On the boat, they could see that the village was surrounded by both the river and the mountain. There were also brick-walled buildings found around the village.
The noise from the city was not present, making the village really quiet and rustic.
Nan Zhi had never been to such an underdeveloped village before.
There was a mountain route and a water route to the village. On one side of the village were green trees and plants, while the other side was rubble.
After they got off the boat, the four of them walked towards the village.
The route to the village was a little narrow. It wasn’t made of cement, but paved with stones and was a little rough.
Yi Fan was walking in front of all of them while Bai Ye walked in front of Nan Zhi. When the path was a little uneven, he wanted to hold onto Nan Zhi, though he was kicked aside by Mu Sihan.
Mu Sihan picked up a long stick and passed one end of the stick to Nan Zhi.
Nan Zhi glanced at the stick that he was passing to her, smiling. “Thank you.”
“Stop smiling at me,” he said with a cold expression.
Nan Zhi immediately removed her smile, looking extremely serious instead. “Don’t worry. I won’t smile again.”
Mu Sihan stared at her with his black eyes, only moving his eyes away a few seconds later. It was as if he was afraid that an uncontrollable desire for her would surge within him if he stared at her for another second. He turned around, not looking at her anymore.
He walked forward, still holding onto the other end of the stick while she walked behind him.
Between the two of them, there were nearly a meter’s distance.
His hoarse, cold voice trailed over. “Why did you come over for?”
Nan Zhi stared at his wide back, her long eyelashes fluttering slightly. “I’m worried about you. I couldn’t follow you when you went to the battlefield, but I can follow you when you’re coming here. Why can’t I come?”
“It might be dangerous in underdeveloped villages like this,” he said helplessly.
Nan Zhi bit her lips, staring at his handsome side profile. Pursing her lips slightly, she said determinedly, “I’m not a timid person. Beside, I know self-defense. A normal person would not be able to hurt me!”
Hearing her words, the man chuckled lowly. His voice seemed to have come from deep within his throat, sounding magnetic and alluring. “With that skill you have, do you think you can handle defending yourself from someone?”
Nan Zhi glared at him, pouting. “Stop looking down on people. Although I’m not a match to you all since you know kung fu, I can still defend myself against normal people!”
Mu Sihan glanced at her from the corner of his eye. “You’ve become a lot bolder after returning to the Qiao family.”
Hearing this, Nan Zhi felt slightly wronged and angry, her eyes turning red uncontrollably. “You knew about my mom’s relation to the Qiao family long ago, didn’t you? You didn’t even tell me before you left! Why aren’t you willing to tell me anything?”
Mu Sihan pursed his lips tightly. “Qiao Yanze helped me with Qiao Yanrong. He didn’t want me to tell you first, so I had to keep my promise naturally.”
Nan Zhi did not speak.
“Why? Is the Qiao family ill-treating you?”
Nan Zhi sniffled, staring at his clean cut black hair. “They’re really nice to me. I used to think that the Qiao family was really annoying, but after spending time with them and getting to know them, I realize that they aren’t that bad.”
Mu Sihan narrowed his dark eyes slightly, unconsciously thinking about his own family.
His parents did not like him ever since he was born. After his father’s car had exploded and he lost the use of one leg, the thought of him jinxing his father strengthened to his father.
He was a jinx, and coming back would only bring them trouble.
Ye Fengjun wanted to become the King originally. However, in the political fight against the Third Princess, he even lost his title as the Crown Prince.
He hated him, but could not destroy him either.
Because, if he wasn’t able to become the Crown Prince, Ye Yanfeng’s family would reap the benefits instead.
Noting that Mu Sihan had stopped speaking, she saw that his back was slightly slouched and it made him look slightly sad and depressed. Nan Zhi asked softly, “What’s wrong?”
“It’s nothing.”
After nearly ten minutes, they finally left the narrow alley and entered the village.
However, someone shouted the moment they did, “More outsiders have barged into our village!”
Within a short while, villagers from all directions appeared with most of them carrying hoes, metal shovels and self-made bows and arrows.
The villagers were not as friendly as Nan Zhi had thought they would be, all looking at them like they were enemies.
Seeing this, Yi Fan hurriedly explained, “Everyone, we came here to look for a Master. I heard that he’s in this village, and we would like to…”
“The Master isn’t here! Outsiders are not welcomed in our village. Please leave immediately!”
“Yes, leave immediately!”
The villagers worked together to chase them out.
Nan Zhi furrowed her eyebrows.
The villagers seemed to be very against outsiders.
“Let me talk to them!” It was natural for the villagers to be guarded with Mu Sihan and the rest looking tall and strong, like they were people not to be messed with.
However, Nan Zhi had merely stepped a step out when several women started to throw stones at them.
Mu Sihan hurriedly pulled Nan Zhi behind him, fending her from those stones using his tall figure. One of the stones hit the back of his head, and Mu Sihan’s expression immediately darkened as he furrowed his eyebrows.
“Everyone, stop!”
A man in his fifties stepped up to stop the women from throwing more stones.
“Village Head, have you forgotten what happened a month ago? No outsiders are good people!”
The Village Head was about to speak when a woman who was around his age ran over with a girl in her arms. “Er Ya is having fever again. Her fever keeps going up and down, and the village doctor isn’t able to treat her. I want to bring Er Ya into the mountain…”
Before the woman finished, she saw the outsiders and hurriedly shut her mouth.
Mu Sihan glanced at the girl in the woman’s arms. The girl had an unusual flush, as if she had fainted from the fever.
Mu Sihan kicked at Bai Ye’s calf. “It’s time for you to show your usefulness.”
Bai Ye knew what the girl was suffering with just a glance at her. He took out a pill from his bag. “Feed this to her, and her fever will go away within an hour. However, these villagers are rather fierce and unreasonable. If I go over, I’ll probably be beaten to death before I can get close to the child.”
“I’ll go!” Nan Zhi piped up.
Mu Sihan glanced coldly at Nan Zhi. “You stand here and don’t move.” He took the pill from Bai Ye and sped towards the woman holding onto the girl.
By the time the villagers knew what was going on, he was already in front of the woman, his long fingers pinching the girl’s cheeks and feeding her the pill.
“What are you doing?” The woman wanted to take out the pill from the girl’s mouth, but she was too late, the girl had already swallowed the pill.
When the villagers knew what was going on, and was about to attack Mu Sihan, Mu Sihan had already left with large strides.
The few of them returned to the river bank.
When the sky started to turn dark, the woman, who originally cursed Mu Sihan, thinking that he had fed the girl poison, found them.
“My granddaughter’s fever is over. I didn’t know you were good people. I know where the Master you’re looking for is. Let me bring you to him!”
