knew after washing his face, he’d turn out so… what’s the word… breathtakingly beautiful…”

The group exchanged glances, bursting into lewd, knowing laughter.

“Don’t even think about it. None of us can compare to Fengzi in looks. A toad lusting after swan meat, hahaha! He’s already forgotten we once cooked for him…”

Their words said one thing, but their malicious glares and repeated attempts to push open Li Feng’s door told another story. A crippled Xue Feifeng and a mute Shen Qingran held no intimidation for them. If they just insisted Shen Qingran had invited them willingly, what could a lame man possibly do against them?

Shen Qingran stayed motionless behind the haystack, refusing to budge. Panic and helplessness churned inside him as he frantically searched for a solution.

As time dragged on, the group grew restless. “Let’s just go in first,” someone shouted, and they surged forward like bargain hunters rushing for eggs priced at ten cents a pound.

Shen Qingran panicked. Everything in that house had been painstakingly acquired by Xue Feifeng—that man who, despite his lame leg, still struggled to venture into the mountains, his heart full of worry that Shen Qingran might go hungry.

He couldn’t let Xue Feifeng’s efforts go to waste again.

These filthy rats, leeching off others’ granaries—how dare they!

Shen Qingran loosened her feminine bun and hastily tied it up again. She grabbed two handfuls of plant ash from the ground and smeared it on her eyebrows and lips, blending it evenly. After clearing her throat, she stood up composedly, straightened her back, placed one hand behind her, and pretended to be a scholarly gentleman brimming with knowledge.

“I am Qingran’s cousin. What business do you all have gathered here?” Shen Qingran called out to the ruffians who had barged through the wooden door, wearing a puzzled expression.

Under the sunlight, Shen Qingran stood tall and upright, the very picture of a refined and cultured gentleman.

The group of lowlifes froze abruptly, turning their heads in unison. The glaring sunlight stung their eyes, and the contrast between them and Shen Qingran couldn’t have been more stark.

“C-cousin, huh.”

Bah! Who’s your cousin?

With such a striking resemblance, no one would doubt they were relatives.

Shen Qingran stepped past the stunned crowd and smiled at Li Qiusheng, who was at the front. “Yesterday, Qingran’s mother suddenly fell seriously ill and longed to see her daughter. She sent me here to inform her. Qingran has already returned to her parents’ home. If you have any matters, perhaps you could come back in ten days.”

In ten days, Xue Feifeng would be back.

The ruffians looked embarrassed; in the presence of a scholar, they naturally felt inferior. Some were already thinking of leaving, shuffling their feet reluctantly toward the exit.

Li Chunsheng and Li Qiusheng also began to leave.

Shen Qingran let out a sigh of relief. She suddenly deeply understood the saying, “Trouble always finds a widow’s door.” Even with Xue Feifeng still alive, trouble had come knocking.

She leaned against the broken door, feeling a pang of distress. She had just been about to boast to Xue Feifeng about her work in the fields when the door got broken. She didn’t know how to fix it—how was she going to explain this?

Whether it was to keep Xue Feifeng from worrying, to save face for herself, or simply out of sheer, selfish concealment—so Xue Feifeng wouldn’t kick her out for causing trouble—Shen Qingran didn’t want him to know about these wretched incidents.

Li Qiusheng mulled over Cai Shi’s words. If Shen Qingran had a man hidden in her house, it clearly meant she had already found someone else and was looking down on him and his brother.

A surge of anger rose in his heart.

Perhaps for ruffians like them, despised by everyone, they needed someone like the original host—someone who groveled in the dirt, begging for their help—to give them a fleeting sense of superiority.

After eating the meals she had cooked, did they think they could be dismissed so easily?

Li Qiusheng suddenly turned around and rushed up to Shen Qingran, snarling, “You’re lying to us! Shen Qingran is home, isn’t she?”

At his words, the others snapped to attention. What were the odds her mother would fall ill today of all days? If she had gone back to her parents’ home—ha! They had always looked down on Shen Qingran’s spineless, lazy demeanor. For someone like her to travel alone while her “cousin” stayed behind? Impossible!

A sense of humiliation at being tricked washed over them, and Li Qiusheng’s expression turned vicious.

Shen Qingran looked at the approaching Li brothers with disgust and took a step back.

This retreat was taken as a sign of guilt.

Li Chunsheng shoved Shen Qingran aside and pushed open the door. “Let’s see where she’s hiding!”

“What are you doing?!” Shen Qingran reached out to stop him but was swatted aside like a kite. She watched as the group stormed inside, rummaging through everything, and trembled with rage, her eyes reddening.

Xue Feifeng’s wheelchair blocked their path, but it was overturned with a single shove. Shen Qingran glanced at the scrapes on her palms, a flash of ruthlessness in her eyes. She grabbed a thick fir log nearby and barred Li Chunsheng’s way, snarling, “Get the hell out!”

Having suffered countless grievances from these people while unable to speak, Shen Qingran was eager to vent his pent-up anger the moment his verbal restraints were lifted.

Before he could unleash his tirade, Li Qiusheng swung a hoe and effortlessly knocked Shen Qingran down at the waist, as if uprooting weeds from the ground.

Shen Qingran tumbled down several steps, curling up in pain on the ground, unable to speak.

Propping himself up with one hand while clutching his stomach with the other, his face pale, he felt nothing but regret.

Deep regret.

He had finally gotten the chance to curse at them!

He watched helplessly as these bandits ransacked the house like demons who had shed their human disguises, but the pain left him too breathless to utter a single insult.

From afar, Chang Bai spotted the chaos in his master’s room and a figure collapsed on the floor. His eyelids twitched as he swiftly drew his sword. But fearing he might land Xue Feifeng in legal trouble, he sheathed it again at the last moment.

With exaggerated bravado, he bellowed from his diaphragm, “Justice prevails when heroes draw their blades!”

His thunderous voice momentarily stunned the mob. Chang Bai swiftly joined the fray, his movements as swift as the wind. Using only his sword scabbard, he sent the ruffians sprawling, their teeth scattered across the ground. The courtyard soon filled with cowards clutching their heads and howling in pain. The smarter ones, realizing they were outmatched, scrambled for the gate.

Yet Chang Bai seemed to have eyes on the back of his head. He kicked up a wooden rod, sending it flying like lightning to strike a fleeing man’s back, instantly dropping him to his knees. He didn’t stop until every last one of them was beaten into whimpering submission.

“If there’s a next time, don’t blame me for unsheathing my blade,” Chang Bai warned coldly, partially drawing his sword. The glint of steel reflected on their foreheads, turning their faces ashen with fear.

Chang Bai glared at the Li brothers, now swollen like pig heads, sneering inwardly. They had bullied his master for being crippled—now they could taste their own medicine. Though they didn’t realize it yet, without timely treatment, they’d soon be paralyzed. He normally disdained such underhanded tactics, but their arrogance had pushed him too far.

Shen Qingran was awestruck by the black-clad youth’s martial prowess. As the scene unfolded dramatically, he couldn’t help but imagine Xue Feifeng’s battlefield demeanor—equally unstoppable against thousands, surely.

Just as he was about to express his gratitude, the young man called out from three meters away, “Madam,” his voice brimming with concern and reverence. “Are you injured?”

Shen Qingran’s mouth snapped shut as confusion set in.

So… am I a man or a woman right now?

Does this guy have bad eyesight?

Has he seen straight through reality into some illusion?

Chang Bai wrestled internally, unsure whether he could offer physical assistance—after all, this was the general’s wife!

Though, he had to admit, the madam’s male disguise was quite convincing.

Chang Bai mused that with the madam like this, she could even follow the army on campaigns, sparing them the pain of separation.

Their general was strict about discipline and would never make exceptions for bringing along female companions. But with the madam like this—utterly unrecognizable—it was perfect.

Chang Bai slapped his thigh in admiration. Their madam was truly remarkable!

Shen Qingran clutched his stomach as he stood up, unable to suppress a pained hiss.

Chang Bai inhaled sharply. Had he been any later—stopping to relieve himself on the way—his master might have flayed him alive.

Noticing Shen Qingran rubbing his stomach but seeing no blood, Chang Bai kept his expression icy, his tone calm yet laced with frantic hints: “Does Madam have any medicine at home?”

Our general does!