Chapter 36 – Picking Up Another Person from the Pit

In the back mountain of Taoyuan Village, Xiaojiu stared in silence at the half-dead old man lying in the pit.

What’s with this pit?

Not a single beast caught.

It only specializes in catching old men.

“New task: Rescue the divine doctor. Reward: 100 points + 1 lucky draw.”

“You still haven’t given me the reward from last time,” Xiaojiu said.

‘I’ll give them to you together this time.’ the system replied.

“You’ve been slacking off lately, haven’t you? I bet you forgot. Good thing I reminded you,” Xiaojiu said smugly, finally catching the system’s little tail.

‘No, but if you don’t save him now, he’ll bleed to death.’ The system’s voice sounded a little guilty, quickly changing the subject.

How did this little brat figure out it was slacking off? Well, there had been a lot of new TV dramas lately, and it had been binge-watching them, almost forgetting about the task.

Xiaojiu glanced at the man in the pit—he was cleaner than Old Xu—then flipped open the trap’s latch, lifted him up, and carried him downhill just like she had with the wild boar last time.

She headed straight to Doctor Huang’s courtyard.

“Doctor Huang, Doctor Huang, I brought someone for you to check on,” Xiaojiu said, placing the old man on the wooden board inside the house.

“This is…?” Doctor Huang glanced at the wound on the man’s leg and asked, “Another one caught by the trap?”

“Mm!” Xiaojiu replied.

“Not many wild animals caught, but you sure catch old men without fail,” Doctor Huang joked.

Doctor Huang skillfully treated the man’s injury, but during the process, the old man woke from the pain.

Seeing Doctor Huang tending to his wound, he gave him a word of thanks.

Doctor Huang quickly waved him off and pointed to Xiaojiu , who was petting a dog at the door. “If you want to thank someone, thank our village chief. She’s the one who brought you down from the mountain.”

The old man hurriedly expressed his thanks to Xiaojiu .

Xiaojiu curiously asked, “Who are you? How did you end up in our back mountain?”

The old man sighed. “My surname is Gu—just call me Old Gu. A Taoist from Qingyun Temple told me that if I came this way, I could find Tianshan Snow Lotus. But I got lost in the mountains and fell into a trap. Thankfully, you saved me.”

“You want Tianshan Snow Lotus for what? Is it medicine?” Xiaojiu asked.

“Yes, I need it to save someone. Have you heard of anywhere that has it?” Old Gu asked anxiously.

Both Xiaojiu and Doctor Huang shook their heads.

Doctor Huang had lived in this village for many years but had never heard of such a thing.

Xiaojiu , of course, had no idea what it was.

Old Gu closed his eyes in despair.

Time was running out. If he couldn’t find the Tianshan Snow Lotus, the fourth son of the Shi family probably wouldn’t survive the month.

Heaven was set on destroying the Shi family!

Old General Shi… forgive me. Once I’m buried in the ground, I’ll seek you out to atone for my failure.

Xiaojiu thought, The person he wants to save must be very important to him; otherwise, he wouldn’t be this sad.

She tried to comfort him. “We’ll find it.”

With that, she left Doctor Huang’s courtyard.

Back home, Xiaojiu immediately urged the system for her rewards. It had been ages since she last got to spin the wheel.

‘Encouraging villagers to practice martial arts—reward: 20 points + 1 lucky draw.’

‘Rescuing the divine doctor—reward: 100 points + 1 lucky draw.’

Xiaojiu clicked to spin the wheel.

Reward: one detoxification pill.

Reward: one Tianshan Snow Lotus.

“Hiss! That Qingyun Temple Taoist is really something—turns out there actually is one,” Xiaojiu ’s eyes lit up as she stared at the life-saving Tianshan Snow Lotus.

This couldn’t be given away for free.

The system had said he was a divine doctor, hadn’t it?

Perfect—she could trick him into becoming a teacher and have him teach the village children medicine.

The school she, Xiaojiu , had built was going to have a rich and varied curriculum—anything you were interested in, you could learn.

In the future, she planned to recruit all sorts of talented people to come teach at her school.

Just thinking about it made her happy!

When the children in the village grew up, they could become doctors, generals, take the imperial exams, go into business, farm the land, or become martial arts heroes…

So many choices!

Holding the Tianshan Snow Lotus, Xiaojiu ran back to Doctor Huang’s house.

“Is this what you’re looking for?” Xiaojiu held the item out in front of Old Gu.

Old Gu ignored the pain in his leg, jumped down from the bed, and leaned in close to study the Tianshan Snow Lotus intently.

Excitedly, he said, “Yes, yes, this is it! You, this…”

He was so emotional that he stuttered.

“I don’t know how much silver the young lady would take to sell it to me?” Old Gu asked carefully.

“No need for money. I can give it to you, but you have to promise me one thing,” Xiaojiu said.

“Alright, I promise!” Old Gu replied without a second thought.

“I haven’t even said what it is yet!”

“I’ll agree to whatever condition it is.”

“…Fine!” Hmph, so boring—there was no sense of achievement in this negotiation at all.

Old Gu clearly wanted to leave right away, but Xiaojiu stopped him.

“I’ll take you back tomorrow! I’ll give you the item then.” She had to keep an eye on him—what if he took it and ran?

“Thank you, young lady!” Old Gu glanced at the sky outside; it really was getting late.

Only when Xiaojiu saw that he no longer seemed intent on leaving immediately did she leave Doctor Huang’s house.

The next morning, the pale dawn light pierced through the clouds, casting the first beam of the day. The air was filled with the aroma of soy milk and fried dough sticks.

When Xiaojiu stepped out of her house, she saw Old Gu sitting in the courtyard.

The chubby boy and a few others were already up, staring curiously at the old man.

“Village Chief, who is he?”

By now, the chubby boy and Shen Zhiyuan had adapted to village life and also addressed Xiaojiu as “Village Chief” like everyone else.

“The man I rescued yesterday,” Xiaojiu replied.

“Oh!” They didn’t seem very interested—delicious breakfast was far more attractive.

Xiaojiu invited Old Gu to join them for breakfast.

“After breakfast, we’ll set off!” Xiaojiu told him.

“Where to?” The few at the table asked anxiously.

Weren’t they supposed to go to town?

What was the village chief going to do?

“Not going to town today—we’re taking him home!” Xiaojiu pointed at the old man enjoying his fragrant breakfast.

Right now, you couldn’t tell that he had been anxious at all.

“I’m coming too!” the group said in unison.

Xiaojiu thought for a moment—it wouldn’t be a problem; they could treat it like an outing.

“Where? I’m going too!” Zhao Hu and the others had just walked in and overheard them asking to go with the village chief.

“Alright!” It was just right—between the chubby boy and Shen Zhiyuan, they had two carriages.

After breakfast and a quick tidy-up, they got ready to set off.

Looking at the children who could just leave at a moment’s notice, Old Gu couldn’t help but ask, “Aren’t you going to tell your families?”

The last thing he wanted was for the adults to think he had kidnapped them and report it to the authorities.

“Is it far?” Xiaojiu asked.

She had thought they could get there in a few hours.

“It’s a bit far—by carriage, it’ll take a full day and night,” Old Gu said, now a little worried that the children’s families might not agree to let them go with him.

After all, an old man taking a group of children—it didn’t look very reassuring.

“Alright, then I’ll tell the clan leader,” Xiaojiu said.

The other children also said they’d go home and inform their parents.

The chubby boy and Shen Zhiyuan didn’t need to—both their parents already knew they were living in Taoyuan Village, and if they were gone for a few days, no one would worry. Even if someone went looking for them, the villagers could explain—there was no need to send word back to their family estates.

Watching the children run off, Old Gu waited anxiously in the courtyard.