"What are you thinking about?" Yan Xi looked at the chubby boy's soft face, which was alternating between anger and worry.
Yan Chushi did not dare tell her what he was thinking, for fear of triggering her sad memories.
Xixi had long been looking forward to the return of the Holy Son to save her. She must have been hurt by his words. That was why she had said she was breaking all ties with him.
Yan Chushi hurriedly changed the topic, his chubby face smiling at her to make her happy. "Xixi, I remember now. I secretly buried a small bottle of medicine for wounds under the small locust tree outside the courtyard."
He had a smug expression on his face which made Yan Xi smile. To think that he could think of burying the medicine in the soil.
It was no wonder Yan Chushi could still hide resources every month even though he was being exploited by Yan Hu.
Taking advantage of the chaos in the arena, the two of them slipped out of the academy through the small door.
In fact, it was still class hours at the Holy Church Academy, so they could not leave the academy for no reason. However, Yan Chushi and Yan Xi were famous for being useless, so no teacher paid them any attention.
Yan Chushi's courtyard was also on the edge of the Yan family's residence, but it was much better than Yan Xi's in terms of layout and size.
Unlike Yan Xi, Yan Chushi's father was still alive.
Yan Xi's third uncle, Yan Wuya, was a legend in the Yan family.
He showed outstanding talent since he was young, and there was not much difference between his talent and his elder brother, Yan Wufeng's. Back then, they were known as the treasures of the Yan family.
However, Yan Wuya had a rebellious personality when he was young. After a quarrel with his family, he left home for several years, and there had been no news of him.
By the time he returned, the Yan family's genius had already become a cripple. His realm had declined, his meridians and Qi were in disorder, and there was no possibility of advancing.
At that time, he was still carrying the infant Yan Chushi in his arms, and his body was covered in blood.
He claimed that Yan Chushi was his child, but no matter how much he was asked, he would not mention anything about Yan Chushi's mother or what had happened to her all these years.
After his return, Yan Wuya's temper had become very strange. He was antisocial and often disappeared. Even when it came to his only son, Yan Chushi, he rarely asked about him and neglected him.
It was Yan Wufeng who could not stand it and carried Yan Chushi over to raise alongside Yan Xi.
Even Yan Xi could count the number of times she had seen this mysterious third uncle of hers with one hand.
"My father is not here." Yan Chushi pushed the door open and a hint of disappointment appeared on his face, but he quickly hid it.
He found a shovel in the room and was happy again. "Xixi, let's go and dig for the medicine."
Yan Xi glanced around the room and smiled. "Okay."
There was a faint smell of blood in the house. Someone must have come back not long ago but left very quickly.
They did not make it in time.
Yan Chushi huffed and puffed as he dug. He ran happily towards Yan Xi. "Xixi, here's some medicine for wounds!"
He opened it excitedly, but a strange smell came out of the bottle.
The two of them looked at each other.
It had expired.
The porcelain bottle had not been sealed well, and the moisture in the soil had seeped inside.
Yan Chushi's face crumpled as he sat on the ground in frustration.
Yan Xi looked to another corner of the room, where some weeds and flowers were piled up.
"Chushi, what's that?" Yan Xi narrowed her eyes slightly. If she was not wrong, there were a few dark green vines inside, which were good for refining some healing pills.
There were also many hemostatic herbs here.
She did not expect to see familiar herbs in this world...
"Those are weeds." Yan Chushi did not expect Yan Xi to be interested in those things. "Father comes back occasionally and makes some strange things. The waste is all thrown in the yard, and weeds grow all over it. I pull them out every other week and find an opportunity to throw them away."
"Can I use those?" Yan Xi pointed at the 'weed' in Yan Chushi's mouth, and a smile appeared on her face.
"Of course you can!" Yan Chushi nodded heavily and looked over curiously. "Xixi, are these weeds of any use?"
"Yes." Yan Xi had already started preparing. She introduced them to him, "this is the red stop flower. It can stop bleeding, relieve pain, and reduce inflammation. It's very effective."
She had just finished speaking when she saw Yan Chushi looking at her with a worried expression.
"Xixi, what's wrong? Did you forget that it's poisonous? This flower is poisonous. Once its juice enters your bloodstream, you'll be paralyzed. Almost no one uses it for wounds."
Yan Chushi was becoming more and more certain that Xixi must have been upset today. Although she kept telling him that she did not care, she must really care about the Holy Son.
Yan Xi was rendered speechless.
Although the herbs were the same as in her memory, she did not expect their names to be different.
However, Yan Chushi's words made Yan Xi even more certain that this was the red stop flower.
Even though the flower was extremely effective in stopping bleeding, its juice contained poison, and it needed to be neutralized with another herb.
She picked up another herb. It was an emerald green leaf. "As long as you add this in while grinding the flower, you can neutralize the poison."
As she spoke, she crushed the red stop flower and the green leaf.
The flower's bright red liquid began to turn green at a speed that was visible to the naked eye.
Yan Chushi trembled as he watched. Why did he feel that it was even more poisonous now?
However, the next second, Yan Xi applied the paste to her wound without hesitation. Yan Chushi could not stop her in time. His words were stuck in his throat. "Xixi, let me test if there's poison first!"
He quickly ran to Yan Xi's side, afraid that she would fall to the ground after being paralyzed.
"I'm fine. Look at how dirty you are! Go and wash the mud off yourself first, then apply the medicine."
Yan Chushi obediently washed the mud off his hands and face. He carefully applied a little of the medicine to his wound and realized that the burning pain had really subsided.
Her eyes immediately sparkled as he looked at Yan Xi. "It really works!"
"Would I lie to you?" Yan Xi raised her eyebrows.
Yan Chushi looked like a sweet little doe after she had finished treating his wound, and he had changed into a new set of clothes.
Although he was fat, he had lovely features. He had a heart-shaped face, soft skin, and big eyes with dark red pupils.
He was just short. She was born only three years after Yan Xi, but he still looked like a five or six-year-old child.
He was bullied by the others, partly because his cultivation had been stuck at the first level of the Body Tempering Realm, and partly because of his strange growth.
Yan Xi suddenly remembered that Yan Chushi had always been different from others since he was young.
Not only did he grow slower than others, but he also stopped growing when he was six years old, so he had always maintained the mental state of a six-year-old as well.
Yan Xi's eyes revealed a thoughtful look. Could Yan Chushi's cultivation being stuck at the first level of the Body Tempering Realm have something to do with his body's abnormality? Was there any solution?
While Yan Xi was thinking, someone pulled on her sleeve.