"Your Highness, run away! I'll hold them off here. You must leave the wolf tribe and never come back!" The one shouting was Baili, a wolf - tribe guard who had been by Li Xuan's side since childhood.
Li Xuan was originally supposed to be the next king of the wolf tribe. However, unexpectedly, his elder brother, Li Mo, plotted a rebellion. He launched a surprise attack, causing heavy casualties.
"Your Highness, please! If you don't leave, I'll kill myself right here!"
"But, Baili... you... take care!"
Li Xuan looked at Baili reluctantly, wanting to say something. But he knew that if he didn't leave, Baili would surely live and die with him. And he was already severely injured. If he kept struggling, there was only death awaiting him. Finally, he gritted his teeth and left.
"Want to leave? No way!"
Li Mo walked up to Li Xuan, looking as if he wanted to devour Li Xuan alive.
"Heh, good brother. How ridiculous it is. Elder brother, you really played a good game. You've been scheming for years just for the throne. I even thought you were sincere to me!" Li Xuan's eyes were full of bloodshot as he stared intently at Li Mo.
Then he sighed softly, "Forget it. It's just that Baili, you don't know that you can't save me after all. Well, then I'll come and accompany you!"
Li Xuan got ready to fight to the death. His body was already covered in wounds. Even if he managed to escape, he probably wouldn't live long. He lunged forward, ready to fight Li Mo...
"Bang!"
With a loud noise, Li Xuan seemed to be hit by a heavy force. Then he lost consciousness.
"Look, there's someone lying there!" Ji Chen, who came to climb the mountain in the wild, pointed at a person lying on the grass.
"Seems like there really is someone. Let's go and have a look!" Tian Yimeng, who was with her, replied.
"It's really a person. How badly he's injured! But this is the wilderness. What should we do?" Ji Chen was a bit anxious.
Tian Yimeng quickly reminded Ji Chen, "Aren't you a doctor? Go and check on him!"
"Are you stupid? I'm a veterinarian. He's a human. Can it be the same?"
"We have to try. We can't just watch him die!"
Tian Yimeng grabbed Ji Chen's arm and pleaded eagerly.
"Then I'll try... By the way, you go and look for some hemostatic herbs first. I saw in an elective Chinese - medicine book that thistle, mugwort, pagoda tree flowers, Chinese arbor - vitae twigs, and cogongrass rhizomes can all work. Hurry up!" Tian Yimeng said and then left.
Ji Chen stayed there alone, checking Li Xuan's injuries. Li Xuan managed to open his eyes with his last bit of willpower. He vaguely saw the appearance of the person in front of him, but then closed his eyes again after just one glance.
"The herbs are here. Use them!" Ji Chen took the herbs, put them in her mouth, and started chewing. Since the herbs needed to be crushed and applied to the wound, and there were no tools for pounding herbs in the wilderness, she had to use her mouth. The herbs were very bitter, but she just chewed on them.
Then she took out the towel from her bag, wrapped the chewed herbs in the towel, and gave Li Xuan a simple bandage.
After the bleeding was temporarily stopped, she carried Li Xuan on her back and walked down the mountain. The mountain path was already difficult to walk on. It was easy for one person to slip, let alone with two people. Ji Chen tied herself and Li Xuan together with a rope and managed to carry Li Xuan out of the mountain.
But after getting down the mountain, there was only an endless village. There were no proper medical facilities at all. At most, there was a village health center. With great difficulty, they brought Li Xuan to the health center, only to be told that the doctor had gone to the city for a learning exchange.
Ji Chen looked at the man on her back. He was not an ordinary weight. Although he didn't look fat, he had real muscles. As the saying goes, good things come in small packages. She had carried him all the way back from the brink of death at the risk of falling off the mountain. Now, asking her to give up, she just couldn't accept it no matter how she thought about it.
So she took out the drugs from her bag that she hadn't cleared out, including acetanilides, pyrazolones, salicylates, phenylpropionic acids, and anthranilic acids, and lined them up. She applied the treatment methods she had learned for animals to Li Xuan...
She really did her best. She had shown all her sincerity in trying to snatch this man from the hands of death. She hadn't closed her eyes for two days and two nights.
After finishing the last step of the suture work, she couldn't hold on anymore. In these two days, she had exhausted all her limited strength. If it still didn't work, she really had no other way. So she let herself fall into a deep sleep...
"Baili! Don't!"
Li Xuan woke up with a start early the next morning. He quickly got up, as if he was going to rush out at any moment. But beside him was only a sleeping woman who had no offensive power at all.
He crawled over and sniffed the woman's scent with his nose. It was a faint fragrance, not pungent. It was the natural fragrance on her body. Besides, there was also a smell of disinfectant, which he didn't like very much. So he moved a bit farther away.
"Ji Chen, get up and have breakfast!"
Tian Yimeng pushed the door open with one hand and walked in with a dinner plate in the other.
After putting down the food, she walked over and said to Li Xuan with a smile, "You're finally awake. I didn't expect a veterinarian like her to be able to save a living person like you. It seems I really underestimated her! Hello, my name is Tian Yimeng. I'm a writer!"
Li Xuan ignored Tian Yimeng. He just looked at the girl lying in front of him with a puzzled look in his eyes. He vaguely remembered seeing this person before he fainted...
"Get up, you lazy pig!"
Tian Yimeng slapped Ji Chen up. Li Mo stared at Tian Yimeng with wide - open eyes, as if she was his enemy.
Tian Yimeng immediately shivered, "So you know how to protect your savior so soon. It's not in vain that she saved you."
Ji Chen stretched lazily with sleepy eyes, "Hey, you're awake. You're actually still alive. That's great!"
Li Xuan looked at Ji Chen on the bed in a crawling - like animal posture with a probing look in his eyes and asked, "Is it you who saved me? Do you know me? Can you defeat Li Mo?"
"What are you talking about? I don't know you. Who is Li Mo? When I saw you, you were lying on the grass, covered in wounds. How do you feel now? Is there anywhere that hurts especially? I'm a veterinarian. I've never treated a human before. Maybe the medicine is not right and there are some side - effects. Quickly check." Ji Chen answered seriously.
"A veterinarian. You're human?" Li Xuan stared at Ji Chen and asked.
"Pfft, no. Am I a ghost? Although I'm a veterinarian, I've at least read some books on treating humans. I'm sure I haven't killed you. Anyway, you're definitely not dead at least for now. So I'm not the Ox - Head and Horse - Face or the Black and White Impermanence from the underworld. Got it!" Ji Chen said proudly.
"Got it. You saved me?"
Ji Chen put her hand on her forehead helplessly, "If it's not me, then who else? I've said it so many times! Well, although you're quite good - looking, I don't ask you to marry me in return. Well, if you're a rich man, just reward me with ten thousand taels of gold. If you're not rich, then just think of it as me doing a good deed every day to save all sentient beings. Don't worry about it."
Li Xuan replied, "You saved me. I promise you, you can have whatever you want as long as I can do it. You want money. I have a lot, but I can't get it now."
Ji Chen was helpless, "If you can't take it out, just say you don't have it. Why give me a sweet and then slap me? Give someone hope and then pull them away! How mean!"
"But I'm really rich! I just can't get it now."
"Come on, stop talking. I don't want to hear it!" Ji Chen covered her ears and didn't want to talk to Li Xuan.
"Wow, it smells so good. What is it?" Ji Chen, who hadn't eaten yet, walked towards the fragrant food, picked up the chopsticks, and was about to eat. "Hey, why is there no meat? I'm so tired. I need meat to replenish my strength, Yimeng!" She pouted at Tian Yimeng beside her.
"What can I do? This village is not rich. Most of the men have gone to the city to work. There are only women and old people left. They can't go hunting for you. Just make do with it!" Tian Yimeng replied helplessly.
"But I really want to eat meat..."
As she was speaking, Li Xuan ran out. "Hey, your injury isn't healed yet. Don't run around!"
Before Ji Chen could finish speaking, Li Xuan was already out of sight. "Sigh, I saved him in vain. He didn't even say thank you..."
Ji Chen, without much enthusiasm, casually picked up a chopstick full of green vegetables and was just about to put them in her mouth. But then she saw Li Xuan come in with two chickens in his hands and place them in front of her.
"You, where did you get these chickens? Don't tell me you used your good looks to seduce someone to get them? I didn't expect you to have such a skill. I suddenly love you so much!" Ji Chen gave Li Xuan two thumbs up.
"Yimeng, chickens, coo coo coo (imitating the sound of chickens)!" Ji Chen pouted at Tian Yimeng again.
"Okay, okay. I'll go. I'll go and cook them. One for roasting and one for making soup, all right?" Tian Yimeng said in a somewhat doting tone.
"Great! Go ahead, Pikachu Yimeng (a playful name combining Pikachu and Yimeng)!" Tian Yimeng walked out with the two chickens.
Only Ji Chen and Li Xuan were left in the room. Ji Chen pointed to the bench in front of her and said, "Here, sit down. Aren't you tired of standing? Thank you for catching the chickens for me. By the way, I haven't asked you what your name is. What's your name?"
"Li Xuan," he replied calmly.
Ji Chen asked again, "Why were you alone and injured, lying on the mountain? It's so strange!"
"I wasn't paying attention to my steps while climbing the mountain and fell."
"Oh, I see. Then where is your home..."
"Here comes the roasted chicken!"
Before Ji Chen could finish her question, Tian Yimeng came in with the fragrant roasted chicken. "The chicken soup is still in the pot. I'll go and keep an eye on it. You start eating first!"
As Tian Yimeng was about to turn around and leave, Ji Chen said, "Wait! This is for you!"
Ji Chen pulled off a drumstick and handed it to Tian Yimeng. Tian Yimeng took the drumstick and said, "Thanks, little glutton. I'm leaving now!"
"Bye!"
After seeing Tian Yimeng off, Ji Chen pounced on the fragrant and delicious roasted chicken. She grabbed the other drumstick of the chicken and was about to put it in her mouth. But she stopped when the drumstick was only three centimeters away from her mouth.
"Um... well, I'd better give it to you. You're a patient and need to build up your strength!" She reluctantly moved the drumstick away from her mouth and handed it to Li Xuan.
"No need. You eat it."
"Come on, I said I'm giving it to you, so take it!" Ji Chen said and stuffed the drumstick into Li Xuan's mouth.
"Don't be too touched. I'm just so kind - hearted. Don't admire me too much!" She said and stuffed the two chicken wings into her mouth.
Li Xuan looked at her, adjusted the drumstick in his mouth with his hand, and a warm feeling welled up in his heart. His elder brother used to be like this too. He would give one drumstick to their mother and one to himself...
He didn't know why. Clearly, everything used to be so harmonious, yet one day his elder brother would turn against him for the throne and even go so far as to hunt him down. He just didn't know what kind of coincidence or what mechanism was triggered that made him fall from the demon world to the human world...
As he was thinking, suddenly a harsh shout came from outside: "Who? Who stole my chickens! Who is it? It's a sin! Those two hens were the ones I was going to use to lay eggs and sell for money!"
Ji Chen looked at the oil on her hand that she hadn't wiped clean and asked Li Xuan, "Where did you get these chickens?"
"They were right at the door! I just caught them casually!"
"You, you caught them casually! You're going to drive me crazy!"
She grabbed Li Xuan's hand and ran towards the kitchen. Just then, they met Tian Yimeng who was coming out. "What's going on outside?" Tian Yimeng asked.
Ji Chen casually took out five hundred yuan and placed it on the kitchen stove. Then she grabbed Tian Yimeng with one hand and Li Xuan with the other and ran out of the village.
"Why did you run away even though you gave the money?" Li Xuan asked in confusion.
"Oh, what do you know? Didn't you hear that those two chickens were old hens for laying eggs? The money I paid was just for the two chickens. But that auntie wants the chickens to lay eggs and the eggs to hatch into more chickens. How can I ever pay her back in full like that? And don't you think it's really exciting to run away like this! It's just a pity for my little hen baby still in the stove. Anyway, Yimeng, where did you park the car?"
"Up ahead. We should go back now. Let's go!"