With a warm smile on his face, Ding Ning said proudly, “No, my father knows nothing about medical skills.”
“Ah, didn’t you inherit your traditional Chinese medical skills from your family?” Xiao Nuo asked in astonishment.
“Yes, it is true. However, my father has no medical talent, so the ancestral medical books were passed on to me. My fourth master has excellent medical skills, so he used my family’s ancestral medical books to teach me medical skills.”
As Ding Ning recalled the warm days of the past, he puckered his face in a smile and the homesickness spread in his heart crazily.
Xiao Nuo was extremely shocked by his answer, “The fourth master? How many Masters do you have?”
“I have four masters. Great Master taught me astronomical geography, poetry and calligraphy. The second master taught me to manage business and conduct myself in the society. The third master taught me to hunt. The fourth master taught me medical skills and cooking.”
Ding Ning proudly said with sparkle in his eyes like a boy showing off his toy to his little friends.
A thought occurred to Xiao Nuo that she was getting closer to the truth. She asked in an euphemistic way, “It’s really amazing! So you are versatile?”
“I don’t consider myself versatile. I just dip into every area, but not proficient in any area.”
Ding Ning said modestly, but looked proud without showing any humbleness.
“So your third master taught you to survive in the wild?” Xiao Nuo asked suddenly.
“Yeah, my third master is very good at hunting. My hometown is at the foot of the Luochuan Mountains. He works as a ranger, but in fact, he goes into the mountains every day to hunt. When I was a child, I liked to follow him into the mountains.”
Ding Ning walked while recalling the past.
“Your third master is really amazing. He must be a big name in the martial arts circle.”
Xiao Nuo could sense Ding Ning’s admiration and respect for his masters, so she complimented them calmly.
“I don’t know about that. Before I came to Ninghai, my masters have lived in our town and never left. I thought they were all unknown people until…”
Ding Ning was about to show off that his third master’s iron wood arrow had made the famous Light Sniper Rifle King of Asia kneel down with fear and give up resisting, but suddenly realized that she was trying to drag something from him. He immediately shut his mouth.
“Until what? Tell me!”
Xiao Nuo refused to give up and continued asking, leaving no time for Ding Ning to think.
“Nothing.” Ding Ning was in a cold sweat from fear. She was really a sinister girl. She made him fall into her trap unconsciously and almost figured out his background.
“How can it be nothing? I hate those who stop a story at the climax. Tell me.”
Xiao Nuo said coquettishly, while gnashing her teeth in hatred. She almost dragged something out of him, but did not expect that he was quite vigilant.
Ding Ning thought hard about how to dispel Xiao Nuo’s doubt. After a moment of silence, he said with an embarrassed smile, “Until I came to Ninghai for college education and they also left home. We’ve lost contact since then. I miss them so much.”
“Humph, it’s not what you mean. You are just fooling me.”
Xiao Nuo said in anger. Failing to drag something out of him made her in a bod mood.
“Why should I fool you? I haven’t done anything discreditable, so I don’t need to do that.”
Ding Ning pretended to be displeased, while feeling extremely guilty. He had kissed her, touched her and spanked her. It made him feel so guilty to brace himself to say that he hadn’t done anything discreditable.
“Humph, forget it!”
With sparkle in her eyes, Xiao Nuo decided to stop asking. She couldn’t push him too hard now, otherwise she would be unable to drag anything out of him.
They fell silent in tandem, and only their footsteps resonated in the forest.
After another half an hour, Ding Ning suddenly stopped and said in surprise, “We’ve found it.”
Xiao Nuo who was slouchy suddenly felt refreshed and looked in the direction of Ding Ning’s sight.
In front of them, there was a large tree which was nearly 30 meters high. The bark looked thick, rough and gray, with foamy bulges. The crown was luxuriant with yellow flowers, purple-black pear-shaped fruits as well as long and elliptical leaves, and there were serrated lobes on the edge of the back of the leaves.
“This is Antiaris Toxicaria Lesch? Be careful.”
Recalling the legend of suffocation caused by blood exposure, Xiao Nuo was in inexplicable awe. At the sight of Ding Ning carelessly touching the bark, she hurriedly reminded him.
“It doesn’t matter. Antiaris Toxicaria Lesch can make one suffocate once his wound is exposed to it. Without a wound, its toxin can’t enter the human body.”
Ding Ning casually waved his hand and said, “We should look around in the radial direction of Antiaris Toxicaria Lesch, and Triostar must be around here.”
Xiao Nuo said in a dilemma, “But I don’t know what Triostar looks like.”
“It doesn’t matter. If you find some grass, you can call me. I guess it should be located within 50 meters.”
Ding Ning casually waved his hands, and began to search rapidly in one direction while Xiao Nuo searched in another direction.
Not long after, Xiao Nuo shouted, “Doctor Ding, come here to see if this is Triostar.”
Ding Ning quickly ran over and saw a bunch of grass on the ground. He bend down in surprise, excavated carefully, and said with a smile, “Captain Xiao, you’ve made a great contribution. This is Triostar.”
“Ah, really, that’s great. We’ve made it.”
Xiao Nuo showed a sincere smile which was strikingly pretty so that it made Ding Ning lose his mind.
Looking at Ding Ning’s stunned eyes, Xiao Nuo’s heart was fluttering. The he looked at her was so familiar, exactly the same as that of the bastard.
With a trace of cunning across her eyes, she suddenly shouted, “Huntsman.”
Ding Ning was a little slow in response. He was stunned, and then stared at her with a blank look, “What are you talking about?”
Meanwhile, he secretly felt shocked that he had almost be tricked by her. Fortunately he was not familiar with the nickname made up by himself, otherwise he would have expose himself.
There was a trace of disappointment in Xiao Nuo’s eyes. It seemed that he really didn’t know Huntsman, otherwise he would never show such an expression.
Thus, she said with flagging interest, “Nothing. It’s getting dark, let’s go back.”
“Yeah, we should hurry back indeed. If we fail to go out before dark, we will get into a big trouble.”
Ding Ning estimated that it should be about three o’clock in the afternoon, and his face became solemn. It was the most horrifying in the nights in the rainforest. If he didn’t pay enough attention, even he would die here.
On the way back, Xiao Nuo pulled a long face without saying anything, preoccupied by troubles. Ding Ning felt guilty, so he didn’t dare to talk with her and had to press forward on his way. They walked a lot faster than when they came.
Finally, when the moon had just climbed up to the treetops, they walked out of the forest safely.
The dark environment was very stressful to the nerves. Even Ding Ning who had tightened his nerves and stayed vigilant felt exhausted.
Feeling the fresh air of the outside world and comparing it with the dark and humid environment in the rainforest, both of them sighed with relief.
“Let’s go, we are still dozens of kilometers away. We are much slower on foot than in a helicopter.”
Ding Ning identified the direction, said to Xiao Nuo and walked forward with great strides.
Xiao Nuo’s legs were so heavy as if they were filled with lead, and she got blisters on her feet. Every step she took made her feel prickling pain.
However, as a stubborn person, she was not willing to be belittled by a doctor, so she gnashed her teeth and followed Ding Ning.
The moonlight was like water, the breeze was blowing slowly, and it was a poetic night. However, the rustling of the night wind blowing the branches and the shadow of the tree looking like a group of snakes dancing made the night gloomy and terrifying.
Ding Ning was in his own thoughts without paying attention to Xiao Nuo. It wasn’t until Xiao Nuo’s turned to jelly and fell to the ground with a scream half an hour later that he realized it.
He hurried to her side to help her and said, “How are you? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine!” Xiao Nuo gnashed her teeth with a slightly distorted face. No one knew whether she was resentful of her weakness or complaining that Ding Ning didn’t show tenderness toward her. She stubbornly shook off Ding Ning’s hands and tried to stand up by herself.
“Don’t move, your feet have been sprained.”
Ding Ning lifted Xiao Nuo’s trousers and found that her ankles were swollen like carrots. He said seriously.
“Leave me alone. Just keep going!”
Xiao Nuo pinched her lips, glared at Ding Ning with tears in her red eyes and pushed away Ding Ning in a feeble but determined way. Her hoarse voice was full of pain and grievance.
The sweat stuck her fringe on her smooth forehead, making her look a bit messy and delicate.
“Sorry, I was thinking about something else, so I ignored you. Don’t be mad at me, okay?”
Feeling her resoluteness, Ding Ning was flustered and said incoherently.
“No, no. Just keep walking and leave me alone. Anyway, I am just a fool and trash in your eyes, wu wu wu…”
Xiao Nuo seemed to have broken down. She hysterically shouted with indescribable grievance and blame in her tone, and then burst into tears.
Ding Ning scratched his head and said in discomfiture while rubbing his hands together. “Don’t cry, don’t cry. Tell me which bastard said that you are a fool and trash, and I will definitely beat him to death. You are the most courageous and incredible special policewoman I have ever seen, indeed.”
As Xiao Nuo watched his familiar movements, there was a trace of cunning across her tearful eyes. He even did the similar things when being afraid of a crying woman. How he dared to say that he had nothing to do with the bastard?
“Leave me alone. Just leave me alone. There’s no relationship between us. What makes you think that you can tell me what to do?”
She did not stop, but cried loudly instead. Her tearful face made Ding Ning feel distressed.
Xiao Nuo kept wiping her tears while secretly observing him. She sensitively found the distress in his eyes, which made her feel happy and increasingly confused.
Why did he look at her in the same way as the bastard? There were similar people in this world, but they were so similar in eyes, movements and habits that it couldn’t be explained as a coincidence.
Ding Ning was panicked. In the middle of the night, he stayed with a woman who cried miserably and looked like being bullied. If someone caught sight of them, he would not be able to clear his name even if he jumped into the Huanghe River.
He immediately braced himself to shout with a solemn face, “Shut up!”
Before Xiao Nuo reacted, he grabbed her calf, took off her shoe, held her foot in his arms, and grasped her ankle to check it.
Xiao Nuo abruptly stopped crying, staring at him with tears on her face and her brain in chaos.
Who was he? Who exactly was he? Why did he resemble You Xumo so much even when he was bossy?
“Fortunately, your bones haven’t been hurt.”
Realizing that Xiao Nuo stopped crying and struggling fiercely, Ding Ning felt relieved.
However, when he saw the blisters on her delicate foot, his face changed. He gnashed his teeth in anger and cursed, “You are a fool. Why didn’t you tell me that you got blisters on your feet? Does it hurt?”
Xiao Nuo felt deeply concern and distress from his curse, which made her feel warm. Seeming to see him overlap someone’s figure again, she shouted unexpectedly, “Rogue.”
“Yeah!” Ding Ning answered casually, but suddenly realized that he had been tricked again.
