Half a day passed, Yan Si was finally able to wake up. Suddenly remembering that he had forgotten an important matter, he went over to the man's spot to check on him.
The moment he realized the food was still entirely untouched, Yan Si abruptly felt a sense of immense disappointment, feeling that he had excessively wasted his strength: "For what reason did I endure such pain anyway?"
The man was like a supreme, fiercely proud sun; did accepting a favor from a creature like him make the man feel so uncomfortable? Could it possibly be to the extent that he would rather die?
At that thought, Yan Si knitted his brows and asked, "Do you want to die?"
Hearing this, the man merely turned his face away without responding. Yan Si grumbled and scolded, "Had I known, I would have just left you alone in the forest; what was the point of laboring to bring you back here?"
Then he pointed at the man's person and said, "Look at yourself..."
His frame was well-built and solid, so much taller and larger than Yan Si; the weight goes without saying... He knitted his brows once more and asked, "Look at me again... Do you think bringing you back here was easy?"
"Sulking...? He actually even knows how to sulk?" Even though the man knew he was currently indebted to that youth for saving his life, and had not once uttered a word of thanks, still... After weighing his thoughts in hesitation for a long while, he finally brought himself to open his mouth and say, "I naturally do not want to die."
"You don't? Being so severely wounded yet refusing to listen to the physician, what do you mean by saying you don't want to die?"
"What is the meaning of staging a hunger strike like this?" It truly enraged him to death; he only wished to abandon him and pay no more attention to him.
The man understood perfectly well all of Yan Si's sacrifices, only then realizing that this debt of gratitude was far too deep and heavy, making it difficult to fully repay... After a long period of solemn contemplation, he suddenly asked straightforwardly, "How do you want me to repay the favor?"
"Repay the favor?" Only at this moment did Yan Si abruptly understand...
That was right; Yichang Hua had once said that when one receives a favor, it must absolutely be repaid... It turned out that what the other person feared was precisely this, which was why he hesitated and refused to accept the food... At that thought, Yan Si immediately shook his head and replied, "There is no need to repay it! You can just consider yourself as having been saved by a wandering ghost in the middle of the forest; when you return, just light a few sticks of incense for me, that will do."
Yan Si naturally could not smell it, but at least his existence would be acknowledged by someone for once.
"How can that be allowed!?" This child... how could he speak of such absurd things?
Seeing that the man appeared to be quite angry, Yan Si became flustered: "If... if not, then what...?"
He inherently needed nothing at all... Suddenly becoming entangled with a person who was both arrogant and troublesome, who stubbornly insisted that he must repay the favor... what was he to do?
"Ah, that's right..." Glancing briefly at his own robes, which after so many years had become quite tattered, Yan Si said, "If possible, I want to have a set of new clothes."
"Only that?" The man looked at Yan Si suspiciously and asked, "What about gold, silver, and precious jewels?"
"Gold, silver, and precious jewels... what are they for?" He truly found it incomprehensible...
The man knitted his brows slightly... Seeing that Yan Si did not seem to be faking, he explained patiently, "You can use them to buy a great many clothes, enjoying luxury and wealth that would not run out for an entire lifetime, and moreover, you would no longer have to live hiding away in this deep forest..."
"So that's how it is... one can get that much?" It turned out he had saved an entire mountain of gold.
"Correct." The man nodded; if the boy was willing to accept it, then he himself would no longer have to feel uneasy.
However, Yan Si said, "I... do not need it. Just a set of new clothes, that is enough."
Yichang Hua had once said that practicing medicine to save people was not for seeking fame and wealth; accepting rewards from patients was actively eroding one's own dignity... and dignity was something he did not possess.
Instilling the philosophy of a world-detached hermit into his disciple, Yan Si could not fully comprehend the teaching, ultimately interpreting it into an exceptionally extreme worldview regarding himself.
The thinking of this youth lay outside all conventional rules, making it difficult for the man to grasp... He let out a sigh, shook his head, and said, "Currently here, I do not have any clothes."
Yan Si knew that well, so he said, "After you recover, you can go back and fetch them; I will still wait here."
Gold and silver could be exchanged for a lifetime of affluent and adequate living, but they carried weight; how could a weak person like him have enough strength to shoulder it? Yan Si only wished to live in peace, not having to suffer pain like just now anymore.
Suddenly understanding, the man nodded faintly: "Fine!"
Only in this manner was he willing to eat the meat, even though it had now grown excessively cold.
It could be considered that he had agreed to accept that debt of gratitude from him, and that benevolence was exchanged only for a new coat. It was cheap to the point of carrying no value whatsoever, yet how could his life be so cheap?
Faintly seeing that the man had finished his meal, Yan Si then carefully tended to his injuries.
By this time, the person had virtually no defense left, his body completely relaxed... He gazed silently at him for a long time, then asked, "What is your name? Why do you live here?"
"It is Shi Yan Si..." Hearing his name being asked, Yan Si immediately replied out of reflex; however, the moment the words escaped his mouth, he was startled and wanted to retract them, because he had forgotten that those three words were a taboo.
Hearing this, the man was also astonished. He immediately sat up abruptly and caught his hand, asking, "You are a person of the Shi family?"
"Shi... Shi..." Seeing that his expression appeared grave, Yan Si replied in a fluster, "What... what is the Shi family? I don't know..."
"You don't know?" He knitted his brows and asked, "Just now you said your name is Yan Si; isn't that the surname Shi?"
"I don't... I don't know..." Yan Si tried to pull his hand back, repeatedly shaking his head in denial, "I don't know... I only know my name is like that... Whatever Shi family it is, I truly don't know..."
Yan Si's attitude caused the man to be even more suspicious; however, since he had rejected it so fiercely, the man let it be, slowly releasing his hand, and asked, "That being so, who are your parents? Where are they?"
Yan Si hurriedly shook his head, "I... do not have parents."
"Do not have parents?" He suddenly let out a cold laugh and asked, "Did you crawl out from the dirt?"
Every single word the man spoke was like thousands of arrows piercing his heart. Yan Si's hand clenched tightly over his chest... Crawl out from the dirt? Clearly, that was exactly the case, wasn't it? At that thought, he immediately nodded, "Correct! I crawled out from the dirt! If I had parents, why would they let me live like this?"
That was right... How could a grand, eminent clan like the Shi family allow their child to live precariously like this?
"I... am truly muddled!" Realizing that he had just overreacted, the man let out a sigh and said, "Apologies, I truly did not mean to speak such harsh words."
Having escaped being questioned, Yan Si instantly felt relieved. He waved his hand and said, "Forget it."
After all, that was the truth...
Yan Si raised his eyes to look at the man and asked, "Then... may I know your name?"
The man hesitated and weighed his thoughts for a long time before replying, "My surname is Sòng, and my courtesy name is RóngChéng."
"Sòng... RóngChéng?" During the few years he had followed his master to enter the mortal world to practice medicine, Yan Si inherently knew that the place where he currently resided was the Song Kingdom... and this person's name...
"Are not those with the surname Sòng all members of the imperial family?" Yan Si was momentarily startled and asked, "You... are a person of the imperial family?"
RóngChéng nodded once more: "That is correct."
He did not know what kind of demonic prompt or ghostly push had caused him to save someone from the imperial family; no wonder the man reacted the moment the Shi family was mentioned.
Feeling fortunate that he had promptly denied his background, Yan Si breathed a sigh of relief and asked again, "That being so, how did you get injured?"
Recalling the events of that day, RóngChéng's expression suddenly turned grave: "While out hunting, I was pursued and attacked by assassins."
This was inherently a massive conspiracy; there was a mole within RóngChéng's entourage. Although it was still unknown who the culprit was, he had secretly slipped Tendon-Weakening Powder into the wine of the entire group, precisely at the moment they raised their cups before setting off. When the assassins appeared, no one possessed enough strength to resist; they could only exert themselves to hold out and prolong time for him to escape...
On Yan Si's side, he listened without understanding and asked further, "Why did the assassins want to kill you?"
RóngChéng knitted his brows slightly, raising his hand to rub both sides of his temples, and said with apparent annoyance, "You had best not ask anything more!"
He truly had no reason whatsoever to explain things to an ignoramus!
Yan Si was indeed candid, doing exactly as he was told... The task of washing RóngChéng's wounds had been completed; he handed him a full bowl of water along with a handful of leaves holding the medicine, and immediately withdrew afterward.
Perhaps he truly was foolish, or perhaps he had never experienced the ways of the world; how could someone who spent the entire year in the mountain forests possess such complex thoughts?
Returning to his nest, Yan Si was just intending to sleep when he suddenly noticed that the supply of medicinal pills was nearly exhausted... Letting out a sigh, he took the leaves and ground them into a pulp, squeezing out the liquid essence to set aside. Afterward, he continued to repeat the procedure, this time blending multiple varieties to roll into lumps, then dragged his steps to carry them outside to dry.
Looking at the way he walked, it truly was arduous to the absolute extreme, as if every single step were a form of torture. RóngChéng felt an excessive ache in his chest yet was completely unable to intercede... Yan Si needed to do it, otherwise both of them would die... Never before had he felt himself to be this useless...
A moment later, the boy returned to his nest of leaves, examining his own injury once again...
RóngChéng had been observing Yan Si all along, and when he could no longer restrain himself, he asked, "How is your wound?"
Yan Si faintly shook his head, extending his hand to take a handful of medicine to swallow. Then, drawing a deep breath to suppress the pain, he slowly poured the wound-cleansing liquid over it...
Even if this spot were to heal in the future, it would still leave a deep scar, but he simply did not care anymore... not wanting to think too much, Yan Si immediately lay down, and his inherently exhausted body rapidly fainted away before long.
RóngChéng looked at Yan Si and fell momentarily silent, and he himself quickly sank into delirium as well.