HEART PROTECTION: CHAPTER 4

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After being exhausted the entire day, Yan Hui had hoped to sleep well. Contrary to her expectations, she was woken up when the sky was still dark by the rooster crowing outside. She shut her eyes and tried hard to block out the noise. It had to crow itself tired at some point, she thought. However, it was the same as last night. Once the chickens started crowing, there was no stopping for the rest of the night.

In the early morning, Yan Hui got up from bed with dark circles. Once again she firmly swore that before she left, she would turn that rooster into soup.

When Yan Hui got up, A'Fu, who was sitting in the corner, also stood up. He straightened out his clothes before walking over and standing in front of the bed. He bit his finger and rubbed the blood onto the bedding.

Yan Hui raised an eyebrow after seeing his actions: "You're still thinking about tricking the old granny. You treat her well. You're still acting like you're her grandson."

A'Fu ignored her teasing: "It's done. Let's leave to get food. Stop wasting your breath."

Yan Hui curled her lip: "When are you taking me to the treasure?"

"I'll take you when I go work in the field."

Yan Hui nodded. Her heart suddenly had a funny feeling though she couldn't say why. There wasn't time to ponder on it before the grandma walked in. She beamed and rubbed Yan Hui's face: "The little girl isn't fussing anymore?"

Since she was going to leave after getting the secret treasure anyways, Yan Hui didn't feel like correcting the granny. She nodded and made a sound in agreement. Yan Hui walked out and looked back while closing the door. She caught a glimpse of the grandma leaning on the bed, one hand feeling the bedding and bringing her nose closer to smell it.

Yan Hui felt nauseated and embarrassed by the sight. She promptly closed the door and left.

She suddenly felt a little happy that it was her who was captured and not another girl. At least she had the skills to get away. If it was another person, she was afraid they would waste their entire life away here.

After eating, A'Fu carried a hoe on his shoulder to do work. As promised, he also brought Yan Hui.

The grandma was clearly much reassured after confirming Yan Hui and A'Fu had done the deed. She didn't fuss too much before letting the two go off. Perhaps in Grandma Xiao's eyes, the hymen decided a girl's fate. Whoever it was given to then was also given the girl's fate.

For a moment, Yan Hui couldn't tell if it was bad or good that the snake demon entered A'Fu's body.

After reaching the field with his hoe, A'Fu took Yan Hui along twisting and turning routes to wind their way out of the village.

Yan Hui had been carefully memorizing their route, but when they reached the end, she realized this path didn't take them down the mountain. It actually lead to a lake behind the village.

The source of the lake was precisely the very river that flushed Yan Hui out from within the mountain on that fateful day.

Yan Hui watched A'Fu find a wooden raft by the lakeside with movements that suggested he has done this before. He called out to her: "Get on."

Yan Hui looked at the lake which stretched as far as the eye could see. Then she looked at the water sloshing over the raft. She cultivated fire techniques which naturally loathed water. A few days ago, she felt like she was being burned by fire within. On top of that, then she slipped headfirst into water. Now looking at such a large lake......

She currently didn't have any magic, and she didn't know how to swim.

Yan Hui took a deep breath. Right when she was mentally readying herself, she saw the man on the raft extend a hand.

Looking up, she saw the thin young man that was standing on the raft looking at her. Even though his look was still cold, the hand that reached out really was to help her.

Yan Hui stared for awhile. In the end, she took his hand. With some force, he pulled Yan Hui onto the raft. Then he shook off her hand to push the raft off with a pole; not a single movement was hesitant.

A snake demon that ignored her yet helped her. He really had a strange temper......

After he used the pole to propel the raft for a quarter of an hour, Yan Hui saw a vertical cliff in the distance. Under the cliff was a dense forest which hid a dark cave. If it wasn't for A'Fu navigating the raft toward the cave entrance, Yan Hui never would have been able to discover it.

"You can really pick your hiding spots," Yan Hui muttered. She took a step, intending to cross from the raft into the cave. However her foot, while in midair, was blocked by an invisible wall. Yan Hui kicked the wall that was hovering in the air. She turned her head to look at A'Fu: "You even set up a barrier."

With that look, Yan Hui finally saw that A'Fu's complexion was slightly off. She furrowed her brows and slightly sized him up. His lips were pale, and his eyes were slowly becoming bloodshot. It seemed like his body was in discomfort, but his expression hadn't changed at all. It was as cold as before. It was like he wasn't the least bit concerned about his body. Even when the body was in pain, he didn't care at all.

 "You can't enter?" He also furrowed his brows. "Try again."

Yan Hui listened to him. She firmly kicked the barrier. This time the kick's power pushed back the raft a bit of a distance, but it was the same as before. She still couldn't enter.

A'Fu's mouth tightened. His look was somewhat grave: "Can you draw sigils? Use your blood......"

Yan Hui was somewhat angry. She turned her head to glare at him: "You set up the barrier. Can't you just open it?"

A'Fu was silent for a moment, then spoke: "Your Spirit Fire technique burned my entire body's magic to practically nothing. I don't have the power to open it."

After all that work......he also didn't have any magic. But it seemed right after thinking about it. Otherwise why else would he battle her last night with martial arts......Knowing this, Yan Hui slightly relaxed and stopped misleading him. She shrugged: "What a coincidence. Your snake venom flushed away my inner breath. I also don't have magic."

The two people looked at each other in dismay.

Yan Hui held her head in her hands and crouched down: "Why is getting rich so hard......I just wanted to hire a Fatty Zhang...... [1]"

The wooden raft stayed at the cave entrance for awhile. Then Yan Hui felt the air move all around her. It was A'Fu. He was using the pole to propel the raft back to where they came. His face had paled to a shadow of his former self, yet his voice was as steady as ever: "There is only one solution: Wait for a few days until your body clears away the venom. Maybe we can return again."

Yan Hui, who was squatting down, looked at him for a while: "I wanted to ask you before: Is your body sick?"

A'Fu finally turned around to shoot a look at her: "No."

Even though he denied it, Yan Hui didn't believe him at all. However his tone was steady. If she were to close her eyes, she would probably believe him.

But since he was trying so hard to put up a brave front, then she would pretend like her eyes were closed. Right next to her just happened to be a demon she met by chance. She had no viewpoint to be sincere.

Returning to the field, A'Fu started to work. Yan Hui was just squatting at the edge of the lowered field watching.

Making her wait wasn't a problem. She wasn't scared of wasting time. In any case, she was expelled from her shifu's tutelage. She was originally idle with nothing to do. She had nothing but time. So what if she waited here with the snake demon to collect the reward later? At best she would be considered an idle wealthy person with nothing to do......

"Pow!"

A stone hit A'Fu.

Yan Hui stared. Several kids ran over to the field giggling. They started skipping around: "Silly A'Fu, Silly A'Fu, Married a scary girl, Silly A'Fu!"

A'Fu stared at them, not moving. Right when Yan Hui was worrying if the snake demon would eat the kids, they picked up some rocks and pelted A'Fu, one right after another. He continued to just stand there and brushed off his clothes.

Yan Hui stared blankly. This snake demon......was actually an easy fellow to bully?

Right when she was thinking this, all of a sudden a kid picked up some mud, swung back his arm, and threw it over. With a "plop", it landed on Yan Hui's face.

"Scary wife, Scary wife, Married a silly boy, Scary wife."

Yan Hui clenched her jaw. The veins on her forehead started to pop. She wiped her face then stood up and started to roll up her sleeves.

She laughed: "Since you're having such a great time, let's play."

Hearing Yan Hui's words, the kid continued to laugh. Yan Hui grabbed some mud from the ground and cocked her arm. With a swishing sound, she flung the mud ball like an artillery shot. It directly hit the chest of the most difficult child out of the entire troublesome group. The kid fell onto his butt due to the force and stared.

The other children also stared.

When the pain set in, the kid opened his mouth wide and started to wail.

Yan Hui cracked her knuckles. Popping sounds accompanied every pinch. She bared one tooth while laughing: "Come on, big sis is waiting to play with you." Seeing Yan Hui's face, the rest of the children reacted like they saw a demon. In a split second they fled in fear, scrambling back home.

"I still have to handle these kinds of thing in this place." Wiping away the mud on her face while watching the kids run away, Yan Hui angrily muttered: "Looks like all kids are mean. There's no difference between those cultivating and those not cultivating."

Almost done with cleaning her face, Yan Hui turned her head. She saw A'Fu looking at her with his head cocked to the side.

Yan Hui shot him a glance from head to toe with extreme disapproval: "A demon that lets children bully him. Quite the sight."

A'Fu turned his head. His voice was cold: "A cultivator that fights seriously against kids with rocks. Wouldn't you say that's a sight?" Finished talking, he turned back and took in the field the children trampled. "Let's go back."

After he said this, he climbed up the edge of the lowered field and started walking on the path home.

Yan Hui looked at his back. There was a strange hostility that shocked the senses......

When night came, Yan Hui was meditating in her room. She was trying to think of every method to bring back her inner breath, yet after striving for so long, it was still as empty as ever within herself . When she opened her eyes, it was already deep into the night. She was disappointed. The loss of her magic really made her lose her sense of security.

She stifled the defeated feeling in her heart. She was just about to lay down when she realized A'Fu's presence was missing from the room.

Could it be this snake demon snuck out in the middle of the night to suck energy from people......?

There was a sudden splashing sound. Curious, Yan Hui walked over to the window and pushed it open. Under the bright moonlight, she saw the youth in the courtyard. He was naked and taking a bath with the well water. The nights were still cold, and the well water was like ice. Yet he was completely unaffected. The bucket of icy well water poured over his head, but there wasn't a single shiver.

After being with him these past two days, Yan Hui felt, more and more, like this person was like stone. It didn't seem like any external pain or discomfort affected him at all. However he wasn't a stone, so it could only be that he was silently enduring it all.

Thinking about it, people that are good at silently enduring are actually quite scary......

The bucket of well water was empty. The clear water flowed down his face, neck, chest, waist, then......

He turned his back.

His face slightly turned back to look at Yan Hui. Although he was young, he already had an almost practically perfect jawline. Drops of shining water clung to it. His dark pupils reflected the cold moonlight. He stared at Yan Hui; the apathetic look in his eyes was suppressing hints of anger.

Indignation.

Turns out, there are some things he can't stand.

Yan Hui swallowed her saliva and rebuked him: "Oh my, how can you......bathe in the courtyard?"

"Shouldn't you close the window first?"

"Oh."

Yan Hui closed the window, but she still stood frozen in front of the window.

This was probably the first time she saw a man's body. He was just a youth, but what he was suppose have, he had it all......

"Drip." A drop of blood fell on to Yan Hui's chest.

Yan Hui hurriedly covered her nose and laid down on the bed [2]. At that moment, Yan Hui had no choice but to admit sometimes Zi Yue was right when scolding her. She was just a worldly person. Her heart had worldly and superficial desires. It was just too strong.

Cultivating couldn't change her base instincts.

But could you blame her?

It was his fault for bathing in the courtyard!

The author has something to say: The matter of washing in the courtyard is real. I'll tell you guys. I've done it before. The specific steps are something like this: Get a bowl of well water. Keep it in a black bowl. Set it out in the sun for the whole day. When night comes, the water! is! warm! Then you can bathe in the courtyard _(:зf∠)_