Chapter 15 Li Er Appears
Di Renjie and Hu Jinghui took advantage of the situation and came to the foot of Xiaolianzi Mountain and the door of a mountain villager's house in Xiaolianzi Village.

The owner of this household was named Lu Dayou. He was preparing lunch at the stove when he suddenly heard someone knocking on the door.

He ran to open the door and saw Di Renjie and Hu Jinghui standing in front of the courtyard gate.

"Who are you two?" Lu Dayou asked with a blink of his eyes.

"Haha, we got lost in the mountains and came here by mistake. We are very thirsty. Can I have a bowl of water?" Di Renjie said with an apologetic smile.

"Oh, please come in." Lu Dayou did not doubt him and invited the two into the house.

He was a warm-hearted man. He poured two bowls of water for Di Renjie and Hu Jinghui and introduced himself: "My name is Lu Dayou. What are your names? How did you get lost here?"

Di Renjie used a classic line of speech: "My name is Huaiying, and this is my nephew Jinghui. We are traveling doctors. We went into the mountains to collect herbs and accidentally got lost."

"Are you a doctor?" When Lu Dayou heard the word "doctor", he jumped up like a spring.

"Yeah, what's wrong?" Di Renjie asked.

Before Lu Dayou could say anything else, a girl's scream came from the inner room.

The door curtain was suddenly opened, and a girl of about eighteen or nineteen ran out: "Brother, it's bad, he's dead!"

Lu Dayou immediately rushed into the inner room, and Di Renjie and Hu Jinghui followed him in.

Lu Dayou pointed at the patient on the kang and said anxiously, "Sir, please take a look at him quickly!"

When Di Renjie went forward and took a look, he saw that the patient's face was purple and black, his eyes were closed, and black blood was slowly flowing out of his nose and mouth.

Hu Jinghui standing nearby was even more shocked. The patient lying on the bed was exactly Li Er who was in the ruined temple last night. He was not dead!
Di Renjie was so eager to save people that he did not notice the abnormality in Hu Jinghui's expression.

He sat down beside the bed, examined the patient, and judged: "This person's face is purple and black, and his pulse is weak and dry. It seems that he has been poisoned."

Di Renjie had a solemn expression. He reached out from his arms and took out a small cloth bag filled with silver needles.

He took out a silver needle and gently pricked Li Er with it. The silver needle instantly turned black.

Di Renjie brought the needle to his nose and sniffed it, frowning and saying, "It smells fishy, ​​it's snake venom. How can snake venom be so strong?"

He turned around and looked at Lu Dayou, asking for his opinion: "I'm not sure, I can only give it a try."

Lu Dayou said: "Just treat it like a dead horse."

Di Renjie nodded in agreement and asked Hu Jinghui to help Li Er up. Then he took out silver needles and injected acupuncture points on multiple points on Li Er's back.

After a while, Li Er's head suddenly stood up, and a large amount of black blood flowed out of his nostrils and mouth.

Di Renjie saw that the acupuncture was effective and the poisonous blood was forced out, and he was delighted: "It works, bring some hot water quickly!"

The girl quickly brought in a wooden basin from outside and started to wash Li Er.

Di Renjie, Hu Jinghui and Lu Dayou then retreated.

It was already noon. Di Renjie successfully saved the patient. Lu Dayou had no reward for anything he wanted, so he brought his own lunch to Di Renjie and the other man to fill their stomachs.

He felt bad for neglecting his guests: "My family is poor, and there is really nothing to eat. You two should just make do with what you have."

Then he sent another bowl to his sister in the inner room.

Hu Jinghui looked at the wild vegetables in the bowl and asked curiously, "What is this?"

Di Renjie sighed and said, "This is wild vegetable."

Hu Jinghui picked up a piece of wild vegetable with chopsticks and said with embarrassment: "Is this edible?"

Di Renjie said earnestly: "The people's lives are so difficult! Jinghui, you are a son of a noble family and have been in the court for a long time. You don't know the suffering of the people. See, this is their food rations!"

Hu Jinghui was deeply moved by the scene before him. He could not imagine that such a kind-hearted, honest and simple fellow villager actually filled his stomach in this way every day.

He knew in his heart that the hardships faced by the people of Youzhou were closely related to his lover!

Hu Jinghui picked up a wild vegetable and put it in his mouth. The bitter taste made it difficult for him to swallow.

He looked confused and muttered to himself, "I never thought that ordinary people would eat this."

At this time, Lu Dayou walked out from the inner room and sat opposite Di Renjie.

Seeing this, Di Renjie asked curiously, "Dayou, why don't you eat?"

Lu Dayou waved his hand: "I'm not hungry."

This is a strange thing to say. It doesn't make sense not to eat in the middle of the day.

Di Renjie ignored Lu Dayou's obstruction and walked to the pot to check. When he opened the lid, it was empty. Lu Dayou said anxiously, "Sir, please eat quickly."

Di Renjie pushed his bowl in front of Lu Dayou and said, "Dayou, eat."

Hu Jinghui also hurriedly passed the wild vegetables in his bowl to Lu Dayou, and then advised: "Dayou, just eat it."

Lu Dayou felt embarrassed and quickly declined.

But Di Renjie insisted again and again, and Lu Dayou was really hungry, so he ate it with big mouthfuls, and it looked very delicious. This made Hu Jinghui feel even more uncomfortable.

Di Renjie laughed as he saw Lu Dayou eating heartily, and started chatting with him about family matters.

Lu Dayou then explained the recent situation in the village one by one.

It turned out that the government had closed the mountain, using Qingshigouzi as the boundary, and prohibited people from going up the mountain to hunt or chop wood, which made the mountain people so miserable.

Not only that, the mass grave nearby was transformed into a town overnight half a year ago - Yaojiapu. There is no one in the daytime, but it is very lively at night.

The people nearby were curious, and many of them went to investigate together. However, hundreds of people never returned, and afterwards, news of the disappearance of young and middle-aged people was frequently reported.

The villagers said it was the work of ghosts and thought the missing people were dead.

This is why there were so many new graves that Di Renjie saw before, which were all cenotaphs.

Hu Jinghui knew very well that all this was related to Jin Mulan. He deliberately said vaguely: "Sir, this is too weird. Maybe it's really a ghost."

Lu Dayou nodded hurriedly, but Di Renjie was a staunch atheist and said, "I don't believe there are ghosts in this world."

After the meal, Di Renjie wrote a prescription and took out a few taels of silver, gave it to Lu Dayou, and asked him to go to a nearby town to get the medicine according to the prescription and buy some food.
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Lu Dayou came to a pharmacy in a nearby town, handed the prescription and silver to the clerk, and said, "Prepare the medicine according to this prescription. Here, this is the silver."

The guy took it, picked up the prescription, took a look at it, and suddenly looked up at Lu Dayou.

"What's your name, sir?" The waiter stared at Lu Dayou, trying to memorize his appearance.

"My surname is Lu, and my name is Lu Dayou." Lu Dayou smiled innocently and answered honestly.

"Please wait a moment." The clerk left a message and turned to walk into the inner accounting office.

Lu Dayou thought he went to get medicine, so he stretched his head to look inside, but the curtain blocked his view.

However, the waiter did not get the medicine, but handed the silver and prescription to the shopkeeper inside.

"Shopkeeper, I found it. It's all antidotes!"

The shopkeeper took the prescription, looked at it, and asked happily, "Where is the person?"

"Still outside." said the waiter.

The shopkeeper lifted the curtain and took a peek at Lu Dayou, then warned him, "Give him the medicine. Follow him immediately after he leaves. Don't lose him!"

Lu Dayou walked out of the pharmacy carrying a large bag of medicine, completely unaware that someone was following him secretly.

When the shopkeeper saw the waiter following him, he quickly left and went to the cave to report to Jin Mulan.

It turned out that after Hu Jinghui left last night, Jin Mulan sent people to look for Li Er's body in the rain.

However, Yu Feng sent people to search all places around the small temple, but no trace of Li Er was found.

Jin Mulan was furious and ordered Fang Qian to send more soldiers to search the countryside house by house and to send people to closely monitor nearby pharmacies to find the person who bought the medicine. As expected, Lu Dayou was waiting for him today.

The owner of the drugstore rushed to the cave and reported to Jin Mulan in detail about Lu Dayou's purchase of medicine.

"Are you sure the patient is Li Er?" Jin Mulan asked, holding the prescription.

"It can't be wrong. The prescription contains all antidotes." The shopkeeper said confidently.

Upon hearing this, Yu Feng hurriedly asked, "Master, let me take people to get rid of Li Er!"

Jin Mu lowered her brows and pondered inwardly. She remembered Hu Jinghui's reminder and said, "Di Renjie is now searching in the nearby countryside. Our people must not move around at will, lest they reveal their tracks."

"Then what should we do?" Yu Feng asked.

"Go and inform Fang Qian to send troops to capture Li Er." Jin Mulan ordered decisively.

　Thank you all for your recommendations and collections. Although the data is bleak, the author will still try his best to keep updating.

(End of this chapter)